Loretta Young
© Thomas Wilson Shawcross 26 May 2005
“Let’s go out tonight, and I’ll be Loretta.” - (Loretta Young to Duny Cashion)
Born 6 Jan 1913 in Salt Lake City, Utah, Gretchen Young changed her name to Loretta Young and became the famous movie and television actress. But she never confused who she was, Gretchen, with her image, Loretta.
It can be revealed now that when I was a younger boy, I had a crush on Loretta Young. It was a source of great angst to me that she was the same age as my father, and so she would probably choose him over me, but then again, Dad seemed pretty happy with Mom, so maybe I stood a chance if I could just get to meet her? Oh, when I stopped to think about it, I knew things would never work out between us – because of our age differences – but I had been introduced to the concept of there being one perfect person for each of us. Loretta seemed to be that girl for me, and in terms of geological time, we had just missed each other! Of course, I am older and wiser now. I no longer see things the way I did then. I know now who my perfect girl really is. She was born in Europe and died of the black plague in the Middle Ages. Still, by geological standards, this was another narrow miss.
Because of that narrow, geological-time-miss thing, I did not learn of Loretta Young until she was in her second career (1953-1961). Her second career was Television Star, but her first career had been Movie Star.
Loretta Young started as a child extra in silent films. She became a major movie star, appearing in nearly 100 films between 1927 and 1953 and won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her role in The Farmer’s Daughter, a romantic comedy.
Gretchen Michaela Young, a.k.a. Loretta Young
Above: Loretta at age 18 in 1931. Here she appears in one of those regrettably popular publicity shots that shamelessly used beautiful young women as fore drops for what are, obviously, merely exploitative photos of the innocent California beach and ocean.
Fortunately, that was then and this is now, and we men no longer are interested in seeing pictures such as these.
I don’t know why I bothered to include this photo, except from an historical point of view. Certainly, I could have found better use for the hour I spent in looking for it!
Loretta Young moved seamlessly from movie star to television star and was the first person to win an Oscar and an Emmy. Actually, she won three Best Actress Emmys for her dramatic anthology series, The Loretta Young Show.
They don’t make television shows like that anymore. Literally. Her dramatic anthology format was TV’s Neanderthal man equivalent to today’s continuing character series Homo Sapiens. In 1953, we still had larger-than-life movie stars that had been created by the major film studios, and the star power of a Loretta Young was sufficient to launch a television series while at the same time drawing in female viewers.
Come to think of it, female viewers may have been the primary target audience of the Loretta Young show (and not impressionable young men, as I was thinking when I started writing this essay). One of the most memorable parts of the show was Loretta’s fabulous entrance, in which she twirled down some steps in whatever she happened to be wearing at home that day (usually, this was a fashion gown, such as what Cinderella might have kicked back in after returning home from the Prince’s ball). After a while, I wised up to this and would go get a sandwich or something while she was doing her entrance, as I wasn’t into that ball gown scene.
It is difficult to find images of Loretta in these “oh, this old thing?” ball gowns. In the decades after they passed from style, she insisted that these dated fashion images be kept off television, and she sued NBC for a half-million dollars (and won) when it dared to show some of her re-runs.
Loretta Young enters a room
This is too bad, because Loretta Young was really a very talented actress, and now we cannot see her on television. Especially since she died in 2000 . . .
Her dramatic anthology show was different from the television shows of today. She introduced and concluded each show but acted in only about half of them. She was the only big-name star that acted in her shows, and each week the show had different actors (except for Loretta, of course) and would take place in different locations. There were some common themes, however. Often, when Loretta appeared, she played a single, professional woman who finds romance. But sometimes, she was a mother, a daughter, or a wife who had to deal with men. Sometimes this was done with melodrama, and sometimes it was done as romantic comedy.
I vividly remember a Loretta Young Show in which Loretta played what I call a “mature hot babe” (I think the scholarly cinematic term is M.I.L.F.), who has decided to have one last romantic fling before she heads into the sunset. She wasn’t that old actually, but she had just been diagnosed with leprosy. I think we all know how that is. Anyway, she goes to Europe, rents a convertible sports car, and starts trolling for hunky young men. Finally, she finds the perfect one, and is sitting in her white convertible chatting it up with him as she smokes a cigarette. Things seem to be going pretty well until the young hunk notices that the cigarette is burning a hole between her fingers! Wow, they don’t write romance stories like that anymore.
