Movie Legends - Barbara La Marr

[MPL029]

She has a very "mature" look for someone in their 20's

[beiderbecke1927]

The bed that she is reclining on at 2:43 appears to be the bed used as Norma Desmond's in "Sunset Boulevard". This must have been intentional on someone's part, perhaps even Billy Wilder arranged for its use.

[wilburbonzo]

Her good looks are only apparent in a few shots, the overdone make-up and hairdos of the era make her look ridiculous in the others. Also, the actress at 4:34 is actually Gloria Swanson, not Barbara

[basilnelson]

@wilburbonzo You are of course correct. Obviously mis-labelled at source. I have many Gloria Swanson tributes and I am sure this image appears in one of them.

[StaunchComic]

To beautiful Barbara La Marr I've always had a fondness for her and recently discovered we shared the same Birthday July 28th. Jackie O was also born on this date. Two great ladies! RIP Barbara! Beautiful video thanks for sharing.

[frsdonahue]

'The girl who was just too beautiful', they called her. Thanks

[lanpingpug]

What film is the photo at 3:56 from? I love the headgear!

[ladylauraanne]

I love her....i've been told my eyes look like hers.....

[Ringlet13]

Her home has recently been featured on HGTV's Secrets of a stylist! The episode is called "Hollywood Regency Meets Country Club Chic," where the young couple who lives there now is decorating the living room. Episode HDSW1-101H

[nyesteiran]

Beautiful!! :o)

[videoBCT]

Barbara LaMarr and many other silent screen beauties had a exaggerated look that made them dramatic and famous. You can almost feel like being there when you see images of them. The majestic atmosphere and surroundings must have been quite incredible. As I read in one movie star portrait publication, the silent stars made the portrait, in the 30's the portrait made the star. I think that tells you it all right there.

[pics2share]

I'd read about her before, and her being thought the ultimate beauty.  I read

where Hedy Lamarr was supposedly named after her, for her own remarkable

beauty. This is my first time seeing this many images, and I honestly don't

see all this great beauty that was talked about. I see her as just moderately

attractive. Hedy, on the other hand, actually deserves all the accolades her

beauty has garnered. Barbara almost looks as if she had a stroke on some

pics. To each his own...

[NordyMark0594]

Too beautiful !! Barbara La Marr

[stefan103]

The last photo is the only one that gives me some idea of what she looked like. The eye makeup,eyebrow liner and lipstick are too dark and artificial. Her expressions are very mannered plus the photo quality so blurry that she looks like a 1920's ghost. One observation - is it me or do her eyes appear asymmetrical (one eye goes out further than the other) or maybe they're unfocused because of the heroin use. Too bad no photos without makeup. That I'd like to see.

[rayito2005]

She is so sexy.

[deepseadirt]

one reason she's not as known as other stars is that Valentino died 8 months after Barbara. So the fallout from his death usurped Barbara and to an extent Wallace Reids exactly 2 years before Barbara.

[tousamis]

@deepseadirt

I don't agree, there were thousands of people at her funeral. Her body dressed in a lace gown was placed in state in an open coffin. 40 000 admirers filed past the bier, and hundreds came at the chapel which resulted in a browl and police had to remove the crazy crowd from the casket.

[deepseadirt]

she had a son around 1923, he was raised by her friend Zasu Pitts. I would guess he grew up and had children. Dont know if he''s alive. Perhaps Barbara has grandchildren, great-grandchildren. I would guess so but I dont know.

[tousamis]

@deepseadirt

yes,her son 's name was Marvin Carville La Marr. He was adopted after her death by the actress ZaSu Pitts and her husband, film executive Tom Gallery. The child was renamed Don Gallery and grew up to become an actor, and an early network television sports executive.... and a sometime boyfriend of Elizabeth Taylor. He now lives in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, and talks about writing a screenplay about her.

[MarkyMalarky]

the bed she is in at 2:44 looks like the same one that is used in Norma Desmond's bedroom in "Sunset Blvd."

[christinekay58]

I first heard of Barbara LaMarr in the book "Sex Goddesses of the Silent Screen" by Norman Zierold. She had a fascinating life - offscreen as well as on, having married five times and dying at the age of 30. This is a beautiful tribute to her, and it just makes you wish you could have seen her in her films. She looked absolutely stunning - I know that's a cliche, but how else would you describe her?!

