Lane Sisters
Encyclopedia
The Lane Sisters refers to a group of sisters, three of whom achieved success in the 1920s and 1930s as a singing act, with their popularity onstage leading to a series of successful films. A fourth sister was not successful and left this milieu and a fifth avoided show business altogether. Priscilla Lane enjoyed the most prominent movie career.
, but the family moved in 1907 to Indianola, Iowa
, a small college town south of Des Moines
. Here Dr. Mullican had a dental practice. The Mullicans owned a large house with 22 rooms, some of which they rented out to students attending nearby Simpson College
.
Before marrying, Cora Mullican had been a reporter with a local newspaper in Macy, and she had originally harbored acting ambitions. In this, she was frustrated by the strict religious beliefs of her Methodist
parents who frowned on any form of public entertainment.
Cora encouraged her daughters to sing and play musical instruments. All the girls were fond of music, and at one time or another studied music in night classes at Simpson College in Indianola. Dorothy was already playing piano at age twelve for a silent screen movie house.
Leota was the first to leave home to pursue a musical career in New York
in the mid-1920s. In 1928 Dorothy followed Leota to New York. The girls shared an apartment and made the theatrical rounds. They eventually obtained parts in a Gus Edwards
show, Greenwich Village Follies. It was Edwards who changed their names to Lane, and consequently Dorothy became Lola Lane. Martha, meanwhile, eloped with a college professor and moved to Des Moines. She had no interest in show business. She had a child, later divorced, and became a medical secretary.
Leota and Lola both made their Broadway
debuts in the late twenties, Lola in 1928, as Sally Moss in The War Song, which opened on Broadway on August 24, 1928, at the Nederlander Theatre
(then known as the National Theatre) and Leota in 1929 as Contrary Mary in Babes in Toyland
, which opened on December 23, 1929 at Jolson's 59th Street Theatre. The War Song closed four months into its run and Lola went to Hollywood where she made her debut starring as Alice Woods alongside Paul Page in the drama Speakeasy (1929). She was soon teamed with Page again in the film The Girl from Havana (1929) as Joan Anders. Meanwhile Babes in Toyland closed after only thirty-two performances. Leota followed her sister to Hollywood where she made her only screen appearance in a comedy short directed by Roscoe Fatty Arbuckle called Three Hollywood Girls (1931). She soon returned to New York. Dr. Mullican strenuously objected to his younger daughters following theatrical careers, but Cora was determined.
Rosemary and Priscilla travelled to Des Moines every weekend to study dancing with Rose Lorenz. The girls made their first professional appearance September 30, 1930, at Des Moines' Paramount Theater. Rosemary, then 17, and Priscilla, 15, performed on stage as part of the entertainment accompanying the release of Lola's Hollywood movie, Good News. Rosemary, a member of the National Honor Society, graduated from Indianola High in 1931 and attended Simpson College for a while, playing on the freshman basketball team.
After graduating from high school, Priscilla was permitted to travel to New York to visit Leota who was then appearing in a musical revue in Manhattan. Priscilla decided to enroll at the nearby Fagen School of Dramatics and Leota paid the fee. At this time talent agent Al Altman saw Priscilla performing in one of Fagen's school plays and invited her to screentest for MGM. She was 16 years old. Priscilla wrote to a friend in Indianola, "Leota accompanied me to a sort of theater in a New York skyscraper. Others were there being made up. One was a strange looking girl with her hair slicked back in a sort of a bun. Her name is said to be Catherine [sic] Hepburn
. Not very pretty, I thought, but Mr. Altman said she has something. Margaret Sullavan
, the Broadway actress, was there too!" A follow-up letter said that her test had proven unsuitable. Neither Hepburn nor Sullavan were approved, and neither received a contract from MGM at the time.
In the meantime, Cora had left her husband and in 1932, accompanied by Rosemary, arrived in New York. Cora immediately went to work pushing her two young daughters into attending auditions for various prospective Broadway productions, without success. It was while the girls were trying out numbers at a music publishing office that Fred Waring
, an orchestra leader, heard them harmonizing. He found them attractive and individually talented. In early 1933 with Cora's approval they were signed to a contract with Waring. Cora acted as chaperone to Rosemary and Priscilla who at this time adopted the name Lane.
Fred Waring not only toured with his band, known as "The Pennsylvanians", but had a weekly radio show. Priscilla quickly became known as the comedienne of the group. Rosemary sang the ballads while Priscilla performed the swing numbers and wisecracked with Waring and various guests. Dr. Mullican instituted divorce proceedings against his wife on the grounds of desertion, and the divorce was granted in 1933.
Rosemary and Priscilla remained with Fred Waring for almost five years. In 1937, Waring was engaged by Warner Bros.
in Hollywood to appear with his entire band in Varsity Show, a musical starring Dick Powell
. Both Rosemary and Priscilla were tested and awarded feature roles in the film. Rosemary shared the romantic passages with Powell, while Priscilla was a high-spirited college girl.
Although Lola had been in Hollywood since 1929, she had twice retired from the screen for marriage. Now she had made a comeback. She was second lead to Bette Davis
in the melodrama
, Marked Woman
, and won critical acclaim. Lola played the part of Gaby, a tough clip joint "hostess". Warners awarded her a contract in 1937 and her looks suited the hard-edged roles she found at Warners.
Warner's purchased Priscilla and Rosemary's contract from Fred Waring and signed them to seven-year pacts. Priscilla's first film after Varsity Show was Men are Such Fools, in which she was starred opposite Wayne Morris. This was followed by Love Honor and Behave, another light romantic comedy again with Morris and Cowboy From Brooklyn again teaming with Dick Powell
. The publicity department at the studio suggested that Priscilla and Morris be seen together around town; they liked each other and did date for a period; however, Priscilla later said it was never serious on either side. Rosemary's first film after Varsity Show was the musical Hollywood Hotel, in which she co-starred with sister Lola and former co-star Dick Powell, before starring in Gold Diggers in Paris
, opposite Rudy Vallee
.
Priscilla was next assigned the lead in Brother Rat
, which had been a very successful Broadway play. Again she played opposite Wayne Morris, and among the cast were such newcomers as Ronald Reagan
, Jane Wyman
, Jane Bryan
, and Eddie Albert
. The film, when released in October 1938, was a big success for all the young players. At this time of professional success, the sisters were informed that Dr. Mullican had died in Iowa.
had purchased a story by Fannie Hurst
titled Sister Act and planned to star Errol Flynn
in the film, along with four actresses. Flynn, however, was withdrawn from the project to star in The Adventures of Robin Hood
. The script for Sister Act was then rewritten to place the emphasis on the four girls. Bette Davis
was to be the star, but she refused the role. Lola, always enterprising, approached Jack Warner
with the suggestion she and her sisters star in the film. Warner agreed, and Leota was summoned from New York to test for the part of Emma, but proved unsuitable. The studio substituted Gale Page, a young contractee as the fourth daughter. The actress would be tagged for the rest of her career as the fourth Lane. When the film, now titled Four Daughters
, was released on September 24, 1938, it proved to be a big hit and was nominated for four Academy Awards
, including Best Picture. It was followed by two sequels, Four Wives
in 1939 and Four Mothers
in 1941, again starring the Lanes and Gale Page. Leota played Emma in the Lux Radio Theater
version of the film heard on the evening of December 18, 1939.
Priscilla's next assignment was Yes, My Darling Daughter
, adapted from a successful play. The story concerned a girl, the daughter of a feminist and one time suffragette, who decides to spend a weekend alone with her fiancee, played by Jeffrey Lynn
. The premise of the film in which an unmarried couple spent a weekend together unchaperoned was roundly criticized and was banned in some parts of the United States. The publicity, however, piqued public curiosity, and the film became a box office hit. Priscilla received praise for her vivacious performance, as did Lynn playing the boy friend. The supporting cast included Roland Young
, Fay Bainter
, May Robson
, Genevieve Tobin
, and Ian Hunter
.
Upon completion of this film Warners sent Priscilla, Rosemary, Errol Flynn
, and Ann Sheridan
among others on a personal appearance tour in conjunction with the release of Flynn's first western Dodge City
. Priscilla enjoyed the experience and the chance to travel through the country.
Returning to Hollywood, another story was prepared to feature the four daughters, Daughters Courageous
, which co-starred John Garfield
who had also co-starred in both Four Daughters and Four Wives. Although the story was different, it also covered the lives and loves of four sisters, and proved to be another hit with the public.
Priscilla was again cast with John Garfield in Dust Be My Destiny
, a melodrama of prison life. She played the sympathetic stepdaughter of a brutal prison foreman, played by Stanley Ridges
. She falls in love with convict Garfield. The original ending of the film had the young lovers dying as fugitives from justice. Audience reaction at previews was so negative that the studio withdrew the film and reshot a happy ending. Variety wrote, "She is completely sincere throughout with several dramatic scenes rising far above the material provided." Rosemary Lane was also teamed with Garfield in Blackwell's Island (1939), however this was not a success.
Priscilla attained full co-starring status in her next film, The Roaring Twenties
and was billed above the title along with James Cagney
. A major box office hit, Priscilla was shown to advantage as a night club singer, who marries lawyer Jeffrey Lynn
, but is lusted after by gangster Cagney. She sang "It Had to Be You", "Melancholy Baby", and "I’m Just Wild About Harry".
At this point, Priscilla was earning $750 a week, a fantastic salary for the Depression era, but puny compared to the salaries of other studio stars. She demanded an increase. She felt the plot of her next movie, Money and the Woman was sordid and refused to report for work. Her agent explained, "The role is not one she should be asked to do." She was replaced by Brenda Marshall
.
Priscilla was next assigned the lead in My Love Came Back, a romantic story involving a female violinist. Again, Priscilla refused the part, so a furious Jack Warner suspended her. Olivia de Havilland
, although equally reluctant to do the film, eventually agreed.
Rosemary earned good reviews for 1940's The Boys from Syracuse, based on Rodgers and Hart
's Broadway hit of 1938. The next year she made an unusual move for a film actress of her era by becoming a Broadway star in the musical Best Foot Forward
, as Gale Joy, which opened on Broadway at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre
on October 1, 1941. It closed after 326 performances on the fourth of July 1942. However she lost the subsequent movie role to Lucille Ball
. Good movie roles dwindled and Rosemary closed out her film career in 1945 with Sing Me a Song of Texas, as nightclub singer Laurie Lang, the niece of a wealthy Texas rancher. She began a career selling real estate from an office in Pacific Palisades
.
