A talented dancer and chorine, the fiery Edna Callahan swept into Hollywood, enjoyed dancing in the chorus, and never had any bigger plans in mind. It was good while it lasted, and she had no qualms to give it all up when the time came. She settled into a happy home life afterwards. Let’s learn more about her!
EARLY LIFE
Edna G. Callaghan was born on July 7, 1912, in Alameda, California, to Edward Francis Callaghan and Ellen Elizabeth Brennan, their only child. Her father was a professional foreman.
Edna grew up and was educated In Stockton elementary and high school. Her heart was set on dancing and performing from the early years. By the time she was 8, 9 years old, Edna had achieved considerable artistry as a dramatic reader and a dancer. She was publicly presented by Catherine Sullivan, her dancing teacher, with a group of other children and was heartily acclaimed, launching her showbiz career. She appeared all over California in various plays and slowly gained her foothold in her promised business.
When Edna was in high school, she left Stockton for San Francisco where they will study dancing with St. Ritus Benda, famous dancing instructor. She also attended Kirch Arnold dancing school in San Francisco for a few months. Edna was performing extensively on the stage as an chorine by the late 1920s, and was even tested for Hollywood in 1929. This is how it all started!
CAREER
Edna started her career in Just Imagine, one of the weirdest, trippiest, incredible movies ever made! As one reviewer so wonderfully wrote in IMDB: “This is one trippy movie from 70 years ago! A combination of booze jokes, sci-fi, lewd sex, vaudeville jokes. El Brendel plays a poor sap who is struck by lightning in 1930, and winds up in 1980 New York, where flying Rosenbergs and Goldbergs have replaced earthbound Fords and Chevys. Babies are gotten through vending machines, and a trip to Mars proves Martians to be twins, (Each set has a good over-sexed one, and an evil homicidal one.) I’m not making this up!! Pepper this oddity with bad puns, miniature effects, and musical numbers and you got, you got…. this film.” I just had to quote this, it’s so bizarre!
Then came a more… normal… movie should we say, Palmy Days. A typical Eddie Cantor comedy of the early 1930s, with Eddie playing a former shady medium assistant who becomes an efficiency expect. Plenty of lewd jokes, scantly clad ladies and fun fun fun!
The funnily named She Wanted a Millionairestarts of as a semi comedy, but then turns into a not at all subtle cautionary tale and ends up a thriller! Yep, this one surprised me! I knew of this movie from way back, since I like the Bennett sisters and have read some books on them (Connie is my favorite, but Joan was an interesting woman too). This is the where Joan fell of a horse and seriously hurt herself. I had some vague idea of what the movie was. And boy was I wrong! I expected a romcom where she does end up with a millionaire, but it’s literary the other way around here! Joan plays a gold digger who wants luxury in her life, and wants a man to give to her. So she hooks up with James Kirkwood, who plays a very shady millionaire. And he has some nasty secrets of his own… The good but unfortunately not to materially well of guy is played by Spencer Tracy, which is always a plus! You can more or less guess how that ends up, if it’s a thriller at the end. But unexpected for sure!
Night World was a typical precoe set in a speakeasy – dealing with shady characters in a shady location. Lew Ayres and Mae Clarke play the leads, and both of them have enough peculiarities to make them at least intriguing actors. Merrily We Go to Hell(1932) was a very good step ion the right direction. A quality preCode with a theme that can be considered scandalous even today, it hits all the right spots and ends up a minor classic. Frederic March plays an alcoholic in love with Sylvia Sidney, and they slowly descend into a hellish life living like vagabonds. Great acting performances and a very psychological approach, plus directed by Dorothy Arzner, a female director! Always a plus from my perspective! Next up the classic 42nd Street, what more to write about it! Edna continued the precode scandalous movies vein with Ex-Lady, an early movie of Bette Davis, with a pretty wicked script! Too
Edna then appeared in 1930s, musicals, Gold Diggers of 1933 (the most famous and best of the Gold diggers series), Dancing Lady (a musical I liked with Joan Crawford, Franchot Tone and Clark Gable, and I mostly liked Franchot’s whimsical playboy character), The Great Ziegfeld (a more serious musical, and Academy award winning movie), Born to Dance (one of the best Eleanor Powell musical, you know the drill – thin story but plenty of tap dancing), Rosalie (more or less the same with Eleanor Powell, just we have Robert Taylor this time as the hunk, and he was incredibly beautiful when he was younger!),
In middle of al of it, comes a really hardcore, quite precode dramas, She Had to Say Yes – the title here says it all, it’s in large part about prostitution and objectivisation of women, of how men have manipulated and belittled woman for centuries. Some heavy stuff, but told with an easy wit and some typical old Hollywood style. Loretta Young stars. Edna also appeared in the MGM B feature, Song of the City, with Margaret Lindsay (on her career decline sadly), a predictable and quite cliche fare. The different between Precode and post code is glaringly obvious here, with Precode movies having a ballsy and risque outlook on things, and the later movies not so much.
That was it from Edna!
PRIVATE LIFE
As Edna said it herself: “A sweetheart is like a bottle of wine, and a wife is just a wine bottle.” Like many chorines of the time, Edna did publicity stunts to get more newspaper coverage. Case in point:
HOLLYWOODS GLORIFIED BEAUTIES, whose careers were launched with the famous producer, organized here yesterday to promote the welfare of their glamorous profession. Assembling at the Victor.
Hugo restaurant at a luncheon called for the purpose; they adopted resolutions and elected officers, forming the Hollywood unit of the national-Glorified Ziegfeld Girls’ Club. Virginia Brace was elected president; Ethel Shutta, vice-president; Hazel Forbes, treasurer; Chrystine Maple, recording secretary, and Edna Callahan, corresponding secretary. The purpose of the organization U. to help less fortunate chorines In their straggle for success.
Edna was, for a time in the early 1930s, about 1932, romantically involved with Busby Berkeley, but the guy dated women by the truckload and it was realistic to expect that it wouldn’t last. In early 1933, she married Gregg Tolland. Tolland was born in 1904 in Chicago, Illinois. He was a respected cameraman by the time he met Edna. The marriage was one heck of a wild ride, as they separated a little more than a month after the nuptials, with Tolland hell bent on divorcing Edna as soon as possible. It seemed that Edna was packing up debts in Greg’s name, and generally had problems with her spending habits.
Callahan married Max Schall the manager of actor/musician Charles “Buddy” Rogers, in 1936. They wed in Roger’s home, with Rogers as the couple’s best man. Edna settled into semi domesticity afterwards, and even gave comments to the papers:
Girls in Hollywood today who expect to win fame and fortune as motion picture actresses are the professional showgirls. Contrary to the general impression that everyone in Hollywood wants to be a picture star, two thirds of the dancers working in Diggers In have no ambition to be starred. The chief reason is that the show girl is well paid and her services are in demand constantly. She moves from one studio to another with hardly a day off. The work is not onerous and some days the showgirl gets her salary for doing almost nothing. She is given the best of makeup hairdressing and beauty treatments for no expense. But best of everything that she has little do to with the success or failure of pictures in which she appears. If the film is a dud, the blame may be laid to the plot, the ingenue or even the dance director but never to the dancers. Twelve of the beauties appearing in the current are married. This gives them a certain independence they would not have if they were single. As one of the girls Edna Callahan put it: husband would never consent to my going into pictures as a career. The work is hard the hours are long and above all spoils a girl for domesticity. But showgirl work is different. We work just enough to keep us amused and supple. He does not mind that at all.
However, the marriage marriage also ended in divorce sometime in the early 1940s. Edna served in the Marine Corps Women’s Reserves during WWII, obtaining the rank of sergeant. In late 1940s, after the war, Edna met insurance man Bernard Benesh and the two wed in 1951. Benesh was born in 1908. Edna was very active in charity work in California, and lived a very happy life with Bernard.
Bernard Benesh died in 2000 in California. Edna did not remarry, and continued living in California.
Edna Callahan Benesh died on July 9, 2007 in Morro Bay, California.
NOTE: Much of the information about Edva was taken from the Vintage stardust IG page, check them out, they are great!
Muriel Goodspeed really is a unique personality. A natural beauty, yet Muriel shined the best when showing her impressive skill set – she was a polyglot, who knew how to dance, sing, and act very well. Hollywood of course had no idea what to do with such a beaming muli-talent, and predictably she only made a few movies. Let’s learn more about her!
EARLY LIFE
Muriel Lavon Goodspeed was born May 1, 1917, in Salt Lake City, Utah, to Alvin Earl Goodspeed and Eugenia LaVon Peirce. Muriel Goodspeed is a great-grand daughter of Lorenzo Snow, a very important personality in the LDS Church, who was it’s president in the late 19th and early 20th century. Lorenzo had 42 children in total, so Muriel was part of a large and devout Mormon family.
Muriel grew up in Salt Lake, attended elementary and high school there, and University of Utah for two years. However, Muriel’s life was indeed very rich – since she was a girl, she had a large appetite for learning, so she learned five languages and developed a myriad of skills: she was an accomplished singer dancer, pianist, dramatic reader, linguist and lecturer.
Muriel became the very first Miss Utah in 1938. She represented Utah in the 1938 Miss America Pageant and ended up as a 2nd runner up, but winning the talent competition. Muriel left college after that and continued to work in this aspect of showbiz and pageants. By the time she was 23 years of age, she had won 67 separate contests with her beauty and talent.
