Helene Stanton Profile

Helene Stanton

	(Eleanor Stansbury)
4 November 25	is born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
?	takes ballet lessons as a child
?	studies voice from the time she is 13
c. 46	is the "Merry Widow" at 18. Later she does The Vagabond King, Desert Song, and Fledermaus.
?	sings with the Cosmopolitan Opera Company in Philadelphia
?	goes to Hollywood and is persuaded to switch to popular music
?	she and columnist Louella Parsons are pretty chummy. Louella wants Eleanor's stage name to be Gretchen, which is actress Loretta Young's real name. Helene says: "Absolutely not!" They then settle on Helene, which she will go by for the years to come.
49	marries former silent film star Kenneth Harlan. He’s about 54; she’s about 24. He has been married 5 times previously, to Flo Hart, a Ziegfeld Follies dancer; Marie Prevost, an actress; Doris Booth, a Massachusetts socialite; Helen Speiner, a dancer; and Phyllis McClure, a screen writer.
April 52	she and Harlan separate
28 December 53	obtains a divorce from Harlan in Los Angeles on grounds of cruelty. He's 58; she's 25. It is a "real friendly" divorce, she tells newsmen outside the courtroom. "It is just too bad we didn't get along," she says, "He's really very nice. Matter of fact, I think I'll take him out to lunch." She claims he had falsely accused her of misconduct. Harlan will get his last divorce from a 25-year-old dancer in 1959. He will die at age 71 in 1967.
?	is part of the opening act for Frank Sinatra for his first performance at the Sands Hotel in Las Vegas
?	performs in Las Vegas with The Ben Blue Orchestra
?	becomes very good friends with famous songwriter Jimmy McHugh
August 54	is seen at the Encore with dance director Charles O’Curran, the ex of singer-actress Betty Hutton
June 55	sings at the Dunes in Las Vegas
October 55	a nightclub act is arranged for her in Las Vegas, and this wins her a featured part in Allied Artist's Calculated Risk. "It takes a lot of patience to get what you want out of life," she says.
56	rooms in a North Hollywood apartment with another girl, a studio employee
April 57	wins her role in Four Girls in Town in a "walking screen test" held by Universal-International executives out of nearly 100 actresses. It is finally judged that her ambulatory mechanics are the "most provocative."
19 May 57	marries Morton D. Pinsky of Chicago, a physician. He’s 31; she’s 31.
?	the Pinskys make their home in Alhambra, California
4 September 58	her son, David Drew, is born. He will become the renown TV and radio personality "Dr. Drew."
c. 61	moves with her family to Pasadena, California
64	her daughter, Dana Carol, is born. She will become a paralegal.
27 October 09	becomes the widow of Pinsky, who dies at age 83 in Pasadena
7 June 17	dies at age 91 in a Pasadena, California, hospital

Sources: The Marion Star, Pottstown Mercury, The New York Times, People Today, Great Bend Daily Tribune, www.Ancestry.com
Recommended Books: Fifties Blondes by Richard Koper
Links: Filmography