After winning her raise, Priscilla returned to work, but the films assigned to her were no better than those she had turned down. Brother Rat and a Baby
was an inferior sequel and Three Cheers For the Irish gave her little to do.
The British Picturegoer
magazine, always a supporter of the Lane Sisters, stated that all was not right with Priscilla Lane. In its June 15, 1940 issue, they wondered why "Priscilla was still knocking at the door of major stardom". They felt Warner Bros. was casting her as stooge to such actors as John Garfield
and James Cagney
. They went on to say Priscilla had great charm and while not a really great dramatic actress, deserved much larger and more important roles than she was getting. The same magazine, two years later on August 22, 1942, referred to their 1940 article and once again expressed disappointment at Warners' treatment of the star. They were unaware that she had already left the studio.
On April 28, 1941, she was heard on Lux Radio Theater
with George Brent
and Gail Patrick
in Wife, Husband and Friend. At Warner Bros. she appeared opposite Ronald Reagan
in a light hearted comedy, Million Dollar Baby
and as a night club singer in Blues in the Night
.
Frank Capra
requested her for the lead opposite Cary Grant
in Arsenic and Old Lace
. The hit comedy film was completed in early 1942, but was not released until 1944, held up by contractual agreement not to distribute the film until the play's long Broadway run was over. It was Priscilla's last Warner film. Her contract was terminated by mutual agreement after five years with the studio.
She freelanced next, signing a one-picture deal with Universal Studios
where she starred with Robert Cummings
in Alfred Hitchcock
's Saboteur
(1942). The director did not want either Cummings or Priscilla in the film. In Priscilla's case, Hitchcock felt she was too much the girl next door. Universal insisted that they play the leads, and when the film was released, Priscilla's acting was praised while some criticism was focused on Hitchcock for reworking so much from his earlier films into this wartime spy drama.
Priscilla had commitments for two more films. The first was Silver Queens for producer Harry Sherman in which she was co-starred with George Brent
. She played the owner of a gambling house in 1870s San Francisco. The other film was a Jack Benny
comedy, The Meanest Man in the World, released in January 1943. Priscilla then retired from films. For the duration of the war, she followed her husband across America as he moved from one military base to another. She was generous with her talents and often performed at camp shows.
While living in Van Nuys
, Priscilla was offered and accepted the leading role in Fun on a Weekend for producer–director Andrew Stone
, co-starring Eddie Bracken
. When the film was released in 1947, Variety opined, "Miss Lane, who's been absent from films for some time, gives a good enough performance which should ensure her work in more pictures." However, Priscilla returned to domestic life. Once again she and her husband moved, this time to Studio City
.
In 1948 Priscilla accepted the offer of the lead role opposite Lawrence Tierney
in a film noir
, Bodyguard
, starring as Doris Brewster. During an interview with a Hollywood correspondent, she stated, "I didn't realize how much I miss filming until I came back. I love this work, and I hope to make many, many more pictures." Bodyguard would be her last picture. An expected contract with RKO Studios did not come to pass.
In January 1951, Cora Mullican died at the San Fernando Valley
home her daughters had bought for her years earlier. Priscilla returned to show business briefly in 1958 with her own show on a local television station broadcasting from Boston. Titled The Priscilla Lane Show, she chatted and interviewed celebrities visiting the area. She enjoyed the television experience, but family demands proved too much, and she gave up after a year.
Lola was married five times, but bore no children. She was first married to actor Lew Ayres
in September 1931. They subsequently divorced in January 1933. She then married director Alexander Hall
in 1934. They divorced in December 1936. Her next marriage was to Henry Clay Dunham in January 1941. They divorced in October, 1945.
She then married Roland West
in 1946.. He was a producer, director and screenwriter, but was best known for being a suspect in the 1935 death of his girlfriend, actress Thelma Todd
. Neighbors heard them quarreling the night before she was found in her garage, overcome by carbon monoxide poisoning. Though a suspect, he was never arrested. West and Lola remained married until his death on March 31, 1952 from heart disease. On his deathbed he allegedly confessed murdering Thelma Todd, to good friend and actor Chester Morris
. Lola married Robert Hanlon three years later in 1955; they remained married until her death twenty-six years later. Hanlon died in 1988.
Rosemary married only once. On December 28, 1941, Lane married George H. "Bud" Westmore, wizard Hollywood makeup artist who previously had had a stormy three-month marriage to comic actress Martha Raye
. The Lane-Westmore marriage lasted 13 years and produced a daughter, Bridget. But Lane sued Westmore for separate maintenance in November 1952, saying he walked out on her four months earlier, on July 11. Frank Westmore, in his book The Westmores of Hollywood (1976), said Lane and Westmore "had been very happy, or so everyone thought, including Rosemary". The couple went through a messy divorce in 1954.
Priscilla dated assistant director and screenwriter Oren Haglund. Impulsively she eloped with Haglund to Yuma, Arizona
on January 14, 1939, but left him the following day. The marriage was soon annulled. In November 1941, Priscilla became engaged to publisher John Barry, whom she had first met in 1939. She wrote in the November issue of Photoplay
about how she looked forward to their marriage. She also stated she would continue her career.
In early 1942, the engagement to Barry ended after she met Joseph Howard, a young Air Force
lieutenant, at a dude ranch in the Mojave Desert
. A native of Lawrence, Massachusetts
, he had joined the Army Air Corps
straight from college in 1939. He was scouting the area for likely sites for air bases and had taken a short vacation. The couple were married on May 22, 1942, in Las Vegas
at the home of the executive officer of an Army Air Force gunnery school.
At the war's end in 1945, Priscilla and Howard were living in New Mexico
and she was pregnant with their first child. Their son, Joseph Lawrence, was born on December 31, 1945. In 1946 after Joe's discharge from the service, the couple moved back to California, where they resided in Victorville
. Howard, who had a degree in engineering, became a building contractor. The family moved to Van Nuys in December 1945. Afterwards Howard and Priscilla moved to Studio City. Priscilla became pregnant again in 1949. On April 17, 1950, her daughter Hannah was born. By June 1951 the boom in the construction industry in New England
had Priscilla and her family moving back to Howard's native Massachusetts. Howard left the final decision to end her career to Priscilla, who later declared she never regretted her choice. She fell in love with New England, and the couple settled with their children in Andover, Massachusetts
. Priscilla was busy with her family. She gave birth to a second daughter, Judith, on August 22, 1953. The Howard's fourth and youngest child, James, was born December 4, 1955.
Outside her family, Priscilla was a busy woman. She was devoutly religious, having converted to Roman Catholicism, as had her elder sister Lola. The family attended church regularly, and she was involved with Catholic charities. She enjoyed tending her garden, growing flowers and vegetables. She ran a girl scout troop and volunteered at local hospitals. She had, however, become less outgoing as far as public life was concerned. She refused offers of work, most interviews and did not answer fan mail.
In July 1972, Joe Howard retired from business, and he and Priscilla moved to their summer home at 7 Howards Grove in Derry, New Hampshire
. Howard died suddenly on May 18, 1976, aged 60. He was still in the Air Force Reserve, which he had joined after his discharge from active duty in 1946. Heartbroken, Priscilla remained in Derry. She said, more than a year later in 1977, "I'm still trying to pull myself together after Joe's death." She busied herself with volunteer work and her garden.
, Boris Badenov
gives Natasha Fatale
three guesses as to who lives at the North Pole. She uses all three guesses in one reply, "Santa Claus, Judge Crater, and the Lane Sisters."
Lois Lane
, Superman's girlfriend, was named after Lola Lane, who played "Torchy Blane" a fictional reporter who inspired Lois' character, in one of the 1930s films.
The address of host Lionel Twain (played by Truman Capote
) in Neil Simon
's Murder By Death
is shown on the invitations in the beginning of the movie as "22 Lola Lane".
| Name | Birthname | Birthdate | Birthplace | Died and Age | Place of Death | Active | Spouses |
| Leota Lane |
Leotabel Mullican |
October 25, 1903 | Indianola, Iowa Indianola, Iowa As of the census of 2000, there were 12,998 people, 4,748 households, and 3,261 families residing in the city. The population density was 1,414.7 people per square mile . There were 4,981 housing units at an average density of 542.1 per square mile... |
Glendale, California Glendale, California Glendale is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. As of the 2010 Census, the city population is 191,719, down from 194,973 at the 2000 census. making it the third largest city in Los Angeles County and the 22nd largest city in the state of California... |
1931 - 1931 | Mischel D. Picard (m.1928) Edward Joseph Pitts (m.1941) Jerome Day |
|
| Lola Lane |
Dorothy Mullican |
May 21, 1906 | Macy, Indiana Macy, Indiana Macy is a town in Allen Township, Miami County, Indiana, United States. The population was 248 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Macy is located at .... |
Santa Barbara, California Santa Barbara, California Santa Barbara is the county seat of Santa Barbara County, California, United States. Situated on an east-west trending section of coastline, the longest such section on the West Coast of the United States, the city lies between the steeply-rising Santa Ynez Mountains and the Pacific Ocean... |
1929–1946 | Henry Clay Dunham (div.) Lew Ayres Lew Ayres Lew Ayres was an American actor, best known for starring as Paul in All Quiet on the Western Front and for playing Dr... (1931–1933) Alexander Hall (1934–1936) Roland West Roland West For the basketball player, see Roland West Roland West was a Hollywood director known for his innovative film noir movies of the 1920s and early 1930s.-Biography:... (1940–1952) Robert Hanlon (1955–1981) |
|
| Rosemary Lane |
Rosemary Mullican |
April 04, 1914 | Indianola, Iowa Indianola, Iowa As of the census of 2000, there were 12,998 people, 4,748 households, and 3,261 families residing in the city. The population density was 1,414.7 people per square mile . There were 4,981 housing units at an average density of 542.1 per square mile... |
Los Angeles, California Los Angeles, California Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California... |
1937–1945 | Bud Westmore Bud Westmore Bud Westmore was a make-up artist in Hollywood.Son of George Westmore, a member of the Westmore family prominent in Hollywood make-up. He is credited on over 450 movies and television shows, including To Kill a Mockingbird, Man of a Thousand Faces, The Andromeda Strain and Creature from the Black... (1941–1954) |
|
| Priscilla Lane |
Priscilla Mullican |
June 12, 1915 | Indianola, Iowa Indianola, Iowa As of the census of 2000, there were 12,998 people, 4,748 households, and 3,261 families residing in the city. The population density was 1,414.7 people per square mile . There were 4,981 housing units at an average density of 542.1 per square mile... |
Andover, Massachusetts Andover, Massachusetts Andover is a town in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. It was incorporated in 1646 and as of the 2010 census, the population was 33,201... |
1937–1948 | Oren Haglund (1939-1939) Joseph A. Howard (1942–1976) |
|
Early life
The four sisters were from a family of five. Leotabel (Leota) (October 25, 1903 – July 25, 1963), Dorothy (Lola) (May 21, 1906 – June 22, 1981), Rosemary (April 4, 1914 – November 25, 1974), and Priscilla (June 12, 1915 – April 4, 1995), were born to Dr. Lorenzo A. Mullican and his wife, Cora Bell Hicks. Their sister, Martha (1905-19??) did not enter show business. The first three children had been born in Macy, IndianaMacy, Indiana
Macy is a town in Allen Township, Miami County, Indiana, United States. The population was 248 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Macy is located at ....
