Czeslaw Slania’s hobby from his youth – the engraving of miniatures – became later his professional work, but his work became also his hobby, perhaps the most happy combination a man can wish for his life.
During the years 1957-1962, while Slania «only» worked in Stockholm with retouching other engravers’ works, he kept his mind and hand agile by engraving a series of labels in stamp format, portraying the most famous actresses of the period. Looking at these beautiful miniatures it is obvious that his engraving technique never faded, in spite of the very little professional work he did at this time. These labels were produced as personal favours to the persons honoured, and given to them for their private use or distribution to their friends. Therefore, in some cases there is no supply of them available to collectors.
Sophia Loren in 1957 and 1961.
Sophia Loren (born Sofia Villani Scicolone in Pozzuoli (Italy); 20 September 1934) is an Italian actress. Loren is widely recognized as Italy’s most renowned and honored actress. After entering a beauty pageant in 1949 aged 14, Loren was encouraged to enroll in acting lessons and appeared in several ‘bit parts’ and minor roles until the late 1950s where Loren’s five-picture contract with Paramount launched her career as an international movie star. Notable film appearances around this time including; Houseboat, That Kind of Woman and It Started in Naples.
It was not until her deglamorized performance as Cesira in Vittorio De Sica’s Two Women that confirmed her status as an acclaimed actress. Loren won the Academy Award for Best Actress in 1962 for her performance which made Loren the first artist to win an Oscar for a foreign-language performance. Later notable films include El Cid; Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow; Marriage Italian-Style (for which she was nominated for a second Oscar); Sunflower; and The Voyage. After starting a family in the early 1970s, Loren spent less time on her acting career and chose to make only occasional film appearances. In later years, she has appeared in American films such as Grumpier Old Men and Nine.
As well as her Academy Award, Loren has also been awarded a Grammy Award, five special Golden Globes, a BAFTA Award, a Laurel Award as well as the Honorary Academy Award in 1991. In 1995, she received the Cecil B. DeMille Award for lifetime achievements, one of many such awards.
Brigitte Bardot and Doris Day.
-Brigitte Anne-Marie Bardot (born 28 September 1934 in Paris) is a French former actress, singer and fashion model, now an animal rights activist. She was one of the best known sex symbols of the 1950s and 1960s. Starting in 1969, Bardot’s features became the official face of Marianne (who had previously been anonymous) to represent the liberty of France.
Bardot was an aspiring ballerina in early life. She started her acting career in 1952 and, after appearing in 16 routine comedy films with limited international release, became world-famous in 1957 with the controversial film And God Created Woman. She later starred in Jean-Luc Godard’s 1963 film Le Mépris. Bardot was nominated for a BAFTA Award for Best Foreign Actress for her role in Louis Malle’s 1965 film Viva Maria!. Bardot caught the attention of French intellectuals. She was the subject of Simone de Beauvoir’s 1959 essay, The Lolita Syndrome, which described Bardot as a «locomotive of women’s history» and built upon existentialist themes to declare her the first and most liberated woman of post-war France. Bardot retired from the entertainment industry in 1973.
-Doris Day (born Doris Mary Ann Kappelhoff; April 3, 1922) is an American actress, singer, and animal rights activist. Day began her career as a big band singer in 1939. Her popularity began to rise after her first hit recording, «Sentimental Journey», in 1945. After leaving Les Brown & His Band of Renown to try a solo career, she started her long-lasting partnership with Columbia Records, which would remain her only recording label. Over the course of her career, Day appeared in 39 films. She was ranked the biggest box-office star, the only woman on that list, for four years (1960, 1962, 1963 and 1964) ranking in the top 10 for ten years (1951–1952 and 1959–1966).
She became the top-ranking female box-office star of all time and is currently ranked sixth among the top 10 box office performers (male and female), as of 2012. Day has since retired from acting and performing, but has continued her work in animal rights causes and animal welfare. She currently lives in Carmel-by-the-Sea, California.
– Marilyn Monroe (born Norma Jeane Mortenson; June 1, 1926 – August 5, 1962) was an American actress, model, and singer, who became a major sex symbol, starring in a number of commercially successful motion pictures during the 1950s and early 1960s.
After spending much of her childhood in foster homes, Monroe began a career as a model, which led to a film contract in 1946 with Twentieth Century-Fox. Her early film appearances were minor, but her performances in The Asphalt Jungle and All About Eve (both 1950), drew attention. By 1952 she had her first leading role in Don’t Bother to Knock and 1953 brought a lead in Niagara, a melodramatic film noir that dwelt on her seductiveness. Her «dumb blonde» persona was used to comic effect in subsequent films such as Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953), How to Marry a Millionaire (1953) and The Seven Year Itch (1955). Limited by typecasting, Monroe studied at the Actors Studio to broaden her range. Her dramatic performance in Bus Stop (1956) was hailed by critics and garnered a Golden Globe nomination. Her production company, Marilyn Monroe Productions, released The Prince and the Showgirl (1957), for which she received a BAFTA Award nomination and won a David di Donatello award. She received a Golden Globe Award for her performance in Some Like It Hot (1959). Monroe’s last completed film was The Misfits (1961), co-starring Clark Gable, with a screenplay written by her then-husband, Arthur Miller.
The final years of Monroe’s life were marked by illness, personal problems, and a reputation for unreliability and being difficult to work with. The circumstances of her death, from an overdose of barbiturates, have been the subject of conjecture. Though officially classified as a «probable suicide», the possibilities of an accidental overdose or a homicide have not been ruled out. In 1999, Monroe was ranked as the sixth-greatest female star of all time by the American Film Institute. In the decades following her death, she has often been cited as both a pop and a cultural icon as well as the quintessential American sex symbol. In 2009, TV Guide Network named her No. 1 in Film’s Sexiest Women of All Time.
Elvis Presley – 1997.
XX Anniversary of his death.
– Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977) was an American singer, musician, and actor. Regarded as one of the most significant cultural icons of the 20th century, he is often referred to as «the King of Rock and Roll», or simply, «the King».
Born in Tupelo, Mississippi, Presley and his family moved to Memphis, Tennessee, when he was 13 years old. His music career began there in 1954, when he started to work with Sam Phillips, the owner of Sun Records. His energized interpretations of songs and sexually provocative performance style, combined with a singularly potent mix of influences across color lines that coincided with the dawn of the Civil Rights Movement, made him enormously popular—and controversial.
In November 1956, he made his film debut in Love Me Tender. In 1958, he was drafted into military service: He resumed his recording career two years later, producing some of his most commercially successful work before devoting much of the 1960s to making Hollywood movies and their accompanying soundtrack albums, most of which were critically derided. In 1973, Presley was featured in the first globally broadcast concert via satellite, Aloha from Hawaii. Several years of prescription drug abuse severely deteriorated his health, and he died in 1977 at the age of 42.
Presley is one of the most celebrated musicians of the 20th century. Commercially successful in many genres, including pop, blues and gospel, he is the best-selling solo artist in the history of recorded music, with estimated album sales of around 600 million units worldwide. He was nominated for 14 Grammys and won three, receiving the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award at age 36, and has been inducted into multiple music halls of fame.