Disgraced Minor Female Celebs

[pasman]

Shelby Cobra, (born Shelby Stingley) is a former Disney singer, is facing drunken driving charges after being pulled over in Studio City. Police pulled over the truck because the dome light was on in the cab, and a passenger was riding without a seat belt. She was reportedly found to have a blood-alcohol level of 0.15 percent, nearly twice the legal limit of .08 in California.

pics are post 18

Shelby Cobra has accomplished quite a lot at the young age of 18 years old as both an actress and model. Shelby’s print work includes the face of Bio Ionic Professional Haircare, Team Athletics, I.D.I by Matthew and Ed Hardy by Christian Audigier. Shelby has studied at NoHo Actors‘ Studio and at Gary Spatz’s The Playground in Los Angeles. She has appeared in such films as Finding Valerie, Mean, The Virgin of Tijuana and 12 Angry Men Spoof. Shelby was a cast member of The Janice Dickinson Modeling Agency on the Oxygen Network and has appeared in numerous music videos as well as work as a body double for Kirsten Price. She also works as an assistant casting director and it currently pitching show ideas. Her twitter name is @theshelbycobra

When Shelby isn’t booked she enjoys staying in shape, eating well, writing, watching films, spending time with family and close friends and riding her Arabian horse Prince. Growing up in Southern California’s wine country of Temecula, Shelby is an equestrian rider who began when she was only 4 years old.

But now she is throwing it all away --- it is okay to party, but accept responsibility before you get in trouble. Take a limo, or a cab!!!

[VintageKell]

Kimberly Denise Jones is a singer better known by her stage name 'Lil' Kim' (if you knew of her at all actually I had heard of the name), who started as a member of the group Junior M.A.F.I.A. She was expelled from home by her father, and thus spent part of her adolescent life on the streets, while she was a student at Brooklyn College Academy High School. She supported herself by working for a while at a Bloomingdale's store in New York.

Talented spotted by the singer 'The Notorious B.I.G.' (Biggie Smalls) she was taken off the streets and started her career in 1995. The first solo album 'Conspiracy' followed in 1996 and generated three hit singles ... she has since had a series of successful albums. She has featured in a small number of TV and film roles of which maybe the most famous is err, hmm, as herself in various shows. She has also appeared on the eighth season of the reality show 'Dancing with the Stars', in 2009.

Legal Issues:

In July 1996 she was arrested by the New Jersey cops and charged with possession of marijuana. She was caught and rounded up after a police raid on the Teaneck home of Biggie Smalls (aka Christopher Wallace), her rapper boyfriend.

In March 2005, she was convicted of three counts of conspiracy and one count of perjury for lying to a Federal grand jury about her friends (Damion "D-Roc" Butler, and her bodyguard, Suif "Gutta" Jackson) involvement in a 2001 shooting outside the Hot 97 studios in Manhattan.

She had testified before the grand jury to have not to have known her friends were at the scene of the shooting when video footage placed them at the scene. Butler and Jackson have since plead guilty to gun charges (Jackson was sentenced, to twelve years in federal prison) .... Kim was sentenced to a one year and a day in prison (served at the Federal Detention Center, Philadelphia), thirty days home detention upon release from custody, and three years of probation. She served approximately 10 months.

Quote:

"Only me and him will ever know what that relationship was really like" (On her relationship with Biggie Smalls)

Trivia:

• She released a fourth album, The Naked Truth, on September 27, 2005, while serving a federal prison sentence.
• In May 2006, Debbie Harry released a Lil' Kim tribute song called "Dirty and Deep" in protest of her conviction. The song was available free from the Deborah Harry Home Page for a while.
• Her role was cut from Scary Movie in 2000.
• Owns over 800 wigs at 2,000 dollars each.
• Was The Notorious B.I.G.'s girlfriend at the time of his death.

