Pixie Dust

Maggie McNamara

Leslie Caron

Jean Simmons

Audrey Hepburn

Elizabeth Taylor

Color My World

"Last year, working as a color consultant on John Huston's Moulin Rouge, LIFE photographer Eliot Elisofon brilliantly showed how color could be used not only to heighten realism but to play its own dramatic and psychological role in a movie. Recently Elisofon visited the Hollywood studios to demonstrate how his principles can be applied to a representative group of screen beauties.

"He took a group of ranking younger stars, had them dress in all white, put them against white backgrounds and blow-ups of black and white stills from recent movies, then chose a key color for each of them. Using color gelatins on his lights (like the spotlights which shine on the stage from theater balconies) and filters on his camera to control the color balance, he matched colors to each young player's movie character..." (LIFE, June 29, 1953)

"GOLDEN GIRL, Doris Day, bouncy singing star of Warner Brothers' films, was photographed under yellow light to bring out her 'sunshine and good health.' The stagecoach is setting for her forthcoming movie, Calamity Jane."

"PINK AND PENSIVE, Elizabeth Taylor is bathed in rosy light which Elisofom chose to go with the 'tender sweetness' of her personality. In the background is a statue of Buddha from Elephant Walk, her new Paramount film."

"SPECTACULAR hair and sultry stateliness led Elisofon to drench Rhonda Fleming in bright orange light in order to emphasize her sensuous qualities. The background which he chose for this picture is a still showing sands of the Utah desert over which her locks wave in her current Paramount movie, Pony Express."

"CLASSIC calm and beauty of Audrey Hepburn, Elisofon decided, called for blue tones to bring out her poise and subtle coloring. Antique arch is from her forthcoming Roman Holiday. Hollywood is convinced that Audrey, best known for her stage role in Gigi, is one of tomorrow's great stars."

"OFF-BEAT LOOKS of Joanne Gilbert, in addition to her 'stark eyes and hot songs,' led Elisofon to pick purple for this nightclub sensation whom Paramount expects to be an equal sensation in movies."

"FLASHIEST LEGS in films belong to dancer Cyd Charisse. Photographer thought red a good choice for Cyd and background, from ballet in her MGM musical, The Band Wagon, which spoofs sex-and-sadism craze in 25 cent books."

"A TOUCH OF GREEN was added in varying degrees by the photographer to these two pictures [top] of Virginia Mayo. In this amount the light, taken together with a background which is reminiscent of Virginia's most successful sea picture (Captain Horatio Hornblower), suggests a sea-borne, free-and-easy character... AS MORE GREEN IS ADDED, the increasing intensity of the color transforms the open, pleasant effect of pictures of Virginia [bottom] into something slightly off-color and vaguely disquieting. Elisofon thinks directors can make use of color changes like this to indicate dramatic turns in the movie's story."

 

Seeing Spots

Ava Gardner

Elizabeth Taylor

Arlene Dahl

Rhonda Fleming

Diana Dors

Jayne Mansfield

Laurette Luez

Gene Tierney

When In Rome...

...do as the Burtons do!

Happy Friday, darlings!

Happy Mother's Day

Audrey Hepburn with son Sean Ferrer

Betty Grable with daughters Vicki and Jessica James

Susan Hayward with sons Timothy and Gregory Barker

Lauren Bacall with son Stephen Bogart

Linda Darnell with daughter Charlotte "Lola" Marley

Rita Hayworth with daughter Rebecca Welles

Sophia Loren with son Edoardo Ponti

Joan Crawford with daughters Cathy Crawford and Cynthia Crawford

Jayne Mansfield with daughter Jayne Marie Mansfield

Judy Garland with daughter Lorna Luft

Angela Lansbury with daughter Deirdre Shaw and son Peter Shaw

Lana Turner with daughter Cheryl Crane

Doris Day with son Terry Melcher

Elizabeth Taylor with son Michael Wilding, Jr. and daughter Liza Todd Burton

Walk On The Wild Side

Dana Andrews, Vivien Leigh and Peter Finch prepare to leave London to film on location in Ceylon, January 26, 1953

