Darwin Porter - Lana Turner: Hearts and Diamonds Take All

Lana Turner

Hearts & Diamonds Take All

Twelve Years and Forty Titles of Award-Winning Entertainment
About How America Interprets
Its Spinmeisters, Its Celebrities, and Its Politicians

www.BloodMoonProductions.com

Lana Turner

Hearts & Diamonds Take All

Darwin Porter & Danforth Prince

Lana Turner

Hearts & Diamonds Take All

Darwin Porter and Danforth Prince

Copyright 2017, Blood Moon Productions, Ltd.

All Rights Reserved

www.BloodMoonProductions.com

Manufactured in the United States of America

ISBN 978-1-936003-53-2

Cover Designs by Danforth Prince

Distributed worldwide through National Book Network

( www.NBNBooks.com )

P REVIOUS W ORKS BY D ARWIN P ORTER

P RODUCED I N C OLLABORATION WITH B LOOD M OON

B IOGRAPHIES

Donald Trump, The Man Who Would Be King

James Dean, Tomorrow Never Comes

Bill and Hillary, So This Is That Thing Called Love

Peter OToole, Hellraiser, Sexual Outlaw, Irish Rebel

Love Triangle, Ronald Reagan, Jane Wyman, & Nancy Davis

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, A Life Beyond Her Wildest Dreams

Pink Triangle, The Feuds and Private Lives of Tennessee Williams, Gore Vidal, Truman Capote, and Famous Members of their Entourages .

Those Glamorous Gabors, Bombshells from Budapest

Inside Linda Lovelaces Deep Throat, Degradation, Porno Chic, and the Rise of Feminism

Elizabeth Taylor, There is Nothing Like a Dame

Marilyn at Rainbows End, Sex, Lies, Murder, and the Great Cover-up

J. Edgar Hoover and Clyde Tolson
Investigating the Sexual Secrets of Americas Most Famous Men and Women

Frank Sinatra , The Boudoir Singer. All the Gossip Unfit to Print

The Kennedys , All the Gossip Unfit to Print

Humphrey Bogart, The Making of a Legend (2010), and
The Secret Life of Humphrey Bogart (2003)

Howard Hughes, Hells Angel

Steve McQueen, King of Cool, Tales of a Lurid Life

Paul Newman, The Man Behind the Baby Blues

Merv Griffin, A Life in the Closet

Brando Unzipped

Katharine the Great, Hepburn, Secrets of a Lifetime Revealed

Jacko, His Rise and Fall, The Social and Sexual History of Michael Jackson

Damn You, Scarlett OHara , The Private Lives of Vivien Leigh and Laurence Olivier (co-authored with Roy Moseley)

F ILM C RITICISM

Blood Moons 2005 Guide to the Glitter Awards

Blood Moons 2006 Guide to Film

Blood Moons 2007 Guide to Film, and

50 Years of Queer Cinema, 500 of the Best GLBTQ Films Ever Made

N ON -F ICTION

Hollywood Babylon, Its Back! and Hollywood Babylon Strikes Again!

N OVELS

Blood Moon,
Hollywoods Silent Closet,
Rhinestone Country,
Razzle Dazzle
Midnight in Savannah

O THER P UBLICATIONS BY D ARWIN P ORTER

N OT D IRECTLY A SSOCIATED WITH B LOOD M OON

N OVELS

The Delinquent Heart

The Taste of Steak Tartare

Butterflies in Heat

Marika (a roman clef based on the life of Marlene Dietrich)

Venus (a roman clef based on the life of Anas Nin)

Bitter Orange

Sister Rose

T RAVEL G UIDES

Many editions and Many variations of The Frommer Guides , The American Express Guides, and/or TWA Guides, et alia to:

Andalusia, Andorra, Anguilla, Aruba, Atlanta, Austria, the Azores, The Bahamas, Barbados, the Bavarian Alps, Berlin, Bermuda, Bonaire and Curaao, Boston, the British Virgin Islands, Budapest, Bulgaria, California, the Canary Islands, the Caribbean and its Ports of Call, the Cayman Islands, Ceuta, the Channel Islands (UK), Charleston (SC), Corsica, Costa del Sol (Spain), Denmark, Dominica, the Dominican Republic, Edinburgh, England, Estonia, Europe, Europe by Rail, the Faroe Islands, Finland, Florence, France, Frankfurt, the French Riviera, Geneva, Georgia (USA), Germany, Gibraltar, Glasgow, Granada (Spain), Great Britain, Greenland, Grenada (West Indies), Haiti, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Isle of Man, Italy, Jamaica, Key West & the Florida Keys, Las Vegas, Liechtenstein, Lisbon, London, Los Angeles, Madrid, Maine, Malta, Martinique & Guadeloupe, Massachusetts, Melilla, Morocco, Munich, New England, New Orleans, North Carolina, Norway, Paris, Poland, Portugal, Provence, Puerto Rico, Romania, Rome, Salzburg, San Diego, San Francisco, San Marino, Sardinia, Savannah, Scandinavia, Scotland, Seville, the Shetland Islands, Sicily, St. Martin & Sint Maartin, St. Vincent & the Grenadines, South Carolina, Spain, St. Kitts & Nevis, Sweden, Switzerland, the Turks & Caicos, the U.S.A., the U.S. Virgin Islands, Venice, Vienna and the Danube, Wales, and Zurich.

