Lucille Lund

Born June 3rd, 1913, in Buckley, Washington, Lucille Lund (her real name) studied drama at Chicago's Northwestern University. She won a nationwide contest for ''most beautiful college coed'' in 1933 and the title included a small acting contract with Universal Studios. Lucille went to Hollywood and made her film debut that year in Horseplay, a slapstick comedy starring Slim Summerville, followed by Saturday's Millions, a football film starring Robert Young. Horseplay was released June 1, two days before Lucille's twentieth birthday.

In 1934 she would appear in six productions, including the film for which she is best remembered, The Black Cat, starring Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi. The role got her noticed and selected as a WAMPAS Baby Star. Note that it would be the last year that "WAMPAS" selected actresses for that title. Unfortunately, prior to The Black Cat, Lucille had to rebuff Carl Laemmle Jr.'s advances and this didn't sit well with his cronies and she found herself in Pirate Treasure, a decidedly B serial.

When she did shoot The Black Cat, director Edgar G. Ulmer proved a tyrant and sadist, perhaps at Laemmle's urging, and once left Lund hanging in her glass casket while the company and crew went off to lunch. Lucille said it almost killed her. Suffice it to say she left Universal soon after, but little success followed and in 1937 she got married, started a family and after 30 appearances had her last film role in 1939's Charlie Chase comedy short, The Awful Goof. Lucille would continue acting in commercials well into her 50s, but otherwise disappeared from the Hollywood scene.

Lucille died at the age of 88 in Rolling Hills Ca, of natural causes.

Publicity stills

Scenes from The Black Cat

The Black Cat, 1934 - Universal
Kiss and Make-Up, 1934 - Paramount
Prison Shadows, 1936 - Mercury Pictures
Blake of Scotland Yard, 1937 - Victory Pictures

Lucille Lund - What do you think - Allure?

Marian Marsh - Winterizing

You can learn about Marian Marsh from the initial post here. Highlighting fashion seems to be popular and so I thought with winter just around the corner, the pictorial of Marian shopping the Big Apple, as presented in the December 1931 issue of New Movie Magazine, would be an appropriate post. Marian is just 18 here, but looks every bit the sophisticate.

Click on images for a larger view.

On the Street

In the penthouse

If the LPGA members dressed like this, I might just tune in.
New Movie Magazine - September 1931

Marian Marsh - What do you think - Allure?

Asides - A Few Notes

I am happy to report that the site saw its 50,000th visitor yesterday, a Californian, reviewing the June Lang post. Thanks to everyone who has dropped by, it makes doing the blog even more rewarding.

Also, I recently got involved with OperationPhotoRescue.org, a not-for-profit organization whose volunteers work on restoring photographs damaged as a result of natural disasters such as hurricane Katrina. Some 1300 people are helping to restore the photos and precious memories for those who lost so much. If you are a Photoshop or other digital imaging program user with a degree of skill in retouching and restoration, you might want to take a look at the site and see if volunteering works for you.

Asides - The Alphabet Meme

So...Here I was ready to put up a fashion post on Marian Marsh, when lo and behold, I was tagged by The Self Styled Siren to participate in a meme. The Siren herself was tagged by Cinema Viewfinder's Tony Dayoub, who it seems was first tagged by this meme's originator at Blog Cabins.

The rules are simple - an alphabetical listing of films from A-Z. This is also an impossible task as far as I was concerned, because I immediately felt guilty about films that wouldn't make the list. How could I list Rififi and not Rashomon, or Casablanca and not Cinema Paradiso. Well, I came up with my own less guilt ridden approach that narrowed itself to two criteria. First, in keeping with this blog's primary theme of actresses of the 30's, I decided all the films would have to come from that decade. Secondly, I would have to have a copy of each film. Using those parameters, a perfect score would be 52, and I came up just one short. All the films are from the 30's (26 points) and I have all but one, X Marks The Spot (25 points). I do have the 1942 version of X Marks The Spot with a nineteen year old Anne Jeffreys. You can have it to if you go to Archive.org.

I would like to thank the Siren, who thought to include me in the meme. If for some reason you are not aware of the Siren's blog, you will only want to visit if you are interested in insightful, in-depth, witty, and well written film criticism and commentary.

Adventure In Manhattan 1936
Baby Face 1933
City Streets 1931
Dancing Lady 1933
Employees Entrance 1933
Flesh 1932
Gay Divorcee 1934
Half Naked Truth 1932
I Am Suzanne 1933
Jewel Robbery 1932
Kept Husbands 1931
Ladies They Talk About 1933
Madam Satan 1930
Night Court 1932
Old Dark House, The 1932
Parachute Jumper 1933
Queen Christina 1933
Reckless 1935
Safe in Hell 1931
They Call It Sin 1932
Undersea Kingdom 1936
Vampire Bat 1933
Waterloo Bridge 1931
X Marks The Spot 1931
You Can't Take It with You 1938
Zorro Rides Again 1937

All U.S. releases

Oh yes, one more rule. The "he/she who is tagged" is supposed to tag five more folks to join the meme. The problem is, those I would have tagged have already been tagged. So if you want to join in, please do so, on your blog, comments here, or though Self Styled Siren or Blog Cabins.

