Veronica Lake

I'm finding the tale of Veronica Lake's ashes more depressing than I think I'm supposed to:

Her hairstyle, with long locks cascading over her right eye, was so popular that U.S. officials asked her to change it during World War II, fearing the 'do might cause workplace accidents among women on assembly lines.

Kim Basinger (news)'s Oscar-winning call girl character in 1998's "L.A. Confidential" was based on Lake.

But when the actress died in her early 50s on July 7, 1973, she was an entertainment footnote. She was working as a New York cocktail waitress, drinking heavily and married to her fourth husband, a commercial fisherman known as "Captain Bob."

Her sparsely attended Manhattan memorial service was paid for by a friend, veteran ghostwriter Donald Bain, who penned Lake's autobiography. Not even her ashes made the event; they were stored at a Burlington, Vt., funeral home in a squabble over money, as best Bain can remember.

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