Carole Landis: A Tragic Life in Hollywood

Front Cover
McFarland, Sep 11, 2015 - Performing Arts - 316 pages

Before she was a glamorous actress, before she was a war-time pin-up star, even before she was Carole Landis, she was Frances Lillian Ridste, an insecure young girl from Wisconsin. She was strikingly beautiful, talented, and on her way to becoming a movie star, yet she spent her entire life searching for love.

Though she appeared in more than 60 films during her short career, Landis was better known for her extraordinary beauty and many romantic relationships than for her acting or comedic timing. Like many starlets of the time, Landis worked her way up from uncredited bit parts (and according to rumors, from the casting couch) to leading roles in such films as Topper Returns (1940) and My Gal Sal (1942) over the course of her 11-year career. She spent more time visiting troops during World War II--traveling hundreds of thousands of miles and coming near death twice--than any other Hollywood star. Despite her seemingly glamorous and carefree life, Landis was unable to build a lasting relationship, a fact that contributed to her suicide at 29. This work examines Landis's life and career in Hollywood, focusing on how her movie career affected her short, unhappy life.

 

Contents

Someone Worth Remembering
1
Fairchild and Two Fathers
3
San Bernardino Dreams
10
San Francisco and Hollywood
18
Hollywood Comes with a Reputation
25
The Edge of Stardom
63
War and Love Again
106
The South Pacific
147
Rex
213
Ten July 4 1948 Independence Day
229
Ghosts
258
Filmography
263
Radio Appearances
272
Chapter Notes
275
Selected Bibliography
281
Index
289

Coming Home but to What?
185

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About the author (2015)

The late E.J. Fleming researched Hollywood for decades and penned biographies of Carole Landis and Wallace Reid, among other books. He lived in the country in Connecticut.

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