Carole Landis

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Carole Landis
Landis in 1941
Born
Frances Lillian Mary Ridste

(1919-01-01)January 1, 1919
Fairchild, Wisconsin, U.S.
DiedJuly 5, 1948(1948-07-05) (aged 29)
Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Resting placeForest Lawn Memorial Park
Other namesThe Ping Girl
The Chest
OccupationActress
Years active1934–1948
Spouses
Irving Wheeler
​
​
(m. 1934; ann. 1934)​
Irving Wheeler
​
​
(m. 1934; div. 1939)​
Willis Hunt Jr.
​
​
(m. 1940; div. 1940)​
Thomas C. Wallace
​
​
(m. 1943; div. 1945)​
​
​
(m. 1945; div. 1948)​

Carole Landis (born Frances Lillian Mary Ridste; January 1, 1919 – July 5, 1948) was an American actress. She worked as a contract player for Twentieth 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"[1] and "The Chest" because of her curvy figure.[2]

Early life

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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.[3][4]: 205 [5] 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.[6]

In 1923, Landis's family moved to San Bernardino, California, where her mother worked menial jobs to support the family.[7] At the age of 15, Landis dropped out of San Bernardino High School and set forth on a career path to show business.[8] 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;[9] she later sang with a dance band. She bleached her hair blonde and adopted the name "Carole Landis" in honor of her favorite actress, Carole Lombard, and baseball commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis. After saving $100, she moved to Hollywood.[3]

Career

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Film career

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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:

We had already decided on Victor Mature as the man and Lon Chaney [Jr.] as the father. They brought in girls. [Griffith] looked at them. Every time these girls came in, he took them to the back lot. I didn't know what the hell he was doing in the open spaces. Then one day he said, "I found your girl." It was Carole Landis. We went out on the back lot where there was street scenery and, on the corner, a telephone post. He looked at the girl and said, "Take your shoes off. Now run to that post as fast as you can. Then run back to me as fast as you can." She did. I wasn't particularly impressed. That's a hell of a way to pick our leading lady. He said, "I've had 50 girls run to that post and back. She's the only one who knows how to run. You're not going to make a believable girl in a picture of that kind who runs like an average girl. She's got to run like an athlete, a deer." And she could. Her rhythm was really beautiful. In the picture you never noticed it. But if she ran like most girls, you would damn well have seen the difference.[10]

Hal Roach saw star potential in Carole Landis and signed her to a contract in June 1940.[11] 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.

Carole Landis in Topper Returns, 1941

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.

USO tours

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Carole Landis became a popular pin-up with servicemen during World War II.[12] In 1942, she traveled with comedian Martha Raye, dancer Mitzi Mayfair, and actress Kay Francis, serving for the USO in England and North Africa.[13][4]: 113–117 [14] Two years later, she entertained soldiers in the South Pacific alongside Jack Benny.[15] During the war, Landis traveled over 100,000 miles and was the actress who spent the most time engaged in this activity.[16][17][18] During her travels, she became seriously ill due to amoebic dysentery and malaria.[19][4]: 137 

Broadway

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In 1945 she starred on Broadway in the musical A Lady Says Yes, with future novelist Jacqueline Susann in a small role.[20][12] Susann is said to have based the character of Jennifer North, from her best-selling novel Valley of the Dolls, in part on Landis.[21][12]

Writing

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Landis wrote several newspaper and magazine articles about her experiences during the war, including the 1944 book Four Jills in a Jeep, which was later made into a movie costarring Kay Francis, Martha Raye, and Mitzi Mayfair.[12][22] She also wrote the foreword to Vic Herman's cartoon book Winnie the WAC.[12][23]

Personal life

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Sgt. Bill Stewart and Landis ca. 1940s
Landis and John Wayne, 1939
William Gargan and Landis, 1946)

