Photoplay (Jan - Jun 1943)

he is a good bookkeeper-budgeteer She likes operas, symphonies Her favorite meal is pepper steak VERONICA LAKE'S real name is Constance Keane. Producer Arthur Hornblow Jr. changed her name. He chose the Lake without knowing she was born at Lake Placid, New York, (and the date is November 14, 1919). He selected the Veronica from the name of a secretary, Veronica Grusling, without realizing that Constance Keane's mother is named Veronica. She is five feet one and a half inches tall and weighs ninety-eight pounds. This makes her the shortest siren the screen has known from the days of Theda Bara to Hedy Lamarr. People expect a siren to be much taller, but she does photograph slightly taller than when seen in person. While Veronica was visiting New York and attending the theater, a woman commented audibly: "Hum, Veronica Lake, Junior!" She is a natural blonde and always wore her hair with that long bob dangling over one eye. She didn't affect it to become a glamour girl. And about that hair: It's the most famous coiffure in the business. Practically every radio comedian has had a gag about it. Fred Allen claimed a cop halted him for having only one headlight, demanding, "Hey, you trying to pull a Veronica Lake?" Tizzie Lish gave a recipe for Veronica Lake potato bread — made of one-eyed potatoes. It has even been a joke in pictures. Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett used it -for a scene in "The Major And The Minor." MAY, 1943 Recently some friends entertained a soldier. Veronjca was in the party She was dancing with him when another soldier in the place said, "Look at that dame! Who does she think she is — Veronica Lake?" However in her next picture, "So Proudly We Hail," her famous hair goes decidedly up. She plays a U. S. Army nurse. Long hanging hair is against regulations and she must be authentic. Therefore her hair is parted in the middle and done up. Off the screen she loves to dress in pinafores with her hair done up in pigtails. She never outgrows clothes and many outfits she wears were made by herself years ago. And, although she once won the title of "Miss Florida" in a bathing beauty contest, she has never been photographed in a bathing suit for publicity purposes. She didn't want to be an actress when her family moved to Hollywood for business reasons in 1939. She didn't like the theater and seldom went to the movies. Her girl friend, Gwen Horn, however, wanted to be a movie star. Gwen answered a call at RKO for a girl to play a bit in "Sorority House." Veronica, who drove the car, went along. John Farrow, the director, insisted that she play a bit in the picture, too. From that day on, she wanted to be a movie star. She played bits in a number of pictures. Directors would always say to her, "Get the hair out of your eyes." She would have to put up the hair before playing the scene. She wore the hair over one eye for the first time in "Forty Little Mothers." "Let her do it," said Eddie Cantor to Director Busby Berkeley, "it'll help to distinguish her from the others." THIS bit led to her getting a special screen test at Metro. The test played a number of projection rooms at different studios. She was signed by Paramount for a leading role in "I Wanted Wings" and from then on she was a star. On the set she pays strict attention to work. She comes fully prepared and knows her lines and her part. She is not envious of other performers in the cast and she takes direction easily She puts everything she has into her work. She is married to Captain John Stuart Detlie of the camouflage division of the Engineer Corps, stationed in Seattle. She met him while he was in the art department at Metro and she was working at that studio. It was the haircomb that first attracted him to her. When not working in a picture, she resides in Seattle with their baby, Elaine, to be near John. His pet name for her is Ronni and she has it lettered on almost everything she owns. She smokes, but never has a match with her. She takes especially good care of her hair. She brushes it fifteen minutes a day. She eats prodigious amounts of food, but she (Continued on page 97) 41