Today marks what would have been the 91st birthday of actress Jean Hagen. Her name may not be remembered today, but her most famous role, Lina Lamont in "Singin' in the Rain," still wows 'em! When we first meet Lina, we see a very glamorous platinum haired beauty, who seems both shy and demure…until she opens her mouth.
A behind-the-scenes shot of Hagen in makeup for the film; sure would love to know what's going through the mind of the assistant on the right of this image.
A publicity still showing the film within the film being shot with Gene Kelly and Jean.
A closeup of the ginormous corsage on her dress that would eventually be used to hide the microphone when the silent film "The Dueling Cavalier" was to be converted to sound.
A clip of the classic scene where Lina meets with her diction coach (expertly played by Kathleen Freeman) in a vain attempt to improve her voice:
Oblivious to the shrill quality of her voice, Lina loves how she sounds in the premiere as the rest of the audience cringes.
Sadly, Hagen passed away from esophageal cancer at the young age of 54, without ever having any leading roles that allowed her talents to shine as much as they did in this 1952 classic.
54 years ago today, Hawaii's own eight-year-old Raymond Sleeper became the 10-millionth Disneyland Railroad passenger. He took this historic ride with Walt Disney himself, as well as R.G. Rydin, Atchison, Topeka, & Santa Fe Executive Vice President. Walt is seen here sifting through the 10,000 pennies in a presentation boxcar that Raymond was awarded. I hope he invested it wisely!
A color shot from my collection of this momentous occasion:
From the original Disneyland photo history blog that started the whole durn thing here comes this shot that also shows Cast Member favorite Engineer Bill (Bill Stulla) aboard the Ernest S. Marsh:
Hope you are having a fantastic Sunday!
See more Daveland Movie photos at my main website.
