Edna Lawrence (The Lone Ranger, Rancho Grande)

Thanks to the Serial Squadron's Eric Stedman and his restoration elves, we can now not only enjoy the original The Lone Ranger, the 1937 Republic serial that turned a radio hero into a screen star, but also Miss Edna Lawrence in her bit as Lynn Roberts' maid. Of course, had it only been for Edna's less than a minute of screen time posing as her mistress in chapter three, no one would have missed this ground-breaking serial. But there you have it. Edna is fine in her role as far as it goes but she certainly is no Lynn Roberts!

Edna Lawrence actually starred opposite Tom Keene in the cavalry (in Florida) drama Drums of Destiny that very same year, but that was for something called Crescent Pictures, headed by the prolific E.B. Derr, and a company somewhat below the status of even Republic Pictures. (Drums of Jeopardy was the penultimate entry in a series of six “historical” melodramas that Crescent released on States Rights 1936-'37. The previous installment, Old Louisiana, had featured a pre-stardom Rita Hayworth.)

We don't know anything about Miss Lawrence, other than the fact that most of her roles, brief as they were, were played with a south-of-the-border accent. In other words, she may not have been “Edna Lawrence” at all. At least to begin with. She returned to Republic screens in the 1940 Gene Autry starrer Rancho Grande. To be continued...

Lynne Berkeley (Songs and Saddles)

The less said about crooner Gene Austin's appropriateness for western stardom the better. Suffice it to say that in his one starring vehicle, Songs and Saddles (1938), Austin made his near-namesake Gene Autry appear positively Shakespearean in comparison. Austin apparently toured with this little snooze fest of a singing cowboy oater along with several of the cast members, including someone named Joan Brooks, a Judy Canova type meant to provide hayseed comedy relief. But, alright, it is almost too easy to make fun of Austin and his coterie of of less than stellar supporting comics, so let's leave it at that. Meanwhile, no movie that has good ole Charlie King utter lines such as “I will not be party to any lawbreaking” cannot be all bad.

Gene Austin's leading lady, Lynne Berkeley, was borrowed from 20th Century-Fox, where she was laboring under a typical starlet contract. Her real name was Mary Foster and she was the daughter of Willett Foster, a California artist. Now, go figure: Why would the studio rename Mary Foster “Lynne Berkeley” when there was already a Lynn Bari on the lot? In any case, Fox had a judge validate her contract on the same day, 16 June 1936, as two other contract players, Dixie Dunbar and Martha Raye. The latter, described as “a singer and comedienne,” was to receive $200 a week for her services while Miss Berkeley, a mere starlet, would obtain a starting salary of $60 a week.

I have no idea what the Alexander Brothers of Colony Pictures paid Fox for the services of Lynne Berkeley, but all she really had to do in Songs and Saddles was look wistful while Gene Austin tickled the ivories and did his patented western croon. But not, alas, his one mega hit “My Blue Heaven.” Had he just done that … well, who knows?

Miss Berkeley, meanwhile, was a Goldwyn Girl in The Goldwyn Follies (1937) and turned up as “girl” in a host of Fox films until at least 1941.

Helen Gerald (The Trap, The Gay Cavalier)

Helen Gerald was yet another pretty face who mostly played “girls,” e.g. “school girl,” “bobby sox girl,” “girlfriend,” etc. She did actually have a name, “Ruby,” as one of the touring show girls in the Charlie Chan whodunit The Trap (1946), but she wasn't the resident bitch (that would be Anne Nagel) or the poor murder victim (that would be Jan Bryant) and the role was really just another “girl.”

The Gay Cavalier (1946), the first of the Monogram Cisco Kids to star Gilbert Roland and, frankly, a vast improvement over Monogram's usual fare, broke the mold regarding Helen Gerald, who actually got to play a real character with a name and even a love life. The name is “Angela” and she is the sister of beauteous Ramsay Ames (who also composed two of the tuneful film's songs). Angela is willing to marry nasty but wealthy Yankee Tristram Coffin in order to save her father's hacienda from ruin and that despite her love for Juan (Drew Allen). But when Tristram robs a wagon train loaded with money for a new mission sister Ramsay takes umbrage and aligns the family with Robin Hood-like Cisco Kid. Everybody speaks with the patented Hollywood Mexican accent – Ceesco Kiid! – and that is as it should be.

Following her brief screen career, Helen Gerald became a name on radio where she appeared on Mutual drams, became a regular on the soap opera “Eternal Light,” starred on a morning show, “Wendy Warren and the News,” and guested on “Perry Mason.” She later did quite a bit of voice-over work as well.

Janet Martin: Republic Star

Dark-haired songstress Janet Martin enjoyed quite a push from Republic Pictures, who kept her under contract from July 31, 1943 through October 28, 1948 with enough confidence to refrain from casting her in their bread-and-butter B-Westerns and serials, specialty turns in Roy Rogers oaters excepted. Yes, 14-year-old Janet Martin was given a buildup worthy of, say, a Deanna Durbin at Universal. We mention Deanna because Janet, a coloratura in her own right, was Republic's answer to the insanely popular songbird. And she came to the studio with quite a provenance:

Born Valya Valentina Tetlacov in, some sources claim, Moscow, USSR, she was the daughter of Czarist folk-singer Myra Sokolskaya. The latter, who went on to appear in Republic's Northwest Outpost (1947) and probably other walk-ons, acted as her daughter's agent upon signing with Republic. The youngster explained to the press why she changed her billing to “Janet Martin”:

“By being plain Janet Martin I avoid political arguments. As Valya Sokolskaya. I would be expected to either defend or castigate the policies of Stalin, Molotov and other Russians. With a non-political name like Janet Martin I ran just relax and talk about other things—even 'Blondie and Dagwood.'”

