1924
The Lana Turner Timeline
1895
Date Unknown- Lana's father John "Virgil" Turner is born in the southern city of Montgomery, Alabama.
1904
February 12- Lana's mother Mildred (Cowan) Turner is born in the chicken farming town of Lamarr Arkansas.
1913
May 5- Lana's favorite "leading man" Tyrone Power is born in Cincinnati, Ohio.
1920
February 16- Sixteen year old Mildred Cowan is so smitten with twenty-five year old John "Virgil" Turner that the couple elopes to Wallace, Idaho.
Lana on her mother and father getting together:
...Anyway my father was just out of the army. He had served as an infantry platoon sergeant in World War I and had received several medals for valor. He was heading westward, working in the mines and I guess that's how he got to Pitcher (Oklahoma). After a night of dancing, he and my mother fell in love.
He was twenty-four, but she was only fifteen. When he began to court her, my grandfather put his foot down. So, what could they do? They eloped.
1921
February 8- Wallace Idaho welcomes it's newest resident. At 12:30 pm, at Providence Hospital just outside of Wallace (in the small town of Burke, Idaho), Julia Jean Turner is born to John "Virgil" Turner and his child bride, Mildred, who is just four days short of her 17th birthday.
Lana's thoughts on her birthday:
...And I'll begin with my birth date, which was never printed accurately. I am one year younger than the records show. Now if I were going to lie about my age, I might as well make it two, three or five years. Why they always got it wrong by one year, I'll never understand. Anyway there it is on my birth certificate: Julia Jean Turner, born in Wallace, Idaho, February 8, 1921.
1924
Date Unknown- Mildred, Virgil, and three year old Julia Jean move from their "little house near the railroad tracks" to a slightly larger one at 217 bank street in Wallace, Idaho.
1927
The Turner family moves from Wallace, Idaho to San Francisco, California. Shortly after their arrival, Virgil and Mildred separate. Virgil subsequently finds work as a stevedore at the Pacific Coast Steamship Company.
1930
December 10- Vigil Turner is tragically killed, when after an all night poker game, in which he brags that he is going to buy his little girl a bicycle, he is beaten over the head, and his left sock is left missing. That was where he had always kept his winnings. His daughter never gets over the event.
Lana on the death of her father:
...How long I had been asleep I don't know, but suddenly I was sitting up straight in the darkness. Before me was a vision so intense that it seemed to be alive. I saw a huge medallion of shining gold, and on it was embossed the face of God, a shimmering countenance, comforting, benign. A voice said, "Your father is dead." I was filled with awe but also with a strange sense of peace as I closed my eyes and went back to sleep.
When I awoke in the morning, my mother and Julia Hislop (a family friend) were whispering in a corner. They didn't have to tell me why. I already knew that my father was dead. And when the feeling of peace wore off, the surprise at having known intensified my sense of loss and sorrow. Although I was only nine, I could imagine what death meant. I knew he was gone forever.
1935
September-Lana and her mother move to Los Angeles after a doctor advises Mildred, who is suffering from respiratory problems, to move to a drier climate than that of San Francisco.
Lana's thoughts on she and her mother's arrival in Los Angeles:
...We rattled our way into Los Angeles-the biggest city I'd ever seen, it's wide streets lined with ornate stone buildings, with bright, imposing signs. The woman (who was driving them) dropped us off at the corner of Sunset Boulevard and Highland Avenue, where we untied our muddy suitcases and unloaded our dented boxes and crumpled bags. Amid this scanty luggage, we sat on the curb until Gladys picked us up.
That was my introduction to Hollywood, movie capital of the world! But it hardly struck me then. All I noticed were those glorious art deco buildings on Sunset and Wilshire boulevards, with their gleaming fluted stone and chrome-so modern, so sophisticated. And I was really impressed with the new building there on the corner where we waited. It was Hollywood High, my new school.
October- Only six weeks after arriving in Los Angeles, Lana is discovered by the Hollywood Reporter's William Wilkerson while sitting on a soda stool at the Top Hat Cafe, across the street from Hollywood High. Contrary to popular belief, she wasn't exactly bored with her typing class, but in dire need of a cigarette and had to be far enough away from the school so she wouldn't get caught smoking or worse, going AWOL.
1937
February 12- Producer/director Mervyn LeRoy signs Lana to her first film contract. She will be paid the standard fifty dollars per week, twice what her mother made working as a beautician.
March- Production begins on They Won't Forget.
June 16- Production begins on The Adventures of Marco Polo
July 14- They Won't Forget is released. Lana, although her part is a very short ten minutes, creates a sensation while walking down the street in sweater. For the next 60 years, much to her chagrin, she will be nicknamed "The Sweater Girl".
September- The Adventures of Marco Polo completes production.
October 30- The Great Garrick is released.
1938
April 7- The Adventures of Marco Polo is released.
May- Production begins on Love Finds Andy Hardy
June 24- Production begins on Rich Man, Poor Girl.
July- Love Finds Andy Hardy completes production.
Rich Man, Poor Girl completes production.
July 22- Love Finds Andy Hardy is released.
August 12- Rich Man, Poor Girl is released.
September 8- Dramatic School begins production.
December 9- Dramatic School is released.
1939
February 13- Production begins on Calling Dr. Kildare.
March 27- Production ends on Calling Dr. Kildare.
April 28- Calling Dr. Kildare is released.
June 5- Production begins on These Glamour Girls.
July 6- Production ends on These Glamour Girls.
July 19- Production begins on Dancing Co-Ed
August- Production ends on Dancing Co-Ed.
August 18- These Glamour Girls is released.
September 29- Dancing Co-Ed is released.
1940
January 18- Production begins on Two Girls on Broadway.
February 13- Lana Turner weds band leader Artie
Shaw on a dare, after only one date.
Lana on her elopement with Shaw:
...It wasn't that I fell in love with Artie that night. I wasn't even physically attracted. But here was a wonderfully intelligent man, far more talented and famous than Greg (Bautzer, the lawyer that she had been seeing) would ever be, who took me seriously. And underneath it all I can see, looking back, was the desire to get even with Greg.
So when Artie asked, "Do you mean what you're saying?" I said, "With all my heart."
"Suppose I were to call up right now and charter a plane? Would you come with me?"
"Yes I would."
"Swell," Artie said. "Let's go"
We didn't even kiss on it. He simply squeezed my hand and started the car. We drove to his house on Summit Ridge, where he called Paul Muntz, who had a charter plane service out of Burbank. When we hung up we drove straight to the airport. It wasn't until we were seated in the plane, side by side, that Artie kissed me shyly. We smiled at each other.
Looking down on the lights of Los Angeles, I thought, "How my life is going to change! But it seems so right, and it will be. It was destined to happen like this..."
In Las Vegas a taxi met our plane, and the driver found us a justice of the peace. George E. Marshall married us in his bathrobe and pajamas. When it was time to place the ring on my finger, Artie took off his own, a blue star sapphire set in platinum. Of course it didn't fit, but it made me his wife.
After the ceremony we went out to an all-night diner for coffee. Suddenly I realized that my mother had no idea where I was. The taxi drove us to the telegraph office, and I wrote out a message: Got Married In Las Vegas. Call You Later. Love, Lana.
March- Production ends on Two Girls on Broadway.
April- Production begins on We Who Are Young
April 19- Two Girls on Broadway is released.
