19 Golden Age Actors And Singers Who Died In Poverty

Comments · 4

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  @1234pouvez · 12 days ago

  Jumping to the week she died to begin with, she did not live in a modest apartment. She lived in the very well-known El Palacio apartments with a balcony overlooking the Sunset Strip. Today the building is a historical Landmark.  According to her agent Earl Mills they had just returned from Mexico where she signed a movie contract for one-hundred thousand dollars for two films. Raul Fernande was the producer. Before that she'd finished a very successful engagement at the Paddock Supper Club in Alburquerque N.M.  The Friday of that same week she was scheduled to open at the renowned Basin Street East in New York. She had a small broken bone in her foot. Earl MILLs was supposed to pick her up and take her to the doctor. She called him early the morning of September 8th and asked him to make a later appointment. She'd been up late the night before talking to her mother and the lady was scheduled to come and pack her wardrobed truck for the upcoming singing engagement. There was no bank slip found with 24 cents to her name. Usually the story is two dollars, but now it's been reduced to 24 cents. She had the money to pay for the evening gowns she had made for her upcoming basin street engagement. She had the money to pay the lady scheduled to pack her wardrobe trunk. The first coroner's report was a fat embolism. The was before the toxicology report conducted by Dr. Theodore Curphey the Chief medical Examiner of the LA Coroner's office. His findings were acute drug intoxication. ingestion of tofranil---accident--suicide-undetermined. That was the final toxicology report. In recent years, it's been pointed out that medication during that time, the '60s, didn't have the warning labels that they have today, about maximum dosage, and mixing medication with other medication or alcohol. Consequently, there were a lot of sudden deaths such as hers, Nick Adams, Dinah Washington Pier Angeli, Judy Garland, Robert Walker. and Alan Ladd.

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  @1234pouvez · 12 days ago (edited)

  Why don't we honor Miss Dandridge's legacy by telling the truth. Hollywood's racial discrimination did not severely limit roles available to her. She did not have a film contract with "Hollywood".  On February 15th, 1955, she became the 1st African American actor to sign a contract with a major film studio 20TH Century Fox for star roles only for a lucrative salary per film. Darryl F. Zanuck was president. As long as she was under contract, she didn't have to worry about scripts. She had to be offered at least one film a year with a starring role for the salary stipulated in her contract. She actually made five films in three years, the star of all of the films. She was the 1st African American Actor to have an interracial kiss onscreen. in "The Decks Ran Red" she and Stuwart Whitman kiss. She was the 1st African American Actor to star in films have absolutely nothing to do with race. Those films are "The Decks Ran Red" "Malaga" and "Marco Polo". Today she is honored with a star on Hollywood Blvd and a Statue at Hollywood Gateway.