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.
Those obscure objects of desire 