Posted by 
vp19 on 2013.01.09 at 10:20
Current mood: 
happy
While many of us await a possible Carole Lombard exhibit at The Hollywood Museum later on this year (nothing is etched in stone, but plans continue), the museum has other promotions to whet the appetite of those with love for classic Hollywood. And one of them opens today.
“Loretta Young: Hollywood Legend,” honoring a woman whose career began in silents, blossomed in talking pictures and who eventually conquered the later medium of television. The exhibit is sponsored by the Hollywood Reporter...
…which extensively covered Young’s career from the early 1930s on. (Note that “Midnight Mary,” one of Loretta’s pre-Code triumphs, was initially titled “Lady Of The Night.”)
The museum is appropriately housed in the old Max Factor building, where Young was among its roster of star brunettes.
Items Loretta wore in her movies are among the items to be displayed. Other portions of the exhibit include posters, pictures of Young and her filmland friends, and highlights her humanitarian work and success as a businesswoman.
The pre-Code revival — which Young at least saw the beginnings of before her passing in August 2000 — inspired appreciation of the luminosity she exhibited even in her teens. But as she once said, “There is no personal achievement in being born beautiful.” That beauty stayed with Loretta until the end, as this phenomenal portrait of her at 86, taken in 1999 — which later ran in Vanity Fair -- made evident:
It’s what she did with that beauty, both on and off screen, that made her special, and a genuine legend.
For more information on the exhibit, as well as the upcoming release of a 17-DVD box set of her 1950s anthology “The Loretta Young Show,” visit http://www.thehollywoodmuseum.com/loretta-young-hollywood-legend. Later this year, those of you in the east can join in the Young fun when the American Film Institute’s Silver Theater in Silver Spring, Md., stages a centennial tribute.
And don’t forget that tonight, Turner Classic Movies continues its Star of the Month salute to Young with several nifty pre-Codes, kicking off at 8 p.m. (Eastern) with “Employees’ Entrance,” where Loretta’s co-star is the wonderfully caddish Warren William:
