Imagine Mad Men's Peggy with
a lot more oomph.

Smolder elegantly today in honor of Alexis Smith, the sultry screen actress born on this day in 1921.  Smith played opposite the matinee idols of her day--Errol Flynn, Humphrey Bogart, Cary Grant--but she could show pluck and intelligence as in the half-sister to the Woman in White, in which she battled a perfectly cast Sidney Greenstreet as the evil Count Fosco.  Proving once again the value of shrewd Hollywood packaging, she was born Gladys Smith in British Columbia.  Somehow I don't think "See Gladys and Grant in Night and Day!" would have made it to the marquee.  Smith died in 1993, leaving behind her husband of 49 years, actor Craig Stevens.