“I’m going to sacrifice something right here that I really love.”

Watching this mesmerizing video from 1967 in which Jimi does just about everything possible with his guitar (the mentionables include playing blind and playing behind his back), it sets my standard for performance art. And for male fashion.

“Wild Thing,” The Jimi Hendrix Experience
Monterey Pop Festival, June 1967.

• Hendrix bio on wikipedia.
• Hendrix hung out in Los Feliz.

An under appreciated director who mined the nexus of the lofty and the lusty, DeMille fits well with the Egyptian Theater’s ornate aesthetic. His influence was ingrained in mainstream American culture by the time Sid Grauman built Hollywood’s house-of-hieroglyphics in 1922.

This coming September 22, following a screening of DeMille’s naughty Claudette Colbert vehicle, “Cleopatra,” (1934), Leonard Maltin will interview author Scott Eyman, author of the new biography, “Emperor of Dreams: The Epic Life of Cecil B. DeMille.”

Film information here.

Last weekend, we levitated in pleasure under the spell of “Design for Living“ (1933), the sophisticated German-born film director’s version of the Noel Coward play.

Two Americans sharing a flat in Paris, playwright Tom Chambers (Frederic March) and painter George Curtis (Gary Cooper, gorgeous), fall for free-spirited Gilda Farrell (Miriam Hopkins, running the show). She can’t make up her mind which she prefers, and proposes a “gentleman’s agreement”: She will move in with them, but they will never have sex. 

Hopkins, shown in the photo at right kibbitzing with Lubitsch, forms the fulcrum of a love triangle that would be the envy of any woman. She swaps between Cooper and March, jangling the two men like charms from her bracelet.

Hopkins dresses in spectacular evening gowns designed by Paramount costume designer supremo, Travis Banton (one nifty number pictured above). Banton, of course, famously created Carole Lombard and did wonders for Marlene Dietrich.

Here’s a good Banton tidbit from his Paramount protegee, Edith Head, quoted in Paddy Calistro’s biography, “Edith Head’s Hollywood“:

“Travis was very slick and personable. He knew how to talk to the stars — how to make them feel absolutely beautiful in his clothes. I learned everything from him…I learned more from Travis Banton by watching him dress Carole Lombard than anything I’ve ever done. I spent every possible moment staying glued to Travis, trailing him everywhere like a puppy. After all, he was the best designer, bar none, in the world. And he taught me everything I knew about designing.”

The American Comedies of Ernst Lubitsch | LACMA | through July

• Banton dressed Kay Francis and Miriam Hopkins in “Trouble in Paradise,” and Dietrich in “Desire.”
• Banton turned tootsies into stars.

This is the amazing “electricity” dance sequence from Cecil B. DeMille’s early talkie Madam Satan (1930). A socialite costume ball is taking place — where else? — in a moored zeppelin. The floor show, pictured above, features the fearsome dancing of Theodore Kosloff, a former Ballets Russes star who lived in Los Angeles and acted in many DeMille silent films. That’s Kosloff reigning on high with electrical bolts for fingernails.

After a long day researching Kosloff and his artistic circle, I sought a quiet dinner at a cute patio-restaurant on Melrose Ave. Tucking into my pasta, I spied actor James Cromwell (L.A. Confidential, The Queen, Babe) entering the restaurant. As he walked near to my table, I burst forth: “I just watched your mother’s movie five times this weekend.”

It was true. James Cromwell’s mom, stage actress Kay Johnson, plays the masquerading Madam Satan in DeMille’s film. Costume designer Adrian famously clothed Johnson in a slinky black cut-out gown for the zeppelin sequence. It’s a really famous film costume.

That’s Kay Johnson standing on the right, bedecked in a cowl. (click photo for better view)

A video clip from Madam Satan displays this fetching costume well, while showcasing Mitchell Leisen‘s art deco set design.

Adrian, the designer of this bewitching ensemble was born Adolph Greenberg. He began his career with DeMille in 1925, and was part of the production unit DeMille moved to the MGM lot in late 1928. At MGM, Adrian flourished.

A youtube search led me to Italian dancer, PierPaolo Koss, who replicates Kosloff’s “Electricity” character in a 2008 Moscow performance piece. In email correspondance, PierPaolo explained that the “Electricity” figure stems from Italian futurism, with its great gusto for industrial technology. Watch PierPaolo Koss channel Theodore Kosloff here.

We are celebrating the centenary of the February 1909 publishing of the Futurist Manifesto on the front page of Le Figaro. Italian futurism had its greatest offshoot in Russian futurism.  That’s why I’m convinced that Kosloff imported something very arty and European if not distinctly Russian into a Cecil B. DeMille film.

Meanwhile, back in Los Angeles, I enjoyed the chat with James Cromwell. A really good actor and a great guy.