From my collection: A rare behind-the-scenes candid of (L to R) cinematographer George Folsey, director Victor Fleming, Rosalind Russell, and Jean Harlow filming Reckless (1935) on location in Franklin Canyon, December 1934. There are angles of this moment, but this one seems the most elusive.
Original MGM studio stamp on verso limiting reproduction to those mentioning the studio—funnily enough, someone later on incorrectly notated ‘China Seas’. Easy enough of a mistake to make, but…tsk, tsk! (I kid).
As I never neglect to mention, Reckless is no favorite film of mine, but I’m beyond delighted with this adorable snapshot of two gorgeous, spirited ladies who made fast friends on set. Roz taught Harlow to hemstitch a few months later during China Seas, something Harlow picked up and kept at long after production ended.
Harlow to Grace Wilcox in an interview conducted on the set of Riffraff in late 1935 (the writer noted she was in the midst of sewing a napkin for her grandmother): “Rosalind Russell taught me how to hemstitch on the set of ‘China Seas’. I had never sewed a stitch in my life, but I find this fascinating work. I am sorry I didn’t discover how much fun it could be years ago.”
Roz, on the other hand, was particularly struck by Harlow’s stature and youthfulness during a chance beauty parlor encounter that ended up being their first ever meeting:
“I remember sitting under a hair dryer and sitting next to me was a child, also under a dryer. She was wearing shorts, and her little baby legs, perfectly formed, rested against the back of her chair while the nails of her little baby hands were being manicured. ‘My word,’ I thought, a ten-or-eleven year old having that bright red polish put on, and suddenly the hood of the dryer went back and the child stood up and it was Jean. She was probably twenty-three at the time, but without any makeup and no brows, she looked exactly like a little kid.”
Her overall perception of Harlow was that she was a “very warm, very friendly, very lonely little creature. She just seemed lost.”
Hat tip to Roz’s fabulous memoirs in ‘Life is a Banquet’, David Stenn’s ‘Bombshell’ (eternally), and the consummate Rosalind Russell hub, Cara at Rozrussells, whose insight and knowledge are indispensable in the furthering of the actress’ legacy.
Harlow Heaven 