Decades before Loretta Young made her weekly entrance dressed in a gorgeous gown to introduce each week's story in her hugely popular weekly anthology series, Letter to Loretta (1953-1961), the beautiful actress got her start in movies as a mere infant. That said, it seems appropriate that just one year shy of the centennial of her birth, TCM honors the Oscar and Emmy-winning actress with a day-long look at six of her films, including, what has become one of her best-remembered roles as The Bishop's Wife, alongside Cary Grant and David Niven in the now-classic holiday-themed film.
Gretchen Michaela Young was born in Salt Lake City, Utah in 1913. When her parent's marriage ended two years later, Mrs. Young took Gretchen, her two sisters, Polly and Sally and baby brother, Jack and moved to California to be near her family, including her brother, who worked in the film industry.
According to interview footage of Loretta Young's son, Christopher included in a box set of his mother's TV series, the future Oscar and Emmy-winner got her first film role in 1917's silent film, Sirens of the Sea. Nepotism played a part in that first casting, as her uncle was an assistant director on the film.
As children, Young and her siblings all continued to get bit parts movies. She is even featured in the now-iconic 1921 epic The Sheik starring Rudolph Valentino, where she can briefly be seen playing a young Arab child.
Following a brief break, during which she attended school, Young returned to the big screen, albeit in a very small, uncredited role in 1927's Naughty But Nice. That same year, she appeared in Her Wild Oat, again uncredited. By this time, with only seven films to her credit, she change her name from Gretchen to Loretta and received her first film credit, as 'The Girl' in 1928's The Whip Woman.
That same year she received third billing and plenty of notice starring alongside Lon Chaney in yet another now-classic silent film, Laugh, Clown Laugh. Three projects later and movie-goers heard Loretta Young speak on film for the fist time in the 1928 talkie, Scarlet Seas. With her career on the rise,Loretta made seven films in the final year of the 1920s.
With no sign of stopping, she appeared in a total of eight films in 1930 and nine, including a golf tutorial short, in 1931. The remainder of the 30s saw Loretta become one of the most beloved actresses on the big screen. It's 1933's story of a drug addicted veteran trying to return to a productive life in Heroes for Sale, co-starring Richard Barthelmess and Aline MacMahon that kicks off TCM's day-long salute at 8:45/7:45c.
Also from 1933, TCM next features the lighter side of Young's versatility in the Busby Berkeley-directed romantic comedy, She Had to Say Yes at 10/9c. Loretta made eleven films between She Had to Say Yes and TCM's next pick,The Unguarded Hour, airing at 11:15/10:15c. From 1936, The Unguarded Hour tells the story of a woman who knows secrets that could save a condemned man and the blackmailer hell-bent on stopping her.
During the late 1930s and early 40s, Young starred in a slew of films, including the comedy, Three Blind Mice, starring Young, Joel McCrea and her then-future Bishop's Wife co-star, David Niven. TCM hasn't included this film in Friday's tribute, but it's one of my favorites.
TCM's next offers the above mentioned 1947's holiday comedy, The Bishop's Wife at 12:45/11:45c. At 2:45/1:45, it's another of my personal favorites, 1946's The Stranger, a story of post-war Germany in which Loretta plays the unsuspected bride of a rumored former Nazi spy.
Although not part of TCM's scheduled films for the day, Young won theOscar for her role in 1947's The Farmer's Daughter. She was also nominated for her work in 1949's Come to the Stable. If you haven't seen either of these films, I highly recommend you check them out.
While TCM's next pick, Rachel and the Stranger may have a similar title to their previous selection, director Norman Foster's 1948 western couldn't be more different. Co-starring William Holden, Robert Mitchum and a supporting role by one of my favorite character actresses, Sara Haden (Mildred Cassaway in The Bishop's Wife). Young plays an indentured servant who is sold to widower David (Holden). He marries her, initially only to provide a mother for his son, but things get complicated when his friend (Mitchum) shows interest in his new bride.
TCM's Loretta Young programing block ends at 6:15pm/5:15c as she co-stars with Clark Gable in 1950's Key to the City, in which the two meet and fall in love at a mayors convention in San Francisco. Look for Frank Morgan (The Wizard of Oz's Professor Marvel), Raymond Burr (Perry Mason/Ironside) and Marilyn Maxwell (Paris Model/The Lemondrop Kid) in supporting roles.
While Key to the City marks the end of TCM's homage, Young would go on to star in five more feature films before becoming the darling of the new medium of TV as the host of the long-running The Loretta Young Show and the short-lived comedy/drama, The New Loretta Young Show. Following the single-season series, Young all but retired from acting, returning in the 80s for two made-for-TV films, 1986's sentimental holiday film, Christmas Eve and 1989's Lady in a Corner, in which she plays a veteran editor of a fashion magazine who's being strong-armed into giving up control of the magazine she made famous.
Young's final screen work occurred in 1994, when she narrated portions of the television documentary, American Traditions: Life Along the Mississippi. Young died the following year, on August 12, 2000 of ovarian cancer.
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