Pictures:

She has no thread of her own, but features on various others ... so just a few for illustration ... any follow ups should probably be posted to the other threads where she features

[VintageKell]

Jean Parks was a singer whose fame was confined to the 1940's and 1950's, and who then completely disappeared from the public eye. For a brief time, her fame was such that the "Afro-American" press reported frequently on her doings (with it has to be said, some glee). She was born in Dayton Ohio, and then moved at some stage to New York where she won several black beauty contests (Yep, the traditional method to get some attention). She then became a lead girl singer with Sarah Vaughan, in the 'Bluebonnets', a quartet that sang with the Earl "Fatha" Hines band, before being set up as the leader in an all girl band "Sweethearts of Rhythm", where she attained some success. The first composer for the band was Eddie Durham. Sadly, although as you can see from reports at the time, her involvement with this band was well known, the Wiki entry fails to list her as a band member.

This may be because, just as her fame was starting to take off, she was arrested as a "dope addict" i.e. she was caught smoking a joint. This arrest seemingly caused her to be dropped from the band (and it seems their history ) ... she apparently managed to avoid imprisonment and seems to have paid a fine. She then became a 'friend' of the Harlem dancer, gigolo and womaniser Richard "Dickie" Wells (not to be confused with the jazz trombone player), and she was likely one of his 'girlfriends'. He apparently was part of the dance team of 'Wells, Mordecai, & Taylor' (aka the 'Three Klassy Kids' or 'Class Act Dancers'), and danced at the 'Cotton Club' and all over the world. 'Dickie' was once considered to be the most popular man in Harlem, and he also owned the 'Hoofer's Club' where many of the great black dancers of the day would perform.

According to the black mobster 'Bumpy' Johnson's widow Mamie (or Mayme): "The thing that made Dickie Wells really special as far as I was concerned, was that he never ever took a dime from a black woman. He would siphon every dollar he could from white women who were willing to pay for his affections (Ava Gardner, Tallulah Bankhead, etc.) and then come uptown to Harlem and spend his money partying with the most beautiful black women of the day, including Margherite Chapman (who later married Willie Mays) and Jean Parks (sister of the founder of Parks sausage)." [This is a reference to Henry Green Parks Jr, but there may only be a surname connection, or Parks may simply have invented the kinship as he was a prominent black businessman].

Dickie was involved in Harlem prostitution in his club (Parks may have been operating as such in his club - she was later said to have had arrests as a prostitute), and he was under investigation over the case of a white US Diplomats (or possibly a Swedish diplomats - accounts vary) daughter who had entered into prostitution, apparently via a connection with Wells .... He then had the bad manners to die of a heart attack in her apartment (25,000 people were said to have attended the funeral at Woodlawn Cemetery of the wealthy playboy). She was dragged into the scandal and went into hiding, before fleeing to Paris France, where again she had some success at 'Carroll's' nightclub, and had tours of Istanbul and Athens, before opening her own club in Paris called 'Jeans Intrigue' .... this started well enough, but she changed the formula from 'international music to jazz', and also took a job in Spain. The club failed when the 'international clientele' moved on.

She was apparently preparing to leave France for a contract in the Embassy Club in London, and had a ticket on the Queen Mary sailing from Southampton to the US, when rumours started in the US, said that she was smuggling narcotics (or dope as they called it), into France, and that the French authorities were allegedly investigating her with a view to deportation. She strenuously denied this, but her 'friends and supporters' dropped her, and she developed a temporary nervous skin condition called "Zona" which could have disfigured her. Some reports suggest that the French authorities eventually asked her leave as 'an undesirable'.

She had planned to try her luck in Rome (its not clear if she ever did), but in any case she eventually returned to New York, where her singing career was effectively over. She seems to strayed back into prostitution and later reports mention previous arrests for both 'dope addiction' and 'prostitution'. She was still only aged 29, when she then took up with a friend, the 26 yr old, statuesque, platinum blonde, Alicia Howard (aka Lea Howard) in a swanky $400 pcm, East Manhattan 'patio' apartment. They apparently were both acting as prostitutes in the upper end of the market, at $100 a night It was also alleged that they were also selling or using narcotics from the apartment to a high class clientele.

