Lupe Vélez

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Lupe Vélez

Lupe Vélez in Mexican Spitfire (1940)
Born María Guadalupe Villalobos Vélez
(1908-07-18)July 18, 1908
San Luis Potosí, Mexico
Died December 13, 1944(1944-12-13) (aged 36)
Beverly Hills, California, U.S.
Cause of death
 Suicide
Resting place
 Panteón de Dolores
Nationality Mexican
Other names The Mexican Spitfire
The Hot Pepper
Occupation Actress
Years active 1927–1944
Spouse(s) Johnny Weissmuller (1933–1939)

Lupe Vélez (July 18, 1908 – December 13, 1944) was a Mexican film actress. Vélez began her career in Mexico as a dancer before moving to the U.S. where she worked in vaudeville. She was noticed by Fanny Brice who promoted her. Vélez soon entered films, making her first appearance in 1924. By the end of the decade she had progressed to leading roles. With the advent of talking pictures Vélez acted in comedies, but she became disappointed with her film career, and moved to New York where she worked in Broadway productions.

Returning to Hollywood in 1939, she made a series of comedies. She also made some films in Mexico. Vélez's personal life was often difficult; a five-year marriage to Johnny Weissmuller and a series of romances, were highly publicized. She is often associated with the nicknames "The Mexican Spitfire" and "The Hot Pepper".[1]

Vélez was one of the first Mexican actresses to succeed in Hollywood. The others are Dolores del Río, Katy Jurado and in more recent years, Salma Hayek.[2]

Early life

Vélez was born María Guadalupe Villalobos Vélez in the city of San Luis Potosí in Mexico, the daughter of a colonel (Jacobo Villalobos Reyes) in the armed forces of the dictator Porfirio Diaz, and his wife (Josefina Vélez Gomez). She had three younger siblings: Mercedes, Josefina and Emigdio. Because of her impulsive and aggressive behavior towards her classmates, when she was 13 years old, her parents sent her to study at Our Lady of the Lake (now Our Lady of the Lake University) in San Antonio, Texas. This was how she learned to speak English.

After her 15th birthday her father went missing in the Mexican Revolution, Vélez left the convent. She attempted to find work to support her family. Vélez went to work in a warehouse as a clerk earning four dollars a week.[3] She took dancing lessons and in 1924, made her performing debut at the Teatro Principal in Mexico City, with the comedy ¡Ra-ta plan!. She was one of the principal vaudeville stars, along with other stars like Maria Conesa, Prudencia Grifell, Lupe Rivas-Cacho, Celia Montalvan and Mimí Derba. In 1923 she moved to Texas, where she began dancing in vaudeville shows and found work as a sales assistant.

Career

Stage

A family friend, Frank Woodward, recommended Vélez to actor Richard Bennett, who was well known in the American theater. He needed a young woman with the characteristics of Vélez for the stage play The Dove. Vélez came to Los Angeles, but eventually did not get the part.[4]

In California, she met the comedian Fanny Brice, who promoted her career as a dancer.[5] When Lupe was about to move to New York for a stage play, she received a call from Harry Rapf, an official of the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, who offered her a screen test. Hal Roach, producer and director of Pathé Pictures, saw the Vélez tests and hired her a role in the short film Sailors, Beware! with Oliver Hardy and Stan Laurel.[4]

Silent films

Lupe Velez

After her debut in the short film Sailors, Beware!, Vélez appeared in another short film with Hal Roach What Women Did for Me in 1927. Vélez's first feature-length film was The Gaucho (1927) starring Douglas Fairbanks. The next year, she was named one of the WAMPAS Baby Stars, the young starlets deemed to be most promising for movie stardom. The Hollywood entertainment columnists, christened with nicknames like The Mexican Panther, Miss Hot Tamale or Miss Chile Picante, phrases all about the personality of Vélez on the screen.[4] Most of her early films cast her in exotic or ethnic roles (Latina, Native American, French, Russian, and Asian).

