This glamorous and hugely popular actress raised herself from brutal poverty to Academy Award-winning stardom by guts, determination and hard work. During her fifty-year career, she made over eighty films. But her obsessive perfectionism led to the later caricature of coat-hanger-wielding harridan that even the adoration of fans could not counter. Still, she has endured as one of the most popular icons of the movies, an early role model to a million young women who aspired to her image of stylish magnetic power and unquestioned independence. She was born Lucille LeSueur on March 23, 1904 (or 1906) in San Antonio, Texas. Her father soon disappeared and she took the name of her stepfather, calling herself Billie Cassin. When Cassin, too, vanished, Billie did menial work to help her mother and brother survive. Ill-paid sales jobs bought dancing lessons and the clothes she needed to enter amateur contests. Then came a night-club contract as chorus girl - $25-a-week and eight routines a nig
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Amazon Video on Demand
Length: 55:00 Posted: 10/26/2009