When the police eventually raided them, they found a thick black book of clients names and addresses (business men, politicians, TV entertainers and the like). They also had an opium lamp, quantities of Opium, Cocaine, Marijuana and what was described as 'reefer making paraphernalia'. The courts set bail as $7,500, and Parks faced penalties of a maximum $1,000 fine and up to one year in jail.

When the case eventually came to court, she was given a 6 month suspended sentence for the drug offences, but the other charge of prostitution was mysteriously just dropped ... it appears that the 'thick black book' and the names it contained, had apparently determined that this charge wouldn't come to court. Miss Parks lawyer had apparently contended that the girls didn't sell the narcotics (which were presumably just for personal use) and pleaded that "Miss Parks has reformed".

Historical side note:

Malcolm X was living in Harlem at the same time and in the Alex Haley biography ('The autobiography of Malcolm X') there is passage that describes their friendship. "I was telephoning Jean Parks. Jean was one of the most beautiful women who ever lived in Harlem. She once sang with Sarah Vaughan in the Bluebonnets, a quartet that sang with Earl Hines. For a long time, Jean and I had enjoyed a standing, friendly deal that we'd go out and celebrate when either of us hit the numbers. Since my last hit, Jean had treated me twice, and we laughed on the phone, glad that now I'd treat her to a night out. We arranged to go to a 52nd Street nightclub to hear Billie Holiday, who had been on the road and was just back in New York" (Holliday was playing at the Onyx Club).

The story ends with Parks and X going to "the bar of the La Marr-Cheri on the corner of 147th Street and St. Nicholas Avenue" at Parks suggestion for a mightcap ..."I had my gun, and the cocaine courage, and I said okay. And by the time we'd had the drink, I was so high that I asked Jean to take a cab on home, and she did. I never have seen Jean again, either" (Holiday and Parks). I assume that this is a factual account, but was from a period before Malcolm X was a Muslim and was known as "Detroit Red", and suggests that he and Parks didn't later resume their friendship.

Conclusion:

I have managed to create this brief web biography from the reproductions of contemporary magazine articles held on the web ..... a life history hidden behind the headlines of the time, and almost forgotten, but now buffed up and given a voice again.

• Singer Jean Parks Arrested in Drugs and Call Girl Raid - Jet Magazine, July 2, 1953.
• Jean Parks Faces $1000 Fine, Jail On Dope Charge Former bandleader and singer Jean Parks, arrested last June with her roommate, Alicia Howard aged 26.
• Singer Jean Parks Bail Set On Sex Charges - Jet Magazine, July 9, 1953.
• Singer Jean Parks Gets 6 Month Suspended Term for Drug Possession - Jet Magazine, May 6, 1954.

And that's it .... she disappears from the web held records .... one has to assume that either she remained a low level drug user and occasional prostitute, or that she may have simply reformed, and never appeared again in the public eye.

Quote:

"I am a New Yorker in every sense of the word and American to the bone".

Trivia:

• As far as I can tell this post is the first (and only) web biography for this singer.
• There is some evidence that she was a friend of Malcolm X.
• Height 5'9" 36-24 (1/2) - 37 - Eyeful magazine.
• She seems to have done some work at "Club Ebony" as a show girl.
• She did some pin up work for Eyeful magazine as a "Haitian" Beauty.

Pictures:




'Dickie Wells' and friends



Colourised Versions of some of her pictures to finish this post off properly:

[Fabrizio]

Originally Posted by VintageKell

Evelina Manna:

Evelina Manna is an actress....

Some more images

[VintageKell]

Wynonna Judd (Christina Claire Ciminella) is an American country music singer (I don't know if she is 'famous', or not, country music being largely a US music form) .... She started singing with her mother Naomi, in the 1980's, in the country music duo 'The Judds'. They released 7 albums and charted 26 singles (inc 14 number one hits).

