"Taking joy in life is a woman's best cosmetic."-Rosalind Russell

We apologize for the delay, but here is the last post for Breast Cancer Awareness Month!

Think PINK post #3:

Rosalind Russell

Born June 4, 1907

Died November 28, 1976

Catherine Rosalind Russell was born in the summer of 1907 to parents James and Clara. She was the middle child out of 7 children in a Catholic family with Irish heritage. Growing up, Russell and her siblings all attended Catholic school. Later on, she enrolled in Marymount College for a time. She had a secret desire to be an actress, although her parents wanted her to become a teacher. When she did begin to attend the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York City, she was away from home, and told her parents that she was studying education.

Even though she was working to be an actress on Broadway, her first form of recognition was as a model.  She was a natural comedian, and soon earned several bit parts in plays on the big stage. In the late 1920s,

Russell was offered a job with a stock company at Saranac Lake. She finally came clean to her parents and told them about the job offer. They were not supportive and tried to persuade her not to take it, but she eventually accepted the offer despite her parents objections. She remained in that company for about 7 months, before joining up with a new stock company in Hartford. When her run was over there, she relocated to Boston and joined a theater group run by Edward E. Clive. From Boston, she later returned to New York and continued to act on the stage. Many people do not realize that Russell also had a beautiful singing voice. She decided to take vocal lessons and was soon singing in the opera. She did well there, but eventually decided it was not the place for her. She had a lower vocal range, and her inability to hit some of the higher notes meant that she was not usually given lead roles. Having spent several years developing her craft and gaining experience on the east coast, Russell decided to officially relocate to Hollywood to see what the silver screen had to offer.

Russell arrived in Los Angeles in 1930 and within no time, she had her first film contract with Universal Pictures. She later recalled that during her time with Universal, she felt that she was passed over and ignored most of the time. She said that no one there treated her with any respect, and whenever she was working with people, they humiliated her. No matter how much she wanted to be an actress, Russell was not willing to remain tied to a studio that constantly attacked her self esteem. She terminated her contract, and managed to extricate herself from Universal without too much difficulty, and on her own terms, which was practically

unheard of at the time. Russell directly moved to Metro Goldwyn Mayer. Given that her first experience with a film studio was so terrible, she was nervous about her screen test with MGM. She did her best, and the studio liked her. Later on, she swore that the only reason they decided to hire her was because of her close up picture that was taken by Harold S. Bucquet.

Russell's film debut was in the motion picture Evelyn Prentice (1934), which gave her quite a bit of notoriety even though she did not have the lead role. It quickly became clear that she excelled in comedies such as Forsaking All Others (1934), Man Proof (1938), Four's a Crowd (1938), her famous role in His Girl Friday (1940), and many more. However, she also showed audiences that she could act in dramatic roles like Reckless (1935), or Craig's Wife (1936), and also in thrillers like Fast and Loose (1939). Despite the fact that Russell had shown that she could play in any genre, she was still subject to typecasting. She was soon pigeonholed as the sophisticated and dignified lady. Russell approached directors with pleas to help her change her image, which eventually resulted in her role in The Women (1939), as the frivolous and deplorable gossip Sylvia Fowler. The film was a hit and helped audiences look at her in a new light.

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Russell spent most of the 1940s devoting her time to comedies. One of her most famous comedic roles was as Hildy Johnson in His Girl Friday (1940) alongside Cary Grant. She also excelled in the motion picture My Sister Eileen (1942), for which she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress. While she was dominating the silver screen in Hollywood, Russell was also adjusting to changes in her personal life during the early 1940s. She married Frederick Brisson in 1941. Brisson was the son of famous Danish actor Carl Brisson. The two were introduced by fellow actor Cary Grant during the filming of His Girl Friday (1940), and were married a year later, with Grant serving as best man at the wedding. Brisson was the love of Russell's life, and the two remained married until her death.

In the early 1950s, Russell returned to the east coast for a lead role in the Broadway musical Wonderful Town (1953). The play was based on My Sister Eileen (1942), and was an immediate success. She would play the lead role a third time on television in 1958. It was later that same year that she would take up the role in one of the most memorable films of her career, playing the title role in Auntie Mame (1958). She remained active in her career throughout the 1960s. Towards the end of the decade, in 1966, Auntie Mame was casting for a Broadway production. Naturally, Russell was offered the part, but she declined due to ill health.

Russell was diagnosed with breast cancer sometime in the mid to late 60s. She greatly struggled with the disease, and eventually lost the battle. Rosalind Russell died from complications due to breast cancer on November 28, 1976 at the age of 69. In the 38 year span of Russell's career, she starred in over 50 major motion pictures, 2 films made for television, and many plays. She was nominated 4 different times for an Academy Award for Best Actress, won 5 Golden Globe Awards, and won 2 Laurel Awards for Top Female Comedy Performances. Rosalind Russell was a true actress and genuine comedian, and a strong and beautiful woman who suffered from the effects of breast cancer.

"Acting is standing up naked and turning around very slowly."

-Rosalind Russell

"A man is insensible to the relish of prosperity until he has tasted adversity."

-Rosalind Russell

"An impeccably dressed lady is always viewed with suspicion in real life and when you strut onto the screen with beautiful clothes and charming manners, the most naive of theatergoers senses immediately that you are in a position to do the hero no good."

-Rosalind Russell

"Flops are a part of life's menu and I've never been a girl to miss out on any of the courses."

-Rosalind Russell

Thank you all so much for joining in this month for what we hope will be an annual segment of Think PINK for Breast Cancer Awareness. These beautiful and talented women that we have posted about struggled with breast cancer and eventually died from complications many years ago. But there are still beautiful and strong women who struggle with the same disease today.

