Manpower Portrait


Warner Bros. publicity portrait of Joyce as a prostitute (could she be anything else in that getup?) in 1941's Manpower.

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Where It All Began

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Picture it: Hollywood, California, sometime in 1997. I'm a tourist on my first trip to the iconic Walk of Fame on Hollywood Boulevard. Me and my boyfriend take a detour into a little autograph and memorabilia store called STARWORLD. Although they have an impressive array of signed, framed photos on the walls, my eye is drawn to a little box on the floor marked “Clearance.” I crouch down and leaf through the glossy 8 by 10s in the box, seeing a bunch of has-beens, never was-es and forgotten child actors from the ’70s and ’80s. Near the bottom, however, I spy a diamond in the rough—an autograph from my favorite “dumb blonde” of Hollywood’s Golden Era, Joyce Compton. In the photo, she is wearing a chiffon dress with a spray of fake lilacs on the bodice, a lacy negligee partically obscured by sheer layers of gown fabric. Joyce’s curly handwriting matches her blonde hair, and it matched the images I recalled from old movies—cute and bubbly. Priced at seven dollars, it became my first ...
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1936's Sitting on the Moon is one of several "poverty row" genre films Joyce Compton made a small contribution to. A brief and airy musical, Sitting chronicles the star-crossed romance of songwriter Roger Pryor and appealing singer Grace Bradley. Bradley's career is on the outs when Pryor pens a jaunty melody for her (the title tune, repeated ad nauseam) which lands the woman a featured vocalist gig on a top radio hour. She becomes a star while he lands in obscurity, until another song and complications involving a gold-digging hussy (Joyce Compton!) change things around for the hapless guy. On the whole, slight and forgettable stuff which benefits from nice Art Deco production design and a pleasing title tune. It's interesting to note that this is one of the earliest productions for Republic Pictures. Along with sister companies Monogram and PRC, Republic would become the source for several eclectic parts Joyce would do throughout the '40s. Sitting on the M...
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