Lana Turner

by Darwin Porter

  After Fernando Lamas was fired from Latin Lovers (1953), and replaced with his main rival, the Mexican actor, Ricardo Montalban, Lana reported to work at MGM.

  This sexy dance with Ricardo Montalban in Latin Lovers was about as romantic as Lana got with the Mexican actor.

  “Would you believe it?” she asked Mervyn LeRoy. “A leading man who’s faithful to his wife?”

  Her former mentor, Mervyn LeRoy, had been assigned as its director. Joe Pasternak, who had produced The Merry Widow, was also producing Latin Lovers.

  LeRoy greeted her with kisses on both cheeks and a strong embrace. He invited her into his office, where she expected him to discuss her breakup with Lamas, but he didn’t mention it. Actually, he had other troubles of his own he wanted to tell her about.

  He had brought her with him from Warners to MGM, but he had long grown disillusioned with Metro, mainly because of Dore Schary. LeRoy had worked relatively smoothly with Louis B. Mayer, but not with his replacement.

  “Schary and I just don’t see eye-to eye on anything,” he said. “We’ve bickered so much that by now, we’re hardly speaking. After I finish a couple of films, I’m leaving MGM for good, abandoning my $5,000-a-week salary. Schary wants me to do a remake of The Student Prince, but I’m bolting. I can’t take his constant nagging anymore.”

  “I’m shocked,” she said. “You’ve been so successful here. As for myself, I may be called The Queen of MGM, but I fear my crown is a little shaky.”

  LeRoy rose to his feet. “Come, let’s meet your two leading men, Montalban and John Lund, and the supporting players. Most of them are here for a rehearsal.”

  A romantic musical comedy in Technicolor, Latin Lovers was written by Isobel Lennart, who had penned Lana’s screenplay, A Life of Her Own. In this latest venture, Lana was cast as a rich girl, Nora Taylor, worth $37 million. She arrives in Brazil, where she fears men only want to pursue her for her money.

  Her current suitor, Paul Chevron (Lund), wants to marry her, but hardly for her money. He has about $10 million more than she does.

  In Brazil, she meets dashing Roberto Santos (Montalban), who sweeps her off her feet. His father, Eduardo, is played by her old friend, Louis Calhern, with whom she’d work again in the future.

  During the making of the film, Debbie Reynolds gave a party to which she invited Montalban and Lana. The gathering was actually in honor of the dancing duo, Marge and Gower Champion. In a memoir, Reynolds wrote: “Lana Turner and Ricardo Montalban did the rumba in the center of the floor as Jennifer Jones sat on the floor observing.”

  That sexy party dance was about as romantic as Montalban and Lana ever got, except for on the screen, where she found him a good kisser. If she thought she had encountered another Latin lover, she was mistaken. He was a devout Roman Catholic, and he did not cheat on his wife. He had married Georgiana Belzer in 1944, the half-sister of Loretta Young. Apparently, he was faithful to his wife until her death at the age of 83 in 2007. The actor himself died in 2009.

  When Lana met him, Montalban had been thrown off a horse during the filming of Across the Wide Missouri (1951), starring Clark Gable. The traumatic injury never healed, the pain increasing as he aged. He ended his life in a wheelchair.

  Although Lana and the actor never became lovers, they did develop a friendship that lasted for many years.

  She had a chance to work with Jean Hagen again, having appeared previously with her in A Life of Her Own. In Latin Lovers, she played Anne, Lana’s secretary, who is secretly in love with Paul Chevorn (Lund). Lana congratulated her on her Oscar nomination for her performance in Singin’ in the Rain (1952).

  Referring to her role, Hagen said, “It takes talent to play a talentless movie star,” referring to her performance in Singin’ in the Rain as the silent screen star with the squeaky voice, Lina Lamont.

  “The plot of Latin Lovers was silly,” Lana said. “But I looked gorgeous as a real clotheshorse, wearing those incredible gowns by Helen Rose.”

  Lana was introduced to Eduard Franz, who had been a stage actor for twenty years, finally appearing in his movie debut in the 1948 The Wake of the Red Witch, starring John Wayne. Privately, Lana told LeRoy, “Franz is a nice guy, but rather nondescript, a second stringer.”

