6. The makeover of female stars was a tool of Hollywood producers
Often a young woman arriving in Hollywood found herself subjected to being made-over by a producer who was intent on acquiring a new actress to counter a recently discovered starlet at a competing studio. In 1925 a young dancer and actress named Lucille LeSeuer was hired to work as a body double for Norma Shearer, a popular star for MGM. After several similar roles Louis B. Mayer, the iron-fisted head of MGM, demanded that she arrive at a new name, claiming that her birth name reminded him of a sewer. She became Joan Crawford. At least she wasn’t required to change her appearance as well, as happened with Margarita Cansino. Margarita required a change of hair color and several treatments to alter her hairline, as well as adjustments to other physical attributes. Her talent, such as her dancing ability, was deemed satisfactory by studio head Harry Cohn at Columbia Pictures, though he had her name changed to Rita Hayworth.
Male stars too were often told to change their names, and while changes to their physical appearance were not as frequent, many were told to wear elevated shoes to increase their height on film. Marion Morrison became John Wayne. Archibald Leach, an English-born dancer and acrobat, became Cary Grant. Yet women’s names were changed far more often than their male counterparts, as were hairstyles and color, and other facets of their appearance, at the whim of male studio heads, producers, or directors. Constance Francis Ockelman became Veronica Lake at the command of producer Arthur Hornblow after a theater critic drew attention to her by calling her a “fetching little trick” in The Los Angeles Times. Director Howard Hawks took over the career of a young actress named Betty Joan Perske, and changed her name to Lauren Bacall, though his attempts to seduce her in the process were blocked by mutual interest between her and actor Humphrey Bogart, 25 years her senior.