Bombshells

Five Women Who Set the Fifties on Fire

Shar Daws

• Publisher: The History Press
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN:
  9780750992183
• eBook ISBN:
  9780750994583
• Topic: Ciencias sociales
• Subtopic: Biografías de ciencias sociales

Jean Harlow, the Godmother of Blondes, lit the torch for the blonde bombshell, creating an image and persona that would be passed on for generations to come. Jean's life was cut tragically short at the age of 26, but the flame reignited in the 1950s with the most notorious blondes of all time: Ruth Ellis, Marilyn Monroe, Jayne Mansfield and Diana Dors. Each left a legacy that has ensured the fire will never be completely extinguished, affecting not only individual lives but society across a world stage. From Marilyn's stardom and Diana's unwavering integrity, to Ruth's tragic status as the last woman hanged in Britain, all of these women experienced success and tragedy, love and heartbreak, and attention both positive and negative. Bombshells examines these five exceptional women in the context of the 1950s, the expectations and constrictions society had at the time and how they pushed through barriers and paved the way for the real sexual revolution.

1

THE GODMOTHER OF BLONDES

The Godmother of Blondes had a short life, but one of the longest and furthest-reaching influences of any woman whose fame arose from the Hollywood Silver Screen.

Her mother, Jean Harlow, had married Mont Clair Carpenter in 1908. Three years later Harlean Harlow Carpenter was born in Kansas City, Missouri, on 3 March 1911. She was a beautiful child with cotton-white hair and green eyes, and her mother Jean rapidly lost interest in her husband as ‘The Baby’ (Harlean was called this throughout her life) soaked up her every moment and became her very reason for existing.

Brought up by wealthy parents and grandparents, Harlean had everything her heart could desire, and by the age of 10 she had developed a voracious appetite for reading and a passion for writing. She was particularly fond of the poetry of Lord Tennyson. In her 1920–21 school yearbook, she was thrilled to have one of her short stories published, titled ‘An Elf’s Adventures’.

However, Harlean was not to become a great writer; her destiny was to light the torch of the blonde bombshell as she created a unique image and persona that would be emulated and passed on for generations to come.

Preoccupied as she was with The Baby, Jean’s relationship with Mont Clair was not a happy one and on 29 September 1922 she was granted a divorce that he did not contest. Jean was given sole custody of 10-year-old Harlean and in the same year she remarried a dubious character named Marino Bello, a smooth-talking Italian who had no credentials of merit and was universally disapproved of by the Harlow family.

Mother Jean (as she became known) was vivacious and attractive; she had her heart set on finding fame in Hollywood so together Marino, Jean and The Baby set out on the journey to California in 1923. When Jean arrived it soon became glaringly apparent that at the age of 30 she was too old to break into films, regardless of her drive and ambition, so the trio returned home disappointed to the Midwest in 1925.

By 1927, Harlean had developed into a stunning natural blonde with a penchant for fun and an adventurous nature, which at the age of 16 led her to elope on 20 September with 21-year-old Charles Freemont McGrew II.

Charles, who was known as Chuck, had lost both parents in a tragic boating accident when he was 16. Chuck’s grandparents took over his upbringing and placed his inheritance in a trust fund for him, which matured two months after his wedding to Harlean. He received $200,000 as the first instalment.

Despite marrying without their respective families’ permission, both were forgiven, and the young couple made their home in Harlean’s favourite place, Hollywood, with the aid of Chuck’s inheritance.

Mother Jean could not be separated from her daughter, and so she and Marino followed the young couple to Hollywood, where a chance meeting and a fun dare would change the life of both the Bellos and the McGrews forever.

In 1928, Harlean’s friend Rosalie Roy, who was an aspiring actress, had an appointment at Fox Studios but no means of getting there. Harlean, who was always a kind and generous friend, offered to drive Rosalie and the offer was gratefully accepted. While waiting for her friend to conclude her interview, Harlean was spotted by Fox executives, who approached her thinking she was there looking for work.

