Was Joan Bennett A Natural Blonde?

[Philippe Cordier]

they could even cast Liz as a blonde (though, if memory serves me correctly (and I'm sure our resident Bennett expert, Luciphil, will correct me if I'm wrong), wasn't Joan Bennett a natural blonde who dyed her hair darker in order to get better roles in Hollywood?).

I hope Luciaphil won't mind my jumping in here    as long as I'm writing ... I believe Joan Bennett's hair was naturally a dark brunette.  Very early in her Hollywood career they tried her as a blonde.  IMO it didn't work (having seen some publicity stills in our film archive).

[Luciaphile]

I hope Luciaphil won't mind my jumping in here    as long as I'm writing ... I believe Joan Bennett's hair was naturally a dark brunette.  Very early in her Hollywood career they tried her as a blonde.  IMO it didn't work (having seen some publicity stills in our film archive).

Don't mind at all  but actually, according to everything I've read, she began as a blonde (how blonde, I'm not sure). Most of the parts she got were ingenue, simpering heroine type roles (in contrast to her sister Constance who was quite successful w/blonde locks).

For the film Trade Winds, her character had to don a brunette wig--she was a fugitive from justice being chased by Frederic March. The wig brought out a hitherto unnoticed resemblance to Hedy Lamarr. The film and the wig also resulted in her receiving better roles and scripts, so she opted to dye it.

Something else to keep in mind, the 1940s was a decade when there were a lot of dark-haired leading ladies. Film noir was in its hey day, and Bennett, who really excelled at playing femme fatales and relatively strong parts (if you watch most of her films from her blonde phase, she's usually best when she's playing stronger characters), was a natural for the genre.

[Philippe Cordier]

actually, according to everything I've read, she began as a blonde (how blonde, I'm not sure). Most of the parts she got were ingenue, simpering heroine type roles (in contrast to her sister Constance who was quite successful w/blonde locks).

For the film []iTrade Winds[/i], her character had to don a brunette wig--she was a fugitive from justice being chased by Frederic March. The wig brought out a hitherto unnoticed resemblance to Hedy Lamarr. The film and the wig also resulted in her receiving better roles and scripts, so she opted to dye it.

Hmm ... well, you've read the book so you must be right.  I don't remember where I thought I read that she had dyed it blonde for a couple of early films ... which seemed to be born out by the photos.  To me the blonde looked very unnatural, but then what do I know about women's haircolor!

[Philippe Cordier]

Well, Joan always described herself as being blonde in her early years.  I have no doubt that she had help from beauty products in the films in which she appeared as a blonde--this was the 1930s when artifice ruled.

Agreed. Hence my qualification of "how blonde, I'm not sure" 

I'm really becoming fascinated with the blonde vs. brunette issues being raised here.  (Or it might be that I'm avoiding doing work that is more pressing ... ) 

Anyway, I did a quick search on google and everything seemed to say that Joan Bennett started her career as a blonde, that she had to dye her naturally blonde hair dark for a role and her career then took off so she continued dying it dark ... of course, actresses are notoriously inaccurate in self-reporting these things, keep in mind.   

However, if you read the article from a '60s era star magazine (link below) closely, it is implied that Ms. Bennett descended on Hollywood as a platinum blonde because that was the "in" look ....  ("so what else could she do? But not for long") ... although this could be read more than one way.

 

http://members.aol.com/jonathanfrid/noon3.html

One of the photos in the article shows her with Charles Boyer ("on a long ago evening") where to me her hair looks a more natural color, possibly a chestnut or light brown.

[Luciaphile]

Well, Vlad, I went out and pulled out the pile of Bennett stuff I have.

There are two pictures of her and her sisters when they were children in her autobiography. In the earlier one, they are all blondes (but then little kids sometimes start out with lighter hair). In the next, which features her running hand and hand with Barbara and Constance, their hair is clearly darker.

I'm sure Gothick is right. She probably lightened it in the 30s. Most actresses did.

Later on in the book, Bennett writes: "Tay [Garnett, the director] who had just viewed Walter's [Wanger] film Algiers, with Hedy Lamarr and Charles Boyer, insisted that Hedy was a brunette edition of me, and he and Walter thougth it would be a great joke if they put me in a dark wig for Trade Winds," (p 262 The Bennett Playbill).

"For ten years, with the exception of Little Women and Private Worlds, I'd played the insipid blonde ingenue, short on brains, long on bank accounts, the victim in a love triangle, and for some reason that now escapes me, I was often English . . . [After she went brunette], Personally, I liked the idea of escaping from all that bland, blonde innocence and thought the whole thing was very funny, but I don't think Hedy found the comparisons very amusing. " (same page)

She also thought it had something to do with being tested for GWTW.

[Philippe Cordier]

There are two pictures of her and her sisters when they were children in her autobiography. In the earlier one, they are all blondes (but then little kids sometimes start out with lighter hair). In the next, which features her running hand and hand with Barbara and Constance, their hair is clearly darker.

Thanks for all your efforts in trying to answer this burning question ...  It does seem that only heavy documentation from photographs would provide a definitive answer, especially of her teenage years and early 20s.  It's true that hair color can change quite dramatically from childhood.  (Mine was the color of straw, bleaching to the color of white sand in summers, until I reached adolescence.  You'd never believe it now, though.  At one point in my post-college years, my own grandmother, whom I hadn't seen for quite some time, thought I was dying my hair dark because the color was darkening so dramatically!)

I'm sure Gothick is right. She probably lightened it in the 30s. Most actresses did.

From what you've uncovered, it seems LIKELY that her hair was a lighter, softer color when she was young, but she went platinum chemically at the beginning of her Hollywood career.  The dark hair of her later years appeared very natural, so it does come as a surprise to me that she may have been coloring it darker than her natural color for the rest of her life (at least that is what she herself implies).

Now ... Lara Parker ... Nancy Barrett ... with their fair complexions I assume they are natural blondes??? Or at least fairly light haired.

[tripwire]

Ask her husbands, or boyfriends.