Doses of History

Vivien Leigh and Marlon Brando taking a break from filming  A Streetcar Named Desire .  In honor of Sotheby's upcoming auction of more than 200 personal items from Vivien Leigh's estate in September in London, I thought I'd do a series of Vivien Leigh-focused posts over the next couple weeks. I must confess I don't know as much as I'd like to about her, so I've ordered a biography about her on Amazon which I intend to read shortly. Though she's most well-known for her role in Gone With The Wind , my personal favorite of her's is her role as the doomed Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire . Interestingly enough, the wig she wore for the role is part of the Sotheby's auction, which you can read about HERE . I'll definitely be getting myself a copy of the auction catalog. As a lover of Tennessee Williams and his most famous play, I equally love the film version of A Streetcar Named Desire  and especially Leigh and Brando's roles in i...

Geraldine Page as the famed actress Alexandra Del Lago in Tennessee Williams' Sweet Bird of Youth Recently I was reading excerpts from the book Tennessee Williams: Mad Pilgrimage of the Flesh  by John Lahr, and I stumbled across some passages detailing actress Geraldine Page's involvement with one of Tennessee's most famous plays: Sweet Bird of Youth . As an avid fan of Tennessee Williams, Sweet Bird of Youth  AND Geraldine Page, I thought I'd dedicate a post to it. Geraldine Page, lovingly nicknamed Gerry by those who knew her, was no stranger to Tennessee Williams before her involvement in Sweet Bird . In 1952 she had starred in a revival of Williams' play Summer and Smoke , playing the lead role of Alma Winemiller so wonderfully, her performance was labelled legendary, and she reprised it again for a radio adaptation and the film version, which earned her an Academy Award nomination. It was with her brilliant performance as Alma in mind that Elia Kazan, d...