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Maxine Barbur was an aspiring actress who won a Jean Harlow look-alike contest.
She was born Melba Maxine Barbur on February 25, 1916 in Los Angeles, California. Her father, Silas Barbur, was a mechanic and her mother, Ruby, was a housewife. When she was a child her family moved to Arizona. They returned to Los Angeles in 1930 and Maxine was enrolled in North Hollywood high school. At the age of seventeen she won a Jean Harlow look-alike contest and was given a screen test at MGM. In an interview she said “Excited? You bet I am. Like all girls I have had dreams about the movies.” Unfortunately she was not offered a film contract. The beautiful blonde landed a bit part in the 1935 musical The Girlfriend (she was credited as Maxine Barbour). Then she became the featured vocalist for the Bob Fite orchestra. She also worked on the radio and appeared in several local plays. Maxine started dating R.M. Hacker, a linoleum contract. He became violent and in 1938 he beat her so badly she had permanent damage in her eye. During World War 2 she started working at an aircraft plant. On March 14, 1943 she married Tony Stimolo, a shipyard worker. The couple divorced a few years later. She continued