"I'm not expected to star in grim productions like the Dostoievsky Brothers turned out,” she added prophetically.

Alas, despite quite a bit of hub-bub and starring roles in Republic action fare, the name Janet Martin does not resonate today. Was she perhaps too similar to “Mrs. Republic Pictures,” Vera Ralston, to get the final push toward stardom?

Elaine Morey/Janet Warren (Wild Horse Phantom)

The only reason for Elaine Morey's presence in Wild Horse Phantom (1943), an otherwise highly amusing Buster Crabbe/Billy Carson western from PRC, is that a girl was customary. She has exactly two brief scenes as Budd Buster's daughter in this tale of missing loot, greedy bankers, haunted mines and, of course, Fuzzy Q. Jones (Al St. John). Most of the action takes place inside said mine with Fuzzy scared out of his wits and good old henchie Frank Ellis awarded more to say and do than he probably ever got, before or after. Wild Horse Phantom remains a prime example of how to create an entertaining hour or so on a shoestring budget. But Elaine has very little to do with its success.

Hailing from Santa Ana, CA, (born around 1922) and a graduate of Hollywood High School, Elaine Morey entered films with Universal in 1941. She performed the usual cheesecake duty and turned up in Abbott and Costello comedies and graced the background of the studios patented horror flicks and teenage musicals. She was in Law of the Range (1942) with Johnny Mack Brown but Nell O'Day had the nominal female lead in that one.

In February of 1943, Morey married Robert W. Major of Ogden, UT, described as a “dramatic coach and former Warner Bros. dialogue director,” and threatened to leave films for good. “I am definitely giving up acting after my marriage,” she told a Utah newspaper just before the nuptials. “I love a home and children and I am madly in love with my husband. So I shall devote my life to those things and those people I love and leave the screen to others.” She also stated, “I am a convert to the Mormon church and I plan to devote much of my time to studying its principles and taking a prominent part in its activities.” Alas, exactly seven months later another, much more disturbing, story hit the wires:

HOLLYWOOD, Sept. 20.—(INS)—

A widespread police search was launched today for Elaine Morey, 22, blonde motion picture actress who has been mysteriously missing for several days. Her husband. Robert W. Major, dramatic coach, said the actress disappeared last week after leaving a note which read:

'Good-bye forever. I am going away.'

Miss Morey was depressed since receiving an unfavorable interview in regard to a movie job at a major studio, Major told police.

Happily, Elaine returned safe to home and hearth soon enough but perhaps this kind of negative publicity persuaded her that a name change might be in order. By 1945 she had become Janet Warren and appeared in a couple of Charlie Chan whodunits and Republic's Winter Wonderland (1947), an outdoorsy comedy-drama with Lynne Roberts. Today, she is best remembered for her one starring role as Hans Conried's wife in Arch Oboler's Sci-Fi satire The Twonky (1951, released 1953).

Mary Moore Maynard (The Purple Monster Strikes, Return of the Lash)

Chapter 12 of the Republic serial The Purple Monster Strikes (1945) concludes with a fantastic bitch-fight cliffhanger between heroine Linda Stirling and the evil Marcia from Mars, i. e. beautiful Mary Moore. After a furious car chase between the familiar boulders of the Iverson Movie Ranch in Chatsworth, CA, the chapter ends with both ladies plunging to certain death from a cliff high above the desert floor. Of course, in the takeout in chapter 13, only Miss Moore perishes, Miss Stirling instead landing unharmed in a crevice in the rocks conveniently filled with plush greenery. Marcia had arrived on planet Earth in the previous chapter to help the title menace (Roy Barcroft) but then spent most of her time assuming the body of lab assistant Helen (Rosamonde James, a fashion model and one of Republic's contracted saloon “dancing girls”). In other words, although leading the second card of supporting players in the opening credits, Mary Moore has actually little to do other than run around prettily in her skimpy outfit. Which, as it turns out, was pretty much par for the course for the former Universal handmaiden and Goldwyn Girl.

Her exotic dark beauty explained by her Osage Indian heritage, Mary Moore (b. 1922) had been in the 1939 (and final) edition of the “George White's Scandals” on Broadway, a colorful variety show featuring the likes of Ann Miller and the Three Stooges. And the George White girls, of course, a sort of lower rent version of the Ziegfeld show girls. This was probably were she met Russ Murray, whom she would marry in 1944 and then divorce less than a year later. By then, Russ had left show business and become an army lieutenant. As stated above Mary was a harem girl in Universal's Arabian Nights (1942) and joined the Goldwyn troupe in Danny Kaye's Up in Arms (1944) and Wonder Man (1945). A walk-on in the Monogram Charlie Chan mystery The Shanghai Cobra (1946) followed and then she changed her name to Mary Maynard for her only leading role, Lash LaRue's Return of the Lash (1947). But to make sure the industry knew that she wasn't a complete neophyte, she listed herself as “Mary Moore Maynard” in the 1946 Academy Players Directory.

She plays the sister of former juvenile actor Brad Slaven and they sit on valuable land now that the railroad is coming to town. Only bad old George Chesebro (in a rare boss villain role) knows this, however, and sooner than later the siblings are held hostage. To the rescue come Lash LaRue and his trusted sidekick Fuzzy Q. Jones (beloved Al St. John) and … well, you can easily guess the rest. Mary Maynard is pretty but has very little to do other than serve coffee and look frightened. That, of course, is par for the course in a PRC western like Return of the Lash. It would be her final film under either name.

