Category: Classic Beauty

Rita Gam, from the 1950s:

Wonderful.

Sent to me by Reader Gerald F., here’s Diana Rigg doing her Mrs. Peel thing.

All I have to say that Mr. Peel was a total idiot, letting her leave the house dressed like that — or letting her out of the house at all, come to think of it.

Best legs, ever.

It doesn’t help that Natalie Wood fell into that era of women and their style which has been my downfall ever since I can remember.  Here’s what I mean by that obscure sentence, in black and white:

And in color:

Stunning, and timeless.

Born in Germany (but claimed by the French),  Romy Schneider straddled the black & white and color eras, and was equally beautiful in both:

I could go on, and on, and on… but I think you get the idea.

I remember once going through one of Connie’s photo albums, and finding a pic of an impossibly-glamorous older woman.  “Who is that?” I asked.

“Oh, that’s my old acting teacher, Nina Foch.”

Here she is, not as an older woman:

Wow.

Back to the silent movies we go, with actress (and later producer) Norma Talmadge:

You know, my problem with all the stars of this era is that the pics were so stylized that very little of the actresses’ character shone through (which is why so many of them look so alike).  Here, for example, is a much later pic of Norma, taken when she was (I think) in her late fifties, and the difference is astonishing:

Gorgeous.