Here is a short summary of the incredible things that Muriel could do:
Muriel LaVon Goodspeed is soon to become known to a wider field as Most Talented Miss Goodspeed is now under a nine months contract with National Assemblies to make a personal appearance tour of the high schools of five western states under this billing She will offer a program designed to display her varied accomplishments as singer dancer, pianist, dramatic reader, linguist and lecturer, Now appearing with the Los Angeles Light Opera company playing at the Curzon theater San Francisco in Miss Goodspeed in addition to singing a minor role Is under-studying the star Norma Terris playing opposite John Boles She will sing also in the production of Red in Los Angeles and San Francisco engagements after which she plans to spend a short vacation in Salt Lake City before returning to her opera and radio-work in Los Angeles prior to the scheduled fail tour Midweek
It was only a matter of time before someone from the movie world snatched her. Muriel signed a movie contract in, and of the went!
CAREER
Muriel appeared in only three movies.
Muriel’s debatable claim to fame was her appearance in the old version of Flash Gordon. Clarice’s last movie deserves a special mention. Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe is a cult classic, as are most Flash Gordon movies. Whatever one may think of Universal series, this one is of a pretty good quality. Buster Crabbe was made to play the heroic Flash Gordon and Charles Middleton makes an incredible Ming. However, it is the action sequences that are the true highlight here. Watch it! Muriel had a small part as scantly clad Zona,a but at least she’s visible!
Musicals were up next. Both Bitter Sweet and I Married an Angel were Nelson Eddy/Jeannette McDonald pairings. While their movies can be a bit over the top dramatic, with cliche stories, the Jeannette and Nelson are truly a one of a kind in terms of movie pairings, their real life love easily translating into incredible rapport on screen. Bitter sweet was unfortunately a paler imitation of their best movie, Maytime, and while touching at moment, doesn’t have the emotional impact of the original. I married an Angel in particular was not that well received by their fans, and ended up being their last collaboration, but still it can be enjoyed today. The story is a bit of a saccharine cliche (a guy married a real angel in diguise), but hey, other things make up for it!
That was it from Muriel!
PRIVATE LIFE
Muriel was among the many Hollywood celebrities traveling on the World War II Bond Tours. While working in Hollywood, she also did radio singing in Chicago and other cities. When she appeared in movies with Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy she was Jeanette’s vocal backup and understudy. She constantly toured all around the mid west and put her skills on display. Muriel truly and well kept busy with a variety of her abilities.
Even after her Hollywood career ended, Muriel continued used her skills to make a solid career. Here is an article about it:
Muriel LaVon Good-speed is soon to become known to a wider field as Most Talented Miss Goodspeed is now under a nine months contract with National Assemblies to make a personal appearance tour of the high schools of five western states under this billing. She will offer a program designed to display her varied accomplishments as singer dancer, pianist, dramatic reader, linguist and lecturer, Now appearing with the Los Angeles Light Opera company playing at the Curzon theater San Francisco in Miss Goodspeed in addition to singing a minor role Is under-studying the star Norma Terris playing opposite John Boles. She will sing also in the production of Red in Los Angeles and San Francisco engagements after which she plans to spend a short vacation in Salt Lake City before returning to her opera and radio-work in Los Angeles prior to the scheduled fail tour Midweek.
Muriel appeared in schools all the time, and impressed students with her knowledge, and hopefully inspired at least some of them to learn new things (which is so awesome, have to admit that!). Here is a short article about it:
Muriel charmed students when she gave readings in three languages (she knows five), sang, danced and played the piano. Her talents also include dramatics (she’s in Hollywood pictures, having recently worked with Jeanette MacDonald), light opera, bird whistling and oratory.
Muriel had a quiet, happy love life. She married Curtis Wilson in 1945, after he was discharged from the Army. They settled in Los Angeles. Sadly I could not find any info on Curtis, as he has such a generic name, so if anyone has any info, please share!
The couple had three children, Roger Ward, born on November 19, 1946, and twins Stephanie Muriel and Steven Curtis, born on December 13, 1948. Muriel gave up her career, for the time being, to raise her children happily.
In the 1960s and 1970s, Muriel took to teaching music to many piano students in Southern California and produced and performed in many local musical shows. She was active well into the 1990s. At some point, Curtis and Muriel moved to Las Vegas, Nevada, to spent their golden years there.
Muriel LaVon Wilson, died on Feb. 15, 2005, in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Carol Donnell was a beautiful Pentagon worker who was spotted and signed by a talent scout on a whim. She had a short but sweet Tinsel town adventure after that, perhaps getting the best out of her sojourn. She retired to become a wife and mother, and led a happy family life. Let’s learn more about her!
EARLY LIFE
Carolyn Jane McDonnell, was born on June 9, 1921, in New Jersey, daughter of Charles H. McDonnell and Carolyn Huttman. She was their only child. Her father was a manual laborer.
Carol grew up in New Jesey until the late 1920s. Great Depression hit in 1929, when Carol was only 8. Her parents, hoping to find a job and better living arrangements, hopped onto their Model A Ford and just drove around. Carol and her parents lived like many people of that time – driving from job to job, with no permanent residence. While on the road, the pre-teenage Carol slept on top of blankets with a pillow, on the trunk on the back seat. It was a hard life, but the family unit was strong and they managed to pull trough such a lifestyle for more than a year.
They eventually settled in her father’s birth state, in Decatur, Illinois. There Carolyn graduated from high school and attended Business College. Shortly after working at Woolworth’s and, when WWII started, as the Executive Secretary to the Director at the local Ordinance Plant, she enlisted in ‘This Man’s Army” where she served on the General Staff of Military Intelligence at the newly built Pentagon. A talent scout on duty in Washington noticed her, ans she was offered a contract with RKO, which she accepted. And off the went!
CAREER
Carol was in Hollywood for a really, really short time, but she appeared in some pretty solid movies, not a bad record for such Tinseltown brevity!
Nocturne is an interesting film noir. A true B production, with George Raft (after his golden years were already over), the movie boasts a compelling main character, a detective who is a music apassionato, a mama’s boy, and very devoted to living the life his own way. It’s a bit more meat on the bones than with your standard noir characters. The story and the mystery are pretty well written (although slightly formulaic), but it’s Raft’s character and his mother that make this a bit out of the box experience.
Carol then appeared in The Locket, one of the best female centric film noirs. Laraine Day plays a mentally unstable young woman ads we follow her dramatic life. The highlight of this movie is the unusual structure – it’s episodic, with the shunned lovers each telling their own version of the female lead. This multi perspective movies are often intriguing when well done, and the director knows exactly what he wants to do. Robert Mitchum is in the leading man role. The complex framing device somehow makes the focus of the actors, and only Laraine gives a role of any depth (she’s top!
Carol’s last movie was The Woman on the Beach. Her third noir, and a third interesting noir (Carol quite nailed it here with her slim but intriguing output!). This is a deeply psychological movie, with top notch actors and a melancholic atmosphere. Robert Ryan and Joan Bennett play ill fated lovers, who love each other but she has a much older, blind husband, played by Charles Bickford. Subtle and not so subtle drama enfolds, but the wast sandy beaches and the complex emotional interplay between the leads makes this film an unique experience, and certainly different than the usual noir fare.
That was it from Carol!
PRIVATE LIFE
Carol may have been in Hollywood for only a few brief months, but she used her time there wisely – she took the opportunity to learn all about high fashion, went from Brunette to Blond, and met acting legends like Cary Grant and Ronald Reagan. This would serve her well in her future life, as she remained a true glamorous fashion plate.
Carol retired from Hollywood to marry her beau, lawyer Ralph McAfee, in June 1946. Here is the article about their nuptials:
Carol Donell, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Charles H. McDonnell. 1053 West Tuttle street, is here from Hollywood enroute to New York where on Tuesday she is to be married to New York Attorney Ralph L. McAfee in the home of his brother at Aidsfcy-on-thc-Hudson. Miss Donncll is relinquishing an acting contract with RKO radio studio signed last year upon her release from the Wac as technical sergeant. Mr. McAfee was a captain in Military Intelligence during the war and is now a member of the law firm of Cravath, Swaine and Moore in New York City where they will live after a wedding trip by plane to Montreal, Canada.
McAfee was born on October 20, 1914, in Berry, Texas, to Jessie McAfee and Annie Reeves. He was the fourth of five children. The son of a Methodist minister, was raised in Waco and Kerens, Texas. He attended Southwestern University and graduated from Columbia University in 1936 and the Columbia Law School in 1939. When WW2 hit he became an infantry officer in the Army, serving in the China-Burma-India theater from 1942 to 1944 and as an intelligence staff officer in Washington from 1944 to 1945, where he met and fell in love with Carol.
Thus began Carol’s life as a soccer Mom & Wall Street Lawyer’s “Bride” (as he husband always called her). The couple had three children: Horace Michael, born on August 31, 1957, Marc Charles, born on May 9, 1963, and Caroline. McAfee became a trial lawyer who handled cases for companies such as the Allied Corporation, the Bethlehem Steel Corporation, CBS Inc., Chemical Bank, Royal Dutch/Shell Group and the St. Louis-San Francisco Railroad. The McAfees were socially very conscious, and Ralph was working with the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, and was a chief counsel for a number of students at Jackson State University in a landmark suit charging civil rights violations by the Mississipi Highway Patrol.
Carol led an equally fulfilled life as her hubby. Except being a great wife and mother, she made time to volunteer at the County Hospital, was very active with The Junior League and pursued her keen interest in New Age by reading authors like Joseph Campbell, de Chardin, Hillman, Bly…
McAfee died on February 11, 1986. Carolyn moved to Florida to enjoy her golden years, and did not remarry.
