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Veronica Lake - Veronica: The Autobiography of Veronica Lake

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Book:
Veronica: The Autobiography of Veronica Lake
Author:
Veronica Lake / Eddie Muller / Donald Bain
Publisher:
Dean Street Press
Genre:
Books / Non-fiction
Year:
2020
Rating:
3 / 5
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What a sense you have for finding trouble and entering into it.

Veronica Lake remains one of Hollywoods greatest icons, from movies like Sullivans Travels and The Blue Dahlia. Her trademark peek-a-boo blonde hairstyle, partly hiding one eye, is a legend in its own right, but her blend of beauty, ice cool persona and dry comedic style makes the actress a timelessly magnetic screen personality.

The persona hid a tumultuous personal life, and this memoir holds nothing back. Born Connie Ockleman, the actress owed the soubriquet Veronica Lake to a producers inspiration. She was a tough Brooklyn kid, with an ambitious stage mother calling the shots in her early life. After early successes in beauty pageants, the diminutive Connie headed to Hollywood, where, despite her headstrong nature, she became Hollywoods biggest it girl of the 1940s.

But after brushes with the casting couch (she didnt succumb), a string of doomed marriages, troubled relationships with her children, and remarkable stardom and fortune, Veronica Lake suffered a rapid fall from grace--ending up bankrupt and alcoholic in New York City. Happily she rediscovered her acting career in live theatre and enjoyed living in Miami for most of her final years, before she died aged only 50 in 1973.

This remarkable memoir (1969), a slalom of highs, lows, comedy and heartbreak, was co-written with Donald Bain. It has been out-of-print, rare and sought-after for many decades. Dean Street Press is proud to reissue it now, with a new introduction by broadcaster and writer Eddie Muller.

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Veronica Lake
Veronica

What a sense you have for finding trouble and entering into it.

Veronica Lake remains one of Hollywoods greatest icons, from movies like Sullivans Travels and The Blue Dahlia . Her trademark peek-a-boo blonde hairstyle, partly hiding one eye, is a legend in its own right, but her blend of beauty, ice cool persona and dry comedic style makes the actress a timelessly magnetic screen personality.

But after brushes with the casting couch (she didnt succumb), a string of doomed marriages, troubled relationships with her children, and remarkable stardom and fortune, Veronica Lake suffered a rapid fall from graceending up bankrupt and alcoholic in New York City. Happily she rediscovered her acting career in live theatre and enjoyed living in Miami for most of her final years, before she died aged only 50 in 1973.

To the gleam in the eye of my friend and editor, Samuel H. Post

AND

Thank goodness for Courtney Wright, my dear friend in New York

INTRODUCTION

Veronica Lake, movie star, was a tiny but luminous beacon of sexiness and sass who shined bright and cool during the dark days of World War II. Barely out of her teens, she became an icon of mid-20th century America. Women emulated her spunk and style and that famous come-hither cascade of blonde luster. Men fantasized about her. The movie business exploited her. She lived high, metaphorically and literally, working and cavorting with the most beautiful and talented people in the world.

Constance Connie Ockleman, working stiff, was a gal with no great aspirations, no grand illusions. She lived hand-to-mouth, never sure of her future, the wolf always at the door. She was regular folk, both a clock-puncher and a vagabond, never above an honest days labor. She was a struggling single mother and, by her own admission, not very good at it. She liked to laugh, loved a party, and had a wicked sense of humor. She could fly a plane, mix a cocktail, and knock you on your ass with a short right cross.

That theyre the same woman, co-existing in a single face and body, makes for a remarkable, enthralling story. What a gift to hear it from Connie/Veronica in her own words, ones that are sharp, funny, sensitive, honest, and heartbreaking. She tells her story with an easy eloquence that, at times, is as breathtaking in its self-awareness as its startling in its ambivalence.