When she explained that she was just waiting for her friend, they insisted she took a letter of introduction to the casting department. Harlean accepted the letter but had no intention of doing anything about it. Sometime later over lunch with friends, the story was retold.

Her friends chided her, saying she obviously didn’t have the nerve to take the letter to casting and they wagered as much. Rising to the bet, she did indeed take the letter of introduction to casting, with one small detail changed – she applied in her mother’s maiden name, Jean Harlow.

The career of Jean Harlow had begun, and the marriage of Harlean McGrew ended. On 11 June 1929, she left her husband and returned to her mother. Eventually, she and Chuck divorced.

Jean was regularly cast as an extra in high-profile films. She never took it too seriously, and she enjoyed the fun, was good-humoured and full of the joys of life. Everyone loved having her on set, and her youth and energy were positive and uplifting.

At the beginning of her career, Jean decided it would be an excellent time to reassess her appearance and she wanted to set herself apart from the competition. Her naturally blonde hair was growing darker with age and the film industry had always loved a blonde. There were many shades of natural blonde in the business and a few unnatural blondes, mainly because they were always more noticeable in crowd scenes.

So Jean went a light ash blonde and it paid off when, in 1929, Caddo, the film company owned by the millionaire Howard Hughes, was looking to cast a significant female role in his production of Hell’s Angels and Jean fitted his visual expectations.

The publicity director was looking for a promotional angle, and Jean’s hair was the obvious choice as a focus for the tag line. Although she was more ash blonde at this time, she became known as the Platinum Blonde – this was a label Jean wasn’t fond of, but she understood its importance and necessity.

During a time of depression and economic decline, she contributed to sales of peroxide increasing by 35 per cent, although, it has to be said, not without several disasters that often ended with women having to shave their heads. Undeterred by such a possibility, Jean went even lighter, soon achieving the platinum look for which she was famous.

To attain platinum hair took some serious chemistry, beginning with a hydrogen peroxide and ammonia wash/bath to strip the hair of its pigment – sometimes Jean would need two such baths. The mixture would irritate her scalp, causing burning and itching. Once the colour was stripped entirely, she would then have a platinum rinse.

Her hairdresser Alfred Pagano, who mixed and applied the dangerous concoction, said in a television interview, ‘We were creating the platinum blonde … it was the first real glamour.’¹ In the same interview, Pagano revealed he also used Clorox and Lux flakes. He recalled, ‘I’d say to Jean “is this hurting you?” and she’d say, “Yeah a little bit”, and I’d use a blower on her sometimes to cool it off, sometimes with magazines to fan it off.’

Harlow herself maintained she never bleached her hair. She told a reporter, ‘It can’t be good to bleach hair with chemicals … as for mine, it’s never touched with anything but soap and water.’² On another occasion, she told a reporter that she just added a few drops of liquid bluing (a substance used in laundry to make clothes whiter) to her shampoo soap but not the rinse.

The consequence of such a drastic hair colour meant that every Sunday, due to the pressure of close-ups, Jean was at Jim’s Beauty Studio on Sunset Boulevard, having Pearl Porterfield, who was later to help maintain Marilyn Monroe’s hair, apply bleach to her roots in order to keep them white and her hair bright and camera-ready.

Jean knew her hair was a significant factor in her popularity, once stating, ‘If it hadn’t been for the colour of my hair, Hollywood wouldn’t know I was alive.’³

Way ahead of her time, and long before Marilyn Monroe was declaring the benefits of being ‘au naturel’, Jean rarely wore underwear and often made controversial fashion choices. Hairdresser Alfred Pagano remembered, ‘She never wore undergarments and I used to say to Jean, “My God, you don’t have anything on underneath that jacket,” and she said, ‘No, I hate lines.’⁴

Arthur Jacobson, assistant director on The Saturday Night Kid recalled, ‘She was wearing this black crocheted dress with not a stitch under it. From where I sat, you couldn’t tell whether she had put it on or painted it on.’⁵

