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ajax1946 — Faith Bacon Colorized
Published: 2011-12-11 05:36:23 +0000 UTC; Views: 3205; Favourites: 13; Downloads: 63
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Black and white photo of Ziegfeld Folly and Earl Carroll Vanity, Faith Bacon, colorized by me.Related content
Comments: 16
Faith Bacon was a performer from the 1920s to the 1950s whom many considered had the most perfect body in the world. She appeared on Broadway in the Earl Carroll Vanities, and later on with popular current performers like Harry Richman. She was romantically linked to Richman for a couple of months, but she never married. Apparently, as she only had her body as an entertainment asset (she was not very into developing any other talents rather than showing off her body), she was afraid of stretch marks from pregnancy hurting her physical form. Her last important appearance was at the 1939 New York World's Fair, where she had an act involving a goat that ate leaves strategically placed in covering her body. The goat was named "Sir Francis" Bacon. After 1940 as she was aging the job offers declined. In 1955 she threw herself out of a window from a boarding house she was living in - in Chicago.
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How very sad! Thank you for sharing this information though, I love hearing more about the subjects I colorize! I like the goat act 
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I know, right?! I just hope that stretching her arms up isn't keeping the whole thing up, then when she puts them down the whole thing sags 
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She was more than pretty, I'm sure she had an interesting life!
Ah, yes... wardrobe malfunction! My guess is if she was in a number she may have worn it in a tableau setting?
Seems to me they could get away with some nudity as long as nothing moved!
If you ever get to see Ziegfeld movies like "Whoopee" or "Glorifying The American Girl" (1929)
within the color sequences of that film you can see some examples of that. My jaw dropped when I saw a breath-takingly young Johnny Wiesmuller in his altogether!
"Whoopee" was filmed entirely in color! A rarity for a musical comedy of that time! (1930)
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I've never seen any of the Ziegfeld Films, sadly. I would love to see "Whoopee" though, as I've seen parts of it on Youtube. The sequence with Eddie Cantor singing the title song, if I'm thinking of the right film?
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Oh yes, well there are a couple issues with the film that make it hard to see today, I think.
One is the humor of the times & the fact Eddie Cantor used blackface in the old minstrel-style. Now the fact that it was worked into so many of his films, tells us his audiences expected it, & I don't think anyone took offense to it at the time & there's one such moment in Whoopee.
Eddie's making waffles & hides from the law in a huge wood-burning oven/stove & when it blows he pops out in blackface & sings "My Baby Just Cares For Me"!
I do love the sheer randomness of such nonsense! The other issue was the film's action takes it to Indigenous people's tribal land. (The Indians!) The fact a half breed white boy who is "part-Indian" can never wed his white girlfriend is much a do-do about nothing! Thanks to 1920's-plot-twists in the last act all turns out well.
That film shows you a filmed version of a popular 1920's stage revue (in color!) with it's original orchestra (George Olsen & his music!) & The topless women in the warrior headdresses on horseback are fabulosia~!
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I need to see this movie! I hate though that people get so upset over such things as blackface. You can't judge the morals and humor and styles of the time by todays standards.
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I agree with that, at the time I'm sure no one was offended by this because there were bigger social hurdles to overcome & it wasn't meant to be a slight.
It's only nowadays we go; "Oh-- About that---!"
I cringe when TCM makes an excuse before a film describing it as a "simpler time" & don't explain it's tradition---!
Things need to be put into historical perspective without making a snap dismissal as to weather something is just racist for the sake of being racist.
Vince Giordano told me once that it was a tradition that started on the stage before electric lights were in the theaters. It brought out facial details like the expressive eyes & mouth so that it could be projected & seen by the audience all the way to back of the house. Even black performers like Bert Williams & Pigsmeat Markham did this. The more I thought about that, the more it made sense. I had never heard that before.
They even run disclaimers before Popeye WWII cartoons now. "These stereo types were wrong then & they are wrong now"
According to whom? Had you not lived through the holocaust or war in the pacific at that time, how would you know how to make such a judgement call? It undermines the unity & morale of the greatest generation & I find that offensive in it of itself.
Wow, I just might become some righteous old phart, yet!
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Amen! You said it better than I did haha!
I never knew that about why it was started, but it does make sense!
I love old cartoons, the ones from the 40's and 50's that were played when I was a kid. Now you have to tell kids not to strap rockets to their shoes and try to do what the cartoon character is doing.
What ever happened to common sense?!
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Sorry Megan, I never go to DA unless I want to upload something, I will send you an email tonight, because you said you lost mine.......silly woman!
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No worries, she can take off my head and let you keep creating fantastic colorizations.....
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I'm afraid if I asked her she'd look at me as if I've two heads, and that's just not a good way to start off a conversation
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