From the Archives: Jean Harlow and Robert Taylor return from movie promotion tour

Jean Harlow and Robert Taylor’s cross-country train trip began on Jan. 26, 1937. In addition to promoting their upcoming movie, the stars attended the Jan. 30, 1937, birthday ball for President Franklin D. Roosevelt in Washington, D.C.

Accompanying them on the trip was Jean Bello, Harlow’s mother.

The group had planned to return to Los Angeles after the Roosevelt party but stopped in Chicago. A brief Associated Press article in The Times on Feb. 2, 1937, reported that the party stopped in Chicago as Bello was “ill of influenza.”

On June 7, 1937, Harlow, during the filming of “Saratoga,” died following a short illness. The Los Angeles Times obituary reported that Harlow had been ill during the February stop in Chicago.

The Taylor-Harlow film “Personal Property” was released March 19, 1937.

This photo was not published in February 1937, but was used in the 1999 Los Angeles Times book “High Exposure: Hollywood Lives — Found Photos from the Archives of the Los Angeles Times.”

This article was originally published on July 22, 2011.