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Jane Russell
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Russell in 1945
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Ernestine Jane Geraldine Russell was born on June 21, 1921, in Bemidji, Minnesota.
She had four brothers: Thomas, Kenneth, Jamie, and Wallace.
Her father had been a first lieutenant in the U.S. Army. Her mother was an actress with a road troupe, and she was also the subject of a portrait by Mary Bradish Titcomb, “Portrait of Geraldine J”, which got attention when purchased by Woodrow Wilson.
Russell’s parents lived in Edmonton, Alberta, until shortly before her birth and returned there 9 days later, where they lived for the first two years of her life. The family then moved to Southern California where her father worked as an office manager.
Russell’s mother arranged piano lessons for Jane, wh showed interest in drama, and participated in stage productions at Van Nuys High School.
Her early ambition was to be a designer, until the death of her father in his mid-40s, when she decided to work as receptionist.
She also modeled, and, at the urging of her mother, studied acting with Max Reinhardt’s Theatrical Workshop, and actress and coach Maria Ouspenskaya.
In 1940, Russell was signed to a seven-year contract by film mogul Howard Hughes, and made her debut in The Outlaw (1943), a seemingly story about Billy the Kid that was actually meant as a showcase for her voluptupus figure.
The movie was completed in 1941, but it was not released until 1943. There were problems with the Production Code over the display of her cleavage in promoting the film.
The movie was finally approved, and got general release in 1946, assisted by Russell’s publicity, which made her known nationally. Contrary to incorrect reports, Russell did not wear the specially designed underwire bra that Hughes had designed for her to wear during filming. According to Jane’s 1985 memoirs, the bra was so uncomfortable that she secretly discarded it and wore her own bra with the cups padded with tissue and the straps pulled up to elevate her breasts.
Russell’s measurements were 38-24-36, and she stood 5 ft 7 in (97-61-91 cm and 1.7 m), making her more statuesque. Her co-star Bob Hope once introduced her as “the two and only Jane Russell.” He joked, “Culture is the ability to describe Jane Russell without moving your hands.” Howard Hughes said, “There are two good reasons why men go to see her. Those are enough.”
She was a popular pin-up photo with servicemen during World War II. Russell held that, “Sex appeal is good – but not in bad taste. Then it’s ugly. I don’t think a star has any business posing in a vulgar way. I’ve seen plenty of pin-up pictures that have sex appeal, interest, and allure, but they’re not vulgar. They have a little art to them. Marilyn’s calendar was artistic.”
She did not appear in another movie until 1946, when she played Joan Kenwood in Young Widow for Hunt Stromberg, who released it through UA. The film went over budget by $600,000 and was a box office failure.
In 1947, Russell launched a musical career, singing with the Kay Kyser Orchestra on radio, and recorded two singles with his band, “As Long As I Live” and “Boin-n-n-ng!” She also cut a 78 rpm album for Columbia Records, “Let’s Put Out the Lights,” which included 8 torch ballads and cover art that included a diaphanous gown.
In a 2009 interview, Russell denounced the Columbia album as “horrible and boring to listen to.” It was reissued on CD in 2002, in a package that also included the Kyser singles and two songs she recorded for Columbia in 1949 that were unreleased at the time.
In 1950, she recorded a single, “Kisses and Tears,” with Frank Sinatra and The Modernaires for Columbia.
Russell’s career revived when she was cast as Calamity Jane opposite Bob Hope in The Paleface (1948) on loan out to Paramount. The film was a sizeable box office hit, earning $4.5 million and becoming Paramount’s most successful release of the year.
Russell shot Montana Belle for Fidelity Pictures in 1948, playing Belle Starr. The film was intended to be released by Republic Pictures, but the producer sold the film to RKO, who released it in 1952.
Howard Hughes bought RKO Pictures, which would be Russell’s main employer for the next few years.
Russell co-starred with Groucho Marx and Frank Sinatra in a musical comedy, Double Dynamite. Shot in 1948 but released in 1951, it was a critical and commercial failure.
His Kind of Woman and Macao were minor hits but both involved so much re-shooting because of the interference of Hughes that they lost money.
Paramount borrowed Russell for a reunion with Bob Hope, Son of Paleface (1952), which was another hit.
She had a cameo in Road to Bali (1953).
Russell played Dorothy Shaw in the hit film Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953) opposite Marilyn Monroe for 20th Century Fox. The film was a huge success, Russell’s biggest hit since The Outlaw, making over $5 million.
Back at RKO, she was in Hughes’s production The French Line (1954). The movie’s penultimate moment showed Russell in form-fitting one-piece bathing suit with strategic cutouts, performing a provocative musical number titled “Lookin’ for Trouble.” Russell said that the revealing outfit was an alternative to Hughes’ original suggestion of a bikini, a very racy choice for costume in 1954. The movie earned $3 million.
