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Jean Harlow was born Harlean Harlow Carpenter in Kansas City, Missouri in 1911. Her parents were unhappily married, and her mother devoted her entire life to her only child Harlean, whom she called "Baby". When she was 11, her parents divorced, and she moved with her mother to Hollywood, where her mother wanted to become an actress, but she had little success, and two years later they returned to Kansas City. In 1927, when Harlean was 16, she married an heir to a fortune who was two months under 21, the age when he would inherit the money. Once he did, they moved to Beverly Hills. Harlean was noticed by Fox executives and took a screen test under her mother's maiden name of Jean Harlow. She was given some bit parts, and then signed a contract with Hal Roach, and she was in three Laurel & Hardy movies, but then separated from her husband and left Roach, and moved in with her mother and mom's new husband. After some more minor roles, she was signed to play the female lead in Hell's Angels, which was already shot. But the movie had been made as a silent, and Howard Hughes made the decision to re-shoot the entire movie with sound, and since female star Greta Nissen, had a heavy Norwegian accent, she was replaced by Jean Harlow! Hell's Angels was a great success, and everyone noticed Harlow, especially in a color sequence where she wore a skimpy body hugging practically transparent dress! Harlow was under contract to Hughes, but after a major role in Platinum Blonde, she was signed by MGM, where she appeared in a series of romantic comedies, and some steamy sexy dramas, including Red Dust with Clark Gable. Harlow's personal life was a mess. She had gotten involved with MGM screenwriter Paul Bern, who was 22 years older than her. During the filming of Red Dust, Bern committed suicide, leaving a cryptic suicide note (or was he murdered?). Harlow soon married again, but that marriage was brief, and she had numerous affairs, most notably with William Powell. She also had to contend with numerous relatives who sponged off of her, most notably her mother, who was called Mama Jean. Harlow made a total of 16 movies at MGM between 1932 and 1937, and many of them are really excellent movies. One of her best roles was in the multi-star Dinner at Eight in 1933. Tragically, she became sick during the filming of Saratoga, and she died of kidney failure, at just 26 years of age! Harlow was the original blonde bombshell, and one of her movies was called "Bombshell" and was also released as "Blonde Bombshell". She exuded a combination of sexiness and innocence that no other female star ever did (at least until Marilyn Monroe came along two decades later). I highly recommend seeing her movies. She may not have been a great actress, but she is always very entertaining to watch! AND Freddie Bartholomew was born Frederick Llwellyn in London, England (or was it Dublin, Ireland?) in 1924. He was abandoned by his parents as a baby, and was raised in London by his aunt, and she gave him her last name. He had minor film and stage roles as a child, but when he was ten, his aunt took him to the U.S. where he was met by David O. Selznick, who offered him the lead in David Copperfield (full name: The Personal History, Adventures, Experience, and Observation of David Copperfield the Younger!). He was a huge hit, and he was instantly the second most popular child film star (after Shirley Temple). He made appearances in Anna Karenina and Professional Soldier, and then he played the lead in Little Lord Fauntleroy. He became SO popular that in 1936, he was top billed over Madeleine Carroll and Tyrone Power Jr. in Lloyd's of London, even though he had a relatively small part! In 1937, he had his best role ever, opposite Spencer Tracy in Captains Courageous, as the spoiled rich boy who learns of life from a simple Portuguese fisherman. But sadly, his great success caused his parents to re-surface, and they launched a court fight to regain custody of him (and his earnings). Ironically, that lengthy battle ended up eating up almost all he had earned! He made a dozen more movies by 1942, and he joined the Air Force. He was no longer a cute little boy, and his film career was basically over. In 1947 he bizarrely had a cameo in an all-black movie, Sepia Cinderella (perhaps that was all he was offered). He made one more film in 1951, St. Benny, the Dip. He went to work in advertising, and later was a producer for TV's As The World Turns. He was understandably bitter about the events in his life, and did not publicly talk about them, but in 1992, he gave an interview for a TV documentary, and died soon after, aged 67. But for several years in the mid 1930s, he had been one of the biggest stars in Hollywood!

Important Added Info: What a wonderful candid image this is! It shows Freddie Bartholomew going to visit Jean Harlow on the set of the movie she was working on at MGM, and the snipe on the back says that he is "making friends with her dachshund pet Adolph. Note that he is wearing short pants and that he has on a pair of old fashioned roller skates (the kind that attach to your shoes)! We wonder what happened to Harlow's dog after she died, and whether the new owner changed its name (for obvious reasons). Finally, there is a question as to when this still is from, because it was found in a newspaper archive, and there are three dates on the back. The oldest is "JUN 22 1937", which is two weeks after she tragically died, so it was surely used at that time, but it likely dates from around two years earlier, when Bartholomew was so big at MGM in movies like David Copperfield. If anyone knows more about this, please e-mail us and we will post it here.

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