Our Baby
In early 1937, Jean contracted influenza. She recovered, and still weak, began work on Saratoga. While shooting the film with Clark Gable, she collapsed on the set. She was taken to the hospital, where doctors declared she had uremic poisoning. She died a few days later. She had made 44 films in 9 years. She was 26.There were a number of rumors about Harlow's death -- that it was the prolonged result of a particularly bad beating she received from Paul Bern during their marriage, that she was poisoned, that her death was due to her mother's religion, Christian Science, which doesn't allow medicine to be practiced on its members. None are true. In light of modern medicine, we can see that the scarlet fevershe had as a teenager had damaged her kidneys. They slowly failed over the next ten years. They had no way to treat kidney failure at that time. The condition was fatal.
Husband William Powell paid for Harlow to be laid to rest in Forest Lawn Memorial Cemetary in Glendale. She wore a black negligee that she had worn just weeks earlier while shooting Saratoga. Rumor has it that someone placed a white gardenia in her hands with a note reading, "Good night, my dearest darliing." Her grave is marked with the words "Our Baby."
Saratoga was 90% finished and the used a body double to film the rest. Later, Clark Gable claimed that it felt as if he "were in the arms of a ghost." Saratoga went on to be Jean Harlow's biggest film.
posted by kuaptic. @ 9:16 AM
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