5/29/2023 0 Comments Hot dead blonde girls![]() Mansfield’s satirical copy of Monroe’s act was so spot-on that it helped to hasten the end of the blonde bombshell, paradoxically endangering both actress’ careers. JAYNE MANSFIELD : More famous today for her gruesome car crash death than for any of the movies she made while alive, she was in some sense the most successful busty blonde hired by a studio as a Marilyn Monroe copy-cat. In this episode we will explore the last five years of her life, including the demise of her relationship with Arthur Miller, the troubled making of The Misfits, and Marilyn’s aborted final film, and try to sort out the various facts and conspiracy theories surrounding her death. MARILYN MONROE: THE END : How did a star whose persona seemed to be all about childlike joy and eternally vibrant sexuality die, single and childless, at the age of 36? In fact, the circumstances of Marilyn Monroe’s death are confusing and disputed. We’ll pay special attention to the films Niagara, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, How to Marry a Millionaire, and Bus Stop, and the struggles behind the scenes of Seven Year Itch and The Prince and the Showgirl. MARILYN MONROE: THE PERSONA : How did Marilyn Monroe become the most iconic blonde of the 1950s, if not the century? Today we will trace how her image was created and developed, through her leading roles in movies and her featured coverage in the press, looking specifically at the ways in which Monroe’s on-screen persona took shape during the height of her career. We’ll start by revisiting our episode on Marilyn from our series on stars during World War II, in which we traced the former Norma Jeane from her unhappy, almost parentless childhood through her teenage marriage, her work in a wartime factory, her hand-to-mouth days as a model, her struggles to break into movies and, finally, the sex scandal that made her a star. MARILYN MONROE: THE BEGINNING : We begin the first of three episodes on the most iconic dead blonde of them all, Marilyn Monroe. But then Landis fell into an affair with Rex Harrison - and this affair turned out to be Landis’ last Listen Plus, she was one of the most dedicated USO performers of WWII, and her elopement with an Air Force pilot on her travels became the inspiration for a book, movie and long-running tabloid narrative. She claimed she left Hollywood to save her own life - so how did she end up dead at 50? ListenĬAROLE LANDIS was a gifted comedienne, a decent singer, and - once she dyed her naturally brown hair blonde - perhaps the most luminous beauty in movies of the early 1940s. Bankrupt and without a studio contract, in the early 1950s she consciously quit movies. Her star turn in Preston Sturges’ Sullivan’s Travels and her noir pairings with Alan Ladd made her Paramount’s biggest wartime draw behind Hope and Crosby, but behind the scenes, Lake was a loner with a drinking problem who didn’t give an F about Hollywood etiquette. VERONICA LAKE had the most famous hairdo of the 1940s, if not the twentieth century. ![]() Today we revisit our 2015 episode on Harlow, to set the stage for the relentless forward march of Dead Blondes through the Twentieth Century. JEAN HARLOW was the top blonde of the 1930s, and even though she didn’t survive the decade - she died in 1937 at the age of 26 - she’d inspire a generation of would-be platinum-haired bombshell stars. But today, Thelma is best remembered for her shocking 1935 death, which was deemed an accident but still sparks conspiracy theories that it was really murder. She was also an early celebrity entrepreneur, opening a hopping restaurant/bar with her name above the door. THELMA TODD, a curvaceous white-blonde who predated Jean Harlow - was a sparkling comedienne who began in the silent era and flourished in the talkies. PEG ENTWISTLE was idolized by Bette Davis, but virtually unknown in the movie industry - until she took her own life by jumping off of the Hollywood Sign. From Jean Harlow to Veronica Lake, Marilyn Monroe to Dorothy Stratten, this season tells the stories of eleven actresses who died unusual, untimely or otherwise notable deaths which, in various ways, have outshined these actress’ careers and lives. Dead Blondes explores Hollywood and the larger culture's fascination with blonde women as perfect angels, perfect sex objects and perfect victims.
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