Landis was married four times and had no children (she was unable to conceive owing to endometriosis).[3] In January 1934, 15-year-old Landis married her first husband, 19-year-old Irving Wheeler. Her mother had the marriage annulled in February 1934. Landis persuaded her father, Alfred Ridste (who had left the family shortly after Landis was born and who, by coincidence, lived near the family in San Bernardino), to allow her to remarry Wheeler. He finally relented, and the two were remarried on August 25, 1934. After three weeks of marriage, Landis and Wheeler got into an argument, and Landis walked out. Neither filed for divorce, and Landis began pursuing an acting career.[24] 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.[25] Wheeler's lawsuit was later dismissed, and Landis and Wheeler were divorced in 1939.[26]: 399 

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.[27] Landis left Hunt after two months of marriage due to abuse by Hunt;[3] they were divorced on November 20, 1940. [28][29]

While touring army camps in London in 1942, she met United States Army Air Forces Captain Thomas Wallace.[30] They were married in January 1943, and the wedding received a two-page photo spread in Life magazine.[31] Landis would also self-author an article about their honeymoon for the June 1943 edition of Photoplay.[32] The couple separated in early 1945,[33] and they would divorce in July 1945.[30] Landis would write about the relationship, marriage, and later causes that lead to the eventual collapse of their marriage in her article "Don't Marry A Stranger" for the January 1945 issue of Photoplay.[34] 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."[34]

On December 8, 1945, Landis married Broadway producer W. Horace Schmidlapp.[26]: 400  They separated in 1947, and Landis filed for divorce in May 1948, charging Schmidlapp with "extreme mental cruelty."[35] During her separation from Schmidlapp, Landis began a relationship with actor Rex Harrison, who was then married to actress Lilli Palmer. The affair became an open secret in Hollywood.[36] After Landis's death, however, Harrison downplayed their relationship and publicly claimed that she was merely a close friend of himself and Palmer.[37]

Death

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Grave of Carole Landis at Forest Lawn Glendale

Landis was reportedly crushed when Harrison refused to divorce his wife to be with her. On July 5, 1948, unable to cope any longer, she committed suicide in her Pacific Palisades home at 1465 Capri Drive by taking an overdose of Seconal.[38][4]: 197–199  Before she took her life, she penned a note to her mother, expressing remorse for the pain her actions would cause. She assured her mother and family members of her love and asked her to find her will, which left everything to her mother. Landis signed off as “Your Baby” and requested her mother’s prayers.[4]: 191  Harrison was the last person to see her alive, having had dinner with her the night before she committed suicide.[39][40]

The next afternoon, Harrison and Landis's maid discovered her on the bathroom floor. Harrison waited several hours before he called a doctor and the police.[41] 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.[4]: 190  During a coroner's inquest, Harrison denied knowing any motive for her suicide and told the coroner he did not know of the existence of a second suicide note.[42] Landis's official website, which her family owns, has questioned the events of Landis's death and the coroner's ruling of suicide.[43] She is interred in Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California, in plot 814 of the "Everlasting Love" section. Among the celebrities at her funeral were Cesar Romero, Van Johnson, and Pat O'Brien.[44] Harrison attended with his wife.[3]

Landis has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1765 Vine Street.[45]

Filmography

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Year Title Role Notes
1937 The King and the Chorus Girl Chorine Uncredited
1937 A Star Is Born Girl in beret at Santa Anita bar Uncredited
1937 A Day at the Races Dance Extra
1937 Fly-Away Baby Blonde at airport Torchy Blane comedy
1937 The Emperor's Candlesticks Bit part
1937 Broadway Melody of 1938 Dancer
1937 Varsity 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 The Invisible Menace Woman waiting to go with her Johnnie
1938 Blondes at Work Carole Torchy Blane comedy
1938 A Slight Case of Murder 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 The Adventures of Robin Hood 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 A Gentleman at Heart 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 A Scandal in Paris 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

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Year Program Episode/source
1938 Warner Brothers Academy Theater Special Agent[46]
1942 Command Performance June 11

