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Evelyn Keyes

Jinx Falkenburg – all-American girl

You may not have heard of her but in the late 1940s and early ’50s Jinx Falkenburg was a household name in the US. What’s wonderful about her is that she made the absolute most of her talents and opportunities.

Jinx Falkenburg photo inscribed to Cinelandia
Around 1944. Photo of herself dedicated by Jinx Falkenburg to Cinelandia magazine

She’s tall, athletic, handsome, garrulous, giggly, full of beans and fun to be around. As one reporter put it, her “natural endowments … included good looks, vivacity and a fearful physical exuberance.” To quote an article by Dugal O’Liam in the October 1942 issue of Screenland:

Jinx makes no claim to being an intellectual. She likes the things the average outdoor girl likes, viz, tennis, swimming, horseback riding, hiking, golf, groceries and men. Not necessarily in that order, but pretty close. Her top interest in clothes is sports styles. She wears evening gowns like La Pompadour herself, but isn’t mad about them, largely because they make her look taller. She has always yearned to wear high heels, but hasn’t because they increase her height. She absolutely never wears them on the street, nor in the bath tub.

Hers is the archetypal American story of the girl from a modest background who makes good. She builds a successful career and manages to combine it with a happy home life. Her story is a refreshing contrast with the travails of the likes of Gene Tierney and Hedy Lamarr.

Jinx Falkenburg and her dad
1944. Daddy’s girl – Jinx Falkenburg with her father

Jinx Falkenburg gets around

Born in Spain in 1919, she’s christened Eugenia Lincoln Falkenburg. Not surprisingly, no one actually uses that name, instead they call her Jinx or The Jinx. Her father Eugene is an electrical engineer, her mother Marguerite (Mickey to her family and friends) an accomplished amateur tennis player. Age three, Jinx moves with her family to Santiago, Chile, where they spend 13 happy and relatively prosperous years. Mickey becomes tennis champion of Brazil, Jinx swimming champion of Chile. But as the country slides towards revolution, the family goes broke and is forced to leave the country.

They decamp to the US, where they arrive with just the possessions they’ve managed to load into the car in which they’ve fled. Fortunately, Mickey is a spirited, gregarious, outgoing woman who can walk into a room and know everyone there within a matter of minutes. She’s full of enthusiasm and get-up-and-go. It takes her no time at all to talk her way into Hollywood’s West Side Tennis Club, where she strikes up a friendship with the casting director for Spanish-speaking movies at Twentieth Century-Fox. Within months Jinx, who speaks fluent Spanish, finds herself playing walk-on parts in movies for the Latin American market.

Following in her mother’s footsteps, by the time she leaves Hollywood High School age 16, Jinx Falkenburg is California’s third-ranking junior tennis player. And West Side Tennis Club continues to play a big role in her life. It there that, after a series of auditions with David O Selznick’s studio that go nowhere, she’s summoned to meet Samuel Goldwyn. He signs her to a seven-year contract. But at five foot ten it turns out she’s too tall and after six months the studio cancels her contract. Even after that, she gets bit parts in a handful of movies with other studios. And back at West Side Tennis Club at a celebrities’ tournament, she’s teamed with Paulette Goddard, then Charlie Chaplin’s wife, who will be one of her closest friends over the following decades.

Jinx Falkenburg gazes admiringly into her mirror
Jinx Falkenburg gazes admiringly into her mirror

Jinx Falkenburg gets a break

One day in 1937 Jinx is waiting with a friend in the MGM commissary to go on a tour of the studios when she’s approached by a man who asks her if she’d be interested in doing some modeling. He suggests she meets him at his apartment the following day. While she’s game for a test shoot, there’s no way she is going to be rocking up on her own at a stranger’s apartment. So she suggests meeting at her tennis club. Deal done.

The stranger is none other than Paul Hesse, a leading commercial photographer. And it turns out to be a match made in heaven. He quickly recognizes her as the embodiment of the healthy outdoor girl and will later describe Jinx Falkenburg as “the most charming, most vital personality I have ever had the pleasure to photograph.”

Two and a half months later, she’s on the cover of The American Magazine and her modeling career is launched, with invitations from more than five dozen other magazines to feature her.

