Myrna Loy: The Only Good Girl in Hollywood

473 Pages·2012·5.46 MB·English

by  Emily W. Leider

Myrna Loy

Myrna Loy
The Only Good Girl in Hollywood
Emily W. Leider
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University of California Press Berkeley and Los Angeles, California University of California
Press, Ltd.
London, England
© 2011 by Emily W. Leider Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Leider, Emily
W.
Myrna Loy : the only good girl in Hollywood / Emily W. Leider.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-520-25320-9 (cloth : alk. paper) 1. Loy, Myrna, 1905–1993. 2. Motion
picture actors and actresses—United States—Biography. I. Title.
PN2287.L67L46 2011
791.43′028092—dc22
[B]
2011011571
Manufactured in the United States of America 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
In keeping with a commitment to support environmentally responsible and sustainable printing practices,
UC Press has printed this book on Natures Book, a fiber that contains 30 percent postconsumer waste and
meets the minimum requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992 (R 1997) (Permanence of Paper).
For Rosa and Linus,
a new generation of movie lovers
Contents
List of Plates
Introduction
1. The Climb
2. Not Your Typical Helena Girl
3. Life without Father
4. Enter Myrna Loy
5. Warner Bros.’ Exotic Vixen
6. Breakthrough
7. Cutting the Veil
8. Mr. and Mrs. Thin Man
9. Myrna Loy vs. MGM
10. Mrs. Arthur Hornblow Jr.
11. Wife vs. Mistress
12. Trouble
13. Things Fall Apart
14. Rebound
15. Postwar
16. Breaking Away
17. Mrs. Howland Sargeant
18. New York Ending
Appendix. Myrna Loy’s Film, Television, and Theater Credits
Notes
Bibliography
Acknowledgments
Index
Plates follow page 180
Plates
1. David T. and Ann Williams, paternal grandparents of Myrna Loy.
2. Aunt Lu Wilder, maternal grandmother Isabella Johnson, and Della Johnson
Williams, ca. 1900.
3. Myrna Adele Williams, 1905.
4. The Williams family, 1912: Della, David Jr., seven-year-old Myrna, and
David Sr.
5. Myrna Williams at age fifteen, 1920.
6. Myrna Loy revisits the Williams ranch in Crow Creek Valley, 1940.
7. “Fountain of Education,” Venice High School sculpture by Harry F.
Winebrenner, 1922.
8. Myrna Loy and an unidentified dancer in the Grauman’s Egyptian Theatre
Prologue to The Ten Commandments.
9. The September 1925 issue of Motion Picture introduced Myrna Loy with a
question, “Who is she?”
10. Joan Crawford and Myrna Loy as dancers in Pretty Ladies (MGM, 1925).
11. Myrna Loy the exotic, in a retouched press photograph.
12. Myrna Loy with cast and crew of Don Juan (Warner Bros., 1926).
13. A publicity herald for The Girl from Chicago (Warner Bros., 1927).
14. Tom Wilson, Myrna Loy, and Heinie Conklin in blackface in Ham and Eggs
at the Front (Warner Bros., 1927).
15. Myrna Loy and Conrad Nagel in State Street Sadie (Warner Bros., 1928).
16. Myrna Loy and Anna May Wong in The Crimson City (Warner Bros., 1928).
17. Myrna Loy and Maurice Chevalier in the musical Love Me Tonight
(Paramount, 1932).
18. Myrna Loy and Irene Dunne in Thirteen Women (RKO, 1932).
19. Myrna Loy as Fah Lo See in The Mask of Fu Manchu (MGM, 1932).
20. Warner Baxter, Myrna Loy, and Charles Butterworth play cards during a
break in shooting Penthouse (MGM, 1933) as director Woody Van Dyke
looks on.
21. William Powell, Myrna Loy, and Clark Gable in a publicity still for
Manhattan Melodrama (MGM, 1933).
22. Ad for The Thin Man (MGM, 1934).
23. Nora Charles in a scene that was cut from The Thin Man.
24. George Hurrell shot this portrait of Myrna Loy in 1932, soon after she signed
with MGM.
25. Portrait of Myrna Loy by Ted Allan, 1934.
26. Cary Grant and Myrna Loy confer with Amelia Earhart on the set of Wings
in the Dark (Paramount, 1935).
27. Spencer Tracy and Myrna Loy, costars in Whipsaw (MGM, 1935).
28. Myrna Loy and William Powell being filmed in Escapade (MGM, 1935).
29. Myrna Loy with her stepson, Terry Hornblow, in Beverly Hills, ca. 1937.
30. Jean Harlow, Clark Gable, and Myrna Loy on the set of Wife vs. Secretary
(MGM, 1936).
31. William Powell and Myrna Loy take in a view of the newly completed Bay
Bridge from San Francisco’s Telegraph Hill, 1936.
32. Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Hornblow Jr. outside their custom-built home on
Hidden Valley Road in Beverly Hills, ca. 1937.
33. Arthur Hornblow Jr. flanked by Myrna Loy and Claudette Colbert at
Paramount, 1939.
34. Della Williams, Aunt Lu Wilder, David (Myrna’s brother), Myrna Loy, and
Arthur Hornblow Jr. at the train station, 1940.
35. The cover of Hollywood shows Tyrone Power as Major Safti and Myrna Loy
as Lady Esketh in The Rains Came (20th Century–Fox, 1939).
36. William Powell in drag and Myrna Loy playing along in Love Crazy (MGM,
1941).
37. Myrna Loy in her Bundles for Bluejackets uniform, 1942.