What Would Audrey Do Wednesday

Hepburn vs. Hepburn

Although the two Hepburns - Katharine and Audrey - were confused throughout their lives (and still are today), these screen icons could not have been more dissimilar. (When AH signed her first Paramount contract for Roman Holiday, the studio asked her to change her surname. She politely refused.) Kate barreled through life doing exactly as she pleased for ninety-six years. She had zero interest in marriage, Republicans, or wearing sunblock, didn't care for whom she ticked off, and smoked three packs a day for twenty years before giving it up by going cold turkey at the age of forty.

While she trumpeted her originality, Katharine Hepburn is a distinct American archetype. Invariably described as being of New England stock, a Mayflower descendant, and more than a little intimidating (think Queen Elizabeth II, Joan Crawford in Mildred Pierce, or Barbara Bush), these are not women who need our help. They're blue-blood tough guys: reserved, unironic, and often married to much handsomer men they terrorize into submission with their intelligence, cojones, fierce backhand, and Mummy's charitable lead trust on their side.

While Audrey was known for her style - Those trousers! Those turtlenecks! Those cheekbones and graceful stride! - these gals are not. Well, they might possess style of a sort (i.e., the Church Lady, or Talbots circa 1973), but this is not the first thing that comes to mind when their names come up. Given to A-line skirts, triple-strand pearls, and sensible shoes, they are emotionally reserved, opinionated, arch - and you can bet they'll let you know exactly how they feel on any given topic, be it the presidential race, what color to paint the sunroom, the best way to fire the help, or how to raise your children.

With her modesty, grace, less satorially tomboyish fashion sense, and - dare we say it? - inherent European sophistication, Audrey is the anti-Kate. Because while people might be in awe of the indomitable Miss Kate, they truly love Audrey.

**all information comes from the book: What Would Audrey Do by Pamela Keogh

Jadite: My Newest Obsession

Jadite was first coined by the Jeannette Glass company and refers to a color of glass, not a company or pattern. It is a milky green, opalescent dinner, restaurant and kitchenware manufactured by several companies .

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Jadite was manufactured by many companies from the 1930's to 1972, each of which produced a slight variant either lighter or darker of jadite's pretty seafoam -green color.

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Jadite was heavy, durable, inexpensive and, sometimes free! It was often packaged as a giveaway in food and cleaning products. Restaurants served meals on jadite dishes, since they cost pennies to buy and were quite durable.

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Because Jadite is functional, good looking, and easy to find and still fairly cheap to buy, it is an ideal collectible.

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What makes jadite especially fun to collect is the hundreds of different items available. There is everything from basic tableware and kitchenware to unusual, even quirky, things like cigarette boxes, footed bulb bowls, jucie-saver pie plates, door knobs and water dispensers to name a few.

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By far the largest and most well-known producer of jadite was the Anchor Hocking Glass Co. was founded by Isaac J. Collins, in 1905, near Lancaster, Pennsylvania, to produce pressed-glass dinnerware.

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After Hockings merged with the Anchor Cap Co in 1937, the new company, the Anchor Hocking Glass Corporation, started to manufacturer glass ovenware that could endure high oven temperatures. Their wildly successful line of ovenproof glass, called Fire-King, debuted in 1942 and was made for 30 years. Offered in a variety colors, Fire-King named their opaque green color Jade - ite which would become the line's most popular color.

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Take a peek at this darling treasury I put together of amazing vintage jadite items on Etsy!

Date Your Jadite

1942 - 45 FIRE-KING in block letters

1942 - 45 OVEN FIRE-KING GLASS

mid 1940's OVEN FIRE-KING WARE

Mid to late 1940's OVEN Fire-King WARE MADE IN U.S.A. ("Fire-King" is written in script lettering)

1951-1960 ANCHOR HOCKING OVEN Fire-King WARE MADE IN U.S.A. ("Fire-King" is written in script lettering)

1960 - late 1960's ANCHOR HOCKING OVEN Fire-King DINNERWARE MADE IN U.S.A. ("Fire-King" is written in script lettering)

late 1960's- early 1970's ANCHOR HOCKING OVEN Fire-King OVEN-PROOF MADE IN U.S.A. ("Fire-King" is written in script lettering)

Mid To Late 1970's ANCHOR HOCKING OVEN Fire-King Suburbia OVEN-PROOF MADE IN U.S.A. ("Fire-King" is written in script lettering)


**ALL PICTURES SHOWN ARE OF ITEMS FOR SALE ON ETSY

What Would Audrey Do Wednesday

Would Audrey...

