A recap of 2011's favorite classic actress tournament: the silent/30's era

Since the 2012 is only a month away, and as I finalize the first round matchups, I figured a look back at last year's tournament was in order. So I will do a series of posts on it by eras. First up is the silent/30's era. And it kicked off the tourney with some awesome matches.

In the first round, top seed Greta Garbo had a barn burner with Gloria Swanson, who was ranked 16th. Garbo eked out a 26-22 victory. Hers was the only real close match in this round. Everyone else rolled. 2nd seed Barbara Stanwyck decimated Joan Crawford 42-8 (sorry Jess!). 3rd seed Norma Sheare topped Marion Davies 29-18. My girl Carole Lombard had an easy time over Ginger rogers 35-18. 5th seed Marlene Dietrich beat Mary Pickford 34-12. 6th seed Claudette Colbert easily defeated Louise Brooks 40-8. Eventual winner Irene Dunne (who was seeded 10th) began her cinderella run with a 28-13 victory over It Girl Clara Bow. And probably the most shocking match was  Myrna Loy rolling over Jean Harlow 36-13. I thought that would be a much closer match.

So round two pitted Greta Garbo against Myrna Loy. Loy crushed Garbo 60-13. I did not see that one coming. Carole Lombard was all over Marlene Dietrich 71-9. Claudette Colbert took care of Norma Shearer 45-24. And Irene Dunne kept up her winning ways as she defeated Barbara Stanwyck 59-38. All were blow-out matches.

For round three and the two semi-final matches, it was Loy against Lombard and Dunne vs Colbert. Lombard beat Loy 59-41 and my girl was one match away from earning a trip to the final four. I was very excited. In the other semi match Irene Dunne took down Claudette Colbert in a laugher, 64-36. Thus setting up the final match in the 30's era between Lombard and Dunne. These two women have had a history on my blogs. On a poll for my screwball cinema page, I asked who was the favorite screwball comedy queen. And And Irene beat out 7 other contenders including Carole. So now came the un-official rematch.

And my girl came out the gate lagging behind until I made a post update about the match. And then lo and behold she surged ahead. But thanks to my friend Renata, she emailed saying that something was wrong with the poll and that a person could vote multiple times for whichever actress. Which was not how I set it up. So I had to re-start the match because now the original match was compromised. With the new match set up, Irene beat Carole 58-43 to advance to the final four. I was of course saddened that my favorite actress Carole was now elimated but Irene, being my 2nd favorite actress, I was still happy.

The next post will review the 40's era tourney which boasted a stellar field of actresses including top seed Bette Davis, Katharine Hepburn, Vivien Leigh, Lauren Bacall, Ingrid Bergman, Olivia De Havilland and lots more.