American actress (1921?2004)
This article is about the American movie actress. For the African-American dancer, see
Mildred Davenport
.
Acquanetta
|
---|
![](//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/8a/Acquanetta_Studio_Portrait_Photograph_1944_Universal_Pictures_Jungle_Woman_by_Ray_Jones.jpg/220px-Acquanetta_Studio_Portrait_Photograph_1944_Universal_Pictures_Jungle_Woman_by_Ray_Jones.jpg) Acquanetta in 1944
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Born
| Mildred Davenport
(
1921-07-17
)
July 17, 1921
|
---|
Died
| August 16, 2004
(2004-08-16)
(aged 83)
|
---|
Resting place
| Paradise Memorial Gardens,
Scottsdale, Arizona
|
---|
Occupation
| Actress
|
---|
Years active
| 1942?1953
|
---|
Spouses
|
Luciano Bashuk
(
m.
1948;
div.
1950)
(
m.
1950;
div.
1953)
|
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Children
| 5
|
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Acquanetta
(born
Mildred Davenport
; July 17, 1921 ? August 16, 2004),
[a]
nicknamed "
The Venezuelan Volcano
", was an American
B-movie
actress during the 1940s and 1950s. Acquanetta was most known for her "exotic" beauty.
Early years
[
edit
]
The facts of Acquanetta's origins are not known with certainty.
[3]
[4]
Although accounts differ (some giving her birth-name as Mildred Davenport, from
Norristown, Pennsylvania
),
[3]
[5]
[6]
Acquanetta claimed she was born
Burnu Acquanetta
, meaning "Burning Fire/Deep Water", in Ozone, Wyoming. Orphaned from her
Arapaho
parents when she was two (or three),
[7]
she lived briefly with another family before being taken in by an artistic couple with whom she remained until she made the choice to live independently at the age of fifteen.
[4]
Other accounts suggest she was a light-skinned
African American
who
concealed her heritage
due to the racial discrimination of the era;
[8]
[9]
her career was followed closely by the African American press. In 1942,
Life
magazine noted her mysterious origins, but reported that she had lived with a Spanish family in
Spanish Harlem
posing as a Venezuelan before moving to Mexico, then Venezuela to obtain citizenship. The article suggests that the Arapaho orphan story was invented because she was unable to produce any identification for the
Screen Actors Guild
.
[7]
According to the 1940
US Census
, she had five siblings, including a sister, Kathryn Davenport,
[5]
[10]
and a brother, Horace Davenport, who was, according to the
Pennsylvania Bar Association
, "the first African-American judge in
Montgomery County
."
[5]
[11]
Film career
[
edit
]
Acquanetta started her career as a model in New York City
[3]
[6]
with
Harry Conover
and
John Robert Powers
.
[5]
She signed with
Universal Studios
in 1942 and acted mostly in B-movies, including
Arabian Nights
,
The Sword of Monte Cristo
,
Captive Wild Woman
and
Jungle Woman
,
[12]
in which Universal attempted to create a female monster movie series with Acquanetta as a transformative ape. After her contract with Universal expired, Acquanetta signed on with
Monogram Pictures
but did not appear in any movies; she then signed with
RKO
where she acted in her only big-budget movie,
Tarzan and the Leopard Woman
.
[5]
Personal life
[
edit
]
In 1947, Acquanetta and "Mexican-Jewish millionaire" Luciano Baschuk had a son, Sergei (variously Sergio), who died of cancer in 1952 at age five,
[13]
[14]
after the couple's bitter divorce in 1950,
[15]
where she lost her suit for half his fortune when no record of their marriage could be produced.
[5]
In 1950, Acquanetta married painter and illustrator
Henry Clive
, who was 40 years her senior, and returned to acting.
[5]
[6]
The couple were divorced in 1953.
[16]
That year she retired from films and became a
disk jockey
for radio station
KPOL (AM)
in
Los Angeles
.