, but the family moved in 1907 to Indianola, Iowa
Indianola, Iowa
As of the census of 2000, there were 12,998 people, 4,748 households, and 3,261 families residing in the city. The population density was 1,414.7 people per square mile . There were 4,981 housing units at an average density of 542.1 per square mile...
, a small college town south of Des Moines
Des Moines, Iowa
Des Moines is the capital and the most populous city in the US state of Iowa. It is also the county seat of Polk County. A small portion of the city extends into Warren County. It was incorporated on September 22, 1851, as Fort Des Moines which was shortened to "Des Moines" in 1857...
. Here Dr. Mullican had a dental practice. The Mullicans owned a large house with 22 rooms, some of which they rented out to students attending nearby Simpson College
Simpson College
Simpson College is a four-year, coeducational liberal arts institution situated in Indianola, Iowa, USA, and affiliated with the United Methodist Church. Simpson, which has been fully accredited by North Central Association since 1913, is a small school with approximately 1,400 full-time students...
.
Before marrying, Cora Mullican had been a reporter with a local newspaper in Macy, and she had originally harbored acting ambitions. In this, she was frustrated by the strict religious beliefs of her Methodist
Methodism
Methodism is a movement of Protestant Christianity represented by a number of denominations and organizations, claiming a total of approximately seventy million adherents worldwide. The movement traces its roots to John Wesley's evangelistic revival movement within Anglicanism. His younger brother...
parents who frowned on any form of public entertainment.
Cora encouraged her daughters to sing and play musical instruments. All the girls were fond of music, and at one time or another studied music in night classes at Simpson College in Indianola. Dorothy was already playing piano at age twelve for a silent screen movie house.
Career beginnings
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
in the mid-1920s. In 1928 Dorothy followed Leota to New York. The girls shared an apartment and made the theatrical rounds. They eventually obtained parts in a Gus Edwards
Gus Edwards (songwriter)
Gus Edwards was an American songwriter and vaudevillian. He also organised his own theatre companies and was a music publisher.-Early life:...
show, Greenwich Village Follies. It was Edwards who changed their names to Lane, and consequently Dorothy became Lola Lane. Martha, meanwhile, eloped with a college professor and moved to Des Moines. She had no interest in show business. She had a child, later divorced, and became a medical secretary.
Leota and Lola both made their Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
debuts in the late twenties, Lola in 1928, as Sally Moss in The War Song, which opened on Broadway on August 24, 1928, at the Nederlander Theatre
Nederlander Theatre
David T. Nederlander Theatre is a 1,232-seat Broadway theatre located at 208 West 41st Street, in New York City . One of the Nederlander Organization's nine Broadway theatres, the legacy of the theatre began with David Tobias Nederlander, for whom the theatre is named.Built by Walter C...
(then known as the National Theatre) and Leota in 1929 as Contrary Mary in Babes in Toyland
Babes in Toyland (operetta)
Babes in Toyland is an operetta composed by Victor Herbert with a libretto by Glen MacDonough , which wove together various characters from Mother Goose nursery rhymes into a Christmas-themed musical extravaganza. The creators wanted to cash in on the extraordinary success of The Wizard of Oz,...
, which opened on December 23, 1929 at Jolson's 59th Street Theatre. The War Song closed four months into its run and Lola went to Hollywood where she made her debut starring as Alice Woods alongside Paul Page in the drama Speakeasy (1929). She was soon teamed with Page again in the film The Girl from Havana (1929) as Joan Anders. Meanwhile Babes in Toyland closed after only thirty-two performances. Leota followed her sister to Hollywood where she made her only screen appearance in a comedy short directed by Roscoe Fatty Arbuckle called Three Hollywood Girls (1931). She soon returned to New York. Dr. Mullican strenuously objected to his younger daughters following theatrical careers, but Cora was determined.
After graduating from high school, Priscilla was permitted to travel to New York to visit Leota who was then appearing in a musical revue in Manhattan. Priscilla decided to enroll at the nearby Fagen School of Dramatics and Leota paid the fee. At this time talent agent Al Altman saw Priscilla performing in one of Fagen's school plays and invited her to screentest for MGM. She was 16 years old. Priscilla wrote to a friend in Indianola, "Leota accompanied me to a sort of theater in a New York skyscraper. Others were there being made up. One was a strange looking girl with her hair slicked back in a sort of a bun. Her name is said to be Catherine [sic] Hepburn
Katharine Hepburn
Katharine Houghton Hepburn was an American actress of film, stage, and television. In a career that spanned 62 years as a leading lady, she was best known for playing strong-willed, sophisticated women in both dramas and comedies...
. Not very pretty, I thought, but Mr. Altman said she has something. Margaret Sullavan
Margaret Sullavan
Margaret Brooke Sullavan was an American stage and film actress. Sullavan started her career on the stage in 1929. In 1933 she caught the attention of movie director John M. Stahl and had her debut on the screen that same year in Only Yesterday...
, the Broadway actress, was there too!" A follow-up letter said that her test had proven unsuitable. Neither Hepburn nor Sullavan were approved, and neither received a contract from MGM at the time.
In the meantime, Cora had left her husband and in 1932, accompanied by Rosemary, arrived in New York. Cora immediately went to work pushing her two young daughters into attending auditions for various prospective Broadway productions, without success. It was while the girls were trying out numbers at a music publishing office that Fred Waring
Fred Waring
Fredrick Malcolm Waring was a popular musician, bandleader and radio-television personality, sometimes referred to as "America's Singing Master" and "The Man Who Taught America How to Sing." He was also a promoter, financial backer and namesake of the Waring Blendor, the first modern electric...
, an orchestra leader, heard them harmonizing. He found them attractive and individually talented. In early 1933 with Cora's approval they were signed to a contract with Waring. Cora acted as chaperone to Rosemary and Priscilla who at this time adopted the name Lane.
Fred Waring not only toured with his band, known as "The Pennsylvanians", but had a weekly radio show. Priscilla quickly became known as the comedienne of the group. Rosemary sang the ballads while Priscilla performed the swing numbers and wisecracked with Waring and various guests. Dr. Mullican instituted divorce proceedings against his wife on the grounds of desertion, and the divorce was granted in 1933.
Rosemary and Priscilla remained with Fred Waring for almost five years. In 1937, Waring was engaged by Warner Bros.
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...
in Hollywood to appear with his entire band in Varsity Show, a musical starring Dick Powell
Dick Powell
Richard Ewing "Dick" Powell was an American singer, actor, producer, director and studio boss.Despite the same last name he was not related to William Powell, Eleanor Powell or Jane Powell.-Biography:...
. Both Rosemary and Priscilla were tested and awarded feature roles in the film. Rosemary shared the romantic passages with Powell, while Priscilla was a high-spirited college girl.
Bette Davis
Ruth Elizabeth "Bette" Davis was an American actress of film, television and theater. Noted for her willingness to play unsympathetic characters, she was highly regarded for her performances in a range of film genres, from contemporary crime melodramas to historical and period films and occasional...
in the melodrama
Melodrama
The term melodrama refers to a dramatic work that exaggerates plot and characters in order to appeal to the emotions. It may also refer to the genre which includes such works, or to language, behavior, or events which resemble them...
, Marked Woman
Marked Woman
Marked Woman is a crime melodrama film released by Warner Bros. in 1937. It was directed by Lloyd Bacon, and stars Bette Davis and Humphrey Bogart, with featured performances by Lola Lane, Isabel Jewell, Rosalind Marquis, Mayo Methot, Jane Bryan, Eduardo Ciannelli and Allen Jenkins...
, and won critical acclaim. Lola played the part of Gaby, a tough clip joint "hostess". Warners awarded her a contract in 1937 and her looks suited the hard-edged roles she found at Warners.
Warner's purchased Priscilla and Rosemary's contract from Fred Waring and signed them to seven-year pacts. Priscilla's first film after Varsity Show was Men are Such Fools, in which she was starred opposite Wayne Morris. This was followed by Love Honor and Behave, another light romantic comedy again with Morris and Cowboy From Brooklyn again teaming with Dick Powell
Dick Powell
Richard Ewing "Dick" Powell was an American singer, actor, producer, director and studio boss.Despite the same last name he was not related to William Powell, Eleanor Powell or Jane Powell.-Biography:...
. The publicity department at the studio suggested that Priscilla and Morris be seen together around town; they liked each other and did date for a period; however, Priscilla later said it was never serious on either side. Rosemary's first film after Varsity Show was the musical Hollywood Hotel, in which she co-starred with sister Lola and former co-star Dick Powell, before starring in Gold Diggers in Paris
Gold Diggers in Paris
Gold Diggers in Paris is a 1938 Warner Bros. movie musical directed by Ray Enright with musical numbers created and directed by Busby Berkeley, starring Rudy Vallee, Rosemary Lane, Hugh Herbert and Allen Jenkins.-Plot:...
, opposite Rudy Vallee
Rudy Vallée
Rudy Vallée was an American singer, actor, bandleader, and entertainer.-Early life:Born Hubert Prior Vallée in Island Pond, Vermont, the son of Charles Alphonse and Catherine Lynch Vallée...
.
Priscilla was next assigned the lead in Brother Rat
Brother Rat
Brother Rat is a 1938 film about cadets at Virginia Military Institute in Lexington, Virginia, directed by William Keighley and starring Priscilla Lane and Wayne Morris....
, which had been a very successful Broadway play. Again she played opposite Wayne Morris, and among the cast were such newcomers as Ronald Reagan
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....
, Jane Wyman
Jane Wyman
Jane Wyman was an American singer, dancer, and character actress of film and television. She began her film career in the 1930s, and was a prolific performer for two decades...
