Friday Photos: True Hollywood Confessions

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In 1930, film mogul Carl Laemmle, Jr., attended Lost Sheep, a Broadway play that had garnered positive reviews. A young actress, Sidney Fox, b. Sidney Leiffer (1907), received particularly strong notices for her performance. The influential New York Times observed:

 “As Rhoda, little Sidney Fox [she stood only 4′ 10″ tall] won the hearts of the audience at once with her frail, girlish beauty and her pert spirit. Nothing could be more tenderly disarming than the freshness of her acting.”

Apparently Fox also won the heart of Carl Laemmle Jr. He brought her out to Hollywood, put her under contract to Universal Pictures and groomed her for stardom.

Fox was born in New York to wealthy parents who somehow managed to lose all their money. Fox, an intelligent and ambitious young woman, quit school and went to work. She got a job as a seamstress and studied law at night. At age 15 she joined a law firm as a secretary. In her free time she wrote articles about women’s fashion. These articles led to a job as a model at a Fifth Avenue shop. Modeling, as it often does, led to an interest in acting. Fox tried breaking into the film business but was told that she was too young and inexperienced.

Fox joined a touring company and soon, with determination and talent, worked her way to Broadway.

Fox made her film debut in the 1931’s The Bad Sister opposite Conrad Nagel, Bette Davis—also in her film debut—Humphrey Bogart and Zasu Pitts. Fox was also named a Wampas Baby Star that year.

Years later, Bette Davis sniped that Fox got the title role in The Bad Sister because she was Carl Laemmle’s mistress.

In that same year Fox appeared in the Preston Sturges penned comedy Strictly Dishonorable.  This was the best role of her career, a Southern girl who attracts the attention of an Italian opera star. Her performance received positive reviews and she seemed to be on her way to a sparkling career.

Unfortunately, Fox’s performances in dramas lacked depth. Sweet and appealing, like the girl next door, she was far more effective in comedic roles. One of her better films at the time was Once in a Lifetime (1932) co-starring Jack Oakie. With proper career guidance and better scripts, Fox could have developed into a fine screwball comedienne.

In 1932 Sidney starred as Mademoiselle Camille L’Espanaye in Murders in the Rue Morgue opposite Bela Lugosi. In this role Fox’s performance is less than stellar. To be fair, the role is a thankless grind requiring gasps of horror, and of course, maidenly faints. The entire film is stiff and awkwardly paced. Robert Florey’s direction never goes beyond the most rudimentary blocking. But Fox came in for particularly vicious criticism; no doubt, because her relationship with studio head Carl Jr., was an open secret in Hollywood.

Fox married screenwriter Charles Beahan in 1932. But Beahan was a hard drinker who physically abused the petite actress.

As her career went downhill, Fox was too often featured in the cruel pages of the tabloids. Soon, she was reduced to bit parts in B films.  Fox spiraled into depression and took solace in liquor and pills. Her final movie appearance was in 1935. Thus her film career lasted a brief four years, with appearances in fourteen films total.

Fox died of an overdose of sleeping pills on November 15, 1942 in Beverly Hills. She was 34.

Sidney Fox is buried in the Mount Lebanon Cemetery, Glendale, Queens, New York.

The Hebrew reads: Buried here is Sarah daughter of Yehuda Yonah.

There is also a traditional abbreviation of a verse from the first book of Samuel, 25:29, May this soul be bound up in the bond of eternal life.