VERONICA LAKE?

VERONICA LAKE (1919-1973), born Constance Frances Marie Ockleman, was a beautiful girl from the east coast who wanted to be in the movies. Her mother enrolled her in The Bliss Hayden School of Acting in Hollywood, after the family settled in Beverly Hills, California. It wasn't long before casting agents noticed her striking beauty. The height of her popularity was during the war years. Her peek-a-boo hairstyle was so widely copied by women that it became a hazard in the war plants. The War Womanpower Commission made a formal request to Miss Lake that she wear her up for the remainder of the war. They wanted to discourage working women from wearing "peek-a-boo" bangs while running plant machinery. It had caused several accidents. So, Veronica Lake made a newsreel with Paramount showing her new unswept look and posed for several posters demonstrating her hair caught in machines and grimacing painfully. Some thought her popularity died out with her changed hairstyle, but it was problems on the set and in her private life, along with a run of bad pictures that ended her career.




Haven't you seen I Married a Witch (1942)? Teamed with Frederick March, the movie was fun and may have been the idea for the TV show "Bewitched".



Watch this and then see these other four films.


This Gun for Hire (1942) A film-noir classic where Veronica plays a gun moll. She was teamed for the first time with her most successful screen partner, Alan Ladd. Their on-screen chemistry didn’t escape the notice of studio executives and the two were quickly reunited that same year in another film-noir classic, The Glass Key.
Duffy's Tavern (1945) Veronica played herself, as did everyone in the movie.
The Blue Dahlia (1946) Veronica stared in seven movies with Alan Ladd. It probably helped a lot that Veronica was closer to Alan Ladd's short height.
Sullivan's Travels (1942) See this wonderful comedy and one of Veronica Lake's finest films.


*Contributed by: "Emily Omar" Date: Sun, Nov 20 2005 / 22:01:01 PST