I knew the image of Veronica Lake before I ever appreciated the actress who embodied it. She was parodied in comic books and TV shows for years after her glorious star had dimmed. Such was the shimmering afterglow left by this diminutive damsel. She may have been barely five-feet tall, but she photographed big enough to fill anyones imagination. Lets be honestVeronica Lake was doing Lauren Bacall before Betty Joan Perske had even screen-tested for To Have and Have Not . The insouciance, the take-it-or-leave-it flirtatiousness, the Watch it, buster! self-relianceVeronica Lake always had it, in spades.

But, like so many actresses in Hollywood, she got labeled by the guys who run the show: temptress, siren, vixen, femme fatale... these tags are still affixed to her, to this day, even though she rarely played the part onscreen. Watching Lake now, in films like Sullivans Travels , The Glass Key , and This Gun for Hire , its her feisty spirit, more than her physical allure, thats the main attraction. Men may have seen her as a sex kitten, but womenthen and nowsee her as a cat who could take care of herself. This was no doubt a huge part of her appeal during wartime, as it is now for retro-savvy women who religiously watch Turner Classic Movies.

Yet in her prime, the doubters could be cruel. Raymond Chandler should have been ashamed for his schoolboy jibe, calling the star of his only original screenplay, The Blue Dahlia , Moronica Lake. And when I once asked Andr de Toth for insight into his relationship with Lake, he merely spoke of her as a fallen angel whom hed tried and failed to save. Reading Lakes own account of their marriage puts a decidedly different spin on things. De Toths protection of her was, of course, a form of possession. And one thing Ms. Lake makes clear in her memoir is that she was a naturally rebellious sort who had no intention of being possessed.

In fact, the Hollywood performer Lake most reminds me ofand this came as an amusing realization given their colossal physical dissimilarityis Sterling Hayden, another reluctant star and natural-born rebel who turned his back on Hollywood, swapping fame for life as a nomadic free spirit.

Part of Veronicas rebellion, like Haydens, was a fondness for drink and, presumably, drugsa predilection she discusses openly, if delicately. In the 1949 film Slatterys Hurricane , Andr de Toth cast his then-wife in the role of an addict, with veiled allusions to heroin use. He told me her casting was intended as shock therapy. Her reputation for being difficult on setsand inebriated off themcost her dearly. She was going to be cast in the cult classic Gun Crazy (a role that made Peggy Cummins a legend), but the producers were warned to steer clear of her.

Some readers, mining these pages for sordid details, may find Lakes discussion of her vices a bit coy. I dont. Its her story, shes telling it, and she should be allowed whatever measure of restraint and dignity she desires. Ill point out instead that while the public has granted Sterling Hayden, a legendary boozer and hash-head, a legacy as a heroic, larger-than-life iconoclast, it has branded Lakes life after Hollywood a steady downward spiral of abasement, worthy only of pity. Blame a cultural double standard that applauds reckless rebellion in men but shames it in women.

Having myself collaborated on a similar movie star autobiography, Tab Hunter Confidential: The Making of a Movie Star , I appreciate Donald Bains contribution to this book. I have no idea how he came to be the sounding board, organizer, and editor of Ms. Lakes saga, but we can all be grateful he was Johnny-on-the-Spot, the right person at the right time. He does a commendable job respecting the balance between the womans two selves, letting Connie come through Veronicas guise, bright and clear. It speaks to a bond of trust they shared, the most critical factor in a project such as this. Being the caretaker of a persons life story is a weighty responsibility. My heart broke a littlefrom sadness, not surprisewhen I learned that after her death, Donald Bain also assumed responsibility for Veronica Lakes cremated remains. No one else came forward.

This is a courageous, beautiful book. I dont feel it is sad, although some surely will. Many people believe a life well lived is supposed to culminate in material wealth and an expansive family. Not renegadesfor them, living on their own terms is both the adventure and the reward, whatever pain or glory results. Thats why I cant see her tale as a tragedy, despite its premature ending. Once you know the whole story, maybe you too will find Connie Ockleman as memorable as her cinematic chimera, Veronica Lake.

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