Wonderland Burlesque's Let's Go To The Movies: That Girl! Edition, Part VIII

Wonderland Burlesque's 

Let's Go To The Movies

That Girl! Edition, Part VIII

Who's that girl? Well, I'll tell you who...

This week the girls are all over the place! Taking on big business, daring adventures, societal norms with a couple of very funny ladies thrown into the mix... all featuring 'that girl'. 

You know the one!

The one whose essence can instantly be captured with one or two words before attaching the word 'girl'. Sure, she's a full-blooded woman (in most cases), but let's keep it young and vital and grant her 'girl' status anyway.

What makes her tick? And what sells tickets?

We've got lots of divas to learn about, and yes, I've a trio of sordid Tinseltown tales to tell.

So, let's pop some corn, grab a seat on the aisle and marvel at these golden ladies of the silver screen.

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The Apple Tree Girl

(1917)

(A young girl, raised on a Connecticut farm, lives in the shadow of Micah's legendary apple tree, whose fruit changed from pale green to spotted red after a peddler was killed and buried at its base. Orphaned, she goes to live with her aunt and a female cousin. At school, the girl finds herself living in a different shadow, that of her cousin. Considered plain, the girl finds herself teased by her cousin, who goes on to become engaged to a wealthy local boy. The final straw is broken when upon graduating high school, the girl finds her academic achievements overshadowed by her cousin, who has the lead in the class play. She vows to become popular, famous and marry a rich man. She does this by taking up golf. She becomes a hit on the country club circuit, winning tournament after tournament. At one of these events, she hits a multi-million in the head with a golf ball, after which, she devotes herself to nursing him back to health. Grateful, the millionaire proposes marriage - which is when the young woman realizes she's still in love with a boy who befriended her in high school.)  

(This silent drama was directed by Alan Crosland and stars Shirley Mason, Raymond McKee and Jessie Stevens.)

(Enrolled in dance classes at a young age, Mason and her two sisters Edna and Virginia became actresses at the insistence of their mother. The trio spent their childhood as part of various touring companies. All three Flugrath sisters were hired by Edison Studios, who dubbed her Shirley Mason, due to her role in the 1917 film shorts, Seven Deadly Sins.)

(Like both her sisters, Mason fell in love with and married a film director - each establishing a winning husband and wife film team. She met her future husband, Bernard Durning, on the set of one of his films. Though eight years her senior, the two married; Mason was only 16 years old at the time. The two enjoyed several fruitful years. However, in 1923, Bernard contracted typhoid fever and died, leaving the 22-year-old a widow. Four years later, she remarried - yet another director - and remained so until her second husband died of a heart attack in 1972.)

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Big Business Girl

(1931)

(A young college graduate plans to conquer the business world, while her head-in-the-clouds boyfriend  takes his swing band on tour to Paris. Eventually, the young woman nabs the attention - in more ways than one - of a successful ad executive. Thanks to her skills and beauty, she soon finds her star on the rise as she climbs the corporate ladder. When the boyfriend returns, all the romantic entanglements lead to crossed-wires and misunderstandings.)

Big Business Girl is a 1931 pre-Code First National sound comedy film directed by William A. Seiter and starring Loretta Young, then eighteen years old. It was released theatrically through First National's parent company Warner Bros. Loretta Young was just 18 years old when this film was released.

  (Starting as a child, Young enjoyed a long and varied career in film from 1917 to 1953. She won an Academy Award for Best Actress for her work in the 1947's The Farmer's Daughter, receiving a second nomination for 1949's Come to the Stable. She then brought new energy and ideas to television, creating the dramatic anthology series, The Loretta Young Show, earning three Emmy Awards in the process.) 

Big business is right!

(Young married three times and had three children. Her first marriage ended in an annulment after one year.  From September 1933 to June 1934, she had a well-publicized affair with her Man's Castle co-star, Spencer Tracy, who was married to Louise Tracy at the time.)

(She then teamed up onscreen with Clark Gable for 1935's The Call of the Wild. Rumor had it that the romance spilled right off the screen. Gable was 34 years-old and married to Maria “Ria” Langham at the time. During filming, the 22 year-old Young found herself with child - Clark Gable's child!)

(Young, who did not want to damage her or Gable's career, knew that if her studio, Twentieth Century Pictures found out, they would pressure her to have an abortion - something Young, as a devout Catholic, could not do, as it is considered a mortal sin. So Young's sisters and mother came up with a plan to keep the pregnancy a secret and, at a later date, pass off the child as having been adopted.)

