Vivien Leigh
I found this picture of Vivian Leigh that I absolutely love. Vivien Leigh was probably one of my first girl crushes back when I first watched her as Scarlett O’Hara in Gone with the Wind. I found the picture on the right first. I think it is the original. It is higher quality, first of all, and Vivian Leigh was known to be a devoted smoker, so I wouldn’t be surprised if someone took a picture of her smoking a cigarette in her Scarlett O’Hara Costume. The image on the left looks to be a manipulation of the one on right. It is lower quality and I cannot find a high quality version of it. I guess that is the sign of the times, that people will manipulate a beautiful photo because the person is holding what something dark and dirty like a cigarette.
As for me, well it kind of makes me want to watch Gone With the Wind again, and fantasize about Vivien Leigh smoking her cigarette between takes, dressed as Scarlett O’Hara.
It is a little spooky how often we seem to be on a similar wavelength, CF.
Whereas what you’re describing is almost certainly about revisionist history / propaganda, this week’s header image at my forum – “Hidden Places” – is a variation of the dynamic behind this idea in terms of just how significant that which is unseen influences our perceptions of others and ourselves.
It is interesting. isn’t it? I think people might perceive the two pictures I have posted above differently based on which one they see. I find that in both pictures, Vivien Leigh looks really young, much younger than how she appears to be in Gone With the Wind. The first picture says: young and innocent. The second- young, but not necessarily innocent. But they happen to be the exact same picture with only one thing removed.
I enjoyed your Hidden Places header image as it resonated on a personal level with me.
I real a little about Vivian Leigh. I didn’t know how troubled (and short-lived) she was. Not much to do with smoking, but interesting anyway. I read she was on and off troubled since shortly after Gone With the Wind. Reminds me of reading how people with major affective disorders (like Vivian) are given to smoke. I read in the related links (to Vivian’s bipolar disorder) that smoking, along with alcohol and cannabis, are common self-medications.
Someone just turned me onto your blog this morning. I have been reading it from the beginning and just now finished. I have gotten zero work done today. LOL I must say, wow… there really is someone out there of the opposite sex who actually gets turned on by smoking and UNDERSTANDS everything I deal with on a daily basis. And like you, I struggle with actually smoking. I do it, but I don’t do it around anyone. Sometimes it does make me sick, but most of the time not. I’ve never thrown up, though. Sometimes I will go weeks without one and then I have to give in and I’ll smoke maybe half to three quarters of a pack in week.
My girlfriend despises it and I know she’d leave me (cause she said so) if I decided to smoke, or was a smoker. She hates it that much. I love her first of all. Secondly, she is expecting our first child later this year. So, I’m not going to start smoking and say the hell with it all, ya know? But I do wish she at least could respect and/or undersatnd it. I see women in everyday situations (on their lunch break, in their cars, at restaurants, in bars, etc) smoking and I just kinda go crazy. It’s the first thing I try to find out when I see a woman passing by… does she smoke? It’s not “how big are her boobs” or “what does her ass look like” like a normal guy. It’s is she a smoker? And that alone makes a woman that much more attractive to me. Now, there are some women who make it look repulsive, I won’t lie, but those people are repulsive without the smoking. My ex-wife was a smoker, but NEVER indulged me with my smoking fetish. It never came into the bedroom, unfortunately. I am more attracted to smokers than non smokers and always will be, but yet, I am in a relationship with someone who despises it. Go figure. LOL
So, as you can see, I live with the struggles and rewards of my smoking fetish daily. I have masturbated while smoking and that’s phenomenal, but I have not done that in years since I was with the exwife and smoke in the house was not an issue. By the way, I’m 28, so I’m not too much older than you. I am in the younger generation as well.
I guess I am writing you to say thanks and I hope you continue your blog and I hope you don’t mind me commenting every now and again. The blog is very refreshing and it’s so good to know that SOMEONE out there feels and thinks similarly to myself.
Oh, and btw, great Vivien Leigh pic. And you’re spot on… I will be watching that movie imagining her smoking in her dressing room when she is not needed on the set. When a woman smokes, she is SOOOO freakin’ sexy. I wish I knew why, but it’s always been that way for me. Good stuff, though… thanks again for writing about it.
Thanks for commenting! I’m glad you enjoyed my writing.
She’s my favorite actor.
I think ‘Gone with the Wind’ is priceless film.