Veronica Lake

Veronica Lake
from the trailer for Sullivan's Travels (1941)
Born	Constance Frances Marie Ockelman November 14, 1922(1922-11-14) Brooklyn, New York, U.S.
Died	July 7, 1973 (aged 50) Montreal, Canada
Years active	1939–1970
Spouse(s)	John S. Detlie (1940–1943) André De Toth (1944–1952) Joseph A. McCarthy (1955–1959) Robert Carleton-Munro (1972–1973)

Veronica Lake (November 14, 1922^[1] – July 7, 1973) was an American film actress and pin-up model who enjoyed both popular and critical acclaim, most notably for her femme fatale roles in film noir with Alan Ladd during the 1940s, as well as her peek-a-boo hairstyle.

Early life and career

Veronica Lake was born Constance Frances Marie Ockelman in Brooklyn, New York. Her father, Harry E. Ockelman, of Danish-Irish descent,^[2] worked for an oil company onboard a ship. When she was about one year old, the family moved to Florida but returned to Brooklyn before she was five. Her father died in an industrial explosion in Philadelphia in 1932 when she was 9. Her mother, née Constance Charlotta Trimble (1902-1992), ^[3] (listed as "Veronica F." on the 1920 census), married family friend Anthony Keane, a newspaper staff artist, a year later, and Ockelman began using his last name.

Connie was sent to Villa Maria, an all-girls Catholic boarding school in Montreal, Canada, which she hated and from which she was expelled. The Keane family later moved to Miami, Florida. Constance Keane attended high school in Miami, where she was known for her beauty. She had a troubled childhood and was, according to her mother, diagnosed as schizophrenic.^[4]

In 1938, Keane moved with her mother and stepfather to Beverly Hills, California, where her mother enrolled Keane in the celebrated Bliss-Hayden School of Acting at the Beverly Hills Playhouse. Her first appearance on screen was for RKO, playing a small role among several coeds in the 1939 film, Sorority House. Similar roles followed, including All Women Have Secrets and Dancing Co-Ed.

During the making of Sorority House, director John Farrow first noticed how her hair always covered her right eye, creating an air of mystery about her and enhancing her natural beauty. She was then introduced to the Paramount producer Arthur Hornblow, Jr. He changed her name to Veronica Lake because, "[w]hen I think about Veronica, I think about classic, and ... [her] beauty is a classical beauty",^{[cite this quote]} and the surname suited her blue eyes.

Her contract was subsequently dropped by RKO. She married art director John S. Detlie in 1940. Another small role in the comedy, Forty Little Mothers, brought unexpected attention. In 1941, she was signed to a long term contract with Paramount Pictures. On August 21, she gave birth to a daughter, Elaine Detlie.

1940s icon

Her breakthrough film was I Wanted Wings in 1941, a major hit in which she played the second female lead and was said to have stolen scene after scene from the rest of the cast. This success was followed by Hold Back the Dawn later that year. She was soon regarded as a witty, intelligent and trend-setting actress and had starring roles in more popular movies, including Sullivan's Travels, This Gun for Hire, I Married a Witch, The Glass Key, and So Proudly We Hail!. Looking back at her career years later, Lake remarked, "I never did cheesecake; I just used my hair."^[5]

For a short time during the early 1940s, Lake was considered one of the most reliable box office draws in Hollywood and was also known for her onscreen pairings with actor Alan Ladd. At first, the couple was teamed together merely out of physical necessity: Ladd was just 5 feet 5 inches (1.65 m) tall and the only actress then on the Paramount lot short enough to pair with him was Lake, who stood just 4 feet 11½ inches (1.51 m). They made four films together.

A stray lock of her shoulder-length blonde hair during a publicity photo shoot led to her iconic 'peekaboo' hairstyle, which hid one eye, and was widely imitated. During World War II, she changed her trademark image to encourage women working in war industry factories to adopt more practical, safer hairstyles.^[6]

Although widely popular with the public, Lake had a complex personality and acquired a reputation for being difficult to work with. Eddie Bracken, her co-star in Star Spangled Rhythm was quoted as saying "[s]he was known as 'The Bitch' and she deserved the title."^[7] In that movie, Lake took part in a song lampooning her hair style, "A Sweater, A Sarong and a Peekaboo Bang", performed with Dorothy Lamour and Paulette Goddard.^[8]

Lake's career stumbled with her unsympathetic role as Nazi sympathizer Dora Bruckman in 1944's The Hour Before the Dawn. During filming, she tripped on a lighting cable while pregnant and began hemorrhaging. She recovered, but her second child, William, was born prematurely on July 8, 1943, dying a week later from uremic poisoning.^[9] By the end of 1943, her first marriage ended in divorce. Meanwhile, scathing reviews of The Hour Before Dawn included criticism of her unconvincing German accent, which was said to have interfered disastrously with her acting.

Nevertheless, Lake was making $4,500 per week (equaling over $2.7 million per year in 2007, after allowing for inflation) under her contract with Paramount. Lake is said to have begun drinking more heavily during this period and people began refusing to work with her. Paramount cast Lake in a string of mostly forgotten films. A notable exception was The Blue Dahlia (1946) in which she again co-starred with Alan Ladd (who reportedly was also less than fond of her). During filming, author Raymond Chandler referred to her as "Moronica Lake."^[10] Paramount decided not to renew her contract in 1948.

