March, 1960 “Modern Screen” article by columnist, Earl Wilson
In her 1962 memoir, “The Whole Truth and Nothing But,” Hollywood gossip columnist, Hedda Hopper, wrote of Liz Taylor’s “BUtterfield 8” Oscar in the following manner, “She won her Academy Award not for Butterfield 8 but for nearly dying. And her studio joined in by putting on a terrific public relations campaign against Debbie – with planted stories in fan magazines and loaded interviews for the newspapers – to clinch sympathy for Liz.”
Eddie Fisher and Elizabeth Taylor
The aging columnist, who loved judging all Hollywood, was of course referring to the love triangle concerning Elizabeth Taylor, actress Debbie Reynolds and Reynolds’ onetime husband, baritone Eddie Fisher. In 1958, Taylor began a love affair with Fisher, at the time married to actress Reynolds, during the filming of “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.” Eddie Fisher later left Debbie Reynolds to wed Liz.
Hedda Hopper, chief competition for Hearst columnist, Louella Parsons
The public became either decidedly for or against Taylor – either content to accept that all’s fair in love and war, or the opposite view of Liz as predatory homewrecker.
Elizabeth Taylor had originally catapulted to stardom at the young age of 12 in the 1944 film, “National Velvet.” Taylor blossomed into a lovely, sensual young woman as the world watched and was often publicized as the most beautiful woman in the world. When her third husband, director Michael Todd, was suddenly killed in a plane crash on March 22, 1958, there was an outpouring of public sympathy for Liz.
w/Mike Todd & Lizaw/one of Michael Wilding’s sons
Then came the Reynolds-Fisher-Taylor romance scandal, turning many sharply against her. All ill feelings were quickly forgotten though, after Liz’s near date with death from pneumonia two years later, just prior to the Academy Awards. Nominated for best actress in the 1960 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer film “BUtterfield 8,” Liz garnered the coveted award many felt was undeserved. It certainly hadn’t hurt Taylor (or M-G-M) that she’d languished for weeks in an intensive care unit close to death just before the Oscars that year.
Still frail from her recent illness, Elizabeth Taylor was helped to the stage by Eddie Fisher, who’d co-starred with her in “BUtterfield 8.” He’d recently divorced Debbie Reynolds to be at Liz’s side, making him Taylor’s fourth husband to date.
As Helen of Troy in “Doctor Faustus”
To decide for yourself if Elizabeth Taylor’s 1961 Oscar was really a “sympathy award,” check out her competition that year: Shirley MacLaine for “The Apartment” – a satirical look at office politics; Melina Mercouri for “Never on Sunday,” the story of a Greek prostitute; Greer Garson for “Sunrise at Campobello,” a dramatization of former president Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s battle with polio; and Deborah Kerr for “The Sundowners,” a film about life in the Australian outback.
Jayne Mansfield was amply suited for promo during the 1950s
Jayne Mansfield, popular sex symbol of the 50s met future husband, Mickey Hargitay, a bodybuilder on stage one evening at Mae West’s popular Las Vegas revue featuring musclemen. Mansfield and Hargitay enjoyed a whirlwind romance, married, then later divorced yet the couple remained close friends throughout the remainder of Mansfield’s short life, which ended on a lonely Louisiana highway the night of June 29, 1967.
Mickey Hargitay, Hungarian bodybuilder, with Jayne Mansfield
In video footage posted on YouTube, Mickey Hargitay wistfully recalled his visit to a mortuary containing the remains of his ex-wife, Jayne Mansfield, shortly after her tragic automobile accident which killed three people. Hargitay was visibly disturbed when reliving the moment, was overcome with emotion, and struggling for the words to explain what he’d found, “I saw her the last time…it wasn’t really her anymore, you know, soul was gone, spirit was gone…it was just a machine, it wasn’t her…”
Hargitay had met Jayne Mansfield while performing at Mae West’s renowned 1950’s nightclub revue which broke Las Vegas box office records. In Mae’s typical Westian style, a collection of musclemen would cavort about the sexagenarian star, while flexing their biceps and chest muscles. It was all carefully orchestrated by the aging West to create the illusion that she was just as luscious and desirable as ever, as the men dutifully paid her homage by lustfully ogling her. West would then sing a few songs, knock off a few of her double-entendre one-liners and sashay about the stage, looking as voluptuous as a sex symbol in her mid-60s could.
Mae West’s 1950s Las Vegas act w/entourage of bodybuilders
While the bodybuilders were little more than props for West’s increasingly inflated ego, Mae’s exaggerated sense-of-self unwisely entertained the notion that Mickey Hargitay was perhaps interested in something more, namely the incomparable Mae West. Yet Hargitay happened to be looking in another direction that evening, and the object of his attention was Miss Jayne Mansfield.
In West’s inimitable egomaniacal and narcissistic manner, Mae quickly turned the page by arranging publicity about a few musclemen in her show that were battling for the elderly star’s affections, reportedly coming to blows in the process.
Mae West circa 1933 in her younger years
West was then left with her successful show minus Mickey Hargitay, and had only to reap the enormous financial rewards, not to mention several choice musclemen, in particular a bodybuilder named Chester Rybinski (aka Paul Novak). Novak, smitten with Mae West, doted on the aging star for over 26 years until her death in 1980.
Sex symbol Jayne Mansfield, some 40 years younger than West, and Hungarian bodybuilder Mickey Hargitay were soon christened “couple of the hour” by the American press, quickly married, and left the aging Mae West far, far behind. The two likely never looked back…
What motivated Carole Landis, a lovely and successful young actress, to end her life with an overdose of sleeping pills on the evening of July 4, 1948?
