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Showing posts with label Kim Novak. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Kim Novak. Show all posts
Thursday, 25 February 2021
Wednesday, 13 February 2013
Don't change one hair for me
Another of our favourite screen beauties Miss Kim Novak celebrates her 80th birthday today!
I marked her birthday (which coincides with the recently-deceased Dorothy McGuire) last year with one of my by now notorious convoluted connections posts, and entered her as an "exhibit" in the Dolores Delargo Towers Museum of Camp to boot.
To salute the lady this year on this most auspicious of days, here's a highly appropriate song for this week of "St Hallmark's Day", a rather fine rendition of My Funny Valentine [featuring Miss Novak's vocals dubbed by Trudy Irwin] from Pal Joey:
Read a rather fab interview with the loopy Miss Novak from The Telegraph last October.
Monday, 13 February 2012
The Novak-McGuire conundrum
It's been a while since I played the "connections" game!
So what possible connection could there be between today's birthday girls the fantabulosa Miss Kim Novak (79 today) and Dorothy McGuire of the wonderful McGuire Sisters (84 today)?
Miss Novak, ultra-cool and glamorous screen presence that she was (and is), played the ditzy chorus girl in Pal Joey, the dual-role mysterious blonde in Hitchcock's Vertigo, the witch in Bell, Book and Candle, and many other movie roles before her star faded. She later played upon her position as a cult camp icon by hamming it up in one of my favourite roles of hers, in The Mirror Crack'd, and indeed she is a new "exhibit" in the Dolores Delargo Towers - Museum of Camp for very good reason:
The McGuire Sisters (all three of them still alive) were the darlings of the American variety show circuit in the 1950s - as well as their numerous live performances for presidents and dignitaries, they appeared on the Ed Sullivan, Dean Martin, Danny Kaye, Milton Berle, Andy Williams, Perry Como and Red Skelton shows. They officially retired in 1968, and their own "cult" status was thus assured. Here's one of their classic TV moments:
And the connection? One of the McGuire Sisters' biggest hits was the theme song of the movie that catapulted Miss Novak to fame, Picnic. Given this sultry scene (opposite a very gorgeous William Holden), I am not surprised people sat up and took notice of her:
And here's the song that completes the circle:
Phew!
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