Jinx Falkenburg takes a tumble

After six months of modeling, Jinx gets a contract with the Matson Steamship Line that involves not just a trip to Honolulu but also being photographed by the legendary Edward Steichen. Here’s how she describes what happens in her autobiography:

The night before the last day’s shooting [in Honolulu] Patsy and I had to be up at five a.m., so we decided, or rather Mr. Bowman of the advertising agency decided, that we ought to forego the evening’s festivities and get a good night’s rest. They sent us up to our rooms and we sat out on our lanai [veranda] for a little while and talked. Patsy and I thought it would be fun to walk over onto the roof above the open dining room and wave goodnight to everybody below. I took my shoes off and went first. I stepped off the balcony and – fell through the roof. …

In any case, I fell about thirty-two feet to the cement floor below … right between two chairs. Why I didn’t kill any diners, or at least a waiter, I’ll never know.

She’s unconscious for 16 hours. When she comes to, she’s told:

“They took X-rays this morning while you were still unconscious. By some miracle you have no broken bones, but every rib is bruised and your body is a solid mass of black-and-blue marks. You won’t be able to move for quite a while.”

She’s in hospital for two weeks. As luck would have it, Al Jolson is cooped up in the room next to hers so the two get to know each other and he offers her a part in his upcoming Broadway musical. By the time she leaves she’s lost 25 pounds – 20% of her body weight. That all happens in March/April 1939. That November, she’s taken to hospital with a high temperature and acute back pain. X-rays reveal that she was born with a single kidney and the other is in serious trouble thanks to the fall. A major operation is needed and she’s in hospital for over six weeks right up until Christmas.

Jinx Falkenburg and friends on the set of Sweetheart of the Fleet
1942. Aching feet – Jinx Falkenburg and friends on the set of Sweetheart of the Fleet

Jinx Falkenburg hits the headlines

By the time she’s discharged, Jinx Falkenburg’s family is pretty much broke due to the cost of her treatment. Fortunately, in the meanwhile Paul Hesse and his client, Albert Hailparn at Einson-Freeman sales promotion agency, have sold Rheingold Beer the idea of making Jinx the first Rheingold Girl – the face of Rheingold Beer.

Once the campaign hits the billboards in March 1940, Jinx Falkenburg’s name and face are in every store in New York that sells beer. No surprise, then, that she’s approached by John Robert Powers offering her an exclusive modeling contract worth $200 a week. She turns him down – she likes sports and out-of-doors and she doesn’t want to do indoor work. But his rival, Harry Conover, is more persuasive, pointing out that while she’s in NYC for Al Jolson’s show, she might just as well maximize her earnings potential with his modeling agency.

Harry drops by to see her on the first day of rehearsals for Al Jolson’s Hold on to Your Hats. The same day, Tex McCrary, a writer for The Daily Mirror, shows up, looking for an interview. It turns out to be start of a long and, partly thanks to the war, tortuous romance that will culminate in their marriage. When Hold on to Your Hats closes in February 1941, Jinx signs a six-year contract with Columbia Pictures.

In 1941 and 1942 Jinx is at the peak of her success as a model. In its January 27 1941 issue, LIFE magazine publishes a long article by Oliver Jensen – Jinx Falkenburg Is Leading Candidate for Title of America’s No. 1 Girl for 1941:

Jinx Falkenburg, Truck Krone and Isabelita on the set of The Gay Senorita
1945. Jinx Falkenburg (centre), Truck Krone and Isabelita on the set of The Gay Senorita

It was Paul Hesse, the commercial photographer, who … made a picture of her and sold it for the cover of the American Magazine. Since then she has been on 52 covers and posed for 150 products including Lux, Campbell’s Soup, Nestle’s Chocolate, Mobilgas, Rogers Silverware, Drene Shampoo. At first she did her modeling in Hollywood but last year the Rheingold beer company brought her to New York to do a series of ads featuring her by name as the Rheingold Girl. Jinx got $2,000 for the job and stayed in New York. …

