MovieChat Forums > Stage Door (1937) Discussion > Who's the mocking, blonde cutie?

Who's the mocking, blonde cutie?

posted 11 years ago by swanstep
6 replies | jump to latest

She has 5 or 6 lines in the picture beginning with a couple of lines mocking Terry Randal's (Hepburn's) use of Shakespeare; later she mocks Miss Luther (Constance Collier) with 'When Knighthood was in flower' and 'I'm sorry I was just reading aloud'; later still she plays along with Ginger's mocking 'Where is Bordelaise?' Here are three representative frames of her:
http://tinyurl.com/m5ttqrq
http://tinyurl.com/k23jm6s
http://tinyurl.com/ljweoyl

She's about the 6th or 7th most important figure in the Footlights Club scenes, so is a small but indelible part of the grand success of Stage Door (1937). I/we need to know who she is, what if anything she went on to do after this picture, etc.. Does anyone have any ideas/information?

[–] TheNooz 10 years ago

I believe that's Betty Jane Rhodes.

[–] swanstep 10 years ago

@TheNooz. Thank you for your reply, but my understanding is that Betty Jane Rhodes is the rather taller gal who asks Butch as he leaves with Lucille Ball whether he has a friend and then later sings just as the suicide is discovered.

[–] Doghouse-6 9 years ago

I've become convinced it was Jan Wiley (who was apparently billed as Harriet Brandon in this and her first film, New Faces Of 1937).

This page gives a more extensive bio than imdb does:

http://filesofjerryblake.com/serial-heroines/jan-wiley/

Poe! You are...avenged!

[–] swanstep (2628) 5 years ago

@Doghouse-6. That's her; you've cracked it. Well done and thanks. I tracked down New Faces Of 1937 (1937) and an *identical* gal to the one in Stage Door is there as a showgirl/chorus-girl in the climactic scene. Jan Wiley/Harriet Brandon it is. Glad to hear she had some leads & solid success in serials at least. I look forward to catching her in Secret Agent X-9 (currently freely available on youtube) some time.

[–] swanstep (2628) 5 years ago

Ugh, I tried watching 'Secret Agent X-9' and it's just too silly, simple-minded, and visually (so many dull, flat master shots!) and narratively stodgy for me to stick with it. I'm too snobby for serials perhaps. I fast-forwarded to various Jan Wiley scenes but little seemed designed to show her off to good advantage. It made me re-appreciate the one-liners and close-ups that Stage Door gave her: peak studio-product made even a 10th or 11th banana shine.

[–] Underdog_73 8 years ago

@TheNooz. Thank you for your reply, but my understanding is that Betty Jane Rhodes is the rather taller gal who asks Butch as he leaves with Lucille Ball whether he has a friend and then later sings just as the suicide is discovered

Hattie leaves with Butch, not Lucille Ball, and the tall girl who asks about a friend is Eve Arden, and she is not the same girl singing at the piano when the suicide is discovered.