Cecil Beaton Quotes

Be daring, be different, be impractical, be anything that will assert integrity of purpose and imaginative vision against the play-it-safers, the creatures of the commonplace, the slaves of the ordinary.

Be daring, be different, be impractical; be anything that will assert integrity of purpose and imaginative vision against the play-it-safers.

Perhaps the world s second worst crime is boredom. The first is being a bore.

The truly fashionable are beyond fashion.

Both Dietrich and Garbo occasionally came to Boaty's, the latter always escorted by Cecil Beaton, whom I'd met when he photographed me for Boaty's magazine (an overheard exchange between these two: Beaton, "The most distressing fact of growing older is that I find my private parts are shrinking." Garbo, after a mournful pause, "Ah, if only I could say the same.")

Sei wagemutig, sei anders, sei unpraktisch - sei alles, womit du die Integrität deiner Ziele und deiner fantasievollen Vision gegen die Leute behauptest, die immer nur auf Nummer sicher gehen, gegen die Kreaturen des Banalen, die Sklaven des Alltäglichen. (Sir Cecil Beaton)

BE DARING, be different, be impractical, BE ANYTHING that will assert integrity of purpose AND IMAGINATIVE VISION against the PLAY-IT-SAFERS, the creatures of the COMMONPLACE, the SLAVES of the ORDINARY.

Incidentally, Cecil Beaton had approached my father, wanting to be the official photographer, but when my father said he had already booked Tony, Cecil was disappointed. My father decided to invite Cecil as a guest and he took some wonderful photos, then sent the bill to my father, which didn’t go down well.

February 22: Marilyn is photographed giving an interview to Elsa Maxwell, gossip columnist and professional hostess, at the Ambassador Hotel. Cecil Beaton photographs Marilyn in front of a Japanese wall hanging.

January 30: Time publishes “Who Would Resist?” which declares, “The bitter battle was over. Marilyn Monroe, a five-foot five and a half inch blonde weighing 118 alluringly distributed pounds, had brought to its knees mighty Twentieth Century Fox.” Redbook publishes “Marilyn Monroe’s Marriage.” Cecil Beaton photographs Marilyn on a bed draped with a Japanese wall hanging. Diana Vreeland interprets the pose as a portrayal of Marilyn as a “geisha. She was born to pleasure, spent her whole life giving it.

We also cannot know whether Frank’s closeness to Archie Butt ever extended beyond the bounds of mere friendship. Archie was far too careful to ever pen anything as indiscreet as Millet’s correspondence with Stoddard. Yet within Archie’s letters there are enough clues to picture him as a Ragtime-era gay man hiding in plain sight. Archie had the same gift for observation and waspish wit found in gay diarists from Horace Walpole and Henry “Chips” Channon to Cecil Beaton and Andy Warhol. He also had a remarkable eye for the details of women’s clothes and jewelry and could, for example, describe from memory a selection of First Lady Edith Roosevelt’s gowns and include such details as “black velvet with passementerie down the front.

passport

1930s Preserving The Arts of Peace The decade before the Second World War started much like the previous one. The stock exchange had crashed, there were 3 million unemployed, a 1931 hunger march was dispersed with baton charges, and the 'Bright Young Things' and their elder bluestocking systers veered towards the Left. 'If you haven't lost money,' advised Vogue, 'pretend you have. Mayfair has gone native; no champagne, and dinner cut to two courses.' Servants were released. One served one's own cocktails or perhaps copied Mademoiselle Chanel and arranged 'buffet-style meals'. 'Guests toss their own salads!' reported Vogue. To flaunt wealth would not do at all - 'one is still grand, but one is poor,' remarked Cecil Beaton.

I think [someone else] wrote Shakespeare. If you don't, there are some awfully funny coincidences to explain away.” Orson Welles, in an interview with theater critic Kenneth Tynan, related in Persona Grata, by Cecil Beaton and Kenneth Tynan, Winthrop, New York, 1953.

Preguntaron a Cecil Beaton: ¿qué es la elegancia? Y respondió: agua y jabón. Que es lo mismo que decir: lo elegante es lo sencillo, lo útil, lo de toda la vida. La elegancia involuntaria se asocia al gesto generoso, a la alegría discreta, a la persona que aporta y apacigua.

What is elegance? Soap and water! CECIL BEATON

the story so he could tell it to those who appreciated his stories, especially the ones about the rich and famous, just like them. Cecil, perhaps—Cecil Beaton, to the masses; or Margaret—that is, Princess Margaret, to most people.