Just an old fashioned girl
As regular readers might know, I’m an old fashioned girl, into old fashioned dress styles, and old fashioned movies. I seem to cross the period between the end of the silents (the only Lillian Gish film I’ve seen is The Wind), and the early years of talkies, up to about 1939 or there about, though I do love my 50’s sci-fi, probably because of all those robots, lol. But a 20’s sci-fi, crossed with horror, crossed with an adorably cute lady, well…? Not that I suspect most of you will have heard of Gertrude Olmstead, but more might have heard of Lon Chaney, I hope?
Yes, they acted together in a film in 1925, named The Monster, when Lon planned to do wicked things to Gertrude, but beyond ‘very loosely’ restraining her, none of them came to be. Someone described this as horror-satire, and it certainly works as a genre, in the sense that Chaney overacts delightfully, dies in the end, and Gertrude gets to flutter doe eyed looks at a couple of guys (not Chaney) at regular intervals. I will provide a link at the end to the full movie, but its not great film quality (it is nearly 100 years old), it is silent (no musical accompaniment), but if you can take 95 minutes of that, feel free to watch it. If not, just start at about 75 minutes where the ‘horror’ begins, if you wish to see any of it?
Yes, Gertrude is my silent movie crush, guilty as charged. I have no idea what she was like as a person in real life, but given she married only the once, for 42 years, until her husband passed away, I would assume she couldnt have been that hard to live with? Joan Crawford didnt like her, but many would see that as a good thing, lol!
I have actually had this film saved on this free site for a while, but was saving it for the right moment, but thought this weekend was probably it. Yes, it was. If anyone can find, and wants to buy me another recommended Olmstead film, California Straight Ahead in a version that works in the UK (cant find it online, and only US Zone DVD), I’d be so grateful. (Thanks to @MoviesSilently on Twitter for that tip)
But yes, if I had got the chance to do naughty things to a young Gertrude Olmstead, I might not have said no, so…
Right, firstly the video. This is old fashioned in more senses than one, though it might be handy if I could find myself an old fashioned millionaire, lol
Secondly, for anyone who wants to see my secret silent movie crush (even if I’m 100% certain she had no lesbian inclinations)
Just An Old Fashioned Girl?
I must admit, I’ve always seen myself as an old fashioned woman, and in many senses, I am, in the sense that I avoid the idea of owning a mobile phone, of any kind, like the plague. Fine, I have got a very cheap, very basic US one, but thats it, and I plan for it to stay that way.
However, as might be gathered from the fact I’m typing this here, I make one allowance to modernity, my laptop. Well, my current laptop is barely modern, probably on its last feet at present, and even its replacement wont be a new one, but fine, unless you believe the time travel stuff, its more modern than anything Clara Johnson would have known lol! And fine, I use a microwave, and a cable TV system, but…
I didnt buy my first computer in the initial rush of purchases, it would have been about 2001 before I bought my first one. Paid over £800 for a computer that probably had less function than a modern smart phone! And yes, that computer was bulky! Somewhere along the line I decided that I preferred the convenience of a laptop (probably because of all the travel I do, as you can take that with you), and swapped to one of those.
I did, briefly, try using an I-pad, and hated it. I eventually passed it on to someone who did like them, whose old one had packed up, and never again! As for getting a Smart Phone, no way! Besides anything else, those small screens, with my arthritic fingers, no chance!
So fine, I admit it, last night I got home to the news we had no internet, and hated that piece of news. Please, 20 years ago, you’d said that to me, I would have thought so what! But now…? Yes, as you might have gathered, we’re back on now, got back on about lunchtime. But fine, being without it was like being without a close friend! So me, an old fashioned girl? Well, I’d still like to think so, just that I’m one that likes a few modern luxuries, thats all.
Hey, I’m sure that Hollywood actresses had the best stuff in their days, even the chorus line dancers, I’m certain didnt starve! So do I still qualify as an old fashioned girl at heart? Please…?
Fine, video time. The recording is nearly 30 years old, the song over 60! Considering that Eartha Kitt was in her 60’s at the time, its a fantastically sexy performance. And yes, I could do with an old fashioned millionaire myself!
stevielounicks 
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