This week’s #badgirlcrush is the brunette, and occasional blonde
bombshell, Jeanne Carmen!
Born Jeanne Laverne Carmen in Arkansas in August 1930, she
picked cotton before running away from home at the tender age of 13 when her
mother wouldn’t allow her to enter the finals of a beauty contest, in which she
had won a local heat, a Bad Girl in the making!
“I was just a little
country girl that wanted to be a movie star.”
Jeanne worked as a waitress in St.Louis before moving to New
York City on the suggestion of a producer and landed a job as a chorus girl in
the broadway show Burlesque.
In 1949 she got a job modelling golf clothes for Jack Redmond in
Manhattan and discovered her natural talent for the sport!
In a whirlwind she became a professional trick shot golfer who
could hit a golf ball off a tee in someone’s mouth 210 yards. Jeanne stated
“There wasn’t anything I couldn’t do with a ball.” , and in springolators, even
more impressive!
Jeanne moved to Las Vegas when she was dating a Chicago mobster
- Johnny Roselli, and they hustled tourists who took one glance at Jeanne and
doubted her golf talent ; she’d let them get ahead for a couple of holes then
dazzle them with her trick shots, she never lost a round!
By 1953 Jeanne had moved to Los Angeles and invested in
property, this saw her acting career begin but unfortunately she didn't think
of it fondly, “ Then I got into the movies and that was the worst thing I could
have done.”
With a hourglass figure, green eyes and raven hair, Jeanne was
typecast in sultry spanish roles and appeared as a señorita in The Three
Outlaws and an Indian girl in War Drums in 1957.
One of Jeanne’s most noted films was Untamed Youth, which
starred Mamie Van Doren and Eddie Cochran, Eddie was besotted and named the
song ‘Jeanie, Jeanie, Jeanie’ after her!
At that time in Hollywood most A List starlets were platinum
blonde, and Jeanne was eclipsed by Mamie in Untamed Youth, so to try and
compete with the likes of Mansfield and Monroe, Jeanne hit the bottle and went
blonde.
The change to platinum blonde brought about more film roles and
Jeanne cemented her title as the Queen of B Movies, and her enviable figure shot
her to pin up stardom.
To this day Jeanne is most recognisable as a blonde, but we
think she looks great brunette or blonde!
Jeanne (centre) and Mamie Van Doren (blonde) at an after
party for Untamed Youth in 1957.
Jeanne left Hollywood in 1962 after the death of her close
friend Marilyn and focused on raising her family in private in Arizona, Jeanne passed away at home Decemebr 20th 2007, she remains a pin up icon of the golden
Hollywood era.
“Everything I've done, I think I did at the right time…And
it turned out great. Maybe a few marriages I could have done without. As for my
career, it absolutely happened the way it was supposed to happen. A door opened
and I was a pin-up”
With her enviable figure, here’s some of Jeanne’s best Bad Girl
outfits!
Big love heart eyes over this killer two piece leopard print
suit!
The only pin up to make us swoon over a hoody and shorts!
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