, Jane Bryan
Jane Bryan
Jane Bryan was an American actress who was being prepared by the Warner Bros. studio to become one of their leading ladies until she married a drugstore magnate in 1940 and retired....
, and Eddie Albert
Eddie Albert
Edward Albert Heimberger , known professionally as Eddie Albert, was an American actor and activist. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in 1954 for his performance in Roman Holiday, and in 1973 for The Heartbreak Kid.Other well-known screen roles of his include Bing...
. The film, when released in October 1938, was a big success for all the young players. At this time of professional success, the sisters were informed that Dr. Mullican had died in Iowa.
The Lane Sisters
Warner Bros.Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...
had purchased a story by Fannie Hurst
Fannie Hurst
Fannie Hurst was an American novelist. Although her books are not well remembered today, during her lifetime some of her more famous novels were Stardust , Lummox , A President is Born , Back Street , and Imitation of Life...
titled Sister Act and planned to star Errol Flynn
Errol Flynn
Errol Leslie Flynn was an Australian-born actor. He was known for his romantic swashbuckler roles in Hollywood films, being a legend and his flamboyant lifestyle.-Early life:...
in the film, along with four actresses. Flynn, however, was withdrawn from the project to star in The Adventures of Robin Hood
The Adventures of Robin Hood (film)
The Adventures of Robin Hood is a 1938 American swashbuckler film directed by Michael Curtiz and William Keighley. Filmed in Technicolor, the picture stars Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, Basil Rathbone, and Claude Rains.-Plot:...
. The script for Sister Act was then rewritten to place the emphasis on the four girls. Bette Davis
Bette Davis
Ruth Elizabeth "Bette" Davis was an American actress of film, television and theater. Noted for her willingness to play unsympathetic characters, she was highly regarded for her performances in a range of film genres, from contemporary crime melodramas to historical and period films and occasional...
was to be the star, but she refused the role. Lola, always enterprising, approached Jack Warner
Jack Warner
Jack Leonard "J. L." Warner , born Jacob Warner in London, Ontario, was a Canadian American film executive who was the president and driving force behind the Warner Bros. Studios in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California...
with the suggestion she and her sisters star in the film. Warner agreed, and Leota was summoned from New York to test for the part of Emma, but proved unsuitable. The studio substituted Gale Page, a young contractee as the fourth daughter. The actress would be tagged for the rest of her career as the fourth Lane. When the film, now titled Four Daughters
Four Daughters
Four Daughters is a 1938 musical drama film that tells the story of a happy musical family whose lives and loves are disrupted by the arrival of a cynical young composer who interjects himself into the daughters' romantic lives...
, was released on September 24, 1938, it proved to be a big hit and was nominated for four Academy Awards
Academy Awards
An Academy Award, also known as an Oscar, is an accolade bestowed by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers...
, including Best Picture. It was followed by two sequels, Four Wives
Four Wives
Four Wives is a 1939 film starring Priscilla Lane and two of her sisters, features Gale Page, Claude Raines, Eddie Albert, and John Garfield, and was directed by Michael Curtiz...
in 1939 and Four Mothers
Four Mothers
Four Mothers is the 1941 film sequel to Four Daughters and Four Wives starring Priscilla Lane and two of her sisters, and featuring Gale Page, Claude Raines, and Eddie Albert. The supporting cast includes Jeffrey Lynn, May Robson, Frank McHugh, and Dick Foran...
in 1941, again starring the Lanes and Gale Page. Leota played Emma in the Lux Radio Theater
Lux Radio Theater
Lux Radio Theater, a long-run classic radio anthology series, was broadcast on the NBC Blue Network ; CBS and NBC . Initially, the series adapted Broadway plays during its first two seasons before it began adapting films. These hour-long radio programs were performed live before studio audiences...
version of the film heard on the evening of December 18, 1939.
Priscilla's next assignment was Yes, My Darling Daughter
Yes, My Darling Daughter
Yes, My Darling Daughter is a 1941 song by Jack Lawrence first introduced by Dinah Shore on Eddie Cantor's radio program, as well as Shore's first record. The music used by Lawrence is based on a Ukrainian folk-song "Oj ne khody Hrytsju", often ascribed to the Ukrainian songstress Marusia Churai....
, adapted from a successful play. The story concerned a girl, the daughter of a feminist and one time suffragette, who decides to spend a weekend alone with her fiancee, played by Jeffrey Lynn
Jeffrey Lynn
Jeffrey Lynn was an American actor.Born Ragnar Lind in Auburn, Massachusetts, Lynn was a school teacher before he began his acting career. He came to Hollywood and made his film debut in Out Where the Stars Begin...
. The premise of the film in which an unmarried couple spent a weekend together unchaperoned was roundly criticized and was banned in some parts of the United States. The publicity, however, piqued public curiosity, and the film became a box office hit. Priscilla received praise for her vivacious performance, as did Lynn playing the boy friend. The supporting cast included Roland Young
Roland Young
Roland Young was an English actor.-Early life and career:Born in London, England, Young was educated at Sherborne School, Dorset and the University of London before being accepted into Royal Academy of Dramatic Art...
, Fay Bainter
Fay Bainter
Fay Okell Bainter was an American film and stage actress.-Early life:She was born in Los Angeles, California, the daughter of Charles F. Bainter and Mary Okell. In 1910, she was a traveling stage actress...
, May Robson
May Robson
May Robson was an actress and playwright. A major stage actress of the late 19th and early 20th century, Robson is best known today for the dozens of 1930s motion pictures she appeared in when she was well into her seventies, usually playing cross old ladies with hearts of gold.- Biography :Born...
, Genevieve Tobin
Genevieve Tobin
Genevieve Tobin was an American actress.The daughter of a vaudeville performer, Tobin made her film debut in 1910 in Uncle Tom's Cabin as Eva. She appeared in a few films as child, and formed a double act with her sister Vivian. Their brother, George, also had a brief acting career...
, and Ian Hunter
Ian Hunter (actor)
Ian Hunter was a British character actor.Among dozens of film roles, his best-remembered appearances include That Certain Woman with Bette Davis, The Adventures of Robin Hood , The Little Princess and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde...
.
Upon completion of this film Warners sent Priscilla, Rosemary, Errol Flynn
Errol Flynn
Errol Leslie Flynn was an Australian-born actor. He was known for his romantic swashbuckler roles in Hollywood films, being a legend and his flamboyant lifestyle.-Early life:...
, and Ann Sheridan
Ann Sheridan
-Life and career:Born Clara Lou Sheridan in Denton, Texas on February 21, 1915, she was a student at the University of North Texas when her sister sent a photograph of her to Paramount Pictures. She subsequently entered and won a beauty contest, with part of her prize being a bit part in a...
among others on a personal appearance tour in conjunction with the release of Flynn's first western Dodge City
Dodge City (1939 film)
Dodge City is a 1939 American Western film starring Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland and Bruce Cabot. Directed by Hungarian-turned-Hollywood filmmaker Michael Curtiz and based on a story by Robert Buckner, it was filmed in early Technicolor...
. Priscilla enjoyed the experience and the chance to travel through the country.
Returning to Hollywood, another story was prepared to feature the four daughters, Daughters Courageous
Daughters Courageous
Daughters Courageous is a 1939 drama film starring the three Lane Sisters , with the fourth sister being played by Gale Page. The movie also stars John Garfield and Claude Rains...
, which co-starred John Garfield
John Garfield
John Garfield was an American actor adept at playing brooding, rebellious, working-class character roles. He grew up in poverty in Depression-era New York City and in the early 1930s became an important member of the Group Theater. In 1937 he moved to Hollywood, eventually becoming one of Warner...
who had also co-starred in both Four Daughters and Four Wives. Although the story was different, it also covered the lives and loves of four sisters, and proved to be another hit with the public.
Priscilla was again cast with John Garfield in Dust Be My Destiny
Dust Be My Destiny
Dust Be My Destiny is a drama film released in 1939. John Garfield stars as a man who gets into trouble after being sentenced to a work farm.-Plot:...
, a melodrama of prison life. She played the sympathetic stepdaughter of a brutal prison foreman, played by Stanley Ridges
Stanley Ridges
Stanley Ridges was a British-born actor who made his mark in films by playing a wide assortment of character parts...
. She falls in love with convict Garfield. The original ending of the film had the young lovers dying as fugitives from justice. Audience reaction at previews was so negative that the studio withdrew the film and reshot a happy ending. Variety wrote, "She is completely sincere throughout with several dramatic scenes rising far above the material provided." Rosemary Lane was also teamed with Garfield in Blackwell's Island (1939), however this was not a success.
Priscilla attained full co-starring status in her next film, The Roaring Twenties
The Roaring Twenties
The Roaring Twenties is a 1939 crime thriller starring James Cagney, Priscilla Lane, Humphrey Bogart and Gladys George. The movie was directed by Raoul Walsh, and written by Jerry Wald, Richard Macaulay and Robert Rossen based on the story "The World Moves On" by Mark Hellinger...
and was billed above the title along with James Cagney
James Cagney
James Francis Cagney, Jr. was an American actor, first on stage, then in film, where he had his greatest impact. Although he won acclaim and major awards for a wide variety of performances, he is best remembered for playing "tough guys." In 1999, the American Film Institute ranked him eighth...
. A major box office hit, Priscilla was shown to advantage as a night club singer, who marries lawyer Jeffrey Lynn
Jeffrey Lynn
Jeffrey Lynn was an American actor.Born Ragnar Lind in Auburn, Massachusetts, Lynn was a school teacher before he began his acting career. He came to Hollywood and made his film debut in Out Where the Stars Begin...
, but is lusted after by gangster Cagney. She sang "It Had to Be You", "Melancholy Baby", and "I’m Just Wild About Harry".
At this point, Priscilla was earning $750 a week, a fantastic salary for the Depression era, but puny compared to the salaries of other studio stars. She demanded an increase. She felt the plot of her next movie, Money and the Woman was sordid and refused to report for work. Her agent explained, "The role is not one she should be asked to do." She was replaced by Brenda Marshall
Brenda Marshall
Brenda Marshall was an American film actress.Born Ardis Ankerson in Negros, Philippines, Marshall made her first film appearance in the 1939 Espionage Agent. The following year, she played the leading lady to Errol Flynn in The Sea Hawk...
.