July 19- We Who Are Young is released.
September- Production begins on Ziegfeld Girl.
September 12- Lana Turner and Artie Shaw are divorced.
Lana on the end of her marriage to Artie Shaw:
One morning Artie was in the bathroom, and he asked me to bring him some orange juice. As an afterthought, he threw in, "And when you go out, take my shoes to be shined."
"I can't today, Artie. I'll be on the set all day."
"Goddamn it, this is more important," he yelled back.
When I brought him the juice, I couldn't get the door open.
"Pull it hard," he shouted. "It's not locked."
We both kicked and shoved and pulled the door, but it wouldn't budge. Artie grew angrier still. "What did you do to the damned door? I'm kicking it down!" he bellowed.
All of a sudden, I started laughing uncontrollably. I could imagine Artie behind the door, red-faced and steaming. With a few furious kicks he smashed it in and came charging out like a wounded bull. Ignoring the orange juice, he stormed out of the house, half dressed, trailing a towel behind him. "You be sure to have those shoes shined," he called back.
That trivial incident was the last straw. I went straight to the telephone and called Greg Bautzer, the only lawyer I knew I could trust. Though he hadn't been very good at keeping our dates, this time he came through. "Get your things together," he said. "I'll have you out of there today."
1941
February 4- Production begins on Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
March- Production ends on Ziegfeld Girl.
April 6- Lana makes her first ever radio appearance on The Chase and Sanborn Program along with Edger Bergen and Charlie McCarthy and Abbott and Costello.
April 8- Production ends on Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
April 25- Ziegfeld Girl is released, making Lana Turner a legitimate screen star. Lana's salary is now raised to $1500 per week.
June- Production begins on Honky Tonk
June 2- Lana appears in a Lux Radio Theatre adaptation of They Drive By Night with George Raft and Lucille Ball.
August- Production ends on Honky Tonk
August 12- Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is released. It would be Lana's first pairing with Spencer Tracy.
September 2- Production begins on Johnny Eager
September 22- Lana appears with Rita Hayworth, Pat O' Brien and others in The Salute of Champions, which was a special radio tribute to Uncle Sam's Armed Forces.
October 1- Honky Tonk is released. It would be the first time that Lana would co-star with Clark Gable.
October 28- Production ends on Johnny Eager.
November 14- Lana appears on The Philip Morris Playhouse.
November 26- Lana appears in Night of Stars along with Mickey Rooney, Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy and Bud Abbott. This show was a special program that was to raise money for relief (assistance for the poor).
December 31- Lana got to give a plug to the USO in this coast to coast description of New Year's Eve celebrations.
1942
January 15- Production begins on Somewhere I'll Find You
January 16- Production is halted on Somewhere I'll Find You due to the tragic death of Clark Gable's wife Carole Lombard, from injuries she suffered in a plane crash over Las Vegas. It is in limbo as to whether the film will be finished with Mr. Gable, or whether it will be finished at all.
Lana on the death of Carole Lombard and her admiration for Clark Gable:
...She was on her way home from a war-bond selling tour, and her plane had crashed outside Las Vegas. Afterward I heard a dreadful rumor that she had been scheduled to take her train , but decided to fly instead-the reason, the story had it, was her uneasiness over my working with Clark.
Clark was devastated by her death. The whole studio was in a state of shock. A pall settled over everyone connected with the picture. For all we knew, the filming had to be shut down for good; we hardly expected him to come back at all.
At the studio I found a message that Mr. Mayer wished to see me. When I went to his office he told me that things were going to be very trying for Clark and for everyone else. "Now Lana," he said, "here's where you come in. You're going to be very patient with him. If his mind should wander, don't be upset, you just be ready at all times. If he wants to come in earlier, you be there before him. If he wants to work through lunch, do it. A lot of the pressure of this picture is going to be riding on your shoulders. We're trying to arrange for people to go home with him for dinner. If he should ask you, go. Agreed?"
"But I don't know him that well," I said.
"Never mind. Just do as I say."
"I'll try with all my heart," I promised him.
One night Clark did invite me for dinner. A studio limousine delivered me to the house he had shared with Carole. His male servant served the meal. As we ate I chatted brightly, trying to ease the sorrow that lined his handsome face. But he never mentioned it. He was courtly and cordial and far too private for that.
After dinner Clark showed me his gun collection. He had been polishing some of his pieces-a cherished hobby, I thought, that gave him comfort now. Then the studio limousine arrived to take me home.
After that evening my esteem for him grew even greater. That was the first and only social occasion I ever shared with him, though we made two more pictures together and got along well. His willingness to finish the film at all showed his decency. And although some say they could see a difference in the way her performed before and after the tragedy, I for one was never able to detect it. He was the consummate professional. No wonder they called him The King.
January 17- Johnny Eager is is released.
January 19- Lana stars alongside actor Lionel Barrymore in a Lux Radio Theatre adaptation of The Devil and Mrs. Jones.
February 8- On the eve of her 21st birthday Lana appears alongside Errol Flynn in a Screen Guild Players adaptation of Mr. and Mrs. Smith.
February 23- Production resumes on Somewhere I'll Find You. The cast and crew are instructed to try to get through the days work as best they can. The usually outgoing and fun loving Lana is quiet and subdued in order to be respectful of Mr. Gable.
May 6- Production ends on Somewhere I'll Find You
Springtime- MGM sends Lana on a war bond tour, including a stop at her birth place of Wallace Idaho. She'd not visited the town since moving to San Francisco at aged six, in 1927.
Lana's thoughts on returning to Wallace:
Once the film (Somewhere I'll Find You) was completed the studio sent me on another war bond tour, and I took my mother with me. The itinerary had been arranged so I could visit my birthplace, Wallace, Idaho. All those little towns, with their little frame houses and quiet main streets, each with a barbershop, a luncheonette. Even the cities-factory towns near the munitions plants, filled with row on row of shingle-faced homes-were so different from the extravagant Los Angeles that was now my home. Riding through the mountains I had a spell of homesickness, I remember thinking of the vast blue California sky. But as we approached Wallace I saw a splendid rainbow spanning the road ahead. It was like a sign of welcome to the town I'd left when I was six.
We checked into our hotel and we were told that the Mayor had declared a holiday in my honor. A banner stretched across the street read, in large letters, Welcome Home Lana. We'd been in our rooms only a few moments when people who claimed to have known us when we lived in Wallace began knocking on the door. Their names seemed strange to me. My mother said later that she remembered only a few of them , but she played her part graciously.
Later, when we stood on the platform with all eyes fixed on us-if I'd stayed there, I'd have been among them-I thought of how much my life had changed since my parents swept me off to the Golden Gate. Then I realized that it was only five years since I had first walked down a studio street, wearing a tight fitting sweater. During those short years I had appeared in some fifteen pictures, had been married and divorced, and had become America's glamour queen. Only five years before I had wrapping Christmas packages after school for only $12 per week. And today the bank and the schools were closed because I was back in town. The movies could do all this. What power they had to fire the public imagination! What was that elusive quality that separated me from the young Wallace, Idaho, girls straining to get a glimpse of me, that quality that made me a star?
May 30- Lana, Deanna Durbin, Mickey Rooney and Harpo Marx all get to promote the USO on The Hollywood All-Star USO Rally.
June 10- Lana did a radio sketch called The Rose is for Valor for the Portland Oregon Rose Festival.
