Princess Gloria von Thurn und Taxis - "Princess TNT" - at the April in Paris Ball, Waldorf Astoria Hotel, 1987

Gloria, Princess von Thurn und Taxis (born Maria Gloria Ferdinanda Gerda Charlotte Teutonia Franziska Magarethe Frederike Simone Johanna Joachima Josefine Wilhelmine Huberta Countess of Schönburg in Glauchau and Waldenburg; 23 February 1960, Stuttgart), presently the widow of Johannes, 11th Prince von Thurn und Taxis. The House of Thurn und Taxis is one of the oldest, richest, and most prestigious of the German princely families. Gloria married the bisexual Prince, more than thirty years her senior, in 1980 and spent the next decade - until his death, after two unsuccessful heart transplants - producing three children as well as endless media coverage for her outlandish appearance and behavior, and the couple's jet-setting haute bohème lifestyle. At his death, the Prince left an estate some five-hundred million dollars in debt, and the Princess quickly adopted a more sober lifestyle and worked to (successfully) right the family's financial situation.

If you're going for "impact" when forming your toilette, how convenient to have your own enormous historic family jewels. The Thurn und Taxis family possessed one of the richest and most ostentatious private jewelry collections in the world. (It is distinctly less rich now, since the Princess was forced to auction a large part of the collection in 1992 in order to help manage debt left at her husband's death.)

It was the 80s, folks!

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Photographs by Ron Galella.

Sculpture class and model, circa 1912

I have no further information on this photograph. And I certainly have no explanation for the pose. I suppose we're therefore free to make up our own scenarios....

(The socks might be the best part.)

Viewing large - David and Boilly (and Joséphine)

"Le Sacre de Napoléon", 1807. The painting contains well over one hundred figures, each of them an actual portrait.

The painting was put on display in the Louvre three separate times between 1808 and 1810, the public's interest was so great.

Officially titled "The Consecration of the Emperor Napoléon I and Coronation of the Empress Joséphine in the Cathedral of Notre-Dame de Paris on 2 December 1804", but commonly known as the "Coronation of Napoleon", Jacques-Louis David's monumental canvas - approximately twenty by thirty-two feet - was finally completed in November of 1807, nearly three years after the solemn event itself. It was quickly sent to be put on display in the Louvre, where the public came in droves to view it. Louis-Léopold Boilly, the great chronicler of Parisian life at the turn of the nineteenth century, commemorated the contemporary enthusiasm for the great commemorative work.

"The Public Viewing David's 'Coronation' at the Louvre", 1810. By comparison, Boilly's painting is a mere 24 by 32 inches.

One could obtain a guide identifying the important personages in David's painting. Some of the figures above are consulting their guides.

The artist scattered portraits of real figures among the crowd, including his own; Boilly is the grey-haired fellow in the group at far right.

David's masterpiece - still drawing crowds - as it hangs in the Louvre.

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Though this painting is commonly understood to represent and is usually referred to as the coronation of Napoléon, it isn't. David had originally planned to show that extraordinary Corsican at the very moment of his coronation - when he unexpectedly snatched the crown from the Pope and crowned himself - but later chose to portray the newly-minted emperor in the act of crowning his beloved and soon-to-be-ex- wife. At any rate, Joséphine is the heart of this vast work, visually, and the graceful, bejeweled Empress is both literally and figuratively the point on which the whole composition is centered.

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View the images larger below.

Voodoo - Marlene vs. Shirley

Dietrich in costume for the famous/infamous "Hot Voodoo" number from her fourth American film, 1932's "Blonde Venus", directed by von Sternberg. Her character in the film, Helen Faraday, is working in a nightclub and first appears in the scene in a gorilla costume, surrounded by "savage" chorines. After slowly - and in very gorilla-like posture - traversing the room, she makes her way back to the stage and proceeds to dismantle herself, removing her gorilla hands, gorilla head and, after the addition of a large, arrow-pierced white frightwig, reveals herself to be some sort of very blonde savage, herself. 

In this publicity shot the bodice of her costume is different than that used in the film; was it felt that this version was just too suggestive?

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The following year, Shirley Temple got in on the act when she spoofed the great German diva in the Baby Burlesk short, “Kid N Hollywood.”

Apparently, there were no hard feelings.

Lana Turner, publicity for "Ziegfeld Girl", photograph by George Hurrell, 1940 or 1941

Des portraits d'hommes, comme toujours

William B. Ogden, by Anders Zorn, 1895.

Jacques-Joseph de Cathelineau, by Anne-Louis Girodet de Roussy-Trioson, circa 1822.

Portrait of the Painter, by John La Farge, 1859.

John Randolph, by Gilbert Stuart, 1804/5.

Gustav Pongratz, by Vlaho Bukovac, 1893.

William Colyear, Viscount Milsington, Later 3rd Earl of Portmore, by Allan Ramsay, 1764.

 Stanisław Czachórski (brother of the artist in costume), by Władysław Czachórski, 1889.

Study of a Shipyard Worker (Head of Gondolier), Dominik Skutecký, 1903.

Sir William Edward Parry, by Samuel Drummond, circa 1820.

 Mstislav Dobuzhinsky, by Osip Braz, 1922.

Harry Melvill, by Jacques-Émile Blanche, 1904.

Portrait of a Gentleman, by Alfred Loudet, 1891.

Count Viktor Pavlovich Kochubey, by Baron Gerard, 1809.

Portrait of the Artist's Brother, by Arthur Hacker, 1882.

Count Alexander Alexeevich Bobrinsky, by Franz Krüger, 1850.

Arthur Atherley as an Etonian, by Thomas Lawrence, 1791.

James Hazen Hyde, by Théobald Chartran, 1901.

Otto Vautier, Ernest Bieler, 1892.

Portrait of a Young Man, by Richard Dadd, 1853.

Adjutant General Peter P. Gesse, by Nikolai Petrovich Bogdanov-Belsky, 1904.

Branko Radulović, by Vlaho Bukovac, 1910.

Honoré-Charles Baston, comte de Lariboisière, by Antoine-Jean Gros, 1815.

Prince Konstantin Alexandrovich Gorchakov, by Alexandre Cabanel, 1868.

Head of an Italian Model, by Frederic, Lord Leighton, circa 1855.