"Vivien Leigh is in Hollywood to complete her role in Elephant Walk, for which exteriors were filmed in Ceylon. When I saw her on the set, she was happily poring over a 10-page handwritten letter from her husband, Laurence Olivier..." -- Bob Thomas' column, March 6, 1953

"Vivien Leigh is dropping out of the movie Elephant Walk, and will return to England...Her studio said yesterday she was quitting the picture because of an acute nervous breakdown." -- Associated Press, March 18, 1953

Covered by a sheet, Vivien Leigh is carried aboard a plane on a stretcher, following her breakdown in Los Angeles, March 18, 1953

"If you want to take pictures of Miss Leigh, please don't get too close to her. I would appreciate it if none of you attempted to question her. She is ill. She might get frightened." -- Laurence Olivier to the assemblage of press meeting their airplane, March 19, 1953

"Screen star Vivien Leigh, hysterical when she boarded a plane in New York yesterday, stepped blithely out of it today, smiling happily...Somewhere over the Atlantic, she had made a remarkable -- if only temporary -- recovery from a nervous breakdown...Weeping hysterically, Miss Leigh had been put on the plane in New York's Idewild International Airport yesterday by Laurence Olivier and their friend, Danny Kaye..." -- Robert Musel for the United Press, March 20, 1953

Original wire photo caption: "3/19/53...Smiling, though obviously ill, actress Vivien Leigh is pictured with husband Sir Laurence Olivier on arrival in New York today from Los Angeles, en route to London. Suffering from a 'complete nervous breakdown,' the actress was carried into her plane last night on a stretcher."

"There will be two stars playing the same role now that Liz Taylor is in and Vivien Leigh is out of Elephant Walk...The studio will use many of Vivien's long shots, filmed in India." -- Erskine Johnson's column, March 31, 1953

"Elizabeth Taylor's poodle haircut was a real headache when she suddenly replaced Vivien Leigh in Elephant Walk. She had to have longer locks to match up with the Ceylon long shots of Vivien. She'll virtually be wearing a wig. Also, she is heavier than Vivien..." -- Harrison Carroll's column, March 31, 1953

"Elizabeth Taylor, according to producer Irving Ascher, is just right in all three dimensions -- bust, waist and hips -- for the camera in Elephant Walk. She has lost 30 pounds..." -- Erskine Johnson's column, May 9, 1953

Elizabeth Taylor in Elephant Walk (Paramount, 1954)

"If bad beginnings make for good endings, Elephant Walk should be the best picture of all time. Elizabeth Taylor has just one more day of shooting to finish, but the doctors don't know when she will be able to leave the hospital. The bit of flint that lodged in her eye during a storm scene on the set was rusty. The injury is not only very painful, but her face is badly swollen." -- Louella Parsons' column, May 14, 1953

"Elizabeth Taylor, recovered from an eye operation, revealed today she nearly lost the sight of one of her famous orbs...'You can still see the sear -- a fraction from the retina. If it had been a hair's width to the right, I wouldn't be able to see.'" -- Aline Mosby's column, June 5, 1953

Elizabeth Taylor in Elephant Walk (Paramount, 1954)

"You mustn't blame the elephants...I hope Elizabeth Taylor is very good in the part." -- Vivien Leigh to the United Press, July 18, 1953

Elizabeth Taylor in Elephant Walk (Paramount, 1954)

Dame Elizabeth Taylor...

...wishes you a Happy Labor Day.

A Fellow Needs A Girl

Montgomery Clift and Marilyn Monroe

Roddy McDowall and Elizabeth Taylor

Cesar Romero and Joan Crawford

Rock Hudson and Judy Garland

Mart Crowley and Natalie Wood

Headed For Disaster

Don't try this at home, kids.