Rebel Randall

Rebel Randall

Randall in 1940
Born Alaine Charlotte Dorothy Brandes
(1922-01-22)January 22, 1922
Chicago, Illinois
Died July 22, 2010(2010-07-22) (aged 88)
Riverside, California
Years active 1940-1956
Spouse(s) William Mann Moore (aka Peter Potter)
(1946 - 9 October 1947)
(May 1943 - April 1944)
Glenn Thompson
(21 September 1953 - December 1953; )

Rebel Randall (born Alaine Charlotte Dorothy Brandes (January 22, 1922 – July 22, 2010[1]), was an American film actress and radio personality.[2] She appeared in approximately 50 films between 1940 and 1956.

She was a popular G.I. pin-up girl during the 1940s and did several layouts, including one for Esquire magazine. She did a stint as "The Coca Cola Girl" in advertisements and was a disc jockey for the Armed Forces Radio Services and hosted a show called "Radio Calling". In the 1950s, Rebel discovered that a New Orleans stripper began using her name and she had to legally stop her.

According to an interview with Mike Barnum in the December 2009 issue of "Classic Images", she got her initial start after winning a scholarship to the Max Reinhardt Workshop in Hollywood where she appeared as Queen Titania in a version of "A Midsummer Night's Dream. Once a John Robert Powers model before going to Hollywood. Born and raised in Chicago, and graduated from Foreman High School.

A glamorous brunette, she is remembered for her several dozen cinematic appearances from the early 1940s thru the mid 1950s. After making a name for herself doing radio commercials, she moved to Hollywood where she made her 1940 silver screen bow in "Turnabout". Working as a Paramount contract player, she was seen in numerous features of the day, among them 1941's "The Lone Rider in Ghost Town", "In Old Oklahoma" and "The Powers Girl" (both 1943), the 1945 "Booby Dupes", and 1945's "The Shadow Returns".

During World War II, Rebel also worked as a Powers model, was a popular GI pin-up girl, was featured as "Esquire" magazine's centerfold at least twice, and had two failed marriages to radio personality William Mann Moore, A.K.A. Peter Potter; in 1949, she was named "The Most Beautiful Girl on TV".

In September 1953, Rebel married wealthy actor and businessman Glenn Thompson in an ill-starred union that lasted only a few days due to her husband's apparent mental instability, the marriage ending in annulment.

Last seen on the screen in the 1956 short "Come on Seven", she lived the rest of her days in Southern California, was for a time the face of Coca Cola, had romances with several high-profile men, though she never married again, gradually faded from view, and died after spending her final years in a nursing facility. A number of her films are preserved on DVD.

Life Timeline

22 January 1922 is born in Chicago, Cook County, Illinois

1923 is named the most beautiful child in a baby show

1925 is designated best dancer in an operetta at age 5

? is named foremost dancer at the Enchanted Island of Chicago’s Century of Progress exhibition

? is on stage at a Chicago playhouse in everything from The Wild Duck to Long Voyage Home

1940 is crowned “Ad Queen of Chicago” by the Chicago Federated Advertising Club. As a reward, she is sent to Hollywood with a scholarship to study at Max Reinhardt’s workshop / upon graduation she plays the lead in Booth Tarkington's Seventeen, where she is seen by a talent scout who suggests that she audition for Max Reinhardt's Workshop in Hollywood

1940 is crowned “Movie Glamour Girl of 1940” by the Motion Pictures Still Photographers Association

May 40 is among the leading candidates tested for Columbia’s upcoming Tillie, the Toiler; pinups in the magazines hail her as a member of the cast of The Boys from Syracuse. The publicity department then discovers that she isn’t in the movie at all. In the nick of time, just before shooting is completed, a bit role is found for her.

? is a Powers model

Summer 1942 after a one-year stock contract at Paramount with nothing to do except bit roles and publicity stills, she revolts and changes her name to Rebel Randall

June 1942 calls off her engagement to radio announcer Peter Potter (aka William Mann Moore)

1943 is the fold-out in Esquire

May 1943 marries William M. Moore, a.k.a. Peter Potter, the radio personality

April 1944 is reported taking time off from Atlantic City to divorce Peter Potter, creator of Potter's Platter Parade and Juke Box Jury

June 1944 Esquire features her in a series of American beauties representing Eastern-style beauty

Summer 1944 is on the cover of Glamorous Models

1946 remarries Peter Potter (aka William Mann Moore)

9 October 1947 divorces Potter for a second time in Los Angeles. She says he stayed away from home for days at a time.

1949 is named “The Most Beautiful Girl on TV” and “The Glamour Girl of Hollywood”

May 1952 models Hollywood-approved fashion in a layout in Modern Screen

October 1952 is a big success as Hollywood's only female disc jockey with her Armed Forces Radio Service program "America Calling" on KCBS. She claims she has the world's biggest telephone bill - at least $2,000 a month. Between records, she awards a free phone call to a GI overseas and his family at home. She paid those bills herself. "Only one minute of the phone call is heard on the air, after which the bosomy disc jockey lets the rest of the conversation be private from the estimated radio audience of 244,000,000." Her popularity earns her a lot of titles: "Miss Double Distilled Honey," "The Girl Who Keeps Us Cooking," "The Girl We'd Most Like to Keep Us Warm," "The Girl We Would Like to be at Sea With," "The Girl We Would Most Like to Buzz With," and "The Girl Whose Voice Could Melt an Iceberg"

