Jean Harlow
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| Jean Harlow | |
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| Birth name | Harlean Harlow Carpenter |
| Born | March 3, 1911 Kansas City, Missouri, USA |
| Died | June 7, 1937 (age 26) Los Angeles, California, USA |
| Other name(s) | Baby |
| Years active | 1927-1937 |
| Spouse(s) | Harold Rosson (1933-1934) Paul Bern (1932-1932) Charles McGrew (1927-1929) |
| Official site | www.JeanHarlow.com |
Jean Harlow (b. Harlean Harlow Carpenter, March 3, 1911 – June 7, 1937) was an American film actress and top sex symbol of the 1930s. Known as the "Platinum Blonde" for her famous hair, Harlow starred in several films mainly designed to showcase her magnetic sex appeal and strong screen presence before transitioning to more developed roles and achieving massive fame under contract to MGM. Known as "the baby" to family and close friends, Harlow's enormous popularity and "laughing vamp" image were in distinct contrast to her personal life, which was marred by disappointment, tragedy, and ultimately her sudden death from renal failure at 26.
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[edit] Early life
Harlow was born Harlean Carpenter in Kansas City, Missouri, the daughter of Mont Clair Carpenter, a dentist, and his wife, Jean Poe Carpenter (née Harlow). Young Harlean's father came from a working-class background while her mother was the daughter of a wealthy real estate broker, Skip Harlow and his wife Ella Harlow (née Williams). The marriage was arranged by Skip Harlow; Jean Carpenter, a very intelligent, strong-willed woman, resented it and would become very unhappy in the marriage.
Unlike many Hollywood stars, little Harlean's childhood was not marked by poverty and unhappiness; in fact she lived with her parents in a very large house in Kansas City that was her grandfather's second home. The only grandchild in the family, Harlean was nicknamed "The Baby", a moniker that would stick with her through her whole life. Without any siblings, Harlean became extremely close to her mother, and Jean Carpenter, unhappy in her marriage, turned all her focus onto her daughter. She was extremely protective and coddling to young Harlean, instilling in her a sense that Harlean owed everything she had to her mother, which in turn inspired a deep devotion from daughter to mother, another aspect which would carry through to adulthood. So coddled was young Harlean that she did not learn until the age of five, when she began to attend school at Miss Barstow's Finishing School for Girls in Kansas City, that her name was actually Harlean and not "Baby".
With her daughter at school, Mother Jean become increasingly frustrated and filed for divorce (no small matter at the time) which was finalized, uncontested, September 29, 1922 and was granted, among other things, sole custody of her daughter. Harlean would only see her father again once more in her lifetime.
In 1923, with hopes of becoming an actress, Mother Jean and Harlean moved to Hollywood, where Harlean briefly attended the Hollywood School For Girls. However with no good prospects forthcoming in acting for Mother Jean and dwindling finances, they returned to Kansas City within two years. In the summer of 1925, Harlean's grandfather sent her to a summer camp called Camp Cha-Ton-Ka in Michigamme, Michigan. It was during this summer that Harlean would catch scarlet fever. From there Harlean attended the Ferry Hall School in Lake Forest, Illinois. Freshmen were paired with a "big sister" from the senior class, and fifteen-year-old Harlean was paired with a girl who would introduce her to nineteen-year-old Charles "Chuck" McGrew, heir to a large fortune, in the fall of 1926. Harlean and McGrew fell in love and were married at the end of 1927, much to the annoyance of Mother Jean (who had earlier that year married Marino Bello); marriage would free Harlean from her control.
Shortly after the marriage, Chuck McGrew turned twenty-one and received part of his large inheritance and the couple moved to Los Angeles, where Harlean thrived as a wealthy socialite and more importantly, away from her mother. In Los Angeles, Harlean befriended Rosalie Roy, a young aspiring actress. Lacking a car, Roy asked Harlean to drive her to Fox Studios for an appointment she had. It was there, sitting in the car waiting for her friend, Harlean was noticed by Fox executives. Approached by the executives, Harlean was given dictated letters of introduction to the Central Casting Bureau despite stating she was not interested. Recounting this story a few days later, Rosalie Roy made a wager with Harlean that she did not have the nerve to go back and audition for roles. Unwilling to lose a wager and pressed by her enthused mother, Harlean drove to Central Casting and signed in under her mother's name: Jean Harlow.