As a model, Miss Falkenburg’s specialty is sparkling outdoor vitality. She is usually photographed with sports clothes, tennis rackets, skis and the like. She loves posing – the glamor of the lights, the men focusing their attention on her, the fuss – but it is not necessary to pose her carefully. Most models are known for the completely forgettable quality of their beauty. “The trouble with them,” Paul Hesse says, “is that they turn on expressions 1, 2 and 3 and smiles 4, 5 and 6. You don’t know how to liven them up.” Miss Falkenburg is never bored or deadpan and Hesse makes the most of this by often snapping her unawares. He keeps her outdoors and plays her favorite swing records (Only Forever and Two Dreams Met) on a portable phonograph to get her in the mood. When he wants a particularly romantic smile he tells her about the thick juicy steak they are going to have. …

Miss Falkenburg’s tremendous appeal – “draw” in the show business, “pull” in the advertising world – is an established and commercially measurable quality. It has sold thousands of theater tickets, tons of cigarettes, gallons of perfume, tank cars of beer. It has made her the hit of the Tuxedo Park Ball, the darling of the Stork Club and the most famous model in America with an unrivaled record of 1,500 separate advertisements. At this moment she is the leading candidate for the distinction of America’s No. 1 Girl for 1941.

No surprise, then, that in April 1942 Jinx goes on to be voted America’s No 1 brunette by 25,000 beauty shop owners (Rita Hayworth is named No 1 redhead and Evelyn Keyes No 1 blonde).

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Jinx Falkenburg and her mum

Jinx Falkenburg and her mum

1944. According to Oliver Jensen writing in the January 27 1941...

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Jinx Falkenburg with a selection of fabrics

Jinx Falkenburg with a selection of fabrics

1944. The production code number suggests that this photo is from the same shoot...

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Jinx Falkenburg poses outdoors

Jinx Falkenburg, outdoors girl

Around 1945. Though this could be mistaken for a fashion shot, it is in...

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Jinx Falkenburg, country girl

Jinx Falkenburg, country girl

Around 1945. Ever the picture of health and happiness, with one hand on a...

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Jinx Falkenburg glories in her luscious tresses

Jinx Falkenburg sparkles

Around 1945. Though you'd never guess it looking at this photo, Jinx's luscious tresses...

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Jinx Falkenburg as a Tahitian maiden

Jinx Falkenburg as a Tahitian maiden

1944. This portrait of Jinx may have been taken to promote Tahiti Nights, in...

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Between 1941 and 1945 Jinx appears in 11 Hollywood movies made for distribution in the US. The best known of them is Cover Girl, for which she is uniquely qualified, alongside Rita Hayworth. She looks great but acting is not really her strength and most of her films are basically rubbish.

Jinx being Jinx, she isn’t spending all her time modeling and acting. In December 1941, with Charles “Buddy” Rogers, her co-star in Sing for Your Supper as her instructor, she becomes one of Hollywood’s most expert women flyers. The following month she’s off skiing almost every weekend. And of course she continues to play tennis.

Jinx Falkenburg supports the war effort

But arguably the most impressive thing about Jinx Falkenburg around this time is her commitment to supporting the US war effort.

Like many Hollywood stars, she helps to sell war bonds. In May 1942 she’s in New York promoting the Lips for Liberty campaign for buying war stamps. The following month, posing for a series of posters on the war effort, she’s named Victory Poster Girl. And in September, together with Evelyn Keyes, she’s the first film actress to sign up with the hundreds of housewives, boys and girls to pick fruit and vegetables in the tomato fields of the San Fernando Valley to aid the War Manpower Commission. That’s as well as being on tour selling more bonds with Jane Wyman and John Payne. Another bond-selling tour in late 1943/early 1944 culminates in Washington, where Jinx and her fellow-stars appear in 16 theatres in a single night and get to meet President Roosevelt at the White House.

