How Fucking Crazy Was Vernoica Lake?

That thread title reeks of compassion and heart.

This is the synopsis of her last film, Flesh Feast.

Lake plays Dr. Elaine Frederick, a mad scientist working on developing maggots that prefer human flesh, while her services are used to make a clone of Adolf Hitler. She cooperates with the plan to resurrect Hitler as a way of exacting revenge for the death of her parents, political prisoners executed in a concentration camp. While convincing everyone the flesh-eating maggots are for regeneration research, she simply wants to throw them in the resurrected Hitler's face, which she does.

Why doesn't Netflix stream the GOOD movies like Flesh Feast in R2?

See her in "Sullivan's Travels" , "This Gun for Hire" and "I Married A Witch". She was wonderful, even if a limited actress, and those performances are charming and very modern compared to most 40's actresses.

[quote]Lake plays Dr. Elaine Frederick, a mad scientist working on developing maggots that prefer human flesh, while her services are used to make a clone of Adolf Hitler. She cooperates with the plan to resurrect Hitler as a way of exacting revenge for the death of her parents, political prisoners executed in a concentration camp. While convincing everyone the flesh-eating maggots are for regeneration research, she simply wants to throw them in the resurrected Hitler's face, which she does.

Makes TROG sound like CITIZEN KANE

She was no Betty Hutton. In the cuckoo-nut territory, that is.

I always loved this photo where Kevin Aucoin made up Martha Stewart to look like Veronica.

If you have a thread on her, at least show a pic of her in her prime.

[quote]She was diagnosed with schizophrenia as a child.

I(f so, she did remarkably well in life to have stayed out of mental hospitals back then and become a successful Hollywood actress. I don't believe that was her diagnosis. Do you have a link, OP? No way an unmedicated schizophrenic could succeed let alone function in the era before psychotropic drugs. You can claim the alcohol abuse was self-medication (which it often is), but the symptoms abate only temporarily and come back with a vengeance.

If she was indeed mentally ill (which seems to be an established fact) you queens could have at least a modicum of sympathy.

Chances are 1/3 of the crowd on here on a Friday night have similar issues themselves.

After "her" book came out I wrote her a fan letter. She sent me a signed typwritten letter back. I know it probably isn't her signature, but at that stage of her life it made me happy that she had some fan-person willing to handle those kinds of duties for her.

Crazy or not, she's one of my favorite actresses of that era. Wish she had a longer career.

Vernoica

Oh, dear.

They paired her with Alan Ladd b/c she was shorter than he was (and he was pretty damn short). This pic gives you an idea just how tiny she was-- next to Paulette Goddard and Dorothy Lamour, both of whom are petite themselves.

That photo doesn't look real. Was she 4'11?

[R14] - I tried to find that clip on Youtube but couldn't. They're singing "A Sweater, a Sarong, and a Peekaboo Bang".

R7 Kevin Aucoin was a genius :(

It's KEVYN, bitches!

[R18] No problem! I have my Spoolies around here somewhere.....

She was no nuttier than other actresses of the time.

That number at r14 is from one of those all-star WWII studio propaganda efforts, Star Spangled Rhythm. Lots of fun cameos from Paramount's roster of stars playing themselves. Betty Hutton, in typical manic mode, is the lead.

Dorothy Lamour was almost as big of a pin-up star as Betty Grable but she's forgotten today. Besides playing the female foil to Bob Hope and Bing Crosby in all of those hugely popular Road pictures, she starred in at least one classic, John Ford's epic Hurricane. She often played tropical beauties and was costumed by Edith Head in a sarong in all of them. The style became a huge fad for cocktail dresses and bathing suits in the 1940s.

And that's about as close to getting her own DL thread as Dorothy Lamour will ever get.

R21, what's the difference between a sarong and a caftan?

A sarong wraps tightly around the body to reveal its curves. A caftan has no shape and conceals the lumps beneath it. Check out Dottie in the center of the photo at r14 for the sarong look, r22.