They split up in 1991 (Their relationship was rocky, with Wynonna frequently being late and forgetful, and Naomi then being critical of her), when she began a solo career. Her first solo album 'Wynonna', was released in 1992 and gave her 3 number ones ... the rest as they say is history. She has recently reformed with her mother as 'The Judds'. She has done some TV work, mostly as herself, and occasional voice overs e.g. She was the voice of the rock star Molly Cule in the cartoon 'The Magic School Bus' (Meets Molly Cule).

As usual it's the private life where this thread takes an interest in her ...

Private Life:

As hinted at above, she has lived the country and western girl singer lifestyle in spades.

Birth:

She was given the last name Ciminella after Michael Ciminella, the man her mother married after being abandoned by Judd's biological father, Charles Jordan ... Jordan died in 2000. She was estranged for almost a decade from the man she considered "her dad", Michael Ciminella, before patching things up in 2005.

Marriages:

Her first marriage in 1996 ended in divorce in 1998. Her second marriage in 2003 to her former bodyguard, D. R. Roach ended badly, after he was arrested in 2007 for sexual assault of a child under the age of 13; Judd filed for divorce five days later

Weight Issues:

In November 2003 she taped an appearance of an episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show discussing what she described as a "severe" dependency on food. In September 2005, she made a second appearance on the show, discussing how she had lost some weight. Her weight has ballooned up and down over the years, mostly up, and I don't know what she is now.

Motoring and Other Incidents:

In November 2003, she was arrested for DUI. Following a traffic stop, Nashville cops detected the smell of booze on the 39-year-old performer, whose eyes were watery and dilated. After consenting to a Breathalyzer, Judd blew a .175--more than twice the Tennessee limit. Judd was released after posting $500 bond. The Judge gave Judd the choice of 48 hours in jail or the community service, which is an option available to any first-time drunken driving offender in Nashville. Judd received an 11-month, 29-day suspended sentence, during which time she was also on probation, and she paid almost $1,000 in court costs and fines.

In 2009 she was dragged into another child sex scandal - an assistant she hired to teach her two home-schooled kids was arrested on child pornography charges.

In July 2010, Judd was in a car (daughter and tour manager were in the car) involved in a head-on collision in Salt Lake City, Utah, on their way to a sushi restaurant. The three of them were taken to a hospital where their injuries were treated, and all three were released at midnight that evening.

Trivia:

• Her younger half-sister is actress Ashley Judd.
• She released her autobiography, 'Coming Home to Myself'.
• She is in her fourth year as United States Ambassador for YouthAIDS.
• In 2007, Wynonna was presented with a star on the Music City Walk of Fame.

Pictures:

I haven't bothered with too many pictures - she was a bit of a 'looker' when younger, but apparently has never had any indiscreet pictures, probably because she was 'managed' throughout her life. Makes her a bit boring from a picture point of view.

[Fabrizio]

Originally Posted by VintageKell

Wynonna Judd

The Judds were an American country music duo composed of Naomi Judd and her daughter, Wynonna Judd. Signed to RCA Records in 1983, the duo released six studio albums between then and 1991. One of the most successful acts in country music history, The Judds won five Grammy Awards for Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal, and eight Country Music Association awards. The duo also charted twenty-five singles on the country music charts between 1983 and 2000, fourteen of which went to Number One and six more of which made Top Ten on the same chart.

The Judds called it quits in 1991 after Naomi was diagnosed with Hepatitis C. Shortly after, Wynonna began her solo career. The two have occasionally reunited for special tours, the most recent of which began in late 2010.

[VintageKell]

Michelle Bonev is an 'Actress' from Bulgaria (who is now an a naturalised Italian citizen). She moved to Italy, in order to work in that peculiarly sexist television arena, where the word 'actress' can be applied to the breasts of a woman, without necessarily being applied to the rest of her body.