Carolyn McAfee died in 2020, at the ripe old age of 98.
Helen Pender was one of many, many beauty queens that landed in Hollywood and were the object of some kind of a PR stunt to raise their profile. Helen actually appeared in pretty solid movies, but never did manage to get outside of the uncredited roster, and after her contract was up, she ended her career to marry and raise a family. Let’s learn more about her.
EARLY LIFE
HelenClaire Pender was born on December 21, 1917, in Manhattan, New York City, daughter of William Pender and Ella Powers. Both of her parents were born in Ireland. Her older sister, Margaret Claudia, was born in 1915, and her younger brother, John, in 1921. Her father was a mechanical engineer who specialized in streetcars and other urban railways.
The family moved to Washington DC where Helen and her siblings grew up, and attended elementary and high school. Helen was a pretty girl who turned heads. After graduating from high school, she first worked as a stenographer, at MetroGoldwyn-Mayer’s film exchange in Washington, but in the late 1930s she started to work as a model and took part is beauty pageants. She became a Powers model in Washington, DC. In a funny twist of fate, Helen was proclaimed “Miss Maryland” 1941, but she was officially resident of Washington DC, and thus was not even eligible to compete, and she was stripped of the title when this was discovered. But her success, despite the lack of a title, gave her the push to move to Los Angeles and try to start a movie career.
Helen worked as a model in LA for a short time, hoping to catch the eye of some talent scout or another. Helen’s dreams of a movie contract came come true in 1943 when she was chosen to reign as the belle of the Hollywood Talk Of the Town ‘Premiere-Party by the members of 40 motion picture guilds and crafts. The party the culmination of a contest of a week’s duration in which Hollywood guild member sponsored scores of candidates for the chance of film fame and fortune. Out of countless participants, it was Helen who was chosen as being the most deserving of a chance for film recognition. She was signed by Warner Bros, and her career was of!
CAREER
Helen made her movie debut in Arabian Nights, a typical escaping Technicolor extravaganza of the time, with the queen of camp, Maria Montez, as the leading lady. The story isn’t even relevant here, just enjoy the eye candy and the atmosphere! It’s fun and colorful, but don’t expect anything else. Jon Hall is Maria’s leading man, and while quite handsome, he was pretty wooden, but okay they at least look pretty nice.
Then came Music for Millions, a heartwarming, endearing movie that Hollywood so rarely makes these days. It’s about how two children, and their sister, who plays in a classical music orchestra, see the happenings during WW2 – young man drafted and sent overseas to fight. While the topic at hand is very difficult, and may trigger somebody who had ever been in a similar situation (waiting for your loved one to return from war), it’s handled very tastefully, and Margaret O’Brien as the young girl is a true marvel! June Allyson, an actress whom I don’t particularly like, plays the leading role, and classical music giant Jose Itrubi plays the orchestra leader. Plenty of nice music, emotional moments and a sense of hope, despite all the hardships. This is what old Hollywood could easily deliver. And you can’t but enjoy it.
Helen then appeared in a string of pretty good movies. The first was Mildred Pierce, a true classic that needs no introduction. Joan Crawford at her best! Next up was Night and Day, the biopic of Cole Porter, with tons of his charming music, and him being played by Cary Grant! Imagine that Cary Grant plays you in your biopic! You hit the jackpot. No, it’s a solid, breezy, happy go lucky musical in the best vein of old Hollywood musicals, please enjoy without thinking too deeply about it.
Helen then appeared in two movies by Errol Flynn, –Never Say Goodbyeand Escape Me Never. Never say Goodbye is more of a light comedy, with Errol Flynn playing a highly successful commercial artist trying to reconcile with his ex-wife, played by Eleanor Parker, and aided in the quest by his uber cute little daughter, played by Patti Brady. Anyone who watched at least two of this kind of movies will know exactly how this ends, but who can resist the charm of Mr. Flynn, along with classical characters actors like S.Z. Sakall and Lucile Watson and the kind? Plus I simply adore Eleanor Parker, what a luminous, powerful actress! Escape me never is more of a weepie-melodrama, where Ida is in love composer with Errol Flynn but Errol loves his brother’s fiance, played (again) by Eleanor. The actors are miscast at moments and it often goes overboard with the drama, but it’s still touching enough to make it more than watchable.
Helen’s other movie was The Man I Love, a somehow bland mid tier romance with Ida Lupino, Andrea King and Martha Vickers playing three sisters with love problems each. The men are pretty nondescript here (Bruce Bennett, more at home playing Tarzan, is the leading man so you can guess the rest), but Ida is a force of nature, as always.
That was it from Helen!
PRIVATE LIFE
Helen was married once before she landed in Hollywood, but I would not find to exactly whom and exactly when. I can assume it was in the late 1930s, and that they lived in Maryland/Washington DC. Also let’d assume that they divorced sometime in 1941/42. Not long after she hit Hollywood, Helen dated John Howard, the handsome actor who dated so many pretty girls in the 1940s. But she was mostly low key, and was not featured too much in the papers after 1943.
In 1945, Helen started dating Tom D’Andrea, a character actor with a huge filmography. Tom was born in 1909, to Alphonse D’Andrea and Elizabeth Lydon, the second of seven children.His life was quite interesting, and his way to acting was multilayered and unique. To cite Wikipedia:
D’Andrea’s first job was at the Chicago Public Library,[1] after which he worked in publicity at the Sherman Hotel in Chicago.[3] Contacts with entertainers at the hotel led to an opportunity to work in Hollywood. After moving there in 1934, he became a publicist for Betty Grable, Gene Autry, Mae Clarke and Jackie Coogan.[1]
In 1941,[3] D’Andrea was drafted into the Army Air Corps. He was assigned to write a Gracie Fields program after being stationed at Camp Roberts, California. Reading lines at a rehearsal, Fields decided to have him read the lines in the show. He was assigned to the Overseas Radio Unit in 1943, and he began performing comedy in addition to writing.[3]
While at Ciro’s Restaurant on Sunset Strip attracted a Warner Bros.‘ executive’s attention, resulting in a role in This is the Army, with Ronald Reagan.[1] In 1946, the studio signed him to a long-term contract.[4]
Whoa, what a trajectory! In addition to a busy professional life, Tom was married twice before he met Helen. His first wife was Mary Bowler, and they had a son, Thomas Michael, born in 1930. They divorced sometime in the late 1930s/early 1940s. Anyway, Tom and Helen dated for several years before eloping in style! As the article claims:
Actor Tom d’Andrea and Helen Claire Pender hurried into the Marriage License Bureau yesterday noon, obtained the document, arranged to be married forthwith and, 45 minutes later, walked out of Superior Court as man and wife.”
Sometime before the marriage, Helen ended her movie career for good, and got into the more lucrative field of modeling. So, it was back to the beginning for Helen. But it’s always good when someone reinvents his/herself and if needed, returns to his previous lines of work, but this time as a changed person.
Helen gave birth to two sons: James William, born on July 5, 1949, and Michael Joseph, born on May 13, 1952. The family lived a happy life in California, with Tom acting all the way up to the mid 70s. After his retirement, with the kids all grows up, he and Helen moved to Florida, to enjoy their golden years.
Tom died on May 14, 1998 in Florida. Helen remained in Florida after his death, and did not remarry.
Helen D’Andrea died on February 28, 2007, in Punta Gorda, Florida.
Sally Rawlinson’s father was a silent movie star, and Sally herself wanted to become an actress since she was a girl. And Sally worked as her craft, acting in amateur productions and taking acting classes, and when she was signed for a movie contract she was ecstatic at getting her dream underway. However, the upward tilt of her career never happened, and after some tries to salvage it on Broadway and Las Vegas, Sally gave up to become a housewife. Let’s learn more about her!
EARLY LIFE
Sally Anne Rawlinson was born on May 13, 1925, in Los Angeles, California, to Herbert Rawlinson and Lorraine A. Long. She had a younger brother. Her father was a silent movie actor, originally from England, UK. A former circus performer, he became an actor, and moved to US in the early 1900s. Though primarily a dramatic actor, he proved his comic flair in the 1910s in Universal’s “Victor Comedies”, and worked for Hal Roach by the time that Sally was born.
Sally grew up as a movie brat in Los Angeles, and attended Hollywood high school, where she met many personas that would later become part of the Tinsel town lore. It was no surprise to anyone that Sally caught the acting bug pretty early, and dreamed to following her father’s trade. She was a part of several amateur acting troupes by the time she was in elementary school, and her future seemed cemented. Also not surprisingly, Her father wasn’t overtly happy with Sally wanting to become an actress, but he finally gave in after seeing her perform several roles in amateur theater productions.
After graduating from high school, due to her parent’s wish, Sally attended City college, but acted in the Little Theater on the side, and slowly gained solid acting experience. With the help of her dad, she secured a screen test, passed it with flying colors, and was signed to a studio contract not long after. And her career started!
CAREER
Sally’s first movie is a Paramount studios variety movie, Variety Girl. You are a Paramount star in the 1940s? Then you are in this movie for sure! Especially notable for the Bing Crosby and Bob Hope duet that takes up a nice chunk of screen time. Next came Unconquered, a very fun and dynamic Cecil B. DeMille adventure movie, with Gary Cooper and Paulette Goddard evading everybody, while trying to escape in the US wilderness. Fast paces, well written and acted, this is a solid DeMille offering is what a adventure movie should be.
