Showbiz History: The Girl From Missouri, The Princess from Genovia
Friday, August 3, 2018 at 10:09AM
NATHANIEL R in Anne Hathaway, Dolores del Río, Gordon Scott, Ida Lupino, Jean Harlow, Lenny, Mamie Gummer, Metropolitan, Mexico, The Girl From Missour, on this day

10 random things that happened on this day in showbiz history...

1904 Dolores del Rio born in Mexico. By 1925 she's a star in silent films, Hollywood's first Mexican movie star, but her time in Hollywood is short. She reinvents herself back home in Mexico becoming a huge movie star all over again and ushering in Mexican cinema's Golden Era. 

1926 Gordon Scott, future Tarzan beefcake born in Portland. He stars in one of the most interesting Tarzan films, Tarzan's Greatest Adventure (1959) which also features Sean Connery!

1934 The Girl from Missouri opens in movie theaters, a vehicle for Jean Harlow who was actually from Missouri...

Her co-star was Franchot Tone, then Mr. Joan Crawford. (So many of those golden age movie stars were dating or marrying each other -- Harlow became William Powell's girlfriend at some point in 1934). Harlow was in the peak of her fame in the mid 30s starring in several hits but she would die tragically three years later when she was just 26 years old of kidney failure. 

1966 Comedian Lenny Bruce dies of a morphine overdose. He was famously played by Dustin Hoffman in Bob Fosse's Lenny (1974) which was nominated for six Oscars. Recently Luke Wilson played him in The Marvelous Mrs Maisel. He was also the subject of a 1998 documentary which was nominated for the Oscar.

1983 Meryl Streep gives birth to second child and her first daughter Mamie Gummer, who will become an actress and appear as Meryl's daughter onscreen twice (Heartburn and Ricki and The Flash) and play Meryl's younger self once (Evening).

1990 Whit Stilman's delightful debut Metropolitan hits movie theaters. It will become a sleeper hit at arthouses and snag a well deserved Best Original Screenplay nomination

1995 Ida Lupino dies. With the current surge of interest in female directors, we've noticed that her work is finally being talked up. We're glad. We've discussed her work several times here at TFE

2001 The Princess Diaries opens in movie theaters, the debut of one of our best movie stars Anne Hathaway

2007 Becoming Jane opens nationwide, after a short limited release. The Jane Austin bio remains one of Hathaway's lesser efforts. 

2018 Opening in theaters today: Disney's Christopher Robin, The Spy Who Dumped Me, and The Darkest Minds. The Sundance winning LGBT drama The Miseducation of Cameron Post opens in limited release. 

Article originally appeared on The Film Experience (http://thefilmexperience.net/).
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