That's not to say this girl hasn't got any native talents, but just not much. In 2003 she co-hosted the TV coverage of the 'Dopofestival' (Italian Song Festival in Sanremo) and went in to a bit part in the Mel Gibson movie 'The Passion of the Christ'. In 2004 she started working in the Italian TV serial 'Never Love Stories In The Kitchen' ... and after that her career was just one daytime TV serial after another up until until 2010, when suddenly and mysteriously she found the funds to set up a film production company 'Romantic Entertainment', and the money to complete production of her first film as a director (she was also the screenwriter, actress and producer ) ... 'Goodbye Mama'.

Now comes the fun and games ....

The 39-year-old Bulgarian/Italian actress was virtually unknown, either in Italy or in her own country and yet this film was awarded the special prize 'Action for Women' at the 67th ​​edition of the Venice Biennale ... it turned out that this was a previously non-existent award, especially created for her by Minister of Culture Sandro Bondi (A Silvio Berlusconi ally)

Naturally the Italian press immediately went into overdrive and the newspaper Fatto Quotidiano (Daily Fact) of November 24, 2010 reported that Berlusconi had instructed Rai Cinema, the film division of Italy's state-owned television company, to pay over $1.3 million for the rights to screen "Goodbye Mama" and then have spent a further $530,000 in state funds, to send Bonev and a 40-person entourage to the Venice Film Festival to receive her "action for women" award .. all this while Italy is virtually broke and RAI was having its funding cut.

An investigation was launched in Venice, which made it clear that the festival organisers contributed nothing to the award or the extravagant costs of housing Ms Bonev and her entourage during the festival .... The spending of $1.8 million in state funds from RAI Cinema to further the career of a largely unknown Italian/Bulgarian actress, while making severe cuts to the country's arts budget provoked a strong reaction from both the Italian public and in the Italian Parliament ... no resignations were forthcoming.

The controversy then went international when it was discovered that on top of the Italian state money, the Bulgarian government has also contributed BGN 300,000 for Bonev's 'mysterious' movie. Unlike in the old democracy Italy, Bulgaria's Culture Minister Vezhdi Rashidov accepted two resignations over the case: Alexander Donev, head of the Bulgarian National Film Center and Bulgaria's Deputy Culture Minister, Dimitar Derelviev both resigned

Trivia:

• Since the initial screening in Venice (allegedly just to the cast), and the subsequent 'award' was handed out to Bonev, her movie has apparently never been shown on TV or screened again for an audience.
• Amazingly Berlusconi is still the Italian Prime Minister, despite featuring on this thread more often than any other man He would have been forced to resign for just one of his various offences in any northern European country - but in the Med area different rules apply

Pictures:

She has no thread or posts that I am aware of, so scope for a new thread if someone cares to start one, but probably she just ain't worth it (or follow ups for that matter) - so no pointless one pic or career update posts please




A Naughty Boy

[VintageKell]

This tale is being relayed by me on behalf of Fabrizio who hasn't the English to adequately convey the story. So please consider this a sort of translation (which in a way it is as the source material is all in Italian) .... Now I have to be honest, the story he passed on, isn't at first glance all that suitable for the thread, being as it is, largely driven by the male in the story (and in fact we only know the events via her husbands diaries), but there's an unusual hook at the end, which decided me to spend the time required to research and pass on the tale ..... so without further ado I give you the Marchessa Anna Casati.

This is a tale of perversion and mayhem from the 1960's and early 1970's, but this story begins in 1958 when Anna met the soon to be divorced Marquis Camillo Casati Stampa Soncino, at the Cannes festival ... She was a part time model and showgirl of modest origins from Benevento and was soon infatuated by this very wealthy man, and by 1959 they were married. How she had managed to get to the wedding night before finding out a vital bit of information seems odd now, especially as she was his mistress until his divorce from the Countess Patrizia de Blanck, but it was a more innocent age (he allegedly had to pay 1 billion lira to keep his first wife quiet). However the wedding night was a major flop for her (in every sense), as the Marquis was partially impotent (he was effective, but only if his libido was titillated in a particular manner) .