[edit] Career beginnings
After several calls and turned-down job offers from Central Casting, Harlean was pressured by her mother (now relocated to Los Angeles) into accepting work. Harlean then appeared in her first film, Honor Bound as an unbilled extra, for $7 a day. This led to several other roles, and Harlean landed bit parts in silent films such as Why Is A Plumber? (1927), Moran of the Marines (1928) and The Love Parade (1929). She had a more substantial role in Laurel and Hardy's short Double Whoopee (1929). Under pressure from Harlean's career ascent, she and Chuck McGrew separated in June 1929 and Harlean moved in with her mother and Bello.
During filming of Weak But Willing in 1929 she was spotted by James Hall, an actor in a then-shooting Howard Hughes film called Hell's Angels. Hughes, re-shooting the film from silent into sound, needed a new actress as the original actress Greta Nissen's Norse accent proved undesirable for a talkie. Harlean met briefly with Hughes and was hired on the spot. Hughes signed Jean Harlow to a five-year contract on October 24, 1929. It was during shooting that Harlow would meet MGM executive Paul Bern. Hell's Angels premiered in Hollywood on May 27, 1930 at Grauman's Chinese Theatre.
Harlow was a sensation with audiences; critics however were less than besotted. The New Yorker called Harlow "plain awful" though Variety was a bit more lenient in remarking "It doesn't matter what degree of talent she possesses....nobody ever starved possessing what she's got", referring to her sex appeal. Loaned out by Hughes' Caddo Company to other studios, in 1931, Harlow began to gain more attention when she appeared in The Public Enemy (with James Cagney), Goldie, The Secret Six (with Wallace Beery and Clark Gable), and Platinum Blonde with Loretta Young. In fact, Hughes convinced the producers of "Platinum Blonde" to rename it from its original title of "Gallagher" in order to promote Harlow's image. Though the films ranged from moderate to smash hits, Harlow's acting ability was damned by critics as awful and was mocked, with some saying she ruined any scene she was in.
Concerned of Harlow's status, Hughes sent her on a personal appearance tour of the East Coast in late 1931. To the surprise of many, especially Harlow herself, she packed every theatre she appeared in, often appearing multiple nights in one venue. Despite critical assailment and poor roles, Harlow's popularity and following was large and growing, to the extent that the tour was extended through early 1932. A sidenote of this is that many of Harlow's female fans were dying their hair platinum to match hers. To capitalize on this craze, Hughes's team organized a series of "Platinum Blonde" clubs across the nation, with a prize of $10,000 to any beautician that could match Harlow's shade.
Appraised of this, Paul Bern (now romantically involved with Harlow) spoke to Louis B. Mayer about buying out Harlow's contract from Hughes and signing her to MGM. Mayer would have none of it; MGM's leading ladies were just that and Harlow's silver screen floozies were abhorrent to Mayer. Bern then began urging good friend Irving Thalberg, production head of MGM, to sign Harlow, noting Harlow's pre-existing popularity and established image. After initial reticence Thalberg agreed and on March 3, 1932, Harlow's twenty-first birthday, Bern called with the news that MGM had bought Harlow's contract from Hughes for $30,000. Harlow would afterwards be required to report to MGM and officially joined the studio on April 20, 1932.
[edit] Metro Goldwyn Mayer
MGM was where Harlow would become "Harlow", not only with the image but be given superior movie roles to show off not only her beauty but what turned out to be an authentic talent for comedy. In 1932 she had the starring roles in Red-Headed Woman, for which she received a salary of $1,250/week, and Red Dust, her second film with Clark Gable. These films showed her to be much more at ease in front of the camera and highlighted her skill as a comedienne. Harlow and Gable worked well together and co-starred in a total of six films.
It was during the making of Red Dust that Harlow's second husband, MGM producer Paul Bern was found dead at their home, creating a scandal that reverberates to this day. Initially, the Hollywood community whispered Harlow had killed Bern herself, though this was just rumor and MGM officials quickly stepped in to spread the fabricated story of "Suicide Because of Impotence". Harlow kept silent and survived this, one of the first great Hollywood scandals, coming through unscathed and more popular with audiences than ever.
