| While making the Preston Sturges film Sullivan'sTravels in 1941, VERONICA LAKE and JOEL McCREA enjoyed ataste of the privileged life on the Janss family estate, where this scenewas shot. If it hadn't been for her hairstyle, Lake might not have beenquite as legendary. But that "peek-a-boo" do that almost obscuredone eye became such a trend that she was one of the hottest stars of theearly forties. At one point the War Department had to step in and ask herto change her style, since so many Rosie-the- Riveter types were adoptingthe look - semi- blinded by their tresses, workers' long hair easily gotcaught in machinery. Lake enjoyed some hits in which she was teamed withAlan Ladd, starting with This Gun For Hire (1942). Her love lifewas in the news when she dated Greek millionaire Aristotle Onassis andHollywood tycoon Howard Hughes. By the end of the forties, however, herpopularity declined and her career went awry. She filed for bankruptcy,dropped out and disappeared. In the sixties a journalist tracked her downin the bar of a New York hotel where she was serving drinks. By 1973, aftera final failed attempt to jump- start her career, she died from hepatitis.McCrea's career was as hot as Lake's in the forties, when he had the leadin Alfred Hitchcock's Foreign Correspondent (1940) and Sturges'The Palm Beach Store: (1942). After 1946 he appeared mostly in westerns.For McCrea, who had grown up in Hollywood helping early cowboy stars TomMix and William S. Hart with their horses, this represented the completionof a career circle. | JEAN HARLOW strikes a pose in her BVD swimsuit,which featured a rather innocent round neckline in front, a daring extremelylow-cut back. It was the perfect design to reflect her sex-kitten image.Harlow got her break as the heroine in Howard Hughes' World War I epicHell's Angels (1930). Under contract to Hughes, the platinum blonde developeda reputation for playing coarse, wise-cracking characters with a vulnerableside, which also paralleled her off-screen personality. When Harlow movedto MGM in 1932, she became more refined, developing into a sexy, sultrycomedienne. Nicknamed "Baby," she died suddenly of a cerebraledema at age twenty-six. |