Patricia Knox (Flaming Bullets, The James Brothers of Missouri)

Flaming Bullets (1945) has a certain sadness about it. Yes, it is as drab as they come, but that is de rigeur for PRC westerns; and it is the last of the Texas Rangers trio oaters. But that is no great loss, truth be told. It is, however, the final starring vehicle for Tex Ritter and while he may not come across as a strapping hero, why Tex's way with a down home tune was certain to be missed at the neighborhood houses after 1945. Happily, High Noon (1952) was still in the future.

Then there is Flaming Bullets' leading lady, the redoubtable Miss Patricia Knox, a popular starlet at PRC. Patricia, although described as a redhead, comes across as a typical bleach blonde saloon hostess, if a bit on the blowsy side. She doesn't drink herself ("Never touch the stuff"), but makes sure that her customers do and is even willing to allow good old Guy Wilkerson to set up his dentist's chair in a corner if that will attract a crowd. I Like Patricia's Belle, and with the exception of Ritter's couple of cowboy ballads, she is the one redeeming thing about Flaming Bullets. Oh, yes, and the fact that old Charlie King gets to strut his comedic skills in a sequence or two.

Now, how do you square this? The James Brothers of Missouri (1949), legendary outlaw brothers Jesse and Frank (Keith Richards and Robert Bice), are in reality nice guys helping lovely Peg Royer (Noel Neill) retain the stage line after Marlin (Roy Barcroft) has her father (John Hamilton) murdered. The real baddie here, apart from Marlin of course, is instead general store owner Belle Calhoun (Patricia Knox), who wants the government stage line contract for herself. But to the world in general, and the orphaned Peg in particular, Belle shows a concerned, yes almost motherly front. Which is kind of a neat trick from somebody who looks more like a blowsy saloon gal than a store proprietor. Patricia Knox, we feel forced to report, did not weather the years all that well and actually looks older than her years. But she is quite good as the duplicitous Belle and her scenes with ace villain Barcroft remain some of the highlights of this latter-day Republic serial, which came with the usual caveats of tightened budget and general lowered expectations.

We admit to know little about Patricia Knox, who apparently was a Los Angeles gal born and bred and had begun her career in a chorus line or two. In 1943, she divorced her husband, Bruce Knox, complaining that hubby had made life so miserable that she was "too mad to ask for alimony ...!"

From Chuck Anderson of the great b-westerns.com

Patricia Knox

Appears to be:

Patricia Luella Fargason
April, 23 1913 – August 7, 2000

California Birth certificate: Patricia Luella Forgason was born April
23, 1913 in Los Angeles. Parents were William G. Forgason and Genevieve
Whalen.

1930 census: 18 year old Patricia Fargason (born about 1912 in
California) is a lodger living in Los Angeles. Occupation is "Dancer -
Motion Picture".

June 30, 1931 marriage license of 24 year old James Carnal Jr. and 18
year old Luella Francis Fargason. First marriage for both. Her parents
were William Leonard Fargason and Genevieve Whalen. Her occupation is
"Actress".

January 3, 1938 Marriage license of 24 year old Patricia Luella Fargason
and 37 year old Bruce Knox in Los Angeles. This was his third marriage
and her second. Her parents were W. L. Fargason and Genevieve Whalen. No
occupation listed for her.

1940 census: 26 year old Patricia Knox (born California) is renting in
Beverly Hills, California. No occupation listed. Bruce Knox isn't with her.

April, 1943 newspapers and in the United Press "Names in the News" column:
"Red-haired Patricia Knox, actress and dance director, has been awarded
attorney's fees and court costs in her divorce suit against Bruce Knox,
now working in a war plant. She complained Knox made married life so
impossible that she was 'too mad to ask for alimony' ..."

Her Social Security number was:
562 18 9603
Ancestry.com had the Social Security Claims Index for her under her
birth name and several husbands / marriages:
Patricia Luella Lee
Patricia Luella Hofer
Patricia Kiider
Patricia Luella Fargason

Social Security Death Index has her born April 23, 1913 and passing on
August 7, 2000.

Nevada Death Index: Patricia L. Kiider was born April 23, 1913 in
California and passed away August 7, 2000 in Las Vegas, Clark County,
Nevada.

Marriages: she was married 4 or more times. Husbands were:

Carnal

Knox

Hofer
Kiider

Eve Whitney (Radar Patrol vs. Spy King.)

Imagine that you're one of the most photographed women in the world, a former Conover Model no less, and considered one of MGM's most beautiful starlets of all time. Then you receive the plum role of an international femme fatale in an action serial, Republic's Radar Patrol vs. Spy King (1950) and the studio designers put you in a dowdy dress, sensible shoes and one of those ladies who lunch kind of hats. And not only that but gives you a title-role master villain played by a nonentity named John Merton, who was fine as a B-Western henchman -- you know, third guy through the door -- but wholly inadequate in a part that demands the likes of, say, a Roy Barcroft. But, then again, models never got much respect from Hollywood. As Eve herself once told gossip maven Sheilah Graham, “the way not to enter films is as a model.”

Eve Whitney (1923-2002) was married to Republic house composer Eddie Cherkose, a lasting union. She later became a real estate agent.

Laura Stevens (The Black Widow)

Laura Stevens was yet another chorus girl turned movie starlet, and although she receives billing (last) in the 1946 Shadow thriller Behind the Mask, she is quite a bit more interesting in a brief but memorable turn as Trixie, a girl for hire, in the Republic serial The Black Widow (1947). Trixie turns up in chapter 10 where Carol Forman, in the title role, has been arrested for attempting to assassinate the hero (Bruce Edwards). But Carol, you see, knows a fiendish little trick where she can actually be in two places at the same time. In reality, the "other" Miss Forman, i e. Trixie, is donning a rubber mask in Carol's likeness, complete with elaborate hairdo, and is convincing enough that the real Black Widow is let loose to do the bidding of her nutcase of a father, Hitomu, for another chapter or so.

