Thomas Wolfe, Hollywood, and Jean Harlow
Visiting Hollywood, California in August 1935, Thomas Wolfe went to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios. He toured the studio with Samuel Marx. Marx was hired in 1930 by Irving Thalberg as Story Editor, the executive in charge of the screenwriting department, and became guru to some of America’s leading writers when they came to Hollywood to write for films. In that post he came to supervise the screenwriting careers of F. Scott Fitzgerald, William Faulkner, Dorothy Parker and many more. In his essay Thomas Wolfe and Hollywood (Athens, Ohio: 1980) Marx describes encountering Wolfe. He wrote, “my acquaintanceship with Thomas Wolfe was extremely brief. It lasted from only one day to the next, but was long enough to acquire a life-long affection and admiration for him.”
Marx remembered his secretary excitedly coming into his office to announce Thomas Wolfe had simply shown up at the gate of the studio. “He was easy to recognize, of course, standing about seven feet tall and with what seemed a surprisingly small head on his tremendous shoulders. He was a charming, gentle giant with a pleasant, high-pitched voice and a winning smile.” Wolfe told Marx that “he was curious about the inside of a film studio and hoped he could be given a tour.”
Marx was happy to oblige and hoped he could talk Wolfe into a studio contract to write for MGM, offering up a yearly salary of $50,000. Wolfe seemed hesitant due to his unfamiliarity with screenwriting but promised to think it over. He then asked Marx, “meanwhile, do you think I can meet Jean Harlow?” Marx noted, “I could have walked him straight inside but I didn’t want any faux pas with Jean Harlow, a beautiful, vivacious girl but whose knowledge of literary greats might leave something to be desired. ‘Thomas Wolfe’s outside and asked to meet you,’ I said. ‘Who’s he?’ I briefed her on his books then introduced them.” A prop man placed a camp-style chair next to Harlow’s, and Wolfe “lowered his gangling body into it, and I left them engaged in a lively tete-a-tete, convivial as long-lost friends. She drove him out of the studio in the late afternoon and brought him back with her early next morning.”
In a letter written from the Hollywood-Roosevelt Hotel to his editor Max Perkins, he explained, “I have some amazing and fantastic stories to tell you [about] this moving picture world, as well. I have met the famous stars, directors, producers, writers etc., I’ve seen them at work — this is simply incredible — in the midst of all the false and unreal world, the technical, building, working world is simply amazing in its skill and knowledge. Good God! I could write a magnificent book even about this place if I lived here a year. They want me to stay, have offered me a job, and mentioned huge sums, but perhaps I shall resist.”
But, thanks to Marx’s recollections, Wolfe’s “tete-a-tete” with Harlow isn’t lost. The famed actress and blonde bombshell was born in 1911 as Harlean Harlow Carpenter in Kansas City, Missouri. She suffered numerous health problems throughout her short life, starting first with scarlet fever as a teenager. After marrying young to Charles “Chuck” Fremont McGrew, heir to a large fortune, the couple moved to L.A. in 1928 and settled in Beverly Hills. Harlean visited Fox Studios and, upon returning for an audition, she signed in under her mother’s maiden name: Jean Harlow.
Harlow’s big breakthrough was in Howard Hughes’ Hell’s Angels, (1930). She went on to film many other blockbusters for MGM, like Red-Headed Woman, Libeled Lady, and Saratoga, with popular leading men of the day. Harlow’s health spiraled in 1937 when she contracted influenza, and then developed septicemia after a wisdom tooth extraction. A few months later, Harlow was suffering from fatigue, nausea, water weight, and stomach pain. Her doctor initially thought it was an inflamed gallbladder, but as time passed a second opinion revealed she was in the end stages of kidney failure. Costar Clark Gable visited her during these days and later said that she was severely bloated and that he smelled urine on her breath when he kissed her — both signs of kidney failure. On June 6th, she was admitted to the hospital where she slipped into a coma and passed away the following day. Harlow died at the age of 26 from kidney failure and subsequent complications, a little over three months before Thomas Wolfe would also tragically pass away. She was buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, allegedly in the gown she wore in Libeled Lady.