Oh, and trust me, not all the films in my list are "required" viewing.

Boots Mallory

Patricia "Boots" Mallory was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, October 13, 1913. After playing banjo in a all-girl band at the age of twelve and then spending a few years as a vaudeville dancer, she relocated to New York City, where she received recognition in the Ziegfeld Follies of 1931. Her Ziegeld exposure fostered her move to Hollywood. She was soon put under contract to Fox and was cast as the female lead in Walking Down Broadway, Erich Von Stroheim's first sound film directorial and screenwriting assignment.

The film, based on a Dawn Powell play, told the story of a young unmarried pregnant woman. The finished film, however, strongly suggested a lesbian relationship between Boots' character and the character played by ZaSu Pitts, one of Von Stroheim's favorite actresses. Other sexual themes were also considered too daring. As a result, Fox brought in director Alfred L. Werker to make drastic cuts. Stroheim's length of 14,000 feet was cut to 5800 in the released version, which included all the new footage shot. The film was finally released as Hello, Sister! (1933) to little fanfare and lackluster reviews. Von Stroheim's original version was neither copyrighted nor released, and is considered lost.

Stills from the Von Stroheim version of Walking Down Broadway.

Here is Stroheim's take on the situation.

"Sol Wurtzel, one of the chief moguls at Fox, did not understand the story or picture. After it was finished, he had it rewritten, remade and rebaptized. It came out as Hello Sister!—a B picture. Sol Wurtzel wanted to prove to Winnie Sheehan that his [Sheehan's] judgment had been wrong in engaging me to direct during Wurtzel's absence. I happened to be in the middle of a feud between them."

Once again, Stroheim got the short end of the stick, and this is a film he brought in under budget!

This ad appeared in the February 1933 edition of Movie Classic, but by May, Von Stroheim's name was gone and Hello, Sister! hit the theaters.

Handle with Care (1932) was Boots' second film, and marked her debut since the altered and renamed Walking Down Broadway (Hello, Sister!) didn't release until a year later. Handle With Care was well received and Boots was named a WAMPAS Baby Star of 1932. Then in May 1933 Hello, Sister! was released to negative reviews and her career flattened. Over the next few years, she played the lead in several "B" pictures, including the Rin Tin Tin serial The Wolf Dog (1933), Carnival Lady (1934) and Here's Flash Casey (1938). She made her final film appearance in an uncredited role in the Laurel and Hardy's Swiss Miss (1938).

Boots Mallory was first married at the age of sixteen, and by 1932 had married her second husband, actor, producer William Cagney, brother of James Cagney. In 1947 she married Herbert Marshall and remained with him until her death in Santa Monica, California in 1958.

New Movie Magazine - January 1933

Boots Mallory - What do you think - Allure?

Maria Corda

Maria Corda, born Maria Antonia Farkas on May 4, 1898 in Hungary, began her career on the Budapest stage, and her successes there allowed the move to film. Maria eventually left Budapest and followed her husband, director Alexander Korda, to Vienna. Through his direction and promotion she was starred in several films including Samson und Delila (1922) and Michael Curtiz's Die Sklavenkönigin, Moon of Israel being the U.S release title (1924).

In 1926 she and her husband moved to Berlin. It was there Korda directed Maria in A Modern DuBarry (1926 - released in 1927). That film landed Korda his Hollywood contract, and he and Maria moved to the United States. Her one truly successful Hollywood film performance was in The Private Life of Helen of Troy (1927) , also directed by Korda. The film received the honor of being nominated for an Academy Award in 1928, the year of the Awards' inception, in the category of Best Title Writing .

Time Magazine Dec 26, 1927 (portion of review)

Helen of Troy is a legend whose life has passed, like an old coat, from king to courtier, from courtier to servant, from servant to beggar. Homer wrote about a fine and glittering lady; Marlowe found lines like golden bells, for a casual queen; John Erskine made the legend into a matrimonial farce, and now the matrimonial farce has become a cinema, played against Maxfield Parrish walls and valleys, by Maria Corda, a pretty little blonde girl with an affected way of showing her teeth.

BTW, the same issue of Time contained a very positive review of Tod Browing's lost film London After Midnight (1927), starring Lon Chaney.

Maria brought her Hollywood career to an end with the coming of sound, and returned to Europe where she appeared in a few minor films. Maria died in Geneva in 1975.

Scene from Helen of Troy

I believe this is from Helen of Troy.

Maria Corda - What do you think - Allure?