Monday, July 8, 2024

Veronica Lake stands outside the studio that kicked her to the curb, 1970s

1973, Veronica Lake stands outside the studio that kicked her to the curb, shortly before her death in 1973. From the bio:  

After her third divorce, Lake drifted between cheap hotels in New York City, and was arrested several times for public drunkenness and disorderly conduct. In 1962, a New York Post reporter found her working as a barmaid at the all-women's Martha Washington Hotel in Manhattan. The reporter's widely distributed story led to speculation that Lake was destitute. After the story ran, fans of Lake sent her money which she returned out of "a matter of pride".Lake vehemently denied that she was destitute and stated, "It's as though people were making me out to be down-and-out. I wasn't. I was paying $190 a month rent then, and that's a long way from being broke."  Her memoirs, Veronica: The Autobiography of Veronica Lake, 1970, were released in the United Kingdom in 1969, and in the United States the following year.  In the book, Lake discusses her career, her failed marriages, her romances with Howard Hughes, Tommy Manville, and Aristotle Onassis (who she claimed proposed to her), her alcoholism, and her guilt over not spending enough time with her children.  In the book, Lake stated that her mother pushed her into a career as an actress.  Looking back at her career, Lake wrote, "I never did cheesecake like Ann Sheridan or Betty Grable. I just used my hair."  She also laughed off the term "sex symbol" and instead referred to herself as a "sex zombie".  "Veronica Lake's Long Escape: A Deeply Sad Page from Hollywood's History," Vanity Fair, Hadley Hall Meares, December 23, 2022.

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