The 1940s are a dark decade dominated by war in Europe and Asia. While the US doesn’t enter World War II until the end of 1941, it is not immune from the prevailing mood of angst.
As the Nazis threaten to eradicate jews, gypsies and other minorities, Europe’s loss is the US’s gain. Hollywood benefits hugely from an influx of talent – the exiles include actors and actresses, directors, producers, art directors and photographers, composers and musicians.
Not only do they help to reinvigorate the studios, they play a vital role in the development of film noir, a defining genre of the decade – a decade that produces, among other movies, Citizen Kane, Casablanca, The Maltese Falcon, Mildred Pierce, The Third Man, Double Indemnity, The Big Sleep, The Killers, Gilda, The Lady from Shanghai and To Have and Have Not.
At the same time, wannabe actresses flock to Hollywood. Growing up during the Great Depression, for many the movies have been the main form of escapism from the sheer, grinding poverty of daily life. Some make their way there themselves, others are steered by ambitious or desperate parents. Awaiting them is a horde of sexual predators. But only a handful of the new arrivals will make it in Tinseltown. To do so, they need a combination of talent, savvy and looks. Arguably, above all you need luck.
This page is a gallery primarily for the girls (and they are girls – young and inexperienced) who at least make it through the studio gates but who never make it big. Alongside them are the troupers – those who have some success but have to be satisfied with supporting roles – always the bridesmaid, never the bride. And then there are the A-listers – those who become true stars, remembered and celebrated to this day. But also those whose fame has since faded, like so many of the surviving stills that the studios circulated in their thousands.
See which actresses you recognise. Then mouseover the photos and click on Read more to find out about them. You can also use the filter buttons above the groups of photos to choose the kinds of themes/stories you’re most interested in. These are of course quite subjective but fun to play with.
Don’t just look at the pictures, captivating as they are. Mouseover the photos and click on Read more to find out about them. There are some great stories that bring the individual actresses to life and tell us about a vanished age. You could to a lot worse than start with Lynne Baggett, Nan Wynn, Paula Drew, Vera Ralston, Dolores Moran, Joan Bennett, Helen Walker, Evelyn Keyes, Alaine Brandis and Maria Montez.
1946. In this publicity shot for Angel on my Shoulder, Anne Baxter poses demurely behind an ostrich-feather confection – a fashionable prop at the time (another great example is Bud...
1944. The title quote refers to Betty Field and is drawn from an article by Dee Lowrance in the 22 February 1942 edition of The Salt Lake Tribune. He reports...
1943. Nan Wynn earned her alliterative soubriquet during her days as a singer in the 1930s… despite having no children and not even being married. But hey, why let facts...
1940. In the Silent era there were the Talmadges – Constance, Norma and Natalie. The most famous movie sisters must be Joan Fontaine and Olivia de Havilland. But before Joan...
1941. Lovely, innocent-looking, well-endowed comedienne Marie Wilson is a dizzy delight with high cheekbones, a wide-eyed expression and an attention-grabbing figure. She's been typecast ever since she followed up an...
1946. Paula Drew arrived in Hollywood and signed a long-term contract to Warner Brothers last year. Here she's posing for a publicity shot for Slightly Scandalous, one of four movies...
Around 1948. Vera Ralston's 26 movie credits prove that in acting as in most walks of life what really matters is who you know. Shortly before his death in 1979,...
1943. It all began so promisingly. June Havoc made her professional debut, age two, in silent film shorts. By age five, she was a headliner in vaudeville, billed at first...
1943. Barbara Hale has been studying painting at the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts. To subsidize her studies, she’s done a bit of modeling for a comic strip and for...
Around 1944. Dolores Moran has graduated from drive-in car hop to popular cover girl for Yank, The Army Weekly. "Flying Tiger" pilots have nicknamed the bombshell their "Tiger Girl". Doubtless...
1943. During World War II, one in every five American servicemen own a copy of this picture of Betty Grable. This shot was, as LIFE magazine acknowledged, one of the...
Around 1948. Tamara Toumanova is one of the European exiles who have fetched up in the US, though in her case not as a result of the Nazi threat. It...
Around 1941. Joan Bennett is entering the second phase of her career. Having played the role of winsome blonde ingenue in movies of the 1930s, she's now under the wing...
1949. In this publicity photo, Helen Walker is the femme fatale who arranges with her lover to kill her husband in a rigged car accident in Impact, one of the...
1946. In this publicity shot, Faye Emerson plays the part of Toni Blackburn, the nightclub singer who betrays the hero in Nobody Lives Forever. But at this stage in her...
Most of the stills are in portrait format – well, they are portraits in one form or another. But here, to go with them, are some landscape shots, and what landscapes they feature!
1944. Maria Montez, aka the Caribbean Cyclone, has just the exotic looks and manner that Universal Studios need for the fantasy adventure films (known in the industry as “tits and...
1941. Her birth name is Alaine Brandes and she’s feeling pretty good about things. Last year she was crowned Ad Queen of Chicago by the Chicago Federated Advertising Club and...
1943. As Jamilla in Kismet, Marlene Dietrich, outspoken enemy of the Nazis (which makes her Good as well as Gorgeous!), is a provocative dancing girl in harem costume, as touted...
1945. Renee Godfrey drapes herself provocatively over an ottoman at the peak of her career in this publicity shot for Bedside Manner. You might not recognise her, but her contemporaries...
1940. Rita Johnson has grown up in Worcester, Massachusetts, where she waitressed in her mother’s lunchroom and sold hot dogs on the Boston-Worcester turnpike to make ends meet. By 1936...
1944. Neila Hart sportingly bends over backwards to help Columbia Pictures launch her career as a movie star. Unfortunately for her, that career will be short-lived. According to her listing...
Around 1947. This photo dates from around the time when Lizabeth Scott's Hollywood career was just taking off and shows how she manages to lead many a man astray in...
1942. Three years on from starring as the pouty Suellen O’Hara in Gone With The Wind, here is Evelyn Keyes warming up for her post-ingenue roles in a succession of...
1938. Ann Morriss is 19 years old and apparently being groomed for a career as a serious actress according to a piece in the April 1940 issue of Photoplay magazine:
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A few stars, who managed to make an impact in their time but have since been forgotten except by movie buffs, have separate profiles on aenigma – the likes of Hazel Brooks, Marguerite Chapman, Ella Raines, Jinx Falkenburg, Dusty Anderson and Carole Landis.
