What’s with this unlucky 26? Guess it must be twice as unlucky as 13!
So what about the very beautiful and uninhibited Jean Harlow who was “discovered” by Mr. Howard Hughes? Apparently his movie “Hell’s Angels,” a 1930 American war film, was shot without sound and when the time came to get with it, so to speak and add a soundtrack, the flying scenes were easily fixed. I mean one Tiger Moth sounds like another Tiger Moths!
But when the female lead in the movie, the beautiful Norwegian Greta Nissen added her dialogue, nobody could understand her English which would have made her role as a British aristocrat pretty silly. So Jean Harlow took Greta’s part in the movie and was an instant success.
And when “The Platinum Blonde” was released in 1931, Jean turned into a real star. When MGM took over her contract it was rumored that Hughes had released her because she’d rejected his advances. At MGM Jean met and in July 1932 married Paul Bern, an executive at the studio. She was 21 and he was 43. By all accounts Paul was a really nice guy, except for one small problem – he was already married to one Dorothy Millette and allegedly impotent to boot.
It seems Dorothy was in a clinic and suddenly, either by accident or design, she announced that she was coming home. When Paul broke the news to Jean she told him: “Buy her off or I’m history as far as you are concerned.” Dorothy’s body turned up in the Sacramento River and then Paul shot himself. Messy.
Despite what she’d said to him, it seems that Jean took Paul’s death badly and sort of spiraled out of control with grief. This manifested itself in some rather promiscuous behavior in which she picked up strange guys and spent days holed up in seedy hotels with them. And all this while the studio combed the city in search of her.
After another failed marriage Jean suddenly collapsed and was hospitalized and diagnosed with uremic poisoning. It wasn’t until much, much later that it was revealed that she had suffered from a kidney disease since her teens.
Unfortunately he Christian Scientist mom refused to have her treated and used only prayer in an attempt to heal her daughter. Not surprisingly Jean died of cerebral oedema on June 7, 1937.
Her age? Well she was born in 1911 so she was 26.
So what about the very beautiful and uninhibited Jean Harlow who was “discovered” by Mr. Howard Hughes? Apparently his movie “Hell’s Angels,” a 1930 American war film, was shot without sound and when the time came to get with it, so to speak and add a soundtrack, the flying scenes were easily fixed. I mean one Tiger Moth sounds like another Tiger Moths!
But when the female lead in the movie, the beautiful Norwegian Greta Nissen added her dialogue, nobody could understand her English which would have made her role as a British aristocrat pretty silly. So Jean Harlow took Greta’s part in the movie and was an instant success.
And when “The Platinum Blonde” was released in 1931, Jean turned into a real star. When MGM took over her contract it was rumored that Hughes had released her because she’d rejected his advances. At MGM Jean met and in July 1932 married Paul Bern, an executive at the studio. She was 21 and he was 43. By all accounts Paul was a really nice guy, except for one small problem – he was already married to one Dorothy Millette and allegedly impotent to boot.
It seems Dorothy was in a clinic and suddenly, either by accident or design, she announced that she was coming home. When Paul broke the news to Jean she told him: “Buy her off or I’m history as far as you are concerned.” Dorothy’s body turned up in the Sacramento River and then Paul shot himself. Messy.
Despite what she’d said to him, it seems that Jean took Paul’s death badly and sort of spiraled out of control with grief. This manifested itself in some rather promiscuous behavior in which she picked up strange guys and spent days holed up in seedy hotels with them. And all this while the studio combed the city in search of her.
After another failed marriage Jean suddenly collapsed and was hospitalized and diagnosed with uremic poisoning. It wasn’t until much, much later that it was revealed that she had suffered from a kidney disease since her teens.
Unfortunately he Christian Scientist mom refused to have her treated and used only prayer in an attempt to heal her daughter. Not surprisingly Jean died of cerebral oedema on June 7, 1937.
Her age? Well she was born in 1911 so she was 26.
Comment