December 15, 1931: Jean Harlow is photographed with her luggage after her arrival in New York City, fresh from Kansas City in order to carry out her most recent string of personal appearance tours.
Harlow arrived the night of the fourteenth to start engagements at various movie palaces for about a week before moving on to other locales like Pittsburgh, where her nervousness about the ordeal culminated in an episode of intestinal flu. Mother & daughter are shown at the train station.
Harlow had just finished filming Three Wise Girls and Beast of the City, both of which received a fairly good reception in theaters. She’d stay on the East Coast until April 1932, a month after having been officially signed by MGM. Pictured here at the Hotel St. George:
Ironically, arriving on the train the same December night as Harlow was Ina Claire, who had just finished The Greeks Had a Word for Them. Harlow was initially considered for the film earlier in the year but ultimately didn’t get the role. Daily News, December 15, 1931:
Here’s an item from May 1931 which proclaims Ina, Harlow, and Carole Lombard as the leading trifecta in Greeks. Would have made for an interesting film (especially Lombard and Harlow together):
Harlow Heaven 