portrayed by Hank Mann. The shot was subsequently cut from the film and survives only in a still. Despite the disappointments, Myrna did find it exciting to be standing around the Ben-Hur sets during shooting of big scenes. Of the star Ramon Novarro, later her friend and costar in The Barbarian , she said, “He was poetry, walking.” 10
As a consolation prize Metro offered Myrna a dancing role in Pretty Ladies , a backstage drama described as a jazz picture (although silent) that had been modeled on the lives of dancers and comics in The Ziegfeld Follies . Actors played thinly disguised versions of Will Rogers, the dancer Frisco, and the singing comic Eddie Cantor. Norma Shearer, not yet married to “boy wonder” Irving Thalberg, had a small part in it, wearing a dazzling costume designed by Erté. Leading lady ZaSu Pitts was cast as a plain-looking, brokenhearted comedienne. Monta Bell, soon to direct Greta Garbo in her first American film, sat at the helm. Set in New York City, Pretty Ladies was shot on the cheap in Culver City. The New York City shots looked fake. A rooftop view of New York’s lit-up theater district was simulated by what was “obviously a curtain” and didn’t fool anyone familiar with the real thing. There were plenty of elaborately staged dance numbers for the chorus line. Scenes displaying “living chandeliers and undressed ladies, usual revue adjuncts, are to be seen,” reported Variety . 11
Two of the scantily clad chorines who made up the living chandelier were Myrna Williams (uncredited) and a new girl in town, listed in the credits as Lucille Le Sueur, who would soon be publicly rechristened “Joan Crawford” in a Movie Weekly “name the starlet” contest. In one Pretty Ladies scene, Myrna remembered, she and Lucille/Joan “were supposed to look serene while sitting on blocks of ice” wearing “little balls of marabou.” Far more aggressive, sexually available, and publicity-hungry than Myrna, the magnetic Lucille/Joan poured her heart out to her new friend. “I remember how she would lie on the floor, her head in my lap, in her dressing room, and worry and cry,” Myrna told Gladys Hall. Joan, who had a beautiful figure, a determined jaw, and a dramatic slash of a mouth, “always worried terribly.” The MGM producer Harry Rapf had been chasing Joan, apparently with some success, and she worried about the consequences if she brushed him off. “I [worried] too,” admitted Myrna, “but I never showed it.” The two screen novices formed a friendship that stuck, although they didn’t see much of each other socially after Crawford’s career took off in a rapid ascent to stardom. She had an overwhelming will to succeed, “more willpower,” Myrna said, “than anyone I ever knew.” Following Pretty Ladies , Myrna and Joan, the “hey-hey” girl, posed as pinups together, wearing shorts and vamping, for Art and Beauty magazine. Although Joan Crawford remained the subject of tattletale gossip for most of her long career, Myrna’s loyalty to and affection for her never wavered. 12
Heavily made-up, intense, and a terrific dancer, Crawford, aided by her handlers at MGM, worked at being spotted and photographed around town at hot spots like the Vernon Country Club, the Ship Café in Venice, or Hollywood Boulevard’s Club Montmartre. She won trophies at Cocoanut Grove Charleston contests and posed at a sales conference as Miss MGM. Pictures of her with a variety of male escorts, most of them handpicked by publicists, turned up regularly in fan magazines and the press. Crawford also frequented popular restaurants with girlfriends, one of whom might have been Myrna if Myrna had been willing. “Joan Crawford used to ask me to go to the Ambassador for tea with her or to the Biltmore for dinner,” but aloof Myrna had no taste for such outings. “Things like that bored me,” she explained in an interview. “I never had much small talk. Now and again I went out dancing with Don
As a consolation prize Metro offered Myrna a dancing role in Pretty Ladies , a backstage drama described as a jazz picture (although silent) that had been modeled on the lives of dancers and comics in The Ziegfeld Follies . Actors played thinly disguised versions of Will Rogers, the dancer Frisco, and the singing comic Eddie Cantor. Norma Shearer, not yet married to “boy wonder” Irving Thalberg, had a small part in it, wearing a dazzling costume designed by Erté. Leading lady ZaSu Pitts was cast as a plain-looking, brokenhearted comedienne. Monta Bell, soon to direct Greta Garbo in her first American film, sat at the helm. Set in New York City, Pretty Ladies was shot on the cheap in Culver City. The New York City shots looked fake. A rooftop view of New York’s lit-up theater district was simulated by what was “obviously a curtain” and didn’t fool anyone familiar with the real thing. There were plenty of elaborately staged dance numbers for the chorus line. Scenes displaying “living chandeliers and undressed ladies, usual revue adjuncts, are to be seen,” reported Variety . 11
Two of the scantily clad chorines who made up the living chandelier were Myrna Williams (uncredited) and a new girl in town, listed in the credits as Lucille Le Sueur, who would soon be publicly rechristened “Joan Crawford” in a Movie Weekly “name the starlet” contest. In one Pretty Ladies scene, Myrna remembered, she and Lucille/Joan “were supposed to look serene while sitting on blocks of ice” wearing “little balls of marabou.” Far more aggressive, sexually available, and publicity-hungry than Myrna, the magnetic Lucille/Joan poured her heart out to her new friend. “I remember how she would lie on the floor, her head in my lap, in her dressing room, and worry and cry,” Myrna told Gladys Hall. Joan, who had a beautiful figure, a determined jaw, and a dramatic slash of a mouth, “always worried terribly.” The MGM producer Harry Rapf had been chasing Joan, apparently with some success, and she worried about the consequences if she brushed him off. “I [worried] too,” admitted Myrna, “but I never showed it.” The two screen novices formed a friendship that stuck, although they didn’t see much of each other socially after Crawford’s career took off in a rapid ascent to stardom. She had an overwhelming will to succeed, “more willpower,” Myrna said, “than anyone I ever knew.” Following Pretty Ladies , Myrna and Joan, the “hey-hey” girl, posed as pinups together, wearing shorts and vamping, for Art and Beauty magazine. Although Joan Crawford remained the subject of tattletale gossip for most of her long career, Myrna’s loyalty to and affection for her never wavered. 12
Heavily made-up, intense, and a terrific dancer, Crawford, aided by her handlers at MGM, worked at being spotted and photographed around town at hot spots like the Vernon Country Club, the Ship Café in Venice, or Hollywood Boulevard’s Club Montmartre. She won trophies at Cocoanut Grove Charleston contests and posed at a sales conference as Miss MGM. Pictures of her with a variety of male escorts, most of them handpicked by publicists, turned up regularly in fan magazines and the press. Crawford also frequented popular restaurants with girlfriends, one of whom might have been Myrna if Myrna had been willing. “Joan Crawford used to ask me to go to the Ambassador for tea with her or to the Biltmore for dinner,” but aloof Myrna had no taste for such outings. “Things like that bored me,” she explained in an interview. “I never had much small talk. Now and again I went out dancing with Don
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