Old Hollywood Blind Item
This Golden Globe winning actress was A+++ list. She was primarily known for television and comedy and for a very distinctive voice. Prior to hitting it big though, our actress made ends meet not in the odd jobs she always claimed in her authorized biographies, but turning tricks. Supposedly it is also how she met her future husband.
Lucille Ball?
ReplyDeleteStreisand?
ReplyDeleteWhoopsie, didn't catch the TV part...
ReplyDeleteCandice Bergen?
ReplyDeleteLucy had a movie career long before television.
ReplyDeleteBea Arthur - Who is still the coolest deep voiced lady ever !!!
ReplyDeletesuzanne pleshette
ReplyDeleteJean Stapleton?
ReplyDeleteSuzanne Pleshette wasn't A, much less A+++ Did she win a golden globe?
ReplyDeleteThis has to be someone big.
I was thinking Bea Arthur too, but don't know her marital history.
ReplyDeleteMary Tyler Moore has to have been A list at the least. She has a distinctive voice.
ReplyDeleteI like the Lucille Ball guess. She was in movies before her TV show, but mostly bit parts or b movies. Might have needed the extra dough.
ReplyDeleteI was thinking Judy Holliday, but she also won an Oscar for Born Yesterday (in addition to the GG), so I'm not so sure - I would think he would mention that... She did do a little TV, though, but I wouldn't necessarily lump that in with "what's she's known for." If it had said "stage and comedy"....
ReplyDeleteCarol Burnett
ReplyDeleteIt's definitely Lucille Ball. I've read this about her before.
ReplyDelete@MISCH - but the item simply says she is primarily known for TV & comedy. LB still fits.
ReplyDeleteMarlo Thomas...has a GG and a couple of Emmy's
ReplyDeleteI like the Lucille Ball guess.
ReplyDeleteFran Drescher?
ReplyDeleteTwo emmys and two GGs.
Very distinctive voice.
@Liz
ReplyDeleteDrescher and her ex-husband met in school and were high school sweethearts.
I guess that could be a lie, but I don't think it's likely given how easily that can be disproved.
With three pluses after the 'A'? It's Lucille Ball, natch.
ReplyDeleteThis says old Hollywood. Drescher is out.
ReplyDeleteExcept...
ReplyDeleteLucille Ball was nominated seven times for a Golden Globe award but never won.
She did win an Emmy (only one!) but was that worth mentioning?
She was born in 1911, was signed by RKO in her early twenties then moved upward to M-G-M in the very early forties... after meeting Desi Arnaz in (I think) 1940 while they were in Too Many Girls.
I don't think Miss Ball was a prostitute while under contract to RKO. Do you?
I say Bea Arthur.
ReplyDeleteLucy- essplains why Desi's infidelities were no big deal when she met him she was a HOOKER~~SEE CHARLIES EXES TOO!
ReplyDelete@chimezatmidnight
ReplyDeleteShe won in 1956 for TV show and received the Cecil B. DeMille in 1979.
Well, Bea Arthur had two remarkable husbands.
ReplyDeleteShe met her first one when they were both in the U.S. Marines. Who was he? The excellent writer/producer Robert Alan Aurthur whose last work was Fosse's All That Jazz... and, yeah, he died before the working model for Joe Gideon did.
She met her second husband when they were both working steadily off-Broadway. Who was he? Gene Saks, longtime accomplice/partner of Neil Simon and whose direction of Arthur transformed her to a star in Mame. His film work was mainly work he had directed on stage -- and you may remember seeing him as the TV kiddie "star" in A Thousand Clowns.
Given Arthur's discipline and her dedication to her career (even while dying), along with her work history at the time she met her husbands, how likely is it she met one of those husbands that way?
What about Cher? Won a GG for "Mask" better known for TV ("Sonny & Cher" show) and comedy ("Moonstruck). Certainly has a distinctive voice.
ReplyDeleteWould certainly make sense re: how she met Sonny?
Carol Burnett for the Win....!
ReplyDeleteAccording to the Hollywood Foreign Press Association website, the golden globes began awarding television programming in 1955. They began by awarding shows, not individual performances. One of the first years' honorees was listed as "Lucy & Desi". I Love Lucy ran from 1951 to 1957. A bit confusing.
ReplyDeleteWiki lists individual performances awarded starting in the 1960's with Carol Burnett winning multiple times from 1969 through the 1970's.
Both ladies can be said to have distinctive voices and are both considered A+++.
They both come from poor backgrounds, Lucy was the breadwinner for her family at a young age, her father left the family. She supported both her mother and brother. She was a struggling B movie actress for years.
Carol Burnett was raised by her grandmother in Hollywood boarding house. Both her parents were alcoholics and she had a very difficult childhood. She also helped raise her younger sister. Her career started in the 1950's in New York with bit parts on Broadway and on TV.
This blind could fit either of them.
Betty White obviously
ReplyDeleteWhat's wrong with the Mary Tyler Moore guess?
ReplyDeleteI'm going waaaaaay back. Gracie Allen?
ReplyDeleteThe husband being George Burns.
