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HARLOW Jean

 
Harlean Carpenter.

Date of birth : March 3rd 1911, Kansas City.

Date of death : June 7th 1937, Hollywood.

 

Practise: actress.

 

Picturess : 

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Story

Little girl, she was called "The Baby" and was raised by her maternal grand-parents.

As the major part of the Hollywood sex-symbols, she often played dangerous women parts, with a strong erotic charge, whose characteristic and difficulties reflected the one of her own life.

She began to play as an extra in 1928.

In 1930 Howard Hughes engaged her in "Hell's Angels", a movie in which she imposed an insidious and poised sensuality.

Frank Capra became famous with the unforgettable pictures he took of her on the set of "Platinum Blonde" (1931).

A year later, she incured the anger of the censure in "Red-Headed Woman".

 
Norma Jeane often went with Gladys Baker and Grace McKee to admire their mutual idol in "Dinner at Eight" (1933), "Hold Your Man" (1933) and "The Girl from Missouri" (1934).

In her last movie "Saratoga" (1937), Jean Harlow co-starred with Clark Gable.

She died on June 7th 1937, hardly aged 26, from an acute nephritis complications.

Gladys Baker often said to her daughter that she would become a big seductress on the screen, like Jean Harlow. Gladys admiration for the movie star incited her to make her hair dyed in platinum blonde, to only wear white clothes and  bought only white clothes to Norma Jeane too.

The similarities between Jean Harlow and Marilyn's life are amazing :

They were both raised by Christian Science strict disciples

They were married 3 times

They left schoool aged 16 to marry their first husband (Jean Harlow ran away with a millionaire)

They searched for their father during their whole life and died young, in a tragic way and under suspicious circumstances

They both played in their last movie with Clark Gable

They both liked animals and wanted to found a sanctuary for abandonned animals

They both went agaisnt the prudish morality of their era, by posing naked, showing their body and whitout wearing any underwear.

They took their mother's name as actress name

They both lived on North Palm Drive at a moment or another of their life

Like Jean Harlow, and even if she was famous, Marilyn went on strike to obtain a financial revision of her contracts with the studios

They took some sedatives prescribed from their doctor

They were both invited at a President birthday celebration, shortly before their death: Jean Harlow at the ball given for the birthday of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Marilyn for John Kennedy's birthday, and both had reproaches from the studios.

In 1950 when Marilyn met Sidney Skolsky, at that time a very influential reporter, Jean Harlow had been her model. Skolsky, who had known Jean Harlow, helped her to reach her point : during the following years, he made frequent allusions to Jean Harlow in his articles and used his influence next to the studios.

Marilyn and Sidney Skolsky also had a movie project about Jean Harlow. But Marilyn's dream to embody her idol would never come true; however, in 1958 she posed as Jean Harlow for Richard Avedon who prepared a work about the screen goddess :

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About a month before her death in 1962 and accompanied with Sidney Skolsky, Marilyn visited Jean Harlow's mother to ask her the permission to start a movie project about her daughter.

When she saw Marilyn, "Mamma Jean" would have exclaimed that her daughter was back.

A rendezvous was taken on August 5th 1962, at Marilyn's home, to work on "The Jean Harlow Story".

Even after her death, Marilyn still imitated her idol. Every week, DiMaggio made deposit flowers on her grave, respecting the promise to be as faithful towards her as William Powell had been towards Jean Harlow (he regularly made flowers deposit on the grave of her love at Forest Lawn Cemetry, Hollywood Hills).

Websites

www.jeanharlow.com

Wikipedia

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