|
Jean Harlow
 When 18-year-old Jean Harlow showed up her first day on the job as an actress, for the film Saturday Night Kid, in 1929, she was wearing a black crocheted dress and nothing underneath. Once she spotted the actress in the little peek-a-boo number, leading lady Clara Bow tried to have her fired on the spot, but assistant director Artie Johnson, fascinated with the fact that Harlow appeared to be a consistent natural blonde, wouldnt cooperate. Gossip columnists began calling her the reigning sex goddess, and, as they like to say in Hollywood, Another star was born.
 When she was working on the set in one of her bad girl roles, Harlow was said to have consistently lifted the spirits of the cast (among other things) with her suggestive smile, quick wit, risque answers to questions and a subtle, comedic flair in some of 30s classics like Red Dust and Hells Angels.
One of the legendary stories in Hollywood movie lore was Harlows habit of icing her nipples before filming a seductive scene. Off screen, the actress exuded sensuality as well, which delighted studio executives. They promptly instructed their publicists to promote that image to the hilt.
 There were a number of tales that started floating around movie studio back lots during the time that The Platinum Blonde (a nickname Harlow was given during her movie by the same name in 1931) was seducing audiences and lovers.
Harlow was known to have been fond of mink, as were most Hollywood starlets. But, she may have been the only hedonist who regularly showed up on the set wearing pelts over he r pajamas. They say she also enjoyed the feel of fur against her skin and hated conventional lingerie because it, supposedly, inhibited her breathing. Harlow slept nude in a bed modeled on a scallop shell in Botticellis Birth of Venus.
Despite her reputation as a sex goddess, Harlows affairs off screen didnt amount to much. Her months long marriage, at 21, to Paul Bern, a stu dio exec twice her age, was scandalous and mysterious. Bern eventually committed suicide by shooting himself in the head because of impotence. Harlow died at the young age of 26 of kidney disease.
She left behind a flurry of rumors about her on-screen image and off-screen romances, a lot of good quotes (No one ever expects a good lay to pay all the bills) and a reputation as one of the most sensual Hollywood sex goddesses of all time.
|
