Marilyn Maxwell
French or Belgian postcard by Kores Carboplane. Photo: Universal
Curvaceous, platinum-haired, sparkling-eyed Marilyn Maxwell (1920-1972) was a leading lady in Hollywood films of the 1940s and 1950s.
Marilyn Maxwell was born in 1920. She was trained in dance from age 3. While still a teenager she worked as a radio singer. In 1942, she signed up with MGM. Studio head Louis B. Mayer wisely insisted she change her real first name 'Marvel'. She dropped it and kept Marilyn, which was her middle name. Tall, blonde, with good looks and a pleasant singing voice, she scampered through many breezy, forgettable film roles. Her films included Lost in a Harem (Charles Reisner, 1944) with Abbott and Costello, the Film Noir Champion (Mark Robson, 1949) starring Kirk Douglas, the Bob Hope comedy The Lemon Drop Kid (Sidney Lanfield, 1951), and Rock-A-Bye Baby (Frank Tashlin, 1958), starring Jerry Lewis. Her style was once described as part Joan Blondell's 'Good Joe' and part Mae West's vamp. She was once compared to Marilyn Monroe and replied, "Hey, I'm the blond with her clothes on." She was popular in nightclubs, particularly in New York's famed Latin Quarter. She was also a crowd-pleaser and stalwart trouper in Bob Hope's legendary tours of US and Allied military installations worldwide. Part of her act with Hope was wearing a tight sweater and singing 'I Want to Love You'. According to Arthur Marx's Bob Hope biography 'The Secret Life of Bob Hope', Hope's long-term affair with Maxwell was so open that the Hollywood community routinely called her "Mrs. Bob Hope." She also appeared on TV as a sexy foil to many top comedians, especially Hope and Red Skelton.
Marilyn Maxwell was a close friend of Rock Hudson, and she helped to closet his homosexuality by making frequent public appearances with him and teasing reporters about how their relationship was "only a friendship." At one low point in 1967, she performed in a burlesque show as a stripper in Queens, New York. Marilyn Maxwell married three times, each marriage ending in divorce. She married MGM actor John Conte in 1944 in The Little Church Around the Corner in New York City. They divorced two years later. Her second marriage to restaurateur Anders McIntyre lasted one year. Her third marriage to writer/producer Jerry Davis produced a son, Matthew. They divorced after six years of marriage. In 1972, her then 15-year-old son Matthew found her dead in the bathroom of their home, the victim of a heart attack brought on by high blood pressure and a pulmonary ailment. Rock Hudson looked after her son during the funeral arrangements.
Sources: Wikipedia and IMDb.
And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.
Marilyn Maxwell
French or Belgian postcard by Kores Carboplane. Photo: Universal
Curvaceous, platinum-haired, sparkling-eyed Marilyn Maxwell (1920-1972) was a leading lady in Hollywood films of the 1940s and 1950s.
Marilyn Maxwell was born in 1920. She was trained in dance from age 3. While still a teenager she worked as a radio singer. In 1942, she signed up with MGM. Studio head Louis B. Mayer wisely insisted she change her real first name 'Marvel'. She dropped it and kept Marilyn, which was her middle name. Tall, blonde, with good looks and a pleasant singing voice, she scampered through many breezy, forgettable film roles. Her films included Lost in a Harem (Charles Reisner, 1944) with Abbott and Costello, the Film Noir Champion (Mark Robson, 1949) starring Kirk Douglas, the Bob Hope comedy The Lemon Drop Kid (Sidney Lanfield, 1951), and Rock-A-Bye Baby (Frank Tashlin, 1958), starring Jerry Lewis. Her style was once described as part Joan Blondell's 'Good Joe' and part Mae West's vamp. She was once compared to Marilyn Monroe and replied, "Hey, I'm the blond with her clothes on." She was popular in nightclubs, particularly in New York's famed Latin Quarter. She was also a crowd-pleaser and stalwart trouper in Bob Hope's legendary tours of US and Allied military installations worldwide. Part of her act with Hope was wearing a tight sweater and singing 'I Want to Love You'. According to Arthur Marx's Bob Hope biography 'The Secret Life of Bob Hope', Hope's long-term affair with Maxwell was so open that the Hollywood community routinely called her "Mrs. Bob Hope." She also appeared on TV as a sexy foil to many top comedians, especially Hope and Red Skelton.
Marilyn Maxwell was a close friend of Rock Hudson, and she helped to closet his homosexuality by making frequent public appearances with him and teasing reporters about how their relationship was "only a friendship." At one low point in 1967, she performed in a burlesque show as a stripper in Queens, New York. Marilyn Maxwell married three times, each marriage ending in divorce. She married MGM actor John Conte in 1944 in The Little Church Around the Corner in New York City. They divorced two years later. Her second marriage to restaurateur Anders McIntyre lasted one year. Her third marriage to writer/producer Jerry Davis produced a son, Matthew. They divorced after six years of marriage. In 1972, her then 15-year-old son Matthew found her dead in the bathroom of their home, the victim of a heart attack brought on by high blood pressure and a pulmonary ailment. Rock Hudson looked after her son during the funeral arrangements.
Sources: Wikipedia and IMDb.
And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.