However all was not lost, the Marquis had one way of getting satisfaction and that was to sit and watch as his wife was fucked by men he had selected for the act ... he would occasionally get aroused enough to join in, although not to the point of penetration (he presumably masturbated). These sexual activities could entail a public space such as a beach, or behind one-way mirrors, but he had to pick the men, and the Marchessa had to not be in love with anyone but him. He also kept a detailed dairy (ala Casanova), and took photographs of each encounter, again for his private pleasures ....

A typical encounter would be like this .... they would be in an isolated area and the Marquis would approach a good looking male substitute ..... sex would take place with his Anna and he would pay the man large sums, several tens of thousands of Lira (equivalent to several hundred pounds in some cases). This went on for nearly a decade, and apparently included men from the street, but also up and coming Italian 'celebrities' from film and TV (many of whom presumably couldn't afford to refuse this wealthy and influential man) ... their behaviour was hardly discreet and Anna and the Marquis soon became well known figures on the Italian social scene, and gossip columns.

His diary entries read like this "Today, Anna made me mad with pleasure. She made love with a soldier so effectively, that even from a distance, I have participated in its joy. It cost me thirty thousand [Lira], but it was worth it" ... rough or smooth, she had to have sex with the chosen man, or men (he included gang bangs as a part of the 'fun').

She apparently went along with all this because she had been poor, and was now leading a wealthy lifestyle. But things started to sour when Anna started to take control of the situation and organise 'parties', consisting of males whom she wished to sleep with ... included in these groups was one Massimo Minorenti (aka 'Max'). He was noticeable in many respects, including the fact that he had been reported in the gossip / society news for an alleged affair with the well known singer Lola Falana, even though he was only a student. She fell in love and insisted on him being the chosen one whenever her partner was 'selected'.

This regular attendance at their house (and her insistence on his selection) was quickly noticed by the Marquis and one evening with friends, he snapped out with the statement "This is the first time my wife cheats on me with my heart," then, added with confidence, "But I'm sure that it'll pass".

Unfortunately for everyone involved it didn't, and Anna apparently hinted that if she didn't get the houses and money required to keep her and her new paramour in the lifestyle to which she was used to, (and to which Massimo would like to become used to), then she would publicly shame the Marquis in the divorce that she now wanted. This was a mistake, being largely impotent and having to have his wife sleep with men in front of him was one thing, but to threaten his 'family honour' drove the Marquis over the edge.

His last diary entry reads ""My love, my life, forgive me, but what I do I will do. Farewell, my only joy gone". ... on August the 30th 1970, he rang his wife in Rome, only to hear Minorenti answer the phone, whatever was said seems to have been the final straw, he rang the house again, this time speaking to his wife .... we don't know for sure what words were said, but its known that it culminated in threats from the Marquis, but apparently Anna thought these were as impotent as threats, as her husband was in other areas.

She and 'Max' remained in the Rome villa ... this was a mistake, as the Marquis arrived in Via Puccini, and went straight in to the Villa's living room, where the Anna and 'Max' were waiting for him. He fired three shots into Anna and then two into her 'lover', who had grabbed a small table in the hope of stopping the bullets. The Marquis used the last shot on himself. Meanwhile the servants alarmed by the firing, had called the police, without going into the room.

The deaths, the diaries, the photographs .... a scandal of epic proportions hit the Italian Press and high society, as the possible names of those in the diaries were discussed and the pictures leaked ..... now, this story, interesting as it is, would not really qualify for this thread, as there is only a slim 'celebrity' content (and murders are not this threads thing), but there is an interesting hook to this tale.

The Arcore Villone, St. Martin Villa, ancestral home of the Casati Stampa Soncino, was purchased after the triple murder, by an up and coming millionaire and politician. He got it at a very good price, and it was considered something of a bargain .... Anna had considered it to be haunted by the souls of the nuns who had once lived there, and 'bad luck'. The triple murder had added to its reputation for bad luck.

