Hollywood Fun
Last night the Retro channel, 43–8 on OTA in NYC, ran a flick with which I was completely unfamiliar, The Devil’s Hand (1961), starring Robert Alda, Linda Christian and Ariadne Welter, a mediocre satanic tale shot in black and white. Research at IMDb revealed several interesting aspects. Born in Mexico, Christian and Welter were sisters, Dutch father, Mexican mother. Linda was seven years older, fluent in seven languages. There are 36 titles under her name at IMDb in a career that spanned 1943-’88. She adopted her stage name from a character, Fletcher Christian of Mutiny on the Bounty (1935), played by Errol Flynn, who brought her to Hollywood. Her most notable works were The V.I.P.s (1963), a Taylor-Burton vehicle, and The Alfred Hitchcock Hour. Married to matinee idol Tyrone Power and briefly to actor Edmund Purdom, she was a mom of two, both with Power. She passed away at 87 in 2011… Ariadne was much more successful, 79 credits, largely south of the border, in a career than spanned 1949-’97. She starred in hundreds of episodes of TV series. Married and divorced twice, she succumbed to cirrhosis at ’68 in ‘98… Receiving sixth billing in The Devil’s Hand is Jeanne Carmen, who I do not recall, whose 21 credits spanned 1953–2005, the most notable an uncredited appearance as “Paladin’s Love Interest” on Have Gun — Will Travel, a show I’ve watched and enjoyed quite a bit lately. Her bio reveals interesting tidbits. Born to an Arkansas family of cotton pickers, she ran away at 13, eventually landing in NYC, where she became a dancer in a Broadway touring company. By the early ‘50’s she was in Vegas in the company of mobster Johnny Roselli. She became a crack golfer and made money hustling on the links. In Hollywood she was linked to Elvis, Sinatra and the Kennedys, and became a close friend of Marilyn Monroe. Her image graced magazines, and she made many appearances on talk shows, discussing her experiences with the rich and famous. She moved to Arizona, married in ’63 and had three kids before divorcing. The inscription on her gravestone reads: “She came, she saw, she conquered.” She passed away at 77 in 2007. She should have written a memoir… Billed ninth as The Elderly Cultist, Gertrude Astor had a phenomenal Tinseltown run. Born in Ohio, she was a runaway at twelve. Her career began on a riverboat, playing trombone and saxophone. Her screen career spanned 1915-’66, 353 titles under her name. Five-eleven, her height relegated her to secondary roles. She was popular during the silent era, then took uncredited roles in talkies, although she had significant parts with Laurel and Hardy. Never married, she died on her 90th birthday in ’77. All photos from Google Images.
Astor:
Carmen:
The Welter sisters, Linda & Ariadne:
I decided to wait until tomorrow to reopen the floating book shop. There was plenty of sunshine today, but a cold wind negated it… I added my latest short story to the Google Docs book file. The five pieces comprise more than 14,500 words, still well short of book length. Coincidence, a novella, for example, is 24,000 words.
My Amazon Author page: https://www.amazon.com/Vic-Fortezza/e/B002M4NLJE
FB: https://www.facebook.com/Vic-Fortezza-Author-118397641564801/?fref=ts
Read Vic’s Stories, free: http://fictionaut.com/users/vic-fortezza
