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.
95 comments:
Lucille Ball?
Streisand?
Whoopsie, didn't catch the TV part...
Candice Bergen?
Lucy had a movie career long before television.
Bea Arthur - Who is still the coolest deep voiced lady ever !!!
suzanne pleshette
Jean Stapleton?
Suzanne Pleshette wasn't A, much less A+++ Did she win a golden globe?
This has to be someone big.
I was thinking Bea Arthur too, but don't know her marital history.
Mary Tyler Moore has to have been A list at the least. She has a distinctive voice.
I 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.
I 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"....
Carol Burnett
It's definitely Lucille Ball. I've read this about her before.
@MISCH - but the item simply says she is primarily known for TV & comedy. LB still fits.
Marlo Thomas...has a GG and a couple of Emmy's
I like the Lucille Ball guess.
Fran Drescher?
Two emmys and two GGs.
Very distinctive voice.
@Liz
Drescher 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.
This says old Hollywood. Drescher is out.
Except...
Lucille 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.
Lucy- essplains why Desi's infidelities were no big deal when she met him she was a HOOKER~~SEE CHARLIES EXES TOO!
@chimezatmidnight
She won in 1956 for TV show and received the Cecil B. DeMille in 1979.
Well, Bea Arthur had two remarkable husbands.
She 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.
Would certainly make sense re: how she met Sonny?
Carol Burnett for the Win....!
According 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.
Wiki 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
What's wrong with the Mary Tyler Moore guess?
I'm going waaaaaay back. Gracie Allen?
The husband being George Burns.
@B626: Yeah, and Desi definitely had some "essplainin" to do!
Despite 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.
Phyllis Diller...maybe she had a specialty act!
I would be so upset if poor LB started out that way. I know she worked extemely hard at her act with Desi.
oooh I like the Cher guess, especially with how she may have met Sonny.
Carol Channing. Distinctive voice and definitely OLD Hollywood.
Forgot to add...3 Tonys, 1 Golden Globe, and 1 Oscar nomination. Whose voice is really more distinctive than hers? (other than Fran Drescher).
Rosalind Russell?
Shirley Booth??
Lucy 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.
Liking the Carol Channing guess.
OLD hollywood. that does NOT include people like mary tyler moore or fran drescher or cher.
you 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.
Carol 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.
Maybe A+ for broadway. Maybe. Not television.
She was the daughter of a newpaper editor and went to expensive schools, according to IMDB.
Elaine STritch?
The 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.
Carol Burnett
Loooocyyy!
I paid Lucy, not exactly the same ring to it.
I'm with the Mary Tyler Moore guess.
Go back and read the blind. It refers to her only in the past tense so I that rules out anyone living.
Also how many had "authorized biographies" plural?
Those 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.
Of 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?
In 1979, Lucy won the Golden Globe's Cecil B. DeMille Award.
chimezatmidnight FTW!!!
prostitution is a market for all kinds of females.
I'm back after researching...
Old 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.
Thanks caralw! In that case, Lucy!
I 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......
Since the blind says how she met her future husband, doesn't that mean she is still alive?
Eve Arden?
Roseanne Barr and I didn't know it was blind...I think she admitted it in a book or interview.
http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/contributor/1800018693/bio
this is lucille ball......
Just 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.
lucille ball was a notorious party girl and "dancer". she turned tricks when she needed the extra money....
I 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?
Honestly 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.
Agnes Moorehead was a lesbian..
I 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.
No way it's Lucy.
She 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.
I find it hard to believe it was Gracie Allen. She was a devout Catholic.
Carol Burnett? Surely not, but she has a pretty distinctive voice.
Not 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.
IMDB also shows LB winning a Golden Globe in 1956, so that would be two(one honorary). Someone mentioned that earlier...
Roseanne Barr. I'm with Camigoblu.
Roseanne 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.
I 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?
Michelle Pfeiffer. This has been rumored for years...
Selma Diamond
Bea Arthur was a Marine and denied it. Very interesting story there!
Goldie Hawn. TV, comedy, won Golden Globe for 'Cactus Flower' and you can't mistake her voice.
Not sure she was primarily known for TV...
LOL at the Jean Stapleton guess. That cracked me up!
Gotta be Lucille Ball.
Very, 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.
Lucille Ball for the win.
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