A Gorgeous Dame

I love Rita Hayworth, she's gorgeous.  I can be a bit shallow like that sometimes...I love you because you're beautiful!

Most know her as Rita Hayworth, but if you dig a little deeper you'll find that she was born Margarita Carmen Cansino in Brooklyn, NY.  She came from a family of professional dancers and learned to dance from the moment she could walk.  Early in her career, she was often cast as the exotic beauty or Latina dancer in bit parts and was credited as Rita Cansino.  In an effort to compete with the larger studios like MGM, Columbia decided to turn Rita into "the next big starlet".  In order to do so, Rita would have to make drastic changes in her appearance. She underwent hairline surgery to soften her widows peak and dyed her hair bombshell red, which brought out her gorgeous features. And lastly, she changed her name to Rita Hayworth.  Rita's butterfly transformation (good or bad), proves that image is a big part of succeeding in Hollywood.  Soon Rita would star in classic films such as, You'll Never Get Rich (1941), Tales of Manhattan (1942) and her signature films, Cover Girl (1944), Gilda (1946) and The Lady from Shanghai (1947).  It also shouldn't go unnoticed that Rita starred alongside two of the most celebrated dancers in Hollywood, Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly. Hayworth was trained in ballet, tap, ballroom and Spanish dance and she was a natural.  Her movements were free and she held her own, right along side the greats of dance. She appeared on the cover of Life magazine in black lingerie in 1941 and became the #2 pin up during the war, second to Betty Grable.  And with the success of Gilda, she will forever be known as the iconic femme fatale.

  

 

 

  
p.s. Not to toot my own horn but Rita Hayworth's birthday is October 17th and my birthday is October 18th...toot toot! ;-)

The Betties

1. Bette Davis and those eyes.  She personifies the Golden Age of Hollywood.  In a world where men rule, Davis held her own as a strong, respected woman with real acting chops. She garnered ten Academy Award nominations, a feat that only four other actors have achieved.   She didn't need to rely on her looks to make it in Hollywood and she left behind a legacy of great films. All About Eve, Jezebel, The Little Foxes, Whatever Happened To Baby Jane?, and Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte.  If you haven't seen a Bette Davis film, then shame on you! 

2. Betty Grable and those legs. Clueless Cher Horowitz said "She's a total Betty"...well that would be Betty Grable she's referring to...the pin up queen of WWII.  Her legs were famously insured in the 1940s for one million dollars, which is about 22 million today.  And she was 1/3 of the fabulous trio of ladies in How to Marry a Millionaire with Lauren Bacall and Marilyn Monroe.  Does it get any hotter than that?!

3. Bettie Page and those bangs. The most famous pin up model of all time, she had a rocking body and wasn't afraid to push the boundaries of fetish kink, which was quite bold and empowering for a woman in the 1950s.  Like so many other young pretty girls, Bettie had hopes of becoming a famous actress. Lucky for us that never panned out and 60 years later, ladies all over the world are armed with scissors in hand to achieve the perfect Bettie Page bangs.

Davis, Grable, Page...The Betties. Supreme Diva, Screen Siren, Pin-up Queen, Glamour-puss, Sex Kitten...take no prisoners, awesome women!  Three legendary gals with a common name are forever immortalized in every vintage loving gals brain!