Veronica Lake

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Veronica Lake

Birth name Constance Frances Marie Ockelman
Born November 14, 1922
Flag of United States Brooklyn, New York
Died July 07, 1973 (aged 50)
Burlington, Vermont
Spouse(s) André de Toth

Veronica Lake (14 November 1922[1] – 7 July 1973) was a popular American film actress and pin-up model who enjoyed both popular and critical acclaim, especially for her femme fatale roles in film noir with Alan Ladd during the 1940s.

Described by Bette Davis as "the most beautiful person who ever came to Hollywood,"[citation needed]her success was fleeting. Following a string of broken marriages and long struggles with mental illness and alcoholism, she died almost destitute.

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[edit] Early life and career

Veronica Lake was born Constance Frances Marie Ockelman in Brooklyn, New York on November 14, 1922. Her father, Harry W. Ockelman, worked for an oil company onboard a ship. When she was about one year old, the family moved to Florida but returned to Brooklyn before she was five. According to some accounts, she was beaten as a child[citation needed]. Her father died in an industrial explosion when she was 12. Her mother (née Constance Charlotta Trimble) married Anthony Keane a year later, and Ockelman began using his last name.

The Keane family lived in Canada, New York state and Miami, Florida. Constance Keane graduated from high school in Miami, where she was known for her beauty. She had a troubled childhood and was allegedly diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic during her teenage years, although no records exist to verify this diagnosis.

In 1938 Keane moved with her mother and step-father to Beverly Hills, California, where her mother enrolled Keane in the celebrated Bliss-Hayden School of Acting at the Beverly Hills Playhouse. Her first appearance on screen was for RKO, playing a small role among several coeds in Sorority House (1939). Similar roles followed, including All Women Have Secrets and Dancing Co-Ed.

During the making of Sorority House, director John Farrow first noticed how her hair always covered her right eye, creating an air of mystery about her and enhancing her natural beauty. She was then introduced to the Paramount producer Arthur Hornblow Jr., who changed her name to Veronica Lake. He chose the forename Veronica because "[w]hen I think about Veronica, I think about classic, and ... [her] beauty is a classical beauty", and chose the surname Lake after her blue eyes.

Her contract was subsequently dropped by RKO. She married art director John Detlie in 1940. Another small role in the comedy movie Forty Little Mothers brought unexpected attention. In 1941 she was signed to a long term contract by Paramount Pictures, was given her stage name Veronica Lake, and on August 21 gave birth to a daughter, Elaine Detlie.

[edit] An icon of the 1940s

Her breakthrough film was I Wanted Wings (1941), a major hit in which she played the second female lead and was said to have stolen scene after scene from the rest of the cast. This success was followed by another, Hold Back the Dawn (1941). She was soon regarded as a witty, intelligent and trend-setting actress and had starring roles in more popular movies including Sullivan's Travels (1941), This Gun for Hire (1942), I Married a Witch (1942, later used as a basis for the 1960s hit television series Bewitched), The Glass Key (1942) and So Proudly We Hail! (1943).

I Married a Witch was a hit. Co-star Fredric March, probably annoyed by her need for multiple takes for many of their scenes together, started calling the movie "I married a bitch" and refused to talk about the experience or work with her again.

Lobby poster for I Married a Witch (1942).
Lobby poster for I Married a Witch (1942).

For a short time during the early 1940s, Veronica Lake was considered one of the most reliable box office draws in Hollywood and was also known for her onscreen pairings with actor Alan Ladd. At first, the couple was put together merely out of physical necessity: Alan Ladd was just 5 feet 5 inches (1.65 m) tall and the only girl then on the Paramount lot short enough to pair with him was Veronica, who stood just 4 feet 11½ inches (1.51 m). They were teamed together for four films.

Lake with frequent collaborator Alan Ladd
Lake with frequent collaborator Alan Ladd

A stray lock of her shoulder-length blonde hair during a publicity photo shoot led to her iconic peekaboo hairstyle which hid one eye, and was widely imitated. During World War II, she changed her trademark image to encourage women working in war industry factories to adopt more practical, safer hairstyles. Some critics have speculated that the loss of her peekaboo look diminished the mystery and allure of her onscreen image, hurting her box office appeal[citation needed].

Although widely popular with the public, Lake had a complex personality and she developed a reputation for being difficult to work with. Eddie Bracken, her co-star in Star Spangled Rhythm (1942), was quoted as saying "[s]he was known as 'The Bitch' and she deserved the title". In that movie, Lake took part in a song lampooning her hair style, "A Sweater, A Sarong and a Peekaboo Bang", performed with Dorothy Lamour and Paulette Goddard, although some of Lake's vocals were dubbed.

Lake's career stumbled with her role as Nazi sympathizer Dora Bruckman in 1944's The Hour Before Dawn. During filming she tripped on a lighting cable and her second child, William, was born prematurely on July 8, 1943. William Detlie died a week later from uremic poisoning. By the end of 1943 her first marriage ended in divorce. Meanwhile, scathingly poor reviews of The Hour Before Dawn included criticism of her unconvincing German accent, which was said to have interfered disastrously with her acting.

Nevertheless, Lake was making $4,500 per week under her contract with Paramount when she married director André de Toth in 1944. Their son, her third child, André Michael de Toth III, was born October 25, 1945.

