Dear Reader #206

Dear Reader,

Some book news. Operation Zigzag, Eve’s War Heroines of SOE book one, is #1 on Amazon’s genre charts in America and France 🙂

Clara Bow’s forty-fifth movie was The Fleet’s In produced between June 18 and July 16, 1928, and released on September 15, 1928. Clara played Trixie Deane a “taxi dancer” who performed “The Clara Bow Stomp” with sailors for a dime a song. 

Clara was dancing in her private life too, in all-night gin-soaked jazz parties at her Malibu home. She was having a whale of a time. Or so she thought.

Comedian Jack Oakie met Clara at this time. He observed: “(When acting) she could turn even the simplest action into a moving one. The redhead was one of the greatest emotional actresses ever.”

Oakie was right, Clara Bow was a great emotional actresses. The tragedy: I don’t think Clara ever truly appreciated how good she was.

Hedy Lamarr was well cast in Dishonoured Lady (1947) as a hedonist who seeks help from a psychiatrist, then finds herself accused of murder. Hedy was married to one of her co-stars, John Loder, at the time of filming, but they divorced later in the year.

The Hays Office went into meltdown over this movie. They insisted that two love affairs in the script, one in Mexico and the other in New York, might be “overloading” the picture. They also objected to the “night of sordid passion.” 

A memo dated April 25, 1946 stated that, despite revisions, the script was unacceptable because of its “gratuitous sex”. Therefore, the “night of sordid passion” was cut from the film. 

All suggestions that Hedy’s character, Madeleine, was a murderer, or had even contemplated murder, were also removed from the film. Despite this, the plot remained solid, and the movie deserved a higher level of success.

The William O. Jenkins House, Norma Desmond’s house in Sunset Boulevard (1950). At the time of filming, the house was occupied by one of J. Paul Getty’s (five) former wives. As a condition of rental, she requested that Paramount Studios build her a new swimming pool, which they did, and promptly dropped William Holden’s “corpse” into it.

Favourite Movie Quote of the 20th Century, First Round

Result: 59% v 41%

Result: 80% v 20%

Result: 32% v 68%

Result: 57% v 43%

Result: 82% v 18%

Result: 56% v 44%

Result: 59% v 41%

Social media https://toot.wales/@HannahHowe

As ever, thank you for your interest and support.

Hannah xxx

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