Adele Jergens

Glamorous Adele Jergens (1917-2002) was an American film actress of the 1940s and 1950s who was often cast in B-films as blonde floozies and burlesque dancers.


British card. Photo: Columbia. Publicity still for A Thousand and One Nights (Alfred E. Green, 1945).

The Number One Showgirl in New York City

Adele Jergens was born Adele Louisa Jurgens in Brooklyn, New York, in 1917 (her birth date is sometimes listed as 1922). She was the youngest of four to working-class Norwegian parents. She graduated from Grover Cleveland High School and received a scholarship to study at a Manhattan dance studio.

Jergens first rose to prominence in the late 1930s, when she danced in the Moss Hart/Cole Porter musical 'Jubilee!', and was named Miss World's Fairest at the 1939 New York World's Fair. In the early 1940s, she worked as a model and chorus girl, including a short stint as a Rockette, and was dubbed "The Champagne Blonde", "The Girl with the Million Dollar Legs", and even "The Number One Showgirl in New York City".

In the burlesque revue 'Star and Garter' (1942), Adele had a featured role while understudying one of its headliners, Gypsy Rose Lee. She went on for Ms. Lee, and Hollywood took immediate notice with Twentieth Century-Fox signing her up. Adele started at the bottom rank at Fox with decorative showgirl or good-time girl parts in the musicals Hello Frisco, Hello (H. Bruce Humberstone, 1943), Sweet Rosie O'Grady (Irving Cummings, 1943), and The Gang's All Here (Busby Berkeley, 1943).

When Fox dropped her option, she was snatched up by Columbia in a seven-year contract. She was entrusted with the lead female role as Princess Armina of Baghdad in the Eastern adventure A Thousand and One Nights (Alfred E. Green, 1945) starring Phil Silvers and handsome Cornel Wilde as Aladdin.

Brunette Jergens became a blonde and displayed a brusque comic flair as the aptly-named Allura in the Rosalind Russell comedy She Wouldn't Say Yes (Alexander Hall, 1945). She played a hilariously-accented blonde briefly competing for Russell's man Lee Bowman. Adele also top-lined her own musical albeit the quickly forgotten When a Girl's Beautiful (Frank McDonald, 1947) which co-starred Marc Platt and Stephen Dunne.

She was cast as blonde floozies and burlesque dancers in such films as Down to Earth (Alexander Hall, 1947) starring Rita Hayworth and The Dark Past (Rudolph Maté, 1948) starring William Holden. Gary Brumburgh describes her aptly at IMDb as: "the tough-talking, plump-cheeked peroxide blonde who gave her fair share of tawdry trouble in backstage dramas, film noir, crime potboilers, and adventure yarns."


Spanish postcard by Archivo Bermejo, Barcelona, no. 4201 A. Sent by mail in 1949. Photo: Columbia Pictures. Adele Jergens and Cornel Wilde in A Thousand and One Nights (Alfred E. Green, 1945). The Spanish title is Aladino o la lampara maravillosa.


British postcard in Picturegoer Series, London, no. W 643. Photo: Columbia.

Hard-as-nails babes that did leave an impression

Adele Jergens played Marilyn Monroe's mother in Ladies of the Chorus (Phil Karlson, 1948) despite being only 9 years older than Monroe. In 1949, Jergens met and married actor Glenn Langan, while filming Treasure of Monte Cristo (William Berke, 1949), a Film Noir set in San Francisco. They had one child, a son named Tracy Langan, who eventually worked in Hollywood behind the scenes, as a film technician.

She played an exotic dancer in Armored Car Robbery (Richard Fleischer, 1950) and also appeared in Bud Abbott and Lou Costello Meet the Invisible Man (Charles Lamont, 1951). She had a part in The Cobweb (Vincente Minnelli, 1955) starring Richard Widmark and Lauren Bacall.

She also worked in the 1950s radio show 'Stand By For Crime' as 'Glamourpuss' Carol Curtis with her husband Glenn Langan as Chuck Morgan. Adele Jergens-Langan retired from the screen in 1956. She and Langan remained married until his death from lymphoma, in 1991.

In 2001, their son, 48-year-old Tracy Langan died of a brain tumour. This devastated the actress and her health declined quickly after her son's death. Adele Jergens died the following year of pneumonia, just days before her 85th birthday. She was buried beside her husband and son at Oakwood Memorial Park Cemetery in Chatsworth, California, under the headstone marked 'Langan'.

Gary Brumburgh at IMDb: "She was (...) headstrong at trying to bust out of the chorus lines and cheesecake parts to become a topnotch 'A' actress draw. She failed in the latter but nevertheless left a respectable Hollywood legacy for the host of hard-as-nails babes that did leave an impression."


British postcard in The People Series by Show Parade Picture Service, London, no. P. 1131. Photo: Columbia. Publicity still for Beware of Blondie (Edward Bernds, 1950).


Vintage postcard, no. 951. Photo: R.K.O.

Sources: Gary Brumburgh (IMDb), Wikipedia and IMDb.