Mean...Moody...Magnificent!: Jane Russell and the Marketing of a Hollywood Legend

Mean...Moody...Magnificent!: Jane Russell and the Marketing of a Hollywood Legend

by Christina Rice
Mean...Moody...Magnificent!: Jane Russell and the Marketing of a Hollywood Legend

Mean...Moody...Magnificent!: Jane Russell and the Marketing of a Hollywood Legend

by Christina Rice

Hardcover

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Overview

By the early 1950s, Jane Russell (1921–2011) should have been forgotten. Her career was launched on what is arguably the most notorious advertising campaign in cinema history, which invited filmgoers to see Howard Hughes's The Outlaw (1943) and to "tussle with Russell." Throughout the 1940s, she was nicknamed the "motionless picture actress" and had only three films in theaters. With such a slow, inauspicious start, most aspiring actresses would have given up or faded away. Instead, Russell carved out a place for herself in Hollywood and became a memorable and enduring star.

Christina Rice offers the first biography of the actress and activist perhaps most well-known for her role in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953). Despite the fact that her movie career was stalled for nearly a decade, Russell's filmography is respectable. She worked with some of Hollywood's most talented directors—including Howard Hawks, Raoul Walsh, Nicholas Ray, and Josef von Sternberg—and held her own alongside costars such as Marilyn Monroe, Robert Mitchum, Clark Gable, Vincent Price, and Bob Hope. She also learned how to fight back against Howard Hughes, her boss for more than thirty-five years, and his marketing campaigns that exploited her physical appearance.

Beyond the screen, Rice reveals Russell as a complex and confident woman. She explores the star's years as a spokeswoman for Playtex as well as her deep faith and work as a Christian vocalist. Rice also discusses Russell's leadership and patronage of the WAIF foundation, which for many years served as the fundraising arm of the International Social Service (ISS) agency. WAIF raised hundreds of thousands of dollars, successfully lobbied Congress to change laws, and resulted in the adoption of tens of thousands of orphaned children. For Russell, the work she did to help unite families overshadowed any of her onscreen achievements.

On the surface, Jane Russell seemed to live a charmed life, but Rice illuminates her darker moments and her personal struggles, including her empowered reactions to the controversies surrounding her films and her feelings about being portrayed as a sex symbol. This stunning first biography offers a fresh perspective on a star whose legacy endures not simply because she forged a notable film career, but also because she effectively used her celebrity to benefit others.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780813181080
Publisher: University Press of Kentucky
Publication date: 06/15/2021
Series: Screen Classics
Pages: 392
Product dimensions: 6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)
Age Range: 18 Years

About the Author

Christina Rice is a librarian and archivist at the Los Angeles Public Library. She is the author of Ann Dvorak: Hollywood's Forgotten Rebel. She lives in North Hollywood, California.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction
2. From Bemidji to Burbank
3. Valley Girl
4. Daughter Grows Up
5. Accidental Aspiring Actress
6. The Howards
7. Shooting an Outlaw
8. Motionless Picture Actress
9. Mean... Moody... Magnificent
10. Mrs. Robert Waterfield
11. Kick-starting a Career
12. House in the Clouds
13. Mitch
14. Wing-Ding Tonight
15. International Uproar
16. What Happened In Vegas
17. Blondes
18. A Woman of Faith
19. J. R. in 3D
20. WAIF
21. Russ-Field
22. Do Lord
23. On the Stage and Small Screen
24. Endings, Beginnings, and Endings
25. A Life Off-screen
26. Path and Detours
27. Living Legend

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