"Chances are 1/3 of the crowd on here on a Friday night have similar issues themselves."

I call it my Guuuurl Friday.

Tons of image videos and tributes and a few dubbed numbers from I Wanted Wings, but no Sweater Sarong and Peek A Boo Bang...

Veronica was expelled from this fancy all-girls school in Montreal for eating a meatball sandwich right out in class.

It's impossible to find, R25. This is best I can do.

When I see that peekaboo bag hair style on a woman, I'm always reminded of an insane screed I hate-read once. It written by a Christian guy who had 1,000 word essay to say about the evils of a side part. It's too sexxxy and coy! Women shouldn't wear it 'cept for the husbands with the drapes drawn. They don't know what it DOES to a man!

*peekaboo bang

Didn't she drown clutching her peekaboo bag in Vernoica Lake?

[quote] "Her life came to a tragic end at a very early age with some of her ashes being found in a thrift store."

What the fuck does that mean, O.P.? Some Klingons nuked her next to the stinky used overcoats?

She couldn't have been THAT young when she died.

Lake had it all: talent, looks, and a fabulous Hollywood career, and she threw it all away. What I have to admire about her is that she didn't give a shit. They say while waitressing, yes waitressing, in her later years she was one of the happiest people you could meet.

[quote]She was wonderful, even if a limited actress,

She was not wonderful. I generally don't rain on the parade of fanboys who want to drool over a star they like, because everyone's got different tastes, etc. etc. But Veronica Lake was demonstrably TERRIBLE in everything she did. She literally could not perform. She would stumble on lines (and we're seeing the best takes, remember). Her face would have an expression that didn't match her words, she'd forget her line for a split second before reciting it like a grade schooler at their first play. You can see her staring blankly at actors she's working with and their lines don't register with her, and you can also see when she's been coached, like, "When Joel McCrea says the word 'worst' you should chuckle and look at your coffee cup."

Lake is the epitome of someone who had zero talent being praised because they were pretty and because they ended tragically. I just wish people would admit that instead of pretending as though she was a talented actress, when she was empirically one of the worst actresses ever to star in A-list films during the Golden Age.

Someone said her "in" in Hollywood was b/c she was unusually short even for the time, making the often short male lead look tall.

"...and you can add a small dinner salad to that for only a dollar more and you get a choice of sides..."

I saw her at the N.Y. premier of the Virginia Woolf film in 1966. She was dressed to the nines, all in white, including furs and was interviewed on the red carpet. She made a joke about her hair still trying to cover her eye. Wonder why she was there and all dolled up. They included her interview on the televised version.

The only film I recall seeing Lake in was the delightful 'Sullivan's Travels', where I recall her being charming. I'm sure she was a limited actress, I seem to recall reading that a big reason she did so well in those 'noirs' with Ladd was because they required 'underplaying' to the nth degree, in other words, solely the ability to recite lines.

As for her ashes, was that ever confirmed? The urn was found but the ashes were scattered either by her son or some screenwriter named William Roos.

The story about her ashes doesn't make sense. The claim is that Roos secretly kept some of her ashes, and when his friend Ben Bagley said he liked the design of the (presumably empty) urn the ashes had once been in, Roos just dumped the rest of her ashes into a box and mailed them to Bagley, who wasn't expecting them. The guy who owns the ashes now says Bagley tossed them into a manila envelope in the 1970s and mailed them to him. Again, there's no reasons ever given for any of these bizarre claims.

The ashes weren't ever found in a thrift shop, anyway. The guy who claimed to have them let them be displayed in the thrift shop, then sent out a bunch of press releases about it. He then bragged that cemeteries were offering him $25K for the ashes.

I've been wandering around the classic film scene for a long time, and this guy sounds like all the other nutbags trying to make a skeevy profit off of a long-dead star.

OP is nothing but bigoted ableist scum with no compassion for other people's suffering. And if weed had been legal, she could have easily used that to control her temper.

I thought her Mum was the crazy one and spread loads of lies about her daughter because she was off her head.

