ART AFICIONADO: Jean Harlow

Friday, March 3, 2023

Jean Harlow

Acting Appreciation

The original bombshell was Jean Harlow, an American actress during the late 1920s. She introduced a new type of woman to Hollywood -- a blend of shock and desire.

Born in Kansas City, Missouri on March 3,1911, Jean Harlow (born Harlean Harlow Carpenter) moved with her mom to Hollywood in 1923. Her mother, Jean Carpenter, who was 32 years-old, had hopes of becoming an actress.

Their time in Hollywood was short-lived since their finances dwindled. They moved back to Kansas City after Jean Carpenter's father issued an ultimatum.

While attending high school in Lake Forest, Illinois, Jean Harlow met Charles "Chuck" Fremont McGrew III. They got married in 1927, when she was 16. They would both move to Los Angeles, where Harlow thrived as a wealthy socialite.

In 1928, she was discovered in the Fox Studios parking lot by Fox executives. At first, she was not interested in auditioning and explained that she was there helping a friend. After pressure from her mother, she auditioned and eventually accepted a role. Her first film was Honor Bound (1928) as an extra.

In December 1928, Jean Harlow signed a five-year contract with Hal Roach Studios for $100 per week (about $1,735 today). She had small roles in the 1929 Laurel and Hardy shorts: Double Whoopee, Liberty and Bacon Grabbers.

By the end of 1929, she parted ways from Hal Roach Studios and divorced her husband. She continued to work as an "extra" in films such as This Thing Called Love, Close Harmony, and The Love Parade.

Around that time, she signed with film producer Howard Hughes, who directed her first major role in Hell's Angels (1930). She played a flirtatious vamp. The film was a huge hit.

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer bought out Harlow's contract in 1932 and cast her in leading comedic roles such as: Red-Headed Woman (1932), Red Dust (1932), Dinner at Eight (1933), and Bombshell (1933).

Harlow's popularity rivaled and then surpassed that of MGM's top leading ladies Joan Crawford, Greta Garbo and Norma Shearer. Her platinum blond hair, seductive gaze, and 5'1" hourglass figure was revolutionary at the time when Hollywood actresses were more wholesome. Aside of her beauty, she had comedic timing and a natural charm.

While filming her final film, Saratoga, Harlow began experiencing illness. Her symptoms included fatigue, nausea, fluid retention, and abdominal pain. On May 29, 1937, while filming a scene which her character had a fever, she leaned against her co-star Clark Gabel and said, "I feel terrible! Get me back to my dressing room."

On June 6, she was taken to Good Samaritan Hospital in Los Angeles where she slipped into a coma. She passed away the following day of kidney failure. She was 26. Her death left the film industry in shock.

Her on-screen chemistry with leading men like Clark Gable and Spencer Tracy helped to establish her as one of the most sought-after actresses of the decade. The legacy she left behind, breaking the mold of the traditional Hollywood glamour and introduced the "sex symbol" paved way for future generation of Hollywood stars.