Soon after the release of The Gaucho, Vélez made her second major film, Stand and Deliver (1928), in which she played a Greek peasant girl, for the Cecil B. DeMille division of Pathé Pictures. Her next film, Lady of the Pavements (1929), was directed by D. W. Griffith and would be remembered for its image of the Smoking Dog Café. In the film, Vélez, as the café's chanteuse, sings for the first time a number of now-classic Irving Berlin songs. She later appeared in The Wolf Song (1929), directed by Victor Fleming, opposite Gary Cooper.[6]

By the end of the silent era, Vélez's popularity rivaled that of the "It Girl" Clara Bow. She was named The Mexican "IT" Girl.[7]

1930s

Lupe Velez

In her career in Hollywood, Vélez consciously chose and groomed her image as Whoopee Lupe. With her proclamation, "I'm not wild. I'm just Lupe", Vélez developed a public reputation as The Hot Baby of Hollywood, and found herself in roles portraying "half-castes" and exotic characters. In contrast, magazines, newspapers and gossip columnists placed Dolores del Río upon a pedestal, extolling her beauty and character.[7] While Dolores del Rio was refined and educated, Vélez was blunt: she said what came to mind, and did not care how it looked socially.[8]

Vélez stated, "To what do I attribute my success? I think, simply, I'm different. I'm not beautiful, but i have lovely eyes and I know exactly what to do with them. Even though the public thinks I'm a pretty wild girl, I'm really not. I'm just me, Lupe Vélez, a simple and natural Lupe. If I'm happy, I dance and sing and act like a puppy without a care. And if something angers me, I scream, and sob, and I feel a little better. Someone named that "personality". Personality is nothing more than being to other people what you are to yourself. If I tried to look and act like Norma Talmadge, the great dramatic actress, or like gorgeous Corinne Griffith, movie's aristocrat, or like Mary Pickford, sweet and gentle Mary, I would be nothing more than an imitation. That's why I only want to be me, Lupe Vélez".[9]

Vélez made her first all-talking picture, Tiger Rose in 1929. She also starred in Spanish-language versions of some of her movies produced by the Universal Studios. With the arrival of the talkies, Vélez appeared in a series of Pre-Code movies like Hell Harbor (directed by Henry King, The Storm, and the crime drama East is West with Edward G. Robinson (1930). In 1931 she worked with Cecil B. DeMille in the film Squaw Man. Vélez's notable work was Resurrection, directed by Edwin Carewe (the previous version was realized by Carewe in 1927 with Dolores del Río). Vélez became increasingly confined to fiery supporting roles, although these characters were sometimes of different ethnicities.[6]

In 1932, Vélez filmed The Cuban Love Song (1931), with Lawrence Tibbett. Moisés Simons's 1929 song, "El Manisero" achieved popularity in the United States in 1932 (a year after this film was released), when it was translated into English. All versions in this film were in Spanish. Next, she filmed Kongo, a second version of West of Zanzibar, with Walter Huston.

In 1933, Vélez appeared in The Half-Naked Truth with Lee Tracy, for which she won critical acclaim. In the film, she portrayed "Princess Exotica, a publicity hungry actress posing as an escaped harem beauty". Vélez's, character displayed aggressive sexual behavior and the ability to promote herself, a parody of Vélez's own off-screen abilities.[7]

Vélez soon found her niche in comedy, playing beautiful but volatile characters. In 1933, she starred the comedy Hot Pepper, with Victor McLaglen and Edmund Lowe. This film is considered an installment in the series of films dating back to the silent film What Price Glory? (1926), starring Lowe and McLaglen in their characters of Sergeant Harry Quirt and Captain Jim Flagg with Dolores Del Rio as the female costar. The pair made a sequel to that film called The Cock-Eyed World (1929), costarring Lili Damita.[10]

with Ramón Novarro in Laughing Boy (1934).

She starred with Jimmy Durante in Palooka and Strictly Dynamite (both in 1934). That same year, Vélez filmed Laughing Boy with Ramón Novarro. Despite both Vélez and Novarro's popularity, the film was a failure in large part due to casting. Novarro and Vélez were cast as Native Americans - a decision that doomed this film to failure even before it was begun. Her battle with Laurel and Hardy in Hollywood Party is another typical enthusiastic Vélez performances.