OP's pick makes her look like a skinny Edith Massey.

That makes sense, R41. I read that her mother sued her for "support" at one point. I guess she was her Momager until one day she wasn't anymore, and she expected compensation. Don't know how that was ever settled.

Is Ben Bagley related to Vivian Bagley?

R34 types fat. And he's a big ol Mary who thinks he's got the definitive say on everything.

No, Lake was indeed mentally ill. She chose to leave Hollywood and for awhile was destitute in New York. Fans sent her money when the media picked up on the story. OP's photo is from a film she financed from the autobiography she put out.

She died at 50 from hepatitis and acute kidney failure.

After her third divorce, Lake drifted between cheap hotels in New York City, and was arrested several times for public drunkenness and disorderly conduct. In 1962, a New York Post reporter found her working as a barmaid at the all-women's Martha Washington Hotel in Manhattan.[24] The reporter's widely distributed story led to speculation that Lake was destitute. After the story ran, fans of Lake sent her money which she returned out of "a matter of pride".[22] Lake vehemently denied that she was destitute and stated, "It's as though people were making me out to be down-and-out. I wasn't. I was paying $190 a month rent then, and that's a long way from being broke."[25] The story did revive some interest in Lake and led to some television and stage appearances, most notably in the off-Broadway revival of the musical Best Foot Forward.[25]

Nobody's stopping you from saying your piece, R45. Stop being such a professional victim.

[quote]No, Lake was indeed mentally ill. She chose to leave Hollywood and for awhile was destitute in New York. Fans sent her money when the media picked up on the story. OP's photo is from a film she financed from the autobiography she put out.

No, she was not mentally ill or destitute (see R48). The Hollywood machine chews people up and spits them out. Someone making a conscious decision to leave it behind and live a more normal life does not make them "mentally ill". Quite the opposite, I would say.

Now, she WAS and alcoholic which can look like mental illness. And it certainly could have caused the decline in her career as well as her early death.

Well, regardless of her mental state, her teeth were nasty.

Veronica stated that she was mentally ill and that's good enough for me.

"Vernoica" Lake was kind of bland looking because of her eyes, although her perfect cheekbones saved her. I remember reading that she was ordered to chop off her hair because so many factory workers were growing out their hair in the peekaboo style. After that her career went nowhere. Not sure if it's just a myth.

I knew a woman who confided in me that she was afraid people only thought of her as "the plain woman with great hair." She didn't have great hair. I understand that type of fear though.

I remember as a kid seeing Veronica Lake as a contestant on "To Tell The Truth". By then then she was unrecognizable as the Veronica Lake that the public remembered.

I remember as a kid seeing Veronica Lake as a contestant on "To Tell The Truth". By then then she was unrecognizable as the Veronica Lake that the public remembered.

Raymond Chandler referred to her as Moronica Lake.

R53, was that woman Jennifer Aniston?

Also, if Lake was bartending at the Martha Washington in the early '60s, I'm sure she must have crossed paths with top model and 'Gillian Girl' Anne Welles, before she had a breakdown and moved back to rural Minnesota to live with her Aunt Amy with whom she still lives today.

i think we played her once at a christmas party in 1956.

R53, the government allegedly said that Veronica's hair was causing problem for women working in factories, and Life Magazine published this photo (with another picture of her hair pinned up, I think).

But most women wore their hair in scarves, because they wanted to keep their hair clean and set (you didn't wash your hair daily back then) and, honestly, they'd all been doing manual labor since kids, so they KNEW their hair could get caught in machinery. I doubt that many women were going around with long Veronica Lake hair in factories -- this was probably a publicity stunt.

"Manual labor" is probably the wrong term -- I mean working around machines and appliances in the kitchen, for housework, on the farm, etc.

How dumb. Why didn't the factories just require women to have their hair in a net or cap?

First time I became aware of her was as a kid in the 80s when obsessed with Duran Duran. A magazine had a picture of Duran guitarist John Taylor that had the caption "John Taylor or Veronica Lake?" I soon learned that Veronica Lake was thought of as a Hollywood joke at that point...as was Duran Duran to my dismay.

