She was only A-list for a short period of time, but as soon as this actress and sex symbol's popularity waned she fled from the spotlight and was seemingly missing in action for several decades. That is until a reporter in NYC was tipped off that she was working as a bartender in a gay club in Greenwich Village for minimum wage. Turns out she was going by her actual name and the club owners had no idea that they had a former celebrity in their employ. When the reporters ventured down to the club they saw her and she was completely unrecognizable: she had gained a tremendous amount of weight, had yellowed teeth from smoking cigarettes and was wearing her hair in a librarian style bun. They couldn't believe that this was the same person, but it was.
To be continued.
Veronica Lake.
ReplyDeleteno.clue
ReplyDeletehttp://www.nationalenquirer.com/celebrity/veronica-lake-sad-tragic-fate
ReplyDeleteCan't make it click. According to this story, she used an alias.
According to wikipedia guessing's answer is correct, however the BI isn't written correctly.
ReplyDeleteI thought the Veronica Lake thing was public knowledge. Why would it be a blind item? It wasn't in The Village, either. Very famous story.
ReplyDeleteIt is a famous story. I only know the one the stories everyone else already knows!
ReplyDeleteNaaaw @ Guessing-everybody does NOT know this story- Great guess-and I'm now going to read up on it more thanks to you..made me curious. : )
ReplyDeleteLake pissed off everyone on HW by being such a bitch, even her own kids didn't have anything to do with her. She became a drunk in NYC.
ReplyDeleteI think she had mental problems even before she became famous.
ReplyDeleteIndeed-I didnt know and am now curious too! I just remember her being "it girl for a minute and the hair over one eye style"...then gone. Now we know why:(
ReplyDeleteThanks! I know this story because I became a little obsessed with her after watching Sullivan's Travels. I think I probably read it in wikipedia!
ReplyDeleteLake suffered from mental illness. Self medicated with drink.
ReplyDeleteHa! One of my FAVORITE stories--They need to do a Preston Sturges Special...underappreciated now imo.
ReplyDeleteShe didn't look terrible in the pics i just saw of her taken in the 70s.Not many options for her back then but to self medicate.Her bio says her parents pushed her toward acting to hopefully help her schitzophrenia.sad story.
ReplyDeleteYeah, Veronica Lake, and it is public knowledge. She was found by a reporter, who announced her situation to the world. This isn't a blind item.
ReplyDeleteLake worked as a barmaid in the Martha Washington Hotel, an all-women residential hotel in the East 30's, not a gay bar, and not in Greenwich Village.
ReplyDeleteIt sounds more like she used the name that was probably on her drivers license. Veronica Lake wasn't her name.
ReplyDeleteStory here is 'mostly' true, but not entirely. Yes, Lake (that was her stage name) did die penniless; she had a history of mental illness and alcoholism.
ReplyDeleteOf course a 47 year old Lake with short hair, isn't going to look the same as a 21 year Hollywood sex symbol with long hair! But I'd say she didn't look "bad" for a 50 year old woman, let alone "unrecognizable". Here are some pictures of her in 1970, only three years before her death at age 50:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/greenman2008/6308391496
http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/american-actress-veronica-lake-circa-1970-news-photo/71254935
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