Diana Mumby(1922-1974)
- Actress
'Blonde Bombshells' are described as curvaceous and somewhat statuesque blondes who appeared onscreen as ingenues or femme fatales, and before the days of Marilyn Monroe and Cleo Moore we had Diana Mumby. She didn't achieve the same fame as someone like Betty Grable who she was almost identical to, but she tried just as hard and did a lot of movies that were popular with audiences. She first made headlines at the age of seven when her father kidnapped her and sailed to Australia. He was later extradited with Diana being safely returned to her mother. It wasn't until getting her diploma that she appeared in Earl Carroll's Vanities, an onstage revue with a hundred or so entertainers. Diana was merely a showgirl, but the exposure got her in magazines like Life, Eyeful, and Yank. She got into movies like Up in Arms (1944), George White's Scandals (1945), and Cinderella Jones (1946) where she was usually cast as models, showgirls, and chorines. Rosalee Calvert was her co-star in Sound Off (1952), and she told me days before her death that Diana "would do anything with men to get into the movies".
Samuel Goldwyn of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer saw her onscreen and offered her a contract as one of his new generation of chorus girls known as 'Goldwyn Girls'. Diana accepted the offer along with Mary Ellen Gleason, Martha Montgomery, Mary Brewer, Karen X. Gaylord, and Irene Vernon. These six lovelies did a post-war tour in Europe and appeared together in The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (1947). They became good friends and kept in touch their entire lives, even doing a televised reunion on Family Feud in the 1970s. She was cast in Lady Luck (1946) after a director saw her lounging by a pool, and even had a prolific role in G. I Jane (1951). She did The Las Vegas Story (1952) with Mamie Van Doren who described her as "... so sweet and genuine" and Son of Sinbad (1955) where she's seen watching Sally Forrest seducing Dale Robertson before the Mongols invade.
This once-promising 5'7" blonde's career took a nosedive after being overshadowed by younger blondes like Jayne Mansfield and Joi Lansing with the latter even replacing her on a television series she co-hosted titled Backstage. It was the beginning of the end for her in the movies, and after a role in The Harder They Fall (1956) she stopped acting entirely. This twice-divorced starlet wed a man named James Hernandez. They had a son named James.
Samuel Goldwyn of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer saw her onscreen and offered her a contract as one of his new generation of chorus girls known as 'Goldwyn Girls'. Diana accepted the offer along with Mary Ellen Gleason, Martha Montgomery, Mary Brewer, Karen X. Gaylord, and Irene Vernon. These six lovelies did a post-war tour in Europe and appeared together in The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (1947). They became good friends and kept in touch their entire lives, even doing a televised reunion on Family Feud in the 1970s. She was cast in Lady Luck (1946) after a director saw her lounging by a pool, and even had a prolific role in G. I Jane (1951). She did The Las Vegas Story (1952) with Mamie Van Doren who described her as "... so sweet and genuine" and Son of Sinbad (1955) where she's seen watching Sally Forrest seducing Dale Robertson before the Mongols invade.
This once-promising 5'7" blonde's career took a nosedive after being overshadowed by younger blondes like Jayne Mansfield and Joi Lansing with the latter even replacing her on a television series she co-hosted titled Backstage. It was the beginning of the end for her in the movies, and after a role in The Harder They Fall (1956) she stopped acting entirely. This twice-divorced starlet wed a man named James Hernandez. They had a son named James.