She had a similar vibe to Kim Novak on screen. Very little talent but enormous charisma. The camera loved them.

She's luminous in Sullivan's Travels, very understated, very charming.

She did not age well at all.

r65 Most blondes don't. It's a know fact.

[quote]She was diagnosed with schizophrenia as a child. She was impossible to work with. She was a lifelong drunk. Her life came to a tragic end at a very early age with some of her ashes being found in a thrift store. So just how crazy was she?

Still less crazy than Donald Trump.

Never heard of her.

She won raves for playing Blanche in Streetcar.

I would have loved to have seen what she brought to the role.

I didn't like Jessica Lange in the part, she nervously giggled too damn much.

"Veronica Lake" was an absolutely brilliant stage name, so evocative for a movie star/sex symbol. I wonder who thought it up. Did Paramount come up with the name or did she change it before she was signed?

There's a hilarious moment in the 1942 Paramount film The Major and the Minor which takes place in military school. The cadets arrive at their annual dance to be confronted by the girls from a neighboring school, al sporting the VL peek-a-boo hair-do, even the homely ones.

That kind of contemporary reference was so rarely seen in old films. Veronica was quite the sensation in 1942.

Her name is also evoked in the 1943 MGM musical Best Foot Forward in a lyric from the song The Three Bs about boogy-woogy:

"And it's hard to take

Like Veronica Lake!"

Ironic that she would make a comeback in the hit 1960s off-Broadway revival of Best Foot Forward which starred DL fave Liza Minnelli.

I wanted to score that chick when we were shooting 'So Proudly We Hail!'

During the shooting of 'So Proudly We Hail!', a rift occurred between Claudette Colbert and Paulette Goddard when Colbert overheard Goddard say that she and Veronica Lake were closer friends because they were the same age. Colbert was miffed because Goddard (32 at the time) was actually closer to Colbert's age (39) than Veronica Lake's (20).

So Proudly We Hail is a great movie! I thought the Claudette/Paulette rift was going to be about who got to feature their favored side,

I agree, R74. That movie is very good. All the three of them (Claudette, Paulette and Veronica) delivered great performances.

Regarding Veronica's teeth-

Did she basically lose her caps and not have the money to replace them?

Those were not the teeth she had in her prime.

That was sad actually.

MGM's own version of So Proudly We Hail was Cry Havoc with Margaret Sullavan, Ann Sothern, Joan Blondell, Fay Bainter, Marsha Hunt and Ella Raines as Army Nurses on Bataan during WWII.

It was kinda like The Women in fatigues and unwashed hair.

The always delicious Joel McCrea hated her.

Because she pushed him into the pool?

But it was in the script!!

"She died at 50 from hepatitis and acute kidney failure" -- i.e. drunk.

[quote]I remember as a kid seeing Veronica Lake as a contestant on "To Tell The Truth". By then then she was unrecognizable as the Veronica Lake that the public remembered.

Can anyone find that episode on-line? Would love to see it!

Veronica Lake was a great movie star. But the poor lady was fragile emotionally, and being a famous movie star didn't do anything to help her become more stable.

Her look was iconic. Her cascading blonde hair (it was called the "peek-a-boo" hairstyle) was her trademark.

In her best roles, she was very charming and had a flair for comedy.

She WAS very tiny; she was less than five feet tall. Edith Head, who designed costumes for her said "Her figure problems seemed insurmountable. She was short, like me, and very tiny, possibly the smallest normal person I had ever seen. Her waist was the smallest in Hollywood: 20 3/4 inches. That was 5 1/2 inches smaller than the average waist. Far from a designer's dream like Dietrich or Lombard. Yet everyone was telling me to make her into a sex symbol. She had a good bust, but I couldn't show it because Hay's Office's anti-cleavage rules. I was forced to be extremely careful in every costume she wore. The fabrics I used in Veronica's clothes always had some type of vertical interest; horizontal lines would shorten her. I devised necklines that called attention to her bust without actually exposing it. I always played up the fact that she had big breasts, which made her seem like a larger woman."

