Tallulah Bankhead, Dah-lings

January 22, 2009


This sketch is from a movie still that Tallulah did for her 1932 film Faithless, one of my favorite pre-code depression movies. It's actually one of the only movies about the depression that came out of MGM- the glamor headquarters of the world. Some film historians complain that it's one of the least accurate representations of the depression, but I think it's a great movie anyway. Tallulah didn't make too many movies so that makes the few she did do all the more precious.

She had a raspy, almost husky sort of upper crust British voice (even though she was from the South!) and despite the fact that she hated her singing, and didn't do it often, I think the few recordings that exist of her singing are actually among my favorite songs! You can download most of them on itunes. My favorite is "Don't Tell Him What Happened to Me"-- a steal at 99 cents!


By the way, the image that I use for Silents and Talkies is Robert Montgomery and Tallulah Bankhead in a still from Faithless!

1 comment:

Nicole Newcomb said...

I can't believe no one commented on this! I love the sketch that you did of Tallulah and I agree about her, though raspy, it has a nice sound to it. :)