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Roxanne Arlen Profile
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| 10 January 31 | is born in Detroit, Michigan. Her father's an attorney; her mother, Dorothy Giles of Detroit and Los Angeles, is a school teacher. |
| c. 47 | marries Milton Richard Gilman at age 16 |
| ? | is crowned "Miss Detroit" |
| c. 52 | reads in the Detroit Free Press that a local theater needs a girl to model the clothes worn by Jeanne Crain in a movie playing there and to introduce the stage acts. She applies for the job and is interviewed by actor-singer Tony Martin. |
| c. 53 | goes to Hollywood and answers an ad for the Ken Murray TV program. Murray watches her stalk across the stage and hires her prosthetic. |
| ? | gets a part in the TV series "Casablanca" |
| May 53 | she and actor John Carroll are pictured signing up players at Lakeside Country Club for National Golf Day on May 23 |
| September 53 | columnist Jimmy Fidler tells that she will be in the cast of Son of Sinbad together with Katherine Cassidy, top fashion model; Judy Jorell, "Miss Michigan of 1952;" Doreen Woodbury, Australian beauty contest winner; and Jackie Loughery, "Miss U.S.A. 1952." |
| October 55 | is named "Queen of the California Trailer Park Association" |
| End October 55 | she and 14 other actresses are chosen as "WAMPAS Baby Stars of 1956" by a group of veteran actors and actresses, including Ginger Rogers. The other Baby Stars are Fay Spain, 21, Phoenix, Arizona; Barbara Huffman, 21, Tucson, Arizona; Violet Rensing, 24, Berlin, Germany; Dawn Richard, 18, Los Angles, California; Donna Cook, 18, Los Angeles, California; Norma Nillson, 18, Los Angeles, California; Phyllis Applegate, 22, Los Angeles, California; Del-Fin Thursday, 20, Honolulu, Hawaii; Jolene Brand, 21, Baldwin Park, California; Jewell Lain, 24, Indianapolis, Indiana; Lita Milan, 21, Brooklyn, New York; Ina Poindexter, 23, Covington, Tennessee; Doreen Stevens, 21, Atlantic City, New Jersey; and Barbara Marks, 22, San Diego, California. |
| 56 | attends the Deb Star Ball with John Smith |
| March 56 | is a candidate in columnist Earl Wilson’s “Prettiest Girl in America” contest and is named “The Wiggle” by her manager, Abner Greshler, "who figures she can wiggle her way to stardom" |
| April 56 | will make a TV series with the Ritz Brothers |
| June 56 | is pictured teaching Two-Ton Tony Galento, former heavyweight biffer, how to kiss for the camera for his upcoming part of a mobster in a movie |
| 3 December 56 | poses in front of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., with nothing much more than a donkey by the name of Sneaky. "It was near freezing, but Miss Arlen didn't seem to mind as she twirled her transparent cape and posed with Sneaky. Miss Arlen, by the way, is opening in a new play here." |
| 57 | hits the news when rejected trying to attend a fashionable nightclub on the Strip barefoot and in blue jeans |
| January 57 | columnist Aline Mosby predicts for 1957 that Roxanne will pose in a pilgrim dress with a bare midriff carrying a sequined turkey |
| April 57 | is pictured posing outside Los Angeles Superior Court after winning a divorce from Gilman. She testified Gilman "didn't like my wiggle" because it attracted too much attention. He's 23; she's 22. "He kept telling me I was going to be accosted - just because of my wiggle. But I've had this wiggle ever since grade school. At times it has been very embarrassing. But I can't think of any way to get rid of it." But she confirms: "I got a modeling job in a department store back in my home town of Detroit and they fired me the next day because they said I took the customers' attention away from the clothes." |
| ? | producer Al Seldin invites her to New York for a part in his upcoming The Body Beautiful, but after making the trip they decide to use a dancer, which she isn’t, and select Mara Lane instead |
| November 57 | columnist Earl Wilson tells that she settles in New York, "helping to fill Jayne Mansfield's bras, no doubt..." |
| December 57 | producer Leland Hayward interviews her about a part in the Peter Lind Hayes- Mary Healy show Who Was That Lady I Saw You With? She twitters "I'm so nervous, I've been taking tranquilizers." |
| January 58 | her ex-husband, Richard Gilman, Detroit airplane supply salesman, is reported en route to New York, where she’s on stage, to make up |
| February 58 | is heralded “The Wiggle” |
| gets her big start on the Philadelphia stage in Who Was That Lady I Saw You With? |
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| she and Virginia De Luce, the Coogle sisters of Who Was That Lady I Saw You With?, aren't speaking offstage though just two weeks ago they were pals..." |
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| tries to divorce her husband, who flies to Philadelphia to get her back. Her current boyfriend is Bob Owen, a brilliant geologist, currently in Colorado. He’s getting a divorce and they expect to marry. |
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| columnist Earl Wilson reports that she claims a Philadelphia playboy is using voodoo to break up her and an oilman. He told her he’d made a “doll image” of her boyfriend and stuck pins in his eyes and chest. "Her beau has had chest pains, 104 temperature, two teeth pulled and murderous headache. She’s talking of getting an injunction, at least." |
