JEAN PORTER, appeared in ABBOTT & COSTELLO film and others...
Jean who? Got a picture. Oh, thanks:
Who knows, Jean may have been glad to sign that photo, mailed to her by some corpulent, earnest and submissively humble "film fan." Especially one who desperately needed it to completely his collection of A&C co-star autographs, which included spending way too much for a Gordon Jones on eBay.
Porter had more credits and more of a story. Born in Texas, she was a precocious ten-year old when she starred on a Saturday morning local radio show. By 12, she was in Hollywood, competing with all the other cute kids for film roles. However, it wasn't until she was a very sweet 16 that she landed some good roles and ingenue parts, and signed a deal with MGM. Bud and Lou were on loan from Universal when they made "Abbott and Costello in Hollywood" in 1945, which turned out to be her "biggie." At least, as far as trivia fans are concerned. She married director-writer Edward Dmytryk in 1948, and the marriage lasted to 1999 when he passed away.
Jean co-starred in "Cry Danger" (1951) and Bogart's "Left Hand of God" (1955), and appear in such vintage TV shows as "77 Sunset Strip" and "Sea Hunt." She did flee Hollywood for a while; her husband Edward was blacklisted for being a Communist and was being harassed by "Red Scare" politicians. The Dmytryks, like refugees, turned up in England in 1951, but eventually resigned themselves to returning home...where Edward served six months for "contempt of Congress."
Had she been able to stretch her experiences with Lou Costello and Bogart into some kind of book, she may have had fanboys lining up to buy it. Instead, she and her husband chose to write: "On Screen Acting" (credited to Edward and Jean Dmytryk).
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