Virginia Vale
Virginia Vale | |
---|---|
U.S. Figure Skating JudgeExecutive Secretary | |
Years active | 1937-1945 |
Virginia Vale (born Dorothy Howe, May 20, 1920 – September 14, 2006) was an American film actress. She starred in a number of B-movie westerns but took a variety of other roles as well, notably in Blonde Comet (1941), in which she played a race car driver.
Early years
Vale was the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. H. H. Howe.[1] Before becoming a professional actress, she was a switchboard operator in Dallas, Texas, and honed her acting skills in productions at a little theater in Dallas. After a representative of Paramount Pictures saw her in a leading role, he invited her to make a screen test, which led to a contract.[2] (Another source says that Howe was working at the switchboard in Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's Dallas office, where a talent scout for Paramount found her and signed her to a contract.)[3]
Career
Dorothy Howe showed promise at Paramount, working steadily in the studio's feature films until 1939. Her best-known Paramount picture is probably The Big Broadcast of 1938, in which she played one of Bob Hope's former wives.
The name "Virginia Vale" had been chosen in advance for the female winner of the 1939
Contest winners Vale and
After her film career, she became an executive secretary at
Filmography
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1937 | Night Club Scandal | Marsh's Maid | Credited as Dorothy Howe |
True Confession | Brunette Girl | Uncredited | |
1938 | The Buccaneer | Uncredited | |
The Big Broadcast of 1938 | Joan Fielding | ||
Her Jungle Love | Eleanor Martin | ||
Cocoanut Grove | Hazel De Vore | ||
King of Alcatraz | Dixie | ||
1939 | Disbarred | Airline Stewardess | |
Ambush | Waitress at Restaurant | Uncredited | |
Persons in Hiding | Flo | ||
Unmarried |
Betty | ||
Three Sons | Phoebe Pardway | (first film as Virginia Vale) | |
The Marshal of Mesa City | Virginia King | ||
1940 | Legion of the Lawless | Ellen Ives | |
Bullet Code | Molly Mathews | ||
You Can't Fool Your Wife | Sally | ||
Prairie Law | Priscilla Brambull | ||
Millionaires in Prison | May Thomas | ||
Stage to Chino | Caroline McKay | ||
Triple Justice | Lorna Payson | ||
1941 | Repent at Leisure | Elevator Girl | Uncredited |
Robbers of the Range | Alice Tremaine | ||
South of Panama | Janice 'Jan' Martin, aka Dolores Esteban | ||
Unexpected Uncle | Telephone Girl | Uncredited | |
The Gay Falcon | Hysterical Woman | Uncredited | |
Blonde Comet | Beverly Blake | ||
1942 | Broadway Big Shot | Betty Collins | |
1945 | Crime, Inc. | Trixie Waters | (final film role) |
Bibliography
- Boyd Magers, Michael G. Fitzgerald (1999), Westerns Women: Interviews With 50 Leading Ladies Of Movie And Television Westerns From The 1930s To The 1960s, Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland and Co., ISBN 0-7864-2028-6
- Herb Fagen (1996), White Hats and Silver Spurs: Interviews With 24 Stars of Film and Television Westerns of the Thirties Through the Sixties, Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland and Co., ISBN 0-7864-0200-8
References
- ^ "Star Dust", Virginia Vale, June 17, 1939
- ISBN 978-0-7864-2200-5, p.275
- ^ "Virginia Vale is alive and well". Los Angeles Times. 1 Aug 1976.
- ^ Variety, "'South of Panama' Set," March 12, 1941, p. 21.
- ^ Virginia Vale interview with Boyd Magers. western clippings.com
- ^ Hollywood Reporter, September 28, 1945, p. 21.
- ^ a b "LAFSC Mourns the Passing of Virginia Vale", The Ice Monitor, v.62, #3, Dec 2006, p.3 [1] Archived 2011-07-27 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "Friday's News from the 2004 Governing Council - (5/8/04)", US Figure Skating Association website [2] Archived 2011-06-13 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Josephine Lawless (2007). Introduction to Vale's 1982 "History of the Los Angeles Figure Skating Club" Archived 2009-01-05 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "And Now the News", 2007, ShaferSports.com
External links
- Virginia Vale at IMDb
- Virginia Vale at Find a Grave
- "History of the Los Angeles Figure Skating Club", by Virginia Vale (1982 - originally published in club newsletter).