  She also was introduced to the aging character actress, Beulah Bondi, born in 1889. She’d begun her theatrical career as a child. She’d twice been nominated for a Best Supporting Actress Oscar, first in The Gorgeous Hussy (1936), where she was seen as the devoted, pipe-smoking wife of Andrew Jackson. Her other nomination came for Of Human Hearts (1938), when she played the compassionate, self-sacrificing mother of James Stewart.

  “Beulah is definitely the hair-in-a-bun archetype of motherhood,” Lana told LeRoy.

  On the set of Latin Lovers, Lana confers with her two leading men, Ricardo Montalban (left) and John Lund.

  “They pursued me romantically in the movie, but not off screen. Was I losing my sex appeal? Lex Barker didn’t think so.”

  She merely shook the hand of Rita Moreno, not realizing that this talented young woman would go on to win an Oscar, a Tony, an Emmy, and a Grammy. She assured herself a position in film history when she played the role of Anita in the 1961 film version of West Side Story.

  Romantically adrift, Lana had no sexual interest in her second leading man, John Lund, the son of a Norwegian immigrant and glassblower from Rochester, New York.

  He didn’t finish high school and worked at odd jobs: soda jerk, carpenter, time-keeper. Eventually, he made it to Hollywood and won a co-starring role in To Each His Own (1946) with Olivia de Havilland.

  Although always saddled with a reputation as a second tier leading man, he appeared with such stars as Gene Tierney, Miriam Hopkins, Joan Fontaine, and Grace Kelly. He is remembered today mostly for playing the romantic interest of both Marlene Dietrich and Jean Arthur in A Foreign Affair (1948),

  Originally, Lana had been slated to appear with Michael Wilding, the English actor married at the time to Elizabeth Taylor. He dropped out at the last minute, protesting that the role was “too stuffy and not real star material.” Lund then won the part.

  MGM promoted Latin Lovers with this ad: “The Bad and Beautiful girl is bad and beautiful again in a wonderful new musical. The New York Times praised the dancing of Lana and Montalban.

  Most critics were fairly kind, although recognizing Latin Lovers for what it was—“a wonderful piece of fluff,” in the words of one critic. “Gorgeous people, gorgeous gowns, beautiful Technicolor, dreamy surroundings…a parfait!”

  ***

  Three days after Fernando Lamas stormed out of Lana’s house, following his violent attack on her, Lex Barker phoned her for a dinner date. It was agreed that she’d have dinner with him at Chasens, followed by dancing at the Mocambo.

  It was later revealed that Lamas might have had good reason for his harsh reaction to Barker holding Lana so tightly on the dance floor. As Barker told SolLesser—the producer of his last Tarzan picture, Tarzan and the She-Devil (1953)—Barker had whispered to Lana while holding her close, “I’m unzipped. Reach inside to find out that I’m bigger than Lamas.”

  Lana and Barker had met when he was a free agent. His short marriage in 1951 to the raven-haired beauty, Arlene Dahl, had ended in 1952.

  Before going out with Barker, Lana met with Eddie Mannix at MGM’s publicity department, knowing that he could reveal all the vital data on him.

  She had never seen one of his Tarzan movies before, although she’d had a brief fling with Johnny Weissmuller, the most famous of all the screen Tarzans.

  Mannix informed Lana that Barker wasn’t all muscles, but the well-educated son of a rich Canadian building contractor, and a direct descendant of Rogers Williams, the founder of Rhode Island.

  After his graduation from Phillips Exeter Academy, where he had played football, he attended Princeton. But in time, he dropped out to join a theatrical stock company, much to the objection of his stern father.

  Of
all the movie posters depicting all the many actors who played Tarzan, this 1953 poster was viewed as the winner of the “high camp” prize.

  Tarzan and the She-Devil was Barker’s final film as Tarzan. When it was finished, he put his loincloth in mothballs and went on to make other movies, many of them in German.

  But despite his many subsequent films over the course of a 25-year career, he is best remembered as the tenth actor to portray Tarzan in the movies.

  He was disowned by his family for pursuing an acting career, and worked for a time in a steel mill, studying engineering at night. He launched his fledging acting career in bit parts on Broadway, but entered World War II, enlisting in the U.S. Army, where he rose to the rank of Major. In Sicily, he’d been wounded in both the leg and head. He recovered in an Arkansas military hospital.