Sally did a couple of shorts, before appearing in Isn’t It Romantic, a mild and not very interesting romance movie with Veronica Lake in the female lead. The story is about three daughters of a Civil war veteran being courted by three very different men. Only old Hollywood could do a movie out of this mush, and sometimes it worked, but here, not really. There are charming moments, but overall it’s not a solid movie. Then came Bride of Vengeance, a historical non a curate, mediocre movie about Lucrezia Borgia, helmed by Paulette Goddard in the leading role, and John Lund as her enemy/love interest. Lund’s mustaches are ridiculous, and Goddard has terrible eyebrows that make her look like a witch. Definitely not one of their stronger movies.
A bit better was Sorrowful Jones, made from a Damon Runyon story. A seemingly heartless, stingy bookie accepts a little girl as a marker for a bet, but when the girl’s father is killed by notorious gangsters, the bookie, Sorrowful Jones, is stuck with the girl, which is completely as odds with his hectic lifestyle. Jones is played by the incomparable Bob Hope, and Lucille Ball plays his love interest. Ball and Hope were a good combo, and they made five movies together this was just the first one. The movie is touching and funny, and just what you want from a comedic drama of Old Hollywood! Before her hiatus, Sally appeared in Samson and Delilah, a Cecil B. DeMille classic with Hedy Lamarr and Victor Mature. No need for any additional info about this one!
Sally worked in other venues, and came back to Hollywood in 1951, but with limited success again. She appeared in two uncredited roles. The first movie was The Mating Season, a simple but very funny comedy with the indomitable Thelma Ritter playing a burger stand owner who, due to a mistaken identity case, has to pretend she is a live in cook for her son and his new socialite wife (played by John Lund and Gene Tierney). While it’s nothing too deep nor profound, it’s a top notch old Hollywood comedy, chock full of delightful actors and wacky characters, like Jan Sterling, Larry Keating, Miriam Hopkins, Malcolm Keen and so on. The second movie was Something to Live For, a typical 1950 weepie, with Joan Fontaine playing a alcoholic trying to get of the juice, and in the process falls in love with a fellow from AA, played by Ray Milland, who is unfortunately already married. I’t nothing to shout about, but still an okay drama, and at least it directly tackled such delicate topics like alcoholism, something which Hollywood tended to avoid, and it has a high quality acting ensemble (Fontaine, Milland, Teresa Wright, Richard Derr).
That was all from Sally!
PRIVATE LIFE
In her prime, Sally was five feet five inches tall and weighed 117 lbs. The fact that Sally was Herbert’s daughter was her PR selling point from the very starts of her career. There were plenty of articles like this one:
Debate on this issue, which has continued for many years, recently, influenced a newcomer, Sally Rawlinson, daughter of former Film Star Herbert Rawlinson, to choose the abbreviated film as her introduction. Miss Rawlinson the third generation of her family in the acting game (her maternal grandmother, Elizabeth Garrison, appeared in nickelodeon films,) makes her bow in Paramount’s two-reel musical in “Curtain Of her experience the less executives see you on the screen, your golden opportunity keeps hiding. “The short is really a showcase, much mere elaborate than any screen test. You get personalized attention from hairdresser, wardrobe expert, makeup and cameraman. But in a small feature role you’re just one of the mob, usually.
Sally is perhaps a good depiction of nepotism in Hollywood, how nuances and complex this issue realistically is. And let us notice the way nepotism is not the same for every person. However, one rule applies everywhere – the bigger the fish your parents are, the easier it is to make it. Sally’s dad, Herbert, while a matinee idol in the 1910s, was hardly a top star in the 1940s, and could not really do much for her career. Except get her a screen test, his hands were tied. And Sally did nor manage to break the uncredited roster on her own merits. One wonders what would happen if a bigger name was her dad? Would she make it, like Jane Fonda, or not, like many, many other celebrity children that didn’t make the grade. Too bad, since is seems that she really quite enjoyed acting, and wished to
But, on a personal note, things were a bit better. Sally married her high school love, Alvin White, on Aug. 11, y. Were wed at Shatto Chapel and had a brief honeymoon at La Jolla. Alvin Somerville White, born on May 5, 1925, (making him 8 days older than Sally) was the son of Watson S. White and Annie Tefler, the third of four children (his siblings were Normal, Marshall and Patricia). During the war, he was a flyer in the Army Air Forces, but worked as a costume designer in his civilian life.
The Whites had three children, David Christopher White, born on June 25, 1949, Wendy Louise, born on October 14, 1952, and Cary Cameron, born on November 9, 1955. After the first of her first child, David, against the custom of the times, Sally was not ready to gave up on her career to concentrate on her family life and raise her children. At least not yet!
After her Hollywood career evaporated, Sally first tried to make it in Broadway, and then in Las Vegas, working in the chorus there, but no luck. After the birth of her second child, Wendy, 1952, she finally gave up her showbiz career for good, and settles in Los Angeles, with the goal of rising her family.
Sally and Alvin divorced in 1972. Sally continued living in California from them on, did not remarry and enjoyed her golden years.
Sally White died on August 29, 2004. in Los Angeles, California.
A Miss America contender, Iva Stewart had a fresh, simple beauty that was more in vogue in the 1940s than in the 1930s. Perhaps she simply came too early, perhaps for some other reasons, her acting career took some time to get steam, but she managed to nab minor Broadway roles, and ultimately she was summoned to Hollywood. Once in Tinsel town, despite having a passion for acting and studying the dramatic arts with esteemed tutors, her movie a career went nowhere fast. She retired to become a housewife. Let’s learn more about her!
EARLY LIFE
Iva Barbara Stewart was born on January 5, 1914, in Berlin, New Hampshire, to John Alexander Stewart and Georgia Wheeler. She was the oldest of three children – her siblings were Marjorie May, born in 1920, and John, born on November 25, 1921. Her father, born in Canada, was a steam fitter for iron and metal sheets works.
The family moved to Herbon, Maine when Iva was a girl, and Iva grew up in Hebron and later Bath, Maine. After graduating from high school, Iva worked as a telephone operator. Dreaming of more glamorous things for herself Iva, got her start toward an eventual screen career by winding a beauty contest in Auburn, Maine. She did not pass unnoticed, and Iva decided to join the “Miss Maine” contest. Quelle suprise, she won the “Miss Maine” title, and was a contender in the “Miss America” national beauty contest in 1934. While she did not win, Iva became a runner-up and got major media coverage.
Buoyed by her success on the beauty pageant circuit, Iva moved to New York and started to work as a photographer’s model, but with her eyes on being an actress. by night, she studied dramatic art, and almost starved for months before getting a Job in a night spot. This job connected to to other showbiz people, and she had minor parts in several Broadway shows. But the money from acting was tights, and she had to constantly keep up modelling on the side.
Luck finally came Iva’s way when she and four other models were seen by a talent scout, and signed to a stock contract. That was a funny story, Because the girls vowed to seek film success together, and as destiny had it, they were all signed at the same time! To make things even funnier, all four were cast in the same movie the week after they arrived to Los Angeles from New York. The girls, except for Iva were, Elizabeth Palmer, Irma Wilson and Alice Armand. Sadly, none of them was to achieve any great cinematic success. But their careers started!
CAREER
Iva was always uncredited, or played totally minor roles in movies, but she managed to stick out for a few years in Hollywood, not a bad feast in itself. Allegedly Iva first appeared in Thin Ice, a Sonja Henie movie. As I already mentioned countless time on this blog, Henie movies were colorful and nice looking, but with thin characters and plot, so I’m not a big fan. Later she appeared in another Henie movie, Second Fiddle, which is just a rehash from countless other Henie movies. A much better movie isThe Baroness and the Butler, a witty, sparking 30s comedy with William Powell and Annabella, where Powell plays the butler who becomes a parliament member and fights his mater’s politics head on.
It was time for some wacky comedy with the Ritz brothers showcase, Kentucky Moonshine, with Tony Martin playing the dashing romance lead. In the similar vein was a Jones family movie, Safety in Numbers, and a Mr. Moto movie, Mr. Moto Takes a Vacation. You watch these movies if you like the movie series it belong to, and while anyone can probably enjoy it to a degree, it’s simply not outstanding enough to warrant watching as a stand-alone. Iva then appeared in a dramatic weepie, Always Goodbye, with Barbara Stanwyck and Herbert Marshall, about a woman who ditches the man she loves to marry a man who adopted the child she left at birth years ago. As you can see, very soapy but old Hollywood sure knew how to make it work! Another A class movie that Iva appeared was Star Dust, where young Linda Darnell plays a wannabe actress that managed to climbs the Hollywood ladder, but at what cost? Funny that the movie is semi autobiographical, with Linda’s experiences serving as the basis for some moments.
Iva appeared in a string of B movies. There were adventures, like The Three Musketeers (I think we all know the plot of this one, plus there are the Ritz brothers, and I quite like it!), Sharpshooters, with Brian Donvely trying to save a prince of a small kingdom from losing his throne, and It Could Happen to You, a light crime movie about a wife trying to prove the innocence of her husband, played by Gloria Stuart and Stu Erwin.
There were plenty of light comedies to go around. Three Blind Mice is about three sisters who want to nab rich husbands, with Loretta Young in the leading role. A typical romcom, but oh so charming you cannot help but watch it! Among them was the aptly named Wife, Husband, and Friend, where the roles are taken over by Loretta Young, Warner Baxter and Binnie Barnes. Loretta is a socialite that wants to sing but hardly has the voice for it, but her husband, played by Baxter has, and of course, there is the friend who perhaps has less than honorable goals. Similarly named Boy friend is a Jane Withers comedy, a movie theoretically in the same genre, but made for a different audience and a totally different style. Interesting to compare this movie that were both comedies, but pretty much more than a bit apart when you look at it. Iva had the honor of appearing in another one of Jane Withers comedies, High School, about, you guessed it, high schoolers and their tempestuous love lives.
