Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge on Hollywood
- Sep 18, 2024
- 5 min read
“The Star Who Would Not Go Hollywood,” Frances Farmer ultimately went out kicking and screaming in 1943.
Eight years earlier, the Seattle-born actress signed with Paramount on her 22nd birthday, and in 1936 she shot to fame in Bing Crosby’s Rhythm on the Range. Now a star, studio boss Adolph Zukor demanded she act like one: dress glamorously and get rid of her “disgraceful old jalopy.” But she refused to conform. “From that point on, it seems I made a determined enemy out of him,” Farmer wrote in her memoir Will There Really Be a Morning?.
Her “eccentricities” turned problematic, as depression and alcohol affected Farmer both professionally and personally. She left Hollywood briefly for Broadway, and when she returned, her marriage to actor Leif Erickson was over. He remarried the same day their divorce was finalized in June 1942.
