Saturday 17 October 2020

The Queen of Technicolor

"Mine was a very rare and wonderful Cinderella story, a complete Cinderella story that could have only happened during the studio system era."

"What I didn't care for was everything made in those days was black and white, very hard black and white too, there was nothing really pretty about it, even my auburn hair became jet black."

"I had hoped to do some singing, but at the time I got into show business, musicals were not being made quite as often. I wound up playing a patient at a mental institution."

Sad news.

One of the last survivors of the Golden Age of Hollywood, Miss Rhonda Fleming has departed for Fabulon, at the remarkable age of 97.

In her long career, she starred in just about every genre of movie, from Hitchcock's Spellbound to the Bing Crosby musical A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court to Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, but unfortunately often found herself typecast - because of her flaming red locks and the rise of Technicolor, a medium for which her looks were eminently suited - in such long-forgotten productions as Those Redheads From Seattle, The Redhead and the Cowboy and Slightly Scarlet. After retiring from films she made numerous appearances on telly, in shows such as McMillan & Wife, Police Woman, Kung Fu, Ellery Queen and The Love Boat, and starred in her own Vegas nightclub show. Somewhere along the line, she managed to marry six times.

RIP, a legend.

Rhonda Fleming (born Marilyn Louis, 10th August 1923 – 14th October 2020)

7 comments:

  1. I love the (slightly weird) Christian girl group she was in with Jane Russell, Connie Haines and Beryl Davis, which I only know about through Cafe Muscato.

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    1. Christians are always weird. Jx

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    2. Well, four very beautiful and talented women. Apart from Jane, that's all I knew any of them for

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  2. I never really took to her which is a shame

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    1. She never really got the big starring role that she needed to prove herself, so she didn't get the chance to shine like some of her contemporaries. "Always the bridesmaid, never the bride", as the saying goes. Jx

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  3. That is a hell of a mixture of films and TV appearances.
    She made quite a few records and had a rather fab voice too.
    Well worth a listen on You Tube.

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    1. As she seemed to indicate in her quote, she would have been far happier if she had been cast in more musicals. As it was, she only got that awful Bing Crosby film - although, apart from her Vegas cabaret, she did progress to some stage musicals including Kismet. Jx

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