CAUSE: Carl Laemmle died at his home, Dios Dorados in Beverly Hills, California aged 72 from a heart attack. He was buried in Home of Peace Memorial Park, Los Angeles, California. He left an estate worth $4 million.
Veronica Lake
(CONSTANCE FRANCES MARIE OCKLEMAN)
Born November 14, 1919
Died July 7, 1973
‘The Girl With The Peek-a-Boo Bangs’. Veronica Lake was born in Brooklyn, New York, the daughter of a sailor. Following her father’s death and mother’s remarriage the family moved to Montreal, where Lake attended a convent school. Another move transferred the family to Miami, where she won a beauty contest but was later disqualified because of her age. Following yet another move (this time to the west coast on June 27, 1938) Lake was given elocution lessons at the behest of her mother. One day a friend had an audition at RKO and Lake went along to keep her company. As often happens on these occasions, Lake was the chosen one and given a bit part in Sorority House (1939). The following year she began wearing her famous style after her hair accidentally fell over one eye. On September 27, 1941, in Santa Ana, California, she married MGM art director John Detlie, the year of her first big success, I Wanted Wings (1941). A temperamental actress, actor Eddie Bracken said, “She was known as ‘the bitch’ and deserved the title.” Lake gave birth to daughter Elaine on August 21, 1942, in Los Angeles. The following year after the success of her portrayal of a failed starlet in Sullivan’s Travels (1941) she was placed in the Alan Ladd picture This Gun For Hire (1942), one of the reasons being she was one of the few Hollywood stars shorter (at 5˝2˝) than 5́ 5˝ Ladd. It was a success, as was The Glass Key (1942) with Ladd and I Married A Witch (1942) where she played opposite Frederic March. In July 1943 she gave birth to son William Anthony but he died of uraemic poisoning aged just one week. By the end of the year she was divorced. In 1944 she made just one film, at $350 a week, The Hour Before Dawn (1944), though she was rather busier on the romantic front. She married director André DeToth eight days before Christmas 1944 in Los Angeles. Their son, Michael, was born on October 25, 1945, in Los Angeles; a daughter, Diana, was born on October 16, 1948, also in Los Angeles. During World War II she had to change her hairstyle because the government complained about it! Apparently, women working in munitions factories had copied Lake’s style with the result that their hair could and did become entangled in machinery. In the year the war ended she made Hold That Blonde (1945) and then The Blue Dahlia (1946) again with Ladd. Although Lake’s salary had by now been increased to $4,000 a week, neither she nor DeToth were very good at living within their means. In 1948 she was sued by her mother, who argued that Lake had promised her $200-a-week support, rising to $500. The case was settled out of court. That was the year Paramount sacked her and her career began to dry up. In April 1951 she filed for bankruptcy. In June of that year she and DeToth separated, divorcing on June 2, 1952, in Los Angeles. She left Tinseltown for the Big Apple thinking, “The hell with you Hollywood. And fuck you too!” She lived in Greenwich Village and married Joseph McCarthy, a songwriter, on August 28, 1955, in the First Congregational Church, Traverse City, Michigan. They divorced in 1959. On March 22, 1962, the New York Post revealed Lake was working as a waitress in the cocktail lounge of the Martha Washington Hotel in New York. In Galveston, Texas, in April 1965, she was arrested for drunk and disorderly behaviour. She appeared on local television and made a horror film, Flesh Feast (1970). In the early Seventies she went to Hollywood to promote her autobiography and in June 1972 she married Captain Carlton-Munro. This latest was no more successful than her other attempts at wedlock. As a child she was diagnosed as a schizophrenic but her mother chose to do nothing to help. Later, Lake exhibited many of the classic signs of schizophrenia – heavy drinking, child abuse and promiscuity. Among her lovers were comedian Milton Berle, producer William Dozier, playboy Porfirio Rubirosa, actor Victor Mature, millionaire Aristotle Onassis and many studio hands whom she invited to orgies at her home. She had no illusions about her abilities – “You could put all the talent I had into your left eye and still not suffer from impaired vision” – nor her sex appeal – “I wasn’t a sex symbol, I was a sex zombie.”
CAUSE: She died in Burlington, Vermont, of acute hepatitis, aged 53. She was cremated and her ashes were scattered in the Virgin Islands. Only one of her children (son Michael) and none of her husbands attended her memorial service at the Universal Chapel, East 52nd Street, New York.