In 1960 it was suggested by screenwriter Ben Hecht that Bern was murdered by an unbalanced former lover, Dorothy Millette, who allegedly committed suicide the next day. The circumstances of Paul Bern's death were fully explained in Deadly Illusions by Samuel Marx and Joyce Vanderveen in 1990. (Years later, the Bern-Harlow house became the home of Jay Sebring and, for a time, Sharon Tate. They and others were later murdered by Charles Manson's followers in August of 1969.)
By 1933, Harlow was becoming a superstar. She had a great comedic part in Dinner at Eight, and later that year she starred in Bombshell.
Because of Harlow's indiscreet affair with boxer Max Baer (Heavy Weight Champion of the World and key figure in the recent film 'Cinderella Man'), Dorothy Dunbar, Baer's wife, threatened divorce proceedings, naming Harlow as a co-defendant for "alienation of affection," then the common term for adultery.
MGM defused the situation by arranging a quick fixed marriage between Harlow and cinematographer Harold Rosson. Still feeling the aftershocks of the mysterious Bern death, the studio didn't want another Harlow scandal on its hands. Rosson and Harlow were prior friends, and Rosson went along with the plan. They divorced quietly seven months later.
After the hits that were Hold Your Man and Red Dust, MGM realized the goldmine of the Harlow-Gable vehicle, putting them in two more films: China Seas (1935, with Wallace Beery and Rosalind Russell) and Wife vs. Secretary (1936, with Myrna Loy and James Stewart). Other co-stars included Spencer Tracy, Robert Taylor and William Powell.
By the mid-1930s Harlow was becoming one of the biggest stars in America and the foremost female star at MGM; she was still a young woman with her star continuously on the ascendant while by this point the popularity of other female stars at MGM such as Greta Garbo, Joan Crawford and Norma Shearer were waning. Her movies continued to make huge profits at the box office even during the middle of the Depression; some credit Harlow's films with keeping MGM in the black while other studios fell into bankruptcy.
Following the end of her third marriage, Harlow met MGM star William Powell and quickly fell in love. They reportedly were engaged for two years, but differences kept them from marrying swiftly (she wanted children; he did not). Harlow also said that studio head Louis B. Mayer would never allow them to wed.
[edit] Later career and death
Harlow fell ill with influenza during the early part of 1937; although she recovered, the attack weakened her body against the onslaught of a more serious illness that was just beginning to take hold: kidney failure. In retrospective analysis, Harlow's kidneys may have been slowly failing during the ten years since she contracted scarlet fever while in her early teens. In the days before kidney dialysis and transplants, this condition was fatal.
While filming Saratoga (1937) with Clark Gable, Harlow collapsed on set and was rushed to the hospital, diagnosed with uremic poisoning. She died just days later, at the age of 26.
Harlow is buried at the Forest Lawn Memorial Park, in Glendale, California in a private room in the Great Mausoleum; her crypt bears the simple inscription "Our Baby". Her funeral took place in the Wee Kirk O' The Heather Chapel at Forest Lawn Cemetery.
She was buried in the negligee that she had worn just weeks before, while filming a scene from the movie Saratoga. It was reported that a single white gardenia with an unsigned note attached that read "Good night, my dearest darling" were placed in her hands. It is assumed both were from William Powell, who also paid for her final resting place—the $25,000, 9x10-foot private room lined with multicolored imported marble located in the "Sanctuary of Benediction".
Many myths have swirled around Harlow's death and it was not until the early 1990s that her long-sealed medical records were uncovered. Legend had it that Harlow's mother, a follower of Christian Science, prevented doctors from attending to her dying daughter, but this myth has been extinguished; records prove Harlow received constant medical attention. Other long-standing myths, such as the suggestion that Harlow's kidneys were damaged in a beating from husband Paul Bern or that bleach from her hair seeped into her brain and killed her, are also untrue.
[edit] Novel
- Main article: Today is Tonight.
Prior to her death, Harlow wrote a novel entitled Today is Tonight. According to Arthur Landau in his introduction to the 1965 paperback edition, Harlow stated her intention to write the book around 1933-34, but it was never published during her lifetime. After her death, Landau writes, her mother sold the film rights to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer but no film eventuated. The publication rights to the novel were passed from Harlow's mother to a family friend, and the book finally saw release in 1965.