B IOGRAPHIES

From Diaghilev to Balanchine, The Saga of Ballerina Tamara Geva

Lucille Lortel, The Queen of Off-Broadway

Greta Keller, Germanys Other Lili Marlene

Sophie Tucker, The Last of the Red Hot Mamas

Anne Bancroft, Where Have You Gone, Mrs. Robinson? (co-authored with Stanley Mills Haggart)

Veronica Lake, The Peek-a-Boo Girl

Running Wild in Babylon, Confessions of a Hollywood Press Agent

H ISTORIES

Thurlow Weed, Whig Kingpin

Chester A. Arthur, Gilded Age Coxcomb in the White House

Discover Old America, Whats Left of It

C UISINE

Food For Love, Hussar Recipes from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, with collaboration from the cabaret chanteuse, Greta Keller

A ND C OMING S OON , F ROM B LOOD M OON

Rock Hudson, Erotic Fire

Carrie Fisher & Debbie Reynolds: Princess Leia & Unsinkable Tammy in Hell

Rita Hayworth, Love Goddess of the World

Hefner, Guccione, and Flynt: Empires of Skin

This Book is Dedicated to

Virginia Grey

(1917-2004)

Superstar Lana Turner (left) with her friend and confidante, actress Virginia Grey, source of some of the information contained within this biography . WITH RESPECT AND ADMIRATION, REST IN PEACE, and THANKS FOR THE MEMORIES .

What is Blood Moon Productions? Blood Moon, in case you don't know, is a small publishing house on Staten Island that cranks out Hollywood gossip books, about two or three a year, usually of five-, six-, or 700-page length, chocked with stories and pictures about people who used to consume the imaginations of the American public, back when we actually had a public imagination. That is, when people were really interested in each other, rather than in Apple devices. In other words, back when we had vices, not devices. The Huffington Post