In 1934, Vélez was one of the victims of the "witch hunt" for "reds" in Hollywood. With Dolores del Río, Ramón Novarro and James Cagney, she was accused of promoting communism in California. The accusation arose after del Río, Novarro, Cagney and Vélez attended a special screening of the film Que viva Mexico! of Sergei M. Eisenstein which copies were claimed by Joseph Stalin from the Soviet Union to be edited.[11]

Broadway, Europe and Mexico

Vélez on an Argentinean magazine.

Although Vélez was a popular actress, RKO Pictures did not renew her contract in 1934. Over the next few years, Vélez traveled from studio to studio; she also spent two years in England making films. In England she filmed The Morals of Marcus and Gypsy Melody (1936).[7] It was part of the producer Julius Hagen's ambitious programme of film production. Hagen brought in Vélez, a leading Mexican actress, to give the her films greater international appeal.

Vélez was now nearing 30 and had not become a major star. Disappointed, she left Hollywood for Broadway. In New York, she landed a role in You Never Know, a short-lived Cole Porter musical. Eventually, she participated in West End Revue with Greta Nissen.

In 1937 she returned to Hollywood. She was featured in the final Wheeler & Woolsey comedy, High Flyers, doing impersonations of Katharine Hepburn, Simone Simon, Dolores del Río, Marlene Dietrich and Shirley Temple.[12] Lupe Vélez was very popular with Spanish-speaking audiences. She returned to Mexican films in 1938 starring in La Zandunga (1938), directed by Fernando de Fuentes, with Arturo de Córdova.

Mexican Spitfire

Returning to Hollywood in 1939, she snared the lead in a B comedy for RKO Radio Pictures, The Girl from Mexico. She established such a rapport with co-star Leon Errol that RKO made a quick sequel, Mexican Spitfire, which became a very popular series. Vélez perfected her comic character, indulging in broken-English malaprops, trouble-making ideas, and sudden fits of temper bursting into torrents of Spanish invective. She occasionally sang in these films, and often displayed a talent for hectic, visual comedy. Vélez enjoyed making these films and can be seen openly breaking up at Leon Errol's comic ad libs.

The Spitfire films rejuvenated Vélez's career, and for the next few years she starred in musical and comedy features for RKO, Universal Pictures, and Columbia Pictures in addition to the Spitfire films. In one of her last films, Columbia's Redhead from Manhattan, she played a dual role: one in her exaggerated comic dialect, and the other in her actual speaking voice.

In 1941 she filmed Six Lessons from Madame La Zonga, again opposite Leon Errol. In 1941, she filmed Playmates, the last movie of John Barrymore.

In 1944, she returned to Mexican films starring in an adaptation of Émile Zola's novel Nana, which was well received. Vélez career in the late thirties suffered from too many exotic, two-dimensional roles designed with Hollywood's cliched ideas of ethnic minorities in mind. In the late thirties the Latin temperament was no longer fashionable. Once these characters and films proved useless to Dolores del Río, she moved back to Mexico in 1943 and to more appropriate roles. Vélez apparently planned a similar move in 1944, but she was overwhelmed by the difficulties of her personal life.[7]

Personal life

Relationships

Vélez had a number of highly publicized affairs. Her first widely publicized love affair was with John Gilbert.[13] She also had affairs with Clark Gable, Charlie Chaplin, Erich Maria Remarque, Errol Flynn and Mexican actor Arturo de Córdova.[14]

One of Vélez's more publicized relationships was with actor Gary Cooper. Vélez met Cooper during the filming of The Wolf Song, and began a two-year affair with him.[15] About her romance with Cooper, Dietrich said: "Gary was totally under the control of Lupe".[16] When Cooper filmed Morocco, he found time to have an affair with Dietrich, despite the constant presence of Vélez on the set.[17] Vélez once said, "If I had the opportunity to do so, I would draw the eyes to Marlene Dietrich".[18]

Marriage

After her relationship with Cooper ended, Vélez married Olympic athlete Johnny Weissmuller (of Tarzan fame) in 1933.[19] The marriage lasted five years; they repeatedly split and reunited several times before divorcing in 1939.[20]

Rivalry with del Río

Vélez reportedly had a rivalry with fellow Mexican actress Dolores del Río, due in large part to Vélez resentment over del Río's success. Del Río was terrified to meet Vélez in public places because Vélez was known to be biting, aggressive, and openly mocked del Río.[21]

Death

In the mid-1940s, Vélez began a relationship with actor Harald Maresch, and became pregnant with his child. Unable to face the shame of giving birth to a child out of wedlock, she decided to take her own life. Her suicide note read:

"To Harald: May God forgive you and forgive me, too; but I prefer to take my life away and our baby's, before I bring him with shame, or killin' him.
Lupe."[22]

She retired to bed after taking an overdose of sleeping pills,[23] specifically she swallowed 580 Seconal pills.[24] According to newspaper accounts at the time, her body was found by her secretary and companion of ten years, Beulah Kinder, on her bed surrounded by flowers, as she had wished. But in a Huffington Post report on May 24, 2013, the first ever photo of the scene of Lupe's death was published, showing how she was found by police: on the floor, not on her bed.

There is skepticism surrounding whether it was simply the shame of bearing a child out of wedlock that led Vélez to end her life. Throughout her life she showed signs of extreme emotion, mania and depression. Consequently, some biographers have suggested that Vélez suffered from bipolar disorder, which, left untreated, ultimately led to her suicide. Rosa Linda Fregoso writes that Vélez was known for her defiance of contemporary moral convention, and it seems unlikely that she could not have reconciled an "illegitimate child."[25]

Lupe Vélez was buried in the Panteón de Dolores, in the Tacubaya section of Mexico City, in a walled section within the itself walled cemetery, reserved for artists and administered by the Asociación Nacional de Actores of México (National Association of Actors from México) (ANDA).

Lupe Vélez has a star in the Hollywood Walk of Fame in the 6927 Hollywood Boulevard for her contributions to the motion picture industry.

References in popular culture

  • In a poll of Mexican filmgoers, actresses Marquita Rivera and Amalia Aguilar were chosen to star in a Hollywood film based on the life of the actress. However, due to the controversy over Vélez's suicide at that time, the film was never produced.
  • Andy Warhol's underground film, Lupe (1965), starring Edie Sedgwick as Vélez, is loosely based on the night of her suicide. The film suggests that Vélez was found with her head in the toilet due to nausea caused by the overdose.
  • In the first episode of the sitcom Frasier, "The Good Son", Frasier Crane's producer Roz Doyle tries to improve Frasier's outlook on his life by telling him the story of Lupe Vélez, "last seen with her head in the toilet". Apparently according to Roz, the pills she had taken did not mix well with "the enchilada combo plate she sadly chose as her last meal." When Frasier asks how her story is supposed to make him feel better, Roz responds that sometimes things don't go the way we want them to, but can work out in the end, anyway. She adds, "All she wanted was to be remembered. Will you ever forget that story?".[26]
  • She was mentioned in The Simpsons episode titled "Homer's Phobia". Guest star John Waters gave the Simpson family, sans Homer, a driving tour of Springfield's shopping district, where he pointed out the store where reportedly Vélez bought the toilet she drowned in.[27]
  • In Robert Stone's novel Children of Light, a troubled actress refers to a suicide-by-drowning scene she has just acted out as "Lupe Vélez takes a dunk."
  • She is mentioned in the Michael Chabon novel The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, as well as the 2000 film Wonder Boys, adapted from the Chabon novel of the same name.
  • In 2009 the Mexican film director Martín Caballero made the short film "Forever Lupe" based on the life of Vélez. Mexican actress Marieli Romo played the role of Vélez in the film.

Filmography

Main article: Lupe Vélez filmography

References

  1. ↑ Revista Somos: Katy Jurado:Estrella de Hollywood orgullosamente mexicana: Latinas en Hollywood. Editorial Televisa S.A de C.V. 1999. p. 86. 
  2. ↑ Revista Somos: Katy Jurado:Estrella de Hollywood orgullosamente mexicana. Editorial Televisa S.A de C.V. 1999. p. 19. 
  3. ↑ SOMOS (1999), p. 85
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 SOMOS (1999), p. 86
  5. ↑ Ramírez, Gabriel 1986
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Clara Rodriguez, Heroes, Lovers, and Others: The Story of Latinos in Hollywood
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 Elizabeth Jameson, Writing the Range: Race, Class, and Culture in the Women's West
  8. ↑ SOMOS (1999), p. 87
  9. ↑ Ramírez (1986), p. 35, 63
  10. ↑ The American Film Institute Catalog Feature Films: 1931-40 by The American Film Institute, c.1993
  11. ↑ Ramón, David (1997). Dolores del Río. Clío. pp. 51–52,. ISBN 968-6932-35-6. 
  12. ↑ "Una serenata para Lupe". unaserenataparalupe.blogspot.mx. Retrieved 17 January 2014. 
  13. ↑ Austin, John (1994). Hollywood's Babylon Women. Shapolsky Publicers, Inc. p. 112. ISBN 1-56171-257-4. 
  14. ↑ Carolyn Roos Olsen & Marylin Hudson, Hollywood's Man Who Worried for the Stars: The Story of Bö Roos
  15. ↑ Ruíz, Vicki; Sánchez Korrol, Virginia (2006). Latinas in the United States: A Historical Encyclopedia, Volume 1 1. Indiana University Press. p. 793. ISBN 0-253-34681-9. 
  16. ↑ Dietrich, Marlene (1989). Marlene. Grove Press. ISBN 0-8021-1117-3. 
  17. ↑ History on Film: Actors: Gary Cooper
  18. ↑ Revista Vanidades de México: Año 46 no. 12 Marlene Dietrich. Editorial Televisa S.A de C.V. 2006. p. 141. ISSN 1665-7519. 
  19. ↑ Revista Somos: Katy Jurado:Estrella de Hollywood orgullosamente mexicana. Editorial Televisa S.A de C.V. 1999. p. 87. 
  20. ↑ Sochen, June (1999). From Mae to Madonna: Women Entertainers in Twentieth-Century America. University Press of Kentucky. p. 128. ISBN 0-8131-2112-4. 
  21. ↑ Corona, Moises (1999). Lupe Vélez: A medio siglo de ausencia. EDAMEX S.A de C.V. p. 10. ISBN 968-409-872-3. 
  22. ↑ Austin, John (1993). Hollywood's Greatest Mysteries: All the Scandalous Truth That Hollywood Doesn't Want You to Know. SP Books. p. 187. ISBN 1-56171-258-2. 
  23. ↑ "Biography for Lupe Velez". Turner Classic Movies. Retrieved 19 April 2009. 
  24. ↑ King, Susan; "Maker of Smiles"; Los Angeles Times, August 13, 2012; page D3.
  25. ↑ Fregoso, Rosa Linda. (2007) Lupe Velez: Queen of the B's. In Myra Mendible (ed.) From Bananas to Buttocks: The Latina Body in Popular Film and Culture. Austin University of Texas Press.
  26. ↑ The Frasier Files: Transcripts – 1.1 The Good Son
  27. ↑ "Homer's Phobia" in The Simpsons Archive

Bibliography

  • Ramíass, Gabriel (1986). Lupe Vélez: La Mexicana que escupía fuego. Cineteca Nacional. 
  • Corona, Moises (1996). Lupe Velez, a medio siglo de ausencia. EDAMEX. ISBN 968-409-872-3. 
  • E. Fey, Ingrid., Racine, Karen (2000). Strange Pilgrimages: Exile, Travel, and National Identity in Latin America, 1800-1990s: "So Far from God, So Close to Hollywood: Dolores del Río and Lupe Vélez in Hollywood, 1925-1944,". Wilmington, Delaware, Scholarly Resources. ISBN 0-8420-2694-0. 
  • Agrasánchez Jr., Rogelio (2001). Bellezas del cine mexicano/Beauties of Mexican Cinema. Archivo Fílmico Agrasánchez. ISBN 968-5077-11-8. 

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Lupe Velez.
Authority control
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike; additional terms may apply for the media files.