And the purchaser of this house of ill repute? ... One Silvio Berlusconi and we all know what he used the villa for

Hopefully Fabrizio will be happy with my telling of the tale. I had to translate several sources to get the right sort of precis. There are varying degrees of melodrama (and reporting standards) associated to this tale ... mine is just one of them.

Trivia:

• This story became the basis of the movie "The Naked Contessa"

Pictures:








NB: I have not gone into the gruesome details in the police reports, and I have removed the 'bloodied corpse shot' from the pictures. This is not a 'snuff' or 'true crime' thread, so don't post the pictures here please OK!

There are more pics posted here:

[VintageKell]

Judy Holliday (b. Judith Tuvim m.Oppenheim) was an American actress and singer. Her parents were of Russian Jewish descent but not from a stage background. Her first job was as an assistant switchboard operator at the 'Mercury Theatre' run by Orson Welles (Famous for the players broadcasting the 'War of The Worlds' Hoax) ... but she didn't start in show business until 1938 as part of a night-club act called "The Revuers" who played engagements at various New York night clubs, and benefits until they disbanded in early 1944, after failing to break out of radio and into movies.

She then started her brief film career with small parts in the movies in 'Something for the Boys' and 'Winged Victory' in 1944, but she did not appear in the stage version of the latter movie (either before or after its release). She then made her 'Broadway' debut in March 1945 in 'Kiss Them for Me' and was the recipients of an award ($500 as "best supporting actress") ... but it was in 1946 that she got her break when she returned to Broadway as the scatterbrained 'Billie Dawn' in 'Born Yesterday' replacing the ill 'Jean Arthur'. However when when Columbia bought the film rights boss Harry Cohn wouldn't consider casting her in the same role (he wanted Rita Hayworth).

There are various versions of how she got the role but one is that she got a role in the 1949 film 'Adam's Rib' and her friend Katherine Hepburn deliberately leaked stories to the gossip columns that her performance had 'nearly stolen' the movie from Hepburn and Tracey ... this all raised her profile enough and Cohn was convinced ... she won the Oscar for best Actress, beating stiff competition (Gloria Swanson in 'Sunset Boulevard' and both Bette Davis and Anne Baxter, both for 'All About Eve') ...

Her career then became somewhat 'spotty' (as will be discussed later) but in 1954, she starred opposite then-newcomer Jack Lemmon in his first two feature films 'It Should Happen to You' and 'Phffft'. In 1956 she returned to Broadway starring in the musical 'Bells Are Ringing' for which she won the 1957 Tony Award for Best Leading Actress in a Musical and in 1960 she starred in the film version. In 1956 she starred in the film 'The Solid Gold Cadillac'.

She had married musician David Oppenheim, in 1948 but divorced in 1958 and after that she was involved with the jazz musician Gerry Mulligan, and Co-wrote and performed songs with him for the album "Holliday with Mulligan".

From the start of the 1960's health issues increasingly impacted her career, as she was diagnosed with cancer (she was a smoker) and she had throat surgery in October 1960 ... she battled on and her last role was in the stage musical 'Hot Spot', which closed after 43 performances on May 25, 1963. Sadly the cancer had spread and she died on June 7, 1965.

So why is she here?

McCarthyism:

As I draw towards the end of my postings on this thread, I realised that I had largely avoided any real mention of the activities of the McCarthy era and the Hollywood black-listings ... the problem being that in the main the black-listings are largely discredited, and therefore its now considered that being 'blacklisted' wasn't a disgrace and was more a victim thing. It should be noted for balance that recent ex Soviet block evidence, has suggested that in fact there were many sympathisers in the US entertainment business.

So how to illustrate the issue, without examining each and every individual case?

My solution (rightly or wrongly) was to find someone who was 'winged' rather than crippled by those events, and Ms Holliday seems to fit the bill .... In 1950 Ms Holliday was the subject of an FBI investigation, that was looking into the allegations that she was a 'Communist'. The investigation "did not reveal positive evidence of any membership in the Communist Party", and was concluded after three months ... however as you can see it didn't clear her either. This meant that she was not actively blacklisted from movies, but she was positively blacklisted from performing on radio and television for almost three years, but left her free to work on stage.

