I liberated these gardenias from a hedge in front of a dentist office.

I adore Gardenias. Their scent always reminds me of Gene Harlow who happened to be the daughter of a dentist. I’m also reminded of my eighth grade graduation where we each wore a gardenia corsage.  I digress, back to Harlow.

You see, her funeral was the biggest ticket in town, M.G.M. made sure of it.  Her service was held in the Wee Kirk O’ the Heather chapel located in Glendale’s very own Forest Lawn. The chapel was drenched with gardenias, ten thousand of them to be exact. Jeanette MacDonald sang “Indian Love Call” Harlow’s favorite song. I happen to prefer Slim Whitman’s version. In case you didn’t know, Harlow wrote a sexually explicit novel that the studio bought up in full and destroyed, she posed nude in Griffith Park, (bleached her pubic hair which was rumored to be the cause of her death) and was the inspiration for the character of Cat Woman in the Batman comic series.

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