June 7, 1940 “Life” magazine feature, “Carole Landis Does Not Want to be ‘Ping Girl'”
CAROLE’S EARLY LIFE
Carole Landis was born Frances Ridste on January 2, 1919, in Fairchild, Wisconsin. She often reported her birthdate as January 1st because she was obsessed with holidays and tried to align important dates in her life with them, as one notes from the date of her suicide.
At the age of four, her family moved to San Bernardino, California, where her twice-divorced mother attempted to raise Carole and her siblings alone. Their family suffered a travesty on July 15, 1925, when Carole’s brother, 11-year-old Lewis was killed by an accidental gunshot wound. It was the family’s second tragedy since another son had died in 1917 by drowning, in a freak home accident where he had fallen into a laundry tub containing scalding water.
Stage-struck Carole eventually dropped out of high school at 15 to embark on a show business career. Considered “precocious” for her age, a euphemism at the time for being exceptionally well-developed, Landis set out for San Francisco, where she performed at the Royal Hawaiian nightclub, dancing the hula. After a few years Landis moved south and appeared briefly at the Rio del Mar Country Club in Santa Cruz, before heading to Hollywood in 1937. There, the natural brunette became a blonde, adopted the first name of actress, Carole Lombard, and reportedly chose the surname Landis from a phone directory. She waited for her big chance…and it eventually came.
June 7, 1940 “Life” magazineJune 7, 1940 “Life” magazine
“Screenland” magazine, September, 1943 edition with Carole on the cover
CAROLE MAKES IT BIG IN HOLLYWOOD
After three discouraging years of mediocre parts, Carole Landis got her big break in 1940 at the Hal Roach Studios when she was cast as the female lead in “One Million Years B.C.” She dominated the screen at every turn in a risqué cave-girl outfit, with co-star, male heartthrob, Victor Mature. The film was a hit and Carole was finally a star.
Carole Landis was promoted as the “Ping Girl,” hearkening back to the 1920s when Clara Bow was billed as the “It Girl,” “It” being the equivalent of “sex appeal.” Why the term, “ping?” The answer can be found in the June 17, 1940, edition of “Life” magazine where we read that Carole Landis was “the Ping Girl of America – because she makes you purr.”
Landis biographer Eric Gans wrote that “ping” was the inside Hollywood reference to the excited male member, namely, an erection, something not generally known to readers of “Life.” Landis disapproved of her studio’s “Ping Girl” marketing approach, but was clearly ignored, for the February 1, 1943, edition of “Life,” has only more of the same. Their feature “‘Ping Girl’ Weds Eagle,” celebrated Carole Landis’ third marriage to Air Force Captain Thomas Wallace with numerous lavish photographs.
By the mid-forties, Carole Landis was firmly entrenched in the 20th Century Fox roster of reliable and sexy “B actresses” but never quite seemed to make the transition to “A films,” surely a source of frustration for her. She enjoyed a not-so-flattering status in the Hollywood hierarchy at the time and an associate of Darryl F. Zanuck’s at 20th Century Fox, Milton Sperling, disparagingly referred to Carole Landis simply as their “studio hooker.”
Probably the critical event resulting in her demise occurred during the summer of 1947, when Landis had the misfortune to meet and fall in love with British actor Rex Harrison, at that time married to German actress Lilli Palmer. At some point, their romance went sour when Harrison repeatedly ignored Landis’ attempts to get him to leave his wife, so he could marry her.
Landis biographer Gans reported a confrontation between Carole Landis and Lilli Palmer at a July 1947 party given by director John Huston and wife, Evelyn Keyes. According to Keyes, Carole Landis reached into Lilli Palmer’s dress and pulled out her “falsies” which many women wore at the time to create the illusion that they were buxom. What motivated Landis to behave like that – too much alcohol, jealousy, or both? By all accounts, Carole Landis was a kind and caring person. Perhaps she was mean and vindictive underneath the Landis façade? The question may never be answered.
From June 29, 1943 “Look” magazine story on CaroleJuly, 1947 “Esquire” magazineJan. 3, 1948 British film publication
In 1945, Landis, who’d turned to the stage, befriended Jacqueline Susann, who later became a bestselling author. Jacqueline Susann’s biographer, Barbara Seaman, reported that the writer revealed that Carole “was in love with her” and that the two had a Lesbian relationship during the Broadway musical, “A Lady Says Yes.” Susann later based the suicidal Jennifer North character in her 1967 book, “Valley of the Dolls,” on her memory of Carole Landis.
Rex Harrison attended a July 4th dinner at Carole’s home but left early to meet a colleague. Landis, who’d been pressuring him to leave his wife, realized she’d failed. Overwhelmed and futile, Carole Landis took an overdose of sleeping pills that night. She’d penned a suicide note to her mother and allegedly, a second to Rex Harrison. There were also rumors of a Landis personal diary and cache of love letters, all of which mysteriously disappeared, along with Harrison’s note.
During a coroner’s investigation, Rex Harrison stated that Carole Landis had been nothing more than a friend to him. It was the era when a scandal could ruin a career and he was instinctively protecting himself.
Thus ended the life of young Carole Landis. Her choice of men had been deadly, so Carole Landis decided she’d had enough. She left our world, early morning, July 5, 1948, hours after making that fateful decision to take a fatal overdose.
