“Inhabitants of Hollywood are dedicated to
crawling in every pair of pants they can find, and you become egotistical to
think you’re the prime par of pants,” Veronica Lake said.
Veronica Lake’s blend of beauty, her ice cool persona and dry comic style makes her a timeless magnetic screen personality, writer Eddie Muller said in the introduction of “Veronica, The Autobiography of Veronica Lake.”
He was a man, rough within bounds and serious with love making…I preformed whorish rituals, but never felt the whore. I welcomed him over me, in me, his entrance, his throbbing moment of release. We so often achieved a miraculous and stimulus climax, mutual detonation, she said about the man she loved. If you want to know who he was, read the book. Lake initially hooked up with this man in 1961. Lake also said she was his Geisha and proudly served him sex. A Geisha is a Japanese woman trained to entertain men.
The vast array of the human condition was vividly told by Lake in her 1969 autobiography. By the time she was 16-years-old in 1938 she was in Hollywood chasing her dream of stardom. Lake spoke bluntly about the expectations of sex to acquire certain parts in movies. Relates to today’s sex scandals involving Harvey Weinstein and many others.
“Most men view the whole casting interview as a license for sex,” Lake said.
Veronica Lake talked about how women were lured into pornography in the 1930s. Veronica Lake had friends in the 30s who did porn and got paid $50.00 per film session. Lake avoided porn and barely paid her bills.
Hollywood is mostly unglamorous, and too many women get sexually preyed upon, Lake said in her autobiography. Hollywood is synonymous with sex, and producers strike accordingly, Lake said.
In 1939, Lake appeared in her first comedy short, “The Wrong Room,” starring Leon Errol. Veronica Lake was credited with her real name, Connie Keane, in this Two-Reeler. A Two-Reeler simply means the movie is about 20 minutes long. Movies shot on 35 mm film run about 10 minutes per reel, hence the term ‘Two Reeler for 20-minute shorts.
Lake became an iconic acting beauty in 1941 upon the release of “I Wanted Wings.” Veronica wasn’t the female lead, but her role was very significant, and at 19-years-old, she became a household name to many Americans and the rest of the world.
“I Wanted Wings” took four months to film, and Lake made $75.00 a week during this period. She then made $300 a week for her second movie. By the mid-1940s, she was making $4,500 a week.
“Some critics thought I was a good actress, some didn’t, but everyone knew one thing. Veronica Lake was a star. Paramount knew it, my mom knew it and I knew it,” Lake said.
I’m not going to detail her life as she did in her book, but there was a lot or sadness and alcohol addiction in her life. Lake pulled no punches when criticizing certain friends or movie stars, and she was even brutally honest about herself, especially when she detailed certain actions when she drank heavily.
Actor, Brian Donlevy couldn’t handle a punch from the much smaller and petite Veronica Lake. In 1942s, “The Glass Key,” the script called for Lake to punch Donlevy in the face which she did. After I hit him in the face rehearsing, his eyes were a glassy haze upon impact, and his face seethed with a barely controlled rage. I pulled my punches after that Lake said.
In the 1960s, Lake’s movie career was practically nonexistent and the man she loved was drinking heavily to maintain a level of detachment from the reality of living, Lake said. I understood, I’d been there myself, I joined him in the escape.
Veronica lake was a single mother with two boys and two girls, and she wasn’t a good parent she said.
“Yes, I contributed mightily to ruining things when I had an honest shot at achieving my professional goals,” Lake said.
Lake died in 1973, and she was only 50-years-old. Alcoholism claimed her life many said. Before she died, she could fly a plane, mix a cocktail and knock you on your ass with a right cross!
Lake was barely five feet tall, and weighed less then a 100 pounds, and her cascade of blonde hair made her a beacon of sexiness and sass. She was bright and cool in the dark days of World War II, Eddie Muller said.
Mark Izzy Schurr