Iva appeared in two of Alice Faye movies. Hollywood Cavalcade is a historical movie about early Hollywood, with Alice and Don Ameche, her frequent co-sar. Then came Little Old New York, with Alice and Fred MacMurray, about the early ages of steamships on the large rivers. She also appeared in a Shirley Temple movie, Young People, about a family that goes to live on a New England farm after living in the city for very long. Always a plus is seeing the hilarious Charlotte Greenwood in any role!
Iva also appeared in a few oddities (as far as her filmography goes), like 20, 000 Men a Year, an aviation movie with Randolph Scott playing a pilot who opens up a piloting school, Girl in 313, a Florence Rice movie about a detective who falls in love with a thief from a gang, and Free, Blonde and 21 is exaxtly what the title says – young girls making their living (some fairly, some not) while cohabiting a hotel.
That was all from Iva!
PRIVATE LIFE
Iva was taunted as a beauty that was fresh and unsophisticated. In her prime, she was five feet two, weighted 108 pounds, had blue eyes and dark blond hair. Iva really tries to catapult her career via PR, but this didn’t quite work out the way she wanted to.
Here is a sweet bit of fluff about young 20th century fox actresses, Iva included:
TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX keeps under contract about a $core of pretty young girls prospective stars – who are serving an apprentice ship by playing I background bits. On a set every day for weeks, they appear before the camera in perhaps five or six scenes. It is a lazy life thirty minutes work out of an eight- hour day. A few weeks ago, Iva Stewart, a blond miss who looks surprisingly like Madeleine Carroll, proposed that they should spend their leisure set time knitting for charity. There has been quite a bit of laughter at their expense for it is incongruous to see bejeweled beauties plying knitting needles on a nightclub set. But the girls last month presented thirty-three sweaters to a Los Angeles orphanage. There is nothing funny in that.
At that time, Iva attended 20th Century-Fox’s dramatic school where young stock players receive training all year round under the tutelage of superb actress Florence Eldridge. Iva was quite aware of her dramatic shortcomings, as this newspaper bit can attest:
If anyone still dines on the moth-eaten myth that ambitious actresses in Hollywood,” work more than the press agents, they are right. “Miss Stewart finished her first leading role yesterday, and this morning she started to take drama lessons.” “That’s not ambition,” piped up Miss Stewart, “I saw the rushes.”
However, working in movies was far from an easy, breezy job, as we today know. The conditions on classic Hollywood sets were probably much worse than they are today, and Iva had her share of traums there. There is another bit about her:
Iva Stewart, Twentieth Century-Fox beauty, whose metal cloth gown caught fire “the other day when it trail d across a switch box, lives the experience over and over gain in memory. … It has shaken her nerve to the point hat she is entering a Glendale rest home
Here is another quite macabre things that happened to Iva:
Paper Iva Stewart, 20th Century-Fox contract player, opened her hometown paper, from Bath, Me., and read of the sad death in New York of Iva Stewart, who had shown great promise of a career in motion pictures. But Iva was 3000 miles away, in Hollywood, very much alive and surprised. A quick exchange of telegrams and the matter was cleared up. Another local girl named Iva, a dancer, passed away in New York; the similarity in names caused the confusion. Iva showed much evidence of life at the 20th Century-Fox studios, where she has just finished work- day
There pretty weird happenings, combined with a constant lack of any professional successful, finally made Iva give up her acting dreams in 1940. Also, before she left Hollywood, in about 1939, Iva married Bernard Brukholder, who worked in the salt packaging industry as a supervisor. Brukholder was born in Woodbine, Iowa on August 28, 1907, first lived in New York in the late 20s and early 30s, and came to California in about 1936, and found work as dog food salesman.
The couple settled in Los Angeles, and had two children, Richard, born on June 7, 1941, and Judy Anne, born on February 8, 1945. Iva and her family enjoyed a simple life outside of the limelight.
Iva Stewart Burkholder died in March 1985, in Los Angeles, California.
Leone Lane was a rarity among starlets in Tinsel town – a trained artist, she specialized in fabric painting and was working in the garment industry before she landed in movies. For a time she had this parallel career, trying to score it big as an actress. Sadly her movie career nosedived, and she returned to her artistic roots, working as a dressmaker. Let’s learn more about her!
EARLY LIFE
Leone Hallie Lane was born on November 17, 1908, in Boston, Massachusetts, to Charles T. Lane and Hallie Stiles, their first child. Her father was a shoe salesman.
Leone grew up in Boston, attending elementary and high school there. She developed a passion for the performing arts pretty early, and was a seasoned amateur dancer by the time she entered her teens. After graduating from high school, Leone went to UK and studied art and designing at the Brighton Art School in London, following this with a period of professional dancing on the stage in England, resuming this career on returning to America (New York to be precise).
Leone was a specialty dancer for a time on the East coast, before deciding to go west to seek more fame and fortune. To be a proper actress, she studied a year at the Wallace Dramatic School in Los Angeles. To earn money for her education, Leone painted fabrics in Los Angeles for two years.
Ultimately, Leone racked up a splendid training for the stage and in other artistic branches. When she was ready, she made the rounds of the studios until she found work at RKO. She was later signed by for small parts in two-reel comedies. One of the Paramount executives saw Leone in several of the short films and signed her up.
And of the went!
CAREER
As with most actor playing in the silents, it’s a tragedy but sadly the truth when I say a large number of their movies have been lost. Leone appeared mostly in silents, and many of her modest movie output have been lost. Her lost movies are: Stairs of Sand, Betrayal, The Case of Lena Smith–
The three movies that Leone appeared in and are not lost are:
The River of Romance is a southern drama, based on a Booth Tarkington novel. Behold the plot (taken from IMDB): Buddy Rogers was raised by the Quaker relatives of his mother. He returns home to father Henry B. Walthall’s southern plantation, where he quickly becomes engaged to June Collyer, while her younger sister, Mary Brian also falls in love with him. No sooner has Walthall announced the engagement, than in comes Walter McGrail, who challenges Rogers to a duel. Rogers, because of his upbringing, thinks there’s no reason to fight, so Walthall kicks him out for violating the Code Of The Southern Gentleman and marries Miss Collyer to McGrail, who turns out to be an utter dud. Rogers heads out and falls in with one-eyed Wallace Beery, who teaches him how to act like a bloodthirsty maniac.
The movie seems like a dud, mostly because the actors were mostly miscast, and their accents were terrible, and they didn’t quite know to to act in a talkie, A lot of early talkies have this problem, and no wonder, since the change from silents to talkies was huge in terms of technical elements.
Second movie was The Saturday Night Kid, a movie with Clara Bow, Jean Harlow and Jean Arthur in it! Sadly, that’s about the only outstanding things about it, it’s a lukewarm. It’s about two sisters, who both work as salesgirl, who fall for the same guy. Interesting to note that Jean Arthur plays the bad sister, and Clara plays the good sister! This is a total twist from their usual roles, and it doesn’t quite work. Clara comes of as underused and boring as a virtuous heroine, plus her leading man, James Hall, is pretty much a limited talent and quite wooden.
The third and last movie, made with a time-skip of 5 years, was Dante’s Inferno. a not too famous Columbia drama, most notable for being a showcase for the dancing skills of young Rita Hayworth. While not a top tier movie, it does reveal some intelligent touches, with references to the seminal works of the Italian renaissance), with a on his way to stardom Spencer Tracy is always fun to watch! Plus Claire Trevor!
That was it from Leone!
PRIVATE LIFE
At her prime, Leone weighted 123 pounds, and was five feet, six Inches. Tall, darkhaired and striking, Leone was quite popular with the boys in Hollywood.
However,Leone never married, and sadly no mentions of a boyfriend/fiancee was found in the papers. One wonders what happened to Leone, what was her story, as choosing this path, especially in the early 20th century, took quite a bit of guts and will power. What an interesting woman, but sad I could not find more info on her.
The reason why Leone may be remembered today is that she was a very close friend of Jean Harlow. They met while working on a same movie, bonded very quickly and were thick as thieves until Jean’s untimely death in 1937.
Her acting career long over, Leone became a dressmaker in Los Angeles. She lived with her widowed mother until her death in the 1970s.
A pretty small-town dancer, Helen Fairweather landed in Hollywood during the silents, tried to make a career, didn’t yell, then tried a few years later, during the sound period. Sadly, she had no luck and with little long term potential, she gave up performing to become a housewife. Let’s learn more about her!
EARLY LIFE
Helen Fern Fairweather was born on October 22, 1908, in Kansas City, Missouri, to John Fairweather and Jeanne Doner. She was their only child. Her father was an undertaker (making Helen the undertaker’s daughter!).
The family moved to Hollywood from Kansas city when Helen was about 14 years old. She started to attend Hollywood High school. Helen was a gifted child that loved dancing, and pretty soon it as clear that she could become a pro if she went down that road. However, Helen quietly went to high school and didn’t think too much of it, until one peculiar moment.
