“So I moved out in the hills. But the last time I got a ticket and my name and address appeared in the papers the people began flocking to my door as if I had invented a mousetrap. I suppose I’ll have to move again. After all I can’t be awakened at four in the morning to have the milkman ask me for my autograph. Yep, that’s what happened. Assumed names aren’t any good in Hollywood – you have to wear smoked glasses and a mustache or be the lady much sought after by the public. Not that we don’t like it but when I take a bath I like to take a bath.” — Joan Blondell
Source: Morris Halprin (1931)
Photo: Blonde Crazy (1931)
“Dear Jimmy! He used to call me the world’s most naive sophisticate.” — Joan Blondell
Source: Donald Freeman (1968)
Photo: Blonde Crazy (1931)
A scene from Night Nurse (1931). With Barbara Stanwyck and a skeleton.
“In the 20s, you were a face. And that was enough. In the 30s, you also had to be a voice. And your voice had to match your face if you can imagine that.” — Joan Blondell
“I was a star and they were paying me $250 a week the first and I was glad to be working. I was always playing bad, bad ladies but in reality, I was Little Miss Innocent, I’d play the ‘other’ woman in those triangle movies. OTHER woman!? In real life, I wasn’t even THE woman!” — Joan Blondell
Source: Donald Freeman (1968)
“My folks thought I would come to no good end. I have never behaved ‘like a lady.’” – Joan Blondell
Source: Jewel Smith
“Life is phony with baloney,
From the start until it’s done;
Gold or tatters, neither matters
For the strife of life is fun.” — Joan Blondell
“I don’t know what the secret to longevity as an actress is. It’s more than talent and beauty. Maybe it’s the audience seeing itself in you.” — Joan Blondell
“I’m not sure of myself at all. I’m lost when I go on a set. You’d never know it, but I’m very uneasy when meeting new people. I don’t let anyone know it.” — Joan Blondell
Source: Johna Blinn (1979)
Photo: 1930s
Big City Blues (1932). With Eric Linden.
“There’s a fine line between acting and not acting at all. And not acting is what a lot of actors are guilty of. It amazes me how some of these little numbers with dreamy looks and dead pan are getting by with it. I’ve seen a couple of them – I won’t mention names – with Oscars in their hands. I’d hate to see them on stage with a dog act.” – Joan Blondell
Source: Jack Quigg (1951)
“I was forever giving up the leading man…I gave some of the nicest guys to gals like Bette Davis, Greer Garson, and Lana Turner.” — Joan Blondell
Source: 1962
Photo: With Bette Davis, circa 1933.
Havana Widows (1933). With Glenda Farrell.
Smarty (1934). With Warren William.
“I was the fizz on the soda.” — Joan Blondell
Source: 1979
Famous lips of 1935: Bette Davis, Ann Dvorak, Winifred Shaw, Glenda Farrell, Dolores Del Rio, Verree Teasdale, Marion Davies, Jean Muir, Josephine Hutchinson, Olivia de Havilland, Anita Louise, Patricia Ellis, Ruby Keeler, Joan Blondell, Margaret Lindsey and Kay Francis.
