“DONA DRAKE: WHAT PRICE FAME” (027)

From Beneath the Hollywood Sign

EPISODE 27 - “Dona Drake: What Price Fame” - 03/18/2024

Latina star DONA DRAKE, who signed a contract with Paramount Pictures in 1941, was many things — singer, dancer, actress, bandleader, musician — but one thing she wasn’t, as it turned out, was Latin! While Paramount promoted their new discovery as a spitfire Latina born in Mexico City, Drake was, in fact, an African-American woman from Florida who pretended to be Latin, going so far as to learn Spanish fluently, in order to have a better chance at a Hollywood career. Listen to this fascinating story of one woman who went undercover just so she wouldn’t have to play the maid.

SHOW NOTES:

Sources:

Biography of Dona Drake (Paramount Contact Player), September 1942, Paramount Studios;

“Dona Drake Tells Marriage,” September 9, 1944, by Hedda Hopper, The Los Angeles Times;

“Daughter Born to Dona Drake,” August 8, 1951, The Hollywood Citizen-News;

www.swingcityradio,com;

www.glamourgirlsofthesilverscreen.com;

IMDBPro.com;

Wikipedia.com;

Movies Mentioned:

Strike Me Pink (1936), starring Eddie Cantor, Ethel Merman, Sally Eilers, and William Frawley;

Aloma Of The South Seas (1941), starring Dorothy Lamour, Jon Hall;

Louisiana Purchase (1941), starring Bob Hope, Vera Zorina, and Victor Moore;

Road to Morocco (1942), starring Bob Hope, Bing Crosby, and Dorothy Lamour;

Star Spangled Rhythm (1942), starring Bob Hope, Bing Crosby, Dorothy Lamour, Fred MacMurray, Paulette Goddard, Dick Powell, Eddie Bracken, Alan Ladd, Mary Martin, Betty Hutton, Marjorie Reynolds, and Veronica Lake;

Salute For Three (1943), starring Macdonald Carey and Betty Jane Rhodes;

Let's Face It (1943), staring Bob Hope, Betty Hutton, and Eve Arden;

Hot Rhythm (1944), starring Robert Lowery, Tim Ryan, and Irene Ryan;

Without Reservations (1946), starring John Wayne, Claudette Colbert, and Don DeFoe;

Dangerous Millions (1946), starring Kent Taylor;

Another Part of The Forest (1948), starring Fredric March, Dan Duryea, Edmond O’Brien, Ann Blyth, Florence Eldridge, John Dall, and Betsy Blair;

So This Is New York (1948), starring Henry Morgan, Rudy Vallee, and Virginia Grey;

Beyond The Forest (1949), starring Bette Davis, Joseph Cotten, David Brian, Ruth Roman;

The Girl From Jones Beach (1949), starring Virginia Mayo, Ronald Reagan, and Eddie Bracken;

Kansas City Confidential (1952), starring John Payne, Colleen Gray, and Preston Foster;

The Bandits of Corsica (1953), starring Richard Greene, Paula Raymond, Raymond Burr;

Son Of Belle Star (1953), starring Keith Larsen, Peggie Castle, and Regis Toomey;

Down Laredo Way (1953) starring Rex Allen and Slim Pickens;

Princess of the Nile (1954), starring Debra Paget, Jeffrey Hunter, and Michael Rennie;

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