MARION MARTIN

Marion Martin was born Marion Suplee in 1909 and was the daughter of a well-to-do Bethlehem Steel executive and reared in Main Line society. She attended exclusive schools until her family went broke in the 1929 stock market crash. Forced to work, she became a chorus girl in one of Earl Carroll's New York stage revues. Florenz Ziegfeld Jr saw her there, and she was the last of the girls he personally selected to be a "Ziegfeld Girl", and he called her "the world's most beautiful woman". She replaced Gypsy Rose Lee in his Follies of 1933 wearing little but "a feather and some beads", After a few other Broadway appearances, she was signed by Universal in 1938 and became Marion (sometimes Marian) Martin. She was noticed in Sinners in Paradise, but more for her body than her acting talents! She soon solely played strippers, chorus girls or golddiggers. She mostly appeared in B-movies, including comedies and film noirs, making 95 in all. She retired in 1951, having married well, and was active in many charitable causes. She passed away in 1985 at the age of 77.