Carole Landis

 ( 1919 Births ) 

Carole Landis (born Frances Lillian Mary Ridste; January 1, 1919 – July 5, 1948) was an American actress and singer. She worked as a contract player for Twentieth Century-Fox in the 1940s. Her breakout role was as the female lead in the 1940 film One Million B.C. from United Artists. She was known as "The Ping Girl" and "The Chest" because of her curvy figure.

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Early life Landis was born on January 1, 1919, in Fairchild, Wisconsin, the youngest of five children of Clara (given name Sentek), a Polish farmer's daughter, and Norwegian-American Alfred Ridste, a drifting railroad mechanic who abandoned the family after Landis's birth.

Eric Gans (2025). 9781604730135, Univ. Press of Mississippi. ISBN 9781604730135

E. J. Fleming (2025). 9780786482658, McFarland. ISBN 9780786482658

According to Landis's biographer E. J. Fleming, circumstantial evidence supports that Landis was likely the biological child of her mother's second husband, Charles Fenner. Fenner left Landis's mother in April 1921 and remarried a few months later.

In 1923, Landis's family moved to San Bernardino, California, where her mother worked menial jobs to support the family. At the age of 15, Landis dropped out of San Bernardino High School and set forth on a career path to show business. She started out as a hula dancer in a San Francisco nightclub, where she was described by her boss as a "nervous $35-a-week blonde doing a pathetic hula at her opening night at the old Royal Hawaiian on Bush Street...that'll never get her anyplace in show business". He apparently employed her only because he felt sorry for her;Caen, Herb (1950). Baghdad: 1951. Doubleday & Company, Inc. p. 40. she later sang with a dance band. She bleached her hair blonde and changed her name to "Carole Landis" after her favorite actress, Carole Lombard. After saving $100, she moved to Hollywood.

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Career

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Film career Landis made her film debut as an extra in the 1937 film A Star Is Born. She also appeared in various . She posed for hundreds of cheesecake photographs. She continued appearing in bit parts until 1940, when Hal Roach cast her as a cave girl in One Million B.C.. The movie was a sensation and turned Landis into a star. A press agent nicknamed her "The Ping Girl" (an awkward contraction of "purring").

Landis appeared in a string of successful films in the early 1940s, usually as the second female lead. In a time when the singing of many actresses was dubbed in, Landis's own voice was considered good enough and was used in her few musical roles. Landis landed a contract with Twentieth Century-Fox and began a sexual relationship with Darryl F. Zanuck. She had roles playing opposite fellow pin-up girl Betty Grable in the musical Moon Over Miami and crime drama I Wake Up Screaming, both in 1941. When Landis ended her relationship with Zanuck, her career suffered and she was assigned roles in .

Her final two films, Noose and Brass Monkey, were both made in Great Britain.

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USO Tours

She became a popular pin-up with servicemen during World War II.

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Broadway

In 1945 she starred on Broadway theater in the musical A Lady Says Yes, with future novelist Jacqueline Susann in a small role. Susann is said to have based the character of Jennifer North, from her best-selling novel Valley of the Dolls, in part on Landis.

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Writing

Landis wrote several newspaper and magazine articles about her experiences during the war, including the 1944 book Four Jills in a Jeep, which was later made into a movie costarring Kay Francis, Martha Raye, and Mitzi Mayfair. She also wrote the foreword to Vic Herman's cartoon book Winnie the WAC.

(2012). 9781258263478 ISBN 9781258263478

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Personal life

Landis was married four times and had no children (she was unable to conceive owing to endometriosis). In January 1934, 15-year-old Landis married her first husband, 19-year-old Irving Wheeler. Her mother had the marriage annulled in February 1934. Landis persuaded her father, Alfred Ridste (who had left the family shortly after Landis was born and who, by coincidence, lived near the family in San Bernardino), to allow her to remarry Wheeler. He finally relented, and the two were remarried on August 25, 1934. After three weeks of marriage, Landis and Wheeler got into an argument and Landis walked out. Neither filed for divorce, and Landis began pursuing an acting career. In 1938, Wheeler reappeared and filed a $250,000 alienation of affections lawsuit against director and choreographer Busby Berkeley. Even though Landis and Wheeler were estranged, he claimed that Berkeley had enticed and otherwise persuaded Landis to transfer her affections. Landis maintained that she had not seen Wheeler in years and heard from him only the previous year when he claimed to want a divorce.

Jeffrey Spivak (2025). 9780813126432, University Press of Kentucky. ISBN 9780813126432

Wheeler's lawsuit was later dismissed, and Landis and Wheeler were divorced in 1939.

Paul Donnelley (2025). 9780711995123, Music Sales Group. ISBN 9780711995123

In June 1939 Berkeley proposed to Landis but later broke it off. On July 4, 1940, she married yacht broker Willis Hunt Jr. in Las Vegas. Landis left Hunt after two months of marriage; they were divorced in November 1940.

While touring army camps in London in 1942, she met United States Army Air Forces Captain Thomas Wallace. They were married in January 1943, and the wedding received a two-page photo spread in Life magazine."Ping Girl" Weds Eagle, Life, February 1, 1943, pages 32-33 The couple separated in May 1945, and they divorced in July 1945.

On December 8, 1945, Landis married Broadway producer W. Horace Schmidlapp. They separated in 1947 and Landis filed for divorce in May 1948, charging Schmidlapp with "extreme mental cruelty." During her separation from Schmidlapp, Landis began a relationship with actor Rex Harrison, who was then married to actress Lilli Palmer. The affair became an open secret in Hollywood. After Landis's death, however, Harrison downplayed their relationship and publicly claimed that she was merely a close friend of himself and Palmer.