Hedy Lamarr
(HEDWIG EVA MARIA KIESLER)
Born November 9, 1913
Found dead January 19, 2000
‘The Most Beautiful Woman of the Century’. She was born in Vienna, Austria, the only child of a director of the Bank of Vienna and a concert pianist who gave up her career to care for her newborn child. Hedy claimed that she was aware of sex at an early age. Her sexual initiation happened aged nine, when a wealthy woman in her thirties climbed into Hedy’s bed. Five years later, she was raped at home by a laundryman, whom she had already fought off once before. He succeeded in his quest on the second attempt. Entranced by films, she hung around Sascha Film Studios and wangled herself bit parts in Sturm Im Wasserglass (1929) and Geld Auf Der Straße (1930). Her next role was rather more substantial. Billed as Hedy Kiesler she played Käthe Brandt in Man Braucht Kein Geld (1931). Her first comedy film was Die Koffer Des Herr O.F. Herne (1931) in which she played Helene. It was her next film, usually wrongly identified as her first, that made her a star. Still billed as Hedy Kiesler, her first starring role saw her play Eva in what turned out to be the controversial Extase /Ecstasy (1932). The film was banned in America until 1940 – not because of the ten-minute nude swimming scene, nor the sight of her bare buttocks, but because of her face during a sex scene, i.e. simulating an orgasm. Hedy claimed the director achieved the necessary facial expressions by sticking a pin into her bare derrière. The following year, on August 10, 1933, at the Church of St Karls in Vienna, she married for the first time. Her husband was the handsome and fabulously wealthy munitions manufacturer Fritz Mandl, who owned Hirstenberger Patronen-Fabrik Industries and admired Hitler. He was also insanely jealous, trailing his young bride when she went out shopping and bugging her rooms. He also attempted to buy up every copy of Extase /Ecstasy, though without success. By 1937 it all became too much for Hedy and she made her escape and fled to Paris, where the marriage was annulled. There she met MGM chief Louis B. Mayer who was touring Europe looking for new talent. He offered her a contract at $125 a week, which she at first turned down. Although she later accepted the offer, she still had to travel to the States at her own expense. At their first meeting Mayer continually patted her behind and told her, “You have spirit. I like that and you have a bigger chest than I thought. You’d be surprised how tits figure in a girl’s career.” In the States Mayer changed her name to Hedy Lamarr in honour of Barbara La Marr, ‘the girl who was too beautiful’. Hedy’s first film saw her star opposite Charles Boyer in Algiers (1938) as Gaby, a girl who falls in love with a jewel thief. The white turban she wore in the film, and which she designed herself, became a must-wear for millions of women the world over. Boyer wasn’t that impressed with his co-star – he was probably one of the few men she encountered who wasn’t. In 1939 Hedy made two films – Lady Of The Tropics as Manon de Vargnes with the sexually ambiguous Robert Taylor, whom she had to teach how to kiss, and I Take This Woman as Georgi Gragore, in which she co-starred with Spencer Tracy. She was later to describe Tracy as, “A great actor but there were times when he made me cry. He was not precisely my favourite person.” Neither film capitalised on the success of Algiers, much to the dismay of Louis B. Mayer. To add to his disenchantment with his Viennese whirl, she eloped to get married in Mexicali, Mexico, on March 4, 1939. Her second husband was screenwriter Gene Markey (b. Jacksonville, Michigan, December 11, 1895, d. Miami, Florida, May 1, 1978; he was the second Mr Joan Bennett and would become the third Mr Myrna Loy). Mayer liked big weddings because it created welcome publicity.
