“love before breakfast”

Posted because I think Sheila will like this, based on her post today.

rsz_lovebeforebreakfast.jpg

This is a photo by Walker Evans taken in Atlanta, GA 1936 for the Farm Security Administration, with, obviously, the Love Before Breakfast poster (and an Anne Shirley Chatterbox poster) clinging to the wooden fence in front.

I love the juxtaposition here. The glamor of the posters, the threadbare glory of the houses. The fantasy of the posters against the stark reality of life behind them.

It’s gorgeous to me.

17 Replies to ““love before breakfast””

  1. So cool!!

    The movie wasn’t as good as I was hoping it to be – but certainly fun. Her costume for the costume ball is just so absurd. And she wears it with deadly seriousness.

    I love her so much! Hard to believe she died so young – she managed to get in a lot of life in that short time.

  2. Okay, so I put the Walker Evans pic up on Facebook (which, er, you would know IF YOU WERE ON FACEBOOK) – and a friend of mine said he owns a copy of this – a print from the original negative. he’s in love with it and had a lot more information about it. Here’s another cool fact from my friend:

    //I’ve been fond of the shot since they paid homage to it in the US film of PENNIES FROM HEAVEN…. The billboard looms over Steve Martin when he pulls over by an overpass as he reconsiders going to see Bernadette Peters, and is behind him as he meets the blind girl. Later, when the girl’s dead body is found in the same place, she has an identical shiner to Lombard’s in the picture.//

    I love Pennies from Heaven, but I had no idea the homage they were making when I first saw it!

  3. sheila — This is really what your entire comment is about, let’s face it:

    /(which, er, you would know IF YOU WERE ON FACEBOOK)/

    (Hahahahahahaha.)

    That said, I didn’t know that about Pennies from Heaven, either. I love that!

  4. No, I swear, just teasing!! Isn’t that the coolest thing – I need to see it again to clock the Love Before Breakfast references (so totally random)!

  5. sheila — /Also, who knew Anne of Green Gables was such a vamp./

    I know. I am shocked and appalled, frankly. I’d never heard of this actress, so I Googled her and she did change her name to Anne Shirley deliberately. I think she’d played her once or something?

  6. Let’s see. A random selection ….

    I shall now change my name to Dynamene from “A Phoenix Too Frequent.”

    Please make all necessary adjustments, pippa.

  7. Well, Prince named himself after that bizzare symbol/punctuation/atrological sign thingummy. Then he changed it back but he still has a guitar shaped like his ex-name.

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