Bette gets a new face and do

Tonner did a nice job with the Bette Davis sculpt, but the face paint and hair are more reflective of the early 1930’s Bette Davis look than the classic 1950’s face that most people are familiar with. “All About Eve” (1950) is one of her most famous roles, and with the acquisition of the Madra Lord "All About Eve" screen test trunk, I decided it was time to do a little repainting! First, I sent Bette (Sealing the Deal, shown above) to Kathy's Hair Salon in Oregon for a new do, then I did a little repaint work on her face. I spent less than an hour reworking her eyebrows and eyes and was somewhat pleased with the results.





The dress won't fasten in back, but for the sake of these photos it didn’t really matter.







Here’s a painting I did many moons ago of Bette from the same movie; it was used by her hometown to promote a Bette film festival:



In home video news, "All About Eve" is about to be released on Blu-ray! See more Gene Marshall photos at my regular website.

Meet Bette Davis

This particular Tonner doll has grown on me. The resemblance to the real Bette Davis was even more apparent to me when I started photographing the doll. My initial wish on this particular line was that Tonner would concentrate on a more mature Bette Davis; the first Bette Davis dolls seemed to be more of a 1930’s era rather than the classic 1940’s/50’s star that was more popular. The recent additions of this doll ("The Woman is Certain") and the most recent “Sealing the Deal" (extremely reminiscent of "Now Voyager") seems to be a step in the right direction.



Here's Bette in front of a New York City brownstone looking for a light.



To see more Gene Marshall & Friends photos, visit my regular website.