Oh for the wings of a Dove

Art Deco icon Billie Dove (born Lillian Bohny, 14th May 1903 - 31st December 1997)

Facts about Miss Dove:

• In the 1920s she was voted, with Clara Bow, as America's most popular actress.
• Her parents were Swiss immigrants, and as a child she spoke German before she spoke English.
• She began her career (as so many others) as one of Florenz Ziegfeld's girls.
• Apparently Howard Hughes paid Billie's husband $325,000 in thousand-dollar bills to divorce her so she could marry him. She never did.
• Dorothy Parker dedicated a book to her: "To Billie Dove, God loves her, I do, too."
• Her greatest on-screen collaborations were with the heartthrob John Gilbert, and, like him, she never transferred successfully to "talkies".
• She retired from the screen in 1933, and lived till she was 94.