Hi,
Loved your article on Maria Montez on the TCM board.
I saw Miss Montez once at a distance in the George V Hotel in Paris around November 1950. She was arriving in the lobby and my aunt Margarite and I were in the restaurant for lunch.
People actually left their seats to stare at her; several blocked our way and were waving and calling to her. She waved back as she entered an elevator. Very beautiful but I didn't see her well or for long.
I was shocked to hear that she was dead, so suddenly.
A few years later, Paulette Goddard took up with Jean Pierre Aumont and so did Grace Kelly. And, I think either Zsa Zsa or Eva slipped in there too??
Larry
Maria Montez - "In the Spotlight"
-
Vecchiolarry
- Posts: 1392
- Joined: May 6th, 2007, 10:15 pm
- Location: Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Larry, I'm glad that you enjoyed the profile of lovely Maria Montez.
I'm going to copy the profile and post it here under "In the Spotlight Redux", as members can enjoy it, although there will be no pictures for now until I get the knack of posting them here.
If a boardmember wishes to post a picture of Maria Montez to relate to the profile it will be appreciated.
I'm going to copy the profile and post it here under "In the Spotlight Redux", as members can enjoy it, although there will be no pictures for now until I get the knack of posting them here.
If a boardmember wishes to post a picture of Maria Montez to relate to the profile it will be appreciated.
Joseph Goodheart
In the Spolight: Maria Montez
Maria Montez was the stage name of María África Gracia Vidal. Born on June 6, 1912 in Barahona, Dominican Republic, Maria was the second daughter of 10 children. For her stage name, Maria chose the last name of Montez in honor of dancer Lola Montes, a favorite of Maria's father.
At a young age, she taught herself to speak English, and in 1932 she married William McFeeters, an American banker working in her seaside home town of Barahona.
Her marriage lasted several years but in 1939 she ended up in New York City where her exotic looks landed her a job as a model.
Determined to become a stage actress, she hired an agent and created a résumé that made her several years younger by listing her birth as 1917 in some instances and 1918 in others. Eventually she accepted an offer from Universal Pictures, making her film debut in a Johnny Mack Brown B western.
Her exotic looks soon made her the centerpiece of Universal's Technicolor costume fantasies (such as "Arabian Nights" and "Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves"). Her screen image was that of a hot-blooded Latin seductress, dressed in fanciful costumes and sparking jewels. She became so identified with these adventure epics that she became known as "The Queen of Technicolor." Over her career, Maria Montez appeared in 26 films, 21 of which were made in North America and five in Europe.
Her films also include, "That Night in Rio" In she danced a contagious rumba, displaying her beautiful red hair, proving she looked stunning in color, "South of Tahiti", "Mystery of Marie Roget", "Arabian Nights", "White Savage", "Gypsy Wildcat", "Sudan", "Siren of Atlantis", etc.
She co-starred in 6 films with the dashing Jon Hall..
While working in Hollywood, she met and married French actor Jean-Pierre Aumont, who had to leave a few days after their wedding to serve in the Free French Forces fighting against Nazi Germany in World War II.
At the end the War, the couple had a daughter, Maria Christina (also known as Tina Aumont), born in Hollywood in 1946. They then moved to a home in Suresnes, Île-de-France in the eastern suburb of Paris under the French Fourth Republic. There, Maria Montez appeared in several films and a play written by her husband. She also wrote three books, two of which were published, as well as penning a number of poems.
In those days, Jean Pierre Aumont, her husband said about her: "Maria Montez has a dual personality: one for Hollywood and another as a mother and a wife... that woman is full of simplicity, culture and romance with an overflowing humanity."
The 39-year-old Montez died on September 7th 1951 while she was taking a bath in her house in Sureness, Paris. Her sisters found her drowned in the bathtub.
According to the doctors, her accident could have been prompted by 2 different reasons:
1) She had a heart attack due to the shock produced by contact with the hot water (45 Celsius degrees).
2) The hot water made her faint and she drowned. There was no autopsy so the real reason of her death is unknown.
She was buried in the Cimetière du Montparnasse in Paris where her tombstone dispays her theatrical year of birth 1918.
