Ann Blyth's Easter Visit to the Crew of the USS Wisconsin

Ann Blyth spent Easter Sunday, April 13, 1952, visiting the crew of the USS Wisconsin, which was then docked at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. For more photos of the event, see this website for the association of former USS Wisconsin crew members.

The event is also described in my book, Ann Blyth: Actress. Singer. Star., along with some of Ann's other visits to military bases.

Happy Easter to all who celebrate it!

Happy New Year - 1957!

Happy New Year 1957!  Ann Blyth starred in three films that were released in this one year by three different studios: Slander for M-G-M, The Buster Keaton Story for Paramount, and The Helen Morgan Story for Warner Bros.  In this amazingly productive year, no one could have predicted that The Helen Morgan Story was to be her last motion picture, but it was certainly a wonderful performance on which to conclude that part of her career.  The decades ahead would be busy with television, concerts, and theatre.

Ann's most recent television appearance seems to be a new interview segment she has filmed for Turner Classic Movies.  This Friday, December 29th, TCM will be showing Mildred Pierce (1946) at 6 p.m. ET.  Tune in, say, ten or fifteen minutes before the movie is to start when this taped interview about her work on this film is likely to be shown again, with Ann looking as lovely as ever.  

And may I wish all visitors to this blog a very Happy and Healthy New Year - 2018!

Jacqueline T. Lynch

Holiday Publicity Photo

Ann Blyth in a cheerful holiday publicity photo from Universal.  Neatly composed and tastefully low-key and natural, this pleasant example of the studio photo stills unit warms the heart.  May I wish all visitors to this site all the blessings of the season.

Happy Thanksgiving...and a sale!

Here's Ann Blyth with the fall harvest --  and I wish American readers a Happy Thanksgiving. It's a festive studio publicity photo, notable for its lack of cheesecake posing and cornball posturing with such props as a turkey on a leash, a musket, or an ax with which to kill the unsuspecting turkey. There was nothing like holidays to bring out the zaniness of studio photographers.

I'll take this opportunity to mention as well that for the next several days, through Monday, November 27th, the eBook version of Ann Blyth: Actress. Singer. Star. will be available at Amazon for half price.  Amazon has also included my book in its new "X-Ray" function for eBooks which will allow for descriptions and explanations of names, places, and events by holding down on a highlighted word, to enhance your reading experience.  Enjoy!

Ann Blyth as Lady Liberty

Ann Blyth posed as the Statue of Liberty certainly fits the theme of America's Independence Day celebrations this week.  

We've recently looked at candid publicity photos taken by her home studio, Universal, showing Ann at home, but this photo above represents another part of the publicity chore: innumerable photo sessions in the studio with the actor or actress posed in any number of whimsical scenarios.  One of the most popular, or notorious, were the holiday-themed shots.

Teresa Wright, as we mentioned at my Another Old Movie Blog, famously put in her contract that she refused to do any silly photos with Easter bunnies, Thanksgiving Turkeys, or 4th of July rockets.  While Ann Blyth was cooperative with her studio, she, for her part, declined to do "cheesecake" photos, which seemed to be enormously popular with the studio photographers.  Ray Jones was head of the stills department at Universal.  From my book Ann Blyth: Actress. Singer. Star.:

There were three dressing rooms in his studio where the stars were prepared for their photo shoots: for body makeup, for face and hair, and for clothes.  Grips worked under Jones’ direction to set the lights and enormous 8 x 10 view camera.

Ann Blyth recalled for the author that photo sessions usually lasted all day, and along with other stars, complimented Ray Jones on his ability to put his subjects at ease, to inspire their confidence.  They were placing their image, and whatever insecurity or doubtfulness they brought with them to the photo shoot, in his capable hands.

Jones remarked in a 1952 interview about photographing starlets:

“Of the current crop, Ann Blyth has the most perfect face to photograph.  She also has one of the best figures, but she won’t let me do cheesecake of her.”

Indeed, we might note of the photo above that Ann's picture as Lady Liberty is certainly not cheesecake, but more interestingly, beyond holding the famous position of the statue, she appears to be deeply focused in the moment of the representation.  She's not just posing; she's acting.

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The audio book for Ann Blyth: Actress. Singer. Star. is now for sale on Audible.com, and on Amazon and iTunes.

Also in paperback and eBook from Amazon.