Thomasina Mix (Tom's daughter)

Yes, you're absolutely right, Tom's namesake daughter never appeared in a feature film. At least as an adult. But, apparently, it wasn't for the lack of trying. The birth in 1922 of Thomasina Mix to Tom and his then-wife Victoria Forde; the subsequent custody battle over the little girl; her inheriting her father when he so tragically died in a car accident in Arizona; well, all that is thoroughly discussed elsewhere and in more detail than I can provide. But recently I came across a little tidbit that may interest fans of Tom and/or B-Westerns in general. In 1946, the photo seen above was published in that year's edition of the Academy Players Directory, the industry casting guide, and in the category of "Leading Women," no less. Proof positive that Thomasina wished to follow in her late father's footsteps.

But there is actually more proof, albeit of a more negative kind. Also in 1946, in March to be more precise, in his suit for divorce, Thomasina's husband, Bernard J. Mattthews, alleged that "Thomasina Victoria Mix is more interested in a film career than she is in caring for her four children." This in response to Thomasina's counter suit "for separate maintenance on allegations of cruelty."

She was granted a divorce but, alas, no film work seems to have come her way.

Hapless Helen and the Dangers of the Internet Movie Database

You may have noticed that I have kvetched a little bit about the Internet Movie Database on these pages. I don't really mean to be to negative, though. The Imdb is as good, and only as good, as its compilers. Which means you and I or anyone else who have something to contribute. All I ask, however, is a bit of vigilance. Don't quote me something like “but the Imdb says ...”

I have the perfect example of how ludicrous the Imdb can be at times. As I have stated elsewhere, I used to write for the All Movie Guide and this material is now more or less in public domain. But please transcribe it with care. I once received an email from a fellow B-Western nostalgia writer inquiring if I had truly married Republic Pictures Western and serial star Helen Talbot! The Imdb, I learned, claimed that Helen Talbot (1924-2010), who was still with us at the time, was indeed married to a Hans J. Wollstein. This was news to me and, undoubtedly, to Miss Talbot herself. An honor, to be sure, but, alas, I had never met the lady. I had, however, written a short career capsule for the AMG. And here is how the essay appeared on such websites as Blockbuster or New York Times, both subscribers to AMG material:

Blonde and voluptuous, Helen Talbot was the girl on the conveyor belt in chapter nine of the 1946 serial King of the Forest Rangers. Bound and gagged and the very picture of a damsel-in-distress, 1940s style, the girl is helplessly headed for the whirling maw of a huge paper-shredder but audiences had to wait a whole week to learn whether she would manage to extricate herself. Under contract to enterprising Republic Pictures from September 10, 1943 to January 6, 1946, Talbot also co-starred in the 12-chapter Federal Operator 99 (1945) -- where she was nearly cremated in an incinerator and helplessly placed in front of a whirling airplane propeller -- and in three above-average B-Westerns opposite offscreen boyfriend Donald "Red" Barry. A Don Loper discovery, Kansas-born Talbot had been a "Goldwyn Girl" in Danny Kaye's Up in Arms (1944) under her real moniker of Helen Darling prior to signing with Republic. She left Hollywood in 1946 to marry an ex-Navy pilot. Hans J. Wollstein.

See what happened? Some idiot – well what else would you call him/her? – missed the all-important full stop between “pilot” and “Hans.”

So use Imdb all you want – I know I do – but please exercise some care.

Phyllis Adair (Gunning for Vengeance)

There is a lesson to be learned here somewhere: Don't be nasty to an adorable 10-year-old motherless girl (and weren't they all?), even if, as a saloon proprietress, you have the perfect right to find the child's presence in your establishment unwanted. But, for Heaven’s sake, be nice about it and do not do rough up the little tot like Phyllis Adair does in the 1946 Durango Kid oater Gunning for Vengeance. Because the only way you could possibly redeem yourself is to take a bullet shielding the same little girl (Marjean Neville) from her would-be abductors. Which, again, is what Phyllis does. So be that a lesson to you! The outcome of all this, however, is one of the better Durango Kids thanks in no small ways to Miss Adair's tough gal performance.

Phyllis Adair, her publicity claimed, came from European nobility, her father, George Wilsnack, being “the great-grandson of Count von Wilsnack” while her mother, the former Louise Wingertier, came from a Swiss family “that dated back several hundred years.” So, there!

Besides her no less than five B-Westerns, Adair is mainly remembered as Irish starlet Peggy Cummins' stand-in in the first, abandoned, version of the much-hyped Forever Amber (finally released in 1947 starring Linda Darnell). Apparently, Miss Cummins was too nervous and inexperienced to handle this arguably the most heralded film role since Gone With the Wind's Scarlett O'Hara. To make it easier for Cummins, Phyllis was used to block scenes with the other players and then gracefully step aside when time for the actual filming. According to Gary A. Smith's fine “Forever Amber: From Novel to Film” (Duncan, OK: BearManor Media, 2010), she was hired for $200 a week.

For the record, Phyllis Louise Wilsnack's life dates are: Chicago, IL, 1 May 1919-Los Angeles, CA, 23 February 1990. Her name at the time of death was given as Phyllis Stevenson.

