Lupe Vélez : the life and career of Hollywood’s "Mexican spitfire"

451 Pages·2012·10.35 MB·English

by  Michelle Vogel

Lupe Vlez
The Life and Career of Hollywood's "Mexican Spitfire"
Michelle Vogel
Foreword by Kevin Brownlow
McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Jefferson, North Carolina, and London
ALSO BY MICHELLE VOGEL AND FROM MCFARLAND
Olive Borden: The Life and Films of Hollywood’s “Joy Girl” (2010)
Olive Thomas: The Life and Death of a Silent Film Beauty (2007)
Marjorie Main: The Life and Films of Hollywood’s “Ma Kettle” (2006;
paperback 2011)
Gene Tierney: A Biography (2005; paperback 2011)
Children of Hollywood: Accounts of Growing Up as the Sons and Daughters of
Stars (2005)
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGUING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA
Vogel, Michelle, 1972–
Lupe Vélez : the life and career of Hollywood’s “Mexican spitfire” / Michelle
Vogel ; foreword by Kevin Brownlow.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Includes filmography.
ISBN 978-0-7864-6139-4
1. Vélez, Lupe, 1906–1944. 2. Motion picture actors and actresses—United
States—Biography. 3. Motion picture actors and actresses—Mexico—
Biography. I. Title.
PN2287.V43V64 2012
791.4302'33092—dc23 [B] 2012022490
BRITISH LIBRARY CATALOGUING DATA ARE AVAILABLE
© 2012 Michelle Vogel. All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any
means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying or recording, or by
any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from
the publisher.
On the cover: Lupe Vélez strikes a pose in a classic mid–1930s Hollywood
glamour portrait that showcases her beauty; background © 2012 Shutterstock
McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Box 611, Jefferson, North Carolina 28640
www.mcfarlandpub.com
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
Foreword by Kevin Brownlow
Preface
Introduction
1. A Stormy Beginning
2. First Love
3. "I Must Be Good!"
4. Time to Grow Up
5. Hollywood's Hard Knocks
6. The Train to Tinseltown
7. The New Girl
8. "Loop" and "Coop"
9. Misunderstood
10. The Voice of Vélez
11. Me Tarzan, You Lupe
12. Stage, Screen ... and Splitting Up!
13. The Girl from Mexico (1939)
14. Lupe and "The Lone Ranger"
15. Little Girl, "Beeg Boy"
16. The "Mexican Spitfire" Series
17. Nana (1944)
18. Broken Promises ... Fatal Consequences
19. The Aftermath
20. The Will
Filmography (1927–1944)
Appendix I: Lupe's Other Lost Productions (1929-1944)
Appendix II: Appearing as Herself (1928-1941)
Appendix III: Noted Stage Work (1932-1944)
Appendix IV: Noted Radio Work (1930-1940)
Appendix V: Pop Culture (1949-2012)
Chapter Notes
Bibliography
Index of Terms
Acknowledgments
A very special thank you to the people mentioned below, all of whom
contributed to this project in some way. This book wouldn’t be as thorough as it
is without your input, support and enthusiasm to tell Lupe Vélez’s story as it was
meant to be told.
In no particular order, Jeff Stafford, G. D. Hamann, Craig Harvey, Bill Caffrey,
Rick Egusquiza, Martín Caballero, Marielis Orom, Rosa Helia Villa, Andy
Lauer, Paul Ginsberg, Dick Moore, Bill Cappello, Alistair Tremps, Robert
Osborne, Laura Petersen Balogh, Viviana García-Besné, E. J. Fleming, Hugh
Munro Neely, Gregg Nystrom, Dr. Levica Narine, Jared Case, Caroline Yeager,
Hal Erickson, Kay Shackleton, Michael Ankerich, Billy Doyle, Diane Lussier,
Joseph Worrell, Alex Monty Canawati, Stephanie Swengel, Antoinette Garza,
Uwe Linnemueller, Jon Mirsalis, David L. Smith, William M. Drew, Kevin John
Charbeneau, Kristine Krueger, Valerie Yaros, David Ybarra, Gor Megaera,
University of Washington Libraries (Special Collections), the Library of
Congress (Recorded Sound Reference Center), the Mary Pickford Institute,
Turner Classic Movies, George Eastman House, 20th Century–Fox, Beverly
Hills Police Department (archives), Our Lady of the Lake University (archive
