Echoes of the past
I'm at work doing research today, so just a quick link to share: The archive.org stash of Photoplay issues.
Photoplay, back in the day, was an industry news and rumors mag for, about, and occasionally by the stars. Most of their content was written by staffers, random journos, and gossip-mongers, but from time to time they asked an actor for a piece -- Errol Flynn, f'r example, starved as a storyteller and essayist for a little while before he decided to starve as an actor, and was actually a pretty bang-up writer. (Although he was also the very definition of an unreliable narrator. He's forthright about his opinions, but on facts he likes to fudge. If the punchline to his story involves something falling down, you would do well to discreetly double-check the operation of gravity.)
I sent the link over to Moggie a while ago, and her main comment was that it was exactly like reading a gossip rag today, complete with ads touting solutions to beauty problems you never knew you had.
A brief reminder that my birthday is next month and I'm running a pledge drive of sorts. Carry on!
Photoplay, back in the day, was an industry news and rumors mag for, about, and occasionally by the stars. Most of their content was written by staffers, random journos, and gossip-mongers, but from time to time they asked an actor for a piece -- Errol Flynn, f'r example, starved as a storyteller and essayist for a little while before he decided to starve as an actor, and was actually a pretty bang-up writer. (Although he was also the very definition of an unreliable narrator. He's forthright about his opinions, but on facts he likes to fudge. If the punchline to his story involves something falling down, you would do well to discreetly double-check the operation of gravity.)
I sent the link over to Moggie a while ago, and her main comment was that it was exactly like reading a gossip rag today, complete with ads touting solutions to beauty problems you never knew you had.
A brief reminder that my birthday is next month and I'm running a pledge drive of sorts. Carry on!
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