Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Chameleon

I've been told over my long life as a model and small time actress that I looked like one famous woman or another.  When I was young it was Capucine, Audrey Hepburn, and, I'm horrified to say, the young Joan Crawford.  The sales women on the couture floor at I Magnins told me that.  I was a favorite of theirs just for that one reason.  Most of the time they sat around gossiping about their socialite clients and the young Joan Crawford who had once been a regular, or so they said.  When I wasn't actually modeling all the little black dresses for some San Francisco matron with a party to attend, I was lounging around in my bra and girdle and hose in my own little fitting room.  It was a strange job in many ways but it financed my trip to Italy, so who's complaining.  But the old broads on the couture floor called me The Chameleon because I had the ability to inhabit a dress and a fur and make them irresistible to the aging socialite who imagined she looked exactly like me and in so doing she looked exactly like the young Joan Crawford or Audrey Hepburn or Capucine.  This was 1964.  Already I hated the comparison, but if the old broads love me because of my resemblance to a once beautiful actress, well who was I to object.

I've also been told I looked like Anne Bancroft, Susan Sarandon and oddly enough, Dianne Keaton.  I like the comparison to Anne Bancroft and Susan Sarandon best since I admired Anne Bancroft a lot and I still love Susan Sarandon.  But do any of these famous women look like each other?  They all have broad shoulders and strong features, but that's about it.  So this must make me a bit of a chamileon.  And for a bit part actress that wasn't a bad quality.

13 comments:

giggles said...

How wonderful to get such compliments.... The most I ever got was "cute." (But I'll take that too!)

okjimm said...

People used to tell me I looked like Eddie Rabbit. I sure was glad when he died.

Utah Savage said...

Giggles, Cute is great. People do not react to women they think of as beautiful with automatic warmth, however almost everyone loves a cute woman instantly. People assume that the beauties are instantly popular sought after. Not so. Men are intimidated and women are mistrustful; so there is much to be happy about to be thought of as cute.

Okjimm, I'm glad Joan Crawford is dead too. That comparison always horrified me. And Capucine killed herself when she was quite young. So far I've outlived four of those gorgeous dames.

Sherry Pasquarello said...

i vote-ann bancroft-especially the pic in the fur coat- she was a stunning lady!

too cool. i don't think i look like anyone. i did some haircut and make up shots for some people as a favor- i was 16- don't even remember who they were. they needed a portfolio of their work - hairdresser/makeup to look for jobs.

i had straight dark hair which was good for those 60's geometric shots and an oval face so makeup could dramatically change how i looked- it was spooky. without it- i just look like me.

yellowdoggranny said...

when i was younger i was likened to doris day, nancy sinatra and bridget bardot..i looked nothing like bridget except for the tits.

PENolan said...

Now that I'm fifty and a red head, Lesbians have been telling me I look like Susan Sarandon. Men still say Drew Barrymore.

I was hoping for Ann-Margaret.

Gail said...

HI UTAH-

I think you are absolutely stunning in the most amazingly dramatic of ways! :-)

Love to you
Gail
peace....

Comrade Kevin said...

The silent era Joan Crawford was quite beautiful indeed.

Jack DeTate said...

There's a little more these women and you have in common. All bridge the media gap and connect with your gaze. It's a little eerie and fascinating at the same time.

Ghost Dansing said...

link

Utah Savage said...

Sherry, Thank you, my vote too.

Granny the tits were the whole thing about Bardot. Congratulations@!

PENolan, I wish I could see you. I'm guessing men are right. Drew Barrymore, baby!

Gail, you are the sweetest woman. I hope you're doing well. I'm in a horribly inward looking navel gazing kind of mood so I don't go around the blogs. But other than being unsociable, I'm rewriting what is mostly memoir so it comes with a lot of remembering a period of my life that dealt with my surface while the inner woman roiled with such seething rage. But you don't see it on the surface except in rare moments and then it's so ugly and uncontrollable. Next book I may take a serious look at that from the outside.

Kevin, thank you for stopping by. Yes, very young Joan was impressive. Good bones. That's what all these women have in common.

Jack, sexy comment.

Ghost, I had no idea Anne Bancroft such a wonderful singer. That's a great song too. Thanks for that link. She and I sing in the same range. I got called Mrs Robinson when I was in my twenties. Younger guys found me...a willing challenge.

Commander Zaius said...

I fell in love with Anne Bancroft watching "The Graduate" as a kid. I can see the resemblance.

Dominick said...

Yep, dead ringer for Capucine for sure. You are way prettier than Diane Keaton though.
I've always been unmoved by the so-called Hollywood image of beauty. Jennifer Aniston is just a skinny Greek girl to me.Julia Roberts does absolutely nothing for me, and yes I'm a straight male. But yes, I think we keep very good looking people at arms length because we think they don't want to be bothered by us normal folk. But, having said that, I've always found imperfections more interesting than perfect features. Yes, "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder", and we all have our "type". As I've gotten older I've found that it's the attributes that you cannot see or touch, that matter the most.