Spanish postcard by M.C. Barcelona, no. 355.
Early stage craving
Glenda Farrell was born on the 30th of June 1901 in Enid, U.S.A.
Her family soon moved from Oklahoma to Wichita, Kansas, where she made her stage debut at age 7 in an amateur production of 'Uncle Tom’s Cabin'.
The Farrells then relocated to San Diego, where a teenage Glenda joined the Virginia Brissac Players, a local stock company.
Brissac was a noted actress, and Glenda gained solid experience from her stay with the troupe. She remained with them for several years.
In January 1919, she entered the 'Fame and Fortune Contest' sponsored by the Motion Picture magazine. Among thousands of candidates, she was one of the seven young ladies named to the 'Honor Roll of Beautiful Aspirants', but her movie debut would come later.
British postcard by Milton, no. 80. Warner Bros.
A first unhappy marriage
In 1920, she married Thomas John Richards, and they put together a vaudeville dance act.
Contrary to what is mentioned on several websites, Glenda’s first husband was not Thomas Albert Richards (1899-1946), who later became a film editor at Warner Bros.
In 1921, a pregnant Glenda had to give up dancing. She gave birth to a son, Thomas, nicknamed Tommy, in October 1921. There would be a strong and lasting bond between Glenda and her child.
Unemployment and poverty caused Richards to drink and to act violently. In 1925, Glenda decided to go back to her stage career, first in Los Angeles and San Francisco.
At the end of the 1920s, she made it to Broadway. She appeared in plays such as 'Divided Hearts' in 1929 and 'Love, Honor and Betray' in 1930. Around that time, Glenda divorced Richards, who would die in 1939. In 1932, her son Tommy legally changed his last name to Farrell. He would later become a film and television actor.
British postcard by Picturegoer, no. 780. Photo: Warner.
Her film debut
Glenda Farrell made her film debut in an uncredited bit part in Lucky Boy (1929). It was followed by a short called The Lucky Break (1930).
Mervyn Le Roy asked that she be given the part of Olga Stassoff, Douglas Fairbanks Jr.’s girlfriend, in the classic gangster movie Little Caesar (1931), produced by Warner Bros.
Edward G. Robinson later wrote: "Those of us in Little Caesar who had come from the stage – Sidney Blackmer, Glenda Farrell, William Collier Jr., and George E. Stone – banded together. Our conversation was a constant put-down of Hollywood, and our plans for our return to Mother Earth: Broadway."
Glenda indeed soon went back on the Great White Way for the successful play 'On the Spot' (October 1930 - March 1931).
She then had a small uncredited role in Universal’s Scandal for Sale (1932), which dealt with yellow journalism.
Spanish promotional postcard. Image: Warner Bros. Glenda Farrell and Paul Muni in Hi, Nellie (Mervyn LeRoy, 1934).
A Warner Bros. stalwart
On Broadway, she played Florette, a pregnant chorus girl, in 'Life Begins', which opened on the 28th of March 1932 but closed after only eight performances. Warner Bros. bought the film rights, and Glenda was asked to repeat her role on screen. They were impressed by her performance in Life Begins (1932) and signed her.
They gave her a very brief part as a reform school inmate who warns Joan Blondell about men in Three on a Match (1932). She subsequently got a big break when Mervyn Le Roy, who appreciated Glenda’s talents, gave her the role of scheming Marie Woods in I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (1932), which was a smash hit. One of her snappiest portrayals was that of a female reporter in the Horror movie Mystery of the Wax Museum (1933), and she received top billing for the first time in Girl Missing (1933), as a pre-code tough and determined heroine with a rapid-fire line delivery.
Glenda became one of the hardest-working female stars on the Warner lot, but is not known to ever have complained about it. She said once, "Warner Bros. had a great system. They built actors up faster than any other studio. They made you feel like a big family."