Contents

Lanas hustler father is murdered. Skipping class, shes discovered sipping a Coke. Gay talent agent helps jumpstart her movie career. Mervyn LeRoy makes her The Sweater Girl.Lanas first star date is movie actor and gangster George Raft. (He called it Black Snake.) Greg Bautzer, the Don Juan of the Boudoir, deflowers a too-young Lana. Cowboy star Tim Holt lassos Lana. She turns down William Powell, but succumbs to super stud Wayne Morris. Ronald Reagan declares Lana as oversexed as I am. Errol Flynn explores Lana north, south, east, and west.Lana turned down for role of heroine in Gone With the Wind . Mickey Rooney (aka Andy Hardy) knocks up Lana. She gets her first abortion. Off screen, Errol Flynn becomes her Rhett Butler. Joan Crawford warns her to give up Greg Bautzer. Lana samples Gary Cooper (The Montana Mule).Lana launches and ongoing affair with Lew Ayres, Ginger Rogers husband. Lana goes to Dramatic School before Calling Dr. Kildare . She becomes one of These Glamour Girls . A fling with the Argentine singer, Dick Haymes, long before he married Rita Hayworth. Robert Stack becomes her on-again, off-again lover.Americas Blonde Spitfire strikes a sour note with Artie Shaw. Judy Garland and Betty Grable jilted by the young man with a horn. Lana Turner and Joan blondell are the Two Girls on Broadway , lusting for the same man. Lanas marriage to Shaw has only weeks to go.The Worlds Most Beautiful Blonde (Lana) competes with the Worlds Most Beautiful Brunette (Hedy Lamarr). Lana meets Shaws former flame, Billie Holiday. James Stewart becomes Lanas on-screen and off-screen boyfriend. Lana sails to Hawaii with Desi Arnaz occupying her cabin (a taste of Cuban sausage). An abortion that goes wrong. Lana and singer toney Martin become Hollywoods new glamour couple. Victor Mature provides Lanas biggest thrill.Musicians and Hipsters Gene Krupa, Tommy Dorsey, Buddy Rich, Benny Goodman, et al . make music with Lana. Lana enjoys a fling with the best-looking gangster in America. She competes with Hedy Lamarr for George Montgomery. Sexual chemistry explodes between Clark Gable and Lana in Honky Tonk .Lana succumbs to Robert Taylor in Johnny Eager and in her dressing room, arousing the ire of his wife, Barbara Stanwyck. A former boxer turned actor, John Payne scores a knock-out punch with Lana. The Aviator, Howard Hughes, wings into her life. Touring the country, Lana sells war bonds and her kisses. She discovers Guy Madison at the Hollywood Canteen and samples a French delight, Jean-Pierre Aumont.Lana and Clark Gable sizzle on the screen once again in Somwhere Ill Find You . Their affair may have caused Carole Lombard to take a doomed flight back to Hollywood to save her marriage. Lana meets a stranger (Stephen Crane) across a crowded room and marries him. Then she learns that Sugar Hill, Bugsy Siegels mistress, is keeping (financially supporting) her new husband. Crane is exposed as a bigamist. She and her infant daughter almost die in a hospital. Lana shacks up with Errol Flynn & Victor Mature in New Orleans.Tennessee Williams tries to fashion a Celluloid Brassiere for Lana. She dates The Body Beautiful (John Derek), and finds that her new beau, Peter Lawford, likes to travel down the oral road. She discovers the macho charm of Robert Mitchum, and spends more than a Week-End at the Waldorf with her co-stars, James Craig and John Hodiak. She gets a special boudoir welcome from Conrad Hilton and his young son, Nicky. Turhan Bey takes off the turban and pantaloons for Lana. Moving in on Susan Haywards husband. The blonde goddess gets involved with raven-haired Rory Calhoun. Lana has a fling with Ava Gardners young trick (Burt Lancaster). She learns why Steve Cochran is called The Schvantz . Peter Shaw slides between her satin sheets before marrying Angela Lansbury.Tyrone Power becomes the love of Lanas life. A brief fling with Sexy Rexy (Rex Harrison). A young Navy lieutenant, John F. Kennedy, gives Lana a lot of loving. John Garfield: Murder on the screen, love-making off the screen. Robert Hutton dances into Lanas life. FrankSinatra threatens breaking with his wife, Nancy, over Lana. Evita Pern develops a crush on Lana.Lana weds a tin-plate heir whose figure is less than Greek. Tyrone Power dumps Lana for an international starlet. The fire of September burns on low flame in Homecoming for Clark Gable and Lana. An interlude with Howard Keel. Lana as Lady de Winter has murder on her mind. Scandal with Billy Daniels.Stealing Joan Crawfords husband.Lana becomes The Bad and the Beautiful . She detests opera star Ezio Pinza, her co-star in Mr. Imperium . Disenchanted with life, she attempts suicide. The Argentine Heartthrob, Fernando Lamas, waltzes into Lanas life. A brief interlude with James Dean. Ava Gardner, Lana Turner, and Frank Sinatra churn out drama in a scandalous Love Triangle.The loincloth hides his Biggest, Deepest, & Darkest Secret. Ricardo Montalban becomes another of Lanas on-screen Latin Lovers . In Italy, she has a fling with Carlos Thompson, her lover from Argentina. In Betrayed , Lana has a reunion with yesterdays lovers: Clark Gable and Victor Mature. The Prodigal casts Lana as a pagan sex goddess in a camp classic. Her love for John Wayne in The Sea Chase was strictly on the screen. Lana was addicted to my Welsh Dick. Or so said Richard Burton in their co-starring vehicle, The Rains of Ranchipur .Lex Barker has a cheating heart. So does Lana when Gregory Peck rents house. In The Lady Takes a Flyer , Lana is romanced by Jeff Chandler.Off screen,shes in for a shocker. She dumps Tarzan and has a fling with Chuck Connors. (What a man!). Rising star Steve McQueen enters Lanas life on the same night JFK had his fun. Lanas film career is saved when she agrees to play a mother role in Peyton Place .Lana learns the secret behind the new mystery man in her life, a studly enigma calling himself John Steele. Mickey Cohens henchman, Johnny Stompanato, becomes Lanas latest lover, a disastrous affair. She flies to England for the filming of Another Time, Another Place , and falls into the arms of Sean Connery. Stompanato threatens to kill the future James Bond. Stompanato is stabbed to death in Lanas home. The debate still goes on: Did Lana really murder the gangster and let her daughter, Cheryl, take the fall? Years later, Lana admits that she was the one who stabbed her hustler lover.Lana teams with producer Ross Hunter to remake Claudette Colberts Imitation of Life . At last, her money problems are over: Shes fixed for life. Lana launches war with Otto Preminger. She and Anthony Quinn become murderers, but only on screen. She pursues but does not overtake the Sweet Bird of Youth . Lanas on-screen affair in By Love Possessed , a story of alleged rape, suicide, and embezzlement. In a clinch with Bob Hope in Bachelor in Paradise , she asks Dean Martin Whos Got the Action? Her final confrontation with Marilyn Monroe. Love Has Many Faces , and theyre named Cliff Robertson, Hugh OBrian, and a bullfighter. Madame X returns to the screen once again, this time with Lana.Lana Falls in love with Fred May, who looks like Tyrone Power. She settles into a comfortable life with him, but a handsome bartender lures her into his love shack. Divorce follows. Lana falls for Robert P. Eaton, The Stud of Malibu, and enters into an ill-fated marriage with his cheating heart. Divorce follows, Lanas feud with best-selling author Harold Robbins. She stars in his ill-fated TV series, The Survivors , which does not survive. Lana goes to the altar one final time with Ronald Dante, nightclub hypnotist. But where did all the diamonds go? Divorce follows.Next page