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Old Hollywood glamour is slowly fading
November 23, 2006 | 12:00 a.m. CST
During the 1940s and ’50s, Hollywood starlets were encouraged to let their individualism shine through. Just the name “Marilyn” conjures up gorgeous, iconic images of the blonde bombshell with voluptuous hourglass curves. Lauren Bacall was the girl with the sultry, sensuous beauty coupled with a husky voice and a hard-as-nails façade. Veronica Lake will forever be remembered for her wavy, goldspun tresses. While these actresses starred in half a dozen movies per year on average and had ongoing careers for decades, today’s starlets spend more time promoting their latest projects than filming new ones. It seems that today’s stars, except for a handful with staying power (see sidebar), are here today and gone tomorrow. And with increasingly homogenous beauty standards shaping our culture, our movie stars lack the individuality and trademark style of stars from the past.
Celebs today sport identical porcelain veneers and expressionless, Botoxed faces. Today’s Hollywood elite comprises the most attractive, most sexual and most overexposed actors who appear in commercials, TV shows, movies and reality TV.
Although most of Hollywood is teeming with look-alike celebrities, a handful have physical characteristics and acting abilities reminiscent of the golden era of American cinema.
George Clooney
Classic Clout: He sings (Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?) and directs (Good Night, and Good Luck).
Lasting Looks: His lounge-singer eyes, boyish charm and sly smirk captivate his female fans.
Back-in-the-day body double: Gregory Peck in To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)
Still not convinced? Rent Ocean’s Eleven. This remake places Clooney with the likes of the original Rat Pack.
Leonardo DiCaprio
Classic Clout: He’s a chameleon on screen, as evidenced in his roles in What’s Eating Gilbert Grape? and The Basketball Diaries.
Lasting Looks: His boy-next-door smile and brooding sex appeal are a dangerous combination.
Back-in-the-day body double: Hell’s Angels (1930) director Howard Hughes
Still not convinced? Try The Aviator or the newly released police drama, The Departed.
Scarlett Johansson
Classic Clout: She was nominated for two Best Actress awards at the 2003 Golden Globes for Girl with a Pearl Earring and Lost in Translation.
Lasting Looks: Voluptuous curves and porcelain skin nabbed her Esquire’s “Sexiest Woman Alive.”
Back-in-the-day body double: Marilyn Monroe in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953)
Still not convinced? She plays a sexy femme fatale in Woody Allen’s Match Point.
Nicole Kidman
Classic Clout: She won multiple awards for starring as Virginia Woolf in The Hours and for singing and dancing her heart out in Moulin Rouge.
Lasting Looks: An air of glamour follows this fair-skinned beauty in every role she takes on.
Back-in-the-day body double: Lauren Bacall in How to Marry a Millionaire (1953)
Still not convinced?Cold Mountain showcases the breadth of her talent.
Gwyneth Paltrow
Classic Clout: She can sing (Duets) and perform both on screen and stage (Proof).
Lasting Looks: Her high cheekbones and patrician nose make her a classic beauty.
Back-in-the-day body double: Veronica Lake in I Wanted Wings (1941)
Still not convinced?Check out Shakespeare in Love or Great Expectations.
Most images of overexposed celebrities come from the tabloids that show stars in street clothes and going into coffee shops. Today’s stars are no longer placed on a pedestal like those of yesteryear.
In contrast to Old Hollywood movie premieres, current red carpet events feature stars in stonewashed denim and dirty T-shirts. In the 1940s, starlets dressed in opulent designer gowns often specifically made to their bodies’ specifications. You would have never seen jeans on the red carpet.
Hollywood historically has set the ideals for the physical appearance of aspiring actresses, and the 1940s and 1950s were no exceptions. In these eras, actresses came in all shapes and sizes. Marilyn Monroe, for instance, was reported to have been a size 12 and possessed fantastic beauty and sex appeal. Today, however, most actresses fall within the range of a size 0 through 6. Tabloids splash photos of actresses who appear pin-thin, such as the ever-shrinking Nicole Richie and Lindsay Lohan, deemed on gossip blogs as the “skeletwins.”
Hollywood’s beauty standards seep into American culture and affect whom we pay attention to and whom we try to emulate. We embrace or reject a celebrity’s image based on the contexts in which they are seen. “A star’s image is constructed both from film appearances, with their typical roles and dress styles, and a mix of publicity,” says Molly Haskel in the book Women in Film Noir.
Perhaps the decline of Hollywood elegance is because stars of the golden era of film had more than pretty faces or hot bods. “Most of the women we remember are women who had something behind the looks,” wrote pop culture and political critic Dean Esmay in an article, “Sex Objects, Then and Now.” Esmay’s article, posted on his popular social commentary weblog, Dean’s World, says these starlets had “that spark of intelligence, a flash of fiery temper or something that made her memorable as a person. Women like Donna Reed, Katharine Hepburn, Jane Russell, Sophia Loren — we remember them because they were hot and interesting.”
