Rich, Young, and Pretty

Rich, Young, and Pretty screens outdoors at the French Legation State Historic Site on Thursday, October 15, as part of the Painted Dreams & Western Horizons film series. The 1951 movie runs an hour and 35 minutes, and it's preceded by a special lecture from artist and author Karen Maness titled The Art of the Hollywood Backdrop.

Maness is a visual artist, scenic artist, and Assistant Professor of Practice at the University of Texas at Austin. She oversees the Texas Performing Arts Hollywood Backdrop Collection and co-authored the award-winning book The Art of the Hollywood Backdrop. Her talk looks at how painted backdrops—many influenced by European and French traditions—shaped some of Hollywood's most iconic visuals. The screening itself belongs to Painted Dreams & Western Horizons, the French Legation's outdoor film series, which is rooted in the site's legacy of Cinema East, a long-standing tradition of communal, open-air screenings. The series pairs films that traverse continents and eras with Maness's speaker series.

The venue is the French Legation State Historic Site at 802 San Marcos Street, the oldest standing frame structure in Austin. It was built in 1841 as the diplomatic outpost of France during the Republic of Texas, and today it offers guided tours of the house and a reconstructed Creole kitchen across two and a half acres of lawn, native trees, and formal gardens.

Gates open at 6:30 PM, and the movie begins at 7:30 PM. Admission is $5 for adults, and children 17 and under are free with an adult.