Innholdsfortegnelse for 2601 i The Australian Women's Weekly Icons

The young girl found herself in a strange land, frightened and alone except for her faithful dog. And then a bubble appeared, rose-hued and sparkling. Suddenly, there stood a woman clad in a voluminous pink gown and glittery tiara. She spoke with a gentle voice, emanating a wonderous, effortless magic. Glinda made quite an entrance, but for Billie Burke, the actress portraying her, this was no entrance at all. At 54, she’d already had a decades-long career, found fame, started a family and been nominated for an Oscar. And it was not magic that landed Billie in Munchkinland, but determination, resilience … and a clown. The first act The clown was her father, Billy Burke, a performer with the Barnum & Bailey Circus. “I owe him a great deal,” Billie…

One afternoon in December 1946, freelance journalist and friend Bob Slatzer takes Marilyn to a dilapidated house that once belonged to John Barrymore, the late silent film star known as “the Great Profile”. His estate is up for auction. All 55 rooms and everything in them. Slatzer thinks it might be amusing to have a look around, but the place feels uneasy, even grotesque. It’s full of taxidermy animals, totem poles, and suits of armour. Marilyn shudders as they drive away through the rusty, poorly oiled gates. To make up for the miserable Barrymore mansion visit, Slatzer offers to bring Marilyn along to a party in Beverly Hills. “All the stars will be there,” he tells her. The party is hosted by Charles Feldman, a producer and agent. Feldman is…

There are few guarantees in wartime but, like patriotism, a gentleman’s agreement was a matter of honour. It was exactly a tacit understanding of this nature that had allowed civilian aircrafts to fly freely between neutral Portugal and Allied Britain. So when Leslie Howard boarded the Dutch plane Ibis in Lisbon on June 1, 1943 – along with 12 other passengers and four crew – the 50-year-old actor had no reason to think that he wouldn’t arrive safely in Bristol later that day. The Nazis, however, had other ideas. As the Ibis flew over the waters northwest of Spain, it was suddenly attacked by no fewer than eight German aircraft, blazing cannon fire and raining machine gun bullets. The wireless operator had just enough time to tap out a distress…

March 22, 1895 marked the birth of cinema, with the first demonstration of the Cinématographe by Auguste and Louis Lumière. In attendance was a businessman named Léon Gaumont, the owner of the Comptoir Géneral de Photographie, which manufactured cameras and film, and his 22-year-old secretary, Alice Guy. The one-minute silent film, entitled Workers Leaving the Lumière Factory, sparked something in the young Parisienne – the thought that films could be used to tell stories, rather than simply document real life. Having gained permission from her boss to use the company’s equipment – with the proviso that “the mail doesn’t suffer” – it wasn’t long before, with the use of some backdrops and props, she had transformed his small factory garden into a cabbage patch. With the help of a suitably…

Whether or not it’s true that Alfred Hitchcock simply fancied a ‘holiday’ in the South of France, jewel-heist caper To Catch a Thief (1955) worked out extremely well for all concerned. Perfectly sculpted ice princess Grace Kelly and Cary Grant, the last word in screen suave, may have only made one picture together but it cemented their status as one of the greatest couples in cinema. And the key, Cary always insisted, was Grace’s infectious focus. Indeed, he considered Grace – then still in her 20s – “the only actress who could make me feel like I was still learning my craft at 50”. In all their scenes she hung on his every word. “In my opinion she’s the best young actress in the business today, at least among those…

Sidney Sheldon knew he was on to a good thing. The writer – who had made the leap to the small screen after a storied film and Broadway career – had penned a new series about a genie and her unlikely master which tapped into the cultural zeitgeist of the times. It was 1964 and America was gripped with the Space Race – astronauts were the modern-day rockstars. That same year the comedy series Bewitched had launched to massive ratings, viewers entranced with the witchy antics of Samantha and her family. And so, Sidney had created I Dream of Jeannie. The series began with an astronaut landing on a deserted beach where he found a mysterious bottle. Rubbing it, a beautiful genie would emerge ... and the antics would begin.…

It was supposed to be the happiest day of his life. Rudolph Valentino, who was soon to become the silver screen’s “Great Lover”, had just married rising starlet Jean Acker, with the newlyweds celebrating at the Hollywood Hotel, dancing the night away. Yet now, in the early hours of the next morning, Rudolph found himself staring at Jean’s hotel room door, the handle refusing to move, with his bride on the other side. Jean had locked him out. Rudolph heard Jean crying and began pounding on the door, even as she continued to yell for him to go away. Drunk, tearful and begging to be let in, Rudolph eventually began to wake other guests. It swiftly became the most dramatic scene the actor would take part in during his short…

