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The Real Reason
Why Jean
Branded by her spectacular appearance — feared and hated hy other women — -Jean risked her career to recapture happiness
by Mary Altman
IT WAS the great social event of the Hollywood year. At the party every star name was present. Jean Harlow, in the first new evening gown she had had in two years — an expensive original created by one of the world-famous couturieres— looked at herself in the mirror which flanked one side of the anteroom in which she was chatting with several friends. She was pleased with herself. It was a lovely gown and she was glad she had bought it.
And then, suddenly, she Saw a face behind her — a face distorted with rage and jealousy and hate. The face of a woman she had never seen. For a moment she was paralyzed with fright, and then she saw a glass lifted in a threatening hand. She turned too late. The contents of the glass were hurled at her. It streamed down her back. Down her arms. Down the front of that glamorous frock. She was too astonished and hurt to say a word. The woman turned and walked out of the room.
"Good Lord," said one of the small group surrounding Jean. "What do you think made her do that? She doesn't know you!"
White to the lips Jean stood there, mopping ineffectually at the ruined gown. And then she laughed. And there was bitterness in her voice. "Let's pretend it didn't happen."
If the others didn't know what caused the incident, Jean knew. Knew as certainly as if she had looked into the woman's mind. For this was a gesture not towards the girl Jean Harlow — but towards "That Platinum Blonde" — towards that flamboyant personality portrayed on the screen.
For six years Jean Harlow had been in bondage to her hair and to her synthetically acquired reputation. She had been invested with a personality and that personality had been dissected, exploited, discussed, accepted. Yet the Jean Harlow the world knows and the real Jean are fantastically different. But from the beginning, her spectacular silver hair has been [Continued on page 90]
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Illustrations by J. Sweet, Jr.