Jean Harlow
Forest Lawn Glendale
Though her life and her career
were both tragically short, Jean Harlow will always be remembered as the first
"Blonde Bombshell."
Harlow was the daughter of a successful dentist in Kansas City, MO.
At the age of 16, she eloped with a businessman and moved to Los Angeles, where
she worked as an extra, making her film debut in "Why is a Plumber?" (1927).
Harlow appeared in small roles in several films over the next few years, including
three Laurel and Hardy comedies in 1929 -- "Liberty," "Double Whoopee" and "Bacon
Grabbers." Harlow's photograph was used in two more films starring the comedy team,
once in the role of their mother in "Brats" (1930), and again as Oliver Hardy's
girlfriend, Jeanie-Weenie, in "Beau Hunks" (1931). Harlow also had a small role
in Charlie Chaplin's "City Lights" (1931).
Harlow's big break came when Howard Hughes cast her in his World
War I aviation epic, "Hell's Angels" (1930). Hughes began the film in 1927 as a
silent film, with a Swedish actress starring as the women who comes between two
brothers. But, with sound films becoming more popular, "Hell's Angels" became a
talkie, and Hughes had to find a English-speaking actress to play the role. With
her sultry and steamy performance, Harlow became a star. Harlow next appeared in
"Platinum Blonde" (1931), and co-starred with James Cagney in "The Public Enemy"
(1931), with Spencer Tracy in "Goldie" (1931) and with Clark Gable in "Red Dust"
(1932).
Harlow brought a sense of sexual energy to the screen that was
magnified when film magazines and publicists began to report some of the more
interesting and racy details of her personal life -- she posed for nude photographs
shot in Griffith Park, she never wore underwear, she always slept in the nude,
she rubbed ice on her breasts before shooting a scene, she bleached her pubic
hair, and she wrote a novel that was so sexually explicit that MGM studio executives
destroyed every copy before it could be published.
Harlow was also in the headlines in 1932, when she married Paul
Bern, a screenwriter, producer, director and assistant to Irving Thalberg at MGM
studios. Two months after the 42-year-old, bookish Bern married the 21-year-old
Harlow, he was found dead in their Beverly Hills home. After a lengthy investigation,
Bern's death was ruled a suicide. A year after Bern's death, Harlow married
cinematographer Harold Rosson, who was 16 years her senior. They were divorced
two years later, when Harlow accused Rosson of "mental cruelty" for reading in bed,
and depriving her of sleep.
Harlow may have reached her on-screen sexual pinnacle in "The Red-Headed
Woman" (1932), as a girl from the wrong side of the tracks who uses her physical
charms to get what she wants from her married boss, a millionaire businessman and
just about any other man she encounters. When the film was banned in England, it
only served to make Harlow more popular. But in the early 1930s, with the newly
instituted Motion Picture Production Code enforcing strict rules of conduct and
behavior in films, Harlow had to tone down her act. She switched to more elegant
and sophisticated dramas, and also displayed her impressive comedic talents in
films such as "Dinner at Eight" (1933), "Bombshell" (1933), "China Seas" (1935),
"Wife vs. Secretary" (1936), "Libeled Lady" (1936) and "Riffraff" (1936).
While making "Saratoga" (1937), her sixth film with Gable, Harlow
collapsed on the set and was sent home to rest. Harlow, however, was suffering
from several severe medical problems, including an inflamed gall bladder, failing
kidneys and a bladder infection. Her kidney problems may have been the result of
scarlet fever she contracted as a teen-ager. She died on June 7, 1937, at age 26,
of cerebral edema and uremic poisoning, which is caused by a build-up of waste
products in the blood.
After Harlow's sudden death in the prime of her career,
rumors began to spread about the cause. Some of the most often-repeated stories
were that Harlow's mother's religious beliefs kept her from calling a doctor, Harlow
was poisoned from toxic chemicals in her hair dye, or that she was injured during
a botched abortion.
Harlow's funeral, held two days after her death in the Wee Kirk O'
The Heather chapel at Forest Lawn, was the biggest, most spectacular funeral
service Hollywood had ever seen. Those who couldn't attend or were not invited overwhelmed local florists and went out of their way to send flowers.
More than 250 invited guests crowded into the
small chapel, including Gable, Tracy, Carole Lombard, Norma Shearer, William Powell,
Lionel Barrymore and the Marx brothers. An estimated $15,000 worth of floral
tributes surrounded Harlow's coffin, and MGM studio security guards assisted
cemetery staff, Glendale police and state police in keeping fans outside the
cemetery gates. The brief funeral services started with Jeanette MacDonald
singing "Indian Love Call," one of Harlow's favorite songs, and ended with
Nelson Eddy singing "Ah, Sweet Mystery of Life."
At the time of her death, Harlow was engaged to Powell, who
was at her bedside when she died. Powell purchased the alcove where Harlow's body is buried for a reported $30,000, with three available burial spaces.
The alcove also contains the body of Harlow's mother, Jean Harlow Carpenter
Bello (1889 - 1958), in an unmarked crypt. The third space is unoccupied.
Like many celebrities who die young, Harlow has remained frozen
in time, and enduring in popularity. Her life story has been told in several
films, including two made in 1965, both titled "Harlow," one starring Carol
Lynley and the other starring Carol Baker. Lindsay Bloom, a former Miss USA,
played Harlow in "Hughes and Harlow: Angels in Hell" (1977). Marilyn Monroe
was considering the lead in "The Jean Harlow Story" when she died in 1962. And
Harlow was also reportedly the model for the character of Catwoman in the
Batman comic books.
Harlow's crypt is inscribed with the words, "Our Baby."
Harlow was born Harlean Carpenter on March 3, 1911, in Kansas City, MO.
She died on June 7, 1937, in Los Angeles, CA.
1911 - 1937
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