I grew up with a mother that loved old movies.
Saturdays would always include my mom ironing and watching old movies.
She was also known to bribe us to go to the drug store to get her a hershey bar with almonds.
Did your mom iron all your clothes?
My mom did!
My dad had it made!
My husband…not so much.
I don't even iron my own clothes…. let alone his!
Back to Saturdays and old movies.
I was so enamored by old movies that I was constantly designing clothes in the style of the 20s, 30s and 40s.
I knew what was fashionable before Anthropologie.
Women always seemed more elegant and beautiful in those old black and whites!
I also love Breakfast at Tiffany's, Christmas In Connecticut, Casablanca, On The Waterfront, It's A Wonderful Life…I think you get the picture!
Remember Singin' In The Rain?
I LOVED Gene Kelly!
I really had wished I could marry him.
My name is Jeanne…my husband is Kelly…see how THAT worked out???
Anyone else still wondering what all the hype was about Citizen Kane???
Rosebud!!!!
I have always loved history and that is probably why Gone With The Wind is one of my favorite movies.
I have seen Gone With The Wind more than any other movie.
I know so many of the scenes by heart.
My mom even had the record of the soundtrack.
I would use the record jacket as the walls of my Barbie house.
Nothing like the scene with thousands of confederate soldiers spread across the streets and railroad tracks as the backdrop for Barbie play.
My Barbies always had gowns on and I somehow rigged a hooped skirt for underneath.
I am looking around the house right now trying to see if any of my curtains would make a nice dress!!
What old movies do you love?
I made a hoop skirt for MY Barbie…only she was Baroque…I made an entire little outfit and piled a big braid on top of her head like a powdered wig… My poor Barbies…I was always sticking pins in their heads. Anyway, My Pretty in Pink Barbie is STILL wearing that outfit. I saw her in storage recently…having a grand old time….eating cake. : ) Fun post, Jeanne! : ) I grew up loving old movies too…only for me…it was Fred Astaire…and Cary Grant. Even as a teenager in the 80’s I said I’d marry Cary Grant…who was in his 80’s…if he had been free. Oh well. Two of my favorite movies are Charade, with CG and Audrey Hepburn, and How to Steal a Million with AH and Peter O’Toole. Oh, and Doris Day movies…how about her clothes! Sweet!
: )
Julie M.
“gone with the wind” is my all time favorite movie!!! every time i watch it though, i am always hoping that Scarlet will get over her silly Ashley infatuation…but she never does…Vivien Leigh was breathtakingly gorgeous in that film, and i could watch it over and over…other old movies i like: “north by northwest” and “to catch a thief”…Cary Grant…mmm mmm mmm!!!
When I was a graduate student in Paris, there was this nice and handsome young Frenchman who worked in the same big lab, and he was a huge old movie buff. I never had the guts to ask him out, all I could muster was to ask to borrow a couple of his movies 🙂
p.s. I’m glad I’m not the only one who doesn’t iron, Jeanne!
I am so with you!! I often think I was meant to be born in another decade. I love how they “dressed up” to go shopping in town. Women seemed to have this “mystique” about them somehow! Perhaps it was those pin curls, impossibly matte red lips and those pumps! 🙂
Perhaps it was because they kept a bit more to the imagination on screen than our film starlets do today… 😉
I love the old 40’s movies and have a cabinet full of them! Among my faves are Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream Home with Cary Grant & Myrna Loy; Its A Wonderful Life, Christmas In Connecticut,
and of course Bringing Up Baby, and The Bachelor & The Bobby Soxer…. Oh I could go on and on….
I think my love of the 40’s is why I was so happy when Olivia wanted “Molly” from the American Girl doll collection. The years she spent playing with that doll are among some of my favorite memories!
Loved this post, girlie! Really, really loved it!
~Ruth
my dad is an old movie buff, we used to watch them together years ago when i still lived at home. as for the ironing, not my bag either!
I just love this post. My mom also instilled a love of old movies in me from the start. I remember watching musicals and old romance movies with her all the time.
Now on the ironing, my mom taught me to first start ironing handkerchiefs. I know somewhere in their house is a HUGE pile of nicely pressed handkerchiefs from my childhood. Now I do some ironing but I usually let it pile up until I have a mountain and it takes a few hours to get through it.
Ironing what’s that? My mother ironed everything including our bras. I didn’t know that you married Gene Kelly, so did I!
xo, Michelle
My mom and I loved to watch old movies too. Our favorite was called Three Little Words. I forget the actors names, but it was a really good one.
My husband irons all of his dress shirts every Sunday night. This is one chore I don’t have to do, because it’s not up to his “standards”!! YAY:) What else can I do poorly…scrub toilets – HA!