July 17- Lana weds broker Stephan Crane, after
having known him for only a week.
Lana on her (first) marriage to Steve Crane:
...Like me, he had been married before. But when he proposed eloping to Las Vegas, though my inner voices were telling me to delay, I didn't want to listen. An amazing man, handsome and cultivated and clever, loved me. And I passionately wanted him too.
Linda Darnell and Alan Gordon, a publicist who was a good friend of Stephan's flew us to Las Vegas. Again Las Vegas! All four of us were giddy with excitement. Linda and I giggled as we pinned on our orchids. Then suddenly my eyes filled with tears. "Oh Linda," I wailed, clutching her, "I'm going to be so happy."
The ceremony was simple and brief. Stephan kissed me sweetly, as the justice and our witnesses clapped and laughed. It was a different justice of the peace this time, contrary to legend. Then we all went out for a champagne brunch before returning to Los Angeles and to the reception my mother had organized at our house on McCulloch Drive.
August 27- Somewhere I'll Find You is released.
September- Production begins on DuBarry Was a Lady.
October 9- Lana, Bob Hope and Judy Garland give a special command performance for servicemen overseas.
November 6- Production ends on DuBarry Was a Lady.
1943
February 4- Lana's marriage to Steve Crane is annulled
March 8- The Youngest Profession is released
March 14- Lana and Crane reconcile for a time.
March 29- Lana, large with child, does a Lux Radio Theatre adaptation of Crossroads with Jean-Pierre Aumont.
April 1-
Slightly Dangerous is released.
It was during the filming of the picture that Lana discovered that she was
pregnant.
From The Fort Wayne Indiana Journal Gazette. April 5, 1943.
Lana Turner Rewed to Crane; Their 1st Marriage Annulled
Hollywood April 5 (AP):
Lana Turner said today that she and Stephen Crane-whose first marriage was annulled last month-had remarried in Tijuana, Mexico, on March 14. In obtaining the annulment, Miss Turner told the court she was expecting a child as a result of her marriage to Crane. At the time, the screen star said she did not plan to remarry Crane. She obtained the annulment on the ground that when she married the broker, his previous wife's divorce was not final. A spokesman for Miss Turner said she and Crane had hoped to keep their remarriage secret. She and Crane were first married last July 17, in Las Vegas, Nev. In the last few weeks, Miss Turner and Crane have been seen frequently together at public gatherings, but as usual, each time she said it was purely friendship. "We tried to keep our marriage a secret for my husband's sake," Lana explained by phone from her home. "You see, we got married the day before he went into the army. We didn't want people to know about it until he got established-you see, he's still at Ft. MacArthur. "I married him because I love him and because I want our baby to have a normal life with his father.". Miss Turner expects her child about July 20.
July 25- At dawn, at Hollywood Hospital in Los
Angeles, Lana gives birth to her only child, a 7 lb 13 oz. daughter, Cheryl
Christina Crane.
August 13- DuBarry was a Lady is released. Lana has a small cameo in the film.
September 29- Lana's first professional outing after the birth of her baby was on Night Clubs for Victory, a program in which she helped promote the sale of War Bonds.
October 1- Lana stars in Philip Morris Playhouse's adaptation of The Talk of the Town.
October 10- Lana appears in Radio Readers Digest.
October 25- Lana stars alongside Victor Mature and Gene Lockhart (Lassie's Mom!) in Lux Radio Theatre's adaptation of Slightly Dangerous.
November 4- Lana appears on The Abbott and Costello Show.
November 13- Lana, Bob Hope and Betty Hutton give an overseas command performance for servicemen overseas for CBS radio.
1944
May 2- Lana appears on
The Burns and Allen Show for CBS radio.
May 7- Lana and Walter Pidgeon star in a radio adaptation of Lucky Partners.
June 14- Lana appears on The Frank Sinatra Show.
July 5- Lana appears on The Orson Wells Show.
August 21- Lana's strained marriage to Stephan Crane ends for the second and final time.
Lana on the end of her Marriage to Stephan Crane:
One evening I made up my mind that it was time for a serious talk. I told Stephan that I couldn't take it anymore, that the marriage was over and I wanted a divorce. He slammed out of the house in a rage. When he came back he said that he refused to let me divorce him. We were stalemated for a while because he wouldn't move out. Once he locked our bedroom door and grabbed me by the arms, threatening to shake some sense into me. He kept shouting that I couldn't divorce him, that I had to think of our child.
I rarely lie, but this time I did. I made up a story on the spot, though I was shocked to think of it afterward. I told Stephan that I was in love with another man. "Who?" he asked, but I said it didn't matter. When he persisted I came up with a name. A second bold lie, the handiest name I could think of. "It's John Hodiak," I said.
Stephan couldn't believe it, but I convinced him with details. I spun out a whole fictitious affair. Finally he agreed to the divorce, but he threatened to counter sue, naming John as the correspondent. I eventually talked him out of that plan. But I knew I'd have to tell John I'd used his name.
He was utterly shocked-and worried. "Suppose he comes gunning for me?"
I assured him that Stephan was not dangerous and in April 1944 I got the divorce.
August 23- Lana returns to the screen after an 18 month absence, after having been on maternity leave, in Marriage is a Private Affair. It is Lana's only 1944 screen appearance.
August 28- Production begins on Keep Your Powder Dry
November 6- Not sure if this is what later became The Democratic National Convention, but Lana, Humphrey Bogart, Jimmy Cagney and Jimmy Durante all appear together on The Democratic National Committee Program (for radio) on behalf of the re-election of President Roosevelt.
November 7- Production ends on Keep Your Powder Dry
November 20- Lana and actor John Hodiak appear together in Screen Guild Players' adaptation of Once Upon a Honeymoon.
November 28- Lana stars in Dick Haymes' Everything for the Boys.
1945
January 1- Lana's new $4,000 per week contract takes effect.
March 4- Lana appears with actor Phil Baker in Take it or Leave It for CBS radio.
March 8- Keep Your Powder Dry is released.
May 3- Lana stars in Suspense for CBS radio.
October 5- Week-End at the Waldorf is released.
1946
April 11- Lana appears alongside actor John Hodiak in Lux Radio Theatre's adaptation of Honky Tonk.
April 25- Lana makes an appearance at the first anniversary of The United Nations Charter on the roof of the Hotel Astor in New York City.
May 2- The Postman Always Rings Twice is released and is smash hit upon it's release. Lana is now being paid $226,000 for two pictures per year, making her one of the country's ten highest paid women.
May 3- Lana appears alongside Kate Smith (?) in Kate Smith Sings for CBS radio.
June 17- Lana appears alongside actor John Hodiak in Screen Guild Players' adaptation of Marriage is a Private Affair.
August 14- Lana stars in Academy Award Theatre's adaptation of Vivacious Lady.
September 9- Lana stars alongside Benny Goodman in The Victor Borge Show for NBC radio.
Winter- Lana, Baby Cheryl and Cheryl's nanny spend the early part of the winter in New York City where Lana is doing a promotional tour for her newest picture, Green Dolphin Street. The trio stays at the Sherry Netherland Hotel overlooking Central Park.
December 31- Lana and Tyrone Power ring in 1947 with a romantic lark in Acapulco, Mexico. Lana would later say that the time spent there was the most romantic of her entire life.
