Glamour of the Gods

I went to Glamour of the Gods at The National Portrait Gallery this week. Given that it was a paid exhibition, which had collected lots of good publicity and was featured on almost every tube escalator I frequented, I had high hopes (of course, the name and the marketing are also brilliant - very stylish indeed.)

The exhibition catalogue (which I really want - if there's anyone out there who can get me one, I will be so, so pleased) was hefty, with huge amounts of stunning photos, most of which weren't featured in the exhibition and included the hottest photo of Jane Russell I have ever seen. A weightier exhibition would have been nice.

I really enjoyed the 1920s section, all low lit, hazy photos; Glamour of the Gods indeed. Things progressed as you might expect, a chronological ordering of lots of recognisable stars looking stunning. It was all very nice and it quite made me want to apply lots of lipstick and fake eye-lashes.

Slightly in-coherent and a bit 'was that it?' but still, a good bit of fun - what more is there to expect from a collection of photos of old Hollywood anyway..

Some of the gallery talks and events coming up in the Autumn sound very good though, including a screening of Street Car Named Desire and 'The Late Shift Extra: The Glamour Factory.'

(all photos are from NPG Glamour of the Gods.There is also this fairly cool thing on their website where you can create your own 'Hollywood portrait,' it's kinda dumb - but it's been a slow morning - that's how the last image has snuck in!)

PS: There were no photos of Jack Lemmon and Doris Day - such a shame!