Sign autographs? Yes. Within reason. When she shot Gardens of the World with Audrey Hepburn for PBS in 1990, executive producer Janis Blackschlager remembers her stopping briefly to sign autographs in front of the Plaza Athenee when she stayed there. "There were always people waiting out front, with thirty-year-old pictures," she recalled. "And Audrey got a kick out of seeing them again."

Be extremely low-key? You bet. A friend (granted, a rather clueless friend) was recently seated next to an older gentleman with beautiful blue eyes at a dinner party. "And what do you do?" she asked politely. "Oh, I sell salad dressing," he replied.

A few moments later she realized: Paul Newman.

Although it was practically impossible for her to go unrecognized as Mr. Newman sometimes could, Audrey was the same way.

Care what people said about her on the Internet? No. AH would never have Googled herself. For starters, she would probably be a little freaked out at her extreme popularity (2,110,000 pages in English alone, and counting - and that's not even including Japan or China).

Would the blogs have affected her? Would she have read something like TMZ, gawker, or (god forbid) Perez Hilton on the Internet? No.

Throw her weight around? (such as it was) No. She didn't have to. Because of her inherent grace (or star quality, or upbringing), people tended to listen to Audrey when she spoke. If anything, she was the anti-diva.

There is only one known instance of Audrey even mildly pulling rank, ever, and that was on the set of Two for the Road. Audrey and Albert Finney and Stanley Donen, the director, were ready to roll, and production was being held up for some reason. What was the delay? Audrey wondered. Jacqueline Bisset (in one of her first acting jobs) was having problems with her makeup and was not quite ready.

"Yes, but I'm ready," Audrey said quietly.

And...action.

Answer her own telephone? Absolutely. Social chronicler Dominick Dunne was with her in her hotel suite in the 1980s in New York City and he remembers her picking up her own calls, "Hel-lo" in her melodic voice. Her friends still miss that voice.

**all information comes from the book: What Would Audrey Do by Pamela Keogh

What Would Audrey Do Wednesday

On the Red Carpet (or Elsewhere)

Kevin Mazur is one of the preeminent photographers today - a celeb favorite (and all-around nice guy), he has shot Bruce Springsteen, Sting, U2, Dylan, JLo, and Marc Anthony, among others. A regular contributor to the pages of Rolling Stone and Us Weekly, he is often the only outsider allowed backstage and on the red carpet at major celebrity events.

Although Audrey never needed any advice about looking great for the camera, here are Kevin's tips for the rest of us.

1. Have fun! If you have fun with the camera and enjoy yourself, it shows!

2. Position yourself sideways to the camera. Don't stand straight on, that makes you look flat and heavy. Twist your hips and shoulders.

3. Try a bunch of different poses - someone like Audrey was always great on the red carpet because she really knew how to pose. She gave photographers a lot to work with - she could look serious, smile, look sexy, all within about five minutes.

4. Before a big event (say, a wedding), study magazines like Us or People and see how your favorite stars pose, and what might work for you. Then try them yourself.

5. You want to raise your chin a little, in case you have a few extra pounds; you don't want any "wattle" under the neck. But don't tilt your head too high, it will look odd. Practice in front of a mirror if you must.

6. Finally, stars are comfortable in front of the camera because it's part of their job...Emulate them - and remember, the camera is you friend. Be like Audrey: Use your eyes and flirt with it a little.

7. Again, Kevin reiterated that the main thing is to have fun with it. Enjoy yourself - that's the main thing. If you do, that will come across in the pictures.

