Monday, April 1, 2013

Birthday Girl: Vamp until Ready


Something like 119 years ago today (there is a little discreet confusion over the actual year of her birth), the world was made a little richer with the arrival in it of the baby who grew up to become notorious silent-film vamp Nita Naldi.  We catch her here in full flight, relentlessly set on the not unpleasant task of seducing Rudolph Valentino.  That she does so in one of the truly epic fur coats in Hollywood history only adds to the glory of the occasion.  She reminds me of Quentin Crisp's (or was it Ethan Mordden's?) line about a character played by Marlene Dietrich - "a woman so evil even her daywear is backless."  This was what silent drama was all about: impossibly lovely people doing impossibly fraught things.  And, here at least, apparently ending up in the Van Cleve Hotel.

Naldi had the briefest of vogues, well under a decade, and after it ended never really found a satisfactory place in the world.  She's one of a number of stars - casualties both of sound and of changing tastes, and ranging from self-deluded Mae Murray to the alcoholic, reclusive shell of Mary Pickford - whose fates ended up amalgamated into the protean character who has come to stand, however unfairly, for all silent stars, Miss Norma Desmond.*  Naldi's legacy, like that of many others who weren't around to protest about it, was muddied by her inclusion in Kenneth Anger's Hollywood Babylon (on the other hand, he also kept her name alive in a way that can't be said for for fellow vamps like Dagmar Godowsky or Jetta Goudal); her story is far more interesting than Anger's caricature.**

I don't know if it has anything to do with April Fool's Day, but the day is remarkable for the number of fascinating ladies who celebrate a birthday.  Beyond Naldi, they include Broadway legend Laurette Taylor (the first and greatest Amanda in The Glass Menagerie), West End treasure Cicely Courtneidge (how can one not adore an actress who starred in something called Gay's the Word?), spectacular jazzstress Alberta Hunter (somewhere, I know, her castle's still rocking), fellow silent star Mary Miles Minter (victim of a stage mother who makes Momma Rose look like Mother Goose), mystifying screen favorite Jane Powell, the ever-durable Debbie Reynolds (her book's just out - anyone read it?), and almost-as-mystifying-as-Jane-Powell seventies sensation Ali McGraw.  It's quite a crowd, but however fabulous any one of them might be, I doubt that any could wield that coat quite like Nita...

* The GloriaSwansonian creation, not the affable cyber-presence, of course...

** There is a treasure trove of fascinating Naldi reading at her eponymous fansite, which really is good fun and clearly very fond of its subject.

6 comments:

  1. She and Valentino made a good match with their dark brooding looks but its amazing what a name will evoke. She was born Anita Donna Dooley and had she stuck with that I just can't see the temptress persona working as well for her. I have seen the photos you referenced in Hollywood Babylon and that one snapped just before her passing is truly unsettling.
    Happy Birthday Nita!

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  2. Except for the execrable June Allyson, Jane Powell is my least favorite "actress" ever. Seeing her always makes me wonder "How? Why?" Seeing June Allyson just makes me want to slap something, preferably June Allyson.

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    1. Personally, I'd like to slap June Allyson with Jane Powell. Serve 'em both right.

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  3. Jane Powell was performing at the Contemporary Hotel back in 1974 during my family’s visit to Disney World. Mom made us take an elevator ride up to some restaurant/lounge to see if we could get a glimpse of her. A few floors into the elevator ride, a woman in a BIG white fur coat got in. I was stuck between the coat and the wall and spent the rest of the ride quietly, softly touching her coat. I even put my 9 yr old cheek up to it. We never did see Ms. Powell, much to Mom but no one else's disappointment. On the way back down to our room, Mom informed me that I had just spent some time petting Ginger Rogers’ coat.

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    1. What fun! When we hit the contemporary (in '72) the headliner was Gordon McCrae. Sadly, I had no opportunity to snuggle with him or any other Hollywood legend (except Minnie Mouse, whom I followed slavishly around Fantasyland).

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  4. What coincidence! I'm just now reading the Valentino bio Dark Lover, and read about the shooting of Cobra last night. A film that apparently, no one involved was very excited about. Not Rudy, Natacha or Miss Naldi. They were much more inspired by the upcoming Hooded Falcon and dashed this off while waiting for script re-writes and preparations on Falcon. The author even mentions that this was 3rd or 4th picture where Naldi vamped and Rudy was vamped by her. She claims that, stacked up against the earlier performances, the two seem more to me going through the motions in this one.

    Now, brother if that's going through the motions it's alright by me!

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