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Jinx Falkenburg wins her stripes

Jinx Falkenburg wins her stripes

1944. Those two chairs suggest that Jinx is on-set at Columbia Studios rather than...

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Jinx Falkenburg sets an example

Jinx Falkenburg sets an example

1944. Is this Columbia Studios publicity shot taken in a real post office or...

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Jinx Falkenburg sets an example

Jinx Falkenburg sets an example

1944. With her signature inscribed on the Citizen's Pledge behind her, Jinx has committed...

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Then there’s her work with USO (United Service Organizations), a charity founded during World War II to be the GI’s “home away from home.” One of its principal activities is entertaining the troops. Much the most arduous and exciting trip for Jinx involves traveling to China, Burma (Myanmar) and India in the last three months of 1944. This extract from her autobiography about the visit to Paishihyi gives an idea of just how hazardous the tour turns out to be:

Jinx Falkenburg is dried between rain scenes for Sweetheart of the Fleet
1942. Jinx Falkenburg is dried between rain scenes for Sweetheart of the Fleet

After our nightmarish sedan-chair ride, needless to say, even with all the risks, we chose the plane. And it was really a bad ride, even though it lasted only fifteen minutes. We had completely socked-in weather. Ordinarily, no matter how hazardous the route, the pilot can follow the river to his destination, but this day the ceiling was so low that we were forced to go thousands of feet up and ended up flying on instruments. There were five horrible minutes when, in the middle of nowhere, we started circling for a landing. The pilot had no idea where we were – he was taking the word of the radio engineer on the ground who really didn’t know where we were either. We were all scared to death but nobody dared say a word. All of a sudden, Pat [O’Brien, a Hollywood actor] said, “Relax, kids. I’m praying for the whole d––n bunch of us.”

And I saw then that he had his rosary out. This was the first time that Pat had made any reference to being nervous or saying prayers – we were glad that he was praying for us.

Zoom! Suddenly we were rushing headlong down into the clouds. Centuries later, when we landed, I looked at our pilot – he was wringing wet. And after we’d done the show, we went through exactly the same thing flying back to Chungking, late that afternoon…

Soon after Paishihyi, the troupe visits Liuchow:

Liuchow was probably the worst and most dangerous spot we had been in. We arrived at eight p.m. by the light of a full moon with the Japs only eighteen miles away. Wherever you went, you couldn’t escape the excruciating wails of the women and children as they were stacked, one on top of the other on freight cars to be evacuated to the South. When we left the next day, we were the last civilians out before the Japs arrived.

By comparison, the European tour in 1945 is rather routine – except that on 19 July, Jinx Falkenburg and the other members of her troupe are granted an audience with Pope Pius XII in the Vatican. By the end of World War II, she has travelled over 60,000 miles entertaining the troops and is awarded the Asiatic-Pacific campaign medal for her work.

Two photos of Jinx Falkenburg, the first of her holding aloft a poster of herself promoting Mexico; the second of her with Vicente Peralta
1944. Mexio honours Jinx Falkenburg

Jinx Falkenburg becomes a celeb

During the war, Jinx pursues a mostly distant romance with Tex McCrary, whom she met for the first time when she was rehearsing Hold on to Your Hats on Broadway back in 1941. Since then, their hectic schedules have kept them mostly apart, with Jinx fretting non-stop over him. After the war, Lieutenant Colonel John Reagan, “Tex,” McCrary proposes to Jinx Falkenburg and they are married in New York in June 1945. He is 34; she’s 26. They settle in Long Island.

The following year, Tex and Jinx persuade radio station WEAF in New York to give them their own show and they become pioneers of talk-show hosting. Tex writes most of the show himself and coaches his wife, who has no experience as an interviewer, into the role. Hi, Jinx, broadcast on weekday mornings, is prepared to tackle controversial issues such as venereal disease, the United Nations and the atom bomb and quickly becomes a hit with audiences and critics alike.

After that, the couple are on a roll. In 1947 they make their television début with At Home, an NBC series in which they interview guests in their homes, following it up with The Swift Home Service Club, in which they offer household hints and conduct chatty interviews. Another radio show, Meet Tex and Jinx, is a big success, and they also begin a syndicated daily column in the Herald Tribune called New York Close Up. Crucial to the success of Tex and Jinx are the latter’s energy and enthusiasm.

1946. Jinx Falkenburg learns lensing from Burnett Guffey and Floyd Crosby

Jinx Falkenburg in later life

Tex and Jinx have two sons, John born in 1946 and Kevin in 1948. On one memorable broadcast, a hook-up between Tex in New York and Jinx in Bermuda, he asks her, “How are the children?” “Oh,” she replies, “I thought they were with you.”