She was completely charming in SULLIVAN'S TRAVELS.

Playing the girl who is going home and giving up on Hollywood until she meets Sullivan.

bump

[quote]The always delicious Joel McCrea hated her.

So did Frederic March, according to Robert Osborne on TCM. They co-starred in "I Married A Witch" (1942) & March apparently was very impatient with her lack of acting ability.

In colour.

R84 is a moron.

The concept of childhood schizophrenia wasn't around when Lake was a kid.

Many straight men have a fetish for tiny women who are, nevertheless, well-proportioned, It's a pedophiliac "baby doll" kind of thing. Watching Veronica opposite big lug Joel McCrea in Sullivan's Travels excited those tendencies. And half the time she's dressed as a young boy. Make of that what you will.

[quote]Anne Welles, before she had a breakdown and moved back to rural Minnesota

Everyone knows Anne was from Massachusetts, for god's sake. Hand in your gay card on the way out, please.

R90, I just know that there were a lot of trees and a lot of snow so that Anne could take long, contemplative, walks with an errant tree branch she found. She has been doing this every day for the last 40 years, it's how she keeps her trim figure in the unlikely event she decides to return to the world of high fashion. Also it keeps her out of the house so her Aunt Amy can cook and clean without interruption.

Did she munch the carpet?

r76 The studio make-up department had a temporary mouthpiece made of porcelain veneers that the actors put over their real teeth. They removed them after filming or after a public appearance. I understand the same technique is still used today,.

Also, she was a "type" that was popular at the time. Think Lauren Bacall and Lizbeth Scott.

But Lake preceded Bacall and Scott by several years in Hollywood R94. They were imitators of Lake launched by rival studios/producers, but each lasted longer.

[R95] Well, that says something about Veronica Lake's popularity at the time. Think of all the Marilyn clones.

Veronica Lake was, historically, to Hollywood as Anna Kournicova was, historically, to the ATP Tour.

It's out of print, but it's worth seeking out her autobiography. It was published not long before her death, and it's CRAZY. She didn't hold anything back, and there was clearly not much editing. It was wild.

A friend of mine worked with her daughter Diana in Switzerland. He said she had inherited none of her mother's beauty but was an incredibly nice, very smart and down to earth person. I seem to recall the kids were raised by their father De Toth.

[R98] I used to have the hardbound edition. Some time ago I checked on eBay and it was going for around $30.00. Talk about a ghost written book!

Very interesting, R99 -- was wondering about how her children turned out!

That's "LizAbeth Scott"

[R102] My bad. Of course it is!

Gotta love lipstick lesbian Liz Scott!

"Did she munch the carpet?"

I've never heard anywhere that she did. No lesbian rumors at all.

Her closet was as deep as a cave, then, R105. She pinged. But yes, i believe that Veronica maybe didn't explore her lesbianism.

The only resemblance Bacall had to Lake was the hairdo, sort of. Bacall was a true original.

What does Veronica have to say in her book about some of her co-stars like Joel McCrea and Frederic March, who were so outspokenly negative about her?

Here is another picture of her with her sister r14.

R56 does that make her the sister of Dullass Moron?

OP makes her sound like Frances Farmer, another cray cray.

I just saw So Proudly We Hail. Lake has an interesting role as a traumatized nurse bitter over the death of her new husband during a Japanese attack in World World 2. She is antagonistic towards the other nurses and has a secret plan to use her position as a nurse to seek revenge upon any wounded POWs. Lake playing bitter and private allows her to be stand-offish from the others and she is fine in her breakdown scene, where she gets to tell her story to Claudette Colbert, and gets a hug. She also has a heroic end, sacrificing herself with a grenade, to save the others from approaching enemy soldiers.

I keep trying to find Vernoica Lake on Google Maps. I'd love to do some fishing or swimming!

That is "Miss Colbert", R112.