(Young was whisked away to England on a 'vacation'. Upon her return to Hollywood, she gave an exclusive interview from her bed, stating that her long movie absence was due to a health condition she'd dealt with since childhood. Young gave birth to her daughter, Judith, on November 6, 1935, in Venice, California. Judith was named after St. Jude - because he was the patron saint of  difficult situations. A few weeks after her birth, Judith was placed in an orphanage, where she spent the next 19 months before eventually being re-united with her new 'adoptive' mother, Loretta Young. When Young married Tom Lewis, Judith took his last name.)

(However, few in Tinseltown were fooled; the girl bore a strong resemblance to Gable, and the whispers grew through the years. At the age of 31, Judith confronted her mother regarding her parentage. It was only then that Young privately admitted that she was the birth mother, calling Judith "a walking mortal sin". Publicly, Young refused to confirm or comment on the matter - until 1999, when Joan Wester Anderson wrote Young's authorized biography. In the book, Young shared that Judith was her biological child and the product of a brief affair with Gable. Given that, Young refused to allow the book to be published until after her death. )

(But even then, there was more to the story...)

(In 2015, fifteen years after Young's death, a family member broke ranks.)

(According to Linda Lewis, the wife of Young's son, Christopher, in 1998, a then-85-year-old Young told her that Gable had raped her. According to Linda Lewis, Young said that no consensual intimate contact had occurred between Gable and herself. Young had never disclosed the rape to anyone because she didn't realize it was rape. Young had been brought up to believe that it was a woman's job to fend off men's amorous advances and, therefore, felt her inability to thwart Gable's attack as a moral failing on her part. Linda Lewis claimed Young shared this information only after learning of the concept of date rape by watching an episode of Larry King Live. The family chose to remain silent about Young's rape claim until both Young and Judith Lewis were dead.)

(Young was a life-long Republican.)

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Society Girl

(1932)

(A boxing great becomes distracted while training for a championship fight by a beautiful debutante.  His manager quickly gets fed up with the girl's constant interference and walks out - with the debutante quickly following suit!)

"All men were her playthings."

(This pre-code comedy/drama was directed by Sidney Lanfield and stars James Dunn, Peggy Shannon and Spencer Tracy. Tracy, in a rare supporting role, plays the boxer's frustrated manager. At the time, Tracy was at odds with Fox Film Corporation, thus the demotion.)

(In 1923, Shannon began her career as a Ziegfeld girl before moving on to staring roles on Broadway, where she was spotted in 1927 by B.P. Schulberg, then production head of Paramount Pictures. Signed to the studio, she was groomed to be the next Clara Bow. As the newest 'It Girl', Shannon replaced Bow - who had suffered a nervous breakdown - in 1931's The Secret Call.)

Peggy Shannon

(However, Shannon had problems of her own! Sometimes working 16-hour days shooting a film, only to wrap one film before being rushed off to begin another, her drinking problem quickly spiraled out of control, taking its toll on her career. By 1932, Paramount had had enough. She managed to sign a new contract at Fox, but quickly garnered a reputation for being difficult and temperamental on the set.) 

(When no future pictures were forthcoming, she returned to Broadway. where she enjoyed one successful run of a show, before being replaced during her second. Her growing dependency on alcohol eventually completely derailed her career. She appeared in her final film, 1940's Triple Justice. Then, in May of 1941, Shannon died at the age of 34 from a heart attack, brought on by alcoholism. Three weeks after Shannon's death, her husband committed suicide by shooting himself with a .22 rifle in the same chair in which she had died. His suicide note read "I am very much in love with my wife, Peggy Shannon. In this spot she died, so in reverence to her, you will find me in the same spot.")

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Hat Check Girl

(1932)

(In a bustling nightclub filled with  bootleggers, blackmailers and other crooks, a hat check girl  falls in love with a millionaire playboy. Buster Collins. With the help of her best friend, she navigates the seamy underworld in which she works, doing her best to stay on the right side of the law.) 

(Based on a novel by Rian James, this pre-code comedy was directed by Sidney Lanfield and stars Sally Eilers, Ben Lyon, Ginger Rogers and Monroe Owsley.)  

(Early trade paper ads for this film announced that the stars were to be Peggy Shannon, John Boles, El Brendel, and Alexander Kirkland - as directed by John Francis Dillon. The film ultimately was made without the participation of any of these people. Shannon was most likely replaced due to her onset behavior spurred on by her alcoholism.)

(Eilers made her film debut in 1927 in The Red Mill,  directed by Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle. She soon found steady work with Mack Sennett as one of his 'flaming youth' comedians, appearing in several comedy short subjects along side friend Carole Lombard. In 1928, she was voted as one of the WAMPAS Baby Stars; a yearly list of young actresses selected by publicity people in the film business, with selection based on the actresses' having "shown the most promise during the past 12 months.")

