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Jean Harlow was born Harlean Harlow Carpenter in Kansas City, Missouri in 1911. Her parents were unhappily married, and her mother devoted her entire life to her only child Harlean, whom she called "Baby". When she was 11, her parents divorced, and she moved with her mother to Hollywood, where her mother wanted to become an actress, but she had little success, and two years later they returned to Kansas City. In 1927, when Harlean was 16, she married an heir to a fortune who was two months under 21, the age when he would inherit the money. Once he did, they moved to Beverly Hills. Harlean was noticed by Fox executives and took a screen test under her mother's maiden name of Jean Harlow. She was given some bit parts, and then signed a contract with Hal Roach, and she was in three Laurel & Hardy movies, but then separated from her husband and left Roach, and moved in with her mother and mom's new husband. After some more minor roles, she was signed to play the female lead in Hell's Angels, which was already shot. But the movie had been made as a silent, and Howard Hughes made the decision to re-shoot the entire movie with sound, and since female star Greta Nissen, had a heavy Norwegian accent, she was replaced by Jean Harlow! Hell's Angels was a great success, and everyone noticed Harlow, especially in a color sequence where she wore a skimpy body hugging practically transparent dress! Harlow was under contract to Hughes, but after a major role in Platinum Blonde, she was signed by MGM, where she appeared in a series of romantic comedies, and some steamy sexy dramas, including Red Dust with Clark Gable. Harlow's personal life was a mess. She had gotten involved with MGM screenwriter Paul Bern, who was 22 years older than her. During the filming of Red Dust, Bern committed suicide, leaving a cryptic suicide note (or was he murdered?). Harlow soon married again, but that marriage was brief, and she had numerous affairs, most notably with William Powell. She also had to contend with numerous relatives who sponged off of her, most notably her mother, who was called Mama Jean. Harlow made a total of 16 movies at MGM between 1932 and 1937, and many of them are really excellent movies. One of her best roles was in the multi-star Dinner at Eight in 1933. Tragically, she became sick during the filming of Saratoga, and she died of kidney failure, at just 26 years of age! Harlow was the original blonde bombshell, and one of her movies was called "Bombshell" and was also released as "Blonde Bombshell". She exuded a combination of sexiness and innocence that no other female star ever did (at least until Marilyn Monroe came along two decades later). I highly recommend seeing her movies. She may not have been a great actress, but she is always very entertaining to watch!

Important Added Info: Iconic portrait of blonde bombshell, Jean Harlow by legendary MGM portrait photographer, George Hurrell. One of the best offerings of this auction this exemplar study by Hurrell is essential! Don't miss out a chance to win this particular negative. Superb clarity and detail with India ink numbering on front and studio retouching on the emulsion side. This was the actual negative inside the camera taken by the photographer at the time and as such is a one-of-a-kind collectible!

Note that this is a negative that was in the camera when the photographer shot the photo (see below for more on this). We have put a scan of the negative that shows the "positive image" (in addition to a scan of the negative image). REMEMBER THAT WHAT YOU RECEIVE WILL BE A PHOTOGRAPHIC NEGATIVE, NOT A POSITIVE IMAGE LIKE YOU ARE SEEING. However, we will provide the winning bidder of this auction that positive image scan that is both high quality and not watermarked (on request to the winning bidder, and only the winning bidder). We scanned it, so that bidders could see just how high quality it is. What are camera original negatives? These often (but not always) have retouching on the emulsion side, and negative numbers written in India ink on the front. Depending on the studio some 8x10 negatives may be trimmed or have numbers or information embedded into the sides of the negative. Obviously, camera original negatives are far more rare (and far more desirable) than studio-issued ones, but both are very high quality.

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