6. When America’s Favorite Teenager Began to Buck at the Restrictions Imposed Upon Her
Julia Jean Turner was fifteen-years-old when she skipped school one day in 1936 to buy a Coca-Cola at LA’s Sunset Boulevard. Her good looks attracted the attention of a Hollywood reporter, who asked if she was interested in becoming an actress. She replied: “I’ll have to ask my mother first“. Turner’s mother, ill and broke, jumped at the chance and had her daughter sign up with Warner Bros. Studios. Within a few months, the novice actress was given the screen name Lana Turner, and became a hit. The studio realized that it had struck gold with the teenager. So it went out of its way to protect Turner’s public image, and packaged and presented her as a wholesome, good American girl.
The new actress’ employers even hired chaperons to accompany her wherever she went. Unsurprisingly, the restrictions eventually began to chafe at the teenage starlet, and she started to push back. Turner came to resent the bubble in which she was confined by MGM Studios, which took over her contract from Warner Bros. in 1938. As an escape, America’s favorite good girl began to party hard and developed a taste for bad boys. As seen below, the degree of badness grew over the years, as Turner gradually worked her way from Hollywood tough guy poseurs to straight-up mobsters.
