| Los Angeles Times file photo Our mystery guest is Janice Jarratt, who may be the biggest thing that never happened. Please congratulate Bronski for identifying her!
April 30, 1932: Janice Jarratt wins a trip to Los Angeles. |
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Sept. 1, 1936: Janice Jarratt came to Los Angeles as “the most photographed girl in the world” and appeared in “Kid Millions” as one of the Goldwyn girls of 1934.
Los Angeles Times file photo Update: Jarratt in a publicity photo for “Kid Millions.” And another picture of our baffling mystery woman! Aug. 17, 1936: She worked as a model in New York, was queen of the Texas Centennial and signed a contract with Universal in 1936.
And here’s our mystery woman at the train station in the days when luggage might include a rifle or shotgun in a tooled-leather case.
Feb. 7, 1937: Jarratt and Martha O’Driscoll, right, were selected by Hal Mohr for “Class Prophecy.” The Times said the movie, tentatively starring Deanna Durbin, was based on a story by Eleanore Griffin and adapted by Eve Greene and Joseph Fields. The film was eventually made as “When Love Is Young,” with Virginia Bruce. In February 1937, The Times’ Read Kendall reported that Jarratt was “really in love for the first time in her life” with another young Universal contract player, Bob Wilcox. The next month, however, she announced her retirement from the screen following her engagement to former G-Man Melvin Purvis, an attorney practicing in San Francisco. April 20, 1937: Jarratt is to marry Melvin Purvis.
April 27, 1937: Two days before she was to marry Purvis, Jarratt failed to appear at a prenuptial party. The hostess announced that the wedding had been canceled.
March 17, 1937: Is it any surprise that this engagement didn’t work out? I mean, really! … before marrying engineer Thomas Deely in 1939.
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Helen Gagahan?
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Oh, dear. I am coming up blank: but I can give you a nice long list of who I know she isn’t!
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Kitty Doner. Of course, I remember her. She was part of the Doner Party that was lost in the Sierras during a snow-ravaged winter without a single cellphone to their name and only enough truffles for a month or so, and just enough Champagne to wet their whistle for a week . No mocha lattes from Starbucks, either. When they ran out of food they had to munch on the cheese stuck to McDonald’s burger wrappers discarded by tourists. TV reception was lousy and forget about Twittering and e-mail. Very grim. Life was hardly worth living.
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Olivia de Havilland.
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Claire Luce?
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Betty Furness.
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Minna Gombell.
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Angela Landsbury
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T’aint funny, McGee! Actually it is funny . . . True story about the Donner Party, it was actually led by two families, the Donners and the Reeds (I am not making this up, look it up!).
Which makes it The Donner Reed Party!
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Marian Nixon
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mon, april 12. She looks like a very young Jo Stafford.
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The Lady Eve is s pretty funny lady, as in her comments are not devoid of humor. But she should know I don’t have to “look up” info about the Donner party, I personally know two people whose ancestors were on that trek. Comes from living in San Benito County at one time, where many Donner Party survivors came to roost after their ordeal. Donner Reed. Very good!
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Betty Field
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Don Ameche( & Phil Harris’) popular co-star, Alice Fay?
PS: Props to Fibber McGee and Eve’s pun fest.
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It’s the “Fibber McGee and Eve Show!” Sponsored by Johnson Wax and Pet Milk!
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Helen Chandler.
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Helen Brown.
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Doris Merrick
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Rita Johnson
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Gloria Dickson.
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Jane Nigh
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Florence George.
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Dolores Costello
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Patti Page
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Greer Garson ?
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Nina Foch
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Constance Bennet
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Eve left out the Breen family, who were part and parcel of the Donner party. A Breen descendent, who is a journalist, has written about his family eating “finger food.” There has been a Donner family reunion every other year at Donner Pass. I do not know what they eat.
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Phyllis Brooks
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Virginia Patton?
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Jan Wiley.
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Janice Logan
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sylvia sidney
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Ruth Hussey
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Dorothy Christy?
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Janice Jarratt
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Anne Shirley
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I am stumped. I’ve tried looking at multiple sources, and found no photos of this woman. I was thinking today that maybe she was Carole Lombard’s stand-in, or even someone who might have starred in Westerns because of the gun, but finding nothing.
Speaking of guns, here’s a link to a Discovery article about the Donner Party which says they didn’t eat people, but probably ate every animal they had, including the family dog.
http://news.discovery.com/history/donner-party-cannibalism.html
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Well, bless her little cotton socks, I’ve never heard of her.
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C’mon–play fair! An uncredited role in *one* film and anyone is supposed to figure out who this “Mystery Movie Star” is? Mystery? Yes! Movie Star? Hardly. Would love to know how Bronski divined her identity. Is he or she related to her?
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I’m from Texas, how didn’t I get her? I looked at models and even thought of Martha O’Driscoll. On to next week.
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Foul! One movie under her stylishly thin belt and an uncredted role at that? And she’s our Movie STAR Mystery Photo(s) of the week? Gee whiz, guys, I’m as happy as the next guy to rack my brain over some obscure bit player but one role? uncredited? Good looking girl though. Seems flighty.
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