Hughes also produced Underwater! (1955), an adventure with Russell and Richard Egan at RKO, which made $2 million, but because of its large cost was a financial flop.
Her contract with Hughes ended in February 1954.
In 1953, Russell and her first husband, former Los Angeles Rams quarterback Bob Waterfield, formed Russ-Field Productions.
In March 1954, they signed a six-picture deal with UA for three years; Russell only had to appear in three of the films.
Russ-Field loaned out Russell in the role of Amanda Lawrence in Foxfire (1955) at Universal, opposite Jeff Chandler. Russell was paid $200,000 for her role and had the right to draw on Chandler’s services for a film later on for her own production company. The film was a moderate success, earning $2 million.
That same year, Russell co-starred with Clark Gable in The Tall Men at 20th Century Fox, one of the year’s most popular films, earnings $6 million.
Russ-Field produced Gentlemen Marry Brunettes (1955), a sequel to Blondes in which Russell starred alongside Jeanne Crain, release by United Artists, but it was not as successful as the original.
Russ-Field made some films without Russell for UA, such as the 1956 The King and Four Queens, starring Gable and Eleanor Parker (co-produced with Gable’s company, GABCO Productions).
That same year, they released Run for the Sun, an adaptation of Richard Connell’s short story “The Most Dangerous Game,” starring Richard Widmark and Jane Greer.
In 1957, Russell starred in Russ-Field’s last production, the romantic comedy The Fuzzy Pink Nightgown, which was a box-office failure.
Russell formed a gospel quartet in 1954, with three other members of a faith-sharing group called the Hollywood Christian Group. The other original members were Connie Hines, Beryl Davis and Della Russell. Hines was a former vocalist in the Harry James and Tommy Dorsey orchestras, while Davis was a British emigrant who had moved to the United States after success entertaining American troops stationed in England during World War II. Della Russell was the wife of crooner Andy Russell.
Backed by an orchestra conducted by Lyn Murray, their choral single “Do Lord” reached number 27 on the Billboard singles chart in May 1954, selling two million copies. Della Russell, no relation to Jane, soon left the group, but Jane, Haines and Davis followed up with a trio LP for Capitol Records, The Magic of Believing.
Later, another Hollywood bombshell, Rhonda Fleming, joined them for more gospel recordings. The Capitol LP was issued on CD in 2008, in a package that included the choral singles by the original quartet and two tracks with Fleming replacing Della Russell. A collection of Russell’s gospel and secular recordings was issued on CD in Britain in 2005, and it includes more secular recordings, including Russell’s spoken-word performances of Hollywood Riding Hood and Hollywood Cinderella backed by jazz group that featured Terry Gibbs and Tony Scott.
In October 1957, she debuted in a successful solo nightclub act at the Sands Hotel in Las Vegas.
She also fulfilled later engagements in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, South America and Europe.
A self-titled solo LP was issued on MGM Records in 1959. It was reissued on CD in 2009 under the title Fine and Dandy, and the CD included some demo and soundtrack recordings, as well. “I finally got to make a record the way I wanted to make it,” she said of the MGM album in the liner notes to the CD reissue.
In 1959, she debuted with a tour of Janus in New England, performed in Skylark and also starred in Bells Are Ringing at the Westchester Town House in Yonkers, New York.
Television
Russell moved into TV, appearing in episodes of Colgate Theatre, Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse, Death Valley Days (the “Splinter Station”, 1960) and The Red Skelton Hour. In 1999, she remarked, “Why did I quit movies? Because I was getting too old! You couldn’t go on acting in those years if you were an actress over 30.”
Russell was referenced in a 1956 episode of The Honeymooners. Ralph Kramden (played by Jackie Gleason) arrives home “dead” tired, vowing to go straight to bed after dinner, quipping, “You couldn’t get me out of this house tonight if you told me that Jane Russell was runnin’ a party upstairs and she couldn’t get started until I arrived!” Later, Kramden becomes aware that his best friend and neighbor, Ed Norton, is in fact throwing a party upstairs and did not invite him. After being reminded by his wife, Alice, of his reluctance to attend even a party that Jane Russell was throwing, an insulted Kramden rants, “I was talking about Jane Russell: I said nothing about any party that Norton’s running!”
On the sitcom Maude (episode “The Wallet”), Walter Findlay (played by Bill Macy) carries a lipstick impression and autograph of Jane Russell on a cocktail napkin in his wallet as good luck charm.
Her last on-screen appearance was in a 1986 episode of “Hunter.”
Russell had a semi-recurring guest role in the soap opera The Yellow Rose (1983) on TV and guest-starred on Huner (1986).
She wrote her memoirs, Jane Russell: My Path and My Detours, in 1985.