Elopements were not his way of seeing his stars hitched. The Markeys divorced on September 27, 1940, but a son, James Lamarr Markey, was adopted in November 1941. In the meantime Hedy appeared playing Karen Vanmeer opposite Clark Gable in Boom Town (1940). After two failures Hedy needed a hit to silence her critics and Boom Town was the answer to her prayers. Her next film, Comrade X (1940) as Theodora, was also a success as was H.M. Pulham, Esq. (1941) in which she played Marvin Myles. It was at the Hollywood Canteen in 1942 that Hedy met actor John Loder, the man who would become husband number three. That year she made three films: Crossroads (1942) as Lucienne Talbot, White Cargo (1942) as Tondelayo “a half-caste jungle temptress” and Tortilla Flat (1942) as part-Mexican Dolores ‘Sweets’ Ramirez. According to most accounts Hedy was the first choice to play Ilsa in Casablanca (1942) but the part went to her rival Ingrid Bergman. Hedy and Loder were married on May 27, 1943, but the marriage was based more on sex than any real love or understanding of each other’s needs. Nonetheless, they stayed together for four years and had two children: Denise (b. Los Angeles, May 29, 1945) and Anthony John (b. Los Angeles, March 1, 1947). (Hedy had a secret gift. During World War II, with composer George Antheil, she invented a radio signalling device that reduced the danger of detection or jamming.) On July 17, 1947, she and Loder were divorced. While still married she appeared in The Heavenly Body (1943) as Vicky Whitley, The Conspirators (1944) as Irene, Experiment Perilous (1944) as Alida Bederaux, Her Highness And The Bellboy (1945) as Princess Veronica, Strange Woman (1946) as Jenny Hager and Dishonored Lady (1947) as the nymphomaniac magazine editor Madeleine Damien. Her last major film was on loan-out to Paramount for Cecil B. DeMille’s Samson And Delilah (1949) in which she played Delilah opposite Victor Mature’s Samson. For her next film back at MGM, A Lady Without Passport (1950), she was paid $90,000. It was the story of a Viennese woman, Marianne Lorress, who tries to enter America after becoming stranded in Cuba. After making My Favorite Spy (1951) as Lily Dalbray, she went on holiday to Acapulco, met a restaurateur called Ted Stauffer and married him on June 12, 1951. After nine months the marriage was over and they divorced on March 17, 1952, but by this time Hedy’s career was also on the wane. She appeared in L’Amante Di Paride (1953) as Hedy Windsor, I Cavalieri Dell’Illusione (1954), The Story Of Mankind (1957) as Joan Of Arc and The Female Animal (1957) as Vanessa Windsor. On December 22, 1953, at the Queens County Courthouse, New York, she married oil multi-millionaire W. Howard Lee. Not long after the marriage, she became an American citizen. The marriage ended in divorce in April 1960. On March 4, 1963, in Fresno she married Beverly Hills lawyer Lewis J. Boies, Jr, but they divorced after two years on June 21, 1965. As her career began to fade she entered the newspapers for other, less savoury reasons. On January 27, 1966, then living at 9550 Hidden Valley Road, Beverly Hills, she was arrested at 9.15pm for shoplifting at 6067 Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles. A store detective claimed that the actress, who was under psychiatric care at the time, had stolen $86-worth of goods including a $40 knit suit, a $10 pair of knickers, a dollar’s worth of greeting cards and other items. Although Hedy was acquitted on April 26 after five hours of jury deliberation, it did not bode well for her. Later that same year, on February 3, she was sacked from the film Picture Mommy Dead for not turning up on the first day of shooting. In November 1971 in Los Angeles she was ordered to pay $15,000 to a man she falsely accused of raping her four years earlier. On August 1, 1991, Hedy was arrested for shoplifting in Florida. The charges were dropped when she signed a document promising not to do it again. She decried her image: “Any girl can be glamorous,” she once said. “All you have to do is stand still and look stupid.”
CAUSE: Aged 86, Hedy Lamarr was found dead in bed in her four-bedroomed house in Orlando, Florida, by Altamonte Springs Police Lieutenant Chuck Stansel who had befriended her and had run a few errands for her. Her death was investigated because she had died alone. She had spent her last years as a drugged-up recluse playing cards and watching television. She was only spotted by neighbours when she collected her post – at night, a torch in one hand and a walking stick in the other. Despite being fabulously wealthy she was careful with her money. In her will she left her stamp collection to her 11-year-old grandson, the bulk of her estate went to her children, who rarely saw her, but she left money to her secretary, a California engineer she had never met, and $83,000 to Lieutenant Stansel.
FURTHER READING: Ecstasy & Me: My Life As A Woman – Hedy Lamarr (London: Mayflower, 1967).
Fernando Lamas
Born January 9, 1915
Died October 8, 1982
Latin lover. Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, he began acting in his homeland in films such as En El Ultimo Piso (1942), Villa Rica Del Espíritu Santo (1945), Historia De Una Mala Mujer (1948) and La Historia Del Tango (1949) before he got the call from MGM to come to Hollywood. His first American film was The Avengers (1950) as Andre LeBlanc. He later noted: “It took me several years to realise I didn’t have too much talent for acting, not true acting. But by then I couldn’t give it up, because I had become too famous.” He appeared in The Law And The Lady (1951) as Juan Dinas, Rich, Young And Pretty (1951) as Paul Sarnac, The Merry Widow (1952) as Count Danilo, The Girl Who Had Everything (1953) as Victor Y. Raimondi, Dangerous When Wet (1953) as André Lanet, Jivaro (1954) as Rio Galdez, Rose Marie (1954) as James Severn Duval, The Lost World (1960) as Manuel Gomez, D’Artagnan Contro I Tre Moschettieri (1963), Kill A Dragon (1967) as Patrai, 100 Rifles (1969) as Verdugo and Won Ton Ton, The Dog Who Saved Hollywood (1976). He was equally well known for his marriages to beautiful women. In 1940 he married Argentine actress Pearla Mux but the couple was soon divorced. In 1946 he married Uruguayan heiress Lydia Babachi. A daughter, Alexandra, was born the following year. They divorced in 1952. On June 25, 1954, he was wed to actress Arlene Dahl about whom he said: “Being married to Arlene Dahl was very nice, at night-time. But in the daytime, it was like being married to Elizabeth Arden. That is where she spent most of her time. If you asked her which is more important to her, her home life or her career, she would have to tell you the truth: her face.” Their actor son, Lorenzo, was born on January 20, 1958. They divorced in August 1960. In 1967 he married actress Esther Williams and on New Year’s Eve 1969 they renewed their vows: “Some famous wit said that my wife, Esther Williams, is a star only when she is wet. He is all wet! Another rumour is that I made Esther give up her career when we got married. That is a lie! She was already washed up when we got married.” They were together when he died.
