I don’t know who the actress from the 1940’s is that I find most attractive because I have never sat around trying to figure that out.  Which is strange because that seems exactly like the sort of thing I would sit around doing.  But I haven’t.  If I had to go out on a limb though I’d say there’s a good chance it is Veronica Lake.  She is gorgeous and honestly I am a bit of a sucker for a tragedy.  And man, was she a tragedy.  She was very much a Hollywood cliche in that she followed in the footsteps of many of the leading sex symbols who came before her, since I figure many of you don’t even know who she is I’ll share the tale as briefly as I can.  I figure most people just skip over what I write anyway.  She was discovered at 18 because girls were always discovered as teenagers then and already ticked off a lot of the bullet points that were needed for the cliched ending we’re heading towards, she came from an abusive household, her father was dead, her mother was domineering and controlling and the terror of a stage mother we all have heard about.  She was a major star before 20 and began to very quickly struggle with alcoholism.  She struggled with mental illness.  She had a reputation for being a huge bitch which given that she was an alcoholic with mental illness it isn’t exactly surprising she might have had moments that people found off putting.  Of course, this is where I am always torn in the history because she was kicked out of Catholic School for being “too rebellious” which means in my mind one of two things, either she was trouble and we see that in all the tales of her raging bitchdom or she was someone who thought for herself and thus was a woman who “didn’t know her place” in the world of the 1940’s.  I suppose it could be both.  Anyway, she made some pretty awesome movies in the 40’s with Alan Ladd because she wasn’t even 5 feet tall and they needed someone to make him look not so short on screen.  He was also a big time drinker.  She lost children, she lost friendships and at 27 she was a has been. This is in part because a lot of people found her hard to work with and in part because as a society we can really be just a bag full of dicks sometimes when it comes to famous people.  We get tired of them.  Especially women.  And while it’s bad today, it was terrible then, a female star was too old to matter by her late 20’s and typically driven out of the limelight by the unforgiving studio system.  She faded into almost nothingness and died of hepatitis and kidney problems in the 3arly 70’s at 50.  It is sad because she was in a bunch of good movies and she had an ability to be cold and charismatic at the same time on the screen.  But really it’s sad because it’s someone who was chewed up and spit out before the eyes of millions and no one really cared.  Which is a pretty melancholy way to end this but you know, it’s 5 in the morning, I am too tired to be chipper and sometimes there just isn’t a happy ending.  She was beautiful though and so today I want to fuck Veronica Lake.