lifestyle leader: OLD IS GOLD CELEBRITY (PART 3)

Thursday, January 28, 2010

OLD IS GOLD CELEBRITY (PART 3)

at 4:53 AM

Marlene Dietrich and Anna May Wong

in a scene from Shanghai Express (1932)

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Claudette Colbert The Sign of the Cross (1932)

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Hollywood Luminaries serving coffee and cakes to servicemen at the Hollywood Canteen, 1943

Bette Davis

Robert Benchley and Charles Butterworth

Marlene Dietrich

Mary Pickford

Bette Davis reads announcements to the crowd

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Mary Stuart and Ellen Ross flirt with an equine friend

Mary Lawler & Dorothy McNulty contort on the beach, 1930

Joan Dixon and Cleo Moore find buried treasure

Janet Gaynor and Margaret Lindsay

Jane Wyman is serviced by a fetching friend

Dorothy Sebastian and Leila Hyams

Dorothy Sebastian again, this time with Anita Page

Bette Davis and Joan Blondell

Gloria Grahame throws Cyd Charisse off the pilings

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Edie Sedgwick was a bright social butterfly whose candle of fame burned both briefly and brightly. Born into a wealthy family of impressive lineage, Edie became a "celebutante" for her beauty, style, wealth and her associations with figures of the 1960s counterculture, most notably Andy Warhol.

Edie was introduced to Andy Warhol in 1965. Very much taken with the Boston native, Warhol announced that he was crowning Edie "the queen of The Factory," and commissioned screenplays for her. Wein became his new screenwriter and assistant director, beginning with "Beauty No. 2," which starred Edie and premiered at the Cinematheque on July 17, 1965. "Beauty No. 2" made Edie Sedgwick the leading lady of underground cinema. Her on-screen persona was compared to Marilyn Monroe, and she became famous among the independent film glitterati. Her association with Warhol helped secure both his reputation and hers. With the glamorous Edie in tow, Warhol made the rounds of parties and gallery openings, and they generated reams of copy and free publicity. Originally an outsider, Warhol was eventually wooed by wealthy socialites and became a major part of the art establishment.

Although her physical attributes and native charm are compelling even now, I have a lot of trouble dredging up any real respect for someone who created nothing for herself and threw away everything that was given her, in the end, even her life. It is perhaps appropriate that she was, for a time, the artistic inspiration for a man who was himself essentially shallow.