College Holiday

In honor of actress Marsha Hunt's 97th birthday (which was yesterday, October 17), I am posting a few shots of Gene Marshall modeling the 2007 "College Holiday" outfit.

Gene is shown at the Indiana University campus in Bloomington, Indiana.



"College Holiday" was a comedy from Paramount released on December 19, 1936. Directed by Frank Tuttle, the film starred Jack Benny, George Burns, Gracie Allen, Martha Raye, and of course, Marsha Hunt.



This summary is from imdb:

Sylvia Smith (played by Hunt) and Dick Winters (Leif Erickson) share a romantic kiss at a dance, but Sylvia is called away before Dick can learn her full name. Sylvia's father is about to lose his California hotel, the Casa Del Mar, thanks to the financial blundering of his new business partner J. Davis Bowster. The mortgage is held by eccentric heiress Carola P. Gaye, whose current fascination is with the ancient Greek-style eugenics championed by Prof. Hercules Dove. Carola plans to use the hotel as the center of her "Body Beauteous" selective mating program. Looking to raise funds with a collegiate musical show, Bowster gathers talent under the pretense of recruiting good-looking young people for Carola's eugenics experiment. Among the group are Dick Winters (still searching for his mystery girl) and Daisy Schloggenheimer (taught to resist male attention with physical force). Under strict orders to prevent any romance between the "guinea pigs", Bowster has great difficulty keeping the boys and the girls away from each other on the train ride back. Dick and Sylvia are reunited at Casa Del Mar, where Prof. Dove's daffy daughter Gracie (called "Calliope") selects the male and female pairs for the experiment. The mismatched lovers are none too pleased to learn about the eugenics program, but they rally together to put on a minstrel show in time to save the hotel for Sylvia and her father.





Happy Birthday, Marsha!

See more Gene Marshall Doll photos on my regular website.

Gene in Pin-Up

One of my older outfits, yet one that took me years to photograph! Released in 1996, "Pin-Up" is a circa 1944 design by Tim Kennedy. White Hyacinth is the model for the first few photos, and J'Adore was used in the last two shots.



From the story card:

After the impact of Gene Marshall's first pin-up for the war effort, Crimson Sun, the G.I.s demanded, "Give us more!" Now Monolithic Studios has done just that with this all new pin-up poster. And it certainly gives the troops a lot more of Miss Marshall! She appears in a sizzling black teddy and matching negligée that should get every G.I.'s immediate attention. We can already hear the wolf whistles from Corregidor to the coast of France!



Pin-up is Gene's "gift" to the troops! Black laced satin teddy is accented with pink ribbon, including ribbon lacing up the back. Complete with matching lace-trimmed negligée and laced heels. No wonder the G.I.s loved it!

As a film star in the 1940s, like everyone else you are concerned with the country's war effort, and want to do what you can to support the troops stationed overseas in Europe and the Pacific. Quietly and privately, you contribute generously to the War Bond campaign, and to the Red Cross. And when your studio sees a way for you to use your star status to boost the morale of the troops, you agree to go along with the plan.

Thus it is that Gene finds herself in front of the cameras in an outfit more daring than any she has yet worn on the screen, posing for a promotional photo to be released by Monolithic Studios to cheer up "the boys" overseas.

Gene is "dynamite" in a strapless black lace teddy and matching see-through negligée. When she poses with her back to the camera, you can see that the teddy laces up the back with pink ribbon...a small but very sexy detail!



Within weeks this photo has been distributed by the thousands to troops all over the world...and what a stir it causes on all fronts! When G.I.s are interviewed about Gene in Pin-Up, they call her a "dish", and a "gorgeous dame", and get all dreamy-eyed thinking of their own wives and girlfriends back home. So it is that Gene's photo becomes the inspiration for thousands of love letters sent back from overseas.



See more Gene Marshall Doll photos on my regular website.