Million Dollar Baby

I don't know about you, but I don't think I've ever seen her looking so glamourous.

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.

When Ladies Meet

Mary, America's sweetheart no more, seems transfixed by Elsie de Wolfe, Lady Mendl. Perhaps she's searching for faint traces of the legendary decorator's celebrated facelifts (she's something well beyond 70 here).

And what was it about those fashionable ladies? There's that damn cherub again.