Priscilla was next assigned the lead in My Love Came Back, a romantic story involving a female violinist. Again, Priscilla refused the part, so a furious Jack Warner suspended her. Olivia de Havilland
Olivia de Havilland
Olivia Mary de Havilland is a British American film and stage actress. She won the Academy Award for Best Actress in 1946 and 1949. She is the elder sister of actress Joan Fontaine. The sisters are among the last surviving leading ladies from Hollywood of the 1930s.-Early life:Olivia de Havilland...
, although equally reluctant to do the film, eventually agreed.
Later careers and eventual retirement
Lola continued her career into the 1940s with her tough girl persona in dramas such as Convicted Woman (1940), Gangs Of Chicago (1940), Mystery Ship (1941), Miss V From Moscow (1942) and Lost Canyon (1942), although she desperately wanted to break away from her type-casting . She retired at the age of forty in 1946. Her last three films — Why Girls Leave Home (1945) as Irene Mitchell, Deadline at Dawn (1946) as Edna Bartelli, and They Made Me A Killer (1946) as Betty Ford — had her in supporting roles.Rosemary earned good reviews for 1940's The Boys from Syracuse, based on Rodgers and Hart
Rodgers and Hart
Rodgers and Hart were an American songwriting partnership of composer Richard Rodgers and the lyricist Lorenz Hart...
's Broadway hit of 1938. The next year she made an unusual move for a film actress of her era by becoming a Broadway star in the musical Best Foot Forward
Best Foot Forward
Best Foot Forward is a 1943 American film adapted from the 1941 Broadway musical comedy of the same title. The film was released by MGM, directed by Edward Buzzell, and starring Lucille Ball, William Gaxton, Virginia Weidler, Chill Wills, June Allyson, Gloria DeHaven, and Nancy Walker.-Plot:The...
, as Gale Joy, which opened on Broadway at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre
Ethel Barrymore Theatre
The Ethel Barrymore Theatre is a legitimate Broadway theatre located at 243 West 47th Street in midtown-Manhattan, named for actress Ethel Barrymore....
on October 1, 1941. It closed after 326 performances on the fourth of July 1942. However she lost the subsequent movie role to Lucille Ball
Lucille Ball
Lucille Désirée Ball was an American comedian, film, television, stage and radio actress, model, film and television executive, and star of the sitcoms I Love Lucy, The Lucy–Desi Comedy Hour, The Lucy Show, Here's Lucy and Life With Lucy...
. Good movie roles dwindled and Rosemary closed out her film career in 1945 with Sing Me a Song of Texas, as nightclub singer Laurie Lang, the niece of a wealthy Texas rancher. She began a career selling real estate from an office in Pacific Palisades
Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles, California
Pacific Palisades is an affluent neighborhood and district within the U.S. city of Los Angeles, California, located among Brentwood to the east, Malibu and Topanga to the west, Santa Monica to the southeast, the Santa Monica Bay to the southwest, and the Santa Monica Mountains to the north. The...
.
After winning her raise, Priscilla returned to work, but the films assigned to her were no better than those she had turned down. Brother Rat and a Baby
Brother Rat and a Baby
Brother Rat and a Baby starring Priscilla Lane, Wayne Morris, Jane Bryan, Eddie Albert, Jane Wyman, and Ronald Reagan, is the sequel to the 1938 film Brother Rat about cadets at the Virginia Military Institute in Lexington, Virginia. Mayo Methot and Alan Ladd appear in small roles...
was an inferior sequel and Three Cheers For the Irish gave her little to do.
The British Picturegoer
Picturegoer
Picturegoer was a magazine published in the United Kingdom between 1913 and 1960. Its primary focus was contemporary films and the performers who appeared in them....
magazine, always a supporter of the Lane Sisters, stated that all was not right with Priscilla Lane. In its June 15, 1940 issue, they wondered why "Priscilla was still knocking at the door of major stardom". They felt Warner Bros. was casting her as stooge to such actors as John Garfield
John Garfield
John Garfield was an American actor adept at playing brooding, rebellious, working-class character roles. He grew up in poverty in Depression-era New York City and in the early 1930s became an important member of the Group Theater. In 1937 he moved to Hollywood, eventually becoming one of Warner...
and James Cagney
James Cagney
James Francis Cagney, Jr. was an American actor, first on stage, then in film, where he had his greatest impact. Although he won acclaim and major awards for a wide variety of performances, he is best remembered for playing "tough guys." In 1999, the American Film Institute ranked him eighth...
. They went on to say Priscilla had great charm and while not a really great dramatic actress, deserved much larger and more important roles than she was getting. The same magazine, two years later on August 22, 1942, referred to their 1940 article and once again expressed disappointment at Warners' treatment of the star. They were unaware that she had already left the studio.
On April 28, 1941, she was heard on Lux Radio Theater
Lux Radio Theater
Lux Radio Theater, a long-run classic radio anthology series, was broadcast on the NBC Blue Network ; CBS and NBC . Initially, the series adapted Broadway plays during its first two seasons before it began adapting films. These hour-long radio programs were performed live before studio audiences...
with George Brent
George Brent
George Brent was an Irish film and television actor in American cinema.-Early life:He was born George Brendan Nolan in Raharabeg, County Roscommon on the opposite bank of the River Shannon from the town of Shannonbridge, County Offaly, Ireland, the son of a British Army officer.During the Irish...
and Gail Patrick
Gail Patrick
Gail Patrick was an American film actress.Born Margaret LaVelle Fitzpatrick, she appeared in 62 movies between 1932 and 1948, usually as the leading lady's extremely formidable rival; some of these roles include the second wife in My Favorite Wife with Irene Dunne and Cary Grant, Anna May Wong's...
in Wife, Husband and Friend. At Warner Bros. she appeared opposite Ronald Reagan
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....
in a light hearted comedy, Million Dollar Baby
Million Dollar Baby (1941 film)
Million Dollar Baby is a 1941 romantic comedy film directed by Curtis Bernhardt. Released by Warner Bros., the film stars Priscilla Lane, Jeffrey Lynn, and Ronald Reagan.-Plot:...
and as a night club singer in Blues in the Night
Blues in the Night
"Blues in the Night" is a popular song which has become a pop standard and is generally considered to be part of the Great American Songbook. The music was written by Harold Arlen, the lyrics by Johnny Mercer, for a 1941 film begun with the working title Hot Nocturne, but finally released as Blues...
.
Frank Capra
Frank Capra
Frank Russell Capra was a Sicilian-born American film director. He emigrated to the U.S. when he was six, and eventually became a creative force behind major award-winning films during the 1930s and 1940s...
requested her for the lead opposite Cary Grant
Cary Grant
Archibald Alexander Leach , better known by his stage name Cary Grant, was an English actor who later took U.S. citizenship...
in Arsenic and Old Lace
Arsenic and Old Lace (film)
Arsenic and Old Lace is a 1944 film directed by Frank Capra based on Joseph Kesselring's play of the same name. The script adaptation was by twins Julius J. Epstein and Philip G. Epstein. Capra actually filmed the movie in 1941, but it was not released until 1944, after the original stage version...
. The hit comedy film was completed in early 1942, but was not released until 1944, held up by contractual agreement not to distribute the film until the play's long Broadway run was over. It was Priscilla's last Warner film. Her contract was terminated by mutual agreement after five years with the studio.
She freelanced next, signing a one-picture deal with Universal Studios
Universal Studios
Universal Pictures , a subsidiary of NBCUniversal, is one of the six major movie studios....
where she starred with Robert Cummings
Robert Cummings
Charles Clarence Robert Orville Cummings , mostly known professionally as Robert Cummings but sometimes as Bob Cummings, was an American film and television actor....
in Alfred Hitchcock
Alfred Hitchcock
Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock, KBE was a British film director and producer. He pioneered many techniques in the suspense and psychological thriller genres. After a successful career in British cinema in both silent films and early talkies, Hitchcock moved to Hollywood...
's Saboteur
Saboteur (film)
Saboteur is a 1942 Universal film directed by Alfred Hitchcock with a screenplay written by Peter Viertel, Joan Harrison, and Dorothy Parker. The movie stars Priscilla Lane, Robert Cummings, and Norman Lloyd...
(1942). The director did not want either Cummings or Priscilla in the film. In Priscilla's case, Hitchcock felt she was too much the girl next door. Universal insisted that they play the leads, and when the film was released, Priscilla's acting was praised while some criticism was focused on Hitchcock for reworking so much from his earlier films into this wartime spy drama.
Priscilla had commitments for two more films. The first was Silver Queens for producer Harry Sherman in which she was co-starred with George Brent
George Brent
George Brent was an Irish film and television actor in American cinema.-Early life:He was born George Brendan Nolan in Raharabeg, County Roscommon on the opposite bank of the River Shannon from the town of Shannonbridge, County Offaly, Ireland, the son of a British Army officer.During the Irish...
. She played the owner of a gambling house in 1870s San Francisco. The other film was a Jack Benny
Jack Benny
Jack Benny was an American comedian, vaudevillian, and actor for radio, television, and film...
comedy, The Meanest Man in the World, released in January 1943. Priscilla then retired from films. For the duration of the war, she followed her husband across America as he moved from one military base to another. She was generous with her talents and often performed at camp shows.
While living in Van Nuys
Van Nuys, Los Angeles, California
Van Nuys is a neighborhood in the San Fernando Valley region of Los Angeles, California.-History:Look at the two photos of Van Nuys' first year—and then listen to what the Los Angeles Times wrote on February 23, 1911, the day after the Van Nuys town lot auction--"Between dawn and dusk, in the...
, Priscilla was offered and accepted the leading role in Fun on a Weekend for producer–director Andrew Stone
Andrew L. Stone
Andrew L. Stone was an American screenwriter, director, and producer. Best known for his hard hitting, realistic films, Stone frequently collaborated with his wife, editor and producer Virginia Lively Stone Andrew L. Stone (July 16, 1902, Oakland, California – June 9, 1999, Los Angeles,...
, co-starring Eddie Bracken
Eddie Bracken
Edward Vincent "Eddie" Bracken was an American actor.-Life and career:Bracken was born in Astoria, New York, the son of Catherine and Joseph L. Bracken. Bracken performed in vaudeville at the age of nine and gained fame with the Broadway musical Too Many Girls in a role he reprised for the 1940...
. When the film was released in 1947, Variety opined, "Miss Lane, who's been absent from films for some time, gives a good enough performance which should ensure her work in more pictures." However, Priscilla returned to domestic life. Once again she and her husband moved, this time to Studio City
Studio City, Los Angeles, California
Studio City is an affluent residential neighborhood within the City of Los Angeles, California in the San Fernando Valley. Studio City expands over four ZIP code areas: 91604 and sections of 91602, 91607 and 90210....