ReplyDelete@B626: Yeah, and Desi definitely had some "essplainin" to do!
ReplyDeleteDespite her early movie career, most people remember Lucille Ball from her television show. But given the circumstances of their upbringings, I could see this as LB or CB, PRIOR TO hitting it big.
I like the Luci or Carol guess. I was also on the Fran bandwagon, but she is not old Hollywood.
ReplyDeletePhyllis Diller...maybe she had a specialty act!
ReplyDeleteI would be so upset if poor LB started out that way. I know she worked extemely hard at her act with Desi.
ReplyDeleteoooh I like the Cher guess, especially with how she may have met Sonny.
ReplyDeleteCarol Channing. Distinctive voice and definitely OLD Hollywood.
ReplyDeleteForgot to add...3 Tonys, 1 Golden Globe, and 1 Oscar nomination. Whose voice is really more distinctive than hers? (other than Fran Drescher).
ReplyDeleteRosalind Russell?
ReplyDeleteShirley Booth??
ReplyDeleteLucy doesn't have a distinct voice. She was also a dancer or something. She met Desi and married him throught he business, not being a prostitute. Carol Channing has an incredibly distinctive voice. It think it's her.
ReplyDeleteLiking the Carol Channing guess.
ReplyDeleteOLD hollywood. that does NOT include people like mary tyler moore or fran drescher or cher.
ReplyDeleteyou kids!! :)
Lucy has a distinct voice to me. I would recognize it without seeing her. I'm not sure it's her, but it's a possibility.
ReplyDeleteCarol Channing isn't A+++, despite being featured on the Love Boat a few times. ;-) She also comes from a wealthy family, so it's doubtful she would have to prostitute herself.
Who was her family? Wiki link just says "she worked for her mother" without saying where or how. Three tony's and being the original "Hello, Dolly" seem pretty A+++ to me.
ReplyDeleteMaybe A+ for broadway. Maybe. Not television.
ReplyDeleteShe was the daughter of a newpaper editor and went to expensive schools, according to IMDB.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteElaine STritch?
ReplyDeleteThe clue was Old HOllywood?
Stritchie's done more Broadway than
anything, but she does show up
on TV (30 Rock), and lots of films.
And she has that voice that'll take
paint off walls...
Totally with the Lucille Ball guess.
ReplyDeleteCarol Burnett
ReplyDeleteLoooocyyy!
ReplyDeleteI paid Lucy, not exactly the same ring to it.
ReplyDeleteI'm with the Mary Tyler Moore guess.
ReplyDeleteGo back and read the blind. It refers to her only in the past tense so I that rules out anyone living.
ReplyDeleteAlso how many had "authorized biographies" plural?
ReplyDeleteThose three pluses at the end of the A ranking sealed the deal for me: it's Lucy. Name one woman (besides Oprah) who's made *as big* an impact on television. There are plenty of top-tier actresses, but I say Lucy is the Queen of Old T.V. She pioneered the way for ladies like Bea (can't see her hooking at all, BTW). And LB's voice really IS distinctive -- shrill and gravelly and high-pitched all at once.
ReplyDeleteOf course, I also adore her and don't *really* want this to be her, but I can totally see it.
chimezatmidnight wrote above that Lucy never won a GG, so this would appear to exclude her. Anyone?
ReplyDeleteIn 1979, Lucy won the Golden Globe's Cecil B. DeMille Award.
ReplyDeletechimezatmidnight FTW!!!
ReplyDeleteprostitution is a market for all kinds of females.
I'm back after researching...
ReplyDeleteOld HOllywood 'voicey winners:
Merceded McCambridge (voice!)
Bette Davis
Judy HOlliday
Thelma Ritter
Shirley Booth
Ethel Merman (voice!)
Peggy Cass
Lotte Lenya
Agnes Moorhead
But my winner is:
Goldie Hawn!
I regret to admit Elaine STritch never won a Golden Globe!
But she should've!
Also thought Bea Arthur! That voice, the mannerism very particular to her, and she held a lot of avant-garde/feminist tv roles. Still watch the Golden Girls, and find it hilarious, and still oh so true, even in 2011.
ReplyDeleteThanks caralw! In that case, Lucy!
ReplyDeleteI don't know if she ever won a Golden Globe, but it sounds like it could be Gracie Allen? I hope not, though, considering my daughter is named after her. That would make all 3 of my kids being named after...... questionable subjects. My son Hunter is named after Dr. Thompson. That was all my husband. My other son is named after a little boy who died in my favorite book, The World According To Garp. And my daughter Gracie, who I thought was named after a pure and innocent soul with the voice of a baby angel, might be named after a prostitute. OH!!!! The shame......
ReplyDeleteSince the blind says how she met her future husband, doesn't that mean she is still alive?
ReplyDeleteEve Arden?
ReplyDeleteRoseanne Barr and I didn't know it was blind...I think she admitted it in a book or interview.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeletehttp://movies.yahoo.com/movie/contributor/1800018693/bio
ReplyDeletethis is lucille ball......
ReplyDeleteJust came here to back up Jinxie on Eve Arden. Nothing on Wiki about awards, but she was all over TV in the 50s......and there's never been another voice like that one.
