Sophia D’Aurelio Adair
@vitaphonezone.bsky.social
Writer and film history researcher focusing especially on the silent/pre-Code eras (and the overlooked faces within). I talk a lot about Jean Harlow.
linktr.ee/vitaphonezone
linktr.ee/vitaphonezone
Caturday tax.
January 25, 2026 at 12:17 AM
Caturday tax.
I recite this passage whenever I’m drinking a Guinness
January 25, 2026 at 12:15 AM
I recite this passage whenever I’m drinking a Guinness
I think this is still my favorite photo of Stanwyck
January 20, 2026 at 7:22 PM
I think this is still my favorite photo of Stanwyck
Shelley Winters putting a lizard down Betty Garrett’s back from the same Photoplay section is good too
January 20, 2026 at 6:51 PM
Shelley Winters putting a lizard down Betty Garrett’s back from the same Photoplay section is good too
Mood: Robert Mitchum and his wife in matching monkey costumes at the Hollywood Photographer’s Press Ball (from Photoplay, January 1949)
January 20, 2026 at 6:51 PM
Mood: Robert Mitchum and his wife in matching monkey costumes at the Hollywood Photographer’s Press Ball (from Photoplay, January 1949)
Jean Harlow, James Cagney, and Edward Woods from the production point of view during the shooting of Harlow’s introduction in The Public Enemy (1931):
January 14, 2026 at 9:05 PM
Jean Harlow, James Cagney, and Edward Woods from the production point of view during the shooting of Harlow’s introduction in The Public Enemy (1931):
Kay Francis, BOTD, looking divine (pun intended) in an Elmer Fryer portrait for The False Madonna (1931).
January 14, 2026 at 9:04 PM
Kay Francis, BOTD, looking divine (pun intended) in an Elmer Fryer portrait for The False Madonna (1931).
Love Iris Adrian’s introduction in Richard Lamparski’s eighth Whatever Became Of…? book. So real.
January 8, 2026 at 7:03 PM
Love Iris Adrian’s introduction in Richard Lamparski’s eighth Whatever Became Of…? book. So real.
It’s Tom Mix’s birthday, and on Tom Mix’s birthday, I’m choosing to appreciate this tie-and-leopard-print-coat combination worn by his then-wife, Victoria Forde, in this 1920s Albert Witzel portrait. It’d work a century later.
January 6, 2026 at 5:17 PM
It’s Tom Mix’s birthday, and on Tom Mix’s birthday, I’m choosing to appreciate this tie-and-leopard-print-coat combination worn by his then-wife, Victoria Forde, in this 1920s Albert Witzel portrait. It’d work a century later.
Can’t talk Loretta pre-Codes without mentioning how I love her in one of my favorite ‘30s Wellmans, Heroes for Sale (1933), which is far from a Loretta showcase (but does a great job displaying her versatility and nuance when held up against Born to Be Bad). Platinum Blonde is tops, too.
January 6, 2026 at 4:56 PM
Can’t talk Loretta pre-Codes without mentioning how I love her in one of my favorite ‘30s Wellmans, Heroes for Sale (1933), which is far from a Loretta showcase (but does a great job displaying her versatility and nuance when held up against Born to Be Bad). Platinum Blonde is tops, too.
Loretta Young (born on this day, center) on the set of Midnight Mary (1933) with director William A. Wellman (left) and Franchot Tone (right). Love her softboiled pre-Code heroines that are iron fists inside velvet gloves, especially here and in Born to Be Bad (1934).
January 6, 2026 at 4:56 PM
Loretta Young (born on this day, center) on the set of Midnight Mary (1933) with director William A. Wellman (left) and Franchot Tone (right). Love her softboiled pre-Code heroines that are iron fists inside velvet gloves, especially here and in Born to Be Bad (1934).
I’m always thinking about this story from Mitchell Leisen about how ridiculous censure under the new Code was getting during production on Murder at the Vanities (1934). Hilarious mental image of a stuffed shirt approaching a classical statue like “You’ve got to cover this up”
January 5, 2026 at 12:06 AM
I’m always thinking about this story from Mitchell Leisen about how ridiculous censure under the new Code was getting during production on Murder at the Vanities (1934). Hilarious mental image of a stuffed shirt approaching a classical statue like “You’ve got to cover this up”
This less processed, truer-to-life version was published earlier the same year in Screen Play magazine:
January 4, 2026 at 11:44 PM
This less processed, truer-to-life version was published earlier the same year in Screen Play magazine:
Joan Crawford in Hessercolor on the cover of True Confessions, October 1932
January 4, 2026 at 11:44 PM
Joan Crawford in Hessercolor on the cover of True Confessions, October 1932
I love that too … reminds me of this photo
January 3, 2026 at 10:42 PM
I love that too … reminds me of this photo
ZaSu signed this portrait to theater critic and reverent ephemera collector J. Willis Sayre, and both of them lived in Santa Cruz (Sayre in a red brick home on the Westside) 😁
January 3, 2026 at 10:41 PM
ZaSu signed this portrait to theater critic and reverent ephemera collector J. Willis Sayre, and both of them lived in Santa Cruz (Sayre in a red brick home on the Westside) 😁
Happy ZaSu Pitts Day, it’s particularly fun to me in particular that in Santa Cruz you can get a great burger next to her childhood home
January 3, 2026 at 10:34 PM
Happy ZaSu Pitts Day, it’s particularly fun to me in particular that in Santa Cruz you can get a great burger next to her childhood home
Thinking about this photo of Gary Cooper and Bill Wellman plus sunglasses on location during Beau Geste (1939).
January 3, 2026 at 10:29 PM
Thinking about this photo of Gary Cooper and Bill Wellman plus sunglasses on location during Beau Geste (1939).
Mood: Jean Harlow golfing with Jesse Lasky and stepfather Marino Bello during a New Year’s trip to Agua Caliente in January 1933. Earth-shattering pair of slacks.
January 1, 2026 at 1:06 AM
Mood: Jean Harlow golfing with Jesse Lasky and stepfather Marino Bello during a New Year’s trip to Agua Caliente in January 1933. Earth-shattering pair of slacks.
Robinson and del Rio didn’t seem to want to stop talking either. Anyway, the eternal mood lives in Joan Blondell.
December 27, 2025 at 8:08 PM
Robinson and del Rio didn’t seem to want to stop talking either. Anyway, the eternal mood lives in Joan Blondell.
Marlene Dietrich #BOTD and Jean Harlow chatting each other up during a star-studded photoshoot at an Ambassador Hotel gala for the Motion Picture Theater Owners of America (MPTOA) in April 1934 instead of looking at the camera
December 27, 2025 at 8:08 PM
Marlene Dietrich #BOTD and Jean Harlow chatting each other up during a star-studded photoshoot at an Ambassador Hotel gala for the Motion Picture Theater Owners of America (MPTOA) in April 1934 instead of looking at the camera
Personally, this is an impeccable lineup.
December 26, 2025 at 5:30 PM
Personally, this is an impeccable lineup.
Merry Christmas 🎄
December 26, 2025 at 12:19 AM
Merry Christmas 🎄
Yearly reminder that Bombshell (1933) is technically a Christmas movie, if you want it to be. 😁
December 24, 2025 at 7:37 PM
Yearly reminder that Bombshell (1933) is technically a Christmas movie, if you want it to be. 😁