Carole Landis

Carole Landis (born Frances Lillian Mary Ridste; January 1, 1919 – July 5, 1948) was an American actress. She worked as a contract player for 20th Century Fox in the 1940s. Her breakout role was as the female lead in the 1940 film One Million B.C. from United Artists. She was known as "The Ping Girl" , a nickname given to her by Frank Seltzer that she disliked and tried to disassociate herself from .

Early life Landis was born on January 1, 1919, in Fairchild, Wisconsin, the youngest of five children of Clara (née Sentek), a Polish farmer's daughter, and Norwegian-American Alfred Ridste, a drifting railroad mechanic who abandoned the family after Landis's birth. According to Landis's biographer E. J. Fleming, circumstantial evidence supports that Landis was likely the biological child of her mother's second husband, Charles Fenner. Fenner left Landis's mother in April 1921 and remarried a few months later.

In 1923, Landis's family moved to San Bernardino, California, where her mother worked menial jobs to support the family. At the age of 15, Landis dropped out of San Bernardino High School and set forth on a career path to show business. She started out as a hula dancer in a San Francisco nightclub, where she was described by her boss as a "nervous $35-a-week blonde doing a pathetic hula at her opening night at the old Royal Hawaiian on Bush [Street]...that'll never get her anyplace in show business". He apparently employed her only because he felt sorry for her; she later sang with a dance band.

After saving $100, she moved to Hollywood in 1937.

Career Film career She was signed by Warner Bros. in late 1936 and went on to appear in two dozen features, mostly for Bryan Foy's low-budget "B" unit (including gradually increasing roles in four Torchy Blane comedies, some of which gave her screen credit). By 1938 she was working in the studio's major motion pictures like The Adventures of Robin Hood and Boy Meets Girl, but only in uncredited bits.

Dissatisfied with her lack of progress, she moved on to Republic Pictures, a small but efficient studio specializing in action pictures. The smaller studio paid more attention to her, giving her ingenue leads in two Three Mesquiteers westerns and a serial, Daredevils of the Red Circle.

Pioneer producer Hal Roach was preparing One Million B.C., a dramatic film about prehistoric people menaced by the elements. He hired another movie pioneer, D. W. Griffith, to cast the picture. It was to be a rugged shoot, with many scenes staged outdoors. Roach recalled:

Hal Roach saw star potential in Carole Landis and signed her to a contract in June 1940. He continued casting her in three more starring roles, the best known being Turnabout (1940), a role-reversal farce written by Thorne Smith and co-starring John Hubbard.

She returned to Republic for one more film, the Judy Canova comedy Sis Hopkins (1941). She then landed a contract with Twentieth Century-Fox and began a sexual relationship with studio chief Darryl F. Zanuck. She had roles playing opposite fellow pin-up girl Betty Grable in the musical Moon Over Miami and the crime drama I Wake Up Screaming, both in 1941. When Landis ended her relationship with Zanuck, he stopped furthering her career. She remained under contract but was now assigned to lesser pictures, and Fox loaned her out to other studios three times. Her final two films, Noose and Brass Monkey, were both made in Great Britain.

On March 20, 1943, the Fashion Academy had named Landis the best-dressed woman for 1943 in its screen classification category. The Fashion Academy honor was based on an annual poll of leading designers to select the twelve best dressed women of the nation for twelve different classification categories.

USO tours Carole Landis performing in a USO show at the U.S. Naval Hospital in Aiela Heights, Oahu on June 20, 1945. Carole Landis became a popular pin-up with servicemen during World War II. Two years later, she entertained soldiers in the South Pacific alongside Jack Benny. During the war, Landis traveled over 100,000 miles and was the actress who spent the most time engaged in this activity. During her travels, she became seriously ill due to amoebic dysentery and malaria. She also wrote the foreword to Vic Herman's cartoon book Winnie the WAC.

Personal life

Landis was married four times and had no children (she was unable to conceive owing to endometriosis). In 1938, Wheeler reappeared and filed a $250,000 alienation of affections lawsuit against director and choreographer Busby Berkeley. Even though Landis and Wheeler were estranged, he claimed that Berkeley had enticed and otherwise persuaded Landis to transfer her affections. Landis maintained that she had not seen Wheeler in years and had heard from him only the previous year when he claimed to want a divorce. Wheeler's lawsuit was later dismissed, and Landis and Wheeler were divorced in 1939.