Lana on New Years Eve with Tyrone:
That night, we had a very late dinner in a little restaurant on the town square. At twelve o'clock the church bells began to ring. Midnight! Tyrone and I looked at each other, and I think the same thought popped into both our heads at the same instant. Without a word, we leaped from our chairs and ran across the tiny town square, racing for the church, determined to make it up the steps and onto the steeple balcony before the bells finished chiming...I really can't remember why. Maybe we thought it would mean good luck for us both, maybe it was inspired by wine, but we just did it, like a pair of kids. Tyrone held my hand as we ran, and I struggled not to fall in my long dress and high heels. Eight, nine, ten-and we made it! Laughing we reached the church balcony just as the last two peals of midnight sounded. Then, I remember, we turned to each other and the laughter stopped. Solemnly, we made our silent wishes for the New Year and we embraced. That long kiss was among the most heartfelt I've ever given or received. I wanted it to go on and on, and I wished with all my heart that that magical night would never come to an end.
1947
March 13- Lana presents the Best Musical Score Award to Morris Stoloff for The Jolson Story at the 19th Annual Academy Awards Presentation.
June 23- Lana and John Garfield reprise their roles of Frank Chambers and Cora Smith in Screen Guild Players' adaptation of The Postman Always Rings Twice.
September- Lana gives her current beau, Tyrone Power (who is going away on a "two-month world tour") a $10,000 dollar going away party at the Mocambo nightclub. She spares no expense and even has orchids flown in from Hawaii. Rather than thank her for the soiree her slips away from the party without incident. Though she has no way of knowing it yet, it is the beginning of the end of their relationship.
Lana on the end of her relationship with Tyrone Power:
...We sat down together on the window seat, and a feeling of dread overcame me. I knew there were questions I had to ask, and I was afraid of the answers. I drew a deep breath.
"All right, Tyrone, what is it? There's something going on, isn't there? Something I don't know about."
Now he looked straight at me, and his expression told the story. "Yes, Lana, there is."
"Is it another woman?" The dreaded question.
The dreaded answer. "Yes."
Looking back now, I suppose he expected me to ask who and how and why. But that one word deflated me completely. It took everything out of me-my heart, my soul, my guts. I couldn't say a word. Here I'd given up the baby I'd wanted so much, believing that at least I'd have Tyrone and someday we would have children together. Now, a double blow, like in a bad movie. Later I learned who the other woman was. Linda Christian. She had just happened to be in Rome and had run into Tyrone at the Hotel Excelsior. Linda Christian, the girl I supposedly mistreated on the set of Green Dolphin Street. What a coincidence. Tyrone's whole trip may have been nothing but a setup to break the two of us apart. And it worked. I just couldn't believe it.
Now Tyrone was standing at the door, looking at me mournfully. "This doesn't have to be the end for us," he said. "You know I care for you, so we can be friends, can't we?"
"No". I shook my head, calm on the outside, inside churning with pain, rage, humiliation.
He smiled at me, a charming, winning, smile. "I don't understand why we can't have a drink now and then, or go to dinner."
"Tyrone, will you please leave?" My control was slipping fast, but I was damned if I'd lose my dignity in front of him.
His face sobered up completely, and he reached automatically for the doorknob. He kept staring hard at me as though trying to read my face. I showed him nothing but pride. "All right, I'll leave," he said quietly and shut the door behind him.
There were no goodbyes, nothing. Just a door shut between us forever. A simple click of the latch and everything ended.
I put my glass down on the little bar in the den, walked quickly upstairs, threw myself onto my bed, and wept until I was too exhausted to cry anymore.
October 5- Lana appears on Louella Parson's radio show for ABC radio.
November 5- Green Dolphin Street is released.
November 6- Cass Timberlaine is released.
November 16- Lana makes
a guest appearance on The Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy Show for NBC
radio.
December 10- Lana appears on This is New York for CBS radio.
December 11- Lana does a guest spot on Broadway and Vine with Radie Harris.
Late- Still rebounding from Tyrone Power, Lana begins seeing millionaire and "tin-plate" heir Bob Topping. Although he is a married man, he has been trying to win her affections for a year. She makes it clear to him that she does not love him, but accepts his proposal of marriage after he drops a diamond ring into her martini glass.
Lana on Bob's proposal and the infamous diamond ring:
...While we were sitting there a messenger arrived, and Bob excused himself from the table. When he returned I didn't notice that he had dropped something into my martini. Eventually, I picked up the drink, and something flashed in the bottom. Believe me, it was not and onion or an olive.
"Fish it out," he said.
What I fished out of the martini glass was a fifteen-carat marquise diamond ring! As I wiped it dry it flashed brilliant rays. It was the most beautiful diamond that I had ever seen, with a luminous, intense fire. The messenger had brought it along with some others, from which Bob had made his selection.
For a few long minutes I was too amazed to speak. Finally, I asked, "What's this for?"
"I'm asking you to marry me."
"But you know I don't love you. I've told you that. And you haven't gotten your divorce yet."
"Don't think about that now," he said. "You'll learn how much I love you and how much I'll treasure you for the rest of our lives if you'll only tell me yes." And he went on, making promises that way men in love do and assuring me that I'd learn to love him. He said it all so sweetly and dearly and sincerely that I really believed it might work. And I did want to be loved by someone who would shelter me in his arms and protect me, and help me get over the shattering loss of Tyrone.
I tried on the ring, on the engagement finger.
"Yes?" he asked.
"Yes," I whispered. There's something awfully compelling about a large engagement ring.
1948
April 13- Lana made an appearance on a Bob Hope radio show that was broadcast live on the radio from her old alma-mater, Hollywood High School. The show was a benefit for the Hollywood YMCA Little Green Valley Camp Fund.
April 26-
Lana weds Bob Topping at
the home of Billy Wilkerson, the man who had discovered her at the Top Hat Cafe
drinking a Coke a dozen years before.
Lana on her wedding to Bob Topping:
By the morning of the wedding, my nerves were frayed. The wedding gown was late and got it's final stitches only that morning. But the ceremony itself went nicely, with the retired pastor of the Hollywood Presbyterian Church officiating. Bob's best man was Billy Wilkerson, and Cheryl was my flower girl. I was given away by my good doctor, William Branch, while a string orchestra played the wedding music. Among the guests were Louis B. Mayer, Eddie Mannix, Greg Bautzer, George Sidney and his wife, Lillian Burns, Ben Cole, Cubby and Nedra Broccoli, and of course my mother.
Only one news photographer had been invited to attend, and he was supposed to share his pictures with the rest. The studio sent bouncers to handle the press, and we didn't even know the Beverly Hills police would dispatch six uniformed men to keep out the public. But after the ceremony, pandemonium reigned as fans and newsman broke down the barricades, trampling Billy's shrubbery to dust. Flashbulbs popped like fireworks as the newsmen shouted, "Look this way, Lana!" or "Come on! Kiss each other."
After the reception we escaped to a bungalow in the gardens of the Beverly Hills Hotel. But poor Billy! Thinking we were still there, an enormous crowd besieged his house until the wee hours of the morning when the police were finally able to disperse them.
April 29- Homecoming is released.
October 20- The Three Musketeers is released.
December 10- Lana received a Modern Screen Award during an appearance on Broadway and Vine with Radie Harris.
1949
July 25- Lana gives Baby Cheryl a lavish, western-themed sixth birthday party at the Riviera Country Club in Bel Air. All of the "star babies" dress up in denims and Lana spares no expense, even presenting her daughter with a brand new pony.