Theater

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Year Theater genre Play Character
1945 Broadway A Lady Says Yes Ghisella[20]

Recordings

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Year Recording Format Recording Date
1948 Party Games[47][48] Record 07/02/1948

References

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  1. ^ Life Magazine (June 17, 1940). "Carole Landis Does Not Want To Be Ping Girl".
  2. ^ "Metonymy". Life. Vol. 18, no. 8. February 19, 1945. p. 115. ISSN 0024-3019.
  3. ^ a b c d e "Casualty in Hollywood". Time. July 19, 1948. Archived from the original on September 15, 2012. Retrieved December 19, 2009.
  4. ^ a b c d e f Gans, Eric (2008). Carole Landis: A Most Beautiful Girl. Univ. Press of Mississippi. ISBN 978-1-604-73013-5.
  5. ^ Fleming, E. J. (2005). Carole Landis: A Tragic Life in Hollywood. McFarland. pp. 7–8. ISBN 0-786-48265-6.
  6. ^ (Fleming 2005, p. 8)
  7. ^ (Fleming 2005, pp. 10, 12)
  8. ^ (Fleming 2005, pp. 14)
  9. ^ Caen, Herb (1950). Baghdad: 1951. Doubleday & Company, Inc. p. 40.
  10. ^ Hal Roach to authors Bernard Rosenberg and Harry Silverstein, The Real Tinsel, Macmillan, 1970, pp. 28-29.
  11. ^ Boxoffice, June 8, 1940, p. 32.
  12. ^ a b c d e Laite, Sarah (February 13, 2014). "The Scandalous Suicide of Hollywood's Carole Landis". dametown.com. Dametown. Retrieved March 20, 2025.
  13. ^ Kear, Lynn; Rossman, John (February 12, 2015). "Four Jills in a Jeep". Kay Francis: A Passionate Life and Career. McFarland. pp. 126–127. ISBN 978-0-7864-5499-0.
  14. ^ (Fleming 2005, pp. 131–146)
  15. ^ Hoopes, Roy (1994). When the stars went to war: Hollywood and World War II (1st ed.). New York: Random House. pp. 307–308. ISBN 9780679414230.
  16. ^ Cheney, Diane (February 1, 2024). Famous Doctors and Famous Patients: Lives in Jeopardy?. Gatekeeper Press. ISBN 978-1-6629-4520-5.
  17. ^ Provan, John (January 1, 2021). The United Service Organizations USO – An Army of Volunteers: Behind the lines, civilians in war. Imaguncula. p. 55. ISBN 979-8-7138-1054-2.
  18. ^ Clarke, Andra D.; Denton-Drew, Regina (November 30, 2015). Ciro's: Nightclub of the Stars. Arcadia Publishing. p. 29. ISBN 978-1-4396-5384-5.
  19. ^ (Fleming 2005, p. 177)
  20. ^ a b "A Lady Says Yes". playbill.com. Playbill, Inc. Retrieved March 20, 2025.
  21. ^ Collins, Amy Fine (January 1, 2000). "Once Was Never Enough". vanityfair.com. Vanity Fair. Retrieved March 20, 2025.
  22. ^ "Landis, Carole. Four Jills in a Jeep / Harvey, R.C. "Winnie the WAC."". mrtbooksla.com. Michael R. Thompson Rare Books / The Comics Journal (March 4, 2015). Retrieved March 20, 2025.
  23. ^ Herman, Victor J. (March 31, 2012). Winnie the Wac by Victor J Herman (Author), Carole Landis (Foreword). Literary Licensing, LLC. ISBN 978-1258263478.
  24. ^ (Fleming 2005, pp. 11–12)
  25. ^ Spivak, Jeffrey (2011). Buzz: The Life and Art of Busby Berkeley. University Press of Kentucky. p. 158. ISBN 978-0-813-12643-2.
  26. ^ a b Donnelley, Paul (2003). Fade to Black: A Book of Movie Obituaries. Music Sales Group. ISBN 0-711-99512-5.
