We Had Faces Then

de bene esse: literally, of well-being, morally acceptable but subject to future validation or exception

Theda Bara, first sex symbol in the movies, specializing as a man-eating seductresses. In this picture she is the Virgin Mary, controversial because it was widely known that she was a middle-class Jewish girl from Cincinnati, many Christians found this picture upsetting.

 

Pam Grier in Friday Foster

 

Fay Wray, 1935

Manhattan, 1951, photo by George Zimbel 

Hedy Lamarr, 1941

Marilyn Monroe, 1955, photo by Ed Feingersh

“Gort, Klaatu barada nikto!”

The Day The Earth Stood Still (Robert Wise, 1951)

William Holden, 1940s

Rock Hudson and friend, 1950s

Alain Delon, 1960s

Marlene Dietrich, 1935

Marilyn Monroe, 1953, a brand new star

Joan Bennett, 1937

Greta Garbo and Robert Taylor in Camille (George Cukor, 1936)