Donald Gordon snapped this photo of Lana and her first husband, the bandleader Artie Shaw outside of Hollywood’s NBC radio studios. He had to be quick about it. Their marriage only lasted a few weeks.
Hello everybody, Morella and Segers back for more… with a great snapshot from the Donald Gordon Collection.
Lana was 20, Artie was 30. It was her first, his third. Each would tally 8 marriages (though Lana had only 7 husbands, she married her second, Steve Crane twice).
Lana once said, “I wanted one husband and seven children, but it happened the other way around.” Artie Shaw told Joe, “If I had to marry them to sleep with them, I did.”
Joe interviewed Shaw extensively for the book he co-authored, “LANA, THE PUBLIC AND PRIVATE LIVES OF MISS TURNER.” And Joe remembers an interesting tid-bit. Shaw said, “then we eloped. We flew to Yuma.” Joe said, “excuse me, Mr. Shaw, I think you were married in Las Vegas.” The angry Shaw flared, “Are you trying to tell me where I was married?”
“Well, sir,” Joe replied meekly, “I have a clipping from AP in front of me with a photo of you two and the dateline is Las Vegas.”
“Oh,” Shaw was momentarily stumped. But he recovered and bellowed, “Well, you can’t expect me to remember everywhere I was married.”
AND THE ANSWER TO LAST WEEK’S POP QUIZ
LAST WEEK’S POP QUIZ: Who played Bogart’s mother in “Dead End” and then went on to a long film career played Moms? Ma Kettle herself, Marjorie Main. Main was a stage actress depressed about the deaths of her husband and child and almost suicidal when she was cast in the N. Y. production. After being brought out to Hollywood to recreate her role on film she stayed and had an illustrious career for the next 20 years. If you don’t remember her from the Ma and Pa Kettle flicks, you surely know her from her roles in the Judy Garland hits, “Meet Me in St. Louis,” and “The Harvey Girls.”
