As correctly pointed out by my twin sister Jean on her second guess, the answer to the 1931 mystery girl question is Noel Neill, who played Lois Lane in The Adventures of Superman. Noel, who is one of the nicest people ever put on this planet or any other, was also Lois in the Superman serials with Kirk Alyn.
Here is Noel in 1935, age 14, and in 1940…
… and here’s Noel in 1938, after she was a dancer, when she was a singer, and before she was an actress, with somebody whom I hope you recognize. Hint: he died in 1977, after Elvis and after Groucho.
And finally, let’s watch Noel in a memorable scene with George Reeves, from “The Wedding of Superman.”
[flv:/Movies/Wordpress/NOV06/LoisLane.flv 400 300]
Ditto da Chairman of da Boahd. You can currently buy a t-shirt that has a mug shot of him when he was VERY young (late teens). His mother was the neighborhood back-street abortionist!
I feel one must separate the person from their work. To do otherwise is to end up not admiring anybody for their accomplishments. Sinatra is another example. So’s Elvis, for that matter. Or JFK or Bill Clinton.
I double-checked it against imdb.com, but my steel-trap memory was CORRECT! His final words, on the green, were: “That was a great game of golf, fellers … ” then he keeled over, dead before he even hit the ground. Many people, including his grown sons, felt he didn’t deserve such a quick, clean exit! Son Lindsey committed suicide several years later (he can be heard singing sweetly with his dad on “I Wanna Hitch a Ride With Santa Claus;” the kid really did have a beautiful voice). Gary, the eldest, had the best relationship with him. However, Der Bingle was a notorious womaniizer who was cruel to his first wife Dixie and delayed his SECOND wife to Kathryn Grayson so he could enjoy his fling to Grace Kelly a bit longer.
All together now: “I’m dreaming … of a WHITE CHRISTMAS!” I’ll take sweet, loving Noel Neill any time over Bing.
Technical note: This Superman clip is the second time I’ve tried a different technique for Flash video, when coming through the video capture board, instead of the cable TV tuner. After editing the file I save it in a non-compressed format. The resulting file was over 1GB, for just those few minutes! However, the results when converting to Flash video are much better than when going from one type of compression to another. I’ll stick with this from now on, at least for the short videos.
Bing’s last words? Hmm. I thought this was going to be a joke, but I think there actually is a real answer.
I was going to see Hollywoodland with my buddy Morris, but we couldn’t get out schedules to mesh. He liked it! So yes, I’ll definitely rent it.
It’s interesting that Noel got her start the same way as Doris Day, teenage vocalist for a band. Except Noel didn’t get pregnant at 16 like Doris did, with one of the musicians. The late Terry Melcher was Day’s son, her only child.
One more comment! Are you going to rent “Hollywoodland” when it comes out on DVD? It got some pretty crummy reviews; I mean, Ben Affleck with a putty nose playing George Reeves? Come ON!
Pop quiz! What were Bing Crosby’s VERY LAST WORDS?
What a lovely woman! She has a REAL figure, not a pencil-thin non-figure like today’s women. Yes, I WAS right; you said she was one of the nicest people you’d ever want to meet. She was one of the reasons I really enjoyed watching “Superman,” because I secretly wanted a big sister or teacher or surrogate Mom just like her (no offense, Mom upstairs, I’d NEVER replace you!)
Natch, this episode was my FAVORITE, until Lois wakes up at the end! It was all just a dream! Then Jimmy Olson comes by with flowers for her from Superman and she starts crying and tells him to take them to a hospital, anywhere, “Just get them out of my sight!” and she flings herself down on her bed and weeps! I always cried quietly so you cool bros wouldn’t notice! But then, you were too busy noticing the way theparticularly interesting way the bad guyzALWAYS tied up Miss Lane with the ropes! tee hee …