Michelle Morgan (2025). 9780762449460, Running Press. ISBN 9780762449460

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Death

Landis was reportedly crushed when Rex Harrison refused to divorce his wife for her. Unable to cope any longer, on July 5, 1948, she committed suicide in her Pacific Palisades home at 1465 Capri Drive by taking an overdose of Secobarbital.

James Robert Parish (2025). 9780809222278, Contemporary Books. ISBN 9780809222278

Before she took her own life, she penned a heartfelt note to her mother, expressing deep remorse for the pain her actions would cause. She assured her mother of her enduring love, extending those sentiments to all her family members, and asked her to look for her will among her files, which left everything to her mother. Landis concluded the note with a tender farewell, affectionately signing off as “Your Baby,” and requested her mother’s prayers. Harrison was the last person to see her alive, having had dinner with her the night before she committed suicide.

(2025). 9781101140499, Penguin. . ISBN 9781101140499

The next afternoon, Harrison and Landis's maid discovered her on the bathroom floor. Harrison waited several hours before he called a doctor and the police. According to some sources, Landis left two suicide notes, one for her mother and the second for Harrison, who instructed his lawyers to destroy it. During a coroner's inquest, Harrison denied knowing any motive for her suicide and told the coroner he did not know of the existence of a second suicide note., a July 1948 Los Angeles Times photograph. Landis's official website, which her family owns, has questioned the events of Landis's death and the coroner's ruling of suicide. She is interred in Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California, in plot 814 of the "Everlasting Love" section. Among the celebrities at her funeral were Cesar Romero, Van Johnson, and Pat O'Brien. Harrison attended with his wife.

Landis has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1765 Vine Street.

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Filmography

1937		Chorine	Uncredited
1937		Girl in beret at Santa Anita bar	Uncredited
1937		Dance Extra
1937	Fly-Away Baby	Blonde at airport
1937		Bit part
1937	Broadway Melody of 1938	Dancer
1937	Varsity Show	Student
1937	Alcatraz Island		Uncredited
1937	Over the Goal	Co-ed	Uncredited
1937	The Adventurous Blonde		Uncredited
1937	Hollywood Hotel	Hat check girl with coat
1938		Woman waiting to go with her Johnnie
1938	Blondes at Work	Carol
1938		Partygoer leaning on piano during song
1938	Love, Honor and Behave	Wheel watcher at party	Uncredited
1938	Over the Wall	Peggy, girl at beach	Uncredited
1938	Women Are Like That	Cocktail party guest	Uncredited
1938		Guest at banquet	Uncredited
1938	Gold Diggers in Paris	Golddigger	Alternative title: The Gay Impostors
1938	Men Are Such Fools	June Cooper	Uncredited
1938	When Were You Born	Ship passenger	Uncredited
1938	Penrod's Double Trouble	Girl at fair	Uncredited
1938	Four's a Crowd	Myrtle, Lansford's 2nd Secretary
1938	Boy Meets Girl	Commissary cashier	Uncredited
1939	Three Texas Steers	Nancy Evans	Alternative title: Danger Rides the Range
1939	Daredevils of the Red Circle	Blanche Granville
1939	Cowboys from Texas	June Jones
1939	Reno	Mrs. Humphrey	Uncredited
1940	One Million B.C.	Loana
1940	Turnabout	Sally Willows
1940	Mystery Sea Raider	June McCarthy
1941	Road Show	Penguin Moore
1941	Topper Returns	Ann Carrington
1941	Moon Over Miami	Barbara Latimer, aka Miss Sears
1941	Dance Hall	Lily Brown
1941	I Wake Up Screaming	Vicky Lynn	Alternative title: Hot Spot
1941	Cadet Girl	Gene Baxter
1942		Helen Mason
1942	My Gal Sal	Mae Collins
1942	It Happened in Flatbush	Kathryn Baker
1942	Orchestra Wives	Natalie Mercer
1942	Manila Calling	Edna Fraser
1943	The Powers Girl	Kay Evans
1943	Wintertime	Flossie Fouchere
1943	Show Business at War	Herself
1944	Secret Command	Jill McGann
1944	Four Jills in a Jeep	Herself
1945	Having Wonderful Crime	Helene Justus
1946	Behind Green Lights	Janet Bradley
1946		Loretta de Richet	Alternative title: Thieves' Holiday
1946	It Shouldn't Happen to a Dog	Julia Andrews
1947	Out of the Blue	Mae Earthleigh
1948	Noose	Linda Medbury	Alternative title: The Silk Noose; released posthumously
1948	Brass Monkey	Kay Sheldon	Alternative title: Lucky Mascot; released posthumously (final role)

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Radio appearances

Special Agent

June 11

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Theater

Ghisella

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Further reading

• Eric Gans (2025). 9781604730135, Univ. Press of Mississippi. ISBN 9781604730135
• Rupert Alistair (2025). 9781720038375, Independently published. ISBN 9781720038375

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External links

• Carole Landis Online (archived)
• Official website ( archived version)

Categories: 1919 Births, 1948 Suicides, 20th-century American Actresses, 20th Century Studios Contract Players, Actresses From Wisconsin, American Film Actresses, American People Of Norwegian Descent, American People Of Polish Descent, American Stage Actresses, Burials At Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Drug-related Suicides In California, Barbiturates-related Deaths, People From Fairchild, Wisconsin, 1948 Deaths, San Bernardino High School Alumni

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