12 thoughts on “Who Would Be In YOUR Binder Full of Women?”

  1. My entries in the “Living or Dead” category:

    Ginger Rogers – a cinimaphile friend and I are going though all 10 of the Fred Astair- Ginger Rogers movies.

    Wow.

    Projected sexiness yet girl next door quality. Of course her actual personality may have been completely different. Did everything Astair did but backwards.

    Story is while rehearsing for Swing Time worked so hard her feet became bloody.

    Marlene Dietrich: OK, no imagining needed – I couldn’t handle her – but what stories she would have – listen to an interview with her grandson Peter Riva on the Icons Radio Hour.

    Carole Lombard – wicked sense of humor – Died tragically on a TWA flight outside Las Vegas. Drove Gable to near suicide with grief.

    Lindsey Lohan – OK, just seeing of you are paying attention. Just kidding.

    Nothing there – keep moving.

    Margaret Thatcher – if she were in better shape we would have long talks – I admire her tenacity. Making it in a man’s world – to the top.

    Mother Teresa (ok this is an eclectic list but her spiritual side – wow. again, the conversations.

    Amelia Earhart – WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU? Admire her fighting upstream in a man’s world – but among pilots she is not considered to be one of the better ones. Made some dumb decisions at least 1 of which cost her her life.

    But interesting.

    Jackie Cochran – originator of the WASPS – former beautician – went on to set a speed record in an F104.

    Sgt Mom’s daughter – any girl who – at the age of 3 upon seeing old Greek statues – wonders why the “wieners are broken” – has to have a sense of humor.

    (on a roll here)

    Joan of Arc – Courage and Faith.

    Marilyn Monroe (see Marlene Dietrich) – a troubled soul, haunted by the belief that she was ugly (according to screenwriter Robert Avrech) – tormented by her Dickens-like childhood – a lot smarter than her screen persona would suggest.

    Gertrude “Tommy” Tompkins – a WASP who disappeared mysteriously ferrying a new P51 from Mines Field (now LAX) across the country. Most believe she crashed in Santa Monica Bay. WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU?

    Sure I have some more ideas tomorrow – but better turn in now.

  2. Bill, good list.

    On your more mature selection standard, including women i would like to have met, mot just ones who take a good picture, I would add: Margaret Thatcher, Lady Sale ( who escaped from Afghanistan in 1842), Aubrey Le Blond (first woman Alpinist), Noor Inayat Khan (SOE agent killed by Nazis), Edith Stein (scholar, Catholic convert, killed at Auschwitz), Loremarie Von Schonburg ( involved in the July 20 Hitler bomb plot), agreed about St. Joan.

  3. I heard the bloody feet story about Debbie Reynolds trying to prepare for “Singin’ in the Rain.”

    Stacey Dash, politics aside, is darling.

    Cyd Charisse. Especially in Singin’

    Elizabeth Taylor in “A Place in the Sun.”

    Marilyn is a woman of mystery. A classmate in medical school’s father was her psychiatrist. She called him the night she died. She had done many suicide attempts that were not serious so he ignored her.

    Did Bobby Kennedy and Peter Lawford weed her diary after she was dead but undiscovered ?

    A friend of mine in the coroner’s office did her autopsy. Noguchi, the Coroner, wrote a book about all the famous people he did autopsies on but he didn’t do them. He was an office guy.

  4. “Ginger Rogers…Wow…Projected sexiness yet girl next door quality.”

    I’ve been watching old movies, mostly film noir but also 40’s & 50’s musicals, since I was a kid but only recently discovered why people always buzzed about Ginger. You hit it right on the head. Not only is she good looking and sexy, but there’s an unmistakeable sweetness about her that’s magnetic. She seems like she’d be nice to spend time with. I think women underestimate how attractive men find simple, basic sweetness in a woman.

    “Margaret Thatcher – if she were in better shape we would have long talks – I admire her tenacity.”

    I saw her on TV give a lecture at an American university soon after she left as PM. I was gobsmacked. I’d seen her speak but had never heard her speak in long paragraphs. She had a mind like a finely tuned Rolls, smooth yet powerful. Incredibly perceptive and insightful but well seasoned with life experience and sense. I remember being totally impressed with her.

    Finally, I’m glad Hedy Lamar is still an honorary member of the Chicago Grrlz.

  5. Former Sec of State Rice because she can keep the peace. The peaceful worlde she built is going to war because Clinton/Obama cannot understand how power is dynamicly balanced and kept that way.

    Angelina Jolie because she is very very smart and she gets what she wants and makes people happy to give it to her.

    Megan McArdle because she knows how an economy works

  8. }}}} Did everything Astaire did but backwards.

    Classic Gene Siskel feminist “mistrope” that ignores the fact that Fred Astaire often pushed her aside to do much more complicated dance routines that she couldn’t do at all, not even in side by side tandem, much less backwards. Not to suggest she wasn’t GOOD, but she wasn’t better than Astaire by a LONG shot. Not sure ANYONE has ever been better than Astaire for popular dancing.

    }}}} Amelia Earhart – WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU? Admire her fighting upstream in a man’s world – but among pilots she is not considered to be one of the better ones. Made some dumb decisions at least 1 of which cost her her life.

    To say the least. I’d say she was an example of a female told endlessly she was better than she was because few had the testicles to tell her “you suck!”, until she finally screwed up so bad no one could fix it… A natural born Kennedy, with exactly the same kind of end.

    If you want a female adventuress who was actually capable, consider Nellie Bly, not Earhart.

    }}}} Finally, I’m glad Hedy Lamar is still an honorary member of the Chicago Grrlz.

    That’s HEDly…

    :^P

    Yes, she was an impressive woman. An impressive actress and a patented inventor to boot.

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    One of my own nominees would be the very jailbait Chloe Moretz, from the movie Kick-Ass… she plays a quite foul-mouthed young “superhero” with such glee that she steals the movie away from even Nicolas Cage. This is an actress worth watching. She strikes me as following in Natalie Portman’s footsteps, showing some pretty impressive talent in an early role.

    }}}} He was an office guy.

    LOL, I believe the term you’re looking for here is, “an Ecklie“, LOL.

  9. BTW, Marilyn Monroe — if you truly want to see her capability, I strongly recommend The Asphalt Jungle.

    It’s a very early, quite small part for Marilyn — you’d almost miss it if you weren’t paying attention, but you can see then — BEFORE all the hype — what she had on screen. Plus it’s one of those 100 black and white films EVERYONE should see anyway, not because of her, but because it’s a strikingly modern film for being shot before the breakup of the studio system and “modern” acting.

    After all, crime is only… a left-handed form of human endeavor.

    —–

    Add to the list:

    Charlize Theron… The true test of whether a man is a complete neanderthal can be found in a certain scene with her in The Cider House Rules.

    If you’ve seen it, you know what I’m talking about. For those who haven’t, there’s a scene in it that, if your first thought is brute sexuality, you’re a neanderthal. If it’s what you know the protagonist is thinking, then you aren’t. It might even be THE best single scene in 1999§, and that’s saying a LOT since 1999 was THE best year for movies in all of cinematic history.

    =====================

    §Note: It’s an excellent movie but not even the top 10 for 1999… maybe the top 15 — but the scene is close to perfect.

  12. }}}} Finally, I’m glad Hedy Lamar is still an honorary member of the Chicago Grrlz.
    That’s HEDly”¦ :^P

    Actually, it’s Hedwig, Hedy for short. Know-it-alls! Sheesh!

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