The Girl Who Takes Jean Harlow's Place

When I was assigned to interview Marjorie Woodworth, the girl Hal Roach has tabbed to take Jean Harlow's place--and the girl Harvard undergrads recently used as a target for a soft orange---I thought, "Just another hopeful. I'll bet she doesn't look any more like Harlow than my redheaded granddaughter does." 

Then I sat down to luncheon with her (chaperoned by publicity chief Jules Seltzer of the Hal Roach Studios, where's she's starring in "Broadway Limited"). I took one look, opened my mouth-and ate my words! 

Marjorie is a natural blonde with heliotrope eyes, long lashes and features not exactly like Harlow's, but close enough-and plenty good! Her figure is a little larger, proportionately, but just as trim as was La Belle Jean before her untimely death. Marjorie measures five feet five inches tall (in stocking feet); hips, thirty-four inches; bust, thirty-four; waist, twenty-four; shoe, 5-B; hat, twenty-one and one-half; weight, 117 pounds. I didn't get her phone number because Seltzer was eavesdropping and besides, her dad, Clyde Woodworth, is the city attorney of Inglewood, Calif.! That's where Marjorie was born, June 5, 1921, and reared. Funny thing about that June 5 date. It was on her nineteenth birthday last year she was signed by Roach. 

Margie Starts Harvard Riot 

About her trip east on a bid from the president of the Harvard Lampoon, she was jubilant-in spite of the orange blitz, which happened when a rival Harvard Crimson faction tried unsuccessfully to kidnap Margie from the Lampoon executives. "They were just college boys having a little fun," said the honored guest and victim. "I'm a college girl and I understand them." She had two years at the University of Southern California. 

Is the Athletic Type 

Margie's favorite sports are ice-skating, swimming and horseback riding. She eats almost anything but dotes on prime roast beef rare. After a year of preliminary training, she's still studying dramatics and voice modulation at Max Reinhardt's school between picture calls. Asked if she had ever been told before Roach discovered her that she resembled Jean Harlow, she said, "Yes, many times in high school and college. But I don't know. I only saw her once---in 'Saratoga,' I believe." That was Harlow's last film. As for Marjorie's future success, she says, "I'm having fun!" and leaves the rest to movie-goers.- E. P.


Marjorie never came near the level of success that Jean Harlow had in Hollywood. She did a number of films in the 1940s but didn't catch enough attention from the movie-goers to become a star. This article originally appeared in the June 28th, 1942 issue of Movie Radio Guide. 

Movie Magazine Articles, another one of our ongoing series, feature articles like this reprinted for our reader's entertainment. Links to the original sources are available within the body of the text. In the future, simply search "Movie Magazine Articles" to find more posts in this series or click on the tag below. Enjoy!

Libeled Lady ( 1936 ) - A Behind-the-Scenes Look

Every ace reporter wants a good story, one that is ripe with human interest and a fair amount of juice. But a really good reporter avoids the pulp. Sometimes, in the haste of chasing a scoop they squeeze a lemon and then they find the aftertaste to be quite bitter. Warren Haggerty ( Spencer Tracy ) did just that. As editor of the New York Evening Star, he printed a statement that heiress Connie Allenbury ( Myrna Loy ) was a marriage-breaker, cause enough for her to sue him for libel - $5,000,000 worth! 

Frantic, Haggerty schemes up a plan to prove his statement true. He nabs an out-of-work reporter ( William Powell ) to marry his own fiancee Gladys ( Jean Harlow ), and then orders him to compromise Ms. Allenbury. Enter an indignant Gladys who will then publicly sue Connie Allenbury for husband-stealing. Good plan, providing all runs well. 

All does NOT go well, however. Hence, the film takes a rollicking good turn into the realm of comedic mayhem. 

Libeled Lady is based on an original story by William Sullivan, a former newspaper reporter himself. Its premise revolves around a newspaper editor's worse nightmare - a libel suit. But, like most editors will attest, ingenuity comes to the rescue in moments of crisis, and Warren Haggerty will do anything to avoid that suit and save his job. 

The film is a briskly paced and highly amusing comedy which gives each of its stars plenty of room to sparkle and shine. It features some of MGM's top talent in their best form. Jean Harlow began her rise to stardom through screwball comedies and her return to the genre, after some more diverse roles in Riffraff ( 1935 ), Wife vs. Secretary ( 1936 ), and Suzy ( 1936 ), was welcomed with open arms by the public. Libeled Lady secured her standing as one of MGM's top female stars. She went on to make two more films before her untimely death at the age of 26.

Interestingly enough, Harlow originally balked at playing the part of Gladys. She wanted the role of Connie Allenbury in order to have scenes with her off-screen fiancee, William Powell. The MGM boss, Louis B. Mayer, shook his head at the suggestion ( he insisted the Powell/Loy teaming was what the public wanted ), and by the end of the film Harlow admitted that she enjoyed playing Gladys and the role was perfect for her. Even though she didn't get to spend many scenes together with Powell, they did spend time with each other in between scenes. As Frank Miller* writes, 

" She often visited the set when he was filming his scenes with Loy. One of those times, while she was waiting for Powell to finish a scene so they could go to dinner, director Jack Conway realized that he was one extra short for a big scene. Rather than let them postpone shooting - the casting office was already closed for the night - Harlow put on a black wig and joined the rest of the extras, a return to the work she had done when she first arrived in Hollywood ". 

Rosalind Russell was originally selected for the role of the heiress, but after the success of Powell and Loy's teaming in The Great Ziegfeld, it was decided that Myrna Loy would be more suitable. Libeled Lady marked the fifth of their fourteen films together. 

Another star that was replaced prior to the film's shooting was Lionel Barrymore for the part of Mr. Allenbury. Walter Connolly took over and played it with flair.

Location scenes for the famous fishing sequence were filmed in the high Sierras of California. The beautiful set design of the Allenbury's fishing cottage was another wonderful creation from MGM's supervising art director, Cedric Gibbons, who was busy that year working on Romeo and Juliet and The Great Ziegfeld for the studio as well. 

Libeled Lady was advertised as being MGM's first all-star film since Dinner at Eight ( 1933 ). It was directed by one of MGM's most dependable directors, Jack Conway, and was an immense hit at the box-office, earning $2.7 million in sales and even picked up an Oscar nod for Best Picture. 

Unlike most romantic comedies today, Libeled Lady had a perfect balance of star punch. It subtly refused to shine the spotlight on any one person and let it rest on all of them instead. It is truly a sophisticated slapstick par excellence. We have not seen the movie in over ten years and yet the one feature we do recall about the movie is it was funny...for that to remain memorable is a testament to how amusing the film must really be.

Some may say that a libel suit is no laughing matter...but Libeled Lady proves that statement wrong. It can be a laughing matter indeed! 

This post is our contribution to the Journalism in Classic Film blogathon covering newspaper men and women in classic films, hosted by Comet Over Hollywood and Lindsay's Movie Musings. Be sure to check out all the other great posts in this blogathon! 

* for TCMdb