Lake is said to have begun drinking more heavily during this period and people began refusing to work with her. She had been seeing psychiatrists for years, but de Toth didn't approve, and according to one published account, once suggested that Veronica spend the $50 doctor's fee on a new hat instead[citation needed].

Meanwhile, Paramount cast Lake in a string of mostly forgotten films. A notable exception was The Blue Dahlia (1946) in which she again co-starred with Alan Ladd (who reportedly was also less than fond of her). During filming, author Raymond Chandler referred to her as "Moronica Lake." Paramount decided not to renew her contract in 1948.

[edit] Tragic spiral

Her fourth child, Diana de Toth, was born October 16, 1948. Lake was also sued by her mother for support payments that year. After a single film for 20th Century Fox, her career collapsed. By the end of 1952, she had appeared in one last film (Stronghold, which she later described as "a dog"), filed for bankruptcy, and divorced de Toth. The IRS seized the remainder of her assets for unpaid taxes. Lake resorted to television and stage work, and in 1955 married songwriter Joseph A. McCarthy.

After breaking her ankle in 1959, Lake was unable to continue working as an actress. She and McCarthy divorced, and she drifted between cheap hotels in Brooklyn and New York City and was arrested several times for public drunkenness and disorderly conduct.

A reporter found her working as a barmaid at the all women's Martha Washington Hotel in Manhattan. At first Veronica explained that she was a guest at the hotel and covering for a friend. Soon afterward she admitted that she was employed at the bar. The reporter's widely distributed story led to some television and stage appearances. In 1966, she had a brief stint as a TV hostess in Baltimore, Maryland, along with a largely ignored film role in Footsteps in the Snow.

Her physical and mental health declined steadily and by the late 1960s Lake was in Hollywood, Florida, apparently immobilized by paranoia (which included claims she was being stalked by the FBI).

She published her autobiography Veronica amid much publicity and positive reviews. With the proceeds Lake co-produced and starred in her last film, Flesh Feast (1970), a very low budget horror movie with a Nazi-myth storyline.

She then moved to the UK, where she had a short-lived marriage with "English sea captain" Robert Carleton-Munro before returning to the U.S. in 1973, having filed for divorce. Lake was immediately hospitalized and although she is said to have made a cheerful and positive impression on the nurses who cared for her, she was apparently estranged from her three surviving children. She had no guests or visitors and was destitute again.

Lake was 53 when she died of hepatitis and acute renal failure (complications of her alcoholism) near Burlington, Vermont. Her ashes were scattered off the Virgin Islands.

Lake has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6918 Hollywood Boulevard for her contributions to the motion picture industry.

[edit] Quotes

  • "I wasn't a sex symbol, I was a sex zombie."
  • "You could put all the talent I had into your left eye and still not suffer from impaired vision."
  • "I've reached a point in my life where it's the little things that matter... I was always a rebel and probably could have got much farther had I changed my attitude. But when you think about it, I got pretty far without changing attitudes. I'm happier with that." (1970)

[edit] Trivia

  • She was of Danish and Irish descent.
  • She was reportedly only 4 feet 11 inches (1.50 m) tall (although some accounts place her height two or three inches higher). According to Celebrity Sleuth magazine, Lake said her "measurements" were 33C - 21 1/2 - 33 1/2.
  • Many women are said to have damaged their hair while trying to imitate her platinum blonde color during the 1940s.[citation needed]
  • She learned to fly in 1946 and piloted her small plane from Los Angeles to New York in 1948.
  • A somewhat bizarre twist came in 2004 when some of Lake's ashes were reportedly found in a New York antique store.[2]
  • She appeared as herself in Variety Girl (1947), Duffy's Tavern (1945), Up in Arms (1944) (uncredited, in pin-up photo), Star Spangled Rhythm ("Sweater, Sarong & Peekaboo Bang" number) (1942), The Eyes Have It (1942), and in Hold Back the Dawn (1941).
  • The characters "Veronica Lake and her Escort" walk into the Copacabana night club in Barry Manilow's Musical Comedy Copacabana, and are escorted to a table.

[edit] References in popular culture

  • The Archie comics character Veronica Lodge was partially named after Veronica Lake, who was in the midst of her early celebrity when the comic book character was introduced in the spring of 1942.
  • The first two lines of the Rodgers & Hart song "The Girl I Love to Leave Behind" (which is featured in the 1943 movie Stage Door Canteen) are "She has hair that she wears like Veronica Lake / So that fifty percent of her is blind."
  • Peter Hammill's 2000 album None of the Above contains a song entitled 'Like Veronica', of which the opening line is "Wear your hair like Veronica Lake."
  • Britney Spears paid tribute to Lake in Spears' video of her single "Lucky".
  • In the Family Guy episode Deep Throats in the restaurant scene Stewie is in drag wearing a Veronica Lake wig.
  • Aaliyah also sported the peekaboo hairstyle. She even booked a hotel room under the alias of Veronica Lake. This information comes from her biography made by MTV.

[edit] Filmography

[edit] References

  1. ^ U.S. Census, April 1, 1930, State of New York, County of Kings, enumeration district 1657, page 8-B, family 151, Constance Ockelman (sic), age 7 years, born in Brooklyn. Her father, Harry Ockelman, Jr., is listed as unmarried in the 1920 U.S. Census of Pennsylvania.
  2. ^ "Veronica Lake's Ashes For Sale?"

[edit] External links

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