Also in paperback from CreateSpace, and from my Etsy shop: LynchTwinsPublishing.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year (1956), from Ann Blyth and the studio publicity department--which racked up stupefying collection of holiday celebration shots like this.  We may note that this particular photo is a bit more classy than some in the genre: she's dressed in glamorous evening wear for a New Year's Eve party, the trailing streamers suggest we may be just at the exciting point of midnight, and the noisemaker horn is being held lightly, elegantly in her fingertips.  She is not straddling it.  But then, by 1956 Ann was an established star and so she did not need to submit to the usual exploitive and demeaning nonsense that many other actresses had to, or chose to, endure.

Wishing you all the best in the coming year.  Thank you for the pleasure of your company.

Happy Thanksgiving

The studios seldom let a holiday pass without posing a star among celebratory props.  This is one of the more dignified entries for Thanksgiving.  Here Ann Blyth is comfortably seated among the bounty of the fall harvest, like a maid in the field.

Other stars were less fortunate: having to enact comic turkey hunts in "cheesecake" photo shoots, or performing seemingly acrobatic feats with pumpkins.   Happily, we are spared that on this occasion.

Happy Thanksgiving to our American readers.

An Easter Radio Episode from 1950

For those who celebrate Easter, try a little OTR (Old Time Radio) and have a listen to Ann Blyth in "The Arbutus Bonnet," a dramatic episode of Hallmark Playhouse, hosted by author James Hilton, in a script adapted by Jean Holloway.  A nostalgic love story, a separation of lovers, a crisis of faith that comes to a climax one Easter Sunday.

It was broadcast April 6, 1950.  Scroll down to episode #62 - "50-04-06" and download or listen.

Top o' the Morning - St. Patrick's Day

This poster is, of course, from Top O' The Morning (1949), which we covered here on my Another Old Movie Blog.

Set in Ireland, Ann plays the daughter of Barry Fitzgerald, and Bing Crosby is an American insurance investigator looking into the theft of the famous Blarney Stone.

Wishing you a Happy St. Patrick's Day! 

Season's Greetings from the Studio Publicty Department

 

 

Studio publicity photos often used holiday themes, and interestingly, were as season/market conscious as the magazines, which habitually rely on publication months for content and public appeal.

 

They were as universal in message and as business-driven as a company Christmas card to clients and customers.

 

And when the Christmas message was represented in the image of a beautiful young woman with as wholesome a reputation as Ann Blyth, then the photo and the magazine cover were festive indeed.

 

Merry Christmas to all who celebrate.

 

Motion Picture and Television Magazine, December 1951

 

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"Lynch’s book is organized and well-written – and has plenty of amusing observations – but when it comes to describing Blyth’s movies, Lynch’s writing sparkles." - Ruth Kerr, Silver Screenings

"Jacqueline T. Lynch creates a poignant and thoroughly-researched mosaic of memories of a fine, upstanding human being who also happens to be a legendary entertainer." - Deborah Thomas, Java's Journey

"One of the great strengths of Ann Blyth: Actress. Singer. Star. is that Lynch not only gives an excellent overview of Blyth's career -- she offers detailed analyses of each of Blyth's roles -- but she puts them in the context of the larger issues of the day."- Amanda Garrett, Old Hollywood Films

"Jacqueline's book will hopefully cause many more people to take a look at this multitalented woman whose career encompassed just about every possible aspect of 20th Century entertainment." - Laura Grieve, Laura's Miscellaneous Musings

"Jacqueline T. Lynch’s Ann Blyth: Actress. Singer. Star. is an extremely well researched undertaking that is a must for all Blyth fans." - Annette Bochenek, Hometowns to Hollywood

Ann Blyth: Actress. Singer. Star. 

by Jacqueline T. Lynch

The first book on the career of actress Ann Blyth. Multitalented and remarkably versatile, Blyth began on radio as a child, appeared on Broadway at the age of twelve in Lillian Hellman's Watch on the Rhine, and enjoyed a long and diverse career in films, theatre, television, and concerts. A sensitive dramatic actress, the youngest at the time to be nominated for her role in Mildred Pierce (1945), she also displayed a gift for comedy, and was especially endeared to fans for her expressive and exquisite lyric soprano, which was showcased in many film and stage musicals. Still a popular guest at film festivals, lovely Ms. Blyth remains a treasure of the Hollywood's golden age.

The eBook and paperback are available from Amazon and CreateSpace, which is the printer. You can also order it from my Etsy shop. It is also available at the Broadside Bookshop, 247 Main Street, Northampton, Massachusetts.

If you wish a signed copy, then email me at JacquelineTLynch@gmail.com and I'll get back to you with the details.

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My new syndicated column SILVER SCREEN, GOLDEN YEARS, on classic film is up at Go60 or check with your local paper.

 



Happy Thanksgiving

To all our American readers, Happy Thanksgiving.