Gene Markey
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| Gene Markey | |
|---|---|
| Born | December 11, 1895 Jackson, Michigan |
| Died | May 1, 1980 (aged 84) Miami Beach, Florida |
| Spouse(s) | Joan Bennett (1932-1937) Hedy Lamarr (1939-1941) Myrna Loy (1946-1950) Lucille Parker Wright (1952-1980) |
Eugene "Gene" Lawrence Markey, Jr. (Dec. 11, 1895 - May 1, 1980) was an American author, producer, screenwriter, and highly decorated naval officer.
[edit] Biography
Markey was born in Jackson, Michigan on December 11, 1895. He graduated from Dartmouth College in 1918. With the entry of the United States into World War I, Markey became a lieutenant in the infantry and saw action at the Battle of Belleau Wood.
He was a skilled sketch artist, which gained him entry, after the war, into the Art Institute of Chicago starting in 1919 and finishing in 1920. There, he claimed to have "studied painting and learned nothing". After that, he worked as a journalist in Chicago for several newspapers and magazines, including Photoplay magazine. It was during the 1920s that Gene Markey first became a writer, specializing in novels about the Jazz Age. Among his titles were Anabel, Stepping High, Women, Women, Everywhere, and His Majesty's Pajamas.
He went to Hollywood in 1929 and became a screenwriter for Twentieth Century Fox. His screen credits included King of Burlesque (1936) starring Alice Faye, Girls' Dormitory (1936) featuring Herbert Marshall, and On the Avenue (1937), starring Dick Powell, Madeleine Carroll, and Alice Faye. He was also the producer of the 1937 Shirley Temple film, Wee Willie Winkie, among others.
Although he was not overly handsome, he was a very skilled conversationalist and he quickly became a popular fixture in Hollywood society. Markey was married three times - to some of the leading glamour girls of the day. His first wife was Joan Bennett, from 1932 to 1937 (which produced a daughter, Melinda). He was married to Heddy Lamarr from 1939 to 1940 and to Myrna Loy from 1946 to 1950. At first, Loy claimed mental cruelty, but later retracted it, saying, "He could make a scrubwoman think she was a queen and he could make a queen think she was the queen of queens."
Markey joined the Naval Reserves in 1920 and it was during World War II that he made his greatest mark. In August of 1941, he reported to Balboa, Panama with the rank of Lieutenant Commander. He had a yacht, Melinda (named after his daughter) that he donated to the United States Navy for use as a submarine chaser. During the war, Markey rose to the rank of commodore (he would be promoted to rear admiral when he officially retired from the Navy on February 27, 1956) and served as an assistant intelligence officer on the staff of Admiral William "Bull" Halsey at Guadalcanal. He was highly decorated; among his awards were the Bronze Star (for leading a reconnaissance mission in the Solomon Islands in 1942), a Commendation Medal, the Legion of Merit, Italy's Star of Solidarity, and France's Legion of Honor.
He returned to Hollywood after the war and, on September 27, 1952, he married his fourth wife, Lucille Parker Wright, the widow of Warren Wright, owner of the Calumet Farm racing stable. One of the farm's champion race horses, a Filly named, Our Mims, was named after Markey's daughter, Melinda. They remained married until Admiral Markey's death. Markey left California after his marriage.
Dividing his time between Lexington, KY, Saratoga Springs, NY, and Miami Beach, FL, he continued to write. Among his works during this period were: Kentucky Pride, an adventure/romance set in Civil War Kentucky, and That Far Paradise, a story of an 18th Century family making its way from Virginia to settle in what what would later become Kentucky. As background research for his book, Markey recreated the journey himself. Markey was very fond of the time he spent in Kentucky, quickly becoming a fixture on its social scene and becoming good friends with many members of the thoroughbred racing community. He once told a reporter, "I cannot restrain my ardor for the place and its people.....No duck ever took to water as I have taken to Kentucky." On July 31, 1958, Admiral Markey was comissioned a Kentucky Colonel (a ceremonial rank) by Governor Albert Benjamin "Happy" Chandler, Sr.. He would also serve as the model for the character played by Burgess Meredith in the 1965 film, In Harm's Way, starring his good friend, John Wayne.
On May 1, 1980, Markey died at the Miami Beach Heart Institute. He was 84 years old.
[edit] References
- New York Times obituary - May 2, 1980
- Wild Ride, Anne Hagedorn Auerbach, New York, Henry Holt and Company, LLC, 1994
- The Bennetts: An Acting Family, Brian Kellow, Lexington, The University Press of Kentucky, 2004