Much loved by the people of the Dominican Republic, in her birthplace of Barahona the city changed the name of an existing street to that bearing her name. Her legacy as the only great star from that country remains, and in 1996 the Aeropuerto Internacional María Montez (Maria Montez International Airport) began service in Barahona.
But it is as a camp heroine that Montez may best be remembered by contemporary audiences world-wide, and particularly in the dual role of Tollea/Naja in "Cobra Woman" a camp classic. Her line, "Give me that Cobra Jewel" is cited and quoted regularly within the gay community, and an image of Montez in this film can be found on the cover of the latest paperback edition of Gore Vidal's Myra Breckinridge.
Quoted: "When I look at myself, I am so beautiful I scream with joy!" (on viewing Arabian Nights (1942).
Maria Montez was the stage name of María África Gracia Vidal. Born on June 6, 1912 in Barahona, Dominican Republic, Maria was the second daughter of 10 children. For her stage name, Maria chose the last name of Montez in honor of dancer Lola Montes, a favorite of Maria's father.
At a young age, she taught herself to speak English, and in 1932 she married William McFeeters, an American banker working in her seaside home town of Barahona.
Her marriage lasted several years but in 1939 she ended up in New York City where her exotic looks landed her a job as a model.
Determined to become a stage actress, she hired an agent and created a résumé that made her several years younger by listing her birth as 1917 in some instances and 1918 in others. Eventually she accepted an offer from Universal Pictures, making her film debut in a Johnny Mack Brown B western.
Her exotic looks soon made her the centerpiece of Universal's Technicolor costume fantasies (such as "Arabian Nights" and "Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves"). Her screen image was that of a hot-blooded Latin seductress, dressed in fanciful costumes and sparking jewels. She became so identified with these adventure epics that she became known as "The Queen of Technicolor." Over her career, Maria Montez appeared in 26 films, 21 of which were made in North America and five in Europe.
Her films also include, "That Night in Rio" In she danced a contagious rumba, displaying her beautiful red hair, proving she looked stunning in color, "South of Tahiti", "Mystery of Marie Roget", "Arabian Nights", "White Savage", "Gypsy Wildcat", "Sudan", "Siren of Atlantis", etc.
She co-starred in 6 films with the dashing Jon Hall..
While working in Hollywood, she met and married French actor Jean-Pierre Aumont, who had to leave a few days after their wedding to serve in the Free French Forces fighting against Nazi Germany in World War II.
At the end the War, the couple had a daughter, Maria Christina (also known as Tina Aumont), born in Hollywood in 1946. They then moved to a home in Suresnes, Île-de-France in the eastern suburb of Paris under the French Fourth Republic. There, Maria Montez appeared in several films and a play written by her husband. She also wrote three books, two of which were published, as well as penning a number of poems.
In those days, Jean Pierre Aumont, her husband said about her: "Maria Montez has a dual personality: one for Hollywood and another as a mother and a wife... that woman is full of simplicity, culture and romance with an overflowing humanity."
The 39-year-old Montez died on September 7th 1951 while she was taking a bath in her house in Sureness, Paris. Her sisters found her drowned in the bathtub.
According to the doctors, her accident could have been prompted by 2 different reasons:
1) She had a heart attack due to the shock produced by contact with the hot water (45 Celsius degrees).
2) The hot water made her faint and she drowned. There was no autopsy so the real reason of her death is unknown.
She was buried in the Cimetière du Montparnasse in Paris where her tombstone dispays her theatrical year of birth 1918.
Much loved by the people of the Dominican Republic, in her birthplace of Barahona the city changed the name of an existing street to that bearing her name. Her legacy as the only great star from that country remains, and in 1996 the Aeropuerto Internacional María Montez (Maria Montez International Airport) began service in Barahona.
But it is as a camp heroine that Montez may best be remembered by contemporary audiences world-wide, and particularly in the dual role of Tollea/Naja in "Cobra Woman" a camp classic. Her line, "Give me that Cobra Jewel" is cited and quoted regularly within the gay community, and an image of Montez in this film can be found on the cover of the latest paperback edition of Gore Vidal's Myra Breckinridge.
Quoted: "When I look at myself, I am so beautiful I scream with joy!" (on viewing Arabian Nights (1942).