The Homes of Jean Harlow

Movie stars, due to the nature of their work, tend to move around a lot. The same is true of Jean Harlow, our Star of the Month of March.

Harlow was born in turn-of-the century Kansas City, Missouri. Jean's first residence was the second floor of a modest, gray stone house, located on 3344 Olive Street (torn down in the late 1930s). Her father's dentist office took up the ground floor.

When Jean was four, the family moved to 4409 Gillham Road, which had a park nearby. Her father's offices were located in the "Waldheim Building in downtown Kansas City, where he maintained his practice for the next thirty-six years" (Golden, 16). It was here that Jean began "collecting" pets, including ducks, lambs, pigs, and the usual dogs and cats. She spent her summers at her maternal grandparents 25-room country retreat, Red Gables, which overlooked the Kaw River and was located near Bonner Springs.

              

 

The family moved again when Jean was eight, this time to an 18-room red brick house at 1312 East 79th Street. The estate was located on five acres of land, perfect for Jean's growing menagerie.

This is what came up on Google maps. I have no idea if it is the same house, but it's the right color!

In 1921, Jean's parents divorced. Jean and her mother moved to Los Angeles, where her mother once again tried to fulfill her lifelong dream of becoming an actress. During their stay there they lived first in a rented room in a Sunset Blvd. mansion and later at 1302 North La Brea Ave., which was right down the road from the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. Her mother then remarried and since her dreams of becoming a actress were not coming true, they moved back to Missouri.

In 1927, a teenage Jean eloped with wealthy orphan Chuck McGrew. After a honeymoon cruise with his grandparents, the newly-weds headed back to California. They rented a Beverly Hills bungalow  at 618 North Linden Drive, just two doors away from 'It' girl, Clara Bow ( No. 512). Barely giving them time to settle in, Jean's mother and her husband followed, moving in with the young couple.

It didn't take long for Jean to get noticed by Hollywood, and she was soon in the movies that her mother had longed for. This, along with the arrival of Mama Jean, was too much for Chuck, and the two divorced not long after.

Jean and her mother then rented a bungalow at 300 North Maple Drive, Beverly Hills. It was during this time that Jean met MGM exec. Paul Bern.

Jean lived briefly in an apartment at 152 Peck Dr. in 1931.

After Jean began to make it big in the movies, her and Mama Jean moved again, this time at 1353 Club View Drive in West Los Angeles. Mysterious occurrences have happened here.

After Bern and Harlow married in 1932 (in the living room of her Westwood home), they lived in Bern's Bavarian-style house, located at 9820 Easton Drive in Benedict Canyon, Los Angeles. Two months later, Bern committed suicide, causing a huge scandal, as Harlow was suspected of murder. The house is also supposedly haunted. More on that along with lots of photos of the house here.

       

With all the money Harlow was making, Mama Jean began building herself a mansion at 214 South Beverly Glen Blvd. in Holmby Hills. The house was two stories and had four bedrooms. It had a Gregorian façade, French interior, and outdoor pool with two dressing rooms. She spent $25,000 furnishing it with such things as a walk-in fridge, polar bear rug, a portrait of herself, ermine covered toilet seats, and for her Baby, an ermine covered headboard for her bed.

 

In 1933, Jean married another MGM man, Hal Rosson. The two were friends, but it was really a studio marriage to help Jean avoid a scandal. After they were married, they moved to adjoining third-floor suites at the Chateau Marmont hotel on Sunset Blvd. Seven months later, they divorced. Shortly after, she met fellow actor William Powell. She switched between "her" home on Beverly Glen Blvd. and Powell's Beverly Hills home at 809 North Hillcrest Road, which he joked was a "combination of Regency, Beverly Hills Gothic, and early Chester A. Arthur." Jean helped decorate the newly remodeled home, which contained a lot of gadgets. This post goes into more detail.

Powell's pool

Harlow's last residence was 512 North Palm Drive, located between Sunset Blvd. and Wilshire. She leased it for $300 a month. The house was 4,400 sq. feet and has 5 bedrooms and 5 baths. Two doors down, at No. 508, is the 1950s residence of Marilyn Monroe, where she lived with Joe DiMaggio.

