Crawfordgold's Blog

HarlowGold

Some of my longtime website tributes to my favorite film stars were created around 1997-98 - including my webpages to Joan Crawford, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Kim Novak, Yul Brynner, Carroll Baker, Anita Pallenberg, Paul Scofield, Helmut Berger and Madeleine Carroll. Most of my webpages were originally created as either AOL or Yahoo pages, when those were discontinued, I moved them to Tripod (Lycos) and when that was no longer supported they were moved here to Wordpress! In any case, they've been on the web for at least 25 years, from 1997 at least. I am a fan of classic films and film stars, I first got into classic films thanks to my parents introducing me to their favorites (Lawrence of Arabia, Dr. Zhivago, Ben-Hur) and watching old movies on public television or AMC Classics back in the mid to late 1980's. I started renting more and more old films from a video store that was next to the mall (how 80's!). I would research old film stars in the school library and make photocopies of photos of the stars I found most intriguing like Elizabeth Taylor, Marilyn Monroe, Ava Gardner and Marlene Dietrich. Also, back in high school, some of my teachers would play films in class and I first saw one of my favorite movies Nicholas and Alexandra in history class. I remember sitting in the library and listening through the wall as a teacher played Becket for their class. My first favorite classic stars were Elizabeth Taylor (remember watching her lean back against a wall in Giant and thinking, wow, she's beautiful!) and Marilyn Monroe in River of No Return (I thought, how can her waist be so tiny?). I would watch old films on the TV in my dad's office. I would buy Hollywood Studio Magazines from the Skagg's down the street (along with Elizabeth Taylor Passion perfume!) and I learned about all the famous film stars. Other early favorites included Joan Crawford, Conrad Veidt (Thief of Baghdad), Ava Gardner, Kim Novak (Vertigo), Jean Harlow, Douglas Fairbanks Jr. (Catherine the Great), Lana Turner, Ann-Margret, Hedy Lamarr (White Cargo), Veronica Lake, Peter O'Toole, Audrey Hepburn, Jayne Mansfield, Yul Brynner (The King and I), Natalie Wood (West Side Story), John Fraser (El Cid), Carroll Baker (Baby Doll), Oskar Werner (Fahrenheit 451), Christopher Walken (The Deerhunter) and so many more. I discovered more international films after getting into Dirk Bogarde in 1997 which led to my discovery of Helmut Griem and Helmut Berger in The Damned. The discoveries go on and on. Long live film!