ABSTRACT

The middle of the decade, however, the Veronica Lake look was on the way out as a result of both the actress's mediocre talent, which led to diminished roles and the resurrection of the short bob due to the shortage of metal hairpins during the war effort. When the then unknown young actress Veronica Lake entered center stage and shook her mane of long blonde hair at a transfixed public, she set into motion a trichological sensation unmatched since Jean Harlow had launched the platinum-blonde rage in 1930. By late 1941, Life noted that Lake had found herself 'the owner and custodian of personal property comparable in value, fame and world influence to Deanna Durbin's voice, Fred Astaire's feet or Marlene Dietrich's legs'. Lake contributed to her own decline by having her locks shorn in a show of patriotic duty.