Out of the many hundreds of high-profile Hollywood deaths over the past hundred years, there are very few that have really caused a huge outpouring of public grief. Marilyn Monroe was one such case, and her idol, Jean Harlow, was another. She was mourned twenty-five years before Marilyn died, with thousands lining the streets to share their sadness with the world.
Born Harlean Harlow Carpenter on 3 March 1911, “The Baby”, as she was known, was raised in Kansas City, Missouri, by her father, Mont Clair Carpenter, and her mother, Jean Carpenter (née Harlow). Her childhood was financially secure but her mother was unhappy in the marriage and eventually filed for divorce in 1922. This was devastating for Harlean as she adored her father, and even more upsetting when it became apparent that the controlling Mrs Carpenter was only prepared to allow limited access to him for the rest of Jean’s life.
After the divorce, Jean Carpenter decided to take her daughter to Hollywood to find fame and fortune. However, surprisingly it was not for Jean that she wished fame: it was for herself. The mother and daughter arrived in 1923 and “Mother Jean”, as she was known, started the long process of walking from studio to studio in the hope of finding work. She soon discovered, however, that acting in Hollywood was purely a young girl’s dream, and since she was the wrong side of thirty, she was never going to become remotely famous in her own right.
Broke and downhearted, the two left Hollywood on the instructions of Mother Jean’s father, who threatened to disinherit her if she continued with what he considered to be her ridiculous and failed quest to be a movie star. Neither woman was happy to leave California and when Mother Jean married Marino Bello – a man with a questionable reputation – in 1927, Harlean showed her disapproval by eloping with her boyfriend, Charles McGrew, and moving straight back to Los Angeles. The newly married Jean’s plan to escape her mother and stepfather did not go quite to plan, however, as she soon found herself followed to California by the pair, who felt it would be far more entertaining to live in Hollywood than plain old Missouri.
Once in California, Harlean became friends with a young actress called Rosalie Roy, who was eager to find fame and fortune as an actress. One day, desperate for a lift, she asked Harlean to drive her to an audition at a nearby studio. She was happy to provide this service, though what neither of the young women knew was that it would be Harlean who caught the eye of the executives there, not Rosalie Roy.
Harlean thought the whole idea of being discovered was quite a joke, especially after witnessing the failed career of her mother, and promptly told the studio that she had no interest in their plans for her. However, several days later, her friend joked with the young blonde about what had been offered to her, and made a bet that she would never have the nerve to go further with the “discovery”. Always game for a laugh, this prompted Harlean to prove her friend wrong, and after driving herself to Central Casting, it was not long before she had signed a contract using her mother’s maiden name, Jean Harlow.
This new and surprising career was entertaining to Jean, who enjoyed a series of bit parts, including an appearance in Double Whoopee with comedians Laurel and Hardy. However, back in Missouri her grandfather saw a photo of Jean in a skimpy outfit and he immediately wrote to show his displeasure and encourage the young woman to give up any dreams she might have of becoming an actress. After all the “nonsense” he had been through with his daughter’s dreams of screen stardom, he did not want to go through it all again with his granddaughter, and was determined to get her back home.
However, while Mother Jean had probably known she was on a failing quest to become famous at her age, Jean was still a young woman and, despite her grandfather’s concerns, she persevered with her career. But with this success came a great deal of stress within her marriage, and it eventually collapsed under great strain from both sides in 1929. Thankfully the sadness at the end of her relationship did not last long when more small roles came her way, including in the 1929 movie The Saturday Night Kid with Clara Bow. Then she scored her biggest break when cast in the Howard Hughes film, Hell’s Angels, which was such a huge success that it catapulted Jean to stardom; she followed this with hits such as The Public Enemy (1931) with James Cagney and Red Dust (1932) with Clark Gable.
However, the headlines she received for Red Dust were not quite what she expected, after the sudden and mysterious death of her second husband of just a few weeks, producer Paul Bern. So scandalous was the marriage and death that a whole separate chapter is dedicated to it in this book (“The Mysterious Death of Paul Bern”). For now, the shadow of scandal that lingered over MGM’s brightest star was almost unbearable.
With Bern’s death so fuelled by rumours, Jean’s career was severely threatened, though quite surprisingly she managed to weather the storm and won a great deal of public sympathy through the way she handled the whole episode. She then went on to star in successful movies such as Bombshell (1933) and Dinner at Eight (1933), though her tricky personal life was always on the verge of scandal and took another tumble when she married and quickly divorced her third husband, cameraman Hal Rosson, in 1933–4.
By this time Jean was gaining a reputation as a serial bride, but it would seem that the end of her marriage to Hal was not the result of anything she had done, but instead the conclusion of a great deal of stirring and continued interference by Mother Jean. Never one to shirk from an overpowering interest in her daughter’s life, the woman had crashed into the couple’s marriage to such a degree that while Hal was said to be deeply in love with his wife, it just was not enough to hold the relationship together.
