Patrician Fields

Vera Miles, c. 1960

Eleanor Parker, 1969

Alexis Smith, 1957

Patti Page, 1968

Very Vera

Apparently, if you were named "Vera" in the Golden Age of Hollywood, you were guranteed fabulosity, if not superstardom.

Fall Fashion Preview

Edith Head Gave Good Costume

Joan Fontaine, September Song (1950)

Nina Foch, You're Never Too Young (1955)

Vera Miles, Beau James (1957)

Marilyn Maxwell, Off Limits (1953)

Marilyn Maxwell, Rock-a-Bye Your Baby (1958)

Lucille Ball, The Facts of Life (1960)

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MISS VERA MILES
August 23, 1929

I'm an Indian, Too

Une Una

Our latest Mystery Guest, the singularly fabulous Una Merkel, was correctly guessed by several clever readers. But the first was Pancakes Barbara, about whom we sadly know little -- except that our Adonis figures won't last forever without a little help from the kitchen.

Una, of course, enlivened countless films of the 1930's, ranging from the dreary (Murder in the Private Car, anyone?) to the sublime -- our favorites being Red Headed Woman (1932) and Bombshell (1933), two of her hilarious pairings with Jean Harlow, who was no slouch in the cracking wise department herself. La Merkel also duked it out with Dietrich in Destry Rides Again (1939), resulting in one of the most famous catfights in screen history.

Strangely, Merkel's career tapered off in the 1940's; she appeared in only 15 films in the entire decade (and in increasingly diminished productions), as compared to more than 50 in her 1930's heyday. Perhaps personal troubles contributed to this downward turn: in 1946, Merkel nearly died when her mother committed suicide by turning on the gas in their home. Still, this wry-yet-bubbly dynamo was still capable of eliciting guffaws, which she is seen doing below to Gary Cooper, no less, and starlet Phyllis (ex-Mrs. Cary Grant) Brooks in 1943.


Happily, Merkel enjoyed a comeback in the 1950's, transitioning from sidekick to mother/aunt roles for both stage and screen. She won a Tony in 1959 for The Ponder Heart, and in 1961 she finally earned an Oscar nomination for her against-type work in Summer and Smoke. That same year, she made a memorable appearance as Verbena, the chatty maid in The Parent Trap; La Merkel must have been a hit with the good folks at Disney, as they quickly cast her in two successive pictures, Summer Magic (1963), another Hayley Mills vehicle, and A Tiger Walks (1964). The latter is notable, incidentally, as being a thoroughly unremarkable family film with an absolutely spectacular cast: besides Merkel, it also features the glorious Vera Miles, the divinely dishy Peter Brown, and, in his final film, delightful Sabu Dastagir.

Una Merkel herself only had one more film left to make -- rather ingloriously, Spinout (1966) with Elvis. But it was a long and wonderful career, vividly etched with some of the best supporting turns ever preserved on celluloid. Miss Una Merkel passed away in 1986 at age 82.

Miss Vera Miles

PUBLICITY STILL FOR BACK STREET (1961)

Once hailed as the heir apparent to Grace Kelly, the gorgeous and talented Vera Miles (August 23, 1929) was Kelly's equal in cool, patrician blonde beauty; but she was also capable of etching her characterizations with acid -- two of her most memorable, scene-chewing roles were as flat-out bitches, in Autumn Leaves (1956) and Back Street (1961). In the former, she was the sluttish ex-wife of Cliff Robertson; and in the latter, the hell-raising, shrewish, alcoholic wife who drives husband John Gavin into the compassionate arms of Susan Hayward.

Miles' best remembered films, though, are the ones she made for Alfred Hitchcock. She garnered excellent reviews in The Wrong Man (1957), opposite Henry Fonda, and Hitchcock began grooming Miles for superstardom in earnest. She disappointed him greatly, though, when she had to pull out of Vertigo (1958) at the very last minute, as she learned she was pregnant. Hitchcock never completely forgave her, although he did subsequently cast her in perhaps her most famous role as Janet Leigh's sister in Psycho (1960).

Miles continued to act throughout the 1970's, 80's and 90's (including a reprisal of her role as Lila Crane in 1982's Psycho 2); she retired in 1995, and refuses all requests for interviews and public appearances. We sincerely hope that she's leading a contented and peaceful life out of the spotlight. Happy Birthday, Vera Miles!

Very Vera

VERA HRUBA RALSTON


VERA MILES

Delightfully different, similarly fabulous.