On one occasion, when asked to remove her jacket on set, she did as asked and revealed that, once again, as with Pagano, that she wore nothing underneath; everyone was left in stunned silence. After the event, Anita Loos, the writer of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and who adapted the script of Red Headed Woman for Jean Harlow, recalled, ‘Nudity was rarely seen in those days … the lighting crew almost fell out of the flies in shock.’ Insisting Jean’s act was not exhibitionism, Loos went on to say, ‘She had no vanity whatsoever.’⁶

Jean relied heavily on her appearance, as her acting skills were at times worse than mediocre. Ridgeway Callow, the assistant director on Hell’s Angels, described her as ‘one of the world’s worst actresses’.⁷ It was her attractive looks and her easy-going nature that moved Jean forward from extra to leading lady.

Jean’s eagerness to learn and her enthusiasm about doing whatever was necessary to improve endeared her to fellow actors and crew. Sound mixer Bill Edmondson described Jean, saying, ‘Everybody loved her … so sweet and thoughtful, and always on time. She was a doll.’⁸

Although Jean could relate well to people in small groups, she struggled when making a public appearance when touring to promote films. She would tremble in fear, barely able to speak and often crying. She would say, ‘I can’t make up words … I have to study them, I have to have a script.’⁹ Audiences were expecting the character she played, but Jean was poles apart from the onscreen vamps she portrayed. In real life she was naïve and unsophisticated, inexperienced in handling the general public.

Eventually she overcame her nerves, the public adored her for who she was and her popularity soared. However, Howard Hughes was not entirely enamoured with Jean and would readily loan her out to other studios. Unhappy with the roles she was playing, she told the press, ‘I’ve played a series of abandoned wretches whose wickedness is never explained, never condoned … How can I expect audience sympathy when I have none for the parts I’ve been forced to play?’¹⁰

One of the loans was to Columbia Pictures to make Gallagher, later retitled Platinum Blonde. Jean played the title role, and her comedic timing was close to pure genius. The director Frank Capra was impressed with her dedication, helpfulness and professionalism.

2

‘DEAREST DEAR’

Shortly before Hell’s Angels premiered, Jean met Paul Bern, who was the assistant to Irving Thalberg, producer at MGM. Paul and Jean became firm friends and he saw her potential, bringing her to the attention of MGM, who negotiated with Caddo to borrow Harlow for a small part in the film The Secret Six (1931). On seeing Jean in Platinum Blonde, both Bern and Capra suggested that MGM consider taking her. After interviewing her, Mayer and Thalberg agreed to proceed with buying out her contract from Caddo, despite still being unsure, mostly due to the respect and trust that they had in Paul Bern’s opinion.

Jean was thrilled to sign with MGM. She had felt unappreciated and used by Caddo and did not have a particularly good relationship with Howard Hughes. Her new studio began grooming her straight away and the publicity machine cranked into action. Howard Strickling, head of publicity, was well aware that Harlow had been hired as MGM’s resident vamp, but he saw that she had a rare quality; she was able to throw out comedic lines while still exuding sexual appeal and innocence all at the same time.

Unfortunately for Jean, her stepfather Marino Bello was a thorn in her side. He became Jean’s self-appointed ‘manager’, interfering and strutting around the studio. To make matters worse, Jean found herself working to support both him and Mother Jean. She began her contract on 19 March 1932 on a weekly salary of $1,250 for the first year with the promise of regular rises until she reached $4,000 a week by 1938. She handed her pay packet to Mother Jean, in return she was given just $125 a week to spend.

Jean’s contract with MGM required her to stay in tip-top condition; she could be released at a moment’s notice were she to suffer any physical defect to her appearance or her voice for more than two weeks. Her present...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• Part One: Jean Harlow
• Part Two: Ruth Ellis
• Part Three: Marilyn Monroe
• Part Four: Diana Dors
• Part Five: Jayne Mansfield
• Conclusion
• Bibliography
• Sources
• Notes