Shameless Saturday Camp Explosion: Christmas Eve She Lit the Candles....

Well, not technically a holiday number, I suppose, but it's candy-colored enough to pass for one, and it does remind us of the importance of fire safety whilst celebrating...

Once Again - 'Tis the Season

Over the years, this little gem has become the way we usher in the Most Wonderful Time of the Year, and while I'm still having a few doubts as to how wonderful this one's going to be, here goes.

A Flame That Flickered

The Rialto - what's left of it, corporatized, Disneyfied, and be-Lion Kinged - gleams a little less brightly tonight, for tonight one of its longtime, long lost leading ladies bade farewell.

Life, Infinitely Rich and Beautiful

I think that these difficult times have helped me to understand better than before how infinitely rich and beautiful life is in every way, and that so many things that one goes worrying about are of no importance whatsoever.

- Karen Blixen, letter to her brother, April 1931

How the Gretch Stole Christmas

Trust Loretta Young to have everything ready days in advance.  Even at the holidays she annnoys me.

'Tis the Season

Well, it's time to kick off the festive season, and with that comes traditions - few dearer to me than starting off each year with this little gem as the first Christmas song I listen to on purpose (as opposed to all the elevator music that's been being pumped out hither and yon since something like the week after Labor Day).

Many Happy Returns to a Pretty Nice Girl

So now she's 89 and a day.  I was remiss in missing the big day yesterday, but it still seems worth noting.

Yesterday, When They Were Young

A swirling combination of furs, cigarettes, cocktails, mascara, and long, searching glances - this extraordinary combination of Pre-Code clips and the music of Florence + the Machine combines as well as anything I've ever seen to answer the question:  Why does one so love film?

Arrivederci...

2015 is really shaping up to be a bad year for legends, isn't it?  Miss Rainer would seem, as the old year passed, to have set the tone, and today we say goodbye to Miss Anita Ekberg, seen here defining "fierce" in a casual little snap by that sweet beacon of innocence and sunshine, Mr. Helmut Newton.

Vedette de Noël

I hope your holidays are a shade less fraught than dear Mlle. Deneuve's appear to be.  I don't know about you, but I'm not usually reduced to hovering tensely near the tree in a fur and chain-smoking at least until the 27th.

The Last Hon

When thinking about a person who has had a really quite marvelous life that spans ten decades, and when one knows the person only at a great remove, it's probably not quite right to mourn, exactly, when at last they go on before.  Still, the death of Deborah, Dowager Duchess of Devonshire, does seem a particularly melancholy thing.

Two, Two, Two Posts in One!

Well, yesterday's mystery was no puzzle at all to the Café's discerning readership, and while I truly wish I could triumphantly announce that she was in fact Mary Ann Mobley - or even Gloria Huddle (thank you, George!) - she was, of course...

The Shutterbug and the Underworld Empress

The entirely New York phenomenon that was Weegee was born on this day in 1899.  Just to be clear, this is not he.

Why Don't You...

...fight off the winter blues by going all Gorey all of a sudden?

Chilly Scenes of Winter

When I was a child, my grandparents used to laugh about seeing crazy ladies down in Miami wearing fur jackets over their Catalina bathing suits...

Ho Ho Ho

I always think of Finland as such a Christmassy kind of country, don't you?

Nice Rack

One means the antlers, of course...

Make My Spirits Rise Again

Oh, kids, I won't lie to you...

Here's to You...

...Mrs. Brooks.  We're watching The Graduate right now...

Two for the Road

One thing this photo tells me:  it is unwise to attempt an Adrian look unless you actually have Adrian dressing you.  This comes close - but Norma really should have known better.