In 1989, Russell received the Women’s International Center Living Legacy Award.
Russell made Fate Is the Hunter (1964), seen as herself performing for the USO in a flashback sequence.
She was second-billed in two A.C. Lyles Westerns, Johnny Reno (1966) and Waco (1966), and starred in Cauliflower Cupids, filmed in 1966 but not released until 1970.
Russell had character role in The Born Losers (1967) and Darker Than Amber (1970).
After this, she retired from acting in movies, saying she was getting too old, though she was only 59.
In 1971, Russell starred in the musical drama Company, making her debut on Broadway in the role of Joanne, succeeding Elaine Stritch. Russell performed the role of Joanne for almost six months.
Also in the 1970s, Russell appeared in television commercials as a spokesperson for Playtex’s “‘Cross-Your-Heart Bras’ for us full-figured gals”, featuring the “18-Hour Bra.”
In the 1996 HBO film Norma Jean & Marilyn, Erika Nann portrayed Russell leaving her hand imprints at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre alongside Monroe.[50][44] In 2001, Russell was portrayed by Renee Henderson in the CBS miniseries Blonde, based on the novel of the same name by Joyce Carol
After Russell became pregnant with her high-school sweetheart Bob Waterfield’s baby, she underwent a botched abortion in 1942 that left her unable to bear children. The abortion went so wrong that Russell had to be hospitalized and nearly died. After this experience, Russell described herself as “vigorously pro-life,” also speaking out against abortion in case of rape or incest.
Russell married Waterfield in Las Vegas on April 24, 1943. He was a UCLA All-American, quarterback for the Cleveland Rams/Los Angeles Rams, Los Angeles Rams head coach, and member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
In February 1952, Russell and Waterfield adopted a baby girl, whom they named Tracy. In Dec 1952, they adopted a fifteen-month-old boy, Thomas, whose birth mother, Hannah McDermott, had moved to London to escape poverty in Northern Ireland. In 1956, they adopted a nine-month-old boy, Robert John.
In 1955, Russell founded Waif, an organization to place children with adoptive families, which pioneered adoptions from foreign countries by Americans. In February 1968, Russell filed for divorce from Waterfield, charging cruelty and physical abuse. The divorce was finalized in July 1968, with Russell gaining full custody of her two eldest children and Waterfield gaining full custody of their youngest child. Both were granted visitation rights.
On August 25, 1968, one month after her divorce from Waterfield, Russell married actor Roger Wyatt Barrett, whom she had met at a production. Barrett died of heart attack three months later in November 1968, after returning from long honeymoon in England.
Russell married real-estate broker John Calvin Peoples in 1974. In the late 1970s, Russell and Peoples moved to Sedona, Arizona, where they owned Dude’s nightclub, and Russell revived her nightclub act. They spent the majority of their married life residing in Santa Maria, California. Peoples died of heart failure on April 9, 1999.
At the height of her career, Russell started the “Hollywood Christian Group,” a weekly Bible study at her home which was attended by many of the leading names in the film industry.
Russell invited Marilyn Monroe to join, but she declined. Monroe once said, “Jane tried to convert me to Christianity, and I tried to introduce her to Freud.” Russell later said “I certainly wasn’t trying to convert her to religion because I don’t like religion”–she didn’t consider Christianity “a religion”.
Russell appeared occasionally on the Praise the Lord TV program on the Trinity Broadcasting Network, a Christian TV channel based in Tustin, California.
Russell was a Republican, and attended Dwight D. Eisenhower’s inauguration, along with Lou Costello, Dick Powell, June Allyson, Hugh O’Brian, and Louella Parsons.
A recovering alcoholic who went into rehab at age 79, she described herself in 2003 interview: “I am a teetotal, mean-spirited, right-wing, narrow-minded, conservative Christian bigot, but not a racist.”
She died at her home in Santa Maria of a respiratory-related illness on Feb 28, 2011.
Russell was survived by her 3 children, 8 grandchildren, and 10 great-grandchildren.
Filmography
The Outlaw (1943)
Young Widow (1946)
The Paleface (1948)
His Kind of Woman (1951)
Double Dynamite (1951)
The Las Vegas Story (1952)
Macao (1952)
Son of Paleface (1952)
Montana Belle (1952)
Road to Bali (1952; cameo)
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953)
The French Line (1953)
Underwater! (1955)
Foxfire (1955)
The Tall Men (1955)
Gentlemen Marry Brunettes (1955)
Hot Blood (1956)
The Revolt of Mamie Stover (1956)
The Fuzzy Pink Nightgown (1957)
Fate Is the Hunter (1964; cameo)
Johnny Reno (1966)
Waco (1966)
The Born Losers (1967)
Darker than Amber (1970)
Cauliflower Cupids (1970)
