1961
Born Jane Alice Peters, Carole Lombard learned from an early age that movie success was dependent upon box office. She got her first screen credit at age 12, but began her screen acting career in earnest as one of Mack Sennett's bathing beauties after finishing school four years later. As Carole was making a name for herself in the early 1930's, she was cast opposite some of Hollywood's A-list leading men, which would catapult her into the ranks of an A-lister. One of those leading men was 'Clark Gable'. Although having made only one picture together, Gable and Lombard would extend their relationship into the personal realm. She was known primarily as a light comedienne which started in her Mack Sennett days to the end of her protracted career, which was marked by her death in a plane crash while on a war bond tour in 1942.
1961
This entry in the Hollywood Hist-o-Rama series offers a brief biography of actor William Powell using voice-over narration and photos, including stills from films from throughout his career.
1962
Born Harlean Carpentier, Jean Harlow's unglamorous early life did not telegraph what was to come. She was a superstitious woman, who among other things, always sported a trademark lucky ankle bracelet. Her early movie work, which she did as a lark, was in Hal Roach comedies. A chance meeting with Howard Hughes marked a change in her movie career as he cast her in her first credited role in Hell's Angels (1930). Her screen stardom quickly rose, being cast in a quick succession of popular movies, including Platinum Blonde (1931), to which she would be forever tied in the eyes of the movie going public for her striking hair. Many consider her role in Saratoga (1937) her most important. That movie would also be her last due to her untimely death.
1962
Born Rita Cansino in New York, Irish-Latin Rita Hayworth came from show business roots with an actor mother and dancer father. She studied both acting and dancing in her younger years, favoring dancing which provided more opportunity. It was her dancing that got her initially noticed by movie studios. Being cast as nothing more than the eye catching dancer in bit roles, Rita started her rise to stardom by adopting her mother's family name, changing studios and focusing on being a dramatic actress. Once becoming a star, she was able to combine her acting with singing and dancing in movies. Arguably her most famous on-screen moment was as her most iconic role as Gilda (1946) performing the musical number "Put the Blame on Mame". She gave up her acting career to become one of the most famous real life princesses in the world, but returned to acting a few years later.
1962
Starts with childhood photographs of Miss Hepburn and an off-screen narrator's stories of her early abilities to entertain. He then references a brief period in New York when her prickly personality may have cost a job or two, then it's on to Broadway stardom, a contract with RKO, taking Hollywood by storm with unconventional behavior, and winning two Oscars in her first four film roles. The narrator calls her Hollywood's favorite enigma.