Her career reflects this exactly .... only one movie (in 1952) between 1950 and 1954, and no TV or radio until 1953 (whats my line). Even on stage, only one Broadway show in 1951 until 1956 (although this may have had more to do with finding parts and shows that would make Broadway, rather than black listing).

In 1952 she was called to testify before the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee to "explain" why her name had been linked to Communist front organizations. As Time Magazine reported, Ms Holliday played her hand very carefully, by playing the ditsy blonde (even with an IQ bigger than the room) in front of the committee (while mentioning two friends names possibly by prior agreement).

Mr. Arens: Now, when you were a member of the unit known as the Revuers, did the Revuers entertain at parties given under the auspices of the United American-Spanish Aid Committee?
Miss Holliday: I don't know. United American ----
Mr. Arens: United American-Spanish Aid Committee.
Miss Holliday: I really don't know. We did many, many benefits. That is the way a young struggling actor tries to get recognition. As a matter of fact, I called one of the members in California to try to get a list from her; she has a much better memory than I have of what we did. I got some things from her, but that is not a familiar one to me.
Mr. Arens: Whom did call in California?
Miss Holliday: I called Betty Comden and she spoke to Adolph Green. They are working on a picture there.

She acknowledged that she "had been taken advantage of". She suggested that she had been duped because she had been too trusting
MR. ARENS: Do you know about Communist dupes, people who are sucked in by the Communists and have their names used by the Communists?
MISS HOLLIDAY: I do now.

'At the request of Judy's lawyer, the committee permitted her to read into the record a long statement. In it she denied being a Communist, expressed her hatred of Communism and spoke of her love for America, asserting that "with all my heart I would defend it any time, any where, against any enemy."

So now you can see how pernicious an area this is .... that's why Ms Holliday can serve as representative for that whole era.

Friends betrayed friends, and the innocent were dragged down with the guilty. Some should have been 'disgraced' and others not, and its almost impossible to tell who. According to biographer Gary Carey, in its search for subversives in the film industry, the House Un-American Activities Committee was flummoxed by Holliday. She essentially playing her Billie Dawn character on the witness stand. She ended up being the only person ever called before HUAC who was neither blacklisted nor compelled to name names.

On a side note, some Jewish reporters now interpret the black listings as 'anti semitic' rather than 'anti communist' .... "she also felt the pressures of antisemitism as she became part of that large sweep of theater people being investigated for subversive activities in the McCarthy years of the 1950's"

Quote:

"You have to be smart to play a dumb blonde over and over and keep the audience's attention without extraordinary physical equipment".

Trivia:

• Holliday has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6901 Hollywood Blvd.
• Holliday was highly intelligent, having a measured IQ score of 172, placing her above the 99.999th percentile (i.e Genius).
• She adopted the stage name of "Judy Holliday" at 20th century Fox's insistence ('Tuvim' can be translated as Holiday, so something of a play on words)
• Salary -Greenwich Village (1944) $400 a week and The Marrying Kind (1952) $200,000.
• During the Broadway musical Bells Are Ringing, she had a brief fling with co-star Sydney Chaplin, the son of Charles Chaplin.
• In real life, Holliday was a ferocious Scrabble competitor and crossword-puzzle demon.

Pictures:

She has a small thread here already, so only illustraive pictures and any follow ups to that thread please





NOTE: As explained above. this post is specifically intended to cover all of the ladies who were 'blacklisted' in the 50's, any other girls posted must have something else more disgraceful ... not just being blacklisted, which as I have explained wasn't really a 'disgrace' in most cases.

[symian]

Actually, she did not drop the names of her friends. The nightclub act "The Revuers" was the basis for inquiry and the founding members of that group were Betty Comden and Aldolph Greene. They all remained friends after the group disbanded, as well as after the Un-American Activities Committee business, so one can assume that Judy and Betty spoke prior to her testimony.