Carole Landis (born Frances Lillian Mary Ridste; January 1, 1919 – July 5, 1948) was an American actress. She worked as a contract player for Twentieth Century-Fox in the 1940s. Her breakout role was as the female lead in the 1940 film One Million B.C. from United Artists. She was known as "The Ping Girl", a nickname given to her by Frank Seltzer that she disliked and would try to disassociate herself from, and also "The Chest" because of her curvy figure.
Early life
Landis was born on January 1, 1919, in Fairchild, Wisconsin, the youngest of five children of Clara (née Sentek), a Polish farmer's daughter, and Norwegian-American Alfred Ridste, a drifting railroad mechanic who abandoned the family after Landis's birth. According to Landis's biographer E. J. Fleming, circumstantial evidence supports that Landis was likely the biological child of her mother's second husband, Charles Fenner. Fenner left Landis's mother in April 1921 and remarried a few months later.
In 1923, Landis's family moved to San Bernardino, California, where her mother worked menial jobs to support the family. At the age of 15, Landis dropped out of San Bernardino High School and set forth on a career path to show business. She started out as a hula dancer in a San Francisco nightclub, where she was described by her boss as a "nervous $35-a-week blonde doing a pathetic hula at her opening night at the old Royal Hawaiian on Bush [Street]...that'll never get her anyplace in show business". He apparently employed her only because he felt sorry for her; she later sang with a dance band.
After saving $100, she moved to Hollywood in 1937.
Career
Film career
She was signed by Warner Bros. in late 1936 and went on to appear in two dozen features, mostly for Bryan Foy's low-budget "B" unit (including gradually increasing roles in four Torchy Blane comedies, some of which gave her screen credit). By 1938 she was working in the studio's major motion pictures like The Adventures of Robin Hood and Boy Meets Girl, but only in uncredited bits.
Dissatisfied with her lack of progress, she moved on to Republic Pictures, a small but efficient studio specializing in action pictures. The smaller studio paid more attention to her, giving her ingenue leads in two Three Mesquiteers westerns and a serial, Daredevils of the Red Circle.
Pioneer producer Hal Roach was preparing One Million B.C., a dramatic film about prehistoric people menaced by the elements. He hired another movie pioneer, D. W. Griffith, to cast the picture. It was to be a rugged shoot, with many scenes staged outdoors. Roach recalled:
Hal Roach saw star potential in Carole Landis and signed her to a contract in June 1940. He continued casting her in three more starring roles, the best known being Turnabout (1940), a role-reversal farce written by Thorne Smith and co-starring John Hubbard.
thumb|right|upright|Carole Landis in [[Topper Returns, 1941]]
She returned to Republic for one more film, the Judy Canova comedy Sis Hopkins (1941). She then landed a contract with Twentieth Century-Fox and began a sexual relationship with studio chief Darryl F. Zanuck. She had roles playing opposite fellow pin-up girl Betty Grable in the musical Moon Over Miami and the crime drama I Wake Up Screaming, both in 1941. When Landis ended her relationship with Zanuck, he stopped furthering her career. She remained under contract but was now assigned to lesser pictures, and Fox loaned her out to other studios three times. Her final two films, Noose and Brass Monkey, were both made in Great Britain.
On March 20, 1943 the Fashion Academy had named Landis the best dress women for 1943 in its screen classification category. The Fashion Academy honor was based on an annual poll of leading designers to select the twelve best dressed women of the nation for twelve different classification categories.
USO tours
thumb|291x291px|Carole Landis performing in a USO show at the U.S. Naval Hospital in Aiela Heights, Oahu on June 20, 1945.
Carole Landis became a popular pin-up with servicemen during World War II. Two years later, she entertained soldiers in the South Pacific alongside Jack Benny. During the war, Landis traveled over 100,000 miles and was the actress who spent the most time engaged in this activity. During her travels, she became seriously ill due to amoebic dysentery and malaria. She also wrote the foreword to Vic Herman's cartoon book Winnie the WAC.
