Vanity Fair Magazine

Articles from Vanity Fair Magazine

Geraldine Farrar on Acting in the Silent Movies (Vanity Fair, 1921)

In the attached article, Metropolitan Opera diva Geraldine Farrar (1882 – 1967) relays her experiences as a film actress in The Hell Cat (1918) and The Turn of the Wheel (1918), and boldly declares that there is a big difference between acting in an opera and acting for the screen (who knew?).

There are a hundred intimate expressions of the eyes, the mouth, the hands, that can only be transmitted through the camera, and the strong and sometimes merciless light of the projection machine. And this is what the motion picture actress must clearly and everlastingly keep in mind: she is acting for an audience which is near enough to detect any insincerity of feeling or any sham in make-up.

Click here to read about physical perfection during the Golden Age of Hollywood.

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Joseph Conrad as Interviewed by Hugh Walpole (Vanity Fair, 1919)

Hugh Walpole (1884-1941) interviewed his much admired friend, Joseph Conrad (1884-1941) for the pages of a fashionable American magazine and came away this very intimate and warm column:

There is a mystery first of the man himself– the mystery that the son of a Polish nobleman should run away to sea, learn English from old files of the ‘Standard’ newspapers when he was thirty, toss about the world as an English seaman, finally share with Thomas Hardy the title of the greatest living English novelist— what kind of man can this be?

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Paris Fashion, 1913 (Vanity Fair Magazine, 1913)

The unknown author of this article believed deeply that the Paris fashions of 1913 were very much in keeping with the grand traditions established and maintained by that city since the eighteenth century. This critic was very impressed with the recent work of Paul Poiretstyle=border:none and Doeuillet and presented a number fashion illustrations to prove the point. Oddly, the article is credited simply to Worthstyle=border:none which leaves one wondering whether the writer was one of the sons of Charles Frederick Worth (1825-1895); Jean Philippe Worth or Gaston Worth, both of whom had inherited their father’s great house of fashion.

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The Monstrous Movies (Vanity Fair Magazine, 1921)

By 1921 the city of Los Angeles began to seriously grow, and the expansion was not simply due to the arrival of performers and extras and all manner of craftsmen that are required to launch a film production – but the city was also bringing in the sorts necessary to support a wealthy urban environment. Every thriving city needs a support system, and Hollywood imported tailors, milliners, chefs, architects and various other tastemakers who in turn attracted realtors, contractors, merchants and restauranteurs.

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George Bernard Shaw and Literary Recycling (Vanity Fair, 1921)

Irish author, critic and dramatist, St. John Greer Ervine (1883 – 1971), believed that some of the dramatic characters populating the plays of George Bernard Shaw (1856 – 1950) were reoccurring characters who could be counted upon to appear again and again. He had a fine time illustrating this point and thinks nothing of stooping to compare Shaw with Shakespeare:

Shakespeare primarily was interested in people. Mr. Shaw primarily is interested in doctrine…

Thirty-five years later St. John Ervine would be awarded the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for his biography of George Bernard Shaw.

Click here to read various witty remarks by George Bernard Shaw.

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Arthur B. Davies (Vanity Fair, 1919)

An Arthur B. Davies (1862 – 1928) review written by VANITY FAIR art critic Frederick James Gregg following the opening of an exhibition highlighting the the private collection of N.E. Montross. The critic wrote:

Since the death of Albert Pinkham Ryder (1847 – 1917), Mr. Davies has been recognized, by persons abroad who are familiar with art in America, as the leading living painter on this side of the Atlantic.

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