.
In 1948 Priscilla accepted the offer of the lead role opposite Lawrence Tierney
Lawrence Tierney
Lawrence Tierney was an American actor, known for his many screen portrayals of mobsters and hardened criminals, which mirrored his own frequent brushes with the law....
in a film noir
Film noir
Film noir is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize cynical attitudes and sexual motivations. Hollywood's classic film noir period is generally regarded as extending from the early 1940s to the late 1950s...
, Bodyguard
Bodyguard (1948 film)
Bodyguard is an American semi-documentary crime film noir directed by Richard Fleischer and written by Fred Niblo Jr.and Harry Essex, based on a story written by George W. George and Robert Altman, who would on to direct MASH and other notable films...
, starring as Doris Brewster. During an interview with a Hollywood correspondent, she stated, "I didn't realize how much I miss filming until I came back. I love this work, and I hope to make many, many more pictures." Bodyguard would be her last picture. An expected contract with RKO Studios did not come to pass.
In January 1951, Cora Mullican died at the San Fernando Valley
San Fernando Valley
The San Fernando Valley is an urbanized valley located in the Los Angeles metropolitan area of southern California, United States, defined by the dramatic mountains of the Transverse Ranges circling it...
home her daughters had bought for her years earlier. Priscilla returned to show business briefly in 1958 with her own show on a local television station broadcasting from Boston. Titled The Priscilla Lane Show, she chatted and interviewed celebrities visiting the area. She enjoyed the television experience, but family demands proved too much, and she gave up after a year.
Personal lives
Leota was married once, to Jerome Day. The couple had no children.Lola was married five times, but bore no children. She was first married to actor Lew Ayres
Lew Ayres
Lew Ayres was an American actor, best known for starring as Paul in All Quiet on the Western Front and for playing Dr...
in September 1931. They subsequently divorced in January 1933. She then married director Alexander Hall
Alexander Hall
Alexander Hall was an American theatre actor and film director....
in 1934. They divorced in December 1936. Her next marriage was to Henry Clay Dunham in January 1941. They divorced in October, 1945.
She then married Roland West
Roland West
For the basketball player, see Roland West Roland West was a Hollywood director known for his innovative film noir movies of the 1920s and early 1930s.-Biography:...
in 1946.. He was a producer, director and screenwriter, but was best known for being a suspect in the 1935 death of his girlfriend, actress Thelma Todd
Thelma Todd
Thelma Alice Todd was an American actress. Appearing in about 120 pictures between 1926 and 1935, she is best remembered for her comedic roles in films like Marx Brothers' Monkey Business and Horse Feathers, a number of Charley Chase's short comedies, and co-starring with Buster Keaton and Jimmy...
. Neighbors heard them quarreling the night before she was found in her garage, overcome by carbon monoxide poisoning. Though a suspect, he was never arrested. West and Lola remained married until his death on March 31, 1952 from heart disease. On his deathbed he allegedly confessed murdering Thelma Todd, to good friend and actor Chester Morris
Chester Morris
Chester Morris was an American actor, who starred in the Boston Blackie detective series of the 1940s.-Career:...
. Lola married Robert Hanlon three years later in 1955; they remained married until her death twenty-six years later. Hanlon died in 1988.
Rosemary married only once. On December 28, 1941, Lane married George H. "Bud" Westmore, wizard Hollywood makeup artist who previously had had a stormy three-month marriage to comic actress Martha Raye
Martha Raye
Martha Raye was an American comic actress and standards singer who performed in movies, and later on television....
. The Lane-Westmore marriage lasted 13 years and produced a daughter, Bridget. But Lane sued Westmore for separate maintenance in November 1952, saying he walked out on her four months earlier, on July 11. Frank Westmore, in his book The Westmores of Hollywood (1976), said Lane and Westmore "had been very happy, or so everyone thought, including Rosemary". The couple went through a messy divorce in 1954.
Priscilla dated assistant director and screenwriter Oren Haglund. Impulsively she eloped with Haglund to Yuma, Arizona
Yuma, Arizona
Yuma is a city in and the county seat of Yuma County, Arizona, United States. It is located in the southwestern corner of the state, and the population of the city was 77,515 at the 2000 census, with a 2008 Census Bureau estimated population of 90,041....
on January 14, 1939, but left him the following day. The marriage was soon annulled. In November 1941, Priscilla became engaged to publisher John Barry, whom she had first met in 1939. She wrote in the November issue of Photoplay
Photoplay
Photoplay was one of the first American film fan magazines. It was founded in 1911 in Chicago, the same year that J. Stuart Blackton founded a similar magazine entitled Motion Picture Story...
about how she looked forward to their marriage. She also stated she would continue her career.
In early 1942, the engagement to Barry ended after she met Joseph Howard, a young Air Force
United States Air Force
The United States Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the American uniformed services. Initially part of the United States Army, the USAF was formed as a separate branch of the military on September 18, 1947 under the National Security Act of...
lieutenant, at a dude ranch in the Mojave Desert
Mojave Desert
The Mojave Desert occupies a significant portion of southeastern California and smaller parts of central California, southern Nevada, southwestern Utah and northwestern Arizona, in the United States...
. A native of Lawrence, Massachusetts
Lawrence, Massachusetts
Lawrence is a city in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States on the Merrimack River. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, the city had a total population of 76,377. Surrounding communities include Methuen to the north, Andover to the southwest, and North Andover to the southeast. It and Salem are...
, he had joined the Army Air Corps
United States Army Air Corps
The United States Army Air Corps was a forerunner of the United States Air Force. Renamed from the Air Service on 2 July 1926, it was part of the United States Army and the predecessor of the United States Army Air Forces , established in 1941...
straight from college in 1939. He was scouting the area for likely sites for air bases and had taken a short vacation. The couple were married on May 22, 1942, in Las Vegas
Las Vegas, Nevada
Las Vegas is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and is also the county seat of Clark County, Nevada. Las Vegas is an internationally renowned major resort city for gambling, shopping, and fine dining. The city bills itself as The Entertainment Capital of the World, and is famous...
at the home of the executive officer of an Army Air Force gunnery school.
At the war's end in 1945, Priscilla and Howard were living in New Mexico
New Mexico
New Mexico is a state located in the southwest and western regions of the United States. New Mexico is also usually considered one of the Mountain States. With a population density of 16 per square mile, New Mexico is the sixth-most sparsely inhabited U.S...
and she was pregnant with their first child. Their son, Joseph Lawrence, was born on December 31, 1945. In 1946 after Joe's discharge from the service, the couple moved back to California, where they resided in Victorville
Victorville, California
Victorville is a city located in the Victor Valley of southwestern San Bernardino County, California. According to the U.S. Census Bureau's 2010 census, the city had a population of 115,903, up from 64,030 at the 2000 census.-Geography and climate:...
. Howard, who had a degree in engineering, became a building contractor. The family moved to Van Nuys in December 1945. Afterwards Howard and Priscilla moved to Studio City. Priscilla became pregnant again in 1949. On April 17, 1950, her daughter Hannah was born. By June 1951 the boom in the construction industry in New England
New England
New England is a region in the northeastern corner of the United States consisting of the six states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut...
had Priscilla and her family moving back to Howard's native Massachusetts. Howard left the final decision to end her career to Priscilla, who later declared she never regretted her choice. She fell in love with New England, and the couple settled with their children in Andover, Massachusetts
Andover, Massachusetts
Andover is a town in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. It was incorporated in 1646 and as of the 2010 census, the population was 33,201...
. Priscilla was busy with her family. She gave birth to a second daughter, Judith, on August 22, 1953. The Howard's fourth and youngest child, James, was born December 4, 1955.
Outside her family, Priscilla was a busy woman. She was devoutly religious, having converted to Roman Catholicism, as had her elder sister Lola. The family attended church regularly, and she was involved with Catholic charities. She enjoyed tending her garden, growing flowers and vegetables. She ran a girl scout troop and volunteered at local hospitals. She had, however, become less outgoing as far as public life was concerned. She refused offers of work, most interviews and did not answer fan mail.
In July 1972, Joe Howard retired from business, and he and Priscilla moved to their summer home at 7 Howards Grove in Derry, New Hampshire
Derry, New Hampshire
-Climate:-Demographics:As of the census of 2010, there were 33,109 people, 12,537 households, and 8,767 families residing in the town. The population density was 924.8 people per square mile . There were 13,277 housing units at an average density of 143.2/km²...
. Howard died suddenly on May 18, 1976, aged 60. He was still in the Air Force Reserve, which he had joined after his discharge from active duty in 1946. Heartbroken, Priscilla remained in Derry. She said, more than a year later in 1977, "I'm still trying to pull myself together after Joe's death." She busied herself with volunteer work and her garden.
Deaths
- Leota died following open-heart surgery on July 25, 1963 in Glendale, CaliforniaGlendale, CaliforniaGlendale is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. As of the 2010 Census, the city population is 191,719, down from 194,973 at the 2000 census. making it the third largest city in Los Angeles County and the 22nd largest city in the state of California...
, aged 59.
- Lola died of arterial disease on June 22, 1981 in Santa Barbara, CaliforniaSanta Barbara, CaliforniaSanta Barbara is the county seat of Santa Barbara County, California, United States. Situated on an east-west trending section of coastline, the longest such section on the West Coast of the United States, the city lies between the steeply-rising Santa Ynez Mountains and the Pacific Ocean...
, aged 75.
- Rosemary had just turned sixty and was living quietly in retirement in Pacific Palisades when she died on November 25, 1974, at the Motion Picture Country Hospital in Woodland Hills, California. The cause was a cerebral blood clot, stemming from diabetes and chronic pulmonary obstruction. Services were held at Santa Monica, and for unknown reasons, Rosemary was buried in an unmarked grave at Forest Lawn Cemetery in Glendale.
- Priscilla was diagnosed with lung cancerLung cancerLung cancer is a disease characterized by uncontrolled cell growth in tissues of the lung. If left untreated, this growth can spread beyond the lung in a process called metastasis into nearby tissue and, eventually, into other parts of the body. Most cancers that start in lung, known as primary...
in 1994. She moved to a nursing home, Wingate, in Andover, near her son Joe and his family. She died there at 7:30 a.m. on April 4, 1995 from lung cancer and chronic heart failure, aged 79. A funeral mass was celebrated at St. Matthew's church in Windham, New HampshireWindham, New HampshireWindham is a town in Rockingham County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 13,592 at the 2010 census.- History :The area was initially home to the Pawtucket Native Americans. Scottish immigrants began to settle in the area in 1719. The region was known as “Nutfield” and included what...
and burial followed at Arlington National CemeteryArlington National CemeteryArlington National Cemetery in Arlington County, Virginia, is a military cemetery in the United States of America, established during the American Civil War on the grounds of Arlington House, formerly the estate of the family of Confederate general Robert E. Lee's wife Mary Anna Lee, a great...