[5]
By 1955 she had married
Jack Ross
,
[17]
[18]
a car dealer who later ran for governor of Arizona in
1970
and
1974
. The couple settled in
Mesa, Arizona
,
[19]
and she returned to a degree of celebrity by appearing with Ross in his local television advertisements,
[12]
and also by hosting a local television show called
Acqua's Corner
that accompanied the Friday late-night movies.
[5]
The couple were prominent citizens, donating to the
Phoenix Symphony
and the construction of Mesa Lutheran Hospital and founding Stagebrush Theatre.
[3]
She and Ross had four sons together, Lance, Tom, Jack Jr. and Rex, before divorcing in the early 1980s.
[19]
[20]
In 1987, Acquanetta sold the
Mesa Grande
ruins to the city of Mesa.
[3]
An apocryphal Phoenix legend has Acquanetta, upon learning of her husband's infidelity, filling the interior of his
Lincoln Continental
convertible with concrete.
[3]
[21]
Acquanetta wrote a book of poetry, published in 1974, titled
The Audible Silence
.
[3]
[5]
[22]
She did not smoke, and did not drink alcohol, tea, or coffee.
[5]
Acquanetta succumbed to complications of
Alzheimer's disease
on August 16, 2004, at Hawthorn Court in
Ahwatukee, Arizona
. She was 83.
[23]
She is buried in Paradise Memorial Gardens in East Shea,
Scottsdale, Arizona
.
[24]
In popular culture
[
edit
]
In 1987, the
all-female band
The Aquanettas
adopted (and adapted) their name from hers.
Acquanetta's obituary inspired the composer
Michael Gordon
to collaborate with librettist Deborah Artman on the opera
Acquanetta
(2005/2017). Produced by
Beth Morrison Projects
, the chamber version received its world premiere at the
Prototype Festival
in Brooklyn, New York, in January, 2018.
Opera
[
edit
]
![[icon]](//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/1c/Wiki_letter_w_cropped.svg/20px-Wiki_letter_w_cropped.svg.png) | This section
needs expansion
. You can help by
adding to it
.
(
September 2019
)
|
Acquanetta
, based on her life,
[25]
premiered as a
Grand Opera
in 2006 in Aachen, Germany.
[26]
The chamber version of
Acquanetta
had its world premiere at the 2018
Prototype Festival
,
[27]
followed by a subsequent run at
Bard SummerScape
in 2019.
[28]
Filmography
[
edit
]
Notes
[
edit
]
- ^
Some sources, including Social Security records, give her year of birth as
1920
.
[1]
[2]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
"U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007"
.
Ancestry.com
. Retrieved
January 23,
2020
.
- ^
Wollstein, Hans J.
"Acquanetta: Biography"
.
AllMovie
. Retrieved
January 23,
2020
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
"Acqua Blues"
.
Phoenix New Times
. September 2, 2004. Archived from
the original
on May 12, 2015
. Retrieved
December 23,
2010
.
- ^
a
b
"Billed As Venezuela Beauty,' Indian Girl Hoaxed Filmdom"
.
The Milwaukee Journal
. July 20, 1942. Archived from
the original
on March 12, 2016
. Retrieved
December 23,
2010
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
h
i
j
k
Richard Beland (October 15, 2009).
"Jungle Frolics: Acquanetta"
.
Junglefrolics.blogspot.com
. Retrieved
December 10,
2016
.
- ^
a
b
c
"Hollywood Jungle Girl - The Actress Aquanetta"
.
Jet Magazine
. February 14, 1952
. Retrieved
July 6,
2013
.
- ^
a
b
"Venezuelan Volcano"
.
LIFE
. Vol. 13, no. 8. Time, Inc. August 24, 1942. pp. 57?59.
ISSN
0024-3019
. Retrieved
June 30,
2018
.
- ^
Freulich, Roman; Abramson, Joan (1971).
