...And Marion Never Looked Lovelier

I think Marion Davies must have enjoyed the late 'thirties more than any time in her life.  She didn't have to worry about getting up at the crack of dawn to pretend to be a movie star any more (hell, she hardly bothered to brush her hair), WR was getting old enough that he'd let her out on the town on her own every once in a while, and even if she was getting a little chinny, she still had the best rocks in Hollywood.  What did she care if stuck-up posers like Connie Bennett gave her the high-hat?  Doug Fairbanks still thought she was good fun.

Look at them.  You just know that the second the photographer finished, they ditched Miss B. and her lapdog, Gilbert Roland (she'd marry him, eventually, but here she's still the Marquise de la Falaise de la Coudraye, thank you very much), and headed back to the bar.

Happy Days

The Most Famous People in the World, Mary and Doug, rather mystifyingly enjoy a little canoeing in the pool at PickFair.

So much of this image seems as vanished as if it never had been. Just think of it: in this photo, the two stars are presented as if frolicking outdoors; today, they would look overdressed for church. This house was America's ideal, the most elegant, even ostentatious last word in Hollywood glamour; today, it doesn't measure up, in square footage or general showiness, with the average real-estate-bubble McMansion in Des Moines.

And, it goes without saying, Pickford and Fairbanks, even at opposite ends of their little boat, project an aura of starry perfection. Now, we know that things didn't end well. Just a little while after this sunny morning, Hollywood's Perfect Marriage was as gone as hats for canoeing. Doug drifted off, leaving Mary at Pickfair, where she stayed. And stayed. And stayed.

But they really were a lovely couple.

The Chief of Pickfair

In The Thief of Baghdad. Really, one rather sees what Mary saw in him...

Forty years after he retired, Douglas Fairbanks could still make Grandmother Muscato a little misty when she mentioned him. Oh, there was Valentino, and Novarro, and all sorts of others - but Fairbanks? He was the one, for her and for millions of others. For some, he still is...