"Queen of the B's"

[ClassyCo]

Many actresses during the Golden Age were labeled the "Queen of the B's" because of their considerable popularity in a succession of B-movies.

Among them crowned as such were:

Fay Wray

Lucille Ball

Ida Lupino

Marie Windsor

Have you seen many of their films?

Is there anyone else you'd label the "Queen of the B's"?

 

[Crimson]

I'm not familiar enough with the careers of Fay (other than KING KONG), Ida or Marie to know how well the qualify for the title, but the appellation applied to Lucy has struck me a odd. Even in the mid-30s at RKO, she was was likely to be a supporting role in an A-picture than as a lead in a B. From the early 40s on, none of her pictures were really Bs -- well, maybe B+ or A-; meaning not necessarily top quality films, but not exactly double feature material either.

It seems to me the real Queen of the Bs was never called as such: Ann Sothern. Unlike Lucy, Ann worked almost exclusively in Bs and serials until she had a good break in A LETTER TO THREE WIVES.

 

[ClassyCo]

Ann Sothern is a prime example of the "Queen of the B's". She spent the majority of her early career starring in B-movies. Even when she found her niche with all the Maisie films, they were never above the B-grade, either. She did appear in some good A-movies before A Letter to Three Wives.

But like Lucy, she did have success on television in the 1950s: Private Secretary and The Ann Sothern Show. Those shows were pretty popular in the Nielsen ratings, and she even won some Emmy awards if I'm not badly mistaken. She and Lucy were actually very good friends, which dated back to their earliest days in the business. Ann was the one Lucy wanted to replace Vivian Vance on The Lucy Show in the mid-sixties. Ann wanted and deserved equal billing with Lucy in the show's opening credits, but Lucy rebuffed sharing her star billing with even such a close friend. Vance had always been listed as Co-starring Vivian Vance at the start of The Lucy Show. Lucy instead retreated to her other close friend, actress Mary Jane Croft, who was content with having her credit at the end in only the episode she'd appear. Apparently Lucy and Ann still got along well because Ann continued to appear on her show.

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[ClassyCo]

Mamie Van Doren, while quite popular and part of "The Three M's" trio, was almost exclusively cast in B-pictures. The few A-movies she did make almost always had her in a secondary role, but she usually headlined those tawdry, drive-in variety of B-movies that teenagers flocked to see back in the 1950s.

So I'd classify her as the "Queen of the B's", even if her appeal was typically niched as teenagers.

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Cleo Moore, another 1950s blonde bombshell, later earned the reputation of being the "Queen of the B-movie Bad Girls" when her movies resurfaced in popularity during the 1980s.