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Leslie Brooks Profile
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Photo gallery |
| (Virginia Leslie Gettman) |
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| 13 July 22 | is born in Lincoln, Nebraska |
| 38-39 | attends Hollywood High School, majoring in algebra and English, and sings with the school's glee club, as do her classmates Sheila Ryan and Susan Peters |
| ? | is a photographer's model |
| June 41 | as Lorraine Gettman, she is one of six starlets widely advertised as "The Navy Blues Sextet," for Navy Blues. The six beauties, including Marguerite Chapman, Claire James, Peggy Diggins, Kay Aldridge, and Georgia Carroll, are sent to Honolulu for the world premiere, then return to the mainland to make a cross-country junket, starting in Dallas, Texas, and ending in New York City, where Sherman Billingsley gives them a well-publicized party at his famous Stork Club. |
| 42 | signs with Columbia, goes from brunette to blonde, and becomes Leslie Brooks |
| July 42 | is cited Exhibit A by the California Models Guild in passing a resolution condemning the issuance of two girdles apiece as regular equipment to members of the Women's Auxiliary Army Corps. The Hollywood group says proper exercise and diet would give WAAC women hip lines like those of Leslie. |
| November 42 | is chosen "Hurrell Girl" for the duration of photographer George Hurrell's time in the army |
| columnist Walter Winchell reports that she is courted by actor Edmund O'Brien |
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| 43 | is on the cover of The National Police Gazette |
| June 43 | columnist Jimmy Fidler thinks wedding bells will ring for her and Alex Schulman of the Army Medical Corps |
| August 43 | Winchell expects her to marry Schulman |
| November 43 | a pinup in syndicated newspapers shows her pasting war savings stamps on Hitler's map of Europe. The headline reads "Stamping Out the Fuehrer." |
| February 44 | is heralded having the "most beautiful legs in America" by the Hosiery Designers of America |
| 7 April 44 | is on the cover of Yank, the Army Weekly |
| May 44 | is selected to reign as "Posture Queen of 1944" during National Posture Week, May 1 to 6 |
| is reported romantic with Lieutenant William Middledorf, Air Force officer on leave from the South Pacific |
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| 6 / 7 January 45 | marries Donald Anthony Shay, actor and ex-marine, in Beverly Hills. He's 24; she's 22. Shay, recently discharged after an illness, served 24 months in the South Pacific. The ceremony is performed by Judge Charles J. Griffin. |
| the Shays honeymoon in Palm Springs |
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| July 45 | expects a baby. She and Shay live in a rented room because they can find nothing else. |
| 8 November 45 | her daughter Leslie Victoria is born in Los Angeles |
| 8 August 46 | is around to pose for publicity pictures when a 1911 locomobile labors into Los Angeles, 15 days out of Boston. Her studio will use the car in an upcoming motion picture. |
| November 46 | is selected as the girl with the "most beautiful figure" by the International Mathematics Society |
| 15 December 47 | she and Shay separate |
| c. 48 | meets her future husband, actor Russ Vincent, while filming Blonde Ice |
| February 48 | she and Columbia part company. She is heralded to be the lead in the upcoming action-thriller Dynamite. |
| ? | files for divorce from Shay |
| 19 July 48 | hits the news battling for custody of her two-and-a-half year-old daughter, Victoria, in court in Los Angeles. Her estranged husband, Shay, alleges his wife gave the child intoxicants at parties. His brother, Jack, testifies Victoria had "seven or eight swallows" from her mother's glass at a party and was "very cute and dizzy." Leslie denies this but admits giving the daughter an occasional sip of beer diluted in water. "Beer is not good for babies," Superior Judge Mildred L. Lillie tells her. Victoria's paternal grandmother, Mrs. Alice Shay, is given custody of the girl until Leslie hires a competent nurse housekeeper. Shay is directed to pay $350 monthly for support of his wife and child pending trial of the divorce suit. |
| 11 November 48 | is granted divorce from Shay in Los Angeles. Superior Judge Ingall W. Bull says about Shay: "This court has no doubt but that this is a case in which a worthless husband used the love of a mother for a child to extort money from the mother. Certainly the husband is guilty of a criminal conspiracy." The whereabouts of Shay and his 3-year-old daughter is unknown, his attorney says. A warrant is outstanding against Shay, charging he took the child last July when Leslie had custody pending the divorce trial. Bull gives Leslie an order for full custody of Victoria. She is also granted $100 a month child support, $200 a month alimony and title to all community property. |
| 15 December 49 | receives her final divorce decree but still hasn't found her 4-year-old daughter. Her attorney says that Shay is believed to have taken the child to New Zealand. Shay also is missing. |
| 50 | marries Russ Vincent. He will become a successful Hollywood land developer. |
| 18 August 54 | her daughter Dorena Marla is born in Los Angeles |
| 6 April 56 | her daughter Gina L. is born in Los Angeles |
| 30 April 60 | her daughter Darla R. is born in Los Angeles |
| ? | lives with her family in Hawaii |
| 09 | as Virginia L. Vincent, she lives with her family in Sherman Oaks, California |
| 1 July 11 | as Virginia Vincent she dies at age 88 in Sherman Oaks |
| Sources: Samuel Clemens, Kirk Crivello, Syracuse Herald-American, The Lowell Sun, Reno Evening Gazette, The Portsmouth Herald, Nevada State Journal, Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune, The Lima News, The Vidette-Messenger, Joplin Globe, Pottstown Mercury, Walla Walla Union-Bulletin, www.IMDb.com, www.Ancestry.com | |
| Recommended Books: The Whistler by Dan Van Neste | |
| Links: Filmography | |