The Annual Great Hollywood Auction - This Sunday!

Every year in August, Silverbanks Pictures ( the modest little business my sister and I operate ) launches the Great Hollywood Auction offering a unique selection of rare candids, publicity photos, and original stills. 

This year we have over 300 photos going up on auction, and we think it is a particularly swell collection. All of the images start at just $9.95 ( and many remain at that price ) so if you never owned a piece of original Hollywood memorabilia, buying photographs is a great place to start. Here is a small selection of what will be going up Sunday evening beginning at 8pm EST. 

If you like these images, check out this link to see all of the rest. Viewing is free! Bidding is free, too ( unless you win, then we expect you to pay ). 

Hitchcock didn't trust Edith Head to make sure all of Grace Kelly's safety pins were in place so he's giving Ms. Kelly a once over before they go back to filming the grand ball finale of To Catch a Thief ( 1955 ).

Did Una really faint, or is she faking it? Carole Lombard and Fred MacMurray are certainly looking concerned in True Confession ( 1937 ).

Maureen Sullivan is enraptured by Greta Garbo, who doesn't "vant to be alone" in this scene from Anna Karenina ( 1935 )

Warren William ( the dashing Perry Mason of film ) posing with a horse and not Della Street for photographer Irving Lippman

Romance was blossoming between Marian and Shane in Shane ( 1953 ) but off the set, Alan Ladd and Jean Arthur were sharing happy hungry looks over salami sandwiches. 

Jane Russell shimmying all that she has to shimmy in Gentleman Prefer Blondes ( 1953 )

Now here's a very rare photo. Ralph Crane was a photographer for many years for LIFE and TIME magazine and this candid of Debbie Reynolds and Fred Astaire he captured in 1960, when these two actors were behind the scenes during the making of The Pleasure of His Company. Crane photos are very hard to come by, and this one actually appeared in the March 21, 1960 issue of LIFE. We have a reserve price set for it, but it's a low reserve so a good deal can be had!

Robert Wise directs Ruth Roman in a scene from Three Secrets ( 1950 ). "Give me a dying look, Ruthie"

Madge Evans looking lovely in a publicity photo for Espionage ( 1937 ). Who would guess she's a spy?

The principal cast of Brooklyn Orchid ( 1942 ). That's William Bendix with Grace Bradley ( Mrs. Hopalong Cassidy, folks ) clasping him. 

Two cuties enjoying the splendid West....this is before they get lost in the woods. Van Johnson and Esther Williams in Thrill of a Romance ( 1945 ).

Paul Muni and Anne Baxter in Angel on My Shoulder ( 1946 ). Anne is wondering why her sweetheart changed so much....she doesn't realize his body was inhabited by the spirit of a dead gangster!

Ooh, look at those dark eyes of Nils Asther, and can you believe that's Walter Huston he is glaring at? Kay Francis looks unimpressed. Storm at Daybreak ( 1933 )

Mildred Natwick is posing as "the witch" in this rare publicity photo from The Enchanted Cottage ( 1945 ).

Kindly Angela Lansbury certainly knew how to play vixens when the part called for it. Here she is with Keenan Wynn and Ethel Barrymore in Kind Lady ( 1951 ).

This is a fabulous photograph from Down to Earth ( 1947 ) taken by that marvelous still photographer Ned Scott. That's Larry Parks and Rita Hayworth standing center stage. 

My favorite Legionnaire...Errol Flynn! Olivia de Havilland is giving him google eyes while he issues orders to the entrapped soldiers and their families in The Charge of the Light Brigade ( 1937 ).

Hollywood's youngest grandmother, in a candid with her daughter. Can you believe Lenore Lombard is only 30 here? Her daughter was expecting a baby at the time. This was taken on the set of Johnny O'Clock ( 1947 ).

During the wrap party for Anastasia, Cary Grant stopped by to wish Ingrid Bergman the best of luck. What a gentleman. Can you guess who that blonde is behind Grant?

George Sanders was such a dashing actor. Here, he is sharing a concerned look with Alan Napier, wondering about the killer roaming loose in Hangover Square ( 1945 ).

Johnny Weissmuller, sans Cheetah, in Savage Mutiny ( 1953 ), one of the many Jungle Jim films Weissmuller made in the 1950s. 

"Hold me, Thrill me, Kiss me"....Robert Taylor is intent on doing all three to Greta Garbo in this publicity photo from MGM's Camille ( 1936 ).

Hard to believe, but that's Helen Hayes tapping toes with an unknown gentleman. This was taken during her Ziegfeld Follies days. 