[emperatriz1688]

4:32 *sigh* beautiful girl!

[flmlvr]

Wow. Thanks for posting this video. Like Oreon207 said, it's so nice to see she hasn't been forgotten. I thought I was the only one who even KNEW about her let alone remember her (I read about her in a book in the 1970s during my teen years) and have always wondered if any of her films will ever surface. What an interesting and tragic life. But she is remembered and will live on.....

[basilnelson]

Thank you. Glad you enjoyed the video. When I read that Hedy Lamarr took her name I was intrigued and did some research, hence the video tribute.

[tousamis]

@basilnelson

Producer Louis B.Mayer called Hedy this way in memory of Barbara. Hedy had never heard about the actress, I personnaly talked several times to Hedy in her latter years and she knew nothing about silent actresses. I will always remember the way she talked about herself on the phone, never saying "I" but always "she" or "Mrs Lamarr" or "Hedy". Once she told me "do you think that Hedy Lamarr would know who theda Bara was?"

[pics2share]

@basilnelson

Hedy did not take this name, it was given to her supposedly because her beauty reminded someone of

Barbara's. Hedy was indeed ridiculously beautiful, but this Barbara person was only moderately attractive, at best. Many of the so-called "beauties" of that time were not really pretty at all!!!

[Oreon207]

There is one film of hers in the Warner Brothers Library called Souls For Sale.

I'm so surprised that her story hasn't been written in a good book or a movie about her life been made. She was one of those free spirits who wasn't meant to be for long on this earth. She's been gone for so long yet her light still reaches us.

[videoBCT]

This woman was perhaps the most beautiful silent actress. I read she had violet eyes. The stars back then had faces, as Gloria Swanson said in Sunset Boulevard. The stars now are pale in comparison to the stars then. She has inspired me as far as attitude and image. She will live forever in my mind and heart.

[tousamis]

@videoBCT

Billie Dove was gorgeous too. And I think that Nita Naldi had really a great face and personnality. She looked like a painting in most of her portraits.

[Oreon207]

Thank you for this beautiful tribute. Very touching to see she hasn't been forgotten. What a talented woman she was; actress, writer, dancer, poet, designer. She had it all...

[cemeterydude]

While she was alive she was known as "The girl who was too beautiful" but after she died the newspapers called her "The girl who was too beautiful to live". She died on my future birthday, 30 years to the day before I was born. She was perhaps the first female star to die due to a drug addiction - heroin. I visit her grave in Hollywood Forever Cemetery frequently.

[meowmeowkitty3]

ah, she died of pneumonia. Report after report describes her being horribly ill before she died at her parents home in Altadena. BTW, she was a terrible alcoholic and a natural blonde.

[mimi1953]

How do you know that she was an alcoholic and a natural blonde?

[tousamis]

@meowmeowkitty3

She was a drug addicted. Blonde ? I don't think so.

[StaunchComic]

I was wondering if Gloria Swanson was inspired by Barbara for Sunset Blvd.? Did Barbara own a monkey or was that just a movie still?

[tousamis]

@StaunchComic

no, Barbara had no monkey and don't forget that Wilder wrote Sunset Boulevard while thinking at Mae West ONLY. Swanson was a latter choice since he couldn't find any silent actress willing to play the part. The monkey was in the script because silent actresses had often pets and Pola Negri had pictures with a leopard that she pretented being a pet she would walk with in the street. But it was just publicity stuff.

[mrgbennet]

Excellent tribute and music.

[niceguy63073]

I do recall reading about her death and that was very sad. As I always say about the great Silent Stars, she looked beautiful and very talented.

[rolfclove15]

i love iit. she is so beautiful:)

[MrJudie80]

Very lovely and interesting all ur vids!

THANKS very much for it, i appreciate them all much!

[TheBigValley]

Barbara La Marr a BIG name of Silent film!To note that in many cases has the same facial expression! Great video BAZ!! Good music!!

[OPZ0tan]

Feel like I owe you thanks for these wonderful short video!