. Her husband had served his country for nearly forty years and was buried there with full military honors. Priscilla was laid to rest beside him.
Cultural references
In episode 9 of the "Topsy Turvy World" sequence of The Bullwinkle ShowThe Rocky and Bullwinkle Show
The Rocky & Bullwinkle Show is an American animated television series that originally aired from November 19, 1959 to June 28, 1964 on the ABC and NBC television networks...
, Boris Badenov
Boris Badenov
Boris Badenov is a fictional character in the 1960s animated cartoons Rocky and His Friends and The Bullwinkle Show, collectively referred to as Rocky and Bullwinkle for short. He is voiced by Paul Frees....
gives Natasha Fatale
Natasha Fatale
Natasha Fatale is a fictional character in the 1960s animated cartoons Rocky and His Friends and The Bullwinkle Show, collectively referred to as Rocky and Bullwinkle for short...
three guesses as to who lives at the North Pole. She uses all three guesses in one reply, "Santa Claus, Judge Crater, and the Lane Sisters."
Lois Lane
Lois Lane
Lois Lane is a fictional character, the primary love interest of Superman in the comic books of DC Comics. Created by writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster, she first appeared in Action Comics #1 ....
, Superman's girlfriend, was named after Lola Lane, who played "Torchy Blane" a fictional reporter who inspired Lois' character, in one of the 1930s films.
The address of host Lionel Twain (played by Truman Capote
Truman Capote
Truman Streckfus Persons , known as Truman Capote , was an American author, many of whose short stories, novels, plays, and nonfiction are recognized literary classics, including the novella Breakfast at Tiffany's and the true crime novel In Cold Blood , which he labeled a "nonfiction novel." At...
) in Neil Simon
Neil Simon
Neil Simon is an American playwright and screenwriter. He has written numerous Broadway plays, including Brighton Beach Memoirs, Biloxi Blues, and The Odd Couple. He won the 1991 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for his play Lost In Yonkers. He has written the screenplays for several of his plays that...
's Murder By Death
Murder by Death
Murder by Death is a 1976 comedy film with a cast featuring Eileen Brennan, Truman Capote, James Coco, Peter Falk, Alec Guinness, Elsa Lanchester, David Niven, Peter Sellers, Maggie Smith, Nancy Walker, and Estelle Winwood, written by Neil Simon and directed by Robert Moore.The plot is a spoof of...
is shown on the invitations in the beginning of the movie as "22 Lola Lane".
Lola Lane
- They Made Me a KillerThey Made Me a KillerThey Made Me a Killer is a 1946 B-movie directed by William C. Thomas, and written by Daniel Mainwaring, Winston Miller and Kae Salkow, based on story by Owen Franes. The film was made by Pine-Thomas, the B-movie unit of Paramount Pictures.- Plot :...
(1946) .... Betty Ford - Deadline at DawnDeadline at DawnDeadline at Dawn is a 1946 film noir, the only film directed by stage director Harold Clurman. It was written by Clifford Odets and based on a novella by Cornell Woolrich . The RKO Radio Picture was the only cinematic collaboration between Clurman and his former Group Theatre associate,...
(1946) .... Edna Bartelli - Why Girls Leave Home (1945) .... Irene Mitchell
- Steppin' in Society (1945) .... The Duchess
- Identity UnknownIdentity UnknownIdentity Unknown is a 1945 American film directed by Walter Colmes.-Plot:During World War II a four American soldiers defend a farmhouse against a German assault...
(1945) .... Wanda - Buckskin Frontier (1943) .... Rita Molyneaux
- Lost Canyon (1942) .... Laura Clark
- Miss V from Moscow (1942) .... Vera Marova, posing as Greta Hiller
- Mystery Ship (1941) .... Patricia Marshall
- Four MothersFour MothersFour Mothers is the 1941 film sequel to Four Daughters and Four Wives starring Priscilla Lane and two of her sisters, and featuring Gale Page, Claude Raines, and Eddie Albert. The supporting cast includes Jeffrey Lynn, May Robson, Frank McHugh, and Dick Foran...
(1941) .... Thea Lemp Crowley - Girls of the Road (1940) .... Elly
- Gangs of Chicago (1940) .... June Whitaker
- Zanzibar (1940) .... Jan Browning
- Convicted WomanConvicted WomanConvicted Woman is a Crime movie, starring Rochelle Hudson - Glenn Ford and directed by Nick Grinde-Plot:Betty Andrews , although innocent, is convicted of a theft of department stores and, despite the efforts of his lawyer Mary Ellis and a young journalist, Jim Brent , Betty is sentenced to a...
(1940) .... Hazel Wren - Four WivesFour WivesFour Wives is a 1939 film starring Priscilla Lane and two of her sisters, features Gale Page, Claude Raines, Eddie Albert, and John Garfield, and was directed by Michael Curtiz...
(1939) .... Thea Lemp Crowley - Daughters CourageousDaughters CourageousDaughters Courageous is a 1939 drama film starring the three Lane Sisters , with the fourth sister being played by Gale Page. The movie also stars John Garfield and Claude Rains...
(1939) .... Linda Masters - Four DaughtersFour DaughtersFour Daughters is a 1938 musical drama film that tells the story of a happy musical family whose lives and loves are disrupted by the arrival of a cynical young composer who interjects himself into the daughters' romantic lives...
(1938) .... Thea Lemp - Mr. Chump (1938) .... Jane Mason
- When Were You BornWhen Were You BornWhen Were You Born is a 1938 murder mystery film starring Anna May Wong as an astrologer who helps the police. Each of the twelve principal characters was born under a different astrological sign.-Plot:...
(1938) .... Nita Kenton (Cancer) - Torchy Blane in Panama (1938) .... Torchy Blane
- Hollywood HotelHollywood Hotel (film)Hollywood Hotel is a 1937 American film, directed by Busby Berkeley. It stars Dick Powell, Rosemary Lane, Lola Lane, and Ted Healy. Ronald Reagan, Benny Goodman and Harry James also appear....
(1937) .... Mona Marshall - The Sheik Steps Out (1937) .... Phyllis 'Flip' Murdock
- Marked WomanMarked WomanMarked Woman is a crime melodrama film released by Warner Bros. in 1937. It was directed by Lloyd Bacon, and stars Bette Davis and Humphrey Bogart, with featured performances by Lola Lane, Isabel Jewell, Rosalind Marquis, Mayo Methot, Jane Bryan, Eduardo Ciannelli and Allen Jenkins...
(1937) .... Dorothy 'Gabby' Marvin - In Paris, A.W.O.L. (1936) .... Lola
- His Night Out (1935) .... Lola
- Death from a DistanceDeath from a DistanceDeath from a Distance is a 1935 American film directed by Frank R. Strayer.It was the first feature film broadcast on U.S. commercial television, on July 2, 1941, during the first week of official commercial broadcasts on NBC's New York television station WNBT-TV.-Cast:*Russell Hopton*Lola...
(1935) .... Kay Palmer - Alias Mary Dow (1935) .... Minna
- Murder on a HoneymoonMurder on a HoneymoonMurder on a Honeymoon is a mystery film starring Edna May Oliver and James Gleason. This was the third and last time Oliver portrayed astute schoolteacher Hildegarde Withers, who in this film witnesses the death of an airplane passenger...
(1935) .... Phyllis La Font - Burn 'Em Up BarnesBurn 'Em Up BarnesBurn 'Em Up Barnes is a Mascot movie serial. It was a loose remake of the 1921 film of the same name.-Cast:*Jack Mulhall as Burn-'em-Up Barnes, racing driver nicknamed the "King of the Dirt Track" and shortly the co-owner of the Temple Barnes Transportation school bus company*Frankie Darro as...
(1934) .... Marjorie Temple - Ticket to a Crime (1934) .... Peggy Cummings
- Port of Lost Dreams (1934) .... Molly Deshon/Molly Clark Christensen
- The Woman CondemnedThe Woman Condemned- Cast :*Claudia Dell as Barbara Hammond*Lola Lane as Jane Merrick*Richard Hemingway as Jerry Beall*Jason Robards Sr. as Jim Wallace*Paul Ellis as Dapper Dan*Douglas Cosgrove as Police Chief*Mischa Auer as Dr. Wagner*Sheila Bromley as The Actress...
(1934) .... Jane Merrick - Public Stenographer (1934) .... Ann McNair
- The Woman Who Dared (1933) .... Kay Wilson
- Ex-Bad Boy (1931) .... Letta Lardo
- Hell Bound (1931) .... Platinum Reed
- The Costello Case (1930) .... Mollie
- Good NewsGood News (films)Good News is the title of two American MGM musical films based on the 1927 stage production of the same name.The first, released in 1930, was directed by Nick Grinde. The cast included Bessie Love, Cliff Edwards and Penny Singleton. The film was shot in black-and-white, although the finale was in...
(1930) .... Patricia Bingham - The Big Fight (1930) .... Shirly
- Let's Go PlacesLet's Go PlacesLet's Go Places is a 1930 musical film made by the Fox Film Corporation. Directed by Frank R. Strayer, the film uses a screenplay by William K. Wells which is based on a story by Andrew Bennison. It was choreographed by Danny Dare. The film stars Joseph Wagstaff, Lola Lane, Sharon Lynn, Frank...
(1930) .... Marjorie Lorraine - The Girl from Havana (1929) .... Joan Anders
- Fox Movietone Follies of 1929Fox Movietone Follies of 1929Fox Movietone Follies of 1929 was a black-and-white and color American musical film released by Fox Film Corporation.-Preservation status:...
(1929) .... Lila Beaumont - SpeakeasySpeakeasy (1929 film)__notoc__Speakeasy was an early talking sports drama film directed by Benjamin Stoloff and adapted by Frederick Hazlitt Brennan and Edwin J. Burke. The picture was produced and distributed by Fox Film Corporation. Lola Lane and Paul Page played the lead roles. John Wayne, age 22, had a minor role...
