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Jane Russell: Gentlemen Prefer Blondes
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Russell had success as a singer beginning in the late 1940s when, between film jobs, she was a frequent headliner at the Latin Quarter Club in Miami Beach. She often sang on Kay Kyser's popular radio broadcasts, and in the mid-1950s she toured in all-woman trios and quartets she organized herself, often alongside her friend Rhonda Fleming. In Son of Paleface she sang a trio of "Am I in Love?" with Hope and Roy Rogers, and the song was Oscar-nominated. Russell first appeared on the charts in 1950 when her duet of "Kisses and Tears" with Frank Sinatra from Double Dynamite was released as a single, and later the soundtrack for Gentlemen Prefer Blondes made it into the Top 10. She ... recorded several albums of Christian music.
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Russell's film career hit its peak when she was loaned out to 20th Century Fox for Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, released in July 1953. MGM Records released a soundtrack album on which she sang "Bye Bye Baby" and "Ain't There Anyone Here for Love?," and, with Marilyn Monroe, "A Little Girl from Little Rock" and "When Love Goes Wrong (Nothing Goes Right)." The album was a Top Ten hit. Her success in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes caused RKO to plan its own full-fledged musical for her, and The French Line appeared in 1954, along with a soundtrack album released by Mercury Records. Meanwhile, she formed a vocal quartet with former band singer Connie Haines, Beryl Davis, and Della Russell to sing gospel songs, and they signed to Coral Records, which released the chart single "Make a Joyful Noise Unto the Lord"/"Do Lord," followed by an LP, Make a Joyful Noise Unto the Lord. Russell ... cut a solo single, "Forevermore," for Coral, backed with a duet with Johnny Desmond, "Backward, Turn Backward."
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Jane didn't make another film until 1946 when she played Joan Kenwood in Young Widow (1946). She had signed a seven year contract with Hughes and it seemed the only films he would put her in were those that displayed Jane in a very flattering light due to her body. Films such as 1951's His Kind of Woman (1951) and The Las Vegas Story (1952) did nothing to showcase her true acting abilities. Probably the pinnacle of her career was in 1953's Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953) as Dorothy Shaw, with Marilyn Monroe. This film showed Jane's comedic side very well. Jane did continue to make films throughout the 1950s, but the films were at times not up to par, particularly with Jane's talents being wasted in forgettable movies in order to show off her sexy side.
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Jane has starred in many movies Born Losers (1967), Johnny Reno (1966), Waco (1966), Fate Is the Hunter (1964), The Fuzzy Pink Nightgown (1957), Hot Blood (1956), The Revolt of Mamie Stover (1956), The Tall Men (1955), Underwater! (1955), Foxfire (1955), Gentlemen Marry Brunettes (1955), The French Line (1954), Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953), Os Homens Preferem as Louras (1953), Macao (1952), Montana Belle (1952), Road to Bali (1952), Son of Paleface (1952), The Las Vegas Story (1952), Double Dynamite (1951), His Kind of Woman (1951), The Paleface (1948), and The Outlaw (1943).
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Most stars develop an image, but Jane Russell was an image before she was properly a movie star. Even today, she is likely best remembered as the busty, cleavaged sex symbol of The Outlaw's huge publicity campaign than as, for example, Dorothy in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. The image (together with the accompanying slogan, "Mean, moody, magnificent") was much parodied, but hardly required it: it was a parody already. Of what? Female sexual provocation, of course, in a culture that has not been reluctant to endorse the equation sexuality = woman = evil. But even worse: an active, aggressive, desiring female sexuality.
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Russell was at the height of her wry comedic talents with her performance as Dorothy Shaw in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953) opposite Marilyn Monroe at 20th Century Fox, which is one of her most memorable roles. The film was well received and showed her as a talented actress.
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