Here is how Helen ended up in the chorus line:
“I was still in Hollywood High when a girl friend obtained a job in the chorus of “Patsy.” Enviously I listened to her enthusiastic accounts of rehearsals and the thrill of being in a show. One day, when the comedy had been in rehearsal for a week she came rushing in and crabbed me out of my Latin class to tell me that one of the girls had dropped out and that there was a vacancy and that she had arranged a tryout for me. It took high-pressure salesmanship to convince my mother that it was the right thing to do, but she finally gave her consent, thinking of course I didn’t stand a chance. “My girl friend, having been in the chorus for fully a week, thought she was well up in the ways of the world and convinced me that I would have to look like a chorus girl to get the job, I was only 16 and then had never used rouge or lipstick. This was a disadvantage, my friend decided, and painted me up within an inch of my life. Timidly I appeared before Dave Bennett in my bathing suit, surrounded by fifty experienced dancers who watched me with an insolent ‘show us’ attitude. I went into my dance and seemingly pleased Dave Bennett, but on the side he advised me to ‘get rid of that mess on your face’ so he could see what I looked like!'”
A movie scout noticed Helen while she was in the chorus line, and thus her career started!
CAREER
Pretty slim pickings here sadly. Two silent and two sound movies, most of them not that remembered today, two even lost. it is very probable that Helen appeared in many more movies, but her participation was just not documented and the records are probably lost for prosperity.
Helen made her movie debut, with much publicity, in The Private Life of Helen of Troy(1927), a Trojan war romp, taken from the perspective of the alluring Helen and her licit love affair with Paris. This is a movie that survived only in fragments, and unless you know somebody who can screen it for you, it’s impossible to see. What a shame, it does seem like a over-the-top, Arc Deco acts as antiquity piece of work which one could find in the roaring twenties. Maria Corda plays Helen, and she seems like a good fit for the legendary seductress, and Paris is played by Ricardo Cortez, an actor I like very much and am sad is not better remembered today. Helen plays the goddess Athena. Her next silent movie was Vamping Venus, a wacky comedy set in ancient Greece again (plot: A present-day Irish American politician is vaulted into ancient Greece after receiving a bump on the head.).
Helen’s first documented sound movie was White Shoulders,a completely forgotten Mary Astor precode, again with the alluring Ricardo Cortez. The movie is considered lost, but it has plenty of precode sass, with bigamy, rape, gold digging and a plethora of other topics touched upon. Made from a Rex Beach story, it follows Mary Astor playing a young girl trying to make it in the city, who become a point of intense infatuation by a wacky millionaire, played by Tim Holt. She married him for the money, then falls for a gigolo, played by Cortez. And the drama starts! The movie was not a hit when first screened, and sadly fell into total obscurity.
Helen’s last movie was Stand Up and Cheer!, which is less of a movie and more of an excuse to put one variety act after another. Avoid if you don’t like your movies without a plausible plot. of course, as always with art, if depends if you like these sort of things – I prefer my films with more story and characterizations. But there are plenty of good actors (Warren Baxter, James Dunn, Madge Evans, Shirley Temple) and nice music to enjoy, and scantly clad ladies, oh my!
That’s it from Helen!
PRIVATE LIFE
At her peak, Helen was blond, 5 feet 3 inches high, weighed 113 pounds, and smiled easily. Helen got some minor publicity early in her career, mostly for being the undertaker’s daughter, and secondly since she claimed she did not have a dance lesson in her life. Here is a short excerpt:
Helen Fairweather is a fair example of the fact that dancing lessons are not essential to a dancer! She had never had a dancing lesson in her life when she landed her first job dancing in the chorus of “Patsy” and has never had one since. Nevertheless, she has appeared in countless musical shows and revues both here and in New York, always as a dancer. “Ever since I was a child I wanted to dance and practiced for hours by myself, imitating other dancers,” explains Miss Fairweather.
As for her married life, it was pretty low-key and stable, Helen met and married a New York accountant, Arthur Franklin, in 1933 in New Jersey. Franklin was born on March 18, 1897, in New York City, to George Franklin and Pauline Samuels, the third of four children. He grew up in New York, served in the US army during WW1, and worked as a time clerk after his discharge.
The couple lived in Los Angeles for a short time after their marriage, where Helen tried to revive her career, but without such success. Any plan for cinematic advancement was put on permanent hold after their daughter, Pauline Elsie, was born on 13 September 1935. The family moved to New York in about 1938. Franklin started to work as a logistics/financial part of the 1939 world fair, and continued working for them until the fair closed in 1940. Here is a short summary of the Fair:
The 1939–40 New York World’s Fair was a world’s fair held at Flushing Meadows–Corona Park in Queens, New York, United States. It was the second-most expensive American world’s fair of all time, exceeded only by St. Louis’s Louisiana Purchase Exposition of 1904. Many countries around the world participated in it, and over 44 million people attended its exhibits in two seasons.[2] It was the first exposition to be based on the future, with an opening slogan of “Dawn of a New Day”, and it allowed all visitors to take a look at “the world of tomorrow”.
The family returned to living in Los Angeles in the 1940s. Arthur started to work in the music department of Paramount studios as a supervisor. Helen was back in the Tinsel town milleau, and was socially active with her husband in the musical circles.
Arthur died on December 22, 1958 from heart disease. Helen remarried to Sidney R. Clare in 1960. Clare, born on August 15, 1891, in Kaunas, Lithuania, was a talented, multi-disciplinary man. He immigrated to the US in the 1900s, lived in New York, was educated in the School of Commerce, and worked in vaudeville as an director/writer/actor/singer/composer for several years before landing in Hollywood and working in movies as a composer. Some of his hit songs were “On the Good Ship Lollipop”, “Ma, He’s Making Eyes at Me”, “Please Don’t Talk About Me When I’m Gone”, “Then I’ll Be Happy”. He was married once before, to Myrtle Hammerstad. Helen and Sidney met after she and her late husband returned to Los Angeles, and were friends for a long time before becoming a couple. They enjoyed their retirement in the vibrant California climate.
Clare died on August 29, 1972 in Los Angeles. Helen did not remarry, and moved to a lovely home in Carmichael at some point in the 1980s. Sadly, Helen’s daughter Pauline died in 1987.
Helen Franklin Clare died on February 9, 2000, in Carmichael, California.
Rosalind Keith was a gifted child theater actress who ramped up plenty of amateur experience before she even came to California. Hungry for fame and success, she got what she wanted with some elaborate publicity stunts, but was soon stuck playing leads in C level movies. Now what she expected from Hollywood, Rosalind retired upon marriage, and left her acting ambitions behind. Le’ts learn more about her!
EARLY YEARS
Rosalind Culli was born on December 6, 1916, in Mascoutah, Illinois, to Rudolph Culli and Hilda Culli. She was their only child. Her father was a mechanical engineer.
When she was a small child her parents moved to Belleville, Illinois. For a time her father was connected with the Modem Electric Company, the Metropolitan Insurance Company and later operated a soda bottling works. Rosalind at an early age showed remarkable talent in dramatics. However she came by this naturally as her mother appeared in several local plays and gave remarkable performances.
While still a child Rosalind was a pupil of the Kendall School of Expression. She appeared in number of their plays during the years from 1922 to 1931. Some of her most important local roles Included “The Girl of the Wagon Train” at the Washington Theater and Little at the Lincoln. In 1930 when the Mayor staged a huge benefit show for the unemployed Rosalind appeared in an important role in Little Brown School”. The next year at the opening of the Kendall Little Theater she made one of her last appearances in the leading role of the opening attraction.
The Cullis moved to St Louis, Missouri in the late 1920s, but Rosalind continued her lessons with Mrs Kendall for a considerable period. Rosalind attended high school in St. Louis, and continued acting in amateur productions, racking up quite a number of shows under her belt.
After Rosalind graduated from high school in St. Louis, she decided to try her luck in Hollywood. And that is She landed some bit parts in theater shows. She was appearing on the stage there in “Small Miracle’ when talent scouts spotted her and gave her a screen test. And this is how it all began!
CAREER
Rosalind came to Hollywood when she was a seasoned little theater actress, who acted for years and had plenty of experience. So what went wrong? It’s hard to say, but Rosie was stuck in low level movie entries, and somehow never managed to outgrow that. Was she not charismatic, or perhaps she was not a good actress? Or maybe she just wasn’t lucky? But let’s see what she did make during her Hollywood sojourn.
Rosalind made her debut in the forgotten movie, Romance in the Rain, about the publicity shenanigan of a a editor of a tabloid magazine. Very relevant even today! Not much is known about the movie, but Heather Angel and Esther Ralston are in the cast, which is always a plus! heather’s voice! Pure perfection! Rosie than appeared int he original adaptation of The Glass Key. As most movies where is a more famous versions (the Alan Ladd/Veronica Lake 1942 movie), it’s unjustly overlooked, and while generally not better than it’s more prolific brother it does have some meaty young George Raft deliciousness in it. And Claire Dodd, playing the role was famous for int he early 1930s (a sly, vixenish but ultimately bad girl) is stunning!
Rosalidn thne played a leading role in Annapolis Farewell, a movie that is preserved but is almost never shown anywhere and most people who don’t live in California can’t watch it easily. it’s a old times vs. new times movie, with a old navy man coming to Annapolis and being unhappy with the way thins are today. It has a solid B level cast(Tom Brown, Richard Cromwell as the dashing young men and Guy Standing as the old timer) and it seems to be a B level effort.
