The Loretta Young Thread

[ClassyCo]

Loretta Young is one Golden Age of Hollywood actress I don't believe I've seen discussed here before. Of course, she's probably turned up somewhere I wasn't well aware, but I'm fairly sure she hasn't been involved in any discussions that are terribly significant.

My LEADING LADIES book says that Loretta Young lacked her own character. Rita Hayworth had Gilda, for example, but Loretta was without one, single identifiable movie character. She appeared in films from 1916 to 1953, was quite popular, and she won an Oscar for her performance in THE FARMER'S DAUGHTER in 1947. She headlined her own anthology television series called THE LORETTA YOUNG SHOW (originally LETTER TO LORETTA) from 1953 to 1961. It was popular and thrived in syndication for years.

One of the more intriguing things about Loretta Young is how she had a love child with movie star Clark Gable. The details are spotty and vary, depending on what story you take as truth, but the two apparently had an affair while filming THE CALL OF THE WILD together in 1935. Loretta gave birth to a daughter, named Judy, in November of that year. She quickly had the child placed in an orphanage, until she "adopted" her nineteen months later. Young didn't want to damage her career or Gable's. Few in Hollywood were fooled by the masquerade, and Judy's real parentage was often gossiped about among entertainment circles. Loretta told Judy when she was thirty-one that she was her biological mother, and Young went public with the story in 1999. It's an interesting saga. What do you think?

Any Loretta Young fans?​

 

[ClassyCo]

Mother and daughter together around 1940. Most biographers agree that Judy bore a "striking resemblance" to Clark Gable.​

 

[DallasFanForever]

Wow!! Interesting story. Is there any information as to why Loretta waited 31 years to tell Judy the truth? And then another 30 years plus to tell the public?

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

Loretta Young was the only woman in Hollywood who could out-Crawford Joan Crawford, minus (most of) the pathologies.

But Young was appalled when her daughter went public with the story of her parentage and all but disowned her.

 

[Crimson]

I haven't seen Loretta Young in a single thing. For an actress whose career stretched from the late Silents to the early 50s and then another decade in television, her filmography is pretty unimpressive. There's really only 2 or 3 films to her credit that are semi-well regarded. Perhaps unfair since I haven't seen her work but I've gotten the impression she was more of a clotheshorse than actress.

Also I think she looked better as an old lady than in her younger days.

What do you think?

Show biz is filled with nuts.

 

[ClassyCo]

Wow!! Interesting story. Is there any information as to why Loretta waited 31 years to tell Judy the truth? And then another 30 years plus to tell the public?

Loretta wanted to keep Judy's true parentage under wraps out of fear of causing a scandal for either herself or Clark Gable. Loretta was also a devout Catholic, and she didn't want to thwart her relationship with her mother (that relationship had already been shaken when she married a man outside the faith in the early 1930s).​

 

[ClassyCo]

so I think she looked better as an old lady than in her younger days.

View attachment 27538 View attachment 27539

I'll agree that she did age gracefully. She matured into an elegant woman.
​

 

[ClassyCo]

I'll give Loretta Young credit for one thing: her career longevity. She was a leading lady at the end of the silent era, at a time when she was barely old enough to drive; she proved a bankable commodity throughout the 1930s and 1940s in a host of successful films; and she moved to television at practically the birth of that medium in the early 1950s.

Loretta had been in Hollywood for close to thirty years before she won her only Academy Award for THE FARMER'S DAUGHTER in 1947, beating the likes of Joan Crawford, Susan Hayward, Rosaline Russell, and Dorothy McGuire. And even that award-winning role did not seem too out-of-the-ordinary; one could easily imagine a number of different actresses playing that part. One imagines that Loretta felt close to her other Oscar-nominated role in COME TO THE STABLE (1949), which allowed her to bring her strong Catholic beliefs into her movie role. She lost the award in 1950 to Olivia de Havilland.
​

​

Young's move towards television was a smart one, especially for her. Her movie career was winding down, and according to her son, she had "no other goal in movies" after winning her Oscar. Apparently it was her husband, Tom Lewis, that urged her towards television. THE LORETTA YOUNG SHOW ran from 1953 to 1961, and the anthology series allowed her to play a variety of characters and strengthen the acting talents Hollywood had all but squandered. The show was popular and Young's dramatic entrances in lavish evening gowns became a trademark for the star. She originally appeared on the show as both hostess and star in every week's episode, but after she collapsed from exhaustion, she withdrew from starring in every episode. She continued full-time hostess duties, but limited herself to starring in around half of each season's episodes.

She eventually won three Emmy Awards for THE LORETTA YOUNG SHOW throughout its eight-season duration. After that show ended, she starred in THE NEW LORETTA YOUNG SHOW starting in 1962. The show was a comedy-drama wherein Young starred as Christine Massey, a widowed mother raising seven children in suburban Connecticut. Unfortunately, the series suffered from poor ratings and it was cancelled in 1963 after airing twenty-episodes. The later series is often coupled into THE LORETTA YOUNG SHOW syndication package.
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[Johnrich2002]

I'm looking for some info.
I live in the far north of Scotland and found a piece of film reel on a beach. I think I have identified the actress as Loretta young, now trying to track down the film/scene any info would be much appreciated.
Howevet This is the first time I have posted and not sure how to add the pictures....

 

[Johnrich2002]

I'm looking for some info.
I live in the far north of Scotland and found a piece of film reel on a beach. I think I have identified the actress as Loretta young, now trying to track down the film/scene any info would be much appreciated.
Howevet This is the first time I have posted and not sure how to add the pictures....

 

[Crimson]

The actress on the film is definitely Loretta Young, but I couldn't' even guess what film that might be from.

 

[DallasFanForever]

The scene of her looking out the window looks very familiar to me. I know I’ve seen it before but I just can’t place it.

 

[Johnrich2002]

Someone from a local forum found another piece of film, I'm going to pick it up today, appears to show a Male actor so hopefully will help with identifying. I will upload a photo when I get it.

 

[Johnrich2002]

Collected the other film fragments

 

[Crimson]

I don't recognize the man in the film at all, so couldn't even guess which film this might be from. If no one else here recognizes the film or the actor, I suggest trying the TCM forums.

 

[DallasFanForever]

Same here. I looked through the cast list photos of almost every Loretta Young movie and I can’t figure out who that actor is. His face just doesn’t ring a bell.

 

[Johnrich2002]

I've had a theory from someone. Thoughts?

 

[ClassyCo]

I haven't the slightest idea who that actor is. I wish I could be of more help identifying the movie.

 

[Crimson]

I've had a theory from someone. Thoughts?

That doesn't look like Robert Taylor and her hairstyle looks more 1940s than 1930s, but I couldn't say with any certainty that the isn't PRIVATE NUMBER.

The entire movie on Youtube. I skimmed through it and didn't see any actor that looks like the man in the film you have, but I may have missed him.

 

[darkshadows38]

i'm really that much of a fan but honestly the era of i've seen of her the most to be honest are some of her silent pictures in the (1920)'s some of them though are sadly lost but i believe she was a child actor cause she started really young or was she in her teens? i forget you'd have to look up her filmography on IMDB