Jinx Falkenberg

[FedoraFan112390]

Hey

Don't know how many of you know of Jinx Falkenburg, but she was a big model and actress during the 30s, 40s and entertained at many a USO event during the war. I figured I'd show you some pix we found of my grandfather and another woman named Heddy LaMarr (not sure if famous or not). As you can tell by the shirtless and pantsless appearence of one of the soldiers, some hanky panky might've been foot, given the fact these pictures were taken in October and November 1942, a pretty conservative time yet here's this troop sitting in front of these ladies wearing only a towel.

In all the pictures, my grandfather is the one with Jinx and Heddy, for example he's the guy with both girls on each arm in the first picture. He was on leave waiting to be sent back to the Panama Canal (Fort Kobbe) and the next year was sent to Europe to fight.

My grandpa is the man on the right in this one.

 

[KilroyCD]

Those are great photos! Jinx Falkenberg is one of my favourites from that era.

I figured I'd show you some pix we found of my grandfather and another woman named Heddy LaMarr (not sure if famous or not).

Hedy Lamarr was indeed very famous. Not only was she an "A"-list actress in the 1930s and 40s, but also is a co-inventor of a radio controlled torpedo system.
http://images.google.com/imgres?img...ages?q=hedy+lamarr&um=1&hl=en&sa=X&tbs=isch:1

Hedy Lamarr

 

[dhermann1]

Hedy Lamarr was a GODDESS! Go find the film "Algiers", with her and Charles Boyer. Right up there with "Casablanca", in my opinion.
Jinx Falkenberg was big in very early TV as well. She and her husband, Tex McCrary had a show starting on radio, and moving onto TV a few years later. Tex McCrary was a very interesting man indeed. Everybody knew who "Tex and Jinx" were in the early 50's.
Cool pics!!!

 

[Fletch]

T & J got into TV in 1947 with NBC, who liked them enough to put them in 3 different formats, one prefilmed (yes, of course the films are gone).

One show was the first sponsored daytime network program - network meaning the 4 or 5 stations of NBC at the time. (This was a good year before anybody had a TV, or knew anybody who had one.)

Swift Meats sponsored the show, a noontime gig, where Jinx would show home hints and Tex would make and eat lunch. The Swift people always insisted on mayonnaise as part of the lunch, and with temps under the lights going 100° or better, the stuff could spoil in minutes. Tex needed a bucket close by - sometimes the second he went off camera!

Tex had been on both fronts in WW2, by the way, went back and fought in Korea, then got into the news game. He apparently was the Isham Jones of broadcast news, relying on young reporters and teaching them the trade by constantly blowing his top. That's how Bill Safire and Barbara Walters, among others, got started.

 

[dhermann1]

More Tex and Jinx

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/15/opinion/of-tex-and-jinx.html?pagewanted=1

 

[The Wolf]

The naked guy in the first photo looks like one of the Ritz Brothers (Harry?).

Sincerely,
The Wolf

 

[FedoraFan112390]

I wonder if this event or events (as one of my grandpa's pictures says October 1942 on the back, the other November 1942), seeing as there were BIG stars there (LaMarr, Falkenberg, Ritz and maybe others) was captured on film? I mean video.

 

[Tomasso]

I always thought that was a cool name; Jinx Falkenberg.






Sorry, that's all I got.....

 

[Marc Chevalier]

.





I read Jinx Falkenberg's autobiography a few years back. (Somebody had to.)


Jinx spent a good portion of her preteen and teenage years living in Santiago, Chile. Became a champion swimmer there, in fact.



.

 

[The Wolf]

The other lady doesn't look like Hedy Lamarr to me.
I also noticed that the second picture has her labelled as Barbara.
Does anyone know who she might be?

Sincerely,
The Wolf

 

[FedoraFan112390]

The other lady doesn't look like Hedy Lamarr to me.
I also noticed that the second picture has her labelled as Barbara.
Does anyone know who she might be?

Sincerely,
The Wolf

On the back of the photo she's labelled as "Barbara Lamarr" Maybe my grandfather got mistaken, or maybe Hedy introduced herself as Barbara--she did take the last name Lamarr in honor of the '20s actress Barbara Lamarr. He sent these photos home to his sister (Many of the photos say in a different handwriting than my grandfather's ''Received such and such date"), and perhaps in the turmoil of the war confused the name Hedy with the name Barbara--both well known actresses with the same last name, and his sister wrote Barbara on the front, and Tony (my grandpa's name) next to it--My grandpa wouldn't have referred to himself in third person.

You have to remember too that many of the professional pix of her we see now were touched up, well lit to accentuate her features and she probably wore tons of makeup in her studio shots. These look like they were taken by a friend of his or another troop; No dynamic lighting to accent Hedy's features, and maybe she wasn't wearing too much makeup. Her features--the eyes, the nose, the hair, are the same though.

 

[Avalon]

I have a photo of my grandfather from his WWII days. His unit was posing with a starlet; family legend goes that it's Jinx but we could never be sure. What say you kids?

Extreme closeup (yup, that's Papa, front and center as always):

 

[Fleur De Guerre]

That's definitely not Hedy Lamarr! I've seen lots of candid photos away from lights and retouching - it looks nothing like her! However I do love Jinx Falkenberg, I have a postcard of her:

But your genuine photos are absolutely fantastic!

 

[MikeBravo]

Yes, Hedy Lamar was one of the great screen actresses

Not to be confused with Hedley Lamarr of Blazing Saddles fame

 

[savoy6]

Hedy's ideas for channel hopping were and are used for more than guidance...even todays frequency hopping and satelite burst encrypted military communications all stem directly from her initial ideas..:eusa_clap