In 1951 Jinx Falkenburg publishes an autobiography, Jinx. During the early 1950s the couple get increasingly involved with politics as staunch Republicans. Not only do they help raise money for the party, they also play a part in persuading Dwight D Eisenhower to run for president in 1952. And two years later, Jinx becomes head of the Republican Party’s women’s division.

Although she partially retires in 1958, she will go on to stage fashion shows for charity and, in 1975, to be part of a celebrity team playing a pre-opening tennis match at Forest Hills. Towards the end of her life, she is still living in Long Island and serving on the board of the North Shore Hospital, which Tex and she helped to found. In the 1980s the couple will separate but remain friends. They will both die in 2003 within months of each other. Once asked for her own epitaph, Jinx immediately wrote, “She died trying” and there’s no doubting she had a great deal to show for her efforts.

Want to know more about Jinx Falkenburg?

The main sources for this piece are:

  • Jinx Falkenburg’s 1951 autobiography, Jinx.
  • An article by Oliver Jensen in the January 27, 1941 issue of LIFE magazine, Jinx Falkenburg Is Leading Candidate for Title of America’s No. 1 Girl for 1941.
  • Lucky Jinx, an article by Dugal O’Liam in the October 1942 issue of Screenland (available online at the Media History Digital Library).
  • The Jinx Falkenburg page at Glamour Girls of the Silver Screen.

For some photos of Jinx on the China-Burma-India USO mission, take a look at LIFE magazine’s Jinx Returns from the War.

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Jinx Falkenburg as herself in Cover Girl

Jinx Falkenburg as herself in Cover Girl

1944. The production code reveals that this photo is taken in conjunction with Cover...

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Susann Shaw and Jinx Falkenburg, cover girls

Susann Shaw and Jinx Falkenburg, cover girls

1944. Two of the era's supermodels pose on the set of Cover Girl. Susann...

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Jinx Falkenburg and Evelyn Keyes perch on a car bonnet

Jinx Falkenburg and Evelyn Keyes perch on a car bonnet

1944. Jinx Falkenburg (left) and Evelyn Keyes perch on a car bonnet. The pair...

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Jinx Falkenburg in Tahiti Nights

Jinx Falkenburg in Tahiti Nights

1944. Jinx Falkenburg reclines princess-like on a leaf-strewn coverlet in this promotional photo for...

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Jinx Falkenburg as Elena Sandoval in The Gay Senorita

Jinx Falkenburg as Elena Sandoval in The Gay Senorita

1945. Difficult to say much about The Gay Senorita since it seems to have...

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Jinx Falkenburg as Elena Sandoval in The Gay Senorita

Jinx Falkenburg as Elena Sandoval in The Gay Senorita

1945. The movie might not be up to much but the jewelry, the fitted...

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Other topics you may be interested in…

Jane Greer during her early-Hollywood days
Jane Greer – the queen of film noir
Marguerite Chapman – a real trooper
Movie stars of the 1940s – talent, savvy, looks and luck

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Al Jolson, Burnett Guffey, Cover Girl, Evelyn Keyes, Floyd Crosby, Harry Conover, Jinx Falkenburg, John Robert Powers, Ned Scott, Pat O'Brien, Paul Hesse, Paulette Goddard, Rheingold Girl, Robert Coburn, Susann Shaw, Sweetheart of the Fleet, Tahiti Nights, Tex McCrary, The Gay Senorita, USO, William E Thomas

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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Helen Gilbert

Unlucky in love

1939. Pretty Helen Gilbert is getting the star treatment from MGM. Having made her screen debut in Andy Hardy Gets Spring Fever she’s being touted as “the new personality” in...

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Evelyn McBride

Fashion hit, film miss

Around 1947. Raven is the name that David O Selznick, famed Hollywood producer of Gone With The Wind, has bestowed on Evelyn McBride. It’s inspired by her hair which, in...

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Nancy Guild decorates her Christmas tree under water

Outdoor girl

1946. Nancy Guild loves Christmas so much that she’s decided to decorate every bit of her home, including the swimming pool! It’s an exciting time for her. The first movie...

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Dona Drake

Girl of many names

Around 1942. Dona Drake vamps it up as she reclines seductively on a couch strategically placed in front of a mirror. No surprise that Screenland magazine describes her as “delectable...

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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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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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