material), the Margaret Herrick Library (Special Collections), the Los Angeles
Public Library and the Museum of Modern Art.
Academy Award–winning film historian Kevin Brownlow contributed the
foreword. I’m humbled and honored for our names to share a book cover.
Paul Green is my fellow author and good friend. The all too often lonely road of
assembling and writing a book is boosted greatly by our daily e-mail banter.
I thank Pedro Quintanilla Gómez-Noriega for his invaluable personal
recollections and family photographs of his Villalobos-Reyes relatives, as well
as many clarifications, translations and explanations of the Spanish language and
Mexican culture in general. Without doubt, this book would be a lesser work if it
weren’t for his involvement and willingness to share personal stories for the
benefit of the reader’s better understanding of Lupe’s early years.
Rogelio Agrasánchez Jr. and Xóchitl Fernández of the Agrasánchez Film
Archive generously shared their vast collection of photographs and knowledge
of Lupe Vélez and the Mexican film industry, as well as providing countless
Spanish-to-English translations from vintage newspapers and magazines.
The usual suspects ... my parents, my big boys Josh and Reeve, my little boy
Ryan, and my husband Matt, for tracking down several vintage film magazines
that contained much of the information that was included within these pages.
Thank you for your love and support, in all that I do.
“My life story? It is the story of a devil. And who wants to print the story of
a devil? I am wild, I cannot help it.”—Lupe Vélez in an unidentified
newspaper clipping from around the 1930s.
Foreword by Kevin Brownlow
In the beginning, there was no such thing as a film star. Financiers were anxious
to avoid the mistakes they had made in the theater. Having given in to their
actors’ demands, having parted with staggering sums of money, they had had to
surrender to further outrageous demands. One picture company, the Biograph,
provided no cast list on their films, yet audiences preferred their players to any
others. They named their favorite “The Biograph Girl” but it took another
company to poach her and to make her real name known: Florence Lawrence.
Her replacement was even more popular. Incredibly popular. Once the audiences
knew her name—Mary Pickford—the star system had taken over, an integral
part of the industry.
It was assumed the moment an idol was found to have feet of clay, audiences
would desert the theaters and the industry would collapse. The early stars could
thus rely on the police to conceal their peccadilloes. They may get fined for
speeding but they could run someone over with impunity.
But then came a series of scandals that could not be covered up. Comedian
Roscoe Arbuckle, accused of manslaughter, was put on trial and banned from the
screen. Editorials expressed horror as more and more errant behavior—drugs,
drink, sex—came to light. Women’s clubs protested. Did this drive the audiences
away? There had been a postwar slump already, and the industry had panicked,
but people came back in ever-larger numbers. Arbuckle’s trial sold more
newspapers than the sinking of the Lusitania.
Reporters realized that the shenanigans of Hollywood made wonderful copy and
sold thousands of papers—so long as the stories were true. If they were untrue,
why, they would sell even more. What your average newspaperman prayed for
was a gorgeous star with a wayward temperament. They had had Mabel
Normand, a brilliant comedienne who was often “on” something, and then came
Clara Bow, who was equally gifted but took her stimulus in other ways.
Lupe Vélez, “the Mexican Spitfire,” was a combination of the two. Most
audiences would first encounter her in an outstanding film with Douglas
Fairbanks called The Gaucho. Dolores del Rio, also from Mexico, and famous
for her role in What Price Glory?, had been Fairbanks’s first choice as “The