(A popular figure in early-1930's Hollywood, Eilers was known for her high spirits and vivacity. Her films were mostly comedies and crime melodramas such as 1931's Quick Millions with Spencer Tracy and George Raft. By the end of the decade, her popularity had waned, and her subsequent film appearances were few. But... she enjoyed a Hollywood existence: she married four times and lived in a mansion in Beverly Hills, California designed by architect Paul R. Williams.)

Sally Eilers and Ginger Rogers

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Adventure Girl

(1934)

(Young adventurer, Joan Lowell, with her father and two crew members, sail from New York to the Caribbean in a 48-foot schooner christened Black Hawk. Soon after their departure, they battle a hurricane which damages their mast, leaving them stranded in a shipwreck graveyard. As the crew repair the schooner using a mast from one of the abandoned ships, Joan boards an old gunrunner where she discovers a treasure map which leads to a lost city in the jungles of  Guatemala. Fearing her father and the crew will grow superstitious, she keeps the map to herself, deftly steering the ship to the lost city. There, she tricks an Mayan princess into giving them permission to explore the land. When, in her quest for the treasure, Joan destroys a sacred idol all hell breaks loose and the quartet, captured, must find a way to escape!)

(Based on Joan Lowell's 1929 bestselling 'autobiography', The Cradle of the Deep, this film was sold to the public as a documentary directed by Herman C. Raymaker. However, it was quickly discredited and the book was revealed to be nothing more than a work of fiction.)

(Most of the location shooting seems to have been done in Chichicastenango and Antigua, neither of which is anywhere near the Rio Dulce where the story is set. The Spanish colonial ruins of Antigua Guatemala stand in for the lost' Mayan city in the jungle.)

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First A Girl

(1935)

"Lavishly presented with music! spectacle! and glamour!"

(A young woman dreams of being a music-hall singer. She gets to know a male actor, who, quite unexpectedly, gets a female part in a music-hall number. However, as opening night approaches, he finds himself unable to sing a note. In a state of panic, he convinces the young woman to take his place and the charade becomes an entertainment sensation.)

(This British comedy, directed by Victor Saville and starring Jessie Matthews, was adapted from the 1933 German film Viktor und Viktoria. It served as the basis for the 1982 American musical comedy Victor/Victoria directed by Blake Edwards.)

(Jessie Margaret Matthews OBE was an English actress, dancer and singer of the 1920's and 1930's. After a string of hit stage musicals and films, Matthews developed a following in the US, where she was dubbed 'The Dancing Divinity'. However, the British studio who had her under contract was reluctant to let go of its biggest star which resulted in her having to repeatedly reject all offers made to work in Hollywood.)

(This film is considered one of her best. BFI Screenonline wrote, "Of all the Matthews/Hale collaborations, this one seems the most polished and even-handed. A huge success at the time it was released, First a Girl is possibly the quintessential Jessie Matthews musical and certainly the most enduringly amusing for a modern audience.")

Jessie Matthews

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Army Girl

(1938)

AKA: The Last Of The Cavalry

(A battle to keep cavalry horses from being replaced by tanks culminates in a great race between machine and beast.  A young Captain and his aide arrive at a horse cavalry fort in order to dismantle the brigade and transform it into home for the army's latest  weapon - mechanized tanks. This is met with a great deal of uproar on the part of the stationed troops, including it's commanding officer and his daughter. The Captain and the daughter soon become an item, making the Captain's task all the more difficult. Things come to an ugly end when, during a final test of the tank there's an accident, killing the commanding officer and the Captain's aide. A court martial swiftly follows, nearly destroying the career of the young Captain, to say nothing of his chances with commanding officer's daughter.)

(This high-budget comedy-turned-drama was directed by George Nicholls Jr. and stars Madge Evans and Preston Foster.) 

 (When only two years-old, Evans was dubbed the 'Fairy Soap girl in a series of print ads. She was also a popular professional artist's model.. By the time she was four, she was featured in a series of child plays produced by William A. Brady and worked steadily from then on, becoming incredibly popular. At the age of eight, Evans appeared on Broadway with John Barrymore and Constance Collier. By 14, she was starring in movies and at 17, she returned to Broadway, this time as an ingenue.)

  (She signed with Metro Goldwyn Mayer in 1927 and appeared in 1933's Dinner at Eight, Broadway to Hollywood, Hell Below. and starred opposite James Cagney in The Mayor of Hell. She worked steadily. One of her best-remembered films was 1936's Pennies From Heaven.)

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Harem Girl

(1952)

"See that Houri from Missouri pull the harem out on strike!"

 (A wisecracking, uninhibited American girl is hired as a secretary/companion for a Middle East Princess who rules over a small desert kingdom. When the secretary learns of a plot engineered by wicked sheik who wants to get his hands on the Princess and her oil-rich lands she, with the help of the Princess' sweetheart Majeed, takes care of business. She is last seen joining the French Foreign Legion, an organization which  is for men only - and that suits the secretary just fine, because so is she!)

