Quite a few actresses of the time died when thet were 26.
There are several versions of the origin of the word.
OK.
Another “starlet” who was cursed by the number 26 was Barbara LaMarr who was a sixteen year old veteran when she arrived in the City of Angels. Dubbed the girl who was too beautiful, (an unlikely trait in Hollywood), she seemingly crammed quite a bit of living into her short ten year career; six husbands, a rumoured two thousand lovers (she allegedly claimed that her idea of a good night’s sleep, was a catnap between bouts of sex) and more than twenty easily unforgettable movies. Some had the equally forgettable titles of “Rose of Nome”, “The Little Grey Mouse” and “The Brass Bottle”.
Barbara apparently died of “natural” causes on January 30, 1926, drugged, burnt out and exhausted. Now 2000 lovers divided by 10 years equals a new lover every 1.08 days if my math is correct. Small wonder she was burnt out and exhausted!
So what about the very beautiful and uninhibited Jean Harlow who was “discovered” by Mr. Howard Hughes? Apparently his movie “Hell’s Angels,” a 1930 American war film, was shot without sound and when the time came to get with it, so to speak and add a soundtrack, the flying scenes were easily fixed. I mean one Tiger Moth sounds like another Tiger Moth.
But when the female lead in the movie, the beautiful Norwegian Greta Nissen added her dialogue, nobody could understand her English which would have made her role as a British aristocrat pretty silly. So Jean Harlow took Greta’s part in the movie and was an instant success.
And when “The Platinum Blonde” was released in 1931, Jean turned into a real star. When MGM took over her contract it was rumored that Hughes had released her because she’d rejected his advances. At MGM Jean met and in July 1932 married Paul Bern, an executive at the studio. She was 21 and he was 43. By all accounts Paul was a really nice guy, except for one small problem – he was already married to one Dorothy Millette and allegedly impotent to boot.
It seems Dorothy was in a clinic and suddenly, either by accident or design, she announced that she was coming home. When Paul broke the news to Jean she told him: “Buy her off or I’m history as far as you are concerned.” Dorothy’s body turned up in the Sacramento River and then Paul shot himself. Messy.
Despite what she’d said to him, it seems that Jean took Paul’s death badly and sort of spiraled out of control with grief. This manifested itself in some rather promiscuous behavior in which she picked up strange guys and spent days holed up in seedy hotels with them. And all this while the studio combed the city in search of her.
After another failed marriage Jean suddenly collapsed and was hospitalized and diagnosed with uremic poisoning. It wasn’t until much, much later that it was revealed that she had suffered from a kidney disease since her teens.
Unfortunately he Christian Scientist mom refused to have her treated and used only prayer in an attempt to heal her daughter. Not surprisingly Jean died of cerebral oedema on June 7, 1937.
Her age? Well she was born in 1911 so she was 26.
And of course the most beautiful of them all. I am not going to say much about Miss Monroe because everyone knows her story.
She was born in 1926 and died in 1962 … 26 reversed.
Aaaaccvkkk! My brain hurts. Interesting story. Again with the numbers. I’m fairly certain millions of people have died at age 26. Or died in 1962 (26 reversed). Or any combination of numbers you can dream up.
Keep writing your thoughts on old Hollywood. I like it. Drop the numbers game, though.
Ok I’ll try.
There may be speculation on the origin of “flapper”, but there is documented use before WWI, so it isn’t really possible that a happy dance-craze after WWI “gave birth” to it.
One of the most famous ones died at age 40
The police came in and they looked around
Throwing up everywhere at what they found
…
She was the winner
Who became the doggy’s dinner
(The song is embellished and spells her name wrong.)
Bow had a secretary named LaMarr and LaMarr had a secretary named Bow!
Great-Grandma is a Punk Rocker, now!
She’s a punk punk. A punk rocker.