Always hope and work for a cure, and always Think PINK!

Join us both Wednesday and Thursday, the 30th and 31st of October for some vintage costumes and the history of trick-or-treating.

Happy Halloween!

"The Wavishing Kay Fwancis."

Think PINK post #2

Kay Francis

Born January 13, 1905

Died August 26, 1968

In the early days of the new year of 1905, Katharine Edwina Gibbs was born in Oklahoma City, OK to parents Joseph and Katharine. She was the couple's only child. Her father left the family by the time Kay was 4 years old. Her mother, known as "Katie," was a trained vocalist and actress in the theater. The mother-daughter pair lived on the road, traveling between cities. Most of the time, Kay was educated by her mother. Occasionally, they would stay in the city for a long enough stretch of time that her mother would enroll her in Catholic school. Between the ages of 15 and 17, she attended secretarial school in New York City. At the tender age of 17, she met and quickly wed a man by the name of James Dwight Francis. Their marriage did not last, and it was the first of several failed romantic relationships for Kay. It was from her first marriage that she took the surname that she would use throughout her career--Francis.

By 1925, Francis was working as a stage actress. She regularly commuted between Boston and New York, but eventually decided to settle in the latter and pursue a career on Broadway. Her big debut on the city's stage was a role in a modern version of Shakespeare's play Hamlet. She knew how to interact with the kind of people who could boost her career. Francis later said that her early parts were given to her because she "lied a lot, to the right people." This eventually got her a place in The Portmanteau Theatre Company, where she played a wide range of characters, and gained much experience. She did 2 Broadway plays in 1927, playing parts in Crime, and Venus. Her last appearance on the stage was in Elmer the Great (1928). For the play, she was working alongside Walter Huston, who told her she was good enough to make it in Hollywood. Because of this, Francis went for a screen test, which gave her a part in Gentlemen of the Press (1929), and also in The Cocoanuts (1929) alongside The Marx Brothers.

Although her parts in those first 2 films were not big, she still earned herself a contract with Paramount Pictures, which led to her relocation in California. Once established in Hollywood, everyone's eyes were on Francis. Aside from the fact that she was the tallest woman in Hollywood, standing just short of 6 ft, everyone knew that she had the potential to be the next big star. She made 21 films between 1929 and 1931

alone, many of which she starred in alongside William Powell. Some film critics were surprised that Francis managed to build a solid career so quickly, as she had to work around a speech impediment which she never fully recovered from. Since childhood, Francis had pronounced the letters "r" and "l" as a "w." In the midst of the monumental transition from silent films to talkies, when many actors and actresses who had speech impediments or unpleasant speaking voices were cut from the industry, it is somewhat surprising that Francis was not turned away. On the contrary, everyone fell in love with her, and most people thought her impediment was endearing, and she was affectionately given the title of "The Wavishing Kay Fwancis."

Although she was already doing well with Paramount Pictures, Warner Bros came to her with an offer that would launch her into ultimate stardom. Her last picture with Paramount was Trouble in Paradise (1932). She accepted the offer from Warner Bros, and her first pictures with the studio were George Cukor's Girls About Town, and Twenty-Four Hours later that same year. Within the next few years, Francis

became one of the highest paid women in Hollywood. She was known as the Queen of the Warner Bros lot from 1932 to 1936.

As time went on, Francis's relationship with the studio turned sour, as all of her parts were written to showcase her as a fashion icon during the Depression era, so as to appeal to female audiences. To her, the scripts became meaningless, and she had no desire to act in most of the films she was cast in, but she was bound by her contract. She began to openly feud with the studio, which eventually led to her getting demoted. Later on, Warner Bros released her from her contract. She had a brief taste of freedom, before she began to feel the anxiety over not being able to secure another contract with a studio at all. Fellow actress and good friend, Carole Lombard, gave her the push she needed to get back into acting when she made sure she was given a part in her upcoming film In Name Only (1939), alongside Cary Grant. Francis knew that she would be nothing more than a supporting character in the film, but she tactfully accepted, knowing that it was the best move for her career at the time. Her role in the film started a chain-like reaction which led to similar parts in other films. While none of these parts were starring roles, Francis used them to slowly rebuild her reputation. Her next leading role would not be until she was cast in King of the Underworld (1939) with Humphrey Bogart.

Like many of her fellow comrades in Hollywood, Francis focused much of her time during WWII on volunteer work. She did many tours of war-zones, which led to the book (and later film of the same name) Four Jills in a Jeep. With all of this going on, Francis was often in the public eye. While people commended her for her efforts, she was virtually unemployed. She was given the opportunity to do a 3 film deal with Poverty Row, which led to her last 3 films, Divorce (1945), Allotment Wives (1945), and Wife Wanted

(1946). She might have spent more time after that trying to find more film work, but Francis suffered from various health issues; that combined with an accident in 1948, led her to make the decision to end her career. She officially retired in 1948.

In 1966, Francis was diagnosed with breast cancer. She began to fight the disease and tried to take preventative measures, even undergoing a mastectomy, but her efforts proved futile. On a late summers day in August of 1968, Kay Francis died from complications with breast cancer. She was 63 years old.  Despite the fact that her overall career in Hollywood was short, Kay Francis was a beautiful actress who displayed her talent in no less than 68 motion pictures during the 17 years that she was active.

"I can't wait to be forgotten."

-Kay Francis

Kay Francis is the second star from classic films that is a part of our Think PINK campaign for Breast Cancer Awareness.

Click here to view the post from last week on Bette Davis.

Come back again next Thursday, October 24, for our last post on a famous actress who battled breast cancer.

Always hope for a cure, and remember to Think PINK!