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Dolores Moran

Movie stars of the 1940s – talent, savvy, looks and luck

Around 1943. Lynne Baggett. Read the story of her brief, troubled life.

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 they 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.

Peggy Drake
1941. Peggy Drake. Read the story of her last-gasp diet.

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.

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All about Anne Baxter

All about Anne Baxter

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...

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She’s not pretty and her mouth is too large

She’s not pretty and her mouth is too large

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...

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The look

The look

1944. This is Lauren Bacall’s first year in Hollywood. She’s 20 years old and has already made waves in the world of fashion having caught the eye of Diana Vreeland...

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Molten mama with the lava larynx

Molten mama with the lava larynx

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...

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Sister act

Sister act

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...

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A quintessential dumb blonde

A quintessential dumb blonde

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...

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Unlucky in business, unlucky in love

Unlucky in business, unlucky in love

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...

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The worst darn actress I ever had the misfortune to work with

The worst darn actress I ever had the misfortune to work with

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,...

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Overshadowed

Overshadowed

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...

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The best shriek in Hollywood

The best shriek in Hollywood

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...

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Blonde bombshell who struck gold

Blonde bombshell who struck gold

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...

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Pin-up extraordinaire

Pin-up extraordinaire

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...

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The black pearl

The black pearl

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...

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Aspiring tigress

Aspiring tigress

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...

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Car crash waiting to happen

Car crash waiting to happen

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...

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One of the first ladies of TV glamour

One of the first ladies of TV glamour

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...

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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!

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Maria Montez

The Caribbean Cyclone

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...

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Rebel Randall

The world’s biggest phone bill

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...

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Marlene Dietrich as Jamilla in Kismet

Practical glamour

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...

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Renee Godfrey

Forces’ favourite

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...

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Rita Johnson by Laszlo Willinger

A shocking cover-up

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...

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Neila Hart

Bending over backwards

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...

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Reflections of a femme fatale

Reflections of a femme fatale

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...

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Predatory creature

Predatory creature

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...

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Out of character

Out of character

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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Want to know more?

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.

Other topics you may be interested in…

Dusty Anderson as a pretty kitty
Hollywood Hallowe’en cheesecake
Sylvia (Anita Ekberg) cools off in the Trevi Fountain in Federico Fellini’s La Dolce Vita
Short stories – for a quick break
Barbara Stanwyck in The Two Mrs Carrolls
Unsafe sex – the starlet’s dilemma

Filed Under: Stars Tagged With: Alaine Brandes, Ann Morriss, Anne Baxter, Barbara Hale, Betty Grable, Dolores Moran, Evelyn Keyes, Faye Emerson, Helen Walker, Joan Bennett, June Havoc, Lauren Bacall, Lizabeth Scott, Lynne Baggett, Maria Montez, Marie Wilson, Nan Wynn, Neila Hart, Paula Drew, Peggy Drake, Rebel Randall, Renee Godfrey, Rosemary Lane, Tamara Toumanova, Vera Ralston

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