I think about that episode often. Probably more often than I would otherwise, but it so happens that there is a poor fellow with no nose that lives near me, and whenever I see him, I think of that Loretta Young episode. Of course, I never mention that episode to No-Nose, as I am more sensitive than that. By the way, I am not making this up – this is completely true.
Not one to abuse her star power, Loretta usually dressed by herself.
Above: As this stock photo attests, Loretta Young never forgot she was plain old Gretchen Young, a regular person like you and me, who put on her nylons one leg at a time. Well, I put on my pants one leg at a time, but I think you get the idea here. Loretta was a real woman. With two legs! As this photo clearly shows, I think.
Aside from her chiseled cheekbones, her flawless skin, her fabulous figure and her sensual pouting lips (things which I think we have to put up with in women), I think what attracted me was Loretta’s sense of humor. That, and her overall niceness and sweetness. From what I have read about her, she was a very nice person in real life. I wish I had actually known her.
Oh, to be sure, Loretta had her faults. For one thing, the love child she had with Clark Gable . . . but no woman is perfect, and I would have been willing to overlook that. Oh, and her half-sister married Ricardo Montalban, but I could have overlooked that too, in spite of his condescending treatment of Tattoo while they were on Fantasy Island.
Although I have made several light-hearted jests about Loretta Young in this essay, the truth is that I am a big fan of her work and really did have a crush on her circa 1958.
She was a genuine talent, and she is missed, and that is why I am writing about her. I am concerned that, like carbon paper, she is unknown to today’s generation of movie and television watchers.
In Memoriam
Loretta Young, 1913-2000
Before the invention of the miracle drug Botox,
movie stars had to rely on the gauze-over-the-lens
camera trick. (Another historical footnote for my
younger readers to enjoy)
“Let’s go out tonight, and I’ll be Loretta.” - (Loretta Young to Duny Cashion)
Born 6 Jan 1913 in Salt Lake City, Utah, Gretchen Young changed her name to Loretta Young and became the famous movie and television actress. But she never confused who she was, Gretchen, with her image, Loretta.
It can be revealed now that when I was a younger boy, I had a crush on Loretta Young. It was a source of great angst to me that she was the same age as my father, and so she would probably choose him over me, but then again, Dad seemed pretty happy with Mom, so maybe I stood a chance if I could just get to meet her? Oh, when I stopped to think about it, I knew things would never work out between us – because of our age differences – but I had been introduced to the concept of there being one perfect person for each of us. Loretta seemed to be that girl for me, and in terms of geological time, we had just missed each other! Of course, I am older and wiser now. I no longer see things the way I did then. I know now who my perfect girl really is. She was born in Europe and died of the black plague in the Middle Ages. Still, by geological standards, this was another narrow miss.
Because of that narrow, geological-time-miss thing, I did not learn of Loretta Young until she was in her second career (1953-1961). Her second career was Television Star, but her first career had been Movie Star.
Loretta Young started as a child extra in silent films. She became a major movie star, appearing in nearly 100 films between 1927 and 1953 and won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her role in The Farmer’s Daughter, a romantic comedy.
Gretchen Michaela Young, a.k.a. Loretta Young
Above: Loretta at age 18 in 1931. Here she appears in one of those regrettably popular publicity shots that shamelessly used beautiful young women as fore drops for what are, obviously, merely exploitative photos of the innocent California beach and ocean.
Fortunately, that was then and this is now, and we men no longer are interested in seeing pictures such as these.
I don’t know why I bothered to include this photo, except from an historical point of view. Certainly, I could have found better use for the hour I spent in looking for it!
Loretta Young moved seamlessly from movie star to television star and was the first person to win an Oscar and an Emmy. Actually, she won three Best Actress Emmys for her dramatic anthology series, The Loretta Young Show.