Gone With the Wind is one of my favorites, but I haven’t watched it in years! I am going to have to watch in soon!
Gone with the Wind is a favorite and I have to catch myself not to quote it all the time! I also love Cheaper by the Dozen and would love to recreate some of the dresses from that one. State Fair is another fav!
I hate ironing 🙂 I like old movies but the ones i really love are from like the 70’s and 80’s so not that old I guess. Meryl Streep in Heartburn and Out of Africa….Ordinary People, Kramer vs. Kramer. Also, any Hitchcock is great.
We are kindred spirits…Gone with the Wind is my favorite movie! I still have not gotten my husband to sit thru the whole thing yet though…what a shame.
🙂 T
A woman after my own heart… Gone with the wind is still my favorite and like you, I’ve seen it countless times. I did a whole post about it here :http://ruespeanutbutterandjellylife.blogspot.com/2008/05/show-tell-friday-may-2-2008.html
You have my permission to laugh LOL
Oh and ironing… my mom used to iron my jeans in the 70s 🙂
rue
The movies of the 40’s and 50’s are the best! Nothing compares to the elegance and fashion of those days….Doris Day and Betty Hutton are my favorites. I would chose an old movie over anything that is on tv these days. I actually love to sew while watching old movies! My favorites are any movies with Doris Day or Cary Grant. Betty Hutton and Trevor Howard run close seconds.
Loved, loved watching old movies…I would just swoon over Cary Grant & Gary Cooper! And Katharine Hepburn was {& still is} my favorite actress. Favorite movie? It’s A Wonderful Life:)
Right there with ya sister on the ironing! I actually don’t have a favorite old movie, but I adore the clothing as well…Love it, try to keep some in my closer and I agree the women always looked so classy and gorgeous! P.S. I always get asked if my name came from Gone with the Wind…Heh!
First of all I have to say, I don’t iron either. I don’t even have an ironing board! Sad, very sad. Next I haven’t seen very many old movies. But I have seen It’s a wonderful life, MANY times. I sob each and every time. My boys like it too. I think I need to start renting some cause I know I’d like them. I think I will start with Gone with the wind. 🙂 Have a great day!
I forgot to mention that I used to do that with my barbies too but I used the Grease album cover!
I love old movies. Gone with the Wind being one of them (just watched it again a couple of weeks ago) – it’s just unparalleled. It also was my mother’s all time favorite movie! She passed away many years ago and I often think she’d love that I now live in Scarlett O’Hara’s neck of the woods… 🙂 Silke
P.S. I learned ironing on our dish towels when I was little. Dish towels!!! When was the last time you ironed a dish towel? Me – never! I barely iron anything…just makes me too hot…and cranky…
My grandma ironed everything (sheets and underwear included) and loved doing it while watching tv (I really don’t iron, unless it’s absolutely necessary, which it rarely is). I LOVE old movies – especially looking at the clothes! I love anything with Cary Grant. I love Grace Kelly. I love old romances and old Hitchcock movies (like Rear Window and To Catch a Thief). My favorite of all time, though is probably Casablanca – the clothes, the romance, the setting – perfect!!
I used to love to watch my Mama iron…begged her to let me try once…while ironing a white shirt one of my little boyfriends came to the screen door to play…I left the iron down on the shirt….YIKES….was I in trouble.
My fav old movie is a Holiday special…It’s a Wonderful Life…always!?
My mom used to iron while watching the Soaps. I remember things like Madge selling Palmolive istead of the old movies….now I wish I saw more. And P.S. Why would anyone iron? If desperate, I find that that wrinkle release spray does they trick. That is what I passed on to my own kids!
“Philidelphia Story”, “Sabrina”, and “Father Goose” 🙂
Casablanca is my favorite – hands down 🙂 LOVe, love, love this film. I own this one – perhaps I will pull it out again soon.
As for the ironing – hahaha – I’m with ya sister. My husband goes to work with slightly wrinkled sleeves and collars. C’est la vie!
Let me know if you find any curtains for your dress; I want to see that one:) And I love the Gene Kelly play on words! You make me smile!!
Well, I named my daughter, Tara…so, maybe Gone with the Wind…
But, I too love the old movies – Brigadoon, Singing in the Rain, My Fair Lady,
Now about ironing – nah – the only thing that sees an iron in this house is quilting fabric…
I do love old movies. But, my mother would write me a note so I could buy her cigarettes at the Drup store! I was under 10yrs old and they would sell them to me.
I love your blog! gorgeous!
I just posted this week about how I don’t iron. I seriously believe it’s a dying chore 😉
I totally grew up with old movies! my mom loves them! I should show some to my kids! I also love the old music because it reminds me of my mom and my childhood and i feel peaceful. But my FAVORITE was Gentlemen prefer blondes!!! Next would be sining in the rain.
ps What’s an iron?
sinGing in the rain NOT sinning in the rain. Those are 2 very different movies…
Wuthering Heights is my all time favorite movie.
