The Helen Talbot Centennial

Born 100 years ago today, Republic actress Helen Talbot (Helen Darling, 1924-2010).

I have no idea what lunkhead advised her to change her name from Helen Darling to Helen Talbot, but it seems a lame decision. Maybe because she had been a pin-up model they thought he real name would come across as too suggestive and make her sound like a burlesque dancer, or something. But, damn, it’s a better name than Talbot. I am reminded of Lyle Talbot from the Ed Wood films, or Larry Talbot, Lon Chaney Jr’s character’s name in The Wolf Man. It’s a white bread American sort of name, I guess, and that was clearly the sort of career she sought. She hailed from Concordia, Kansas, by the way.

Talbot had begin modeling around 1938. Early in her career she was one of the Goldwyn Girls, notably present in Up in Arms (1944) with Danny Kaye. The bulk of her her four-year movie career was in Republic westerns, opposite the likes of Red Barry, Roy Rogers, Rocky Lane, and Wild Bill Elliot. I first heard of her because she was in a movie with Twinkle Watts. Of Talbot’s two dozen or so movies, she’s the female lead in about a quarter of them. During her last year on screen (1946), most of her roles were bit parts. She chose that moment to get out of the biz and marry an ex-serviceman.

For more reading about Helen Talbot, there is a very good fan page on her at the Files of Jerry Blake, and a terrific interview with her on Western Clippings.