They don’t make television shows like that anymore. Literally. Her dramatic anthology format was TV’s Neanderthal man equivalent to today’s continuing character series Homo Sapiens. In 1953, we still had larger-than-life movie stars that had been created by the major film studios, and the star power of a Loretta Young was sufficient to launch a television series while at the same time drawing in female viewers.
Come to think of it, female viewers may have been the primary target audience of the Loretta Young show (and not impressionable young men, as I was thinking when I started writing this essay). One of the most memorable parts of the show was Loretta’s fabulous entrance, in which she twirled down some steps in whatever she happened to be wearing at home that day (usually, this was a fashion gown, such as what Cinderella might have kicked back in after returning home from the Prince’s ball). After a while, I wised up to this and would go get a sandwich or something while she was doing her entrance, as I wasn’t into that ball gown scene.
It is difficult to find images of Loretta in these “oh, this old thing?” ball gowns. In the decades after they passed from style, she insisted that these dated fashion images be kept off television, and she sued NBC for a half-million dollars (and won) when it dared to show some of her re-runs.
Loretta Young enters a room
This is too bad, because Loretta Young was really a very talented actress, and now we cannot see her on television. Especially since she died in 2000 . . .
Her dramatic anthology show was different from the television shows of today. She introduced and concluded each show but acted in only about half of them. She was the only big-name star that acted in her shows, and each week the show had different actors (except for Loretta, of course) and would take place in different locations. There were some common themes, however. Often, when Loretta appeared, she played a single, professional woman who finds romance. But sometimes, she was a mother, a daughter, or a wife who had to deal with men. Sometimes this was done with melodrama, and sometimes it was done as romantic comedy.
I vividly remember a Loretta Young Show in which Loretta played what I call a “mature hot babe” (I think the scholarly cinematic term is M.I.L.F.), who has decided to have one last romantic fling before she heads into the sunset. She wasn’t that old actually, but she had just been diagnosed with leprosy. I think we all know how that is. Anyway, she goes to Europe, rents a convertible sports car, and starts trolling for hunky young men. Finally, she finds the perfect one, and is sitting in her white convertible chatting it up with him as she smokes a cigarette. Things seem to be going pretty well until the young hunk notices that the cigarette is burning a hole between her fingers! Wow, they don’t write romance stories like that anymore.
I think about that episode often. Probably more often than I would otherwise, but it so happens that there is a poor fellow with no nose that lives near me, and whenever I see him, I think of that Loretta Young episode. Of course, I never mention that episode to No-Nose, as I am more sensitive than that. By the way, I am not making this up – this is completely true.
Not one to abuse her star power, Loretta usually dressed by herself.
Above: As this stock photo attests, Loretta Young never forgot she was plain old Gretchen Young, a regular person like you and me, who put on her nylons one leg at a time. Well, I put on my pants one leg at a time, but I think you get the idea here. Loretta was a real woman. With two legs! As this photo clearly shows, I think.
Aside from her chiseled cheekbones, her flawless skin, her fabulous figure and her sensual pouting lips (things which I think we have to put up with in women), I think what attracted me was Loretta’s sense of humor. That, and her overall niceness and sweetness. From what I have read about her, she was a very nice person in real life. I wish I had actually known her.
Oh, to be sure, Loretta had her faults. For one thing, the love child she had with Clark Gable . . . but no woman is perfect, and I would have been willing to overlook that. Oh, and her half-sister married Ricardo Montalban, but I could have overlooked that too, in spite of his condescending treatment of Tattoo while they were on Fantasy Island.
Although I have made several light-hearted jests about Loretta Young in this essay, the truth is that I am a big fan of her work and really did have a crush on her circa 1958.
She was a genuine talent, and she is missed, and that is why I am writing about her. I am concerned that, like carbon paper, she is unknown to today’s generation of movie and television watchers.
In Memoriam
Loretta Young, 1913-2000
Before the invention of the miracle drug Botox,
movie stars had to rely on the gauze-over-the-lens
camera trick. (Another historical footnote for my
younger readers to enjoy)
posted by Tom Shawcross | 7:40 PM
1 Comments:
Oh Tom, I love the way you write! this was a great story and can see how you admired her, she was a beauty inside and out...Thanks for sharing this.
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