"Oooooh, that Houri from Missouri!"

(This comedy was directed by Edward Bernds and stars Joan Davis, Peggie Castle, Arthur Blake, Paul Marion, Donald Randolph and Henry Brandon. It would serve as Joan Davis' final film.)

"See that Houri from Missouri shaking down those sheiks!"

(Josephine 'Joan' Davis was born in Saint Paul, MN. As a child, she hit the vaudeville circuit, eventually forming an act with her husband. She went on to great fame as a radio star and that popularity led to a series of movies. When I Love Lucy proved to be such a sensation, television stations and their sponsors wanted more of the same. Joan was cast as the manic wife of a mild-mannered community judge, played by Jim Backus, who got her husband into wacky jams with or without the help of a younger sister, played by her real-life daughter Beverly Wills. While never as popular as I Love Lucy, I Married Joan did well for a time in the ratings, lasting three seasons and proved even more popular in syndication.)

(On May 22, 1961, Davis died of a heart attack at the age of 53 in her home in Palm Springs, CA. After Davis's death, I Married Joan was pulled from syndication until litigation over her estate, including her residuals from the show's syndicated reruns, could be settled in court - an issue complicated by the deaths of all of her next of kin. You see, on October 24, 1963, Davis' mother, daughter Beverly Wills, and two grandchildren were all killed in a house fire in Palm Springs!)

Peggy Castle 

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Confidence Girl

(1952)

"She'll take you for all you've got... and you'll love it!"

"Blonde and beautiful with larceny in every curve!"

(A con man convinces the Los Angeles police that he can help them apprehend a notorious female swindler. He sets a trap at a department store and nabs the woman when she steals a mink coat. However, while the store detective is contacting police, the con man, who is actually the woman's boyfriend, allows the woman to escape with the mink!  The two then conspire to bilk a pawnshop owner out of eight thousand dollars. The woman then poses as a clairvoyant as part of an act at a local hot spot. However, her psychic powers are nothing more than an elaborate ruse. By this point, the police are convinced something's afoot; they set a trap using a dentist implicated in a murder. The woman, who believes the man innocent, is tricked into confessing her scam in front of the night club's  audience and she and her boyfriend are taken off to jail.)

"The cops from coast to coast are looking for her and so are the men!"

(This crime drama was written and directed by Andrew L. Stone and stars Tom Conway, Hillary Brooke, Eddie Marr, John Gallaudet, Jack Kruschen, Dan Riss and Walter Kingsford.)

"She'll give you a hard time!"

 (Brooke started work as a model while attending Columbia University. She then spent a year in the UK where she mastered an Received Pronunciation accent which she used in several films. Frequently cast as English women in Hollywood films, Brooke co-starred in two Sherlock Holmes films with Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce: 1943's Sherlock Holmes Faces Death and 1945's The Woman in Green.)  

(She was also a regular on several television series, including My Little Margie and The Abbott and Costello Show.  In the latter, she played a straitlaced, classy tenant of the rooming house where Abbott and Costello lived. Throughout the series run, Brooke was treated with reverence by the duo and was never the target of pranks or slapstick. The comedy duo was so taken with her, they also cast her in two of their films: 1949's Africa Screams and 1952's Abbott and Costello Meet Captain Kidd. Brooke’s other notable films include 1943's Jane Eyre (1943), and Alfred Hitchcock's 1956 thriller, The Man Who Knew Too Much.)

(Throughout her career, Brookes refused to play dumb blondes, saying "Vacuity will never substitute for a glint of intelligence. However, anyone, man or woman, who is ostentatiously erudite, is lacking in something else or else is just a crashing bore." That said, she summed up her career thusly: "I never thought I was a great actress. Maybe I would have been better if I'd worked harder at it. But I really enjoyed my career and the wonderful people I worked with.")

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Funny Girl

(1970)

(All is fair in love and war when the wealthy son of a shipping magnate finds himself romantically drawn to a young woman who, unbeknownst to him, enjoys a career as a circus clown. Once uncovered, it  doesn't sit well with his friends, especially his current girlfriend. Lines are drawn, demands are made as true love is ultimately tested.)

(Aliki Stamatina Vougiouklaki was a Greek actress, singer and theatrical producer. She remains one of the most popular actresses in Greece, and was awarded the title of 'The National Star of Greece'. On the stage, she starred in Greek renditions of  popular Broadway musicals, as well as a number of traditional Greek tragedies. While on tour in a production of Sound Of Music in 1996, she became ill. Ignoring the advice of doctors, she continued to perform until she collapsed on stage. Three months later, diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, Vougiouklaki  died at the age of 62.)

Aliki Vougiouklaki

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And that's all for now...

Tune in next week.

Same time, same channel.

Olga From The Volga - Joan Davis