September 19- Lana, Van Heflin and Peter Lawford appear together in Lux Radio Theatre's adaptation of Green Dolphin Street.
October 6- Lana stars alongside Clark Gable in Screen Guild Player's adaptation of Homecoming.
December 15- Lana appears in Suspense for CBS radio.
1950
May
24- Lana places her hand and footprints in the cement outside of Grauman's
Chinese Theatre.
September 1- A Life of Her Own is released. It is Lana's first film after a two year absence, after being suspended by MGM for refusing to do yet another costume drama.
1951
February 8- On the eve of her 30th birthday, Lana appears alongside actor John Hodiak in Screen Guild Players' adaptation of The Postman Always Rings Twice.
March 2- Mr. Imperium is released.
September- Depressed and despondent over her shaky box office standing (Mr. Imperium was a notorious flop) and her separation from her third husband Bob Topping, Lana locks herself in her bathroom and cuts both of her wrists in a vain suicide attempt. Luckily her business manager and close family friend, Benton Cole, who is visiting at the time, breaks open the bathroom door and saves her life. It is explained to Baby Cheryl and the press that she hurt her wrists after she "fell through the shower door".
Lana on her suicide attempt:
...As I recoiled from the news nothing seemed to matter anymore. My career was a hollow success, a tissue of fantasies on film. Cheryl loved my mother, and they were both comfortably endowed in my will. I had never before felt or believed I could be in such a dark hole mentally, physically, and worst of all spiritually. All the good in my life-my mother, my child, my work, my friends-was blotted out by the dead feeling that nothing really mattered. I hadn't heard that suicide was a "cry for help". To me it meant putting a big stop to the pain and anguish. There was none of that "I'll show them. Boy they'll miss me when I'm gone" nonsense. I wasn't trying to hurt anyone. I was aware that everyone would go on and survive, but I knew I definitely could not. I wanted out.
I planned everything. I had a bottle of sleeping pills. I sent Cheryl off to visit my mother one afternoon. Then, to compose myself, I sat down with a cigarette and a drink.
Suddenly the doorbell rang. My mother must have suspected something because she asked Ben Cole to stop by. He chatted to me in the living room but I hardly heard his words. The talk became oppressive, an endless dull hum, unbearable. I escaped to the bathroom to shut it out and locked both doors.
When I caught sight of myself in the mirror I forgot Ben was in the living room. I grew entranced by my own image, thinking, "This is the life that will be lost. It doesn't matter at all. There is nothing left to do." -Thinking calmly about myself like a different person, as if it were someone else's face that hung there in the mirror. In a trance I opened the cabinet and took out the bottle of pills. Methodically I downed them one by one. Then I thought I would take no chances of being revived. So I took out a razor blade. I didn't hesitate for an instant. With one sharp movement, I sliced across my wrist. There was no pain at all. I saw the blood spurt out and that was the last thing I knew.
I woke up in a darkened room at the hospital. Only one light was on, where somebody was working on my wrist. The pain was terrible.
I was vaguely aware sometime during the reviving process that they were interrupting, interfering with my big chance never to have to fight again, or know distrust, deceit, unfaithfulness-so many rotten feelings no one knew I had because I had kept them so deep within me. I heard myself yelling, "It hurts. It hurts. Give me something." And a voice (it was Dr. McDonald's) answering, "Like hell I will. You've had enough." He was sewing up my wrist. I had cut a tendon and the veins had retreated. He had to stretch them to join them together again. I listened as he scolded me, telling me how much I had to live for, how many people loved me. How my suffering was terrible, yes, but other people suffered too. I was lucky to have a beautiful daughter, I was blessed with talents and the means to support myself well. Slowly I began to feel ashamed. I cried quietly for what seemed like hours, and when I had exhausted my tears I felt a sense of hope, a stiffening of the spirit.
Always before in moments of crisis I called on that power we call God to help me through. This time, having lost faith in others and my faith in myself, I had lost my hope in God too. Now that hope returned. I really believed that He hadn't wanted me to die.
November 11- Lana makes an appearance (alongside current beau Fernando Lamas) on Louella Parson's radio show. The show takes place at the premiere of An American in Paris.
1952
September 5- The Merry Widow is released.
December- The Bad and the Beautiful is released. (It would be released in December in Los Angeles and released on January 15 in New York.)
December 12- Lana and Bob Topping are divorced.
1953
August 12- Latin Lovers is released.
September 8- Lana weds Tarzan actor Lex
Barker.
Lana on her wedding to Lex Barker:
...He rented a villa near Turin for all of us. And I do mean all. I had Cheryl and her governess with me, and Lex had his children, Lynne and Zan. We plotted carefully to keep the marriage a secret from the paparazzi, who kept their lenses trained on the villa. The civil ceremony would be held in the Turin town hall on September 8, 1953.
To fool the press Lex sent the children off to the movies with the governess. Surely if we were to be married we would have our children with us. Then, to further confuse the photographers, he would hide me in the car and drive me through the gates of the villa, supposedly alone. He had me lie on the floor of the backseat , then spread a rug over me. But the paparazzi weren't all that easy to fool. They followed the car anyway.
I felt the car careening and the tires squealing beneath me. Lex speeded up. He was a good driver but a little reckless. I was being tossed back and forth on the floor, and my pretty wedding outfit was becoming a mess. "Must you drive so fast?" I called to him.
"Hang on!" he called back. "I'm losing them."
But he was wrong. It was like outrunning a swarm of bees only to find a much larger swarm in front of you. There were hundreds more paparazzi, it seemed, crowded in front of the town hall. Getting up the steps was like fighting your way upstream in a raging torrent. But somehow we got inside, and the doors were barred . We got through the ceremony in relative peace. But the moment we said our "I do's" the door was thrown open and the photographers streamed in. Thank God it wasn't Artie Shaw I was marrying, or somebody might have been killed.
1954
February 14- Lana makes a live appearance on Ed Sullivan's Toast of the Town in an hour long tribute to MGM's 30th anniversary.
May 1- The Flame and the Flesh is released.
September 7- Betrayed is released.
1955
May 13- The Prodigal is released.
June 4- The Sea Chase is released.
December 14- The Rains of Ranchipur is released.
Late- Diane begins production
1956
January 12- Diane, Lana's last MGM feature, is released.
February- By mutual consent, Lana Turner ends her eighteen year association with MGM, the studio that had made her a star. From this point on she will be a "free-lancer".
Lana on her last days at Metro:
My last few years at Metro were like working amid the ruins. Familiar faces disappeared. The wardrobe and the prop departments began to thin out, and the publicity people I'd known for so long were dismissed. In the past when you walked down a studio street there would always be waves and greetings . You stopped to gossip, to catch up on what your colleagues were doing. But now those streets were deserted. It was all doom and gloom.
I was deeply saddened by losing my comrades-so many skilled and talented people I'd worked with over the years. They had treated me like a princess. Now strangers filled their places, and I had to adjust to a different and less comforting environment. I no longer had support from the top, the kind of protection I'd enjoyed under Mayer, Thau and Mannix. I had little reason to feel loyal to the studio that had bred me. I didn't owe the new, distant executive branch a thing. My contract would expire after two more films and I wanted out.
