Movie Stars of War World II

[Davep]

Reenactors like the total experience, it not just about guns and shooting. We learn all about those times. Here are just nine photos of some of the most popular female movie stars of their time. I know there are tons, but they are the first nine I learning or in some case re-learning about.

Here are nine of the most popular women movie stars during World War II. Some you problem know and some you don't. But one thing is for sure every GI knew all of them. How many can you indentify?

Don't post the answers - i.e. don't spoil it for those working on them

Here are the names, try to match them up, or research and learn.
Hedy Lamarr - Lana Turner - Ann Sheridan - Veronica Lake - Gene Tierney
Maria Montez - Rita Hayworth- Dorothy Lamour - Betty Grable

 

[Widebrim]

Wow, what a group of tomatoes! But where's Linda Darnell? Well, I'll give it a shot:

Whoa! I didn't see the note where you said don't list your answers! So I've taken the list, put them out of order, and simply written a little about each woman. Sorry Dave!


Betty Grable, the pin-up girl of G.I.s.
Hedy Lamar (Austrian), dubbed by MGM as "The most beautiful woman in
the world...Made her nude debut in Ecstasy.
Dorothy Lamour (French Louisianan, Anglo, Spanish ancestry), a beauty.
Maria Montez (Dominican of Spanish ancestry), another beauty.
Veronica Lake, diminutive doll, known for her peekaboo hairdo.
Gene Tierney, all American beauty who unfortunately was later
institutionalized.
Rita Hayworth (a.k.a. Margarita Cansino, Spaniard-Irish American), bella...
Anne Sheridan, Warner Bros. tough girl who could also be glamorous.
Lana Turner, The Postman Always Rings Twice and The Lady From
Shanghai say it all.

 

[Davep]

These nine are a starter set for guys in my unit to start to learn, through photographs and watch their movies. I'm going to develop a set for the next nine.

You got
1, 2, 4, 5 and 9 wrong

 

[Elaina]

I'd say
1. Maria Montez
2. Gene Tierney
4. Dorothy Lamour
5. Lana Turner
9. Betty Grable

Although I am probably off base with them tho.

 

[Widebrim]

I stand corrected.

Ok...[huh] Now I know where I went wrong! I'll remove the names again, now that you've validated that I got it right the first time.

 

[Davep]

Correct!

Here is a video of Gene Tierney (you have to wait for the intro). It really helps to see these women act and talk. You really don't get a sense of them from just their photographs alone.

[YOUTUBE]e3wgiwT43UQ&eurl[/YOUTUBE]

 

[Cigarband]

Don't forget Marlene Dietrich. In the biography of her written by her daughter, she is said to have been a real friend of the GIs. It seems that during the time she volunteered at "The Hollywood Canteen", she and some of the other Actresses (unnamed) would take lucky Soldiers and Sailors home and give them something to remember them by.

 

[cco23i]

Gene is my favorite actress. I have Thunderbirds and just love the water tower scene!


Scott

 

[Story]

ack. Double post.

 

[Story]

1Don't forget Marlene Dietrich. In the biography of her written by her daughter, she is said to have been a real friend of the GIs. 2 It seems that during the time she volunteered at "The Hollywood Canteen", she and some of the other Actresses (unnamed) would take lucky Soldiers and Sailors home and give them something to remember them by.

1. Beat me to it.

2. [Ed McMahon voice] I did not know that! Wo ho! [/Ed McMahon voice] :eusa_clap

3. Dietrich recorded a number of anti-Nazi records in German for the OSS, including Lili Marleen.

 

[Davep]

Which one of the actresses was a communications expert?

She work with another person on devising a system for making it difficult for someone to detect radio guided torpedoes. It was so novel, that she had a patent filed on it.

Their patent discovery serves as the basis for all spectrum communications, such as WiFi and cordless phones.

 

[Lone_Ranger]

Don't forget Marlene Dietrich. In the biography of her written by her daughter, she is said to have been a real friend of the GIs. It seems that during the time she volunteered at "The Hollywood Canteen", she and some of the other Actresses (unnamed) would take lucky Soldiers and Sailors home and give them something to remember them by.

Not only at the Hollywood Canteen, Deitrich did USO tours for the troops in occupied territory. If the Nazis would have caught her, they would have shot her on sight. She was a true Class Act.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DrKkImJbbOk

When she does it in German, it really gets to me. Somehow, it didn't seem odd, that a German woman was singing a song, in German, to American GI's I guess there is something universal about a soldier dreaming of his, "Lilli of the Lamplight"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MO0lUXnAs-U

 

[Widebrim]

Which one of the actresses was a communications expert?

She work with another person on devising a system for making it difficult for someone to detect radio guided torpedoes. It was so novel, that she had a patent filed on it.

Their patent discovery serves as the basis for all spectrum communications, such as WiFi and cordless phones.

Hedy Lamar. The USN used the device on a limited basis.

 

[Lone_Ranger]

Hedy Lamar. The USN used the device on a limited basis.

Speaking of which, Lamar's biography reads like an Eric Ambler story. Especially when you add the part about designing a device to jam radio-guided torpedoes.

"While married to her first husband, Fritz Mandel, an arms manufacturer, she socialized with Adolf Hitler and Mussolini. She also became educated technically in his trade. Mandel was obsessed with his wife and never let her out of his sight. She hated him and his Nazi friends and finally escaped to London by drugging him."

 

[MisterCairo]

I'm in awe at the beauty and elegance of these women.

Today, I can think of Scarlet Johannsen as equalling this sort of look. Maggie Gyllenhall as well.

Sigh......