Lana Turner

Hi everybody,
At the 18th of May 1987 ABC aired the “Happy 100th Hollywood” TV special.
Here is some more info about it:

Directed by Jeff Margolis and with the writing credits from William Moritz and Hildy Parks.
Female stars are Arlene Dahl, June Allyson, Maureen O’Sullivan, Debbie Reynolds (in back hidden), Angie Dickinson, Cyd Charisse, Alice Faye, Luise Rainer, Eva Marie Saint, Ginger Rogers, Drew Barrymore, Esther Williams, Jane Powell, Lillian Gish sitting in gazebo but hidden in photo, Lana Turner standing, Shirley Jones, Ruby Keeler and Dorothy Lamour.

Lana Turner on gazebo with 17 other stars

The TV special got a primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Editing for a Miniseries or a Special – Multi-Camera Production.

From “The Herald And Review“:

The ABC special was taped April 26 at the Shrine Auditorium, with tickets selling for up to $1,000 for the benefit of the Motion Picture and Television Country House and Hospital. All together, they expect to raise nearly $3 million for the facility, which provides medical care and old-age residency for workers in the entertainment industry. Hollywood throws itself a three-hour, heel-clicking, back-slapping, Roman candle-shooting, star-studded 100th birthday party on ABC Monday night.
A hundred years ago Hollywood was little more than a name and a dream and a lot of open space.
The motion picture industry was still in the future. In the same year Hollywood became a community, Thomas A. Edison began work on a device to make pictures appear to move.
“A hundred years ago Harvey Wilcox came here and built a ES&W T1 house and called it Hollywood,” said producer Alexander Cohen.
Added Parks, who wrote the show, “We do try to cover the 100 years in the opening number.
We start on the streets of New York, where the movie industry began, and show its move out here.
By the time the opening numher is over, we’re “Mrs. Wilcox had met a woman on the train who had a home in Chicago called Hollywood. But, the fact is, film is only 75 years old. That opening number is led by Liza Minnelli, who dances her way from New York to Hollywood.
The show also features a Busby Berkeley musical number with Gregory Harrison and 32 actresses, a salute to movie costumes, a look at movie stunts and special effects, plus segments on socially conscious drama, comedy, horror films and movie heroines.”
“The show also contains many vintage film clips assembled by Jack Haley Jr., the show’s co-executive producer.
The one-tune studio executive and power behind “That’s Entertainment,” Haley has also produced a number of other film tributes and documentaries and has directed and produced the annual Academy Awards presentation.
Here to make “The Squaw Man’ in 1913.” That Western, starring Dustin Farnum, was a big success and a milestone in the movie industry.
It wasn’t long before moviemakers made Hollywood a name known all over the world.
“Happy Birthday Hollywood” was put together with the help of Cohen and Hildy Parks, the same husband-wife team that made the Tonys the classiest of all awards show, produced the last two Emmy shows and “Night of 100 Stars” and oversaw the telecasts celebrating CBS 50th anniversary and NBC’s 60th.
More than 150 stars, from James Stewart, Luise Rainer and Burt Lancaster to Burt Reynolds, Jane Powell and Ginger Rogers, pay tribute to Hollywood in the gala celebration.

Lana Turner was announced in the show at the start of the program and at the end of the program she’s in the line up, when all the stars take a bow. Here are very rare backstage photos:

In 1953 Lana Turner went to Europe. To take advantage of the tax benefits of working in Europe for 18 months, filming across the Atlantic became extremely attractive to Hollywood filmmakers and actors beginning in the late ’40s. At the end of her marriage to Bob Topping, Lana’s finances were so drained she joined the exodus and agreed to make a film in Italy. If taking off to work abroad wasn’t enough of a shock to Lana’s fans, her new haircut and dye job floored them.
Every woman in the mid ’50s wished they could pull off the closely cropped “Italian look” of Gina Lollobrigida. A few were brave enough to try and Lana was one of them. The public wasn’t too fond of her new look. She just didn’t look like herself as a brunette. But then, being unrecognisable was part of the fun for her. With the new haircut, she discovered a sense of freedom. She said: “I could go into shops and walk along the streets and have a ball and nobody knew me.”
Lana went to Italy to film “Flame And The Flesh” and after that she went to Holland to film “Betrayed.”
When Lana looked back on this entire period later on she tought is was a mistake. Mistakes in career choices, in men, and in the fights she had with her mother and her daughter. Upon completion of “Betrayed”, she decided to abandon her plan to continue working abroad and come home to the USA again.

I am happy though she made those 2 films. They are different from her other ones, but quite special I think. I agree about her hair though. Although she looks beautiful with her hair in the brown colour, the blonde look is more spectacular. 😀

In 1953, when she was in Europe, she went to Paris, France for a photoshoot in the Louvre museum. Here are some fantastic photos from that photoshoot. Thanks again Lou Valentino for the photos! 😀

Lana Turner sits on the Daru staircase in the Louvre, Paris, France. The sculpture behind her is “Winged Victory of Samothrace” (“La Victoire de Samothrace”), a marble statue dating from the second century BC that depicts the Greek goddess Nike (Victory).
(Lana Turner – Paris – 1953 – Photo by Archive Photos – Getty Images)

The Famous Actress, Moviestar and Dancer

Lana Turner in Happy 100th Hollywood – 18 May 1987

Lana Turner – Photoshoot in Paris – 1953