  27. ^ "Carole Landis Marries Again". The Evening Independent. St. Petersburg, Florida'. July 5, 1940. p. 9. Retrieved March 6, 2015.
  28. ^ "Now She's Legally Carole Landis". The Evening Independent. St. Petersburg, Florida'. April 24, 1942. p. 1. Archived from the original on July 13, 2021. Retrieved March 6, 2015.
  29. ^ "Marriage To Willis Hunt & His Tragic Death".
  30. ^ a b "Divorce Granted to Carole Landis". The Milwaukee Journal. Milwaukee, Wisconsin. July 20, 1945. p. 19. Retrieved March 6, 2015.[permanent dead link]
  31. ^ "Ping Girl" Weds Eagle, Life, February 1, 1943, pages 32-33
  32. ^ Landis, Carole. "My Wartime Honeymoon". Carole Landis.
  33. ^ "Divorce for Carole". Daytona Beach Morning Journal. Daytona Beach, Florida. May 4, 1945. p. 10. Retrieved March 6, 2015.
  34. ^ a b Landis, Carole (January 1945). "Don't Marry A Stranger (1945)". Carole Landis Website.
  35. ^ "Carole Landis Sues Fourth Husband For Divorce". Lewiston Evening Journal. Lewiston, Maine. March 23, 1948. p. 9. Archived from the original on November 21, 2023. Retrieved March 6, 2015.
  36. ^ (Fleming 2005, pp. 217, 218)
  37. ^ Morgan, Michelle (2013). The Mammoth Book of Hollywood Scandals. Running Press. pp. 253–254. ISBN 978-0-762-44946-0.
  38. ^ Parish, James Robert (2002). The Hollywood Book of Death: The Bizarre, Often Sordid, Passings of More Than 125 American Movie and TV Idols (3 ed.). Contemporary Books. p. 315. ISBN 0-8092-2227-2.
  39. ^ Petrucelli, Alan J. (2009). Morbid Curiosity: The Disturbing Demises of the Famous and Infamous. Penguin. ISBN 9781101140499. Retrieved November 12, 2014.
  40. ^ Ridste, Clara (October 1948). "The Heartbreaking True Story of Carole Landis". Carole Landis.
  41. ^ Mosby, Aline (July 6, 1948). "Carole Landis Mystery Death Clues Hunted". Oakland Tribune. p. 1.
  42. ^ "Actor Rex Harrison answering questions from coroner Ira Nance at inquiry on Carol Landis' suicide". UCLA Charles E. Young Research Library. Archived from the original on July 28, 2012., a July 1948 Los Angeles Times photograph.
  43. ^ Powell, Tammy. "Was Carole Murdered?". carolelandisofficial. Archived from the original on July 8, 2011. Retrieved November 13, 2012.
  44. ^ Mosby, Aline (July 11, 1948). "Scores Attend Funeral of Carole Landis". Oakland Tribune. p. 1.
  45. ^ "Carole Landis". Hollywood Walk of Fame. October 25, 2019. Retrieved October 22, 2021.
  46. ^ "Those Were the Days". Nostalgia Digest. 39 (1): 32–41. Winter 2013.
  47. ^ Landis, Carole. "Carole Landis Final Recording".
  48. ^ "Carole's Final Year & Last Recording (1947 - 1948)".

Further reading

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  • Gans, Eric (2008). Carole Landis: A Most Beautiful Girl. Univ. Press of Mississippi. ISBN 978-1-604-73013-5.
  • Alistair, Rupert (2018). "Carole Landis". The Name Below the Title: 65 Classic Movie Character Actors from Hollywood's Golden Age (First ed.). Great Britain: Independently published. pp. 146–150. ISBN 978-1-7200-3837-5.
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