Photograph was edited for publication purposes. Marino Bello was an Italian con man with gangster connections. He was married for a brief time to actress Jean Harlow's mother. By many accounts he used Harlow and her mother as a meal ticket. In 1938, he was involved in a strange incident aboard a schooner he rented to search for treasure. The Metha Nelson was a was a wooden-hulled sailing schooner. The vessel, which was chartered to Bello, sailed from Long Beach on September 10, 1938, sailing to Guatemala. Two men, Charles Segal and Abraham Kapellner, claimed that the captain of the ship, Robert Hoffman, treated them badly because they were Jewish and he was German. Segal and Kapellner went ashore in Guatemala and boarded the Italian ship Cellina to return to Los Angeles. Hoffman radioed the captain of the Cellina and told him to hold the pair as mutiny suspects. Two days later, the Cellina, responding to distress flares, encountered the Metha Nelson, its sails in tatters and its engine disabled. When the ship reached San Pedro, Segal and Kapellner were arrested on charges of mutiny. Hoffman admitted using chains to restrain and beat crew members because of necessity. Most of the crew and guests aboard the ship disagreed with the captain and a grand jury refused to indict the two men.; Jean Harlow, was born Harlean Harlow Carpenter on March 3, 1911. She was a film actress and top sex symbol of the 1930s. Her big break came in 1930 when she landed a role in Howard Hughes' WWI epic, "Hell's Angels." In 1932 Hughes sold her contract to MGM for $60,000 and from there her career shot to unprecedented heights. By the mid-1930s Harlow was one of the biggest stars in America. In the early part of 1937 Harlow fell ill with influenza. In early June of 1937, while filming the movie "Saratoga" with Clark Gable, she collapsed on the set and was rushed to the hospital where she was diagnosed with kidney disease. Just days later, on June 7, Jean Harlow died; she was only 26 years old. She is buried in a private room in the Great Mausoleum at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale. Harlow is credited with 30 feature films and eleven short subjects. She was the first film actress on the cover of LIFE Magazine (May 1937). Her Hollywood Walk of Fame star is located at 6910 Hollywood Boulevard. Photograph caption dated September 2, 1939 reads "Jean Harlow kin and former Hollywood girl who figured in strange sea saga, return from Italy sojourn."
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Image
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1 photographic print :b&w ;21 x 26 cm. Photographic prints
Harlow, Jean,--1911-1937--Family Bello, Marino Men--California--Los Angeles Women--California--Los Angeles Stepfathers--California--Los Angeles Los Angeles Evening Herald and Express photographs Herald-Examiner Collection photographs
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