CAUSE: He died of cancer aged 67 in Los Angeles.
Dorothy Lamour
(MARY LETA DOROTHY SLATON)
Born December 10, 1914
Died September 21, 1996
‘The Sarong Girl’. Long before cerebrally challenged footballer David Beckham wore a sarong, film star Dorothy Lamour popularised them. Born in Hotel Dieu Hospital, New Orleans, Louisiana, the young Mary Leta Dorothy Slaton entered a beauty contest with her friend Dorothy Dell, who won. Dell landed a part in a play and insisted the producers hire her friend too. The job lasted a year and Lamour came home and became a secretary, winning the Miss New Orleans beauty title when she was 17. She became a lift operator in Chicago and landed an audition with a theatrical company. It did not bode well. She was described as “Brunette, slender, fairly good-looking” and “Not recommended. Bad style as a singer. Didn’t even try as an actress. Doubtful prospect.” On May 10, 1935, she married bandleader Herbie Kay in Waukegan, Illinois. She made her first film playing Ulah in The Jungle Princess (1936). During that film she was taught how to smoke by Ray Milland, developed skin poisoning from the make-up and became so obsessed with her ‘ugly’ feet that a plastic pair were made for her by the make-up department. Moreover, an extra was killed when he was attacked by the other ‘co-star’, Gogo the chimp. She appeared with her idol Carole Lombard in Swing High, Swing Low as Anita Alvarez and with Randolph Scott in High, Wide, And Handsome (1937) as Molly Fuller. She often accompanied Sc
ott to various functions, with the obvious approval of her husband, who knew his wife would be safe with Scott. They divorced on May 1, 1939, and on April 7, 1943, she married 6́ 3˝ Captain William Ross Howard III (b. 1907, d. February 15, 1978). Her next films were The Last Train From Madrid (1937) as Carmelita Castillo, The Hurricane (1937) as Marama, The Big Broadcast Of 1938 as Dorothy Wyndham, Her Jungle Love (1938) as Tura, Tropic Holiday (1938) as Manuela, Spawn Of The North (1938) as Nicky Duval, St Louis Blues (1939) as Norma Malone, Man About Town (1939) as Diana Wilson, Disputed Passage (1939) as Audrey, Typhoon (1939) as Dea and Moon Over Burma (1940) as Arla Dean. It was the first Road film that made Lamour beloved the world over. Co-starring Bob Hope and Bing Crosby, Road To Singapore (1939), was much improvised. Lamour played Mima and the film was to be the first of a hugely successful series. Hope and Crosby called her ‘Mommie’, but she admitted, “I was closer to Bob than to Bing, whose moods were changeable – he’d be funny one day and quite remote the next.” The sarong worn by Lamour is now in the Smithsonian Institute. To prove “I wasn’t limited to leaning against a palm tree or playing straight woman to Hope and Crosby” she played gangster’s moll Mabel ‘Lucky’ DuBarry in Johnny Apollo (1940). However, it was the Road series that people wanted and she appeared in Road To Zanzibar (1941) as Donna Latour, Road To Morocco (1942) as Princess Shalmar, Road To Utopia (1946) as Sal Van Hoyden, Road To Rio (1947) as Lucia Maria de Andrade, Road To Bali (1952) as Princess Lala and, under sufferance, in Road To Hong Kong (1962) playing herself. She virtually retired after that, appearing only in Donovan’s Reef (1963) as Miss Lafleur, Pajama Party (1964), The Phynx (1970), Won Ton Ton, The Dog Who Saved Hollywood (1976) and Creepshow 2 (1987) as Martha Spruce.
Fade to Black: A Book of Movie Obituaries Page 106
