 |
|
INTRODUCTION |
|
 |
|
HER
STORY |
|
 |
|
QUOTES |
|
 |
|
TRIVIA |
|
 |
|
NICKNAME |
|
 |
|
GALLERY |
|
 |
|
CURIOS |
|
 |
|
LINKS |
|
 |
|
VOX
POPULI |
|
 |
|
SHOP |


|
|
Lana sold $12 million
in saving bonds in one day by selling her kisses on a Seattle dock. |
----------
|
In later life she
developed the bizarre habit of refusing to walk in and out of any
airport. Since the mid-sixties a wheelchair has fetched Lana from curb
to ramp. |
----------
|
She refused to attend
funerals and stated in her will that she was not to have one. She said
she wanted to be cremated, her ashes scattered by plane over the
Pacific Ocean. |
----------
|
She became furious if
her personal bills were not attended to at once by her business
office. By her own admission, Lana was the fastest pay in town. |
----------
|
Her favorite
expression was "I don't have to do anything." |
----------
|
To assist her in
photograph sessions, Lana always insisted that there be a floor-length
mirror beside the camera so that she could check every detail of her
person before the shutter began to click. She also required soft
romantic music to help her mood, and she admitted no one into the
studio except her party plus the photographer and his assistant. |
----------
|
Lana was known as
Two-take Turner in the industry. She was able to hit a scene on
target and to the director's satisfaction by the second take, and
would become edgy when a scene had to be shot more than two or three
times through the fault of another actor. |
----------
|
Lana never went on a
trip of any kind without a well-packed portable bar. In airplanes, it
always rode with her since Lana didn't want to be at the mercy of the
stewardesses who seemed to take forever serving drinks. |
----------
|
One thing she did at
the end of any serious relationship, was to have the bed taken from
her home and disposed of. |
----------
|
On
rising she always made her own bed. It was the only housework she
knew-- maids were never to touch the intimate place where she slept. |
----------
|
Georgia
Holt, mother of Cher, was
a huge fan of Lana's and baptized her daughter as Cherlyn, a spin on
Cheryl, the name of Lana's only daughter. |
----------
|
She
could afford the world's costliest creams (and had even endorsed one
or two), but Lana herself used humble products bought in the
five-and-dime. After bathing, she slathered her body with Nivea
cream, and once a week, to achieve deep-down cleansing of pores, she
scrubbed her face with a paste made of Twenty Mule Team Boraxo, an
industrial-strength scouring powder used to clean greasy hands. |
----------
|
Whenever
she bought a pair of shoes, she invariably added, "I'll take
them in every color they come in." |
----------
|
Her
favorite color in home decor was movie-star white, with accents of
gray, mauve or pink. |
----------
|
She
owned fifty percent of the net profits of 'Imitation of Life,'
her comeback movie. The film grossed eleven million dollars
the first year alone. Though Elizabeth
Taylor would make headlines three years later when she was paid
a breathtaking one million dollars to make 'Cleopatra,'
Lana's earnings from 'Imitation of Life' handily topped that. |
----------
|
Early
in her career, Lana would facetiously instruct the press on the
correct pronunciation of her name, saying, "That's Lana as in
la-dee-da, not lady." |
----------
|
She
was so vain about her looks that, during the filming of 'Madame
X', she wore a veil to and from her dressing room and the set,
which was closed. |
----------
|
Was
supposedly engaged to Howard Hughes for eight hours while on a
cross-country flight with Howard at the controls. In her eagerness
to marry him, Lana had towels made up that were monogrammed "H.H."