Poor thing. In the photos of the last few years of her life, she didn't look awful, exactly, but she did look a good 10-15 years older than she really was.

that BITCHHHH was CRAZYYYYYYYYYYYY

Unlike you Bette...?

The only "proof" that she was crazy in any way was her mother's statement. There is no other proof. So while it can't be ruled out entirely, it's highly unlikely.

Beautiful when young but she did not age well. She lost her looks by the time was in her early 30s.

In "Stronghold" made in Mexico in 1951, and the last film of her heyday, she is beautifully photographed by Stanley Cortez, but you can see how frayed around the edges she is, and she's barely 30.

She's only 30 in this clip

r121, thank you so much for posting the clip!! Veronica appears to be very sane, considerate and articulate.....and so different from the 1940s screen siren. Sadly, she does look about 40 though perfectly healthy.

My god, TV was so primitive back then! And that nutty hostess, Eloise McElhone. Was she defending some sort of lesbian rumors in her intro??

She looks completely different in the TV interview. I would never have guessed it was her.

Excellent clip, R121 -- thanks for sharing! She is indeed engaging and thoughtful in that interview, but, I'm sorry to add, looks much older than 30!

So maybe she wasn't so crazy after all?

[quote]And that nutty hostess, Eloise McElhone. Was she defending some sort of lesbian rumors in her intro?

Yeah, that was odd.

I guess people just seemed older back then. Nutty Eloise is only 31 in that clip and looks 50!

What about that opening ad for foreskin tissues?!

And is that a scene-painted bookcase and books behind the sofa in the clip? Hilarious!

Did Joan Rivers flow into Veronica Lake?

Well there is mentally ill versus crazy. She probably was both. Look at Rita Hayworth. She was sane (though toward the end of her life she had undiagnosed Alzheimer's she covered up with too much drinking). She was definitely not mentally ill but she sure as hell made crazy ass choices that didn't benefit her at all.

That clip in R121 was great!

It is fascinating that someone is a famous A-list movie star and 15 years later they're just as a nondescript waitress.

Christ, R50, she was bi-polar. I hate these old queen that want to make the mentally ill abused romantic icons.

R21, why do you think you need to educate us on Dorothy Lamour? Are you twelve?

One of her movies on youtube:

Get a grip, R134.

What about Sonny Tufts?

He was a hot young leading man at Paramount during WWII and acted with Veronica in Miss Susie Slagle's. We never talk about him on DL. He really is forgotten.

Mmm, Tufts.

[quote]What about Sonny Tufts?

What ARE Sonny tufts?

And what ARE Shelley winters?

I remember that Rocky and Bullwinkle episode where Bullwinkle's signed autograph of Sonny Tufts was stolen from his house and he was very upset. Or was this meant to show how lame Bullwinkle's taste was?

Sonny Tufts also Kevin Bacon's back to Veronica with So Proudly We Hail as they were both in that, although not playing a romantic couple.

R89, the reason Veronica Lake wore those baggy boy's clothes in Sullivan's Travels is that she was pregnant during the shooting.

Her husband said that she was a drug addict.

Oops. Meant to write Bullwinkle had an autographed photo of Sonny.

The only thing Veronica Lake did of interest was have long hair and a brief association with Preston Sturges. Stop trying to build her up into something she is not.

Lauren Baccall was not a Veronica Lake copycat from the machine. She was a teen model dropped directly into a Howard Hawks film and was trained to look and behave like Slim Keith.

"Stop trying to build her up into something she is not."

What are people trying to "build her up into?" It's been mentioned that some of her performances were very effective and charming, that she was talented, that for a time she was a beautiful movie star whose hair became her iconic feature. And all of that is true. Boy, you sound like a real bitch.

Unlike many iconic screen sirens of the 1940s, she is unknown today by most people under 50. And that is why DL is fascinated with her.

I'd argue that she is better known to people under 50 than most of those screen sirens from the 40s, if only because of her hairdo. There are always articles in the fashion magazines about "Veronica Lake hair" - especially around Oscar/awards time you always see starlets on the red carpet wearing that long, curled hair.