ReplyDeletelucille ball was a notorious party girl and "dancer". she turned tricks when she needed the extra money....
ReplyDeleteI didnt think the contracts with studios paid very much especially to the younger stars? I thought I've read many a complaint about how much they made in the beginning, and hell wasnt that the reason for the lawsuits against them?
ReplyDeleteHonestly haven't a clue, but based on the comments above, gotta go with Lucy. I think, in her case, regardless of awards she has or hasnt won, she A+++ all the way.
Agnes Moorehead is a possibility. Per Wiki: Moorehead's early career was unsteady, and although she was able to find stage work she was often unemployed and forced to go hungry. She later recalled going four days without food, and said that it had taught her "the value of a dollar." She found work in radio and was soon in demand, often working on several programs in a single day. She believed that it offered her excellent training and allowed her to develop her voice to create a variety of characterizations. Moorehead met the actress Helen Hayes who encouraged her to try to enter films, but her first attempts were met with failure. Rejected as not being "the right type", Moorehead returned to radio.
ReplyDeleteAgnes Moorehead was a lesbian..
ReplyDeleteI don't want this to be Lucy, but I suppose it's possible. One thing: Bea Arthur did mentioned she'd been (mistakenly) arrested as a B-girl (1940's-50's for hooker) in a police bar sweep in Greenwich Village. Could that be where this story came from? Trouble is, she had a substantial Broadway career aside from TV -- and Lucy's the only +++ in the TV business, IMHO. Poor girl.
ReplyDeleteNo way it's Lucy.
ReplyDeleteShe was known as the "Queen of the B's" before TV, although she is primarily known for her TV work.
If we're going with distinctive voices however, there's Tallulah Bankhead - but she was known primarily for Broadway and movies, with her TV work coming at the end of her career.
Lucy married only twice - first to Desi, who she met on set in "Too Many Girls" - her second husband was Gary Morton, who survived her by 10 years.
Beyond that, I got nothing.
Maybe it is Gracie Allen? She definitely had a distinctive voice, and she married George Burns.
ReplyDeleteI find it hard to believe it was Gracie Allen. She was a devout Catholic.
ReplyDeleteCarol Burnett? Surely not, but she has a pretty distinctive voice.
ReplyDeleteNot that I think it is her, but I would consider Carol Burnett A+++ and she has won several Golden Globes. But I don't consider CB "Old Hollywood" like I would Lucille Ball or someone from that time frame.
ReplyDeleteIMDB also shows LB winning a Golden Globe in 1956, so that would be two(one honorary). Someone mentioned that earlier...
ReplyDeleteRoseanne Barr. I'm with Camigoblu.
ReplyDeleteRoseanne Bar may have turned tricks (dunno) and won a Golden Globe, but in no way is she old hollywood. Her show was popular in the 90s.
ReplyDeleteI had originally thought Carol Channing, but Carol Channing is currently married to her Jr. highschool sweetheart who she married in 2003. I'm sure she wasn't turning tricks at the age of 12 or 13 when she met him. I guess I'm going to have to go with Lucy...but was she already discovered before meeting Desi?
ReplyDeleteMichelle Pfeiffer. This has been rumored for years...
ReplyDeleteSelma Diamond
ReplyDeleteBea Arthur was a Marine and denied it. Very interesting story there!
ReplyDeleteGoldie Hawn. TV, comedy, won Golden Globe for 'Cactus Flower' and you can't mistake her voice.
ReplyDeleteNot sure she was primarily known for TV...
LOL at the Jean Stapleton guess. That cracked me up!
ReplyDeleteGotta be Lucille Ball.
ReplyDeleteVery, very few A+++ women from television in the golden age "Old Hollywood Blind" era. There's Lucy, Eve Arden and Dinah Shore for A+++ dead women primarily known for television with distinctive voices. There were lots of "A"-list women, such as Jane Wyatt, Imogene Coco and Gracie Allen, who co-starred in comedic shows, but few headliners, which I think this person has got to be to merit that A+++.
Dinah Shore was amusing on her variety show, but hardly what you'd call comedic. So, it's Eve Arden or Lucille Ball.
Eve Arden had early success in Hollywood, starting with her first film in 1929, when she was 21 but maybe she had some rough teenage years and Wiki say she was insecure in her early years because her mother was so beautiful. Maybe she turned to prostitution because of low self-esteem.
As for Lucy, Wiki says she dated a gangster in the late '20s in New York. That's pretty shady. How many young women meet gangsters, let alone date them? Hmmmm. Maybe she kept "hooking" through the early years in Hollywood and that's how she met Desi, a known whore-monger (!!!), and not on the set of "Too Many Girls," as is commonly believed.
That's my guess, anyway. It's Lucy!
It was Lucille Ball, no questions asked. My mother talked about it (she was in the know, let's say). She wasn't a "prostitute" in the street walker sense...she was an "escort", which means the date may or may not have ended with sex, but it certainly ended with a payment.
ReplyDeleteLucille Ball for the win.
ReplyDelete