Monday Glamour Starter --- Gloria Jean

Quick --- can anyone name a Gloria Jean film they’ve seen other than Never Give A Sucker An Even Break? For that matter, how many people have even heard of Gloria Jean outside a select, aging group of hardened buffs? Notice I said "buffs", a term I’ve always hated, but those who call themselves "historians" have never bothered much with the Gloria Jeans of the business, and that’s too bad, because the Gloria Jeans are what the business has always been about. They’re the unsung reliables. The ones people liked to see and paid to see. Gloria’s misfortune lay in the fact that her movies reflected popular fads of the day --- jitterbug, high school (before it became a Blackboard Jungle), summer camp --- artifacts of popular culture to seem remote now. Gloria didn’t get into big pictures, other than the one with Fields, and what’s worse, most of her stuff was done for Universal, locked away in storage same as for the last eighty years. Scott and Jan MacGillivray are historians --- yes, historians --- who decided to write a book --- no, the book --- on Gloria Jean, and it’s one of the best up-and-down stardom ladder sagas I’ve read. Finally, someone takes an actress who’s been ignored too long and tells her story with insight and affection. Gloria participated through the whole thing, laying it on the line about her star years and ones to follow. For a while during the late thirties/early forties, it looked as though she’d be the next Deanna Durbin. Ten years later, she couldn’t get one-time show-biz pals to return her calls. Once the brightest light among Universal's musical teens, she wound up a receptionist for a laboratory that sold hair products.  The MacGillivrays set up a website for Gloria HERE. Go HERE and you can get their book. I’d strongly recommend both.



Deanna Durbin couldn’t have been happy to see thirteen year old Gloria Jean coming through the Universal gates in 1939 to star in an "A" musical designed very much along Durbin formula lines, with Deanna’s own ace producer, Joe Pasternak, at the helm. The Under-Pup was indeed what the title suggested, a diminutive soprano nipping at Durbin’s heels, and a ready substitute should Deanna become recalcitrant. The older actress doesn’t seem altogether into the spirit of this otherwise happy celebration of Gloria’s contract signing. In fact, Deanna reminds me a little of Daffy that time his master brought the duckling home and decided it "could have the old duck’s room." There was little cause for worry, however, because Gloria was reassigned to the B unit soon enough, where teenage musicals were turned out like so many link sausages. Co-stars included the likes of Donald O’ Connor, Mel Torme, and Peggy Ryan. There were also players I couldn’t pick in a line-up, even though they were recognized in their day --- Ray Malone? Betty McCabe? Never heard of ‘em till I read this book, but they sang and danced right alongside Gloria. Universal "B" headliners also included Susanna (Phantom of the Opera) Foster and Ann (Mildred Pierce) Blyth. Reading about these little musicals makes me want to see them --- but how? Maybe there’s occasional bootlegs on e-bay, but otherwise these things are nowhere. As far as I know, the last time anybody had any access to them was maybe the seventies, and I suspect they were largely off television even then. It’s frustrating when whole blocks of interesting movies simply disappear, but that seems to have been what happened here. I doubt if anyone at Universal today has ever heard of them, so you can imagine the chances of a DVD release.


Much as I enjoyed reading the MacGillivray’s account of Gloria Jean’s early days at Universal, it’s post-war struggle that transfix me. Hollywood predators Gloria warded off during the fifties are like a tag-team of Stephen Boyd in The Oscar and George Peppard in The Carpetbaggers. No wonder she finally got out. Fans of Jerry Lewis will find the star living down to his reputation in Gloria’s account of a hoped-for comeback in 1961’s The Ladies Man. The book puts the finished movie under a microscope and reveals scenes where Gloria is fleetingly visible --- that's her walking toward a bathtub in a blink and you’ll miss it moment from the film. Jerry had promised Gloria a singing part and ended up making her a glorified extra. His (mis) treatment of Gloria and others is recounted in detail, further basis for my ongoing ambivalence re JL. Institutionalized Hollywood corruption is shown by Gloria’s account of the four thousand dollar application fee that was paid for her star on the Walk Of Fame (a gift from co-workers upon her retirement from the lab), Gloria's proposed star deep-sixed and the money kept. Remember this the next time you tread the fabled boulevard. It was her strong family relationships that assured a happy ending for Gloria. Throughout the book, she comes across as sensible and grounded, something we seldom get here at the Glamour Starter, where desperation, despair, and old-age isolation often as not make up third acts for those featured. Nice to have one where it doesn’t. 






Bill Fields was a benign presence on the set of Never Give A Sucker An Even Break, according to Gloria. The MacGillivrays give us the best and most detailed account of its filming that we could hope for, and the insights into Fields, both personally and professionally, are outstanding. This trade ad illustrates how Gloria was getting a studio boost almost the equal of Bill’s --- fact is he wanted to work with her again, characterizing GJ as the daughter he never had. Must have been lonely at times for The Great Man. The tea party is one hosted by GJ’s idol, Basil Rathbone. They’re on the set of The Black Cat. Is that really tea in Broderick Crawford’s cup? Probably so as he doesn’t look enthusiastic about it. Swimsuit poses began in earnest when Gloria turned eighteen in 1944. They never pushed cheesecake too hard at Universal, but here’s evidence they could have. Gloria had nice things to say about Groucho Marx, her Copacabana co-star. The MacGillivray book has a raft of stills from Gloria Jean’s personal collection, including obscure appearances unknown until research for the book revealed their existence.