  While still in the Army, in 1942, he’d married Constance Rhodes Thurlow, but divorced her eight years later. She was the daughter of a wealthy metal manufacturer. In 1943, Barker became the father of a daughter, Lynn Thurlow Barker, and in 1947, a son, Alexander (“Zan”) Crichlow Barker III.

  Barker gravitated to Hollywood. Even though married, he attracted the eye of many a lustful actress and a number of homosexuals lured to his physique.

  In The Farmer’s Daughter (1947), he had appeared as one of Loretta Young’s Swedish brothers. He also had a small role in Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House (1948) with Cary Grant. It was rumored that Grant invited Barker on several occasions to his dressing room, where he performed fellatio on him. “At least I did it standing up and didn’t have to lie on any casting couch,” Barker later said, jokingly, to the director, H.C. Potter.

  Barker’s national fame came late in 1948, when producer Sol Lesser signed him to be the new screen Tarzan in the 1949 release of Tarzan’s Magic Fountain. Brenda Joyce, cast as Jane, had recently made Tarzan and the Mermaids with Johnny Weissmuller. But by 1948, Lesser deemed the Austrian athlete as “too paunchy” to play the screen’s Apeman again.

  Since Lana had never seen Barker in a Tarzan movie, Mannix arranged screenings for her of his features in the jungle. Lana was tremendously impressed with his physique in action when she sat through Tarzan and the Slave Girl (1950), in which Vanessa Brown co-starred as Jane. Lana had signaled her interest in meeting Barker back when Brown had a small role in The Bad and the Beautiful.

  When Barker had gone on to star in Tarzan’s Peril (1951), his striking looks attracted the eye of a new Jane, Virginia Huston. During the shooting of that movie, Tarzan did not mind crossing the color line when he seduced the African American actress, Dorothy Dandridge, cast as Queen Melmendi.

  Lana’s objection to this film was based on how Huston had kissed Barker “a little too passionately” when he rescues her at the end of the film.

  Lana also saw Tarzan’s Savage Fury (1952), with a new Jane, Dorothy Hart, who had made her film debut in the light-hearted musical fantasy, Down to Earth (1947), starring Rita Hayworth.

  Barker’s last appearance on screen as Tarzan was in the 1953 Tarzan and the She-Devil. Its villain was Raymond Burr, who specialized in the portrayal of dark, menacing heavies as he would soon again in Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window (1954), starring James Stewart and Grace Kelly. In that movie, Burr was cast as Vargo, a greedy ivory hunter who wanted to slay elephants and harvest their ivory tusks.

  Lyra, the “She-Devil” of the movie, was portrayed by the beautiful, sexy, Monique Van Vooren (not to be confused with Mamie Van Doren). She plays a cold-blooded profiteer willing to slaughter elephants and to enslave men.

  In his final Tarzan picture, Barker faced a new Jane, Joyce MacKenzie, the eleventh actress to shoulder the role. During World War II, she had worked as a carpenter’s helper in the shipyards of San Francisco.

  At the end of the picture, Barker told Lesser that throughout the production, Burr had been making homosexual advances toward him. After a sweaty scene on the set, he retreated to his shower. Burr entered the room and pulled open the shower curtain.

  “I just had to see it, even though you won’t let me service it,” Burr said.

  “Get the hell out of here!” Barker snapped.

  After the last film, although Lesser told Barker that he could go on for many more years playing the screen Tarzan, Barker wanted out, hoping to become a leading man in a higher caliber of films, playing both adventure and dramatic roles.

  His career, as happens so often life, didn’t work out exactly as he desired.

  ***

  Barker’s first dinner date with Lana was a disaster. Over dinner, the talk was elegant, even intelligent, as he appeared well bred. At the same time, he vibrated with sex appeal. In a town loaded with handsome men, his good looks and imposing physique were fast becoming legendary. “Even our waiter went gushy over Lex,” Lana later revealed.

  The gossip heated up when Arlene Dahl, freshly divorced from Barker, began dating Fernando Lamas, who had freshly broken up with Lana. The duo of intertwined romances was referred to with headlines that included “Change Partners and Dance.”

  Unlike Lana, Dahl went on to marry Lamas in 1954, a union lasting until 1960. In 1958, she gave birth to his son, Lorenzo Lamas, who became an actor.

