June Martel
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June Martel (November 19, 1909-November 23, 1978) was a singer and a stage and motion picture actress from Chicago, Illinois. She was a petite brunette who weighed only a bit more than one hundred pounds.
[edit] Singer and actress
Her career began as a singer in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Martel was in the cast of the Broadway (Manhattan) play, Snatch as Snatch Can, in May 1934. Other actors paired with her included Barton MacLane. Her first film role was in Front Page Woman (1935) followed by Going Highbrow (1935). The latter starred Guy Kibbee. She was the female lead in Fighting Youth (1935). Playing the part of Betty Wilson, Martel starred opposite Charles Farrell and Andy Devine. The movie combined football excitement with the influence of communism on college athletics.
Martel was signed by Harry Warner of Warner Brothers in 1935. Other aspiring Warners' actresses were Olivia de Haviland, June Grabiner, Nan Gray, and Dorothy Dare. By August 1936 she had become the property of Paramount Pictures. The studio cast her as the ingenue in American Plan. The story concerned a girl who inherits a newspaper. The film was adapted from an unpublished play by Manny Seff and Milton Lazarus.
Martel's final screen roles came in the late 1930s, in western films. Among these are Forlorn River (1937), Wild Horse Rodeo (1937), and Santa Fe Stampede (1938).
[edit] Personal life
She collected odd pieces of jewelry and had amassed a small trunkload of items by 1937. In February 1941 Martel married actor/screenwriter Frank Fenton. Fenton was also a scenarist and magazine writer. Her first husband was Walter J. Klavun, a Yale University graduate, whom she divorced in Mexico in 1938.
June Martel died in 1978 in Los Angeles County, California.
[edit] References
- Los Angeles Times, News Notes of Broadway Stage, May 29, 1934, Page 10.
- Los Angeles Times, June Martel In New Picture, January 5, 1935, Page 5.
- Los Angeles Times, Ten On Road To Stardom, April 1, 1935, Page A2.
- Los Angeles Times, June Martel's Debut, May 6, 1935, Page 14.
- Los Angeles Times, More Newcomers Crash Pictures, August 28, 1936, Page 15.
- Los Angeles Times, She Collects Jewelry, May 30, 1937, Page C3.
- Los Angeles Times, June Martel Becomes Bride of Film and Magazine Writer, March 1, 1941, Page 3.
- Los Angeles Times, Cupid Scores Knockout Blow Over Divorce Among Motion Picture Folk Of Hollywood, January 2, 1942, Page 7.
- New York Times, The Screen, November 2, 1935, Page 13.
- Reno Evening Gazette, Fine Screen Bill For Granada Announced, Saturday, November 9, 1935, Page 8.