Similarly forgotten is It’s a Great Life, a Despression era drama about young men who deperately want to find work, travel around the country, and fall in love with the same women (played by Rosalind). While the movie is slated too much into melodrama (As it seems), it’s an interesting relic of the bygone times and what young men shad to live trough during the early 1930s. From a social point of view, very intriguing!
seems like a charming little comedy, so rarely made today! Here is the bare bones scenario: Set in 1883, Professor Eustace McGargle, a swindling carnival man, comes to a small town with his daughter, Poppy (Rochelle Hudson) where he establishes himself as the prize medicine seller while Poppy wanders about and meets and falls in love with Billy Farnsworth (Richard Cromwell), a mayor’s son, but because of Poppy’s sideshow background, the Farnsworth family look down on her. Only Sarah Tucker (Maude Eburne), a matron woman, takes a liking to Poppy, and later discovers something about her true identity that makes things right again with the Farnsworths. But, like in most W.C. Fields comedies, it’s not the story, but it’s the Fields touch, his special brand of comedy which is hard to describe, but so endearing and funny at the same time.
King of the Royal Mounted is a movie about Mounties, and allegedly not a bad one either! Fans of outdoor movies, especially situatied in the lush green mountain surroundings, should enjoy this! Rosalind plays a innocent girl who inherits a mine but an evil lawyer is after it, and a handsome Mountie comes to her rescue! Rosalind’s last movie of 1936 was Theodora Goes Wild, a superb screwball comedy with Irene Dunne and Melvyn Douglas, where Irene plays a New England prim and proper small town gir living with tho very conservative spinster aunts, but who leads a double life as a scandalous bets selling author! Problems arise when Mervyn Douglas finds out her secret, and comes to visit her in their puritanical small town. Irene is a treasure of an actress, and Douglas is great in anything he appears in, and the two make quite a pair!
Rosalind appeared in a string of seemingly okay B movies, but who are completely forgotten today: Find the Witness, a crime movie about a Houdini type of a magician who is accused of murdering his wife, but he claims he was enclosed in a coffin at the bottom of the ocean at the time,and the detectives are working against the clock to see if he is guilty or not, Westbound Mail, a Charles Starret western (and yopu know what I think of low budget westerns, the less said the better), Parole Racket, a run of the mill gangster movie that abound in the 30s, with Paul Kelly playing a good guy trying to get bad guys behind the bars, Motor Madness, Criminals of the Air, a crime movie about people busting an aerial smuggling operation (and one of Rita hAywiorth’s earliest movie roles!), A Fight to the Finish a Monte Cristo revenge like movie about taxi cab drivers, A Fight to the Finish, a convoluted drama thriller about a girl who inherits a steel works company and has to keep it afloat with the help of a fair foreman, Under Suspicion, a similarly themed industrial espionage thriller. In similar vein were Manhattan Shakedown and Arson Gang Busters, both typical low budget 1930s thrillers dealing with a specific issue (journalism in Shakedown and arsonists in Gang busters).
Luckily, the next few movies Rosalind appeared in are a bit more… Noticed by reviewers, so we can vouch to say they are not completely forgotten. However, and they good? Clipped Wingsget seen today by aviation aficionados and fans of Jason Robards Sr so it’s not forgotten, but it’s not a good movie, it’s a strictly C level affair and it shows in the overall quality. Trouble in Sundown is a low budget western, and less I say about them the better (you know I don’t like them at all!). Bad Boy on the otehr hand is a kind of an oddity, an early film noir where Rosalind plays a femme fatale who spins Johnny Dows around her little finger. Johnny gets mixed up with some pretty bad guy (racketeers), and lots of thrilling things happen! The movie was butchered by the censors (Rosalind’s character was a prostitute, but that was toned down) and retains but a bit of it’s original power, but it’s worth watching as a late 1930s relic!
Rosalind got married in 1939 and largely retired from movies, and made only one uncredited appearance, in Ladies of Washington, an low budget but nonetheless interesting whodunit with a bunch of girls living together due to the housing shortage during the war, and then a murder happens! There are plenty of B class actress eye candy, like Trudy Marshall, Sheila Ryan, Beverly Whitney, and even a very early role for the magnificent Anthony Quinn!
That was it from Rosalind!
PRIVATE LIFE
Rosalind married her first husband, James H. Lewis, an artist and magazine illustrator, in St. Louis in 1932, when she was just 15 years old and still in high school. The marriage was very stormy, with James liking to flirt with other girls and Rosalind always unhappy about it (he often was too friendly with waitresses, sometimes when Rosalind was there). She called James “sullen, morose, cold and uncompanionable.” Then he just left their shared home one day in August 1934, this was the last straw for Rosalind. They finally divorced in 1935.
When Rosalind came to Hollywood in 1934, she tried to be noticed to get a role. Due to pretty girls being an easy commodity in Hollywood, she decided to take some extra measures to be noticed. She bleached her hair, thinned her eyebrows, started to wear more make-up, and opted a succession of unusual pets: a coyote, a honey bear, and then an ocelot. Before she assumed ownership of the ocelot, Paramount Pictures signed her to a contract role in The Glass Key. Rosalind had not forgotten her former friends in Illinois, and for instance her old mentor Mrs Kendall received two beautiful photographs from Miss Culli and has had several letters from her while In Hollywood.
After dating men like Abey Drefus for a short while, Rosalind then met and fel in love with eminent cameraman, William Mellor. The two became an elopement case in March 1939, when they were secretly married in Boulder City, Nevada. Mellor was born on June 29, 1903. He began his career in the photographic labs at Paramount in the mid-20’s and in the early 1930s became a director of photography, working primarily on the studio’s lesser productions. At the same time, he continued to serve his apprenticeship by assisting veteran cinematographer Victor Milner as first camera operator on A-grade features. Mellor was a homeboy who preferred living with his mother, shunned the Hollywood social life and was pretty introverted. He was never married before he met Rosalind.
The outgoing, forcefull Rosalind and such a gentle, artistic soul as Mellor did not mesh well at all. Rosalind tried to make it work, but within 10 months, fed up with everything, Rosalind asked a divorce from Mellor, charging extreme cruelty. They had been married so briefly, true, but it was more than enough for Rosie to know what she did not want. As she told the divorce court: I do not feel I am divorcing my husband so much as I am divorcing his family. He was very spasmodic in his affections,” she said. “It seemed he was influenced by his family he lived with his mother and his sister for 36 years.”
Rosalind next married husband number three, wealthy financier Leo Jacobson, in 1940. Jacobson gave Rosalind the entry into he world of wealth, and she became accustomed to some finer things in life, which became a habit. However, she marriage fell apart very soon, and in a almost comical, farcical way. Here is an article from their divorce case:
Finery Housewife, auburn-haired Rosalind Keith of the film?, has the most extensive wardrobe in Beverly Hill s “sufficient for the next 10 years.” Financier Leo Jacobson yesterday thus described the extent of Miss Keith’s wearing apparel at a temporary alimony hearing in Superior Judge Carl A. Stutsman’s court in which the actress asked $500 monthly.pending trial of the couple’s divorce suit. Mi?s Keith admitted that her wardrobe is “quite extensive” and includes several fur coats valued at approximately $5000. Further testimony of both Jacobson and Miss Keith disclosed that the couple have lived at the same house since divorce proceedings were instituted. “We share the same bedroom,” Miss Keith said, “because we discuss the financial arrangements of our divorce until the wee hours of the morning. At first I slept in a guest room, but I lost too much sleep walking back and forth.”
Rosalind divorced Leo in 1942, and married Hernando Courtright on September 29, 1943 in Nevada. Hernando was an interesting man. The president of the Beverly Hills Hotel and a former vice president of the Bank of America, he had quite a history! Hernando William de Vos Courtright was born on July 10, 1904, to George Courtright and Marguerite Del Valle, in Coeur D’Alene, Idaho, reared in San Francisco. At six years old he suffered a skull fracture when he was thrown from a pony and dragged. The accident impaired his hearing, but did not stop him from pursuing his dreams. Graduating from UC Berkeley and the USC School of Business he became president of the National Pacific Tank and Mill Co. of Oakland, then vice president at Bank of America, where he fell into the hotel business. He purchased and made the Beverly Hills Hotel a world-famous hotel – it became the “in” place to stay, its Polo Lounge an especially famous spot for movie biz people. Hernando was a true bon vivant, and knew just about everyone worth knowing. He was also not married before he met Rosalind.
Rosalind became a California high society matron, and was very active in the local charity circuit, was a major party organizer and visible in all the major societal newspaper columns of the time. Her movie career was effectively over, but other interesting things were before her!
In a weird twist of events, Hernando sold his Beverly Hills hotel to hotelier Ben Silberstein, and also lost his wife to the same man! Yes, Rosalind divorced Hernando and married for the last time to Benjamin Laurence Silberstein. Silberstein was born in 1902, in Michigan. He was married once before, to Gertrude Bord, in 1930. They had two children, a stillbirth son in 1931, and a daughter, Muriel, born on October 24, 1932. The couple continued living the high life in California afterwards. This is his FindaGrave biography, and trust me it’s interesting:
Hotel owner. He was a union boss from Detroit who traveled to California with his family and at the request of one of his young daughters bought The Beverly Hills Hotel and Bungalows in 1954. He lived there and ran the hotel under his strict and watchful eye until the year of his death, creating and consistently maintaining an atmosphere which made top business executives and celebrities need to stay there, during the waning Golden Years of Hollywood. Running a 97% occupancy rate year round, he protected a completely social atmosphere in the 1912 hotel by not allowing any advertisement or convention groups, neither of which he needed. He also didn’t allow anyone to be in the hotel’s lobby without shoes or to be loud and boisterous, nor any photography whatsoever in the public areas. The hotel had it’s own security officers and its confidential “Do Not Take” list included all rock groups and was much longer than the VIP list. He kept a close eye on the behavior of employees and guests alike, and to help him remain anonymous on the premises his staff spoke to and of him only as Mr. S. He had some eccentric ideas and would often dress in casual unfashionable clothing so as not to be recognized and pandered to. This once led a new employee who had never sen him, thinking he was a homeless person, to call security when he wandered into the the hotel’s accounting office very early one morning.