Forty Years in Hollywood: Portraits of a Golden Age
. New York: Castle Books. pp.
73
-74.
- ^
Bojarksi, Richard (September 1971).
"John Carradine, the Master Villain"
.
For Monsters Only
.
1
(9): 52?53.
- ^
Annonces, Vieilles.
"Actress Acquanetta's Sister Marries in Tokyo - Jet Magazin…"
.
Flickr
. Retrieved
December 10,
2016
.
- ^
"Horace Davenport, groundbreaking Montgomery County senior judge, dies at 98"
.
The Pottstown Mercury
. April 5, 2017. Archived from
the original
on January 23, 2020.
- ^
a
b
"Acquanetta, Movie Actress"
.
Beaver County Times
. August 18, 2004
. Retrieved
December 23,
2010
.
- ^
"California, County Birth and Death Records, 1800-1994"
.
FamilySearch
. Retrieved
February 10,
2020
.
- ^
Annonces, Vieilles.
"Actress Acquanetta to Collect $4,000 in Son's Death - Jet …"
.
Flickr
. Retrieved
December 10,
2016
.
- ^
Annonces, Vieilles.
"Actress Acquanetta Has Child - Jet Magazine Aug 5, 1954"
.
Flickr
. Retrieved
December 10,
2016
.
- ^
"Actress is Sued by Insurance Company"
.
Argus-Leader
. South Dakota. March 15, 1953 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^
"Acquanetta Wins Lawsuit Over Death of Her Son"
.
Los Angeles Times
. November 29, 1955. p. 39 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^
Stanley, John (April 7, 2013).
"B-movie Star was A-list Arizonan"
.
Arizona Republic
. p. T2 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^
a
b
Cone Sexton, Connie (February 15, 2013).
"A Life Remembered: Jack Ross, iconic Arizona car dealer"
.
The Arizona Republic
. Retrieved
February 26,
2020
.
- ^
"Acquanetta, Actress known as 'The Venezuelan Volcano'
"
.
The Independent
. August 19, 2004.
Archived
from the original on November 11, 2010.
- ^
"Best of Phoenix 2014: Legend City / The Many Mysteries of Acquanetta (and Jack Ross)"
.
Phoenix New Times
. September 25, 2015. Archived from
the original
on May 12, 2015
. Retrieved
March 14,
2015
.
- ^
Acquanetta; Illustrated by Emilie Touraine (1974).
The Audible Silence
(1st ed.). Flagstaff: Northland Press.
ISBN
9780873581196
.
- ^
"Acquanetta, 83, A Star of B Movies"
.
The New York Times
. August 23, 2004
. Retrieved
December 23,
2010
.
- ^
Resting Places: The Burial Places of 14,000 Famous Persons
, by Scott Wilson
- ^
Brantley, Ben (July 14, 2019).
"Review: In 'Acquanetta,' a Cult Movie Star's Eyes to Die For"
.
The New York Times
. Retrieved
September 2,
2019
.
- ^
"ACQUANETTA | Beth Morrison Projects"
.
bmp-opera-music
. Retrieved
September 2,
2019
.
- ^
"Acquanetta"
.
Prototype Festival
. January 9, 2018
. Retrieved
January 15,
2020
.
- ^
"Acquanetta at Bard College"
.
Fisher Center at Bard
. Retrieved
September 2,
2019
.
- ^
Mank, Gregory William (2015).
Women in Horror Films, 1940s
(illustrated ed.). McFarland & Co. p. 218.
ISBN
9781476609553
.
Further reading
[
edit
]
- Price, Michael H.;
Wooley, John
(2018).
Fantasies in the Sand: Birth of the Beach Party Box-Office Bonanza
. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform.
ISBN
978-1723281068
.
? Features Acquanetta and her connection to the
beach party films
External links
[
edit
]
Wikimedia Commons has media related to
Acquanetta
.
Cheela, the Ape Woman
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Films
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Related
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