Another costume picture, 'Diane', was the last film I made for MGM. I owed them still one more but for that one they loaned me out to Fox. When I finished 'Diane' I remember leaving the studio literally without looking back. How strange it was to see those empty streets! They had been my second home-perhaps my most stable home-for seventeen years. I remembered how it had thrilled me at first when I saw those famous faces, in the golden era of MGM, and how awesome to find myself among them. For a minute I thought of visiting some of my old sound stages for one last nostalgic glimpse. But I resisted the impulse. It was an empty sentiment. Now the glory was gone.
1957
July 22- Lana and Lex Barker are divorced.
December 13- Peyton Place, the only role for which Lana Turner will be nominated for an Oscar, is released.
1958
Early- Lana spends the early part of the year in Acapulco with then boyfriend Johnny Stompanato. The vacation is far from a romantic idle with Stompanato becoming increasingly abusive and possessive.
January 29- The Lady Takes a Flyer is released.
March 26- Lana, along
with her mother and daughter, attends the 30th Annual Academy Awards
Presentation as a presenter (to actor Red Buttons for his role in Sayonara) and
also as a nominee for her role of Constance MacKenzie in Peyton Place.
Although she loses the award to Joanne Woodward for The Three Faces of Eve,
at the after party she is the star of the show. Note: This Oscar telecast is Lana
Turner's first appearance on live television.
Lana's thoughts upon her arrival at the 1958 Academy Awards:
As we swept up to the (Panatages) theatre I looked out at the corner of Hollywood and Vine, that magical intersection, symbol to millions of the glory that was Hollywood. In the fifties it looked just like any other corner in any downtown in America, with a department store, a drugstore and a restaurant. Next to the luggage shop the marquee of the Pantages, it's thin spire with fanciful lettering, glowed brightly in the neon of the street. As unprepossessing as that corner seemed, the dream it stood for had come true for me.
April 5- Good Friday.
May 2- Another Time, Another Place is released.
August- Production begins on Imitation of Life
October- Production ends on Imitation of Life
November 15- Tyrone
Power dies of a sudden heart attack while shooting a film in Madrid, Spain. Lana
is vacationing in Acapulco when she hears the news.
Lana on the death of Tyrone Power:
I was, I remember, in Acapulco in November 1958. I had just come back from the beach, and the phone was ringing. It was Teddy Stauffer, who managed the hotel.
"Lana," he said, "Lana are you all right?"
"Of course I'm all right; I've just been swimming. Why? What's going on?"
"Oh. my God, you don't know," he wailed. "That I should have to be the one to tell you!"
Now I was annoyed. "Teddy, just say it. What is it?"
"Tyrone had a heart attack. He's dead."
All I remember is going numb. I think my hand simply dropped, still clutching the phone. Although he had been gone from my life for so long-for roughly ten years-I wasn't prepared to hear something so definite, so final. Tyrone, that beautiful, sensitive man, so in love with life...I could hear Teddy screaming "Lanita, Lanita," and I realized we were still connected.
I put the phone to my ear again.
"Do you want me to come over, Lana?"
I shook my head blindly, then remembered that Teddy couldn't hear that. "No. No, I'm all right. Good-bye."
I sat down on the edge of the bed, disbelieving, still numb. I didn't cry, not then, and not later when the numbness wore off and I realized it was true. Tyrone Power was dead. My tears had all been shed years before when the door closed. Now it was truly closed forever.
In my life I loved other men, but Tyrone was special. He was the one who broke my heart.
1959
April 17- Imitation of Life is released.
1960
July 27- Portrait in Black is released.
November 27- Lana weds wealthy rancher Fred May.
From the Detroit Times. November 28, 1960.
5th 'I Do' for Lana: He's a Rich Rancher
SANTA MONICA, Calif., Nov. 28- (UPI)-Actress Lana Turner married her fifth husband, wealthy rancher Fred May, 43, yesterday, while her 17 year old daughter, Cheryl Crane, on leave from a school for wayward girls, looked on. Immediately after the ceremony Cheryl, a ward of the court, was returned to El Retiro School, from which she had twice escaped since being placed there last March. Lana, 39, the original Hollywood "sweater girl" and May said their vows in a candlelight ceremony in a penthouse of the Miramar Hotel. The wedding, attended by a few close friends, came as surprise to the movie colony. The couple had applied for a marriage license last August but said they would allow it to expire tomorrow in favor of marrying in February. But May suggested earlier yesterday that they be married right away, Lana told friends. "Fred proposed to me at 11:30 a.m. and we just decided to get married" the beaming bride explained. The 10-minute ceremony was performed by the Rev. Benjamin Torres, pastor of the Santa Monica First Methodist Church. Candlelight had to be used when the hotel's electrical circuits broke down after the ceremony, halting the elevators and forcing the newlyweds to walk down 10 floors. Guests included Lana's mother, Mrs. Mildred Turner and the actresses' secretary, Lorri Sherwood. Actress Virginia Grey was matron of Honor. George Mann was best man. Lana wore a light beige dress and carried a bouquet of yellow roses. After the vows, the bride turned to her fifth husband and said "I know it's going to be a very happy marriage". Lana's previous husbands were bandleader Artie Shaw, restaurateur Steve Crane (Cheryl's father), sportsman Bob Topping and ex screen Tarzan Lex Barker. Lana and Barker were divorced in 1958 (Note from me: Turner and Barker were officially divorced on July 22, 1957). May who retired when he was 38, is a brother of the owner of the May company department store chain. Miss Turner is expected to return to Hollywood next week. She is scheduled to begin a new movie "By Love Possessed" Dec 6.
Lana on Fred May:
...In the meantime Fred and I were discussing whether to make our relationship official. One day when we were driving to the Del Mar racetrack we impulsively decided to stop at Santa Ana and take out a marriage license. It would be good for three months so we would have time to reconsider. Sure enough, the press discovered it and there were the usual headlines: Lana Turner To Marry Again. The publicity disturbed Fred, who was a very private man. In that respect he was utterly different from the other men in my life.
So we put away the license and we didn't discuss marriage again. But then one Sunday afternoon we both suddenly realized that the license would be good for only one more day. As if he were reading my mind, Fred said, "Lana, do you want to get married today?"
I didn't answer immediately. After four previous washouts I wasn't sure I was ready to take the plunge. But Fred was different in so many ways, so kind, so thoughtful, so stable. He had a life and a career of his own, things he believed in and wanted to share. He wasn't a spoiled playboy or a swell-headed star. He didn't want to possess me or control me...And I loved him, and he loved me.
1961
July 19- By Love Possessed is released.
November 1- Bachelor is Paradise is released.
1962
October 15- Lana and Fred May are divorced.
Lana on the end of her marriage to Fred May:
Now we come to one of the great puzzlements of my life.
It was only a few days later (after Fred had borrowed a large sum of money from Lana) that Fred, George Mann, and I went out to dinner together. Fred insisted on stopping at a Cadillac dealership, claming he needed some parts for his Caddy. At that time we were a two-Caddy family; each of us owned a black Cadillac. I didn't even want to get out of the car, but Fred insisted and, taking me by the hand, led me through the maze of offices and out onto the lot where all the new cars were parked. A bright spotlight was shining up ahead, and I remember remarking caustically, "Is this another supermarket opening?" But when we came closer, I saw that an actual klieg light was shining straight on a brand-new white Caddy, decked out with a huge blue bow on it's hood.
