> ## Content Index
> Fetch the complete content index at: https://go-fug-yourself.ghost.io/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further.

# On This Day in 1933, Jean Harlow Was ACCESSORIZED!!!
- URL: https://go-fug-yourself.ghost.io/on-this-day-in-1933-jean-harlow-was-accessorized-08-2020/
- Published: 2020-08-11T14:00:44.000Z
- Updated: 2021-08-19T18:59:16.000Z
- Description: And draped in lamé.
- Author: Jessica  
- Tags: *Flashback*, fugs, classic photos, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2026-10-07 08:09

The contemporaneous subtitle of this photo was "A GAUDY STAR," which -- although accurate -- feels a bit rude! (The entire Informative Caption reads, "11th August 1933: A gaudily dressed Jean Harlow (1911 - 1937) sitting at a piano in a glamorous metallic gown." And truly, this entire experience screams GLAMOUR to me. Why become a movie star if you *cannot* sit at a piano in front of a superfluous but visually interesting metal fireplace screen seemingly placed there by a deranged assistant, literally draped in gold and wearing approximately seventy-four bracelets? It's truly the entire point.

For those of you who did *not* have the Jean Harlow paper dolls that I myself owned, despite never seeing any of her films, a primer, [courtesy of her Wiki page, which is a wide ride and quite a juicy read:](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean%5FHarlow?ref=go-fug-yourself.ghost.io)

> Harlow was first signed by business magnate Howard Hughes, who directed her first major role in *Hell's Angels* (1930). After a series of critically unsuccessful films, and Hughes's losing interest in her career, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer bought out Harlow's contract in 1932, and cast her in leading roles in a string of hits built on her comedic talent: *Red-Headed Woman* (1932), *Red Dust* (1932), *Dinner at Eight* (1933), *Reckless* (1935) and *Suzy* (1936). Harlow's popularity rivaled and then surpassed that of MGM's top leading ladies Joan Crawford and Norma Shearer. She died at the age of 26, of kidney failure during filming of *Saratoga*. MGM completed the film with the use of body doubles and released it less than two months after her death; it became the highest-grossing picture of 1937 for the studio.

This body doubles thing was NOT covered in my paper dolls. Nor was the fact that Jean's mother was (as far as I can tell, reading between the lines), a real stage mom and possibly a handful; that Jean had more than one brush with the mob; that her husband of two months was (maybe) MURDERED by his LOVER and the studio made it look like a suicide but then whoops some people thought *she* did it; her arranged marriage to get her out of having to testify in a divorce suit brought by a different lover's wife; and her final illness, which was *awful* and seems as if it involved getting sepsis after having her wisdom teeth out and it just all snowballing. That's a lot of life for twenty-six years. She definitely deserved all the bracelets she could get.

###### (Photo via John Kobal Foundation/Getty Images)