Ruth Hall, actress; Independent obit
Hyfler/Rosner
Ingénue actress remembered for her role in the Marx Brothers' 'Monkey
Business'
20 October 2003
Ruth Gloria Blasco Ibáñez (Ruth Hall), actress: born Jacksonville,
Florida 29 December 1910; married 1933 Lee Garmes (died 1978; two
daughters); died Glendale, California 9 October 2003.
Ruth Hall was a Hollywood ingénue who appeared in countless 1930s movies
alongside the Marx Brothers, Robert Young and John Wayne. The petite
raven-haired beauty attracted attention when she first arrived in Hollywood
as the niece of Vicente Blasco Ibáñez, author of The Four Men of the
Apocalypse, transferred to the screen as a vehicle for Rudolph Valentino in
1921.
The film for which she was most remembered, she said, was the Marx Brothers'
Monkey Business (1931), made when she was 20. "The Marx Brothers liked the
girls," she recalled:
I'd been warned to watch out for Chico Marx by [the actress] Judith Allen,
who'd been practically in a sex attack with him, but it was Zeppo on this
occasion who chased me about the Paramount lot.
Hall's father, Walter Ibánez, was Spanish; her mother and grandmother were
both from Florida. Divorced when she was just seven months old, Hall's
mother moved to Tampa, where she became the main breadwinner, working - in a
pioneering role as a woman - in insurance.
Ruth Hall made her screen début as an extra in Henry King's Hell Harbor
(1930), which was being filmed in Tampa. Shortly afterwards Paramount called
her mother, offering Ruth a two-year contract. Mother and daughter arrived
at Central Station in downtown Los Angeles in 1931. Installed at the
Christie Hotel, Ruth had barely sufficient time to unpack before being put
to work in cameos a series of pictures. "I don't think anyone in Hollywood
was put to work as quickly as I," she said:
It all happened so fast. I regretted never making it to college: my
schooling at Paramount was very sporadic as we were constantly pulled out to
appear in pictures.
Hall made Her Majesty, Love (1931), with W.C. Fields, Union Depot (1932),
with Douglas Fairbanks Jnr, and Blessed Event (1932), with Dick Powell and
Mary Brian.
She dated numerous co-stars, notably Mervyn LeRoy, her director on The Heart
of New York (1932), who would go on to produce The Wizard of Oz (1939). He
found Hall a top agent and after her contract at Paramount expired she
negotiated contracts at Warner Bros, and then Goldwyn. She also dated the
actors Robert Young, Joel McCrea and Lyle Talbot.
In 1932, Ruth Hall made The Kid from Spain, a lavish musical starring the
comedian Eddie Cantor who, mistaken for a famed bullfighter, finds himself
in hot water; the highlight of the film was a Busby Berkeley number
featuring Betty Grable, Paulette Goddard and Mildred Shay in the chorus. "I
didn't sing; I didn't dance. I just played a dramatic role as Anita," Hall
said. "I really enjoyed working on the film and thought Eddie Cantor very
funny."
That same year, Hall was selected with Dorothy Layton, Ginger Rogers, the
former Olympic swimmer Eleanor Holm and 10 other starlets as Wampas Baby
Stars; the contest resulted in a year-long publicity tour and guest
appearances across America. She also made her first appearance on screen
with John Wayne. Ride Him, Cowboy (1932) is about a cowboy who tames a wild
horse suspected of killing a man, then rides out to find the real culprit.
"John Wayne was my favourite western leading man," Hall recalled:
He was so pleasant to work with. Wonderful! Ride Him, Cowboy was awful
because the filming was done in the Mojave Desert, and I got blistered and
burnt and had to have later scenes filmed from behind me so not to show sun
damage. Nobody cared about sun creams and we had to even work in the middle
of the day. I had to do my own entire make-up and my hair, which wasn't the
case in the bigger studios, of course. I did my own direction on all the "B"
westerns.
The small budgets applied too to Wayne's wardrobe:
Wayne was dressed like another of my 1930s co-stars, Ken Maynard, and they
put him on a horse similar to Maynard's horse Tarzan, so they could use
action footage from his old films.
Hall was frequently invited to Hollywood parties hosted by the big stars of
the day; she dined at Pickfair and enjoyed weekends with Gary Cooper, Anita
Page, Marlene Dietrich, William Powell and Jetta Goudal at the William
Randolph Hearst estate San Simeon. "I used to go to beautiful parties before
I met my husband," she remembered:
Mother always made sure I took enough money with me so when spirits changed
after too much champagne I could escape and pay for a taxi home.
Her husband, whom she married in 1933, was Lee Garmes, a cinematographer who
had won an Oscar the year before for Shanghai Express (he was to be
nominated five times in all) and, in 1939, filmed the first hour of Gone
with the Wind. After their marriage she began to lose interest in her
career. The couple left Los Angeles for New York before moving to England,
where Garmes worked on several projects with Alexander Korda at Denham; Ruth
often assisted Lee on continuity.
With the onset of war Hall and Garmes returned to California, settling down
in Laguna with their two daughters and operating an avocado farm. After
Garmes's death in 1978, Hall found herself in demand once more, this time as
a guest at western film conventions. "It was a surprise to me that so many
fans knew of me," she said:
When they made westerns they did not pay too much attention to "the girl",
even though you were the co-star. Quite often only the director knew one's
name . . . [John] Wayne hated it when his female co-stars were unfamiliar
with a horse, he'd try and get them flustered and upset the horse - this
made great entertainment for everyone but the cowgirl.
Ruth Hall continued to grant interviews as recently as three weeks ago,
making a considerable contribution to the Turner Classic Movies network,
which in November celebrates 100 years of the western.
Howard Mutti-Mewse