By 1937 Jean was dating William Powell, the ex-husband of Jean’s friend, the film star Carole Lombard. Carole was known for her raucous behaviour, wild parties and liking for the odd swearword or two. In short, she was the kind of person Jean Harlow was known to play on screen, though away from the camera Jean was quite the opposite: gentle, softly spoken and not regularly known to curse. The relationship Jean had with Powell was not entirely positive for this reason, as it would seem that he mistook the person she played on screen with the person she actually was, and was often known to joke and tease her in the same way he did with Carole. The outgoing Lombard could handle it, but the softer Harlow could not, and she became confused sometimes when his jokes hurt her feelings.
Adding to Jean’s confusion was Powell’s reluctance to marry her, and by spring 1937 she was unsure as to where the relationship was going. When reporters asked if the two would marry, she would always laugh and tell them that after three marriages, she surely would not want to marry again. Privately, however, it would seem that she longed for Powell to take her seriously, make their union official and rescue her from the arms of her controlling mother who she was living with at the time.
Unfortunately for Jean, she would never discover what Powell’s true intentions were as on 29 May 1937, while working on the film Saratoga with Clark Gable, she fell desperately ill. Complaining to crew members, the actress told them, “I don’t know what’s the matter. I feel so ill, I haven’t the strength to hold my hand to remove my make-up.”
Worryingly, the day before she had complained to director Jack Conway that she did not feel quite herself and people began to worry that there was something very wrong with “The Baby”. Earlier that morning, Jean had sat back in the make-up chair and allowed artist Violet Denoyer to attend to her face. “You know, Violet,” the star suddenly said, “I have a feeling I’m going away from here and never coming back.”
“She felt the end was coming,” Denoyer later told reporters.
When it became clear that she was not going to be able to work that day, Jean was sent home to rest. A true professional, she did not go easily, however, and assured crew members that she would return the moment she felt better. She even telephoned the studio in the days ahead to assure them she would be back as soon as possible.
The illness seemed to come on very suddenly, but looking back there had been signs that the actress had not been well for some time. Early in 1937 Jean had attended the presidential inaugural ball in Washington, DC, but on the return journey had become unwell and arrived home suffering from flu. Then in April she was admitted to hospital for treatment on a wisdom tooth, and at the time friends noted that she had recently appeared bloated and her skin was sallow and grey. She was drinking heavily at times, something which worried them, particularly when the alcohol seemed to make her ankles swell quite considerably. Photographers even started to notice dark lines under her eyes that needed to be covered by thick makeup before they could shoot her.
When she left the set of Saratoga on 29 May, Jean did not go immediately home. Mother Jean was out of town, holidaying with friends on Catalina Island, so rather than be on her own, the actress chose to stay at her boyfriend William Powell’s house until she felt better. Unfortunately, over the coming days her condition only worsened, and a concerned Powell phoned her mother in Catalina, who returned to Los Angeles immediately.
Once back in town, Mother Jean hurried to Powell’s house, bundled up her ailing daughter and took her back home to 512 North Palm Drive, where she was put immediately to bed. Being a Christian Scientist who thus did not believe in the reality of disease, Mother Jean initially consulted her religion in an effort to help the situation. When that did not work, she called in Dr Ernest C. Fishbaugh, who examined Jean while she was lying in her bedroom. He was not sure what was wrong; while the actress had the symptoms of a bad cold, he was unable to identify why she had severe pains in her stomach, too.
After tests and further examinations, it was obvious to everyone that Jean was bloated and retaining water, but instead of draining the fluids, Dr Fishbaugh unbelievably insisted on giving Harlow more and more to drink. This decision was to have a hugely detrimental effect on his patient’s ultimate health in the days to come. Indeed, when Clark Gable came to visit her, he was extremely shocked at the sight of his dear friend and said afterwards that it was like conversing with a rotting body; that when he bent down to talk to her, Jean Harlow’s breath smelled of urine. This was definitely not a good sign.
However, for a short while it did look as though Harlow was rallying, and she actually sat up to read a little of her favourite book, Gone with the Wind. Then on 4 June 1937 a news report appeared in the Los Angeles Times that stated she was on the mend and the scare was over. According to reports, Dr Fishbaugh had nursed Jean through a heavy cold but she was very definitely now over the worst.
On the surface this was great news, but the newspapers were quick to point out that when she collapsed, her mother had described her illness as being related to her gall bladder, not a cold. This was true, and her problems in that area were worrying Mother Jean a great deal. When Jean’s condition then began to go downhill fast, she knew it was more than just a severe cold, but being a Christian Scientist, she ignored calls to take her daughter to the hospital.
Mother Jean was the mother of all controlling mothers and if anyone dared say she was doing the wrong thing for Jean, she would ban them from the house. However, although she declared herself a Christian Scientist, she was quite happy for medical staff to continue to work on her daughter at home, and even begged the family doctor Dr Chapman to come and see if he could diagnose exactly what was the problem.
When Dr Chapman finally arrived at North Palm Drive, he was able to identify what was wrong with his patient almost immediately – kidney failure brought on over the years after a childhood bout of scarlet fever. Unhappily for everyone involved, the misdiagnosis and treatment that she had experienced in the days prior to Dr Chapman’s visit meant there was little he could do to save her life. Despite her mother’s reluctance, Jean Harlow was finally transferred to the Good Samaritan Hospital where she was given two blood transfusions and placed in an oxygen tent. Sadly, it would seem that while everyone was still trying desperately to keep the star alive and praying that she would make a miraculous recovery, Jean herself knew it was impossible. When one family member told her to get well soon, the actress shook her head. “I don’t want to,” she replied.