(1929) .... Alice Woods
Rosemary Lane
- Sing Me a Song of Texas (1945) .... Laurie Lang
- Trocadero (1944) .... Judy
- Harvest Melody (1943) .... Gilda Parker
- All by MyselfAll by Myself"All by Myself" is a power ballad written and performed by Eric Carmen in 1975.The verse is based on the second movement of Sergei Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor, Opus 18...
(1943) .... Val Stevenson - ChatterboxChatterbox- In music :* "Chatterbox", a song by composer Jerome Brainin for the musical film That’s Right You’re Wrong * Chatterbox , a 1990 album by Toadies frontman Todd Lewis and guitarist Darrel Herbert...
(1943) .... Carol Forrest - Time Out for RhythmTime Out for RhythmTime Out for Rhythm is a 1941 musical comedy film starring Rudy Vallée, Ann Miller and The Three Stooges. Alan Hale, Jr., best known for his role as Skipper Jonas Grumby on Gilligan's Island, also makes a brief appearance early on, marking one of his first film appearances.To date, there has been...
(1941) .... Frances Lewis - Four MothersFour MothersFour Mothers is the 1941 film sequel to Four Daughters and Four Wives starring Priscilla Lane and two of her sisters, and featuring Gale Page, Claude Raines, and Eddie Albert. The supporting cast includes Jeffrey Lynn, May Robson, Frank McHugh, and Dick Foran...
(1941) .... Kay Lemp Forrest - Always a Bride (1940) .... Alice Bond
- The Boys from SyracuseThe Boys from Syracuse (film)The Boys from Syracuse is a 1940 musical film directed by A. Edward Sutherland, based on a stage musical by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart, which in turn was based on the play The Comedy of Errors by William Shakespeare...
(1940) .... Phyllis - Ladies Must Live (1940) .... Pat Halliday
- An Angel from Texas (1940) .... Lydia Weston
- Four WivesFour WivesFour Wives is a 1939 film starring Priscilla Lane and two of her sisters, features Gale Page, Claude Raines, Eddie Albert, and John Garfield, and was directed by Michael Curtiz...
(1939) .... Kay Lemp - The Return of Doctor XThe Return of Doctor XThe Return of Doctor X is a 1939 American science fiction-horror film directed by Vincent Sherman and starring Wayne Morris, Rosemary Lane, and Humphrey Bogart as the title character. It was based on the short story "The Doctor's Secret" by William J. Makin...
(1939) .... Joan Vance - Daughters CourageousDaughters CourageousDaughters Courageous is a 1939 drama film starring the three Lane Sisters , with the fourth sister being played by Gale Page. The movie also stars John Garfield and Claude Rains...
(1939) .... Tinka Masters - The Oklahoma KidThe Oklahoma KidThe Oklahoma Kid is a 1939 western film starring James Cagney and Humphrey Bogart. The movie was directed for Warner Bros. by Lloyd Bacon. Cagney plays an adventurous gunslinger in a broad-brimmed cowboy hat while Bogart portrays his black-clad and viciously villainous nemesis...
(1939) .... Jane Hardwick - Blackwell's Island (1939) .... Mary 'Sunny' Walsh
- Four DaughtersFour DaughtersFour Daughters is a 1938 musical drama film that tells the story of a happy musical family whose lives and loves are disrupted by the arrival of a cynical young composer who interjects himself into the daughters' romantic lives...
(1938) .... Kay Lemp - Gold Diggers in ParisGold Diggers in ParisGold Diggers in Paris is a 1938 Warner Bros. movie musical directed by Ray Enright with musical numbers created and directed by Busby Berkeley, starring Rudy Vallee, Rosemary Lane, Hugh Herbert and Allen Jenkins.-Plot:...
(1938) .... Kay Morrow - Hollywood HotelHollywood HotelThe Hollywood Hotel was a famous hostelry and landmark located on the north side of Hollywood Boulevard between Highland and Orchid Avenues in Hollywood, California.-History:The first section of the hotel was built in 1902 by H.J...
(1937) .... Virginia Stanton - Varsity ShowVarsity ShowThe Varsity Show is one of the oldest traditions at Columbia University and certainly its oldest performing arts presentation. Founded in 1894 as a fundraiser for the university's fledgling athletic teams, the Varsity Show now draws together the entire Columbia undergraduate community for a series...
(1937) .... Barbara 'Babs' Steward
Priscilla Lane
- BodyguardBodyguard (1948 film)Bodyguard is an American semi-documentary crime film noir directed by Richard Fleischer and written by Fred Niblo Jr.and Harry Essex, based on a story written by George W. George and Robert Altman, who would on to direct MASH and other notable films...
(1948) .... Doris Brewster - Fun on a Weekend (1947) .... Nancy Crane
- Arsenic and Old LaceArsenic and Old Lace (film)Arsenic and Old Lace is a 1944 film directed by Frank Capra based on Joseph Kesselring's play of the same name. The script adaptation was by twins Julius J. Epstein and Philip G. Epstein. Capra actually filmed the movie in 1941, but it was not released until 1944, after the original stage version...
(1944) .... Elaine Harper - The Meanest Man in the World (1943) .... Janie Brown
- Silver QueenSilver QueenSilver Queen is a 1942 Western film directed by Lloyd Bacon.-Cast:* George Brent - James Kincaid* Priscilla Lane - Coralie Adams* Bruce Cabot - Gerald Forsythe* Lynne Overman - Hector Bailey* Eugene Pallette - Steve Adams...
(1942) .... Coralie Adams - SaboteurSaboteur (film)Saboteur is a 1942 Universal film directed by Alfred Hitchcock with a screenplay written by Peter Viertel, Joan Harrison, and Dorothy Parker. The movie stars Priscilla Lane, Robert Cummings, and Norman Lloyd...
(1942) .... Patricia Pat Martin - Blues in the NightBlues in the Night (1941 film)Blues in the Night is a 1941 American musical drama film released by Warner Brothers, directed by Anatole Litvak and starring Priscilla Lane, Richard Whorf, Betty Field, Lloyd Nolan, Elia Kazan, and Jack Carson...
(1941) .... Ginger 'Character' Powell - Million Dollar BabyMillion Dollar Baby (1941 film)Million Dollar Baby is a 1941 romantic comedy film directed by Curtis Bernhardt. Released by Warner Bros., the film stars Priscilla Lane, Jeffrey Lynn, and Ronald Reagan.-Plot:...
(1941) .... Pamela 'Pam' McAllister - Four MothersFour MothersFour Mothers is the 1941 film sequel to Four Daughters and Four Wives starring Priscilla Lane and two of her sisters, and featuring Gale Page, Claude Raines, and Eddie Albert. The supporting cast includes Jeffrey Lynn, May Robson, Frank McHugh, and Dick Foran...
(1941) .... Ann Lemp Deitz - Three Cheers for the Irish (1940) .... Maureen Casey
- Brother Rat and a BabyBrother Rat and a BabyBrother Rat and a Baby starring Priscilla Lane, Wayne Morris, Jane Bryan, Eddie Albert, Jane Wyman, and Ronald Reagan, is the sequel to the 1938 film Brother Rat about cadets at the Virginia Military Institute in Lexington, Virginia. Mayo Methot and Alan Ladd appear in small roles...
(1940) .... Joyce Winfree - Yes, My Darling DaughterYes, My Darling Daughter (1939 film)Yes, My Darling Daughter is a 1939 American drama film directed by William Keighley and starring Priscilla Lane. Ellen Murray is a young woman is determined to spend a weekend with her lover, Douglas Hall before he takes off to Europe for his new job.-Cast:* Priscilla Lane as Ellen Murray*...
.... Ellen Murray - Four WivesFour WivesFour Wives is a 1939 film starring Priscilla Lane and two of her sisters, features Gale Page, Claude Raines, Eddie Albert, and John Garfield, and was directed by Michael Curtiz...
(1939) .... Ann Lemp Dietz - The Roaring TwentiesThe Roaring TwentiesThe Roaring Twenties is a 1939 crime thriller starring James Cagney, Priscilla Lane, Humphrey Bogart and Gladys George. The movie was directed by Raoul Walsh, and written by Jerry Wald, Richard Macaulay and Robert Rossen based on the story "The World Moves On" by Mark Hellinger...
(1939) .... Jean Sherman, later Jean Hart - Dust Be My DestinyDust Be My DestinyDust Be My Destiny is a drama film released in 1939. John Garfield stars as a man who gets into trouble after being sentenced to a work farm.-Plot:...
(1939) .... Mabel Alden - Daughters CourageousDaughters CourageousDaughters Courageous is a 1939 drama film starring the three Lane Sisters , with the fourth sister being played by Gale Page. The movie also stars John Garfield and Claude Rains...
(1939) .... Buff Masters - Yes, My Darling DaughterYes, My Darling DaughterYes, My Darling Daughter is a 1941 song by Jack Lawrence first introduced by Dinah Shore on Eddie Cantor's radio program, as well as Shore's first record. The music used by Lawrence is based on a Ukrainian folk-song "Oj ne khody Hrytsju", often ascribed to the Ukrainian songstress Marusia Churai....
(1939) .... Ellen Murray - Brother RatBrother RatBrother Rat is a 1938 film about cadets at Virginia Military Institute in Lexington, Virginia, directed by William Keighley and starring Priscilla Lane and Wayne Morris....
(1938) .... Joyce Winfree - Four DaughtersFour DaughtersFour Daughters is a 1938 musical drama film that tells the story of a happy musical family whose lives and loves are disrupted by the arrival of a cynical young composer who interjects himself into the daughters' romantic lives...
(1938) .... Ann Lemp - Cowboy from BrooklynCowboy from BrooklynCowboy from Brooklyn is a 1938 American musical comedy film starring Pat O'Brien, Dick Powell, Priscilla Lane, Ann Sheridan, and future US President Ronald Reagan.-Plot:...
(1938) .... Jane Hardy - Men Are Such FoolsMen Are Such FoolsMen are Such Fools is a 1938 American romantic comedy film made by Warner Brothers, directed by Busby Berkeley — and starring Humphrey Bogart, Priscilla Lane, Wayne Morris, and Hugh Herbert. The story was based on a Saturday Evening Post Story by Faith Baldwin...
(1938) .... Linda Lawrence Hall - Love, Honor and Behave (1938) .... Barbara Blake
- Varsity Show (film)Varsity Show (film)Varsity Show is a 1937 feature film from Warner Brothers about a group of students at "Winfield College" who butt heads with their faculty advisor while producing an annual stage show....
(1937) .... Betty Bradley