Louise Arthur: Heroine's sidekick (Moon Over Montana)

That a B-Western hero had to have a grizzled sidekicak, well, that custom actually went further back than Smiley Burnette, to the late silent era, in fact. But it was extremely rare that the heroine also came complete with sidekick. But that is exactly what happens in the 1946 Jimmy Wakely opus Moon over Montana, where the ever-popular Miss Jennifer Holt plays a shrew to be tamed by Mr. Wakely while her secretary, one Louise Arthur, dances a jig and comports herself with Jimmy's second, Lee (Lasses) White. And although an Easterner whose glasses of course hides a chorus girl kind of prettiness, Miss Arthur takes to the wild and woolly Montana like a duck to water, enthusiastically agreeging to be the roundup cook to pay for both ladies' stay at the Wakely-White ranch. And so it goes, Wakely taming Miss Holt and Lasses and Louise, well, romance may be too strong a word but there you are.

Louise Arthur had been in vaudeville as a child, "when vaudeville was on its way out," she said, and then went into "The George White's Scandals [of 1936]" on Broadway. She was 16, she told Ray Duncan of the Pasadena Independent Star News.

"People were shocked because I was a chorus girl at 16. Actually it was one of the most austere periods of my life. None of us drank or smoked or stayed out late. It was a serious business, and Mr. White was a very tough director. It was a no-nonsense job."

From the Scandals, Arthur became a Radio City Musical Hall Rockette:

"I was the seventh girl in from the left-hand side. One thing they did was to take out all your quirks. You couldn't have mannerisms or ragged movements, because the whole line had to move like a machine. We drilled for hours each day. It was good training, but not very satisfactory from a creative point of view."

Then on to plenty of radio work and, eventually, television. She starred opposite Bill Kennedy (billed as Drew Kennedy for some reason) in a satirical comedy entitled The People's Choice (1946) directed in 16mm by prolific Western ace Harry Fraser and sold to home movie viewers. The People's Choice was one of the earliest movies to pla regularly on television, the medium that became a new home for Louise Arthur in the 1950s. She also did dinner theatre and even played Mary Magdalene in a passion play in 1960. Miss Arthur disappears from television credits after an appearance on Honey West in 1965.

(We once again must take issue with the life dates listed on Louise Arthur's profile on the Internet Movie Database. If she was 16 when starting in the Scandals in December of 1935 when the show opened, she would have been born around 1919 and certainly not 1900 as someone on the Imdb claims. That birth year would have made her 46 when filming Moon over Montana, and a true miracle of nature. So here's a hint to would-be Imdb contributors: check a person's credits before you list a birth date!)

Joy Gwynell: Jeanie With the Light Brown Hair

This morning I happened across the 1948 exploitation melodrama Women in the Night, which is in public domain and available everywhere. In one of the early scenes, a young lady billed as Joy Gwynell commits suicide by jumping from a window in the Nazi officer's club in Shanghai rather than endure further whippings from a sadistic Nipponese (Noel Cravat). It is a strong scene, especially viewed on 9-11, of all days, the poor girl crashing into something made of glass far down below. Certainly more memorable than Miss Gwynell's other public domain film, That Brennan Girl (1946), a much milder exploitation drama in which she simply plays "crying girl." Both films, incidentally, from the-then waning Republic Pictures.

Aside from these films,and The Cheaters 1945), also from Republic, Joy Gwynell played Jane Foster, "Jeanie With the Light Brown Hair" and the wife of legendary songwriter Stephen Forster (Donn Reed), in a 12-part series of musical short subjects about Foster featuring Ken Darby and The King's Men. (Dates of production have proven elusive).

That, as they say, is about that for Joy Gwynell, whose off-screen life remains a cipher to this writer. Or, as the late silent western enthusiast George Katchmer used to put it in his Classic Images columns: "Nothing could be found ...")

Sally Rawlinson: Paramount Starlet and Daughter

Discovered by a Paramount scout while appearing in a play at Los Angeles City College, Sally Rawlinson (1925-2004) earned more ink for being the daughter of silent screen star and former serial hero Herbert Rawlinson than for any of her screen roles. Which, with the exception of a couple of Technicolor short subjects, were relegated to such standard background performing as "guest," or "party guest," or "model," or "lady-in-waiting."

Not that her father hadn't warned her. ""Father was opposed to [my acting]because he does not think acting should be a permanent career for women. He said he did not think it was conducive to a happy home life. "He talked to me many times about it, but he could, not change my mind about it."

But Sally had even bigger fish to fry than mere screen stardom: Broadway rather than Hollywood, according to International News Service Staff correspondent John Todd, “is the real goal of Sally, who is 21, five feet, five inches tall and weighs 117 pounds.

"She explained: 'I hope to make a success in Hollywood and then have a try at the stage, too. As difficult as it is to break into Hollywood, it's even harder on Broadway.' Anyone like me would hardly have a chance. I know a dozen girls who have tried."

Too true, and by 1951 she was working not on the Great White Way but in a Las Vegas chorus line. And so it goes.

Renee Randall: Paramount Starlet

According to a brief studio plant in 1947, Paramount starlets Vamere Barman, Marilyn Gray, Audrey Korn, Janet Thomas and Renee Randall “were college students becoming actresses.” Miss Randall would blithely add that her forebears counted "a grandfather who, although of pure French descent, was elected president of the Flathead Indian tribunal. He spent his life fighting for the tribe's rights.”

From Portland, OR, Renee Randall arrived in Hollywood around 1945 and was that same year one of Paramount's “Stork Club Orchids,” 10 models celebrating the famous New York nitery with a Los Angeles fashion show. Miss Randall modeled a beach costume made of several layers, each of which she removed on stage until, as intrepid reporter Bob Thomas breathlessly told his readers, she was left with “diaper-like trunks and the merest suggestion of a top piece.” Two years later, and still a starlet, she was seen riding a camel with fellow Paramount contract player Andra Verne. For publicity sake, of course.

