Hello, everyone

[Bobbi B.]

Oh, gosh... Mike fright! Hi. I've already sort of leapt in here and there, and my profile lists the usual sorts of things, so what's left? Rotogravure, I suppose. Here's a snapshot, today at work, not exactly great...! (I'm going to delete this if it looks awful)

--Bobbi B.

 

[ChorusGirl]

Hello!

Hi Bobbi B. & everyone!

I'm also new here (just registered last night!). I'm a friend & a roommate of Lauren Henline (she's the one who led me here!) and it's a pleasure to meet you all!

Cheers,

Addi

(the Chorus Girl)

 

[The Bingstress]

Hi Bobbi! Love that "Mamie Van Doren" thing you've got going on in the picture. You've got the bad-girl come-hither look down pat.

Chorus Girl shared how she ended up here. So, I'm curious: What led you to the Fedora Lounge?

Hugs & blessings,
The Bingstress

 

[Bobbi B.]

Hi, Addi and The Bingstress! (Perfectly delightful 'nyms).

The "bad-girl" look -- perhaps I am bad! Or trying to take photographs without being able to see the shot while simultaneously trying not to blink. Personally, I suspect the latter. I never thought of Miss van Doren, now I shall have to compare. The pics were cropped and edited, trying for a photo-booth look.

What did bring me here? The very short answer is, looking for the long-vanished website of "RETRO" magazine (and a pity it's gone, too) led to "Atomic Magazine," and in short order, here.

The long answer is a confluence of three things:
. Hairstyle, thanks to a photog pal who suggested a dozen years ago that a Bettie Page style would suit me; I didn't even know who she was at the time. You can imagine where that led!
. Then music, I like anything along the ragtime/swing/bebop line and have for years. Used to sneak it in when I was on the radio while in HS and college (if you're playing Sinatra anyway, why not the early stuff?).
. And last, style and technology. Look at my profile, you'll see I commit various forms of geekery for a living. What it doesn't reveal is that I have a great fondness for the good old stuff -- radios and housewares from the '30s through the post-War years.

So here I am, commuting from the 1940s into the mad, futuristic 21st Century. It's a long drive. There are all sorts of roadside attractions along the way -- the Fedora Lounge is one of the nicer!

But fair's fair. The Chorus Girl has shared a few dance-steps and The Bingstress has set some tidbits in the forums -- but how did you get there?


Bobbi B.

 

[Bobbi B.]

So, Oh Bingstress, Mamie Van Doren, is it? Can't be -- she's still doing a perfectly credible job of it herself! We do seem to have been issued facial features from about the same batch. I'm not complaining.

I see these actresses and models from earlier days, the ones who didn't come to tragic ends, and I often wonder how they're doing, hoping the years have not been too hard on them.

Mamie's got to be 73. She looks -- with a little help, freely admitted-to, from modern medicine (and we are talking posed stills, but nevertheless) -- like 35. She has her very own website! We should all be doing so well at her age.

Pretty cool.

BB

 

[LuckyLighter]

Geez, guys. We've got two beautiful ladies introducing themselves here, and I'm the first boy to cross to the other side of the gym to say hi?

Well, allow me to be the first boy to welcome you to this great site. Pull up a chair and have drink on me.

 

[The Bingstress]

The reason you're the first fella to say hi is because you've stumbled into the ladies' lounge! Technically, this is supposed to be the Girls Only area, but heck, we're not shy. Thanks for greeting our newest members, Lucky. Just don't tell the other gents what you saw in here, or we'll have to kill you.

-The Bingstress

 

[LaMedicine]

Just don't tell the other gents what you saw in here, or we'll have to kill you.

Nice ass-kickin', Leslie!

Bobbi, that Mamie's website is just GREAT!
It's so GOOD to see a gal packin' both looks and brains.
I only had time to skim thru, I must find time somewhere to go thru it all.
Thanks for sharing it.

 

[ITG]

. And last, style and technology. Look at my profile, you'll see I commit various forms of geekery for a living. What it doesn't reveal is that I have a great fondness for the good old stuff -- radios and housewares from the '30s through the post-War years.

Check out this booK. I saw it tonight on Amazon and thought of you, Bobbi:

Rosie's Riveting Recipes: Cooking, Cocktails, and Kitchen Tips from 1940s America

 

[Bobbi B.]

ITG, you're a gem! That book goes on my wish list. (My fave cookbook right now is a Better Homes & Gardens looseleaf from the very early '50s. But it's falling apart). We still cooked very '40s (sans rationing, whew!) when I was growing up -- most things from scratch and without the modern preoccupations. Quite a lot of fresh foods, though, not at all the vast steaming slabs of cholesterol people seem to think of. Setting a dinner table without at least two different vegetables was cause for remark!


In re Mamie Van Doren:
A fair warning to readers of delicate sensibilities, Miss Van Doren is still rather something of a free spirit and occasionally has some difficulty keeping her top on around photographers. I'm not being sniffy, I'd just hate for anyone to be shocked. My opinion? I'm told that late in life, my maternal grandmother, always a woman of very definite opinions, became very outspoken and when her daughters questioned this, she remarked, "If I cannot speak my mind at my age, when will I be able to?" Mamie's having fun; if she can't do that at her age, when will she be able to?


...And, Lucky, it is customary in the trade to knock and ask, "Are ya decent?" before opening the door to dressing rooms. At least you brought flowers, you flatterer, you!

 

[ITG]

RE: the cookbook...Bobbi B., you're very welcome!

RE: Mamie Van Doren...when I first saw her name I thought of Charles Van Doren (movie Quiz Show) of the Quiz Show scandals of the 1950s. I clicked on the site and was quite shocked...my intrigue is that she was a star back in the day, she's still alive and looks phenominal for her age which must be nearing the 3 digits(okay maybe not yet). In her case it's not the years, but the plastic (surgery).

 

[LaMedicine]

Re Mamie Van Doren.
I see that I was a bit lacking in words, I was in a bit of a rush with my last post.

I by no means endorse how she often presents herself, she was a pretty prominent figure in her own way, in my childhood and youth, and for girls my age then, someone not to model your actions after.
What I meant was, running across her name after all these years and reading what she herself has said or written, finding out that the bombshell is quite a bomb with some of her views is rather surprising, and refreshing.
After all, many bombshells are considered so only in one certain way by the general public, so learning that there are those who actually eyed the world pretty sharply, and has clear opinions about it, and does not hesitate to state what she has on her mind is something of a discovery.

For me, pretty much on par with learning the bits and pieces of the woman Norma Jeane behind the facade of Marilyn Monroe.