**all information comes from the book: What Would Audrey Do by Pamela Keogh

Artist's Market

Today I spent the day selling the handmade pedestals (for sale in the shop) at the Flying Monkey's Artist's Market. It was my first time to sell there and my first time to attend. I like the artsy crowd, they are a lot more accepting of you, just as you are, than most people.

This weekend was also the Cigar Box Guitar Festival. Having never heard of this, I assumed it was a brand, but no, they were actual instruments made from wooden and cardboard cigar boxes. They were quite extraordinary! There was a small "museum" of cigar box guitars and some dated to the turn of the century, it was pretty cool. I could just see a hobo walking down the street with this nap-sack and one of these instruments.

What Would Audrey Do Wednesday

Dealing With The Press (part 2):

Keep them at arm's distance. If you are a world-famous actress, physical separation is terrific for keeping the press hounds at bay. During her off hours, living in a small village in Switzerland, rather than Bel-Air, and being generally inaccessible was Audrey's way of dealing with the picayune attention that came with having one of the most recognizable faces in the world.

Just say no. The first time AH was supposed to be interviewed by Barbara Walters in 1971, she turned her down because she had not heard of her and did not want to answer personal questions. In the years that followed, Barbara became a bit more well known, and AH was interviewed by her in 1989.

Hold your ground. No matter what the reporter asks, always hold your ground and answer the question that you want to answer. In a rare filmed interview following a 1963 press conference announcing the making of My Fair Lady on the Warner lot, the reporter repeatedly tries to corner Audrey and put words in her mouth. She waits, thinks, sometimes asks him to clarify his question, occasionally gives him a dazzling smile, and answers exactly what she wants. It is quite a performance.

When dealing with the press, the main thing is: Don't be intimidated; hold your ground, and try to have as clear a sense as possible of what you want to say before you go on - that way, you will make sure that you get your point across.

Ask for final edit. If you are on a news program, ask if you can have final edit. Unless you are Bill Clinton, it is very unlikely you will ever get this, but what the heck - it can't hurt to ask. Conversely, find out if the show is live, or live to tape. Although (possibly) more nerve-racking, this is potentially better for you, since the producers cannot edit your comments to make you look silly. Given the kinder media era she grew up in, Audrey never had to worry about any of this.

Don't live in the press. There are some people (you know who you are) who live to be in the media. They could be Madonna, they could be the owner of the local car dealership who never met a reporter he did not like. Remember, if you live by the sword, you will die by the sword, so the best thing to do is either stay out of the press as much as possible or use it to your advantage only when you want to, as AH did.

**all information comes from the book: What Would Audrey Do by Pamela Keogh

Movie Monday (Tuesday Edition): Coco Avant Chanel

The long weekend threw me off, day-wise, so I will do Movie Monday today! This weeks movie is not an old movie, but it is set in the 1920s, and is about Coco Chanel, so I deem it worthy!

This was my first movie with subtitles, I almost stopped watching it, but I'm glad I stuck it out. Audrey Tautou plays Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel. She is so stunning.

At a very young age, Gabrielle Chanel and her sister Adrienne are dropped off at an orphanage by their father with the promise that he will return for them. Several years after leaving the orphanage to which her father never returned for her, Gabrielle finds herself working in a provincial bar. She's both a seamstress for the performers and a singer, earning the nickname Coco from the song she sings nightly with her sister.

She refuses to follow the popular fashion of corsets and pettycoats. She takes men's clothing and transforms them into something that will fit her tiny frame. She liked clothes to be practical, wearing riding pants while on a horse instead of sitting side saddle for instance.

A liaison with Baron Balsan gives her an entree into French society and a chance to develop her gift for designing increasingly popular hats. When she falls in love with English businessman Arthur Capel further opportunities open up, though life becomes ever more complicated.

I had no idea of how she grew up, where her fashion inspiration came from or that Coco was just a nickname! This movie offered a great look into the lives of one of the world's most important designers. I do wish however, that the movie had focused more on her hat shop and how she got into designing clothes, no so much on the relationships with the men.

Have you seen the movie? What did you think?