Category Archives: Lupe Velez

Hollywood on Trial

Tweet There is nothing Hollywood fears as much as a messy public trial. For movie stars, civil or criminal charges often spell the end of reputation and livelihood. In 1921, the false rape and murder charges against the wonderful knock-about comedian, Roscoe Arbuckle, destroyed his brilliant career—in pre-income tax dollars he earned a million a [...]

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Friday Fashion: The Female Animal

Tweet In last week’s Friday Fashion post we observed that designers frequently clothe women utilizing fur, feathers and animal patterns. For as long as fashion has existed, animal metaphors have been an indispensible part of the designer’s lexicon. Hollywood, during its golden age, a leading arbiter of taste, heightened and refined the animal analogy with [...]

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Lupe Velez: When Shame, Abortion and Suicide Collide

Tweet Lupe Velez, The Mexican Spitfire. The lives of Hollywood stars are frequently tragic and messy tales of absent fathers, cruelly ambitious mothers, and madly dysfunctional families. Mexican-American actress, Lupe Velez (July 18, 1908 – December 13, 1944) “The Mexican Spitfire,” was a beautiful, passionate, emotionally unstable woman best known for a series of 1930’s [...]

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