I :
Jean made her money fast Friends thought she found But . . . tragedy struck! And
but 9ve it away even faster. the right man in Bill Powell. Powell wept at her grave.
r
Mother and daughter drove to the lot
each morning in their oum car, very un
usual for a lowly extra. The car was an
- older but gleaming limousine, driven by a
chauffeur in trim clothes and a foreign air.
None of the people on the lot, of course,
knew that the man at wheel was Mr. Bello.
The right impression was made on the
right man at the right time. He was Ben
. Lyon, male lead in "Hell's Angels." In 1929,
when Warner Brothers proved that movies
could talk, Howard Hughes had already
. poured two million dollars into a silent
version of the flying-machine opera. Im
mediately, he appropriated a million dollars
more and started all over. Along with reels
of useless film, Hughes junked his female
lead, Greta Nissen, who professed love in
' the thickest Swedish accent in California,
j Lyon had observed the cheerful, curvy
. girl with the startling blonde hair around
lb set and he mentioned her to Hughes. A
; brief study of her frame and a glance at
bar hair convinced the producer. A few
weeks later, a Hughes press agent invented
the phrase "platinum blonde," and a new
era in American culture was born.
Everything was on Jean's side: a picture
that could talk, machines that could fly,
hair that could blind, and a mother who
could plan. All of these combined to estab
lish Jean Harlow in only one film as
America's dream girl.
Hughes figured, however, that a head of
hair can go just so far. Meanwhile, the
moguls of MGM were theorizing privately
that a head of hair couldn't even have gone
that far that America must be reacting
not to a hair-hue but to a fetching, winsome
girl underneath it. This girl was pretty,
delicately funny, delightfully vital, and al
together involved in the business of living.
MGM offered Hughes $60,000 for her con
tract and he took it.
Already holding a post position, Jean
Harlow trotted to easy triumphs in "Red
Dust," "Dinner at Eight," "Blonde Bomb
shell," "China Seas," "Wife Versus Secre
tary," and "Libeled Lady." To every star
and starlet in Hollywood, she came to sym
bolize the pot of platinum at the end of
the rainbow.
Jean Harlow was now making lots and
lots of money, and Hollywood spun in an
orbit around her. Only'now did Hollywood,
its' gossips and its reporters, its curiosity
seekers and its social climbers, take the
trouble to learn something about Harlean
Carpentier the real girl behind the glamor
ous facade of Jean Harlow. They assumed
she was a vain, not-too-bright, mother
dominated lump of sugar. Were they
surprised!
What America's dream girl liked to do
best with her money was give it away to
Hollywood hopefuls just a few meals from
possible success, to charities, to unfortu
nates, to civic drives. In interviews, she
liked to ask more questions than she an
swered. Her mind was quick, curious, and
eager to absorb every experience opened to
it. Interviewers discovered an odd, perhaps
revealing, mannerism. Whenever they suc
ceeded in getting her to talk about the
glamorous life of Jean Harlow, her speech
almost always slipped into the third person
as though she were talking about somebody
else somebody made, not born.
She used fewer cosmetics than any
glamour girl in Hollywood. Some people
said she was allergic to them. Others said
that in her off-hours she just didn't like
artificiality of any kind. Where she chose to
be showy, her aim was not pretense but fun.
She drove to work in a 12-cylinder Cadillac
studded with fire department signs.
At parties, the girl who was sheer physi
cal magnetism, and knew it, had a penchant
for exercising her mind. Her favorite game,
called "Murder Mystery," required imagi
nation and ingenuity. The player who is
"it" constructs a crime, then must answer
questions posed by the other players who
try to solve it. Jean preferred writers for
her opponents. She found that they thought
up the most imaginative crimes and put her
to the severest tests.
This strong leaning toward the active
mind led Jean to her second hus
band, Paul Bern, a brilliant young
producer at MGM. (She had dissolved her
first marriage just a few months after elop
ing at 16 with a young Chicago broker.)
But so soon and so violently did the
second marriage end, it seemed to portend
that Jean Harlow's lucky star was a meteor
in disguise, moving fast but fated for de
struction. Just two months after her wed
ding, on Labor Day, 1932, Paul Bern was
found on the bathroom floor of their home,
dead by his own hand. He chose this course
in preference to facing embarrassment over
his past, threatened by another woman in
his life.
The flashy-haired beauty from Kansas
The easy, modern way to feminine grooming
NEW ,
SHAVEMASTER
with Exclusive MKRO-TWIN shaving head
fO UNDIRAtMS '
ifit n ,. 1 FOR IEOS Tl
. . I ii
"3.1.:, - IK dPi -
vlU jV flently, close and . s 1 I
clean without Jf kC I -
1
jL Available in Two Lovely Models
DELUXE MKfelM
In your choice of tlx color,
J set in French Door caie. t 1 fLjinr 1 J
Only f 1 9.50 -Z
FLEUR-DE-LIS
In choice of six colors set on
pedestal with sleeve case.
Only $16.75
Look for the MARK OF QUALITY
Suggeted retail price.
I your Deale?
Sunbeam Corporation, Dept. 259, Chicaoo SO, Illinois
Now! Easier, surer protection
for your most intimate
marriage problems
I Xtif Tested by Uoetomr. . trusted by womtr -
1. Germicidal protection!
Norformi arc safer and surer than ever!
A highly perfected new formula re
leases antiseptic and germicidal in
gredients right in the vaginal tract. The
exclusive new base melts at body tem
perature, forming a powerful protec
tive film that permits long-lasting
action. Will not harm delicate tissues.
2. Deodorant protection)
Norformi were tested in a hospital
clinic and found to be more effective
Tested by doctors . . .
proved in hospital clinics
than anything it had ever used. Nor
forms are deodorant they eliminate
(rather than cover up) embarrassing
odors, yet have no "medicine" or
"disinfectant" odor themselves.
3. Convenience!
These small vaginal suppositories are
so easy and convenient. Just insert
no apparatus, mixing or measuring.
They're greascless and keep in any
climate. Your druggist has them in
boxes of 12 and 24. Also available in
Canada.
FREE informative Norformi boofcief
lull mail ttm coupon to; Ih-pt. FW-86-1
Norwich 1'harmaral Company
Norwich, N. V.
Please tend mr (he new Norfornu booklet,
in a plain envelope.
Name ,
Street
Family Weekly, June I. 1951