Then Gone with the Wind
The Young and the Restless will forever make me think of my mom, and all the old cbs soaps ( guiding light, as the world turns )
Christmas in Connecticut and Holiday Inn are 2 of my favorite oldies and at Halloween time, nothing beats Psycho!!
I love Roman Holiday and My Fair Lady, but Breakfast at Tiffany’s is still my favorite! Do you notice a theme here!! Love me some Audrey Hepburn!!! Fun topic ~ Rebecca
Oh a trip down movie lane, love the old musicals Singing in the rain, High society, Sweet charity any movie with Cyd charise, Jean kelly Fred astaire, Ginger rogers Debbie renolds, & my all favourite I watch every christmas is White christmas, not that i’m going to get that in the Tropic’s, Hee happy weekend 🙂
This is too funny, I just had the “ironing” talk with my mom while she was visiting.. she ironed everything. Had a basket full of cloths to iron! I had to tell her that her son in law has to iron his own or take it to the cleaners! ha I do not iron!!
I too love the fashion from the past… so elegant and feminine!
I haven’t really seen too many old movies, but I just read “Love walked in” at the cabin and made a list of all the movies she mentioned in the book. I will add some of yours too. I need to watch them. Wasn’t that a great book? Loved every page. Didn’t want it to end.
I LOOOVE them all…but, my all-time favorite…the Sound of Music!…know every song…can play them all(on the piano)…know every line…can qoute one at the drop of a hat…and yes, have the soundtrack too!
Oh! and ironing…well, let’s just say the “lived in” look is big around here!:)
Blessings!
Jill
Your favorites are my favorites, too! Along with “Bringing Up Baby,” “Philadelphia Story,” and SO many others. I check the schedule for TCM often and set up the DVR to tape my favorites and old classics that I’ve somehow missed seeing in the past- and yes, I do watch them while I’m ironing!
Lovely post….my husband does all the ironing in our home…us girls just put it out in the morning and he will do it with his own dress shirt every morning…sweet man. I love old movies…only musicals are the best!!!! Have a lovely weekend.
Oklahoma!!
Ironing – I love ironing my old linens and such, work clothes – not so much though…. Hubby finally got tired of waiting and now takes his dress shirts for work to the dry cleaners. Works for me!
Sue E.
Ahhh… you are speaking my language. The Thin Man is hands down my favorite, but I love The African Queen and It Happened One Night too!
I totally agree that the fashion from the 20’s and 30’s are so much more elegant and classy! I always wish I had lived in those era’s 🙂
Oh, traditions what would we do without them. That reminds me I was supposed to iron today…Oh well, tomorrow is Saturday. Maybe we’ll watch a old movie here as well while I iron, of course. Have a blessed day.
Roman Holiday!!!!!!! My favorite. Then Little Women – June Allyson style.
You’re mom was a saint . . . I detest ironing so much. I burn things.
I am an old movie junkie! I just adore times gone by and the elegance of it all. One of my all time favorites is “Bringing Up Baby” it makes me laugh with glee every single time. Any movie featuring Audrey Hepburn or Doris Day gets alot of play around here. Don’t even get me started about musicals. My greatest aspiration in life (other than being a mom) until I met my husband was being on Broadway. I was in college for musical theatre when we met. I adore anything with Fred Astaire (pure genius), Gene Kelly, I could go on and on. Really, I could. I could probably quote the entire score of “Funny Girl”. Oh, speaking of Barbra, I adore “What’s Up Doc” too. Oh my gosh, did I forget Judy Garland?! Man, my list could go on forever!
Barbies were a whole other story for a different time;)
Hey Jeanne! Oh how I love old movies 😉 Not ironing though, yuck! My hubby has to wear a shirt and tie to work, and pants of course 😉 lol, So ironing is something I must endure. And I too pass the time folding ironing and mending while watching old movies with my girls, or just movies dipicting the olden days. Like Jane Austen movies or Little House on the Prairie, or Immortal Beloved, the story of Beethoven. And I love hersheys with almonds. Your mom sounds like my kinda gal!
Blessings,Molly
Ahhhh…..is all I can say, in my deepest happiest sigh. I love old movies, ironed clothes and the pace of the past era’s. I so wish that I could live there….as long as I could have my computer. 🙂 I tell my husband all the time I wanted to be June Cleaver, even ironed every outfit our 1st baby girl ever wore. I am going to go watch an old movie,and maybe iron some fabric, thanks!
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Oh man, how could you not have put down “Amelie”? I watch that over and over again for her hair…her clothes…and just the basic richness of the movie.
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