The Films of Lana Turner, Signed by Lana Turner
[Signed by Lana Turner] Valentino, Lou. The Films of Lana Turner. Book and dust jacket are both in very good condition. First Edition. 1976. Foreword by Mervyn LeRoy. Book is inscribed “To Frank, without whose help, and sweater, I could not have made it! Love, Lana.”
There is something unquantifiable about Lana Turner. When she read for talent agent extraordinaire Henry Willson, he knew she wasn’t a natural actress, but he understood she would nevertheless be dynamite on the screen. She had sex appeal. It reached its apogee with 1946’s sizzling The Postman Only Rings Twice. (How did this film ever get past the Hays Code?). Yet, she was an important film star for much longer, proving there was life beyond an MGM with solid hits like Peyton Place and Imitation of Life. This filmography covers all her great performances, as well as interpreting her tabloid-fodder personal life that rivaled her movies in terms of melodrama. The Frank to whom this is inscribed is possibly Frank Loesser, the Broadway lyricist behind the 1942 song “Sweater Girl,” an homage to the sweater girl look, of which the buxom Lana Turner was the archetype.
“I’ve never known what it is I was supposed to have had. Something, obviously, otherwise I wouldn’t had had so many fans; I wouldn’t have survived so long on the screen.”
--Lana Turner