When they abruptly split up, Hughes supposedly advised her,
"Go marry Huntington Hartford." |
----------
|
Lana's
auburn hair was bleached for "Idiot's Delight" (1939). She was withdrawn from the film, but the fact that she had
become a blonde not only changed her screen image but gave her such
an outgoing, swinging personality that Hollywood called her the Nightclub
Queen. |
----------
|
She was
a true American hybrid, with a mixture of Scotch, Irish, Dutch and
English ancestry." |
----------
|
She
was called the Sweater Girl. Interestingly, Lana,
translated into Spanish means "wool." |
----------
|
Once
when she was being interviewed by Hedda Hopper, Lex Barker, Lana's
future husband, was in the same room. There was a large vase
of flowers blocking her view of Lex, so Lana got up, walked across
the room and removed them, remarking, "He's brand new and I
want to look at him!" |
----------
|
A
fan met Lana at Macy's when she was signing her autobiography, back
in the days when Macy's had book signings. He said "I love
you." She said "I know!" |
----------
|
Once
she was forced to evacuate her apartment building when a fire broke
out. Having only minutes to collect what she needed, Lana grabbed
her lipstick, her eyebrow pencil and her hairdryer. |
----------
|
Her
father Virgil was robbed, beaten and killed after winning big at the crap
table. His body was found on the street with one sock missing-- the
sock where he stashed his money. |
----------
|
In
1937 she starred in "The Adventures
of Marco Polo" with Gary Cooper. Part of her make-up consisted of
black slanted eyebrows that were glued on with fishnet and pulled
off after filming each day. By the time the movie was finished
Lana's eyebrows had disappeared completely and would never grow
back, forcing her to paint them on for the rest of her life. |
----------
|
In
1973 her ex-husband Lex Barker collapsed and died of a massive heart
attack. When Lana heard the news she said, "What took him so
long?" |
----------
|
In
1983 Lana retired from show business after appearing in the prime
time soap opera "Falcon Crest." Jane Wyman,
who was the star of the series, was miffed that Lana demanded star
treatment. Her character was killed off at the end of the first
season. |
----------
|
Lana
died on the night of 29 June 1995 in the arms of Carmen Cruz, her
maid of 44 years. She was cremated and her ashes are in her
daughter's possession. Cheryl inherited a small sum of money, jewels
and furs from her mother. The balance of Lana's $ 2,000,000 estate
was willed to Carmen Cruz. |
----------
|
Was
not discovered by Mervyn Leroy while drinking a coke at
Schwab's. The legend
persists but it was only a publicist story put out by the studio. |
----------
|
Lana's
mom Mildred did hair for a living. Lana took care of her for her
entire career in film. In fact, when Lana got her very first
paycheck from MGM she put it in her mother's hand and said,
"Mama, you will never have to work again." And she
didn't. |
----------
|
Always
said the greatest love of her life was Tyrone Power. |
----------
|
During
her reign as First Lady of Argentina, Eva
Perón patterned herself after Lana, in particular she copied
Lana's hairstyles, makeup and tailored suits. |
----------
|
In
1958 Lana picked a relatively unknown actor, Sean Connery, over
eight other contenders to play opposite her in "Another
Time, Another Place". During that movie the two began
a short lived affair. |
----------
|
Claimed
to have lost her virginity to a young, handsome Beverly Hills
celebrity attorney, Greg Bautzer whose name was legendary in the
bedrooms of Hollywood. |
----------
|
Married
Stephan Crane on July 17, 1942 only to find out that his Mexican
divorce from his first wife was not valid in the U.S. Lana by
now was pregnant with her daughter Cheryl so in order to avoid
a scandal, Louis B. Mayer pulled strings, got the Mexican divorce
sanctioned in the US and arranged a quickie re-marriage to protect
his star. |
----------
|
In
her autobiography "The Lady; The Legend; The Truth"
she went into detail about her lust for oral sex. |
----------
|
In
1942 Lana made a movie with Robert Taylor ("Johnny Eager").
The two were deeply attracted to each other. At the time
Taylor was married to Barbara Stanwyck and Stanwyck planted spies on
the set of the picture. Years later Lana called Barbara Stanwyck to
try and patch things up and Barbara's reply was "Goodbye you
f---ing bitch." Till her dying day Stanwyck hated Lana. |
----------
|
Claimed
she was celibate for the last twenty years of her life. |
----------
|
In
the movie "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" with Spencer
Tracy and Ingrid Bergman she was originally supposed to play the
part of Ivy, the tart, and Bergman was supposed to play the innocent
girl engaged to Tracy but Bergman wanted Turner's part and so the
roles were switched. |
----------
|
Was
rumored to have a brief affair with Ava Gardner. |
----------
|
Director
Victor Fleming couldn't get her to cry on cue for a scene in "Dr
Jekyll and Mr Hyde" (1941) so in a fit of anger he grabbed her arm
and twisted it sharply round her back until the waterworks started. |
----------
|
Once
owned 698 pairs of shoes. |
----------
|
Said
her ambition in life was to have one husband and seven children, but it
worked out the other way around. |
----------
|
Worked
as a cinema usherette. |
----------
----------
|
When
she was three years old her mother took her to a train station. A woman
appeared at the window of a passing train and Turner's mother said,
'That's your real mother, not me.' She had no reason for doing this beyond
playing a prank, but it traumatized Lana for years afterwards. |
----------
|
Fainted during her 1953
wedding to Lex Barker. |
----------
|
Her daughter
Cheryl stabbed Lana's boyfriend Johnny Stampato to death when he threatened
to carve her up. |
----------
|
When
told that Pearl Harbor had been destroyed, Lana reportedly answered,
'Who's Pearl Harbor?'. |
----------
|




|