She was featured in, for example, Hi, Nellie! (1934), Heat Lightning (1934), Merry Wives of Reno (1934), The Personality Kid (1934), Gold Diggers of 1935 (1935), Here Comes Carter (1936), Dance, Charlie, Dance (1937), Hollywood Hotel (1938), …
Warner also sent her to England to co-star with popular British comedian Claude Hulbert in You Live and Learn (1937). On loan-out, she probably was best used in Frank Capra’s Lady for a Day (1933), as Missouri Martin, a night club owner with a heart of gold, and in Frank Borzage’s Man’s Castle (1933), as singer Fay La Rue, practising her seducing wiles on Spencer Tracy.
British postcard. Photo: First National. Glenda Farrell in Gold Diggers of 1935 (Busby Berkeley, 1935).
A team with Joan Blondell
Warner had the good idea to team Glenda Farrell with Joan Blondell in Havana Widows (1933), in which they played showgirls on the prowl for millionaires, and their perfect comic timing pleased audiences.
Although they could be viewed as competitors, as both were issued from the same wisecracking blonde mould, they got along very well, never tried to outshine each other and became close friends.
Their pairing in Havana Widows was such a success that they formed a dynamic duo again in Kansas City Princess (1934), in which Glenda utters the line "A girl’s got to have three things these days: money, jack and dough", Traveling Saleslady (1935), We’re in the Money (1935), Miss Pacific Fleet (1935) and Gold Diggers of 1937 (1936).
They were also in I’ve Got Your Number (1934), but had no scenes together.
In 1936, Joan Blondell stated: "Glenda is at all times very natural. She isn’t one bit camera-conscious. Her movements are always quick, and her speech spontaneous. When she goes into a scene, she never follows the script to the sacrifice of her naturalness. She acts just as she would if the same situation arose in her everyday life. In other words, she suits the part to her personality instead of trying to suit her personality to the script".
British postcard by Art Photo Postcard, no. 7209.
Torchy Blane, reporter
In 1936, Warner decided to make a screen adaptation of Frederick Nebel’s short story 'No Hard Feelings'. Screenwriters wisely transformed a character named Kennedy, a hard-drinking and smart-assed newspaperman, into Torchy Blane, a fast-talking female reporter and astute amateur sleuth.
Glenda was an ideal choice for the leading role. She played Torchy for the first time in Smart Blonde (1937), opposite Barton MacLane, as Lieutenant Detective Mc Bride. It was a hit, which convinced Warner to initiate a Torchy Blane series.
Glenda thus starred in Fly Away Baby (1937), The Adventurous Blonde (1937) and Blondes at Work (1938). For the fifth entry in the series, Torchy Blane in Panama (1938), Warner made the mistake of replacing Glenda Farrell and Barton MacLane with Lola Lane and Paul Kelly. It flopped.
So Glenda and MacLane were back for Torchy Gets Her Man (1938), Torchy Blane in Chinatown (1939) and Torchy Runs for Mayor (1939). There would be a ninth and last episode called Torchy Plays with Dynamite / Torchy Blane … Playing with Dynamite (1939), with Jane Wyman as Torchy.
Glenda Farrell’s Torchy Blane allegedly inspired Superman’s co-creator, Jerry Siegel, to originate the character of reporter Lois Lane, the superhero’s love interest.
Italian postcard by Ballerini & Fratini, Firenze, no. 3712. Photo: Warner Bros.
Her subsequent movie career
At the end of the 1930s, Glenda Farrell left Warner Bros. and was anxious to return to the stage. She first played 'Stage Door' in Maryland and 'Anna Christie' in Los Angeles. She then toured with 'Brief Moment' and 'Thanks for My Wife'. The latter was renamed 'Separate Rooms' and opened on Broadway in March 1940. It was a smash hit, and Glenda, as beautiful and obnoxious actress Pamela Barry, was perfectly cast. During the play’s run, she married Dr. Henry Ross in January 1941. Glenda’s son once described him as "so bright, so brilliant and such a sweet person".
Still impressed by Glenda’s skills, Mervyn Le Roy asked her to come back to Hollywood to play Robert Taylor’s former girlfriend in Johnny Eager (1941). It was followed by Twin Beds (1942) and The Talk of the Town (1942), an excellent comedy directed by George Stevens.
