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| Alternate pose. |
A versatile, Academy Award-winning actress, strikingly beautiful, with large luminous eyes and sensuous lips. She had a lovely, distinctively modulated voice. She was elegant and looked wonderful in clothes. She had a long, varied, and distiguished career, and she aged gracefully and glamorously... and still, she's never interested me at all. I don't know what it is I find lacking in her... some sense of individuality, some spark? I love these portraits by Horst, but I'd love them just as much if they were only images of a pretty fashion model, with her fabulous lace-covered hat and blazing carnation.
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Really quite beautiful and a bit of a clothes-horse, on-screen and off, she looked especially lovely in color.
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| Photograph by John Rawlings, 1941. |
This next gown is certainly interesting. She wore this to the Academy Awards cermony in 1948, when she won the best actress Oscar for her performance in "The Farmer's Daughter". It's very... green. It's slightly less alarming without the matching capelet.
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| With her daughter Judy. |
OK, here's something that makes her a little more interesting. Her daughter - her first child - was the result of an affair with Clark Gable, conceived while the two were on location together making "The Call of the Wild" in
1935. A famously devout, rather overbearing Catholic, Young had the child in secret and after a few months put her into an
orphanage. But then, when the baby was nineteen months old, Young made the pretense of
adopting her. Though rumors of her true parentage were always rampant in
Hollywood, Judy, herself, only became aware of the gossip on the eve of her own marriage. Later, several years after Gable's death, her mother, under duress, finally confessed that Judy was her biological daughter. Young only admitted the truth publicly - to her authorized biographer - a year before her death; the book was published posthumously.
I so agree with you - just milk toast.
ReplyDeleteToward the end of her life, Young gay a delightful interview in which she corrected the reporter's description of her, describing herself as "a movie star, NOT an actress". She was one of the few female stars "discovered" by another female star. In Young's case she was spotted in a bit part and promoted by the Silent Screen star Colleen Moore. Very popular with audiences, Young was perhaps at her best in her earlier, sexier roles as in "Employees Entrance"and "Zoo in Budapest" (both 1933). Personally, I enjoy the "Farmer's Daughter"and also the off-beat Western "Rachel and the Stranger" (1948). Young was also a television pioneer, hosting her anthology series from 1953 - 61. A bit of fun trivia: Young's mother was an interior decorator and Young had it written into her contract that she could keep the lacy petticoats used in her period films such as "Suez" (1938). She took them home when filming was done and her mother made them into frilly lampshades!
ReplyDeleteGreat information, Shawn! I must admit that I haven't seen her in her best roles so, to be fair, I need to remedy that. I might feel differently. Thanks for sharing!
DeleteI have seen most of LORETTA YOUNG'S movies and tv series and have always enjoyed the her performances. Her beauty was always paramount with her acting second to none and it's a shame there is no one like her today.
ReplyDeletePoor Loretta, one of those Pharisee Catholics - righteouness and heaven for me, sins and hell for thee.
ReplyDeleteYou think she and Clark Gable would have had the fortitude to "call-out" the hypcrosy of both the Hollywood studios and the American public. (and do not give me that line about those days) Instead Judy Lewis, their daughter had to be lied to for the sake of their careers. How both sefish and vain.
-Rj in the IE.