This wonderful, uncommon candid is courtesy of the Fang family photographic archive in the digital collections of the Bancroft Library at UC Berkeley: Jean Harlow at the Hotel St. Francis in San Francisco on December 27, 1932, for a week’s post-Christmas shopping sojourn, according to the local Examiner.
Harlow, who was finally taking a vacation following Paul Bern’s suicide, got to enjoy the tunes of old Chicago friend Johnny Hamp while in town, whose band had a nightly engagement. From a fun interview with Harlow by Dean S. Jennings published in the San Francisco Call-Bulletin during her stay:
“I have two ambitions,” she said in her hotel suite—curled up in a chair like a child. “One is to make better pictures, and the other is to play a good game of golf.”
And how. Harlow, whose frequency in San Francisco renders William Powell’s comment that their 1936 trip there was her ‘first’ quite funny, would return to the City of Fog in ‘33 and ‘35, and ‘36 (the time with Powell and Loy).
Harlow also told the press her Red Dust costar, Clark Gable, was a ‘darling’ and that she wanted to ensure Johnny Hamp’s debut at the Mark Hopkins was a ‘success’. She didn’t, however, stay for a full week; she went home after a few days with a reported ‘pair of shoes’ and ‘antique’ furnishings for then-under construction Beverly Glen.
Sources:
“Harlow in S.F., Aids Bandman.” The San Francisco Call-Bulletin, 27 Dec 1932, p. 2.
“Jean Harlow, Mother, in S.F. On Brief Visit.” The San Francisco Chronicle, 28 Dec 1932, p. 13.
“Jean Harlow Visitor Here.” The San Francisco Examiner, 28 Dec 1932, p. 3.
“Jean Harlow Isn’t As Pretty As You Think–Prettier, Scribe Learns.” The San Francisco Call-Bulletin, 29 Dec 1932, p. 7.
“Jean Harlow Ends Visit, Back in L.A.” The San Francisco Call-Bulletin 30 Dec 1932, p. 1.
Harlow Heaven 