Both girls turned up in the much ballyhooed starpacked finale of the rah-rah musical Variety Girl (1947). Renee "played" an usherette in that but was usually cast as showgirls (Stork Club,Blue Skies, The Imperfect Lady, Footlight Rhythm) or simply pretty girls (Road to Rio, Saigon, Hazard). Never a character with an actual name. She was a secretary in her penultimate film, the noir melodrama Night Has a Thousand Eyes (1948) and "actress at party" in the Alan Ladd version of The Great Gatsby (1949). For which role, the studio told breathless moviegoers, she lightened her hair. And then the name Renee Randall completely disappears from cast lists.

(Some intrepid soul on the Internet Movie Database has listed Chicago as the birth place for "Renee Randall" and a ridiculous birth year of 1911. Harumph! we say. Harumph!)

Mildred Law: Columbia Starlet in Lawless Empire

Columbia starlet Mildred Law plays handsome Tex Harding's sister in Lawless Empire (1945), a fine if somewhat poverty-stricken entry in the studio's long-lasting Durango Kid series starring Charles Starrett. In the opening sequence, Tex, a preacher, and Mildred attempt to save the Murphy family from evil raiders and are about to succumb to Ethan Laidlaw and his henchmen when rescued in the nick of time by the masked Durango. Then, in a rare contemplative moment, the brother and sister act perform Reverend W.B. Stevens' "Farther Along," but for the remainder of the hour or so, the screen is taken over by the usual fightin' and shootin' and Dub Taylor shtick. And that is just fine.

A pretty but unexceptional brunette starlet, Mildred Law earned a quite thorough writeup in a newswire story. Usually these studio plants were quite empty (and empty headed) but in Miss Law's case there was actually some substance and I have decided to offer the story in its entirety:

"Hollywood, May 15 [1944] — (INS)—

Out of the first ten dollars she ever earned, Mildred Law, new Columbia starlet, spent $1.39 for a cotton print dress and the remainder of it for a pair of dancing shoes. She prized the shoes highly
and does yet, for that matter, for she still keeps them as mementos. Miss Law earned the ten dollar bill when she was 12. It was at a home talent show for the Knights of Columbus back in her hometown of Boston. She was billed 'Little Miss Twinkletoes. Her indulgent mother, realizing that most girls of 12 would have reversed the procedure by paying the larger share of the award for a dress, sensed the trend of her daughter's tendencies toward a dancing career and willingly purchased additional shoes for the girl.

Signed by Columbia.

From then on Miss Law danced, and later sang her way through school, several road shows and then into Monte Prosser's Cobacabana Club in New York where she was signed by a Columbia talent scout. Her first work in the legitimate theatre was in 1940 in 'Too Many Girls,' with Hal LeRoy, Dick Kollman, Desi Arnaz and Eddie Bracken. She danced with LeRoy and was an understudy for the leading feminine player [Leila Ernst]. When the lead became ill, Miss Law stepped into the spot. That was her first singing role. Later she replaced the ingenue, Leila Ernst, in 'Pal Joey,' playing opposite Gene Kelly. After that run she appeared in vaudeville and night clubs and was featured as a dancer with troupes headed by the bands of Rudy Vallee, Eddy Duchin and Glen Gray. She was also vocalist with the bands of Vaughn Monroe and Don Bestor. In 1943 she appeared in 'Artists and Models but left that show to go to the Cobacabana. She was there twenty weeks and then came to Hollywood under a Columbia contract. Miss Law was born Mildred McMurray, the daughter of Thomas McMurray, a Boston police captain, and Elizabeth McMurray. Because she is 'John Law's daughter' she changed her name to Mildred Law and has been known by that name throughout her career.

Only Girl.

She was the only girl in the family of four children. One of her brothers, Norman, is now in the navy; Robert is in an eastern school and Warren, the eldest son, was killed in action while piloting a combat plane over France in March. On the personal side, Miss Law is five feet four and three quarter inches in height and weighs 118. She has blue eyes and brown hair. She is fond of swimming, riding and tennis and has an ambition to become a concert pianist but says she cannot find the time to study. She loves dogs, but has been unable to own one because she has resided in hotels most of her life. She likes broiled steaks but abhors liver. She can cook, but says she's most adept at opening cans. And if she had to chose an activity other than her present career Miss Law says she would want to b e a housewife."

Mildred Law left the screen after Lawless Empire, probably to marry, but did appear on television in the 1950s before disappearing from the Hollywood radar screens altogether.

Jan Bryant (Shadows of the Range)

A virtual Rosie the Riveter, a welder to be precise, Jan Bryant was discovered in 1945 by a scout from 20th Century Fox who happened to spot her in newsreel footage of girls waiting in line for their termination papers at Douglas Aircraft. Or at least that was what her publicity claimed. (Another "news" item, dated Hollywood, February 2, 1946 suggested that "New verification of the old saw that 'there's no accounting for taste,' is to be found in pretty Jan Bryant who gave up the luxurious life of a socialite to work eight hours per day as a showgirl in Warner Brothers' comedy, "Cinderella Jones" [1946].") In reality, Jan had ushered at Grauman's Chinese, been kicking around the Hollywood chorus lines since at least 1943 and had even been a Goldwyn Girl in Up in Arms (44). She seems to have abandoned her screen and later television career in 1954. Some of her erstwhile Rosie the Riveter chutzpah carried over into Bryant's first Western, Johnny Mack Brown's Shadows of the Range (Monogram, 1946), where she witnesses the murder of her father in the very first scene. Someone, it seems, wants his land and only Johnny Mack Brown can prevent more carnage. Jan, meanwhile, has little left to do than mourn her father's sudden passing. Unfortunately, her thespian abilities does not allow for much depth of feeling so the sadness is solely depicted in dialogue. She does, however, confront the would-be killers in a well-played saloon scene.