The house as it looked in 1937, the year Jean Harlow died. Source.

 

source

Sources:
Golden, Eve. Platinum Girl: The Life and Legends of Jean Harlow. 1991.
Stenn, David. Bombshell: The Life and Death of Jean Harlow. 1993.
Artunian, Judy & Mike Oldham. Movie Star Homes: The Famous to the Forgotten. 2004.

Online Sources:
The Platinum Blog - "Today" photos of Club View home
Paradise Leased - An Afternoon in Harlow Heaven - lots of 'then' and 'now' photos
Haunted Houses - Harlow's Westwood Home
House Crazy - Benedict Canyon home
And...scene! - William Powell's Beverly Hills Home
Dear Mr. Gable - final home
LA Bartender - The Original Platinum Blonde - final home
Seeing Stars - final home
Classic Movie Favorites - Jean Harlow's Homes (of course I didn't come across this one till I was nearly done with my post)

                 

Behind the Dress: Jean Harlow & the Bias-Cut

Today's Behind the Dress post doesn't actually cover just one dress, but all the white satin, bias-cut gowns that Jean Harlow wore. Yes, she wore them, they never wore her.

In Edith Head's Hollywood by Edith Head and Paddy Calistro, Head claims that it was she who put Jean Harlow in bias-cut satin for the first time. The film was Saturday Night Kid (1929) starring Clara Bow in her second talkie. In Head's own words:

She was Jean Harlow, a second-stringer in those days, but once Howard Hughes convinced her to bleach her hair [it was a honey-blonde color at the time] she became a star within a year. Of course, when I worked with her I just thought of her as another actress, but I was impressed with her sensuous body and I made the most of it with white satin, cut on the bias. I was afraid of how Clara would react, since Jean really upstaged her in that slinky white gown. Most stars would have resented sharing a big scene with such a sizzling, voluptuous creature as Harlow. Not Clara. She was simply fascinated by her. I won't take credit for Harlow's screen image, but I think I'm entitled to say that what she wore in those scenes inspired others to take a second look and realize her knockout potential.

Calistro adds a little more backstory: "The dress that Edith made for Harlow was actually an adaptation of French couturiere Madeleine Vionnet's latest design. No one had used the sexy bias cut in an entire gown before Vionnet, but it took Hollywood to turn the look into a classic - the slip dress. Harlow wore it, Lombard popularized Banton's version, and Dietrich slinked around in on. It became the uniform of the sex symbols. The gown, with its bodice styled exactly like the top of an underslip, complete with thin little straps, was especially alluring because it was worn with no undergarments. Since fabric cut on the bias - diagonally across the weave - has a gentle, inherent stretch quality, the slip dress clung to every curve and crevice of a woman's body" (16).

That was the only time Head costumed Jean but it set the tone for her following film roles. A Jean Harlow film just isn't complete without a clinging satin gown of some kind.

I could not find a photo of the above mentioned dress either online or in any of the biographies on Harlow I have. If you have a copy of The Saturday Night Kid and would like to send me a screenshot, I would appreciate it (solidmoonlight@gmail.com).

A fictionalized account of Edith and Harlow's meeting is included in the recently published book Platinum Doll by Anne Girard (which I will be reviewing later this month). It mentions that the dress is grey. This is probably so it would photograph white. A white dress would have too much glare under the strong lights on the set.

To end, here are some photos of Jean throughout her career wearing her signature slinky gown. Just click on the photos to enlarge. Enjoy!

      

  

           

         

                 

Myrna Loy on Jean Harlow

Myrna Loy and Jean Harlow appeared to be very different, on-screen. One of them was the perfect wife and the other was a sex symbol. But they did have one thing in common: William Powell.

It was during a session for the Louella Parson's radio show (where Powell and Loy were performing some scenes from their popular film The Thin Man) that Powell introduced these two cinema queens to each other. Powell and Harlow were an 'item' at the time (a full post on that latter).

I thought, My God, I've never seen such beautiful skin. That creamy complexion and platinum hair really knocked you out. She was being very careful and shy, since this was her first time out in public with Bill. Jean was beautiful, but far from the raucous sexpot of her films (Being and Becoming, 124).