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| columnist Dorothy Kilgallen reports that members of the cast of Who Was That Lady I Saw You With? "are groaning with the temperament of Roxanne Arlen. Her chief target seems to be Virginia De Luce, but wardrobe ladies and others are included in the scene when she's in one of her dark moods..." |
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| April 58 | columnist Earl Wilson reports that after "she stood on her head on Jack Paar's TV show, Roxanne Arlen planted two Douglas fir trees in the subway excavation in front of Lindy's. It was part of the buildup for Oregon's 1958 centennial celebration." |
| May 58 | is invited by New York Yankee star Tony Kubek to the Memorial Day game, but he carefully explains to her: "You understand, Roxanne, during the game I won't be able to sit with you." |
| she has two prominent admirers: songwriter Mac Gordon and Eddie Fisher’s manager, Milton Blackstone |
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| May 58 | Screen Gems will use her in a series due to her success in Who Was That Lady I Saw You With? |
| June 58 | learns that the guy phoning her romantically isn’t the Yankee’s Tony Kubek, but an imposter, and asks for police protection |
| July 58 | says a fur jacket was stolen from her dressing room "but I can't get the police interested" |
| August 58 | is seen at Sardi's with dress designer Elgee Bove |
| September 58 | will study psychology at Columbia University |
| November 58 | columnist Earl Wilson writes "we hear Roxanne Arlen's marrying a doctor just to get her shots free..." |
| turns down Tina Louise's role in the road company of L'il Abner "because she figures Broadway needs her" |
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| 29 January 59 | is reported at New York's Bellevue Hospital recovering from an overdose of sleeping pills. She is in a good condition. |
| February 59 | says at Chez Vito that she has starring offers from London |
| March 59 | gets her big break on "The United States Steel Hour" as a stripper with Tom Ewell and June Lockhart |
| June 59 | Ben Hecht will do a show for her |
| July 59 | Wilson reports that Joe E. Lewis tells her and Marilyn Mitchell that "it's true he once refused a drink - he misunderstood the question..." |
| September 59 | leaves the employment insurance line when hearing Columbia Pictures is seeking her for a job |
| along with Arlene Dahl, Terry Moore, Rhonda Fleming, and Dina Merrill, she is considered for the lead in Strawberry Blond. Dolores Dorn-Heft gets the part. |
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| October 59 | columnist Earl Wilson reports that "Freddie (Lover Boy) Robbins is wearing Roxanne Arlen on his arm..." |
| Wilson reports her lunching at the Brasserie with his wife discussing "his crazy ambition - to have an apartment with a terrace" |
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| December 59 | is chosen Queen of the Lake Placid Winter Carnival |
| Late April 60 | Wilson meets her and Sabrina at Fred Sessler's party at the Essex House dunking "three meatballs in red shrimp sauce. Mustard all gone." |
| January 61 | is an item with Phil Baird |
| her three changes of costume almost knock the shooting schedule of "The Roaring Twenties" segment "Bold Edition" into a cocked hat |
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| July 61 | is on stage at the Sacramento Music Circus with The Boy Friend |
| August 61 | columnist Lee Mortimer asks "Has Bob Taylor's TV partner, Mark Goddard, switched to Roxanne Arlen or did I ask that already?..." |
| January 62 | is reported having returned to Hollywood for a "The Roaring Twenties" drama after appearing in Take Me For an Angel at the Casa Manana Theater in Forth Worth, Texas |
| April 62 | will be Queen of the Las Vegas Tournament of Champions taking place May 3 to 6 |
| 9 April 62 | appears on the Oscar cast in an old Marlene Dietrich gown by designer Don Feld |
| December 64 | columnist Earl Wilson notes her and fellow actresses Barbara Nichols, Eileen O'Neill, and Barbara Hines at a party celebrating the completion of Marty Ransohoff's upcoming The Loved One |
| February 69 | marries Miami retailer Bill Shaffer |
| ? | her daughter is born |
| May 70 | is in a John Kenley production of Gypsy at the Plaza Hotel in Miami. Jean Kent stars. |
| February 71 | columnist Earl Wilson reports that "Roxanne Arlen of Miami, her husband, store manager Bill Shaffer, and small daughter miraculous escaped from death when their car turned over four times and burned on Sunshine Parkway" |
| 22 February 89 | dies at age 58 in London, England |
| Sources: The Daily Intelligencer, The Fresno Bee, The Lima News, Nevada State Journal, Parade, Winnipeg Free Press, Long Beach Press-Telegram, The Newark Advocate, San Mateo Times, The Daily Review, The Odessa American, The Hammond Times, Syracuse Herald-Journal, The Times Recorder, The Coshocton Tribune, The Holland Evening Sentinel, Kingsport News, Independent Star-News, The Daily Intelligencer, Bucks County Courier Times, The Lowell Sun, www.IMDb.com, pro.Corbis.com | |
| Recommended Books: Fifties Blondes by Richard Koper | |
| Links: Filmography | |