Ona Munson

Ona Munson
Munson in a 1931 publicity photo for Five Star Final
Born	Owena Wolcott June 16, 1903 Portland, Oregon, U.S.
Died	February 11, 1955 (aged 51) New York City, New York, U.S.a
Cause of death	Suicide by barbiturate overdose
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1928–1953
Spouse(s)	Edward Buzzell (1926–1931) (divorced) Stewart McDonald (1941–1947) Eugene Berman (1950–1955) (her death)

Ona Munson (born Owena Wolcott; June 16, 1903 – February 11, 1955)^[1] was an American actress perhaps best known for her portrayal of madam Belle Watling in Gone with the Wind (1939).

Career

Munson was born Owena Wolcott in Portland, Oregon.^[2] She first came to fame on Broadway as the singing and dancing ingenue in the original production of No, No, Nanette.^[1] From this, Munson had a very successful stage and radio career in the 1930s in New York. She introduced the song "You're the Cream in My Coffee" in the 1927 Broadway musical Hold Everything.

Her first starring role was in a Warner Brothers talkie called Going Wild (1930). Originally, this film was intended as musical, but all the numbers were removed prior to release due to the public's distaste for musicals which had virtually saturated the cinema in 1929-1930. Munson appeared the next year in The Hot Heiress, in which she sings several songs along with her co-star Ben Lyon. She also starred in Broadminded (1931) and Five Star Final (1931). She briefly retired from the screen, only to return in 1938.

When David O. Selznick was casting his production Gone with the Wind, he first announced that Mae West was to play Belle, but this was a publicity stunt. Tallulah Bankhead refused the role as too small. Munson herself was the antithesis of the voluptuous Belle: freckled and of slight build.

Munson’s career was stalemated by the acclaim of Gone with the Wind; for the remainder of her career, she was typecast in similar roles. Two years later, she played a huge role as another madam, albeit a Chinese one, in Josef von Sternberg's film noir The Shanghai Gesture. Her last film was The Red House, released in 1947.

Munson's work on radio included co-starring (as Lorelei) with Edward G. Robinson on Big Town.^[3]

For her contribution to the motion picture industry, Ona Munson has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6211 Hollywood Boulevard.

Personal life

She was married three times, to actor and director Edward Buzzell in 1926, to Stewart McDonald in 1941, and designer Eugene Berman in 1949.^[2] These have been termed lavender marriages, in that they were intended to conceal her bisexuality and her affairs with women, including filmmaker Dorothy Arzner and playwright Mercedes de Acosta.^[4] Munson has been listed as a member of a group called the "sewing circle", a clique of lesbians organized by actress Alla Nazimova.^[5]

Death

In 1955, plagued by ill health, she committed suicide at the age of 51 with an overdose of barbiturates in her apartment in New York. A note found next to her deathbed read, "This is the only way I know to be free again...Please don't follow me."^[1] Munson posthumously received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, located on the north side of the 6200 block of Hollywood Boulevard.^[1]

Partial filmography

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1928	The Head of the Family		Uncredited
1930	Going Wild	Ruth Howard
1931	The Hot Heiress	Juliette
1931	Broadminded	Constance Palmer
1931	Five Star Final	Kitty Carmody
1938	His Exciting Night	Anne Baker
1938	Dramatic School	Student	Uncredited
1939	Scandal Sheet	Kitty Mulhane
1939	Legion of Lost Flyers	Martha Wilson
1939	Gone with the Wind	Belle Watling
1939	The Big Guy	Mary Whitlock
1940	Wagons Westward	Julie O'Conover
1941	Lady from Louisiana	Julie Mirbeau
1941	Wild Geese Calling	Clarabella
1941	The Shanghai Gesture	'Mother' Gin Sling
1942	Drums of the Congo	Anne Montgomery
1943	Idaho	Belle Bonner
1945	The Cheaters	Florie Watson
1945	Dakota	'Jersey' Thomas
1947	The Red House	Mrs. Storm

References

1. "Ona Munson". The Los Angeles Times. Hollywood Star Walk of Fame. Retrieved December 29, 2015.
2. Stephens, Chuck. "A Face in the Crowd: Ona Munson". Film Comment. Retrieved January 6, 2016.
3. "(photo caption)" (PDF). Radio and Television Mirror 13 (3): 41. January 1940. Retrieved 16 February 2015.
4. Harbin, Billy J., Kim Marra and Robert A. Schanke (2005). The Gay & Lesbian Theatrical Legacy: A Biographical Dictionary of Major Figures in American Stage History in the Pre-Stonewall Era. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. p. 297. ISBN 0-472-09858-6.
5. Madsen, Axel (1995). The Sewing Circle: Hollywood's Greatest Secret: Female Stars Who Loved Other Women. New York: Birch Lane Press. pp. 14–15. ISBN 978-1559722759.

External links

• Ona Munson at the Internet Movie Database
• Ona Munson at the Internet Broadway Database
• Photos of Ona Munson from Shanghai Gesture, 1941 by Ned Scott
• Ona Munson papers, 1906-1949, held by the Billy Rose Theatre Division, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts

Ona Munson at Find a Grave