Personal life
thumb|right|upright|Sgt. Bill Stewart and Landis ca. 1940s
thumb|right|upright|Landis and [[John Wayne, 1939]]
thumb|right|upright|[[William Gargan and Landis, 1946)]]
Landis was married four times and had no children (she was unable to conceive owing to endometriosis). In 1938, Wheeler reappeared and filed a $250,000 alienation of affections lawsuit against director and choreographer Busby Berkeley. Even though Landis and Wheeler were estranged, he claimed that Berkeley had enticed and otherwise persuaded Landis to transfer her affections. Landis maintained that she had not seen Wheeler in years and had heard from him only the previous year when he claimed to want a divorce. Wheeler's lawsuit was later dismissed, and Landis and Wheeler were divorced in 1939.
In June 1939 Berkeley proposed to Landis but later broke it off. On July 4, 1940, she married yacht broker Willis Hunt Jr. in Las Vegas. Landis left Hunt after two months of marriage due to abuse by Hunt;
While touring army camps in London in 1942, she met United States Army Air Forces Captain Thomas Wallace. They were married in January 1943, and the wedding received a two-page photo spread in Life magazine. Landis would also write an article about their honeymoon for the June 1943 edition of Photoplay. The couple separated in early 1945, and they would divorce in July 1945. She would state that "No woman ever loved a man more than I loved Tommy Wallace. And Tommy loved me, too. All my life, above all the rest, I want to remember that." During her separation from Schmidlapp, Landis began a relationship with actor Rex Harrison, who was then married to actress Lilli Palmer. After Landis's death, however, Harrison downplayed their relationship and publicly claimed that she was merely a close friend of himself and Palmer.
Death & Funeral
thumb|268x268px|The blue beaded butterfly dress that Carole Landis would be interred in on July 10, 1948
thumb|200px|Grave of Carole Landis at Forest Lawn in Glendale, California
Landis was reportedly devastated when Harrison refused to divorce his wife to be with her. On July 5, 1948, unable to cope any longer, she committed suicide in her Pacific Palisades home at 1465 Capri Drive by taking an overdose of Seconal.
The next afternoon, Harrison and Landis's maid discovered her on the bathroom floor. According to some sources, Landis left two suicide notes, one for her mother and the second for Harrison, who instructed his lawyers to destroy it. Landis's official website, which her family owns, has questioned the events of Landis's death and the coroner's ruling of suicide.
On July 10, 1948 at 12:30 PM her service was held at Forest Lawn's Church of the Recessional by Bishop Fred L. Pyman. During her service Pyman sang her favorite hyme of In the Garden. W. Horace Schmidlapp, her estranged husband, also attended her service and funeral. Rex Harrison attended with his wife however they both left early and had refused to look at Carole in her coffin during viewing.
On October 4, 2019 Landis was honored with a 28 inch bronze statute that resides inside the Fairchild Public Library in her hometown of Fairchild, Wisconsin. The Carole Landis Fan Club donated the statute, as well as memorabilia related to the actress, to the library.
thumb|200x200px|Hollywood Walk of Fame Star of Carole Landis
Filmography
{| class="wikitable sortable"
|-
! Year
! Title
! Role
! class="unsortable" | Notes
|-
| 1937
| '
| Chorine
| Uncredited
|-
| 1937
| '
| Girl in beret at Santa Anita bar
| Uncredited
|-
| 1937
| '
| Dance Extra
|
|-
| 1937
|Fly-Away Baby
| Blonde at airport
| Torchy Blane comedy
|-
| 1937
| '
| Bit part
|
|-
| 1937
| Broadway Melody of 1938
| Dancer
|
|-
| 1937
|Varsity Show
| Student
|
|-
| 1937
| Alcatraz Island
|
| Uncredited
|-
| 1937
| Over the Goal
| Co-ed
| Uncredited
|-
| 1937
| The Adventurous Blonde
| Uncredited
| Torchy Blane comedy
|-
| 1937
| Hollywood Hotel
| Hat check girl with coat
|
|-
| 1938
| '
| Woman waiting to go with her Johnnie
|
|-
| 1938
|Blondes at Work
| Carole
| Torchy Blane comedy
|-
| 1938
| '
| Partygoer leaning on piano during song
|
|-
| 1938
| Love, Honor and Behave
| Wheel watcher at party
| Uncredited
|-
| 1938
| Over the Wall
| Peggy, girl at beach
| Uncredited
|-
| 1938
| Torchy Blane in Panama
| Miss Leopard of 1938
| Torchy Blane comedy
|-
| 1938
| Women Are Like That
| Cocktail party guest
| Uncredited
|-
| 1938
| '
| Guest at banquet
| Uncredited
|-
| 1938
| Gold Diggers in Paris
| Golddigger
| Alternative title: The Gay Impostors
|-
| 1938
| Men Are Such Fools
| June Cooper
| Uncredited
|-
| 1938
| When Were You Born
| Ship passenger
| Uncredited
|-
| 1938
| Penrod's Double Trouble
| Girl at fair
| Uncredited
|-
| 1938
| Four's a Crowd
| Myrtle, Lansford's 2nd Secretary
|
|-
| 1938
| Boy Meets Girl
| Commissary cashier
| Uncredited
|-
| 1939
| Three Texas Steers
| Nancy Evans
| Alternative title: Danger Rides the Range
|-
| 1939
| Daredevils of the Red Circle
| Blanche Granville
|
|-
| 1939
| Cowboys from Texas
| June Jones
|
|-
| 1939
| Reno
| Mrs. Humphrey
| Uncredited
|-
| 1940
| One Million B.C.
