Lupe Velez was born Maria Guadalupe de Villalobos July 18, 1908, in the tiny Mexican town of San Luis de Potosi. That very day, the village was devastated by a hurricane.
Lupe's father was a colonel in Porfirio Diaz's army. Growing up amid revolutions, the little girl acquired a taste for violence early on. At 13, the turbulent. pretty child was packed off to Our Lady of the Lake Convent School in San Antonio, Texas, which did little to stifle her rebellious nature.
When she was 15, Lupe's father died, and she landed back with her family in Mexico City. There, she began working at the Nacionel Department Store. Saving some of her $4 per week salary for dancing lessons, Lupe turned over most of her pay to her poor family.
At 16, Velez made a theatrical debut at the Teatro Principal where she was spotted by a Mexican producer who was charmed by her vibrant personality and dancing ability, and hired her for his musical revue, Ra-Ta-Plan. Lupe soon supplemented her income by appearing in short Mexican films and dancing in cheap burlesque houses. Mama Velez, a prostitute who Lupe claimed was once a diva with the Mexico City Opera, sometimes sold her daughter for the evening to the highest bidder, often for thousands of pesos.
One day a family friend introduced Lupe to American matinee idol Richard Bennett, whose daughters Barbara, Constance and Joan became movie stars. Bennett invited Velez to appear in a play in Hollywood. Arriving after many delays, Lupe was robbed of all her money the moment she stepped off the train. Finally, reaching the theatre, she was dismissed from the show for looking too young. Alone and broke, she found a part in a policeman's benefit show. There, Lupe was discovered by a producer who cast her in Fanny Brice's Music Box Revue.
Soon, Velez was hired by the Pathe' Studios for their 'Bathing Beauty' comedies and made her debut in a comedy short titled What Men Did To Me (1927). She was 19 years old. One day that year, a talent scout brought Lupe and her Chihuahua to meet powerful movie star Douglas Fairbanks in order to win a role in his elaborate new film, The Gaucho (1928), which was to be shot in black and white with color sequences. At first, Fairbanks thought Lupe too languid for the vivacious part. During the interview, a stagehand 'stole' her dog as a prank. When Velez, barely five feet tall, discovered this, she beat the man mercilessly. Impressed, Douglas hired Lupe and gave her a five-year contract at his studio, United Artists.
Lupe became a star seemingly overnight, and was highly praised for her comedic and singing talents, athleticism, and beauty. She interspersed her movie career with New York stage appearances which included Hot-Cha, Strike Me Pink, and Transatlantic Rhythm.
Velez's brief affair with Douglas Fairbanks accelerated the breakup of his famous union with Mary Pickford. Lupe's further affairs were legendary. Her men included Tom Mix, Clark Gable, Russ Columbo, John Gilbert, Jack Dempsey, Jimmy Durante, and Charlie Chaplin.
Velez's tempestuous liaison with Gary Cooper drove the tall, handsome actor to lose 40 pounds and suffer a nervous breakdown. Their three-year relationship was marked with brawls and rages. They would have married, if not for the vehement disapproval of Cooper's mother. Finally, when Gary was boarding the Twentieth Century train to Chicago, vengeful Lupe arrived, pulled a gun and shot several times at her lover, narrowly missing his head. Cooper dove into the car and Velez quickly stormed out of the station, swearing at her lack of marksmanship and escaping arrest.
On July 24, 1934, Lupe married handsome Tarzan star Johnny Weismuller. Their union was ferocious, and famed for its public scenes. Johnny was the one who always ended up bruised, bitten, and beaten to a pulp during their five years together.
In 1944, Lupe, now known as 'The Mexican Spitfire' due to a popular series of movies incorporating that name which she made from 1940-1942, found herself pregnant by Harald Ramond, a dark, handsome French drifter and bit-part actor. She planned a wedding, and became distraught when he would not marry her. A devout Catholic, Lupe felt having a child out of wedlock would be humiliating, and abortion out of the question. Instead, she decided to kill herself—glamorously, of course.
At her elegant home in Beverly Hills, Casa Felicitas, she filled her 30-foot white bedroom with hundreds of fragrant gardenias and tuberoses. Dozens of lit candles flickered against the mirrored walls and white satin drapes as the gorgeously coiffed and manicured Lupe donned her favorite blue satin pajamas. Swallowing 75 illegal Seconals imported from Mexico and washing them down with brandy, Velez laid on her gigantic bed, framed by a silver, gold, and black rainbow-shaped headboard. There, she fell asleep to face blessed eternity.
During the night, however, her spicy dinner, combined with her final dessert, awoke the beauty. Violently ill, teetering to the washroom, she slipped on the tiles and plunged head first into her Egyptian chartreuse onyx Hush Flush Model DeLuxe Commode, broke her neck and drowned Dec. 14, 1944.
Lupe's funeral in Mexico City attracted over 4,000 mourners striving for a closer look at the star. Cemetery monuments were knocked over and many people were injured in an hysterical rush. Her sister Reyna fainted and was trampled by the crowd. However, little Lupe was at peace.
Some of Lupe Velez's best films include Lady of the Pavements (1929), Hell Harbor (1930), Hot Pepper (1933), Hollywood Party (1934), The Morals of Marcus (1936), La Zandunga (1938), The Girl From Mexico (1939), Mexican Spitfire (1940), Six Lessons From Madame La Zonga (1941), and Ladies Day (1943).
Sources: Lupe Velez and her Lovers by Floyd Connor; They Had Faces Then by John Springer and Jack D. Hamilton; Hollywood Babylon by Kenneth Anger; Movie Time by Gene Brown; Lupe Velez Web sites.
Steve Starr is the author of 'Picture Perfect'—Deco Photo Frames 1926-1946, published by Rizzoli International Publications. A designer and an artist, he is the owner of Steve Starr Studios, specializing in original Art Deco photo frames, jewelry, and furnishings, and celebrating its 37th anniversary in 2004.
Visit the glamorous studio at 2779 N. Lincoln Avenue in Chicago where adorning the walls is Steve Starr's personal collection of over 950 gorgeous frames filled with photos of Hollywood's most elegant stars.
Photo of Steve Starr July 25, 2002, by Albert Aguilar
You may email Steve at SSSChicago@ameritech.net
A version of this column first appeared April 7, 1999, in Outlines Newspaper.
