Life Magazine Best Actress Covers, 1954
Tuesday, August 11, 2015 at 8:00AM 
Researching 1954 for other posts, I came upon the realization that Life Magazine had featured not one, not two but three of the eventual Best Actress nominees on their covers that year in April (Grace Kelly who had a lot of films out that year including The Country Girl), September (Judy Garland for A Star is Born) and November (Dorothy Dandridge as "Hollywood's Fiery Carmen Jones"). It was "Hollywood's Brightest and Busiest New Star" vs. the World's Greatest Entertainer for the golden statue that year. The tag line to the Judy article was "Judy Garland Takes Off After Oscar" but it was not to be and Grace Kelly cemented the Princess effect with Oscar just a year after that had already helped Audrey Hepburn to her Roman Holiday win. (With Oscar, it rarely turns out that well for the older women, as you know)
This particular Best Actress race will haunt actressexuals forever as Judy Garland's A Star is Born performance is one of the greatest ever committed to celluloid. Audrey Hepburn (Sabrina) and Jane Wyman (Magnificent Obsession) were also nominated that year but did not get a Life cover. That's weird in Audrey's case as she was a regular cover girl.
Finally while everyone knows that Dorothy Dandridge was a trailblazer this cover represents a twofer: She was not only the first African American nominated for a Leading Role at the Oscars (previous nominations had only happened in Supporting Actress) she was also the very first black woman to appear on the cover of Life Magazine!
Have you ever seen Carmen Jones? We've talked about it before.
Reader Comments (14)
Thank goodness there was no Jane Wyman cover -- it's too early in the morning for me to have had to process those turbulent emotions.
That is a lovvvvvvely picture of Grace. I know, it's Grace fuckin' Kelly and it was hard to take a non-lovvvvvely picture, but that one is especially pretty.
I've always wondered what you thought about this race! You've seemed ambivalent in the past.
Kelly gets that shampoo ad, while Garland's cover is the world's least flattering production still? The Oscar race was won and lost right here.
I'm getting "The Country Girl" in from Netflix tomorrow, although Oscar history already has me biased against it.
NIck -- I find it so difficult to care about the Best Actress competition each year. What's to get excited about?
#alternateuniverse
I normally enjoy watching Kelly's films (who wouldn't?) but The Country Girl is SO BORING. I could barely finish it. It's by far the worst performance of the nominees... the other four are classics. Carmen Jones isn't a great movie, but it's landmark cinema and Dorothy is such a dynamic presence.
Hindsight might have had Jane Wyman replace Kelly that year for her turn in Johnny Guitar... you would have had one of the great line-ups of all-time, and Garland could have deservedly taken her Oscar. But it was not to be.
Duh, of course I meant Joan Crawford! I have Wyman and Magnificent Obsession on the brain.
Carmen Jones is a not a great film, but there are a lot of great things in it.
Jennifer Jones was originally set for The Country Girl, but had to bow out due to pregnancy. If Jennifer had starred, she might have gotten another Oscar or nomination, or Judy might have won for A Star Is Born. I would have loved to see Jennifer in this. That's two reasons for me not to like Grace Kelly's win.
Nice trio although as Dave S. mentioned Grace's is a total glamour shot. Judy's while not being the most flattering, although this might be the picture where Liza Minnelli's resemblance to her is most pronounced, it does capture her essence. And Dorothy's is bright and fun.
I'll never be right with anyone but Judy winning this year but if Grace had at least won for her far, far superior work in the same year's Rear Window rather than the dour, flat Country Girl it would have been a far less bitter pill.
Carmen Jones isn't bad but neither is it that great. However Dorothy is excellent, she's practically the whole show, Belafonte doesn't register very strongly, the only other performer who makes an impression besides Dorothy is Pearl Bailey.
I love, love Harry Belafonte, but in Carmen Jones he just seems to be a handsome guy. I don't even think he does his own singing, and in fact, I don't think Dorothy does either though they're both accomplished singers.
I really love Grace Kelly and I'm happy that she's an Oscar winner, but for THAT movie?! And Judy G. gave a performance for the ages really. I don't think they finally gave out a musical performing actress award until Julie Andrews, correct?
Judy's not winning for ASIB is certainly one of the greatest error's in the history of the AMPAS.
However, I feel that the loss may have been the result of Judy not being very well liked or respected in Hollywood at that time. From what I gather, she caused many, many a headache to cast and crew by being very undependable. They were tired of her unprofessional manner and wanted to scold her.
Is this true or plausible? Perhaps someone can elaborate.
Of course, she (like others) should be judged by what is up there on the screen.
Max, this is also what I've heard and read about Judy--nobody wanted to work with her, and here they found a way to punish her by depriving her of her Oscar. I've also heard similar things about why Bette lost for All About Eve.
Dave in Hollywood, neither performer's actual singing voice is used in Carmen Jones, as neither Belafonte nor Dandridge was a classically trained singer (the film, after all, was adapted from the opera).
@brookesboy Thanks for your response.
Somewhat related.... Streisand's was the best actress among the nominated group in 1973 for her performance in "The Way We Were" but Hollywood was not about to bestow another AA on her so soon after "Funny Girl", especially since young Barbra did not play by the expected old Hollywood rules.