Leza Holland: Warner Starlet

Fans of Hollywood news could in early 1946 learn that Warner Bros. had signed 18-year-old Leza Holland, of Kansas City, MO, to a term contract. Or, as one publication put it romantically: “Leza Holland, blonde and beautiful, applied for a secretarial job at Warners and got an acting contract. Don't shove, girls, it seldom happens. . .”

Actually, it didn't really "happen" for Leza, either. Here is what we can glean today from the Internet Movie Database: Deception (1946; wedding guest); That Way With Women (1947; customer); Desperate (1947; nurse); and, last, and probably least, The Judge Steps Out (1949, maid). In between these walk-ons, Leza found time to frolic on the beach at Santa Monica, roasting weiners with fellow Warner starlets Suzi Crandall, Angela Greene and Joan Winfield, and marry actor Richard Erdman. That union lasted until 1950, but by then, Leza Holland had become a children's book author and illustrator and enjoyed a showing at the 1953-1953 California Water Color Society at Long Beach. Her work was entitled "Au Coin de la Rue."

Nanette Parks (Texas Panhandle)

To be quite frank, Nanette Parks (1922-2004), albeit personable and cute, is not what you remember from the 1945 Durango Kid Western Texas Panhandle starring Charles Starrett and his regular sidekicks Tex Harding and Dub Taylor. But how could anyone, least of all an ingenue, stack up against the formidable Jody Gilbert, a fine lump of a woman who flings about poor Dub as if he were a Raggedy Ann doll. The gargantuan Miss Gilbert plays the town blacksmith and her scenes with Taylor remain highlights of this standard Durango oater about land grabbers. Add to that the yodelin' Carolina Cotton, future wife killer Space Cooley and his Western swing band and the usual B-Western sturm und drang and there is little that Nanette Parks can do other than grab on to the scenery for dear life. Which she does prettily enough.

The titian-haired (as her publicity never failed to state) daughter of a ditsctrict court judge in St. Paul, MN, Nanette Parks had appeared in community theater and then the Pasadena Playhouse (which, if we believe the Hollywood publicity hacks, was just lousy with starlets in the early 1940s) before signing with Columbia Pictures in December of 1944. She made quite a splash as pert journalism student Laura Jessup in Snafu (1945), a rollicking WWII farce about a family insisting on babying a returning veteran that had enjoyed a successful Broadway run. Parks was then rumored to be about to marry Jack Moss, a producer and Gary Cooper's former business manager, but that apparantly didn't happen and she signed instead with Paramount. For her 21st birthday, the studio generously announced that she would star in "Catalina," a proposed Technicolor musical with Sterling Hayden, but when the camera began rolling, the project had become a 19 minute short entitled Tropical Masquerade (1948) and instead of Hayden featured such lesser talents as Tito Guizar and Sally Rawlinson, the brunette daughter of former serial star Herbert Rawlinson. At least the project retained the Technicolor aspect. Unfortunately, Paramount already had Diana Lynn, Mona Freeman and Wanda Hendrix under contract, all fresh-faced ingenue types, and Nanette Parks apparently drew the shortest straw. By late 1948, she had left screen acting altogether. She apparently died at the age of 82 in Fort Lauderdale, FL. Or at least that's what we can learn from the IMDb. However, as the poster below suggests, the truth is a great deal happier. Apparently, Miss Parks retired to marry the future Vice Admiral Edward S. Briggs in 1949, and the couple live today on a cul-de-sac in Escondido, CA.

Debra Alden (Code of the West)

Whether or not James Warren was a good replacement for Tim Holt in three Zane Grey Westerns 1945-1947 is a discussion for another day. Here, we shall concentrate on Warren's third, and final, leading lady, Debra Alden, of Code of the West. And, sadly, although pretty and ingenious enough, Debra is thoroughly upstaged by resident RKO bad girl Carol Forman , as a saloon belle, and the exotic charms of Rita Lynn, the daughter of studio casting director Ben Piazza. The result: Code of the West proved Miss Alden's sole screen appearance.

Born Shirley Fedderson in Racine, WI (probably around 1922), and a niece of the Russell Stover candy imperium, she had appeared in amateur theatrics from an early age. By February 1945 she was starring as "Judy" in a local Racine production of the Broadway hit comedy "Junior Miss" before relocating to Los Angeles with her parents to pursue a screen career. She won a local beauty competition and was scooped up by David O. Selznick, who was always willing to gamble on a pretty face. Shirley Fedderson became Deborah Alden at first and performed the usual cheesecake duties before being assigned to Code of the West and the abbreviated moniker of "Debra." (Selznick was associated with RKO at the time). On December 22, 1947, she wed Harold Louis Griffith of Los Angeles. "Mr. and Mrs. Griffith," a public announcement of the nuptials stated, "will make their home at the Weylin Hotel in New York City."

Carole Donne (Appointment with Murder)

Catherine Craig, aka Mrs. Robert Preston, plays the co-owner of a Los Angeles gallery in Appointment with Murder (1948), a nifty little thriller and the second of three starring stage magician John Calvert as the eponymous The Falcon. Miss Craig comes complete with a blonde secretary who is awarded a couple of close-ups and a line or two. But that's is also about it for Carole Donne, a tough-looking starlet who showed up in quite a few potboilers in the late 1940s playing secretaries, waitresses and nurses. She's a waitress in Decoy (1946), another secretary, a newspaper editor's this time, in Violence (1947), but was then a rather drab housefrau type with a missionary husband and a young child caught up in revolution in Mongolia or somewhere in State Department File: 649 (1949), a fine little portrayal of mounting hysteria.