Shortly after their meeting the two co-starred in their first film together, Wife vs. Secretary (1936) with Clark Gable, followed shortly by Libeled Lady (1936) with Powell and Spencer Tracy. However, it wasn't during either of these films that these two legends of the silver screen really became friends but rather during the filming of After the Thin Man (193).

At the premiere of Libeled Lady (also in the photo is Arthur Hornblow, Myrna's husband).

They were shooting exteriors in San Francisco. Bill, Jean, and Myrna went up by train together. Upon arrival, Bill and Myrna were told by the management of the St. Francis Hotel that the Flyshaker Suite had been reserved for them. They had assumed that they were married, which isn't difficult to believe after seeing their on-screen chemistry (which was up to five films by now). The rest of the hotel was booked, except for a small hall bedroom. "There's nothing for you to do," Jean said, "We'll just have to put Bill downstairs."

That mix-up brought me one of my most cherished friendships. You would have thought Jean and I were in boarding school we had so much fun. We'd stay up half the night talking and sipping gin, sometimes laughing, sometimes discussing more serious things...  

Jean was always very cheerful, full of fun, but she also happened to be a sensitive woman with a great deal of self-respect. All that other stuff - that was all put on. She wasn't like that at all. She just happened to be a good actress who created a lively characterization that exuded sex appeal (143).

Arriving in San Francisco (note the book Jean is holding).

It was also during this trip that Myrna realized the extent of Jean's love for Bill.

... a total childlike love, full of the exuberance and wonder that characterized her. She wanted marriage but he was afraid to marry her [he was , she was 2]. He loved her, but he'd been married twice... and both marriages had gone bust (142).

When Jean died suddenly in 1937, Myrna was devastated. "It was horrible, an awful blow; I loved Jean deeply. I felt a sickening mixture of grief, guilt, and frustration because I hadn't been able to do what might have saved her: get her away rom her mother for an examination [Jean and her mother were Christian Scientists]. With proper treatment, the cerebral edema that killed her would never have developed in a twenty-six-year-old girl."

So as not to end on a sad note, Sarah Burford of Curious Pip has drawn several sketches of what she imagines Myrna and Jean did when they "hung out." She frequently creates dolls and draws sketches, postcards, and paper dolls of both Myrna and Jean (and other 1920s/30s actresses such as Clara Bow, Louise Brooks, and Claudette Colbert) to sell on Etsy - they go quick! If you are a fan of either of these actresses you will ADORE her creations! Check out her "Day in the Life of Jean Harlow" sketches as well as some of her Jean Harlow dolls and Myrna Loy/Nora Charles dolls.

Harlean Harlow Carpenter: The Blonde Bombshell is Born

When one hears the name Jean Harlow, images of a platinum blonde sex goddess draped in slinky white satin and spouting forth come-backs faster than you can say "rain barrel" come to mind. But Jean Harlow, one of Hollywood's most tragic stars who's life was snuffed out decades before her time, was so much more than that. A talented comedic actress unlike any other, yes, but also a woman who wanted to love and be loved, a tomboy, a prankster, hard-working, vulnerable, a altogether likeable girl with no stuffy airs of self-importance. Yet in her short 26 years, she led a life that had enough material for several movies, many of them tragic. This month we will look at who Jean Harlow, the "name in lights," really was as well as look at her few but well beloved films. Our story starts, like all stories, at the beginning.

Harlean Harlow Carpenter was born March 3, 1911, in Kansas City, Missouri. The red faced, cotton-white haired baby, weighing 9 pounds, was the first and only child of Mont Clair Carpenter, a dentist, and his wife Jean. If the baby had been a boy, he was going to be named Harlow Carpenter, Harlow being Jean's maiden name. But, as she was a girl, the name Harlean was chosen and Harlow was made the middle name.

Birth announcement; Harlean at 8 months.

