The Tarot - Hollywood Connection

Artists and Creators in conversations about their work
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katrinka
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Joined: 20 Sep 2017, 23:47

Re: The Tarot - Hollywood Connection

Post by katrinka »

welkin wrote: 01 Nov 2017, 12:53 i've seen the film of nightmare alley with joan blondell and tyrone power, but i didn't know about the book - which is odd in a way 'cause i'm a book guy. i'll keep an eye out for it.
It's sooooo much grittier than the movie. It ends differently, too. And every chapter is named for a Major.
Spain Rogriguez did a graphic novel version, too. (Spain was amazing.) So there's three, total.
speaking of books, there's an interesting book just come out called Hitler in Los Angeles: How Jews Foiled Nazi Plots Against Hollywood and America by steven j. ross. which is a little odd because i thought steven j. ross died years ago.
I'll have to grab that one.

There's a very creepy photograph going around of Clara Bow wearing a cloche and dress or jacket embroidered with swastikas. Clara Bow met Hitler in Germany (he claimed to be a big fan) when on a European tour to promote 1932′s Call Her Savage. She was forced to wear a swastika-embroidered cloche and suit by studio boss B.P. Schulberg (who was Jewish) but she was not a nazi and she thought Hitler was a major ass, IIRC. Schulberg certainly must have been utterly clueless at the time. It's all very insidious.

(They tried to get Dietrich to come back to Germany, but she wasn't having it. Love Dietrich, she got her US citizenship and became an anti-Nazi activist. She'd entertain troops on the front lines. I can't watch the end of "The Blue Angel" without thinking about how Lola Lola and Professor Rat ended up mirroring what happened to Dietrich and Jannings in real life. Her star rose, but he cast his lot with the Nazis and it wasn't that long before he was toast.)
i found your blog interesting. the false representation of life in Hollywood films is the essence of hegemony. it is rather insidious - like, no representation of homosexuals.
Hegemony, indeed. But I can't say there's no representation at all - there are a lot of "you can take it that way if you want (and yes, we mean it that way but we don't want to freak out the yahoos)" type scenes. A lot of the people working on these films were LGBT, they had a knack for sneaking things in. And of course there's the occasional cringeworthy mincing stereotype. But no proper representation, I agree.
this is precisely why i included so many real-life anecdotes, backgrounds, and the ongoing political reality in Hollywood in my tarot - not only to resurrect the truth but to give the deck some authenticity rather than floating around in some star-spangled dream-factory ether.
That's sound policy. :icon_cool:
The book and deck are on their way from the printer. when they arrive i will make them available on the website, and for a little cheaper than they are priced on the indiegogo campaign.
Fantastic, I'll be watching. :thumbup:

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welkin
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Re: The Tarot - Hollywood Connection

Post by welkin »

The way the moguls dragged their heels regarding the Nazis is interesting. also interesting is how HUAC [and the CIA for that matter] purported to be concerned with fascist un-american activity, but never prosecuted any fascists or white supremacists. sounds like Clara Bow was played; also that she may have been pre-maturely anti-fascist. :icon_e_wink:
if you're interested, the Indiegogo campaign is now over and the deck and book are available on the website:
https://www.goldenageofhollywoodtarot.com/purchase

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katrinka
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Re: The Tarot - Hollywood Connection

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welkin wrote: 15 Nov 2017, 19:18 The way the moguls dragged their heels regarding the Nazis is interesting. also interesting is how HUAC [and the CIA for that matter] purported to be concerned with fascist un-american activity, but never prosecuted any fascists or white supremacists. sounds like Clara Bow was played; also that she may have been pre-maturely anti-fascist. :icon_e_wink:
That's the tip of the iceberg. Clara was horribly, horribly played, literally from birth. Read this if you haven't already https://smile.amazon.com/Clara-Bow-Runn ... 0815410255

That woman's childhood was wall to wall horror. Her mother was psychotic, She watched another kid, a friend, burn to death (that's how she could cry on cue, she thought of that). Her dad raped her.
And then she went to Hollywood and what should have been "happily ever after" was, predictably, more horror.
They hired people to get Garbo ready for talkies. But they just shoved Clara out there.
And then there are the rumors that some stll accept as fact, When she saw the dog thing and the football team thing, she vomited.
She was ashamed of her accent, She was scared to death. And she cracked up.

She's one of those people that you want to go back in time and be her friend and stomp some ass for her . Incredible natural talent and sensitive artistry just ground underfoot, It makes me seriously ill.

And Harlow...don't even get me started on Harlow. She has a Stenn biography, too.

if you're interested, the Indiegogo campaign is now over and the deck and book are available on the website:
https://www.goldenageofhollywoodtarot.com/purchase
Thanks. If not this payday, soon. Holidays put a kink in things, but I do want that deck!
Last edited by katrinka on 16 Nov 2017, 04:06, edited 1 time in total.

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katrinka
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Re: The Tarot - Hollywood Connection

Post by katrinka »

Everyone who has not seen this, watch it. Please. You won't regret it - watch this woman's face carry the whole story:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S4MOQSRC_bM

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