| Loana
|
|-
| 1940
| Turnabout
| Sally Willows
|
|-
| 1940
| Mystery Sea Raider
| June McCarthy
|
|-
| 1941
| Road Show
| Penguin Moore
|
|-
| 1941
| Topper Returns
| Ann Carrington
|
|-
| 1941
| Moon Over Miami
| Barbara Latimer, aka Miss Sears
|
|-
| 1941
| Dance Hall
| Lily Brown
|
|-
| 1941
| I Wake Up Screaming
| Vicky Lynn
| Alternative title: Hot Spot
|-
| 1941
| Cadet Girl
| Gene Baxter
|
|-
| 1942
| '
| Helen Mason
|
|-
| 1942
| My Gal Sal
| Mae Collins
|
|-
| 1942
| It Happened in Flatbush
| Kathryn Baker
|
|-
| 1942
| Orchestra Wives
| Natalie Mercer
|
|-
| 1942
| Manila Calling
| Edna Fraser
|
|-
| 1943
| The Powers Girl
| Kay Evans
|
|-
| 1943
| Wintertime
| Flossie Fouchere
|
|-
| 1943
| Show Business at War
| Herself
|
|-
| 1944
| Secret Command
| Jill McGann
|
|-
| 1944
| Four Jills in a Jeep
| Herself
|
|-
| 1945
| Having Wonderful Crime
| Helene Justus
|
|-
| 1946
| Behind Green Lights
| Janet Bradley
|
|-
| 1946
| '
| Loretta de Richet
| Alternative title: Thieves' Holiday
|-
| 1946
| It Shouldn't Happen to a Dog
| Julia Andrews
|
|-
| 1947
| Out of the Blue
| Mae Earthleigh
|
|-
| 1948
| Noose
| Linda Medbury
| Alternative title: The Silk Noose; released posthumously.
|-
| 1948
| Brass Monkey
| Kay Sheldon
| Alternative title: Lucky Mascot; released posthumously (final role)
|-
|}
Radio Appearances
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Date !! Program !! Episode/Program/Source
|-
| 04/24/1938|| Warner Brothers Academy Theater|| Special Agent / Carol' Radio Debut
|-
| 06/11/1942|| Command Performance|| Program #17
|-
|05/10/1943
|The Front Line Theater
|Johnny Eager
|-
|10/23/1943
|Command Performance
|Program #90
|-
|11/25/1943
|Soldiers In Greasepaint
|Thanksgiving Salute to U.S.O.
|-
|12/11/1943
|Command Performance
|Program #96
|-
|04/11/1944
|Duffy's Tavern
|Program #47
|-
|04/11/1944
|Duffy's Tavern
|Program #125 (Rebroadcast of #47 for AFRS)
|-
|04/21/1944
|GI Journal
|Episode #42
|-
|06/24/1944
|Command Performance
|Program #126
|-
|02/14/1946
|Command Performance
|Program #211
|-
|03/16/1946
|Continental Celebrity Club
|Episode #15
|}
Theater
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Performance Date !! Theater Genre !! Play !! Character
|-
| 01/10/1945 - 03/25/1945||Broadway||A Lady Says Yes||Ghisella
|}
References
Further reading
External links
- Carole Landis Online (archived)
- Official website (archived version)
- Hometown remembers star TV news report