She married film director Andre De Toth in 1944, with whom she had a son, Andre Anthony Michael De Toth, born October 25, 1945, in Los Angeles, California and a daughter, Diana De Toth, born October 16, 1948. Lake was also sued by her mother for support payments that year.

Later years

After a single film for 20th Century Fox, her career collapsed. By the end of 1952, she had appeared in one last film (Stronghold, which she later described as "a dog"), filed for bankruptcy, and divorced de Toth. The IRS seized the remainder of her assets for unpaid taxes. Lake turned to television and stage work, and in 1955, married songwriter Joseph A. McCarthy.

After breaking her ankle in 1959, Lake was unable to continue working as an actress. She and McCarthy divorced, and she drifted between cheap hotels in Brooklyn and New York City and was arrested several times for public drunkenness and disorderly conduct.

A reporter found her working as a barmaid at the all women's Martha Washington Hotel in Manhattan. At first, Veronica claimed that she was a guest at the hotel and covering for a friend. Soon afterward, she admitted that she was employed at the bar. The reporter's widely distributed story led to some television and stage appearances. In 1966, she had a brief stint as a TV hostess in Baltimore, Maryland, along with a largely ignored film role in Footsteps in the Snow.

Her physical and mental health declined steadily and by the late 1960s Lake was in Hollywood, Florida, apparently immobilized by paranoia (which included claims she was being stalked by the FBI).^[11]

She published her autobiography Veronica, amid much publicity and positive reviews.^[12] With the proceeds, Lake co-produced and starred in her last film, Flesh Feast (1970), a very low budget horror movie with a Nazi-myth storyline.

She then moved to the UK, where she had a short-lived marriage with "English sea captain" Robert Carleton-Munro before returning to the U.S. in 1973, having filed for divorce. Lake was immediately hospitalized and although she is said to have made a cheerful and positive impression on the nurses who cared for her, she was apparently estranged from her three surviving children. She had no guests or visitors and was destitute again.

Death

Lake died of hepatitis and acute renal failure (complications of her alcoholism) in Montreal. Her corpse was moved by her last lover, Nat Perlow, to Vermont, who told border agents that she was just sleeping. This had been Lake's wish, as she did not want the public to know that she had died in Montreal, the "Sin City of the North". [1] Her ashes were scattered off the Virgin Islands. In 2004, some of Lake's ashes were reportedly found in a New York antique store.^[13] Her son, Michael De Toth, died on October 25, 1991 in Olympia, Washington at the age of 45.

Lake has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6918 Hollywood Boulevard for her contributions to the motion picture industry.

Quotes

• "I wasn't a sex symbol, I was a sex zombie."^[14]

• "You could put all the talent I had into your left eye and still not suffer from impaired vision."^[15]

• "I've reached a point in my life where it's the little things that matter... I was always a rebel and probably could have got much farther had I changed my attitude. But when you think about it, I got pretty far without changing attitudes. I'm happier with that." (1970)

References in popular culture

• Barry Smolin's song Veronica Lake is about an irresolute sighting of a homeless Veronica Lake at Union Station in Los Angeles.

• The Archie comics character Veronica Lodge was partially named after Veronica Lake, who was in the midst of her early celebrity when the comic book character was introduced in the spring of 1942.

• In 1997, the Academy Award-winning film L.A. Confidential paid homage to Lake's image and manner through Kim Basinger's starring role in an adaptation of James Ellroy's crime novel set in early 1950s Los Angeles. The movie also displayed Lake's photograph and mentioned her. A scene included an image of Lake from This Gun for Hire screening in the background.

• Jessica Rabbit from Who Framed Roger Rabbit was modeled on Veronica Lake and Rita Hayworth. Jessica also sports Lake's trademark peekaboo hairstyle.

• The character of Ronnie Lake in the hit CBS drama CSI: Crime Scene Investigation is named after her.

• Her character in Sullivan's Travels inspired 'Miss Lake', a song on London-based French songwriter Louis Philippe's 2007 album, An Unknown Spring.

• Billy Wilder's The Major and the Minor has an extended gag where the students of a girl's school - and their headmistress - all have peekaboo hairstyles.

• In Alfred Hitchcock's "Shadow of a Doubt", 1941, the young daughter named Ann says her prayers before going to sleep... "God bless Mama, Papa, Captain Midnight, Veronica Lake, and the President of the United States."

• Hellacopters recorded a tribute song to Veronica Lake, called Veronica Lake on their latest album, Head Off! The song was originally written by the New Bomb Turks.

• The spider in Bob Clampett's cartoon Eatin' on the Cuff puts on a Veronica Lake wig.

• The Bugs Bunny cartoon A-Lad-In His Lamp features a lake called Veronica Lake.
• Clips of Veronica Lake were used in Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid, a 1982 spoof of and homage to film noir.
• In 2009 video game Still Life 2 which is a sequel to the 2005 game, Still Life, Veronica Lake is the favourite actress of game's villain. He's obsessed with her movies, especially The Blue Dahlia

Filmography

References

Further reading

• Oderman, Stuart, Talking to the Piano Player 2. BearManor Media, 2009. ISBN #1-59393-320-7.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Veronica Lake

• Veronica Lake at the Internet Movie Database
• Veronica Lake at the TCM Movie Database
• Veronica Lake at Find a Grave