"Somebody's going to be getting a present," I said, innocently.
Fred beamed at me. "It's yours darling."
Mine? What was he saying? I didn't understand. I looked from the car to Fred, who was nodding at me, then to George, who was grinning, then back to the car again, then to Fred, and all of a sudden anger exploded inside me.
"How dare you do that to me!" I raged, and Fred realized that I was really, really mad.
To this day, I can't tell you what actually happened. Did Fred borrow $5,000 from me and immediately put a car on order for me? Were his business problems solved much sooner than he'd expected? Was the car a repayment of the loan, made in a cute kind of way, or was Fred paying interest on the loan in advance with the gift of the car? Did he really have business problems? I'll never know, because I didn't give Fred a chance to tell me any of the answers to any of those questions.
Instead I went into a fury. I wouldn't look at the car, let alone get into it. I wouldn't touch my dinner. I didn't want Fred to bring that car back to the house. I never wanted to see that car again. I already had a Cadillac! All the way back to Malibu I yelled at Fred, and by the time we reached home we were in the middle of a battle royal that broke up our marriage.
I was wrong. I admit it. Whatever my first reaction was-and it was confusion-more than anything else-I should have given Fred a chance to tell his side of the story. But I was too angry to listen. I felt used. I felt cheated. I felt stupid. Here I'd been worrying my head off about my husband, happy and relieved when he finally told me that it was money trouble, which was something we could deal with. And now to be faced with a car I didn't want and didn't need! Well, it threw me, and I overreacted. Overreacted, hell! I exploded. I wasn't thinking clearly, and I was wrong.
I flew off to Juarez and got a divorce. But when I came back, Fred and I began seeing each other as friends, and we've been friends ever since, dear friends. But who knows? Maybe if I hadn't been so hot-headed, maybe if I hadn't been so ready to jump to conclusions, Fred and I might still be married today.
Maybe.
Christmas Season- Lana spends the holiday season with comedian Bob Hope entertaining the troops overseas
December 25- Who's Got the Action? is released.
1965
February 24- Love Has Many Faces is released.
June 22- Lana weds the much younger Bob Eaton.
Lana on her marriage to Bob Eaton:
By 1965, I conquered my misgivings and married Bob Eaton at his family's home in Arlington, Virginia. I knew I would have to support him for a while, but I expected his production plans to come through eventually. Besides, he'd given me happiness, so money didn't matter. I was the perfect picture of a silly grown woman in love.
I bought him a car and dressed him well, I must say. I rented him a handsome office on Sunset Boulevard , as his production headquarters, and furnished it beautifully. When I got tired of digging into my pocketbook, I put him on an allowance of $2,500 per month out of which he would pay the office rent, the secretary, and his own bills for clothing, gasoline, whatever. I am sure it made him feel more independent. As for me-well, I just looked the other way.
1966
March 20- Lana makes an guest appearance on Monitor for NBC radio.
April 27- Madame X is released.
1969
April 1- Lana and Bob Eaton are divorced.
Lana on her realization that Bob Eaton wasn't all that he seemed to be:
When I asked her (her mother) what was wrong, tears came to her eyes. "Lana, this place was a madhouse while you were gone" (on a tour of Vietnam), she said. "The parties didn't stop from the moment you stepped on the plane."
But that wasn't all. The maid had been so appalled by the debauch that she had saved my sheets as evidence. I was sickened by the lipstick smears and stains on the linens from my own bed. I went straight to the phone and dialed Bob at the office.
"Get home fast," was all I said.
He raced home and I was waiting there with the sheets in a pile at my feet. When he saw them he mumbled lame protests and confused explanations. Then he realized that I didn't believe him , and he began to plead earnestly, assuring me that he loved me, he needed me, and only me. By now I recognized lines like that-maybe I was beginning to wise up. Infidelity was bad enough. I've never been able to stand that. But in my own bed!
In a couple of hours he had packed and gone. I was too angry to cry. All I could do was literally beat my head against the wall and curse myself as a fool. I vowed that I'd never see Bob again, never trust any man ever again. But in the words of the song, I always pick myself up, dust myself off, and start all over again. It wasn't long before Bob was back, and I was giving it one more try.
May-
The Big Cube is released.
May 9- Lana marries nightclub hypnotist Ronald Dante.
Lana on Ronald Dante:
My divorce from Bob Eaton came through and wouldn't you think I'd look carefully before leaping again? Not this impulsive character!
His name was Ronald Dante-and still is I suppose. His real name was Ronald Peller, and he called himself a doctor, although of what I'm not exactly sure. He was a nightclub hypnotist, and I met him at one of the discotheques that were springing up all over in Los Angeles. This one was called The Candy Store, and it was usually packed-discos then were either jammed or empty, depending on how "in" they were. I was watching the dancers when I caught sight of Bob (Eaton her ex-husband) standing at the bar with a striking brunette. So when a tall man in white asked me to dance I didn't turn him down. I thought he was rather attractive, and as we chatted he described his nightclub act, which intrigued me. He asked if he could call me, and I gave him the number of my service. Sure enough, two days later he phoned.
I must admit that he had an original style of courtship. One day he appeared at my door on a motorcycle. I had never been on a motorcycle before, but I was game. He told me to climb on behind him and hold on tight. Then off we sped through the hills of Malibu. I loved it! Then there were times that we flew kites and took long walks on the beach. It was idyllic, thoroughly romantic. I hadn't learned my lesson yet, and as you can guess, I was drifting.
September 29- The Survivors, Lana's first
and only foray into network television, premieres on ABC. It barely lasts 13
episodes.
Last week of October- Lana attends a charity event in San Francisco to raise money for the Presbyterian Children's Hospital. It is here that her seventh husband, Ronald Dante abandons her in the middle of the night. She never sees him again.
1971
May 20- Lana departs for New York for rehearsals for her first stage play, Forty Carats.
June 29- Lana! Live and in Color! Lana makes her theatre debut in Forty Carats in Westbury, Long Island, New York.
From a Press Clipping for "Forty Carats" from the summer of 1971.
Lana on Summer Circuit in 'Forty Carats'
West Springfield, Mass.
Lana Turner, one of
Hollywood's few reigning superstars, will star in the Broadway smash-hit "Forty
Carats" for one week, beginning Monday at Storrowton Musical Theatre.
Making her stage debut in the role of Anne Stanley in "Forty Carats," the glamorous screen star attracted the nation's attention in her very first movie role when she walked across the screen wearing a form-fitting sweater.
That first movie was titled "They Won't Forget," and dozens of movies later the American public still remembers that movie idol which that film produced. Miss Turner is unquestionably one of the few personalities whose name immediately evokes public identification as a star in the grandest tradition of Hollywood.
Top Gross
She continues, along with Elizabeth Taylor and Doris Day, to hold her place among the top 10 actresses whose pictures have grossed more than any others in the history of motion pictures.
Following her initial movie role, Miss Turner quickly moved on to more challenging roles in such films as "Ziegfeld Girl," "The Bad and the Beautiful," and "Betrayed". In 1957 she was nominated for an Academy Award as best actress of the year for her portrayal of Constance McKenzie in the movie version of the controversial novel, "Peyton Place."
Joining forces with producer Ross Hunter gave Miss Turner starring roles in the extremely successful box office hits "Imitation of Life," "Portrait in Black," and "Madame X."