In Platinum Girl: The Life and Legends of Jean Harlow by Eve Golden, Harlean's mother is described as not having an "ounce of common sense. As the child of a wealthy, indulgent man, she grew up to be vague, imperious, and self-centered, spoiled by her parents and aunts. But she had the kind of buxom blonde looks popular in the early 1900s and mastered the helpless, kittenish charm of a spoiled darling. This was sufficient to overwhelm the sheltered young Dr. Carpenter; it wasn't until years later that he learned how the fluttery exterior hid a woman determined to have her own way" (14-15).This soon led to marital problems and Dr. Carpenter realized that "he'd not only married Jean, he'd married the entire Harlow clan (15). He began to retreat into his work, leaving Jean to her family.

Mama Jean's (as she will now be called) parents fell in love with Harlean. Of her grandparents, Jean (Harlean) remembers, "My grandparents were about two of the most doting... who ever lived. As a result I became a small, pampered tyrant who, at two years old, was in complete control of the house.

When Harlean was three, Dr. Carpenter had the family moved to a small house to try to get away from his in-laws. It was at this house Harlean got her first pet, an Airdale named Tigalaff. Harlean's life was full of servants, extravagance, and people who spoiled her endlessly (her grandfather gave her an ermine bedspread when she was five).

In 1916, Harlean began attending Miss Barstow's School, an "elite prep school catering to the daughters of the upper middle class" (18).

                   

Harlean aged 4 (left) and 5.

 

At an early age, Harlean began to display a dislike for fancy clothes, which with her tree-climbing and horseback riding didn't last long. Comfortable clothing was something she would prefer the rest of her life.

 

When Harlean was eight the family moved again. The new house was red brick, had eighteen rooms, and was situated on five acres. Here, Harlean could have as many pets as she liked. She also had the chauffeur's son teach her how to drive, an episode ending badly for the family car. Harlean also developed a love of writing. When she was ten she wrote a tale titled "An Elf's Adventures." The short story, about a "fun-loving elf named Mischi who runs away from school and is nearly captured by a fat little girl," was published in her school's yearbook (21).

 

 Aged 8.

It was also at this time that Harlean's father decided to seek a divorce. As it was unusual for a child to be put in the custody of their father, Harlean was left with her mother. The two, who became extremely close (to the point of obsession on Mama Jean's part), moved to Los Angeles so that Mama Jean could pursue her dream of acting. While she was busy going around the studios, Harlean attended the Hollywood School for Girls, which included male students, among them Joel McCrea and Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.

During this time, Harlean became movie-crazed and began imitating the silent stars she saw on the big screen, including smoking like Nita Naldi. Her favorite star was cowboy Buck Jones.

Mama Jean, only divorced a year, married Italian Marino Bello, a slick operator who never had any money. The family didn't have much to live on and as Mama Jean's dreams of becoming an actress didn't seem to be materializing, they moved back to Missouri in 1925.

Harlean was enrolled in Ferry Hall and took the school by storm. She won the lead in the schools play "The Winter's Tale." Also during this time, Harlean, always a striking looking girl, began to be noticed by the boys. One in particular, twenty year old Chuck McGrew, was especially anxious to get Harlean's attention. Soon the two were in love and talking about marriage, alarming both sets of parents. Mama Jean, not wanting to lose her "Baby," wanted Harlean to wait until she was eighteen, hoping that by that time the two would have lost interest in each other. Harlean however, had her own ideas and on September 20, 1927, she eloped.

After the unavoidable unpleasantries that followed between Harlean, Chuck, and their parents, and a honeymoon cruise, the newly-weds headed to Los Angeles to start a new life. Mama Jean and her no-good husband followed.

The young couple lived on Chuck's inheritance and all seemed to be going well for the first few months. Harlean began to be restless and spent most of her time going around with friends. It was through one of these that her life changed.

One day Harlean gave her friend Lucille Lee a ride to Fox Studios, where she worked as a film extra. Harlean was spotted by casting director Joe Egli. He gave her his card and urged her to register with the casting organization. After some serious thinking, and the encouragement of her excited mother, Harlean took a big step into her future. Mother and daughter headed to Central casting, where Mama Jean signed her name as Jean Bello and Harlean registered under the name Jean Harlow. The Blonde Bombshell was born.