Today, June 30, marks the birthday of one of Warner Bros.’s brassiest blondes, Glenda Farrell. Farrell was a working actress from the age of 7 until she died in 1971 at age 66. She began her career in the theater, playing Little Eva in Uncle Tom’s Cabin, and she ended it there, starring as the lead in 40 Carats on Broadway. However, Farrell made her greatest contribution to popular culture during the 1930s, when she was one of several tough-talking blondes under contract to Warner Bros.
The studio that used Depression-era headlines as a source for scripts catered to a traumatized working class, specializing in tales of gangsters, kept women, working stiffs, and tough-talking dames—especially blondes. Ginger Rogers, Joan Blondell, Una Merkel, and Glenda Farrell all played characters described as wise-cracking dames, with each star putting their own spin on this archetype. Farrell was perhaps the brassiest—a fast-talking, bleached blonde who could never be accused of naiveté.
For all the urban varnish on her characters, Farrell was born in Enid Oklahoma, the daughter of a horse trader. It was her mother, Minnie, who had show-biz aspirations for her daughter and two sons. (Farrell’s brother Gene became a special effects cameraman, while brother Dick became an editor.) When Glenda was 13, the family moved to San Diego, where she joined the Virginia Brassac Players, a local theater group. An early marriage produced one son, actor Tommy Farrell, and put a damper on her career. After a stint in vaudeville, Farrell split from her husband and headed to New York to break into theater.
Though she appeared in Little Caesar in 1930, she did not get her big break until Mervyn LeRoy saw her on stage in Life Begins in 1932. LeRoy, who purchased the rights to the play for Warner Bros., asked Farrell to reprise her role on film. An interesting pre-Code drama set in a maternity ward, Life Begins follows the stories of several women giving birth: Some welcome the experience, but the unmarried and the poor are burdened by it. Farrell plays a hardened chorus girl who softens at the sight of her infant. The performance landed her a seven-year contract with Warners.
TOUGH TORCHY LIGHTS A SMOKE ON HER WAY TO A SCOOP.
As with most of their stars, Warners squeezed every ounce of talent and energy from Farrell. In a 1969 interview, she recalled that she often worked on four films simultaneously. She arrived at the studio at 5:45am and did not return home till 9:00pm. Warners granted their contract stars six weeks of vacation, but the studio got around the vacation clause by lending out their actors to other studios just as a star’s schedule time off was about to begin. In 1933, Farrell costarred in 11 films, including The Mystery of the Wax Museum, in which she played a smart-mouthed reporter. Though the film was a box office failure, the role helped construct her star image. Farrell costarred in many WB favorites during the 1930s, including Three on a Match, Gold Diggers of 1935, and I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang, in which she played the landlady who blackmails Paul Muni into marrying her—a rare unsympathetic role.
UNSYMPATHETIC IN ‘CHAIN GANG’
However, my favorite Farrell movies are not those found in the film history books. From 1937 to 1939, she starred as ace newspaper reporter Torchy Blane in a series of B-movies. The plots in these films were improbable, the budgets low, and the running times short, but those details are insignificant, because the series rested on Farrell’s capable shoulders. It is refreshing—and just plain fun—to watch Torchy’s adventures, because she is as relentless and fearless in her pursuit of a story as her male counterparts. She is an active protagonist who solves crimes in the process of getting her story, making trouble for both criminals and police. She is not passive like those leading ladies who wait to be rescued or merely serve as comfort and support for the male hero. As Torchy declares in Blondes at Work, “I’ve got ink in my blood and a nose for news that needs something besides powder.” Beefy Barton MacLane costars as Lt. Steve MacBride, the long-suffering fiancé who is also on the police force. Torchy regularly solves the crime before MacBride by using her wily reporter skills and sometimes provokes his associate, Detective Gahagan, into revealing something she is not supposed to know.
“QUIETLY, LIKE A BOILER FACTORY, TORCHY WILL STEAL YOUR HEART!”
Torchy is a broad character, not unlike the protagonists of other B-movie series and serials. But, Farrell made a stab at making her believable by interviewing women reporters in Hollywood and New York City about their experiences on the job and the biases against them. However, it was her talent for spinning dialogue that served her best as Torchy. Indeed, it was the defining trait of the character. Torchy could drip sarcasm as she cracked wise, or she could fast-talk her way out of any situation. Caught snooping on a balcony in Torchy Blane in Chinatown, she explains, “Every time I see a balcony, the Juliet comes out in me.” Farrell’s ability to talk quickly made its way into studio publicity, which claimed she could speak 400 intelligible words in 40 seconds.
Torchy Blane was based on a male character from a series of stories published in the pulp magazine Black Mask. Written by Frederick Nebel, Kennedy of the Free Press featured the hard-drinking Kennedy, a reporter who butted heads with Steve MacBride of the police department. Nebel sold the rights to Kennedy of the Free Press to Warner Bros. in the 1930s, but he had nothing to do with the film adaptation. Warners’ decision to lighten the material and turn the unlikable Kennedy into the admirable Torchy Blane gave women viewers an adventure series of their own. Women responded by flooding Warners with fan mail for Torchy.
LOLA LANE IN ‘TORCHY BLANE IN PANAMA.’
Glenda Farrell played Torchy Blane in seven of the nine films in the series. Inexplicably, Warners tapped Lola Lane as the lead in the fifth film, then recast Farrell for the next three. A young Jane Wyman took over the character in the final film, Torchy Plays with Dynamite. Wyman’s youth and reserved demeanor took the character in a different direction, making her less of a spitfire.
In 1939, Farrell decided not to renew her contract with Warners, partly because Jack Warner went back on his word regarding a raise and partly because of her desire to pursue more diverse roles. She returned to the stage, opting for the lead in Anna Christie for the Westport Country Playhouse to distance herself from her screen persona. For the rest of her life, she divided her time between the stage and supporting roles in films, including a well-received performance as Kim Novak’s embittered mother in Middle of the Night. In the 1960s, television gave Golden Age stars a new lease on their careers, and Farrell appeared in a number of series. She costarred in a two-part episode of Ben Casey, earning an Emmy for her performance. In 1969, she was asked to star in the Broadway hit, 40 Carats. While appearing in the play, she was diagnosed with lung cancer. She stayed with the show until November 1970, when her illness forced her to retire. She died on May 1, 1971, and was buried in the cemetery at West Point, her husband’s alma mater. Glenda Farrell is the only actor interred at West Point.
CAT LOVER FARRELL BOUGHT COLOR TVs FOR HER CATS .
In 1988, the creators of Superman, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, wrote a letter to Time magazine, revealing that Glenda Farrell’s characterization was their inspiration for Lois Lane. Lois’s ambition, energetic persona, and relentless determination to get the scoop were derived from Glenda Farrell, though the catchy name “Lois Lane” came from actress Lola Lane, who starred in Torchy Blane in Panama. Too bad that Farrell did not live long enough to learn just how much of an impact Torchy Blane made on popular culture.
Catch Farrell throughout the month of July on TCM: Little Caesar airs July 8; The Secret Bride on July 15; Hollywood Hotel on July 28; and Middle of the Night on July 30.