From extra to lead John Pringle was born in Utah in 1897, to actor parents who spent a lot of time on the road. After the family moved to California, John was enrolled in a military academy before working as a rubber salesman and stage manager. His entry into films came in 1915, when he played an extra for Thomas Ince Studios. He slowly moved through the ranks, scoring bigger roles and working as a director and writer under the name Jack Gilbert, until he signed a contract with Fox for three years in 1921. After 1922’s Monte Cristo, where he played the lead, John’s transformation to a screen heart-throb was complete. Gilbert & Garbo John moved to MGM in 1924, where his popularity was cemented in roles playing opposite…

The women all knew who was coming – their ultimate heart-throb, the too-beautiful Japanese sex symbol Sessue Hayakawa. He’d won their hearts, minds, bodies, souls and devotion the year before as the exotic new object of wanton desire in The Cheat (1915), and now here he was in the very flesh, about to step out of his limousine as it drew up outside a movie premiere in Hollywood in 1916. Then, when a slight darkness clouded his noble, arresting features on opening the door, the throng scrambled, schoolgirls and housewives elbowing each other out of the way, desperate to toss their fur coats over a deep puddle lying right in the path of the silent movie colossus. Japanese photographer Toyo Miyatake was on hand to witness the sexually charged mayhem…

Set to sizzle For an actress known for her sexualised on-screen persona, Jane Russell, at her core, was anything but. Born Ernestine Jane Geraldine Russell in June 1921, Jane was a tomboy from the beginning, growing up with four brothers on a ranch in California. Mother Geraldine encouraged her only daughter to pursue her interest in music and acting, and Jane studied briefly with an acting coach. And it was while working as a receptionist that Jane answered a call-out that changed her life – director Howard Hughes was looking for a curvaceous actress for The Outlaw (1943). Jane scored a screen test and landed the female lead as Rio McDonald. Censored & sidelined Howard Hughes quickly promoted The Outlaw, and Jane, in a series of provocative images showing the…

It was quite the sight. Having arrived at 10pm on March 2, 1942, Tallulah Bankhead was leading a spirited conga line between the tightly packed tables just half an hour later, hundreds of Allied soldiers and sailors trailing behind her. This was the opening night of New York’s Stage Door Canteen, a free-for-servicemen supper club which had been set up in the basement of Broadway’s 44th Street Theatre. Run by the American Theatre Wing, the club had opened for business with plans for 2000 servicemen to go through the doors each evening to eat, drink (soft stuff only, no liquor) and dance the night away, as a way to thank them for their service. The elite of Broadway were drafted to bus tables, make sandwiches, act as entertainment and share…

If there was one thing Wallis Simpson knew about, it was jewels. “A fool would know that with tweeds or other daytime clothes one wears gold,” she spat contemptuously at a hapless reporter, “and that with evening clothes one wears platinum.” That night the Duchess of Windsor had worn a fabulous Cartier ruby and sapphire brooch, featuring the entwined initials of ‘E’ and ‘W’ – a gift from Edward during the abdication crisis – to dinner at Claridge’s in London. Which was just as well, for when the Windsors returned to Ednam Lodge, the country estate of their friends, the Earl and Countess of Dudley, bedlam reigned. The Duchess of Windsor’s priceless jewellery collection had been ransacked. Somehow, despite the presence of 16 staff members, an on-duty policeman and guard…

On December 22, 1976, The Weekly scored a great coup, landing a rare interview with Hollywood icon Robert Redford. Journalist Camilla Beach flew to Holland to speak to the actor and discovered why, as he became richer and more successful, he retreated from the public eye. American actor Robert Redford was leading a beach assault on entrenched German troops for his latest movie, A Bridge Too Far (1977, pictured above). “Cut,” called director Sir Richard Attenborough. “Eyedrops,” called Robert, whose smarting eyes were grit-filled from the explosions. While special effects experts placed explosives for a retake, Robert stood apart from the rest of the cast and crew, encircled by photographers and autograph-hunters on location in Holland. Yet he seemed curiously alone. He rarely gives interviews, and prefers to be seen…