Agree with R148. Betty Grable was far more famous, yet I would wager most under 50 would know Lake before Grable. Well, maybe I should say under 40.

[R148] - It's a wave not a curl.

Veronica Lake was rediscovered by many younger people when the press made comparisons between Lake and Jessica Rabbit.

[quote]The only thing Veronica Lake did of interest was have long hair and a brief association with Preston Sturges. Stop trying to build her up into something she is not.

You are so wrong.

It is Veronica Lake that ushered in the look and demeanor or the 1940s screen siren. The huskier more masculine voice, the loose sultry long hair, a colder sardonic presence...it was new, very different than the 1930s ideal.

Veronica Lake was first with "I Wanted Wings" in 1941. Gene Tierney, Hayworth, Bacall, Lizabeth Scott followed.

----

It's not the 1930s anymore....

Yeah. They're practically identical!

excuse the typo....should read: "It is Veronica Lake that ushered in the look and demeanor of the 1940s screen siren. "

There is no way a schizophrenic could sustain a career in movies or a career in anything, for that matter.

Lake was probably only minimally talented, but was nevertheless a sensational movie star.

As a child she was diagnosed as a schizophrenic, but her mother chose to do nothing to help. Later, Lake exhibited many of the classic signs of schizophrenia-heavy drinking, child abuse and promiscuity. Among her lovers were comedian Milton Berle, producer William Dozier, playboy Porfirio Rubirosa, actor Victor Mature, millionaire Aristotle Onassis and many studio hands whom she invited to orgies at her home.

She was a temperamental actress. Actor Eddie Bracken said about her, 'She was known as 'the bitch' and deserved the title.' However, Lake had no illusions about her abilities-'You could put all the talent i had into your left eye and still not suffer from impaired vision'-nor her sex appeal-'I wasn't a sex symbol, i was a sex zombie.'

When she died of acute hepatitis, aged 50, only one of her children (son Michael) and none of her husbands attended her memorial service.

[quote]Sadly, she does look about 40 though perfectly healthy.

She actually looks a little older than that, as though she'd already hit menopause and was suffering the usual hair loss. Her nose is already getting larger, too. And her affect is very mannered and practiced, like every expression on her face is something she's pretending to feel and not genuine at all. Creepy.

The low-res TVs of the day must have made the set designer think a painted-on bookshelf would be just fine!

If she held on just a few years longer she would have been celebrated in the big retro craze.

"Agree with [R148]. Betty Grable was far more famous, yet I would wager most under 50 would know Lake before Grable. Well, maybe I should say under 40."

Grable was a huge star and is largely forgotten. She never made a good movie, although they're still of interest to film buffs and the five or six Don Ameche fans who still survive. I enjoy "Mother Wore Tights," but I would never recommend it to any sane person. FWIW, Bing Crosby was arguably the biggest star of the 20th century--huge success in movies, music and radio--and is probably unknown to most people under 50.

................ccccrrrrrrrrrrrrrazy

R160) For a second there, I thought I had clicked on the Politicians You'd Like to See Naked thread and was looking at Maggie Gallagher.

So Proudly We Hail was a great movie. You read what it's about and you think it's going to be a primordial Lifetime for Women movie but it isn't. I really enjoyed that. Here's Veronica and her great scene.

I thought she died in a fire?

Sadly, Maggie Gallagher is still alive.

"Her husband said that she was a drug addict."

I'm not are if Veronica was a drug addict as we know drug addicts today, but her health was apparently heavily compromised by her addiction to menthol. She allegedly was so hooked that she'd buy Kool cigarettes, soak them in menthol for a few days, dry them out, then smoke them.

"are" = "sure" in first sentence, above.^^

she was funny on burns and allen

Forgive me, I couldn't find a more recent thread to post this in!

I somehow came across Veronica Lake's 1970 appearance on the Dick Cavett Show last night. It's hard to believe she was only 49. She died two years later.