🌠 Star Profile: Joan Blondell

(August 30, 1906 - December 25, 1979)

"In the 20s, you were a face. And that was enough. In the 30s, you also had to be a voice. And your voice had to match your face if you can imagine that"--Joan Blondell.

I absolutely love Joan! Whenever she's on screen, my eyes are immediately drawn to her. She has such a vibrant, sexy, sassy, and funny personality that also knows how to pull at your heartstrings. I used to help run the Joan Blondell Appreciation Group and I still find ways to honor and share her with others - like making her the Ambassador of my Facebook group.

“I was the fizz on the soda”

* Rose Joan Blondell was born on August 30, 1906, in New York City, who was born into show business. Her parents were vaudevillian actors, and her first stage appearance was when she was 3 months old.

* When she arrived in Hollywood in 1930, Jack Warner wanted her to change her name to Inez Holmes but she refused.

* She referred to herself as "Warner's (Brothers) workhorse" for the huge amount of films she'd make. Her firecracker personality garnered huge profits for the studio during the 1930s. In 1931, Blondell made 10 films, 9 films in 1932, (which landed her in the hospital due to exhaustion and an easing up her film schedule), eight in 1933, five in 1934, six in 1936, and five in 1939.

Recalling those crazy years of shooting: "We never had time off-never. We were either on the set or in the portrait gallery. Or having a layout buy the beach or mountains-always working, They got their money's worth. I was doing them fast and furious. In fact, there were many I didn't see ever. I never saw the rushes. And a few times, I saw them for the first time on the Late Show. Several times I thought, "I don't ever remember doing that."

Joan Blondell in “Gold Diggers of 1933” singing “Remember My Forgotten Man"

* James Cagney said that the only woman he loved other than his wife was Joan. She made six films with James Cagney while under contract at Warner Brothers.

"The minute they saw us work, the second day of shooting, they signed us right there and then to as a 5-year contract. They saw us work on stage and that we knew what we were doing."

* Starred in 10 musical pictures with her second husband Dick Powell.

It takes all the talent you’ve got in your guts to play unimportant roles. It’s not degrading, just tough to do. I just sailed through things, took the scripts I was given, did what I was told. I couldn’t afford to go on suspension. I wasn't that ambitious I enjoyed a home life more than a theatrical career. I just took what they gave me because I wanted to get home quickly"

* Earned her first and only Academy Award nomination for supporting actress in The Blue Veil (1951) in 1952.

“I’ve given back more men to leading ladies than anybody else in the world. The toughest was handing Clark Gable back to Greer Garson.”

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