Guess what I got at the post office today?? Bette Davis STAMPS!! What a great way to glamourize your mail! I believe this photograph they used is from 'All about Eve' -one of my favorite movies! Run out and buy yours today!
I'm too young to have ever seen Bette Davis when her films were new and by the time they became available on cable & VHS tapes, I'd been without a TV for years, so the only role I've ever seen her play--except for a crazed hag in Sixties' TV commercials for Baby Jane, which my mom wouldn't let my brothers & me see--is the doe-eyed charmer in The Petrified Forest, which I saw in a film history class in college.
I instantly fell in love with her charm & innocence, although that applied to all the other guys in the class, too, even though, this being the Seventies & all, most of them were long-haired stoner dudes shacking up with their old ladies. But hey, beauty is beauty, wherever you find it, and y'know, man, the 7Os were all about crossing boundaries, anyway, weren't they? Actually, I can't remember & it has nothing to do do with drugs. In college, I was pretty much Andy Hardy, stuck in some weird time warp where I was thirty years behind all my pals.
At any rate, the mature Davis on the stamp doesn't look like either of the Davises I remember--the ingenue or the virago--but with that direct, insinuating gaze, she's still a knockout. Well, except for that meaningless gesture she's making with her hand, thanks to the Postal Service's goofy self-censorship. I agree that smoking's an unfortunate habit, not to mention an unhealthy one, but such a heavy-handed revisionist alteration of a classic image is totally stupid, especially since everybody knows what she's holding, anyway. Oh, well, phantom cigarette or no, well, it's still a good-looking stamp, so I need to go buy some before the price goes up again.
I suppose when they get around to doing Rita Hayworth's stamp, we'll see Gilda holding up a carrot stick--so healthy!--in her gloved hand. No wonder Europeans laugh at some of the things we do.
The image is based on the scene in All About Eve where the car "runs out of gas" on a wintry drive back into Manhattan. BD is freezing cold, furious and resigned all at once. It's a great scene, Miss Davis is superb, and that postage stamp ought to be framed (in multiples of course) and placed on a tiny easel. Thank you for posting. And Happy Xmas to you, too.
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Guess what I got at the post office today?? 
Bette Davis STAMPS!! What a great way to glamourize your mail! I believe this photograph they used is from 'All about Eve' -one of my favorite movies! Run out and buy yours today!
Hey, I got some this week, too! Aren't they great? She is stellar in "All About Eve".
ReplyDeleteI can't believe it. I don't deserve that honour. Thanks a lot.
ReplyDeleteMerry Christmas,
ReplyDeleteas always,
Jezabelle
I'm too young to have ever seen Bette Davis when her films were new and by the time they became available on cable & VHS tapes, I'd been without a TV for years, so the only role I've ever seen her play--except for a crazed hag in Sixties' TV commercials for Baby Jane, which my mom wouldn't let my brothers & me see--is the doe-eyed charmer in The Petrified Forest, which I saw in a film history class in college.
ReplyDeleteI instantly fell in love with her charm & innocence, although that applied to all the other guys in the class, too, even though, this being the Seventies & all, most of them were long-haired stoner dudes shacking up with their old ladies. But hey, beauty is beauty, wherever you find it, and y'know, man, the 7Os were all about crossing boundaries, anyway, weren't they? Actually, I can't remember & it has nothing to do do with drugs. In college, I was pretty much Andy Hardy, stuck in some weird time warp where I was thirty years behind all my pals.
At any rate, the mature Davis on the stamp doesn't look like either of the Davises I remember--the ingenue or the virago--but with that direct, insinuating gaze, she's still a knockout. Well, except for that meaningless gesture she's making with her hand, thanks to the Postal Service's goofy self-censorship. I agree that smoking's an unfortunate habit, not to mention an unhealthy one, but such a heavy-handed revisionist alteration of a classic image is totally stupid, especially since everybody knows what she's holding, anyway. Oh, well, phantom cigarette or no, well, it's still a good-looking stamp, so I need to go buy some before the price goes up again.
I suppose when they get around to doing Rita Hayworth's stamp, we'll see Gilda holding up a carrot stick--so healthy!--in her gloved hand. No wonder Europeans laugh at some of the things we do.
love these!
ReplyDeleteLove those Bette Davis eyes!
ReplyDeleteThe image is based on the scene in All About Eve where the car "runs out of gas" on a wintry drive back into Manhattan. BD is freezing cold, furious and resigned all at once.
ReplyDeleteIt's a great scene, Miss Davis is superb, and that postage stamp ought to be framed (in multiples of course) and placed on a tiny easel.
Thank you for posting.
And Happy Xmas to you, too.
I know toby! i used some last night on some letters and it seemed like such a shame to ruin the sheet!!! I considered framing them LOL.
ReplyDeleteOh these are truly fabulous - I shall just have to try and find them somehow, xv.
ReplyDelete