With her debut in "Forty Carats" as a legitimate stage actress Miss Turner adds a new dimension to her stellar career as one of America's truly great motion picture queens , and also marks the first time that she has left the motion picture medium, except for a few guest appearances on television.
Ann's Aging
"Forty Carats" is a romantic comedy adapted by Jay Allen from a play by Barilett and Grady. It centers around Ann Stanley, a very attractive divorcee in real estate, who admits to being 36, then 38, then 40.
Peter Coffield who recently completed a role in Broadway's "Abelard and Heloise" plays the young man opposite Miss Turner who is involved in the romantic entanglement of the play. Louise Kirtland who appeared in "Gigi" and "Tovarich" in New York is also featured in the show.
August 16- Forty Carats closes, with Lana receiving rave reviews and breaking box-office records.
1972
January 26- Lana and Ronald Dante are divorced.
May 17- Lana makes her first and only appearance on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson.
May 18- Lana gives what many consider to be the best interview she ever gave on David Frost's syndicated television show.
October- Lana begins negotiations for a new film in Great Britain titled I Hate You Cat. By the time the film is released two years later, the title has been changed to Persecution.
1974
February- Lana gives an exceptional interview for The Ladies' Home Journal Magazine.
March- Lana checks into Doctor's Hospital in Beverly Hills in order to undergo her second of three face lifts (her first face lift was shortly before starting The Big Cube in 1969 and her third was shortly before her stint on the Falcon Crest television series in 1982).
Release Date unknown- Persecution is released.
1975
April 13- Lana makes a live appearance at publicist John Springer's Legendary Ladies of Town Hall series. Town Hall is filled to capacity (standing room only) and Lana and her manager, Taylor Pero, can barely make it to their limousine, such is the mob outside. A few hours earlier she had asked aloud, "Do you really think that anyone will show up?". She had her answer.
November 21- Lana begins a three week stint in the off Broadway play, The Pleasure of His Company, in Arlington Heights, Illinois.
1976
October 27- Bittersweet Love is released.
1978
Although production begins on Lana's last theatrical film Witches' Brew, in the summer of '78, the film isn't released until 1980.
1980
Release Date Unknown- Witches Brew is released.
1982
Early- Lana begins making appearances on the
nighttime soap opera Falcon Crest. She will play the character of Jacqueline
Perrault during the entire 1982-1983 season
October 1- Bantam Books releases Always Lana, Taylor Pero's memoir about his life with Lana. Lana herself also publishes a book this same year, her own autobiography, Lana, The Lady, The Legend, The Truth.
1988
January 1- Arbor House Publishing Company publishes Detour, Cheryl Crane's autobiography and memoir about her life as a star baby and daughter of a screen legend.
1992
May- After suffering from a sore throat for months, Lana checks herself into Cedars Sinai Medical Center, where she is diagnosed with throat cancer. She will undergo radiation and chemotherapy that puts her cancer into remission for a time.
1994
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October- Lana travels
to San Sebastian, Spain to accept a lifetime achievement award. It is her final
public appearance.
1995
June 29- Lana Turner succumbs to throat cancer in her condominium apartment in Century City, Los Angeles, with only her maid of 44 years, Carmen Cruz by her side. She is seventy-four years old.
From the Honolulu Advertiser. June 30, 1995.
Lana Turner, Hollywood 'Sweater Girl', Dies at 74
Star of 'Peyton Place' succumbs to throat cancer
Associated Press
Los Angeles- Lana Turner, the glamorous blonde whose acting career was overshadowed by her numerous marriages and the killing of her mobster boyfriend by her daughter, died last night. She was 74.
Turner who disclosed in May 1992 that she had been treated for throat cancer, died at her Century City home with her daughter Cheryl Crane by her side.
"She was doing fine. This was a total shock," Crane told the Daily Variety trade newspaper. "She's completed seven weeks of radiation therapy a short while ago, and it looked like she was fine. She just took a breath and she was gone."
The actress remained a star from the 1940's until the mid 1960's, winning an Academy Award nomination as best actress for "Peyton Place" in 1957 after leaving her longtime studio MGM.
Over the years she appeared opposite the screen's top leading men in such films as "Johnny Eager" with Robert Taylor, "Honky Tonk" with Clark Gable, "The Postman Always Rings Twice" with John Garfield, "The Bad and the Beautiful" with Kirk Douglas, "The Sea Chase," filmed in Hawaii, with John Wayne, and "Cass Timberlane" with Spencer Tracy.
Her entrance into movies became part of Hollywood lore. She was discovered at a soda fountain when she was a teenage schoolgirl, though not as legend had it, at Schwab's drugstore. Her early film appearances earned her the nickname "The Sweater Girl" and a pinup place in many a soldier's locker.
Her love life made even more headlines than her acting career. Turner was married seven times and had many well publicized romances with such figures as Howard Hughes, Tyrone Power and Fernando Lamas.
One of her love affairs ended in abuse and sensational headlines when hoodlum Johnny Stompanato was killed. He was hitting Turner in her Beverly Hills bedroom on April 5, 1958, when Crane, then 15 years old, rushed in and fatally stabbed him with a carving knife. The killing was ruled a justifiable homicide on the grounds that her mother was in danger.
Julia Jean Mildred Frances Turner was born on Feb. 8, 1921, in Wallace, Idaho. Her father died when she was young, the victim of a robbery-murder.
After living for a time in San Francisco, Turner and her mother moved to Los Angeles in 1936, and the girl enrolled at Hollywood High School . One day she cut typing her typing class to run across the street to a malt shop, not Schwab's drugstore. There she had the fateful meeting with William Wilkerson, publisher of the trade paper The Hollywood Reporter.
"Would you like to be in the movies?" Wilkerson asked.
"I don't know, I'll have to ask my mother," she replied.
The influential Wilkerson called director Mervyn LeRoy who cast her in "They Won't Forget" as a sensuous Southern girl whose murder leads to a lynching. When Lana (newly named by LeRoy) walked down the town street in a tight sweater, her fortune was made.
She was signed to a contract at MGM , where she played Mickey Rooney's sweetheart in "Love Finds Andy Hardy" and other relatively minor roles. Her string of big movies began in 1941 with "Ziegfeld Girl," "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" and "Honky Tonk".
A change in regimes at MGM found her cast in costume dramas, which she disliked. She bought her way out of her contract, and one of her first freelance films was "Peyton Place," which brought her an Oscar nomination. She lost to Joanne Woodward in "The Three Faces of Eve."
By the mid-1960's, Turner's career in Hollywood films had dwindled, though she appeared in lesser, foreign-made movies. In later years, the actress appeared on television in "The Survivors" series, 1969-1970, and as a guest star on "Falcon Crest" in 1982-1983.
(NOTE: During an interview for A&E's Biography television series, Lana's longtime maid, Carmen Cruz claimed that when Lana passed away in June of 1995, she was the only one with her, making Cheryl Crane's story about being with her mother on her deathbed false. Other sources have claimed this as well, stating that Cheryl was not there at the time of death and arrived only after Cruz phoned her to tell her that Lana had passed away. The above quote "she just took a breath and she was gone" was told by Crane to the press who had gathered around the outside of Lana's Century City condominium apartment building, moments after Lana's passing. At the time of Lana's death she and her daughter were deeply estranged with Lana living in Los Angles and Cheryl living in Hawaii.)
