I posted a few photos of Lupe Vélez here yesterday, candid images that won’t be appearing in my book because of the photo cull from 150 to 75. Rather than letting the unused photos sit on my desktop, I’m sharing them with you all here. So, here’s a few more, though I forewarn you, they aren’t as pleasant as the ones in my previous post….
Above: Lupe Vélez in her coffin.
Jorge Negrete (1911-1953) and Mario Moreno, who used the moniker, ‘Cantinflas’ (1911-1993) paying their last respects to Lupe Vélez as she lay in her coffin. Negrete and Moreno were two of the greatest Mexican movie stars of all-time, Negrete as a leading man and singer, and Moreno (Mexico’s answer to Groucho Marx) as the most famous comic-character his country had ever produced. In 1944, they were both leaders of The Mexican Actors Guild (ANDA). Since Lupe’s will had not yet been probated, her family had no means to get her body from America to Mexico so The Guild stepped in and paid for the transportation of Lupe’s body back to her home country.
Above: Lupe’s mother and sisters pay their respects…
Several members of Lupe’s immediate family pay their respects before her body at the funeral home. Left to right: Two of Lupe’s sisters stand beside their distraught mother as she is supported by an unidentified man.
Funeral Day…
THE UNIDENTIFIED MAN HOLDING LUPE’S MOM IS GORDON ANDERSON, MARRIED TO JOSEFINA VELEZ
Oh, so that’s Lupe’s brother-in-law. Never knew what he looked like so unable to identify him – until now
Thanks!
Wooow thanks for these pictures, as heartbreaking as they are….it’s wonderful to see Jorge Negrete and Cantinflas there as well as Lupe’s sisters and mother….what a sad day!!!! =(
You’re welcome, Renata. I had so many photos that I was unable to use in the book, I thought I’d post some here.
Hi Michelle,
Thank you so much for sharing these with Lupe’s fans.
The picture of her in her coffin will hopefully restore to Lupe some of the dignity in death that many of the lurid and untrue accounts have hitherto denied her.
I look forward to buying your book when it is published.
John, United Kingdom
Thank you, John. I appreciate your comments. I hope my work brings Lupe some long-overdue dignity. I don’t think anyone could still believe that she died with her head in the toilet after reading my book. I’ve covered her life and death in depth. As I say in my book, the truth was sad enough, there was never a need to make up something so horribly salacious and dishonor her. She was, by all accounts, a lovely person…a little bit nuts, but lovely all the same. Take care, Michelle xo