One does not follow a myth with impunity. For trying to replace Marilyn Monroe, many actresses have burned their wings in Hollywood. Not only was their life tragic, but their careers were subsequently overshadowed. Their filmography almost fading after their passing. While the names of Jayne Mansfield and Anna Nicole Smith are still remembered, most of these young actresses, especially those who emerged in the 1950s and 1960s, have now been almost completely forgotten.
In a very beautiful tribute book*, Adrien Gombeaud redresses this injustice by evoking the fate of ten of them. The author, known for his sensitive works on the seventh art (he signed a formidable biography of Bruce Lee but also a magical evocation of the small town of Tombstone in Arizona, the backdrop to many westerns), depicts here their course, their successes but also and especially their falls after having taken the light of the spotlights.
Born in Paris into a wealthy family in the 16th arrondissement (her father, Pierre Dibos, invented an ultra-resistant glass that will soon be called Pyrex), Corinne Calvet first dabbled in Fine Arts. His drawings even caught the attention of Jean Cocteau. Spotted by director Jean Delannoy after a series of portraits taken by fashion photographer Sam Levin, she quickly opted for the seventh art, multiplying small roles from 1945 in French productions. Five years later, she crossed the Atlantic to try her luck in the United States. She vaguely resembles Rita Hayworth. Corinne Calvet is, for a time, considered as a “double” of the star before playing the femme fatale, with a “Frenchy” accent, in several feature films by John Ford and Anthony Mann. But, in her forties, her phone stops ringing. Desperation drives her to the brink of suicide.
The starlets are for them “products” likely to meet the expectations of a public wishing to forget the harsh years of the war. They throw them away bluntly as soon as they no longer fulfill their purpose. The journey of Joi Lansing (1929-1972), falsely presented as a “Mormon” Marilyn because she was born in Salt Lake City, or that of Sheree North (1932-2005) illustrate the cruelty of the “agents” who consider them vulgar merchandise with an expiry date. The former, however, played the unforgettable Zita in the opening scene of Orson Welles’ Thirst for Evil in 1958; she would end up hiding in third-rate horror films at the dawn of the 1970s. The second, launched in early 1955 by Fox to replace Marilyn Monroe at short notice, then eager to abandon the roles of pretty idiot to devoted to auteur films, would find itself in the credits of less glamorous television series twenty years later (Kojak, Mannix, Hawaii State Police).
Even the most lucid actresses on the star system end up being crushed by the machine. Take Anna Nicole Smith (1967-2007), for example. This former waitress from Texas has no illusions about the true nature of Hollywood. Convinced that her figure matters more than her intellect, she sacrificed to the scalpel. At her request, the cosmetic surgeon, Gerald W. Johnson, artificially increased her chest size on the eve of her twenties. Now with a pair of silicone breasts, Anna Nicole scoured the catwalks of strip clubs before approaching the Playboy empire.
Without contact in the profession, she knows that a front page of this magazine is the only one likely to open film sets to her. Her calculation will pay off since she will find herself in front of the Coen brothers’ camera in 1994 in Le Grand Saut. But this metamorphosis will not have been without consequence on his mental balance.
Jean Harlow look-alike in her youth, she led a much more peaceful career than the other actresses mentioned in this book. After a promising start in California, she veered off to Italy when American producers began to ignore her. She then scaled back her artistic pretensions by agreeing to perform in a theater away from Broadway, in a small venue in Meadowbrook, New Jersey. It was there, over an hour’s drive from New York City, that she continued to experience the thrills of the stage long after the curtain had fallen for her castmates. And this until old age. Grandma Van Doren has indeed just celebrated her 92nd birthday and doesn’t seem to be about to hang up, judging by the overflowing activity of her Instagram account!
Happy. Birthday 92. pic.twitter.com/ZKdMBEomhE
* Blondes for Hollywood, Marilyn and her doubles, by Adrien Gombeaud, Capricci editions, 160 p, 17 euros.