She got more supporting parts in the 1940s, such as in City Without Men (1943), I Love Trouble (1948) and Lulu Belle (1948). She was also given leading roles by Poverty Row studios, PRC, in A Night for Crime (1943) and Ace Pictures in Heading for Heaven (1947).
Her movie appearances were becoming sporadic as time went on, but she didn’t give up on filmmaking.
She was notably good as a feisty dame in the Western Apache War Smoke (1952), opposite another old-timer, Gilbert Roland, and as Dick Powell’s secretary in Susan Slept Here (1954). She was seen in several mother roles, for example, Joan Collins’ in The Girl in the Red Velvet Swing (1955), Kim Novak’s in Middle of the Night (1959) or Elvis Presley’s in Kissin’ Cousins (1964) and she was second-billed after Jerry Lewis in The Disorderly Orderly (1964). Her last movie was Tiger by the Tail, shot in 1968 and released in 1970.
Italian postcard by Ballerini & Fratini, Firenze, no. 2749.
Later Broadway plays
Glenda Farrell once declared, "There’s something more satisfying about working in a play. You get that immediate response from the audience, and you feel that your performance is your own. In pictures, you get frustrated because you feel you have no power over what you’re doing". So, when an opportunity to perform on stage came her way, she enthusiastically grabbed it.
In April 1942, she returned to Broadway in 'The Life of Reilly', which closed after only five performances.
She had better luck with 'The Overtons', which opened on the 6th of February 1945 and lasted several months. It was produced by Paul Czinner and directed by his wife, actress Elisabeth Bergner.
Her next Broadway vehicle in 1949 was 'Mrs. Gibbons’ Boys', which was a flop. She then played a long-suffering wife in 'Home is the Hero' from the 22nd of September to the 16th of October 1954.
Then came 'Masquerade', which had the dubious honour to open and close the same day, on the 16th of March 1959.
Italian postcard by Ballerini & Fratini, Firenze, no. 2399. Photo: Generalcine.
A prolific TV actress
On the 3rd of January 1949, Glenda made her television debut in The Mirror and the Manicure for NBC’s Chevrolet Tele-Theatre.
Her second TV appearance in June Moon for CBS’s Studio One in June 1949 had young Jack Lemmon and Eva Marie Saint in the cast.
The ever-professional Glenda enjoyed working for the new medium, as it enabled her to tackle a wide variety of roles and quickly adjusted to its demanding schedule.
Until 1969, Glenda appeared in programs such as Kraft Television Theatre, The Alcoa Hour, Wagon Train, Route 66, Rawhide, Dr. Kildare, The Fugitive, Bonanza and Bewitched.
In 1963, she was awarded an Emmy Award for Outstanding Performance in a Supporting Role in A Cardinal Act of Mercy, a two-part episode from the Ben Casey series, in which she gave a moving portrayal of an overprotective and possessive mother.
British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. 780a. Photo: Warner.
The only actress buried in West Point Cemetery
At the end of the 1960s, Glenda Farrell thought it was time for retirement, but she soon got bored. So, she gladly accepted to play Julie Harris’ mother in 'Forty Carats', which opened on Broadway on the 26th of December 1968. Noted New York Times critic Clive Barnes considered that her portrayal was expertly done.
Unfortunately, health problems caused her to leave the cast after two months.
She was eventually diagnosed with lung cancer, although she had never smoked in her life, and passed away on the 1st of May 1971.
Farrell was buried in the Cemetery of West Point Military Academy in New York. She is the only actress interred in that place, as her husband, Dr. Henry Ross, had been a 1926 West Point graduate and Chief of the public health section of General Eisenhower’s command in Europe in World War II.
Upon her death, famous playwright and screenwriter Garson Kanin wrote: "There are players who create characters, some of the great ones, a single character. Most rare are those who, like Glenda, created a type. She invented and developed the made-tough, uncompromising, knowing, wisecracking, undefeatable blonde. We shall remember her: a look, a scene, a line, a stance; that strong presence, or her marvelously wry, understanding, sudden American smile".
Belgian postcard by Photo Edition, Bruxelles, no. 462.
Text and postcards: Marlene Pilaete.
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