Myrna Loy Sketches
Watching some Thin Man movies recently, I was taken again with actress Myrna Loy. What classic features! She’s sophisticated and mature, but still has a little girl, china doll quality. Fun to draw!
Early in her career she was typecast in exotic roles, but broke out with The Thin Man (1934), where she had a chance to display her sharp comedic skills. The Thin Man series, inspired by the book by mystery writer, Dashiell Hammett, is worth watching mostly to see the snappy repartee and chemistry between Loy and leading man William Powell. In each movie, I can do without the gathered-group-whodunnit climax, but these movies are fun and light.
I came upon a small, strange coincidence in reading about Loy while researching for this post. Her mother, Della studied at the American Conservatory of Music in Chicago, where I took piano lessons, which I mentioned in a post just a few days ago!
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I love those old movies, thanks I’ll have to check out The Thin Man.
Myrna Loy? Golly, Paul, you touched something in MY childhood again !
My Dad liked Myrna Loy a lot, and as a constant joke with my Mom, he used to slip Myrna’s picture over their wedding photo on the living room mantel. They giggled a lot when Mom would discover it, and she would say “Oh, you!”
Many years later, I wrote to Ms. Loy, and told her of the incident. She sent an autographed photo and I gave it to Mom for a Christmas gift. She got all teary-eyed when opening it. I now have that photo hanging in my home to remind me of my parents.
Thanks again, Paul.
Your Mom
Well, once again I owe my interest in this to you. I recall that signed photo was sitting on your dresser after Grammy died. Hey, she did say, “Oh, you!” all the time! I can’t believe it’s been over thirty years since she died. I miss her, maybe almost as much as you do.