The marriage to such a colorful character did not last, alas, and Rosie and Ben divorced in 1962. Silberstein remarried to Bonita Edwards and died in 1979.
Rosalind remained in California, long retired, enjoying her golden years. She did not remarry and moved to Diablo, Conta Costa at some point.
Rosalind Courtright died on February 24, 2000, in Diablo, Contra Costa, California.
Pretty Jane Liddell was at first glance a starlet that wanted some fame and fortune from Tinsel Town. And that she did get, but not in the way one would expect – her fame has nothing to do with her movies (her career is pretty slim), and her fortunes came around in a very unusual way. Let’s learn more about her!
EARLY LIFE
Jane Anne Liddell was born on July 28, 1927, somewhere in Missouri, to Grace Webber and Thomas Liddell. Before Jane, the Liddells had had a son who died the same day he was born in 1921. Thomas was a store manager. Jane spent her earliest years living around Missouri and Omaha, Nebraska. The family moved to Neola, Iowa, where Grace’s family was from, in 1929.
Jane grew up in Iowa, before the family moved to Oakland, California in the late 1930s. Jane still held her relations from Neola close to her heart (especially her aunt), and was often visiting them or they were visiting her in California. Jane was interested in the performing arts, and did some minor acting work in local workshops and plays. Ann attended high school in Oakland.
By coincidence, just after graduating from high school, Jane met, purely socially, actress Ann Sheridan via some mutual friends. Ann liked the plucky girl and, upon hearing that she wanted to become an actress, was more than happy to help her, and introduced her to producer Howard Welsch. Welsch also liked the girl, gave her a chance to appear in one of his movies. This is how her career started!
CAREER
Jane’s first movie was Woman on the Run, a Ann Sheridan film noir. It may be a low budget affair, but it’s a very stylish, slick movie. Dennis O’Keefe plays a painter who witnesses a murder, then he becomes a target for the killer himself. He tries to evade him, but can he? Excellent location shooting in San Francisco combined with a tense story and a gallery of first class, offbeat characters make this one a minor gem. Jane’s friend Ann Sheridam plays O’Keefe’s former wife who doesn’t believe him at first, and there are also solid turns by Robert Keith, Frank Qualen and Ross Elliott.
her second movie was Rogue River, a nifty outdoor movie about the conflicts that arise between members of an extended family in a small Oregon lumber town. The movie might be thin on the dramatics (altough the story isn’t half bad), but it’s very impressive visually and a treat for the eyes. Shot on location, is features the Pacific west as it once was, and there are some good actors to show their skills – Leslie Fenton, Rory Calhoun, Peter Graves.
Then came a seminal 1950s movie which perfectly encapsulates the decades attitudes towards what movies should be – The Blue Veil. A tearjerker shot in the best, most expensive vein, this is a very touching, emotional but highly unrealistic movie. As I said, typical 50s, which preferred to live in a American dream style bubble. But moving this aside, the movie does have it’s man and strong merits. Jane Wyman stars as a war widow who seeks employment as a nanny after her baby dies shortly after the delivery. The movie then follows her life as she selflessly helps parents rear their children. Overall, this is an excellent movie and people remember and cry over it decades after watching – it’s a true monument to it’s dramatic genius. And many, many great actors appear in it – Jane, Charles Loughton, Joan Blondell, Agnes Moorehead, Audrey Totter, Richard Carlson and so on.
Then came the breezy, cute 50s musicals, Small Town Girland How to Marry a Millionaire. As somebody once wrote, super fun fluff! The stories are usually paper thin, but the sets, the costumes, the actors, the music, the overall vibe are all magical and anyone who had not watched it should definitely do it! And oh the cast is simply delicious – Ann Miller, Marilyn Monroe, Lauren Bacall, Betty Grable, Bill Powell, Cameron Mitchell and so on.
Jane’s last movie came in 1956, a family western drama, Westward Ho, the Wagons!. Since this is a Walt Disney production, we know what to expect (wink). The movie was tailor made for Disney star Fess Parker, who played Davy Crockett to big acclaim in the eponymous TV series. A string of movies were made to capitalize on his success. This use-case usually does not end particularly well for the movie quality, although here it’s a surprisingly well made movie. In fact it’s like two separate films spliced together, the better for a two part extravaganza on TV. To quote a reviewer: “The first half hour is an enjoyable but relatively routine wagon trail tale, involving a boy must run from hostile Indians on foot. when the train arrives in Fort Laramie and no further big battles occur. In fact, this is where the movie takes off dramatically, promoting the sort of racial tolerance and mutual acceptance so essential to the Disney vision.” Parker plays a doctor who helps all people, regardless of their ethnicity. While the movie doesn’t flow as it should, it’s a very nice film with a positive message and goo production values.
That was it from Jane!
PRIVATE LIFE
When she first came to Hollywood, in 1948, Jane was seen with Forrest Tucker, who was separated but not divorced from his wife, Sandra Jolley. In the end Forrest and Sandra reconciled and Jane was out.
And then, in November 1948, Jane married Charles Bernhard, a very wealthy British producer and businessman. This could have been just another rich man marrying a pretty starlet scenario, but actually it was not. Bernhardt was told by his doctors that he was terminally ill and would be dead in a matter of months, and he wanted to marry a pretty young girl before his demise. A bit on the egoistical side, but anyone can understand this – he knew he was going to die, and wanted certain things to happen before that. When you look at it, ff the other party consents, than it’s two mature individuals having a mutually beneficial relationship and that’s all fine. Jane was there on hand, and she would be left a wealthy widow, and said yes to his proposal. So far so good. However, the drama beings after Bernhardt died in 1949. Namely, in his will he disinherited Jane, claiming that she refused to act on the spousal duties, like setting up a mutual home, and that she deserves nothing from his estate. Jane sued his estate to get her share. There was much legal drama going back and forth (I will not go into this).
So what really happened? Nobody knows, and here is my take on the situation – and it doesn’t look so good for Jane. It seems she wanted to have her cake and eat it too – namely, get married to a rich guy who would die soon and leave her a wealthy widow and then refuse to give him what was expected from a wife. While I cannot know exactly what happened, and it is possible that the two had a deal that Bernhard tried to change (perhaps he told her she doesn’t have to do anything and took it back which would change this narrative a lot), I would venture to say that Jane married for money and then tried to kept Bernhardt at arms length. I repeat, we cannot know for sure what happened and Jane could potentially be a victim, but by the looks of it, I would rather say that she chickened out when it was time to take things next level (living together, keeping home, taking care of each other). This is her right, for sure, but if that is the case, act like a normal person, annul the marriage and ask for nothing and just move on with your life. It didn’t work out and that’s fine. Especially if the guy is dying, as it seems that Bernhard died quite bitter at his wife for this unexpected turn of events. Just is just my take on the situation, and people can disagree with me, but it was not a happy period for Jane at all.
Anyway there was much drama over the property division, and Jane fought tooth and nail to get her share of the inheritance. In the end she got some money, and in fact funded herself a comfy life in the upper echelons of Los Angeles society. Now begins the dramatic life of Jane Liddell, the social butterfly that hosted tons of parties and dated a large number of men. Was is a cool life? Perhaps. Truth to be told, Jane now depended no no man, could do what she wanted, did not have to marry if she did not want to, and was a free agent. So many women, then and now, have no idea what this entails, nor how it feels, which is sad. You can choose what you want, of course – getting married, staying single, whatever – but having the freedom to choose is an incredible thing, something denied to women for many, many centuries. So, in a way, Jane got what she wanted, perhaps not in a most glittering and stress-free way, but it was here. Plus she did not have to work, and slowly her movie output diminished. And now, for a chronology of her beaus:
In the early 1950s, Jane dated Bill Walsh, a former beau of Ruth Roman, for a long time. She also dated another Bill, Bill Bishop, around that time. Afterwards she was seen with Robert North, a radio actor who played Alice Faye‘s brother in her radio show. He was followed by Joe Pasternak, a famous producer who seemingly dated so many pretty women in Hollywood.
Jane then took with Freddie de Cordova, a colorful fellow is there ever was one. A producer and director of some reputee, he was rumored to be gay and still living with his mother in his 40s. Jane was seen with Jeff Chandler, but then ditched him for the handsome Lance Fuller in 1954. That same year, she ditched Fuller for Bob Stack, a socialite actor.
In 1955, her man of the day was British actor Maxwell Reed, former hubby of Joan Collins. In 1957, she was feted by Mario Ferrari, of the prestigious family, who zapped her around Hollywood in a fancy car. This was a pretty serious relationship, but I think his family in the end said no to the prospect of Jane being a wedded member, and it broke. She recuperated by dating another aristocratic face, Baron Gottfried Von Hohenburg. Him living in Germany and she in Los Angeles put a hamper on the proceedings, and they also broke up.
in the late 1950s and early 1960s, Jane dated Ken Scott, an agent, and David Hedison. By 1966, she was evolved with the famous comedian, Phil Silvers, who was once married to starlet Jo-Carroll Dennison.
In the late 1960s, she dated Gerry Huffaker and Charles Darke. Jane then falls of the newspaper radar. It seems that she continued living in California, and later in the 1970s married a certain Mr. Dragge, about whom I could find to concrete information. Most probably she and Dragge divorced in the 1990s.
Jane Liddell died on November 18, 2009, in Los Angeles, California.
Those obscure objects of desire 