Wednesday, June 4, 2014

What's My Wednesday? #4: Her Dulcet Tones


Color me organized this week - I'm actually and at last running Our New Wednesday Feature on a Wednesday.  And it's a little love, my little loves...

This week's Mystery Challenger is also today's birthday girl, the divine Miss Rosalind Russell (107 today); this first aired on January 4, 1953. She has a lot of fun stringing Dorothy along before being pounced on by Bennett, and in general she gets a lot more than many out of the inevitable funny-voice business that is more or less an inevitable part of this segment of the program (you can see the episode in its entirety here).

As always, there's much to enjoy (it's always most fun when John Daly is overcome with laughter), but I'm especially taken by Miss Russell's necklace.  I'm guessing two things:  it's real, and she owns it.  Imagine a time when it wasn't presumed that everything a star wore was styled by others, borrowed for the evening, and done as advertising!  Not that Roz wasn't above a little discreet promotion herself, mind you - she fits in both her upcoming picture and her new Broadway show - not bad for a little girl from Waterbury, Connecticut!

4 comments:

  1. Smashing, Mr. M! You are the spice in Life's Banquet...

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  2. This is one of my favorites. I've watched it several times and get a laugh out of it every time. That is some hunk of necklace but she has the presence to carry it off. Love Dorothy's reply when Bennett wants to check the gender of the guest. "Go ahead it could be anything!" Priceless.

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  3. Thanks so much for this. It authenticates my already authentic Ros Russell autograph: that chalk signature is identical to to the one I own!

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    Replies
    1. So jealous!

      Those old girls all had distinctive signatures - I think the studio schools must have drummed them into them, along with poise and never saying "no" to Mr. Mayer.

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