In June 1939 Berkeley proposed to Landis but later broke it off. On July 4, 1940, she married yacht broker Willis Hunt Jr. in Las Vegas. Landis left Hunt after two months of marriage due to abuse by Hunt;

While touring army camps in London in 1942, she met United States Army Air Forces Captain Thomas Wallace. They were married in January 1943, and the wedding received a two-page photo spread in Life magazine. Landis would also write an article about their honeymoon for the June 1943 edition of Photoplay. The couple separated in early 1945, and they would divorce in July 1945. She would state that "No woman ever loved a man more than I loved Tommy Wallace. And Tommy loved me, too. All my life, above all the rest, I want to remember that." During her separation from Schmidlapp, Landis began a relationship with actor Rex Harrison, who was then married to actress Lilli Palmer. After Landis's death, however, Harrison downplayed their relationship and publicly claimed that she was merely a close friend of himself and Palmer.

Death and funeral

Landis was reportedly devastated when Harrison refused to divorce his wife to be with her. On July 5, 1948, unable to cope any longer, she died by suicide at her Pacific Palisades home at 1465 Capri Drive by taking an overdose of Seconal.

The next afternoon, Harrison and Landis's maid discovered her on the bathroom floor. According to some sources, Landis left two suicide notes, one for her mother and the second for Harrison, who instructed his lawyers to destroy it. Landis's official website, which her family owns, has questioned the events of Landis's death and the coroner's ruling of suicide.

On July 10, 1948 at 12:30 PM her service was held at Forest Lawn's Church of the Recessional by Bishop Fred L. Pyman. During her service Pyman sang her favorite hymn of In the Garden. W. Horace Schmidlapp, her estranged husband, also attended her service and funeral. Rex Harrison attended with his wife however they both left early and had refused to look at Carole in her coffin during viewing.

On October 4, 2019 Landis was honored with a 28 inch bronze statute that resides inside the Fairchild Public Library in her hometown of Fairchild, Wisconsin. The Carole Landis Fan Club donated the statute, as well as memorabilia related to the actress, to the library.

Filmography Year Title Role Notes 1937 Chorine Uncredited 1937 Girl in beret at Santa Anita bar Uncredited 1937 Dance Extra 1937Fly-Away Baby Blonde at airport Torchy Blane comedy 1937 Bit part 1937 Broadway Melody of 1938 Dancer 1937Varsity Show Student 1937 Alcatraz Island Uncredited 1937 Over the Goal Co-ed Uncredited 1937 The Adventurous Blonde Uncredited Torchy Blane comedy 1937 Hollywood Hotel Hat check girl with coat 1938 Woman waiting to go with her Johnnie 1938Blondes at Work Carole Torchy Blane comedy 1938 Partygoer leaning on piano during song 1938 Love, Honor and Behave Wheel watcher at party Uncredited 1938 Over the Wall Peggy, girl at beach Uncredited 1938 Torchy Blane in Panama Miss Leopard of 1938 Torchy Blane comedy 1938 Women Are Like That Cocktail party guest Uncredited 1938 Guest at banquet Uncredited 1938 Gold Diggers in Paris Golddigger Alternative title: The Gay Impostors 1938 Men Are Such Fools June Cooper Uncredited 1938 When Were You Born Ship passenger Uncredited 1938 Penrod's Double Trouble Girl at fair Uncredited 1938 Four's a Crowd Myrtle, Lansford's 2nd Secretary 1938 Boy Meets Girl Commissary cashier Uncredited 1939 Three Texas Steers Nancy Evans Alternative title: Danger Rides the Range 1939 Daredevils of the Red Circle Blanche Granville 1939 Cowboys from Texas June Jones 1939 Reno Mrs. Humphrey Uncredited 1940 One Million B.C. Loana 1940 Turnabout Sally Willows 1940 Mystery Sea Raider June McCarthy 1941 Road Show Penguin Moore 1941 Topper Returns Ann Carrington 1941 Moon Over Miami Barbara Latimer, aka Miss Sears 1941 Dance Hall Lily Brown 1941 I Wake Up Screaming Vicky Lynn Alternative title: Hot Spot 1941 Cadet Girl Gene Baxter 1942 Helen Mason 1942 My Gal Sal Mae Collins 1942 It Happened in Flatbush Kathryn Baker 1942 Orchestra Wives Natalie Mercer 1942 Manila Calling Edna Fraser 1943 The Powers Girl Kay Evans 1943 Wintertime Flossie Fouchere 1943 Show Business at War Herself 1944 Secret Command Jill McGann 1944 Four Jills in a Jeep Herself 1945 Having Wonderful Crime Helene Justus 1946 Behind Green Lights Janet Bradley 1946 Loretta de Richet Alternative title: Thieves' Holiday 1946 It Shouldn't Happen to a Dog Julia Andrews 1947 Out of the Blue Mae Earthleigh 1948 Noose Linda Medbury Alternative title: The Silk Noose; released posthumously. 1948 Brass Monkey Kay Sheldon Alternative title: Lucky Mascot; released posthumously (final role)

Radio Appearances

Theater Performance Date Theater Genre Play Character 01/10/1945 - 03/25/1945 BroadwayA Lady Says YesGhisella