Silverbanks Pictures holds auctions on eBay every Sunday, Monday, and Thursday night, usually starting around 8-9pm EST. Be sure to check out our other photos if you miss this auction! 

The Enchanted Cottage ( 1945 )

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder

The enchanted cottage...a harborage to a legend of eternal romance. A beautiful cottage left to live in contented independence of the centuries old structure it once belonged to; standing solid amidst the passages of time to cast its romantic spell on the strangers who pass through its portals. Ah! but not anyone can sense its enchantment...only chosen ones.

Our story begins on a cold wintry morning in a small New England town by the sea. Walking among the rustling leaves outside of this cottage is John Hillgrove ( Herbert Marshall )...a blind man. And yet, a man who can truly see, for he possesses the gift of inner sight; the ability to sense the true nature of a being, and to sense the magical aura an "enchanted" cottage, like the one before him, can cast. Being a composer, he seeks inspiration for his musical skill, and on this beautiful December morning Fate brings him to meet Miss Pennington ( Dorothy McGuire ), a young woman who will one day kindle his imagination with the musical strains of an emotion waiting to be set to music.

Miss Laura Pennington is our rather plain-looking heroine. A lost soul seeking a Home; a place of rest; a place where she can feel she belongs. She hopes to find it in her hometown. Returning after an absence of a few years she comes to the cottage to obtain the position of a maid.

Known locally as "The Witch", Mrs. Abigail Minnett ( Mildred Natwick ) runs the place, and having recently rented it to a soon-to-be-married couple, she's looking for a level-headed woman to help with the housework. Miss Pennington says she does not believe the rumor of the cottage being haunted and is readily given the job. It is not so much her superstitious disbelief that makes Mrs. Minnett hire her, but rather her confession to being lonely....a feeling Mrs. Minnett can sadly relate to.

That afternoon Mr.Oliver Bradford ( Robert Young ) and his fiancee ( Hillary Brooke ) arrive to look over the cottage. They are a young society couple and Oliver is obviously taken by the charm of the place and convinces his fiancee that it is the ideal location in which to spend their honeymoon. Within a week they plan on getting married, but that blissful day will never come, for War is declared soon after and being an Army pilot, Mr.Bradford is swiftly given his overseas departure orders.

Over a year later he returns to the cottage a changed man - a disfigured man. This time it is not a honeymoon oasis he is seeking but rather a place of retreat from his family, his fiancee and the society that brands him an outcast and tries to comfort him with pity. A broken man, he is searching for a new foothold on life. It is not only peace that he shall find at the enchanted cottage, but something even more wonderful.....lasting love.

Originally a stage play written by Sir Arthur Wing Pinero in 1923, The Enchanted Cottage was first brought to the screen in 1924 in a silent film production by First National starring Richard Barthelmess and May McAvoy. RKO released this film adaption in 1945, and Lux used the same cast in a radio play that year as well. Robert Young and Dorothy McGuire were a perfect team ( they had starred together two years earlier in another stage adaption, Claudia ) for this "enchanting" tale and each brings a unique quality to their roles - Dorothy, with her look of inner sadness and breathless timidness, and Robert with his kind and honest appearance that not even a facial scar can alter. Mildred Natwick is marvelous as usual, as the lonely widow with whom time has stood still. And best of all is the magnificent Herbert Marshall. This man is always a pleasure to behold. 

"Through the eyes of Love, one can see everlasting Beauty " is the theme of The Enchanted Cottage, and yet, lying just beneath the surface the film tells other tales. It's a story of kindness: a lonely woman welcoming a stranger into her home, befriending her, and sharing in her happiness and sorrow; a young woman reaching out to a man in need of compassion and sympathetic understanding. It's a story of acceptance: accepting your situation in life and wanting to see it in a brighter perspective; accepting others for who they are and loving them for it. Its a story of Time: the Past frozen on a calender for a widow to remember, the Present being days of war and personal hardship, the Future being the only bright star of hope and happiness. And most importantly, it's a story of truth: eyes that see the true, the real, in a blind world. John Hillgrove tells Oliver that his blindness has opened up new worlds for him allowing him to use senses that show things as they really are, making nature and human beings all the more beautiful to him.....

" Sometimes I feel that before I was blind, and only now I can see "

The Enchanted Cottage is an atmospheric romantic fantasy with lovely music by Roy Webb ( nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Score ) and beautiful cinematography. It leaves a memorable impression on the viewer, and you will want to see it many times over.