Jean Harlow passed away on 7 June 1937, surrounded by relatives and friends such as Mother Jean, her ex-stepfather Marino Bello (whom her mother had divorced the year before) and the love of her life, William Powell. She was just twenty-six years old.
In the halls of the Good Samaritan Hospital, reporters waited for news, their pens poised over their notebooks whenever anyone went to or from Jean’s room. It was a wait that seemed to go on forever, until finally the door swung open and out ran a distraught William Powell, heading for a nearby room. He did not say anything to reporters, but they knew a grieving man when the saw one and immediately feared the worst.
Finally Dr Fishbaugh came out to break the sad news. “She’s gone,” he told reporters, while inside the room family members tried desperately to come to terms with the hand they had been dealt. Jean’s mother was particularly upset; her baby was gone; her reason for living had disappeared; and she had to be sedated to such an extent that MGM announced it was necessary for them to step in and take over all arrangements for the funeral.
After the news of Harlow’s death became public knowledge, Hollywood was devastated. The press tried to get a statement from co-star Clark Gable but with his last visit to Jean still fresh in his mind, he declared himself too devastated to speak about his friend’s death. However, dozens of other stars, studio heads and crew members queued up to release statements to the press, all anxious to let the world know just how much they would miss her.
Perhaps the longest statement was issued by Jean’s boss at MGM, Louis B. Mayer, who described how this was the end of a personal friendship, and described Jean Harlow as “one of the loveliest, sweetest persons I have known in thirty years of the theatrical business. I have lost a friend. The world has lost a ray of sunlight. She was a delight to handle as a star. She was one of the most charming, thoughtful and reasonable players with whom I have been associated.”
Actress Jeanette MacDonald remembered the actress as a friend: “Jean was my next-door neighbour. Our dressing rooms were right together. I am terribly shocked. She was so sweet, I shall miss her so much.” Her last director, Jack Conway, was shocked beyond compare and stated that the industry had lost a great, unique star; the world had lost laughter, “and I have lost a friend”.
Carole Lombard was deeply saddened and told reporters that her friend was a “vital, sweet and charming girl. We all feel the tragedy of her passing.” The experience of Harlow’s passing and the way she was mourned deeply disturbed Lombard. She insisted that when her time came, Clark Gable should give her a quick, quiet funeral, which he did, just under five years later when she was tragically killed in a plane crash.
But back in 1937, the funeral of MGM’s brightest star was arranged for 9 June at the Wee Kirk o’ the Heather in Forest Lawn Memorial Park. The ceremony was very private, with entrance only allowed to those invited to attend. This did not stop fans mourning, however, and such was the show of public grief that guards and police officers were placed around the chapel, blocking entrances and walkways in order to keep the crowds at bay. People complained that there was so much protection that it was harder to see Jean in death than it had ever been in life, but it fell on deaf ears and the doors remained closed.
One fan, twenty-seven-year-old Henry Conner, was the first to arrive. He told reporters, “I left Riverside yesterday morning and hitch-hiked to Los Angeles. I had to walk twelve miles of the way and slept last night in a Hollywood park . . . I have an autographed photograph of her and honestly, I think she was swell.” Conner was just one example of the people who travelled to Forest Lawn that day and in the end the police turned away a thousand spectators, all of whom had come specifically to have one last look at “The Baby”. “She was a regular on the screen,” cried one fan. “Everyone says she was regular in real life. We wish we could see her – one more time.”
Inside the chapel, Nelson Eddy sang one of Jean’s favourite songs, “Ah Sweet Mystery of Life”, while Jeannette MacDonald performed “Indian Love Call”. Friends and family piled into the building, and many were visibly upset and close to collapse. Jean’s last lover William Powell was helped by a friend and his mother Nettie Powell, while Mother Jean appeared in a dazed state, supported on both sides and clearly devastated. Even Jean’s third husband, Hal Rosson, arrived at the chapel along with his new wife, though the couple shunned photographers and refused to answer reporters’ questions. The funeral was most certainly a Hollywood spectacle, and the pall-bearers included luminaries such as Clark Gable and Louis B. Mayer, while overhead, a low-flying plane scattered rosebuds on to the ground below.
Meanwhile, back at MGM, a minute’s silence took place in order to honour the lost star, though in reality nobody much felt like talking anyway. The level of grief around the studio was unprecedented, the sense of loss profound and the sadness unbearable. Such was the despair around the world that the Hollywood Reporter even painted a picture of the MGM lion carrying a wreath, with his head bowed before a picture of a smiling Harlow.
To this day, over a hundred years since her birth, the girl known as “The Baby” – who never had the chance to fully grow up – is still remembered with fondness and laughter. Due to the sheer volume of fans still celebrating her life through books and fan clubs, it is clear that while her life may have been far too short, her legend will live on forever.