View From the Phlipside - RIP Jane Russell

My name is Jay Phillippi and I've spent my life in and around the media.  TV, radio, the movies and more.  I love them, and I hate them and I always have an opinion.  Call this the View from the Phlipside.

Time to note the passing of another great figure from the world of the media.  And in this case figure is the absolute correct term to use.  Movie star and siren of the silver screen Jane Russell passed away on Monday following a brief illness.

Russell was born in Minnesota bearing the rather cumbersome name of Ernestine Jane Geraldine Russell.  Her family moved to California where she was discovered while working as a model and receptionist.  What happened next would change the movie industry forever.

Her first role was as Rio the sultry western girlfriend for Billy the Kid in the movie "The Outlaw".  Produced and directed by Howard Hughes it spent as much time as possible showing off Russell's considerable physical assets.  The movie made a star of Russell and was a box office hit.  Debuting right before the start of World War II she became one of the top pin up girls for American GIs through the war.  The office of the Production Code, the precursor to the modern rating system and supposed guardian of the nations cinematic morals, was not as impressed.  Hughes refused to back down, featured Russell in an aggressive ad campaign that featured what were considered pretty salacious photos for the time.  In the end Hughes won and the Production Code would begin a slow decline towards elimination in the '60s.

But Jane Russell was more than just an gorgeous physical specimen.  What made her special among all the bombshells of the time was her ability to be both extremely sexy and  completely unimpressed by her own sexiness.  That wry, tongue in cheek attitude made Jane something else entirely.  Add in her ability to sing and she had the makings of a whole new kind of female star.  You get a little bit of a look at what that might have been in "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" where she starred opposite Marilyn Monroe.  She did a couple small sorties into the musical world singing with the Kay Kyser orchestra for a while as well.  Unfortunately Hollywood only had eyes for her body and she never got to make the movies she wanted  to make.  Politically conservative and religious throughout her life she never really liked the bombshell part of her past.

I hope that I won't diminish the great lady's memory by saying that while I wish she'd been given the chance to be more than she was, Jane Russell was truly legendary just the way she was.

Jane Russell was 89 years old.

Call that the View From the Phlipside

"The View From the Phlipside" airs on WRFA-LP Jamestown NY.  You can listen to WRFA online HERE
Copyright - Jay Phillippi 2011