  During their drive back to her house, she decided to extend the evening by inviting him inside for a night cap, perhaps thinking it might lead to a seduction. He’d had only one glass of wine over dinner.

  Settling into her living room, he requested a brandy and appeared delighted that she had stocked a favorite of his, Rémy Martin. Unknown to her, a doctor had prescribed some medication that afternoon with a warning, “Don’t drink any alcohol.”

  She poured brandy for each of them into a pair of pony glasses. To her surprise, as she revealed in her memoirs, he downed his in a single gulp. Not only that, but he requested another glass, which he swallowed just as fast. Then a third, even a fourth, and finally, a fifth. By now, she was filling the glass only half-full, as she feared he might be an alcoholic like Bob Topping, the husband she’d just divorced.

  When Barker tried to stand up, he collapsed, fell over, and fainted. She checked to confirm that he was still alive, and prayed that he had not suffered a heart attack. He seemed to be breathing satisfactorily.

  Fearing negative publicity, and not knowing what to do, she phoned her former agent, Henry Willson. Even though he no longer represented her, their friendship had endured. Considering his background he must have known what to do with a drunken sailor, marine, lumberjack, movie actor, or studio grip.

  When he heard that Barker had passed out on her floor, Willson, as she later told her friends, “arrived almost panting.” In her memoir, she didn’t identify Will-son directly, referring to him instead as “Bob.”

  Within half an hour, Willson was at her home, examining the unconscious body on her floor, perhaps a little too intimately for her tastes. He agreed to remove Barker from her premises. She knew that he lived in a little house off Olympic Boulevard. Willson searched his pockets, again probing rather deeply, until he found his set of keys.

  It took great effort on Willson’s part, but he finally carried the heavy deadweight of the very muscular Tarzan and transferred him into the back seat of his car. Lana drove ahead in her car.

  With Barker’s limp body, Willson drove to the actor’s home. Its entrance was accessible via a steep flight of steps. Willson finally managed to haul the body to the door of what Lana defined as “a little doll’s house.”

  In her memoirs, she described Barker as “inanimate as a chest of drawers, and twice as bulky.” Willson finally got the hunk onto his bed and then turned to Lana. “Shall I undress him?”

  Her advice: “Let’s get the hell out of here.”

  In fact, however, Willson did the opposite, deciding to stay and “guard” Barker though the night, beginning with stripping him nude after she left.

  What he did to the body that night remains unrecorded. Only one tantalizing detail has surfaced.

  The follo
wing afternoon, Barker met with Lesser, the producer of the Tarzan movies, telling him that his decision to leave the role remained solid.

  Over a late lunch, he also revealed that he had passed out at Lana’s house the night before. “I was overly medicated. When I woke up the next morning, I found my limp dick buried down Henry Willson’s overworked throat.”

  ***

  After his lunch with Lesser, Barker phoned Lana with profuse apologies for having passed out the night before, explaining that he had been medicated and should not have drunk her brandy. Before his call, he’d sent her two dozen red, long-stemmed roses.

  She finally agreed to go out with him again, with the provision that there were “no repeat performances like last night.” He didn’t mention catching Henry Willson in bed with him when he’d awakened the following morning.

  On their second date, another night of dinner and dancing, he was at his most charming, seductive best, and only drank mineral water. She invited him for a sleepover, the details of which became known when she phoned Virginia Grey in the morning to deliver a full report.

  “Lex is hung with a ‘Capital H,’ Lana announced. “On the Hollywood Walk of Fame, his penis should be immortalized in cement. His directors in those Tarzan movies made him wear a heavy-duty jockstrap so it wouldn’t flop out. It’s said that Victor Mature, for whom I can personally vouch, and John Ireland have the biggest cocks in Hollywood. I’d like Lex to enter the contest. Perhaps you and I can summon the trio to gather together for a measuring contest.”

  “I think not, my dear,” Grey said. “Don’t you think you’re getting carried away?”

  “He’s a great lover,” she said. “Passionate yet tender. Hits all the hot spots. He is demanding yet fulfilling. Both of our needs were fulfilled in every way.”

  “Stop! You’re getting me hot, and it’s been a long time since any man has warmed my bed. As you know, Clark wouldn’t marry me and has found another wife.” Her reference, of course, was to Clark Gable.