Classic Actress Jean Harlow’s Favorite Jewelry

In a recent blog post, I wrote about charm bracelets in Hollywood history. Even Queen Victoria wore them (she was kind of the Olivia Palermo of her time). Today I am going to write about something a bit different -- a piece of jewelry that Jean Harlow believed made her lucky.

In the book Platinum Girl by Eve Golden, Harlow's childhood friend relates the following tale; it seems that one time, young Jean was disciplined at Ferry Hall, a prep school for privileged young girls. It wasn't for making out in the hall, or cussing, or smoking in the back of the school.

It was for wearing an ankle bracelet.

Fashion, Supernatural, Jean Harlow, Classic CinemaStefanie CosmanJuly 17, 2017Charm Bracelets, Jean Harlow, Lucky, SuperstitionComment

1930s Fashion: How Charm Bracelets Held Hollywood's Secrets (And Still Do)

When I was a little girl, my mother gave me a charm bracelet she had worn as a child. Picked up from a souvenir shop in San Francisco, the bracelet oozed with kitsch... a small spinner with a true/false dial could tell the future, much like a Magic 8 ball. A small telephone had a rotary dial that actually spun! I was so mesmerized that later in life, I used various events in my life... including my first trip to Europe... to collect charms to tell the story of where I had been. Gibraltar was a monkey... Santiago de Compostela was a shell with a tiny cross inside... and for the Tower of London, a miniature guillotine (macabre, I know!).