Sylvia Sidney, 1933. There was a waifish quality about Sidney that made her seem a bit frail, but it was undercut by her dark smoke-cured voice. Behind the big eyes often brimming with tears was a tough spirit. She starred in several now classic films – Dorothy Arzner’s Merrily We Go to Hell (1932), Hitchcock’s Sabotage (1936), two by Fritz Lang Fury (1936) and You Only Live Once (1937) – all of which stand up well 80 years later. She continued to act wehn she aged out of leading roles. Her last film appearance was in Tim Burton’s Mars Attacks! in 1996.
FEUDING DIVAS: Before Joan Crawford and Bette Davis, there were POLA NEGRI(left) and GLORIA SWANSON (right) both undisputed divas of the wisecracking twenties.
