Veronica Lake

Veronica Lake, born Constance Frances Marie Ockelman on November 14, 1922, in Brooklyn, New York. Died on July 7, 1973, Burlington, Vermont

"It was easy to get used to having a name that wasn't mine and had a better sound. The Veronica was supposed to stand for what was classic in my features and the Lake was supposed to suggest the coolness you got when you looked at them. So things got put together. I went down the assembly line. Dressed by Edith Head. Faced by Wally Westmore. Singing voice dubbed by Martha Mears... when the hair was over one eye, I became someone else... I personally have no existence..."

Quoted in the book The Star Machine by Jeanine Basinger, Knopf, published 2007, originally from "I, Veronica Lake: Constance Ockelman, late of Brooklyn, Tells how she became Hollywood's Cyclops Cinderella." Life Magaine, May 17, 1943.

Into the Dark - The Hidden World of Film Noir 1941-1950 -amazon.com

Universal Horrors: The Studio's Classic Films, 1931-1946, 2d ed.

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