What, to you, is glamour/glamorous?

[LizzieMaine]

Francis and Tashman are excellent examples of that "icy aloofness" I mentioned in an earlier post -- they honestly don't care if anyone finds them glamorous or not, because they know they are, and it doesn't even have to be in their standard types of suffering-romance roles for this to come thru. Watch Tashman in the surviving footage of "Gold Diggers of Broadway" while Nick Lucas capers around outside her window inviting her to "Tiptoe Thru The Tulips." He might as well be singing to the moon for all she cares about him.

 

[sheeplady]

I would agree on the effortless part, but to me glamour is less about looks and more about pose. I known a couple of people in real life that are glamorous- they are always neat and put together, they always know the right thing to do socially and ethically, how to phrase things and put people at ease, but they aren't conventional beauties in the absolute sense.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Again, Garbo -- she was actually a rather homely woman, but she had an aura of glamour that surrounded her no matter what she wore or what she did.

 

[Amy Jeanne]

To me "glamour" would be icy aloofness. Exactly what it is. It's over-the-top. It's kind of like a painting or a statue. It's there to admire, but you can't mingle with it.

I would also like to point out that the "30s slouch" (as I call it) is extremely glamourous! Nothing says icy aloofness more!

 

[LizzieMaine]

"Look -- but don't touch."

There's a reason why department store mannequins have that same sort of pose and expression -- it's beauty raised to the level of an abstraction.

 

[Flicka]

A glamorous woman, to me, is someone who would look completely natural and at ease wearing diamonds while taking out the trash.

 

[Lily Powers]

To me "glamour" would be icy aloofness. Exactly what it is. It's over-the-top. It's kind of like a painting or a statue. It's there to admire, but you can't mingle with it.

I would also like to point out that the "30s slouch" (as I call it) is extremely glamourous! Nothing says icy aloofness more!

Oh, I love Kay Francis! To me, she is the epitome of 1930's glamour. :love:

 

[ThesFlishThngs]

An easy elegance, less is more. Two reasons we don't have glamorous celebrities anymore: the need to be loud, visible, and shocking, and the no-holds-barred PR machine. When you've seen someone drunk, parts of their bodies that only mother or a lover should be familiar with, heard all about their political beliefs and their arrests for misconduct, it's impossible to imagine even an illusion of glamour. There's no enchantment with people who are just like us, only richer and, in many cases, more obnoxious.
Marlene Dietrich is my example of glamorous.
For a man (I shouldn't like to get scolded for sharing my opinion in that "other" thread ), I nominate Vincent Price.

 

[Flicka]

For a man (I shouldn't like to get scolded for sharing my opinion in that "other" thread ), I nominate Vincent Price.

I would nominate Cary Grant.

 

[angeljenny]

Would you class Marilyn Monroe as glamorous?

 

[ThesFlishThngs]

I consider Marilyn very glamorous, but not in the icy aloof way described by others. Whether she was done up for a film, or being photographed candidly on the beach, her glamour was very obvious.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I think if you take her as just a random image she is -- but as soon as you know who she was as a human being, the illusion shatters. Vulnerability is the antithesis of glamour.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I would nominate Cary Grant.

Ramon Novarro.

 

[Amy Jeanne]

I agree with LM about Marilyn. I was trying to put it in words, but she did it for me!!

A glamourous man: William Haines. There's no way Billy would associate with someone with lowly taste such as mine! And that's why I love him!

 

[LizzieMaine]

Another name that comes to mind is John Barrymore -- who's a good example of how someone glamourous can completely destroy that image. In his prime, the 1910s and 1920s, he was the most glamourous man in show business. Watch him in a picture called "When A Man Loves," where he's the very apotheosis of Male Glamour.

But he drank himself into the ground and then destroyed what was left of his image by appearing in B movies and on radio as a clownish, stumbling, self-loathing parody of himself.

Glamour is something that can be achieved -- but it can be just as easily lost.

 

[Bluebird Marsha]

Errol Flynn. Had it in the 1930's. Lost it by the 1950s.

 

[angeljenny]

I always thought that glamour would take a lot of work - even just the beauty maintenance involved!

 

[Heather]

Another good rule is that glamour is not the same thing as "sexy." Glamour, in fact, is all about icy aloofness, not "smokin' hawtness"

Oooo icy aloofness...I like that! :eusa_clap

 

[Heather]

I would nominate Cary Grant.

I second the nomination!

 

[Miss Golightly]

I consider Marilyn very glamorous, but not in the icy aloof way described by others. Whether she was done up for a film, or being photographed candidly on the beach, her glamour was very obvious.

I also consider Marilyn to be very glamourous - not just when she is done up in her studio finery but also in photos of her simply taking a stroll down 5th Avenue (Sam Shaw's photos in particular are wonderful) or lounging in her home - to me glamour is something that is inside you and not just about how you are dressed. I mean anyone can stick on a gown and Harry Winston diamonds but they may not have that certain something you need to be glamourous - it's something undefinable - a kind of allure.