[edit] Trivia
- Harlow was linked to American mobster Bugsy Siegel and was the godmother of his daughter Millicent. She also dated mobster Abner Zwillman at one time. He bought her a Cadillac and a jeweled bracelet, as well as getting her a two-picture deal with Harry Cohn of Columbia Pictures due to a loan he made to Cohn.
- Was the idol of Marilyn Monroe, who said she had a scrapbook with pictures and writing about Harlow as a child. Monroe's life mirrored Harlow's in many ways: Both were hugely famous, blonde sex symbols; both had several failed marriages and both suddenly died young under strange circumstances.
- Is one of the many classic stars name-checked in Madonna's 1990 hit "Vogue", as well as the songs "Bette Davis Eyes" by Kim Carnes and "I've Never Been to Me" by Charlene.
- Jean's beautiful green eyes were deep-set and she had to be lit just so for film and photo sessions in order to bring them out in contrast to the angle of her nose and the cleft in her chin. Her trademark extremely-arched eyebrows were drawn in after her own comparatively straight eyebrows were shaved off.
- Although a natural ash blonde, Harlow achieved her trademark platinum tresses through weekly bleaching sessions using a mixture of peroxide, ammonia, Clorox and Lux Flakes—an extremely painful and harsh process.
- Harlow died as her last film, Saratoga, was 90% completed. Word got out that MGM intended either to reshoot the film with a new actress or scrap it altogether. Hearing this news, thousands of fans wrote letters to MGM asking them not to scrap Harlow's last film, but to release it to theaters. The last 10% of the film was completed using a soundalike and a body double, Mary Dees, mostly accomplished with wide-angle shots. The film broke box-office records and became the biggest picture of Harlow's career and MGM's top grossing film of 1937, further proof that Jean Harlow kept MGM afloat during the Depression. Clark Gable remarked that during filming scenes after Harlow's death, he felt as if he "were in the arms of a ghost."
- Two competing films, both titled Harlow, were released in 1965. Carroll Baker played Jean in the more successful film, although Baker was almost a decade older than the age Harlow was when she died. More age-appropriate, but less successful at the box office, was Carol Lynley in her "quickie" film version. In the 1950s, there was talk that Marilyn Monroe might make a film on Harlow's life for 20th Century-Fox and Columbia Pictures considered making a Harlow biopic with either Cleo Moore or Kim Novak but neither project got off the ground.
- Gwen Stefani made her acting debut playing Jean Harlow in the 2004 Martin Scorsese movie The Aviator. Like Baker, Stefani was 34 when she played Jean Harlow—who was 19 years old at the time she was discovered by Hughes.
- Marilyn Monroe was offered a part to star as Harlow in a biopic of her life. Monroe initially turned it down, saying "I hope they don't do that to me when I'm gone". With later renewed interest, Monroe was scheduled to meet with prospective producers of a Harlow film the week she died.
- Drawn-on eyebrows are sometimes called "Harlows"
- Harlow and Paul Bern had a house on Easton Drive in LA. Bern died in this house and it is rumoured that his ghost is roaming around the property. Hollywood hairstylist and Manson Family victim Jay Sebring rented the house in the mid-'60s (it was owned at the time by Sally Forrest and Milo Frank). His then fiancee, actress and another Manson Family victim, Sharon Tate spent time in the house. While staying overnight, she had a nightmare in which she saw a bloodied corpse of a man. In the dream she went downstairs and poured herself a drink and by accident tore off a piece of wallpaper next to the minibar. The next morning she dismissed this as a nightmare, but only until she discovered that the wallpaper next to the bar was freshly torn. She started asking around and only then learned about the history of its inhabitants and ghost sightings. Until her untimely death she claimed that she had probably seen the ghost of Paul Bern.
- Producer Edward Small tried to make a Jean Harlow bio-pic in the early '40s starring Mary Beth Hughes as Harlow, but could not come to a financial agreement with the Harlow estate.
[edit] Filmography
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[edit] External links
- Jean Harlow at the Internet Movie Database
- Jean Harlow at the TCM Movie Database
- Jean Harlow: The Platinum Page
- Jean Harlow Style and Beauty Page
- Jean Harlow at Classic Movie Favorites Tribute site: galleries, bio, filmography and more.