In none of these speaking parts does she portray any accent at all but Carole Donne was apparently from Denmark (born March 20, 1916). She had arrived in Hollywood in 1945 as the wife of Walter Donner, a Canadian Royal Air Force pilot, but that union was short-lived and she was soon seen around town with brewery heir Lionel Goetz. The latter was said to have appeared in “several western pictures as Lionel Shelley,” but we have found no footprints from him under that name. The much ballyhooed engagement to the Missouri brewery air went bust soon enough, alas, and Carole instead became known for showing her prize Great Dane (naturally), Brutus von Prinsen, at the Oakland Kennel Club Dog Show in Oakland, CA, and for dating much-married B-movie actor Alan Curtis. In 1949, circus heir John Ringling North gave Carole “the three-ring treatment at the Stork Club” in New York and she was seen at the Los Angeles nitery Mocambo with comedian Joe E. Lewis. In 1953, she shared an apartment with a newcomer from Denmark, Marilyn Monroe double and 3 Stooges stooge Greta Thyssen but Carole's own screen career seems to have been over by then. She was married again in 1957, this time to oil millionaire Walter McCune and the couple settled in Phoenix, AZ and San Diego, CA. In December of 1967 Mrs. McCune was once again in the news, this time, however, on the crime beat, when Frederico Kandacio, 60, Pasquale Natarelli, 56, and Stephen A. Cino, 30, all of Buffalo, NY, were sentenced to 20 years each for attempting to steal $500,000 in jewelry from her suite at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, CA. Carole apparently divorced McCune shortly thereafter (he died in 1971) and was not heard from again. As Carole Donne McCune she died in San Diego, CA, October 6, 1996.

Amira Moustafa (Dangerous Money)

Leave it to a Hollywood B-movie like Monogram's Dangerous Money (1946) to cast an Egyptian starlet as a Polynesian half-caste married to a part Swedish, part Polynesian character played by a Russian (Rich Vallin). Not to mention a Britisher (Sidney Toler) portraying a Hawaiian-Chinese detective – Charlie Chan of course. This mishmash of ethnicity was typical for the period and it was equally accepted that the only cast members playing their own nationality, Chinese Victor Sen Young and African-American Willie Best, were asked to provide comic relief only. But at least Amira Moustafa, as the Polynesian half-caste, got to perform a little belly-dancing while tripping the light fantastic with the star-billed Mr. Toler. Said belly-dancing, of course, meant to suggest Island exotica and not Middle Eastern culture. All in all, Dangerous Money is not one of the best Chan – in fact, Chan connoisseur Ken Hanke ranks it as the nadir of the long series – not so much because of the cross-eyed ethnic portrayals and generally uneven performances but more due the aforementioned “comedy relief” which is no relief at all and a plot that goes nowhere fast. Is Amira the culprit in the killing of a treasury agent (B-Western and serial regular Tristram Coffin, incidentally)? By the time of the unveiling you wouldn't really care.

Amira Moustafa did indeed hail from Cairo, Egypt and was in Hollywood courtesy of her husband, Walter E. Beck, a Douglas Aircrat executive formerly stationed in North Africa. And that, alas, is basically what we have managed to learn about this exotic presence in a few Hollywood potboilers of the 1940s that included the title role in Queen of the Amazons (1947).

Mystery and Noir Series!

I have decided to add trivia about my other classic movie passion: B-noir and mystery series. Well, it's my blog so whatta ya gonna do? Any excuse to revisit old movies is good enough for me. So here goes ...
Top right is Sonia Darrin, my favorite B-movie moll as Agnes Lowzier (love that name!) in The Big Sleep (released 1946). I discovered Agnes when I saw the movie for the first time at the age of about 12 or 13, and even then, her toughness intrigued me. No wonder, in retrospect, that Bogart crossed the street for a romantic interlude with bespectacled Dorothy Malone; Agnes was just too tough for even Bogie. And certainly for poor Elisha Cook, her boyfriend in the film whose demise in the hands of B-Western hero Bob Steele remains one of Sleep's multitude of highlights. Of course, The Big Sleep is hardly a B-movie and thus doesn't qualify here. We shall instead concentrate on Bury Me Dead (1947), Sonia's only other film role of any note, a review of which shall be forthcoming.

Carmen Morales (Valley of Vanishing Men)

John Wayne's leading lady, as far as that went, in John Ford's The Long Voyage Home (40), Carmen Morales earned much better billing but in reality not much more to do in the 1942 Columbia serial Valley of Vanishing Men. Hailing from the Spanish Canary Islands but reared in Mexico and the US as the daughter of a Mexican trade representative, Morales had danced in what her publicity considered "the capitals of Europe" before settling down in 1934 to a Hollywood marriage to fellow dancer Earl Lewis. The latter was, and would become again, the partner of Parisian variety star Mistinguette. In fact, in June of 1935, Lewis left his bride of ten months to rejoin Mistinguette in Paris, Carmen Morales instead preferring "to remain in Hollywood and pursue a screen career." Said career also emcompassed a stint with the Pasadena Playhouse and she was once considered for the starring role of Maria in the Hemingway film For Whom the Bell Tolls, released in 1943 with Swedish Ingrid Bergman in the role. Morales instead got The Long Voyage Home and the honor of performing "lady-in-waiting" duties for the Mexican Spitfire Lupe Velez at RKO. Valley of Vanishing Men , starring Bill Elliott, became the highlight of a screen career that stayed in the dolldrums for the remainder of the decade.