November 1952 her program "Jukebox, U.S.A." is reported the biggest mail-getter of the Armed Forces Radio Service

21 September 1953 marries wealthy actor-salesman Glenn Thompson of Amarillo, Texas, in Las Vegas, Nevada. He's 22; she's 32. He’s the son of socialite Tommy Thompson and was seen around a lot with Georgette Martel, sister of "Miss Universe," Christiane Martel. She leaves him after three to six days.

6 October 1953 files a suit in Los Angeles court asking for annulment of her marriage to Thompson, showing a great deal of bitterness. She declares that Thompson deceived her by saying his real name was Glenn Burgess and that he "was not a healthy and normal male and did not desire children" and was once "committed to a sanitarium for treatment as abnormal." She adds that the marriage shocked her physically and mentally. She wants $500,000 in damages. The press gives his age as 22; hers as 26. On July 10, 1950, Thompson had tried to commit suicide in New York by jumping from the Brooklyn Bridge and was taken to Bellevue hospital for mental examination.

4 November 1953 Burgess is found semiconscious in the basement of an antique shop / art gallery on Sunset Boulevard, that is owned by his father, Tommy Thompson, having cut his wrists and having taken poison or sleeping pills in a suicide attempt. He is reported in fair condition at General Hospital. The police say he telephoned his mother, Mrs. Robert Burgess, in Amarillo, Texas, that he was dying and left a suicide note. His mother contacted her divorced husband, Thompson, who found Burgess on the basement floor. The note reads: "Before I kill myself I want to tell you I love you and dad... I can't stand the disgrace of Miss Randall's charges... You know that it isn't true. My mind is perfectly clear and I think this is the best way out for all of us... I couldn't face any more than I've been through..." Sheriff Sergeant E. J. Evans says Burgess had attempted to see Rebel without success the night before.

9 November 1953 columnist Harrison Carroll ponders: "If Rebel Randall files the expected annulment against Glenn Thompson, will her process servers be able to serve him personally? According to intimates, Glenn is taking off for England to be the house guest of Lady Tankerville Chamberlayne and then will go on to Portugal to visit at the home of Madame Lupescu."

Early December 1953 obtains an annulment from Thompson in Los Angeles because theirs was a "kissless" honeymoon. She testifies that she and Thompson never lived as man and wife after their elopement last September. She dismisses the part of her suit which demanded $500,000 damages on grounds he concealed that he was not mentally and physically suited for marriage.

April 1954 meets Count Julio Thomas Molnar in Buenos Aires, Argentina

July 1954 is off to Paris, France, to visit Molnar and to attend with him the marriage of Jean-Marc Heidsieck of the famous champagne clan

March 1956 dates ad executive Robert E. Lee even though she claims she is still engaged to Molnar, whom she hasn’t seen in a year

August 1956 attends Roberta Linn's opening at the Mocambo with Blake Garner. Columnist Harrison Carroll reports that he noticed "that Rebel now wears her engagement ring from Count Julio Molnar on her right hand..."

1990s lives in Palm Springs

22 July 2010 dies in Riverside, California at the age of 88

July 2010 buried Desert Memorial Park, Cathedral City, Riverside County, CA, Plot: Section B-9, Lot #60, not far from her twice-married ex-husband, William Mann Moore (aka Peter Potter)

Favorite Quotes

"I loved my work and I took it seriously."

"One of the problems of being an actor is that you work, and then you don't work. The time that you don't work might be extensive and you do still have to continue to live."

Selected filmography

References

  1. ↑ http://www.threestooges.net/cast.php?id=375
  2. ↑ "Radio: G.I.s' Disc Jockey". Time Magazine. May 21, 1951. Retrieved November 3, 2011.(subscription required)

[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] [16] [17] [18] [19] [20]

  1. ↑ "The Rebellious Rebel Randall," by Mike Barnum for Classic Images
  2. ↑ Lincoln Sunday Journal and Star
  3. ↑ The Frederick Post
  4. ↑ Van Nuys News
  5. ↑ The Lowell Sun
  6. ↑ Modern Screen
  7. ↑ Pottstown Mercury
  8. ↑ Syracuse Herald-Journal
  9. ↑ The Lethbridge Herald
  10. ↑ Reno Evening Gazette
  11. ↑ The News
  12. ↑ The Ada Evening News
  13. ↑ The Modesto Bee
  14. ↑ Long Beach Independent
  15. ↑ Long Beach Press Telegram
  16. ↑ San Mateo Times
  17. ↑ Walla Walla Union-Bulletin
  18. ↑ The Vidette-Messenger
  19. ↑ The Port Arthur News
  20. ↑ IMDb.com
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