Let's Not Forget Miss Myrna Loy's Birthday

On a road trip the Husband & I play a game of FAVORITES. In rhythm, without missing a beat, one has to ask a favorite & the other must answer with out going off the beat, & then offer up another favorite category. I have learned a great deal about my spouse this way because there is no time to intellectualize or give pause to think. Early in our relationship, this is how I discovered that his favorite Golden Age of Hollywood Female Star is Myrna Loy. The Husband certainly has good taste, & having just posted in the birth of William Powell, I feel compelled to post on Miss Loy’s birthday, because you see, I love her also (although my answer during a a game of favorites is Barbara Stanwyck.)

Myrna Adele Williams was born on this date in 1905 in rural Montana, & she moved to Southern Californina in1 912, the sunny warm weather was thought to be of help for her mother's ill health.. She found work in the chorus that performed live between features at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre. She was noticed by Rudolph Valentino & a was hired as an extra for Pretty Ladies, in which she and fellow newcomer Joan Crawford were among a bevy of chorus girls dangling from an elaborate chandelier.


Loy's high pitched voice made her transition to talkies difficult. She was often cast as Oriental or Mexican in her early sound films. Her performance in Penthouse (1933) convinced the MGM brass to cast her opposite William Powell in the 1st of the 6 Thin Man features, 1934's The Thin Man in which she portrayed Nora Charles. The film was a huge success & she found her well deserved Hollywood stardom. She became Hollywood's perfect wife, bright, witty & humorous. Loy took a break from films during WW2 except for another film as Nora Charles to devote herself to Red Cross work & selling war bonds.


She returned to the movies in 1946 making such terrific films as The Best Years of Our Lives (1946), Song of the Thin Man (1947), the last of the series, The Bachelor & the Bobby-Soxer (1947), Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House (1948), The Red Pony (1949), Cheaper by the Dozen (1950), & the sequel Belles on Their Toes (1952).


She became more involved with liberal politics & only acted occasionally for the rest of her life. From 1949-1954 she served as a film advisor for UNESCO & she served as an advisor to the National Committee Against Discrimination in Housing. She appeared in Midnight Lace & From the Terrace in 1960, The April Fools (1969), Airport 1975, The End (1978), & Just Tell Me What You Want (1980). She starred in several films for television & made her Broadway debut in 1973 in a revival of The Women.


Like her friend- Cary grant, she never received an Oscar for acting. She received an honorary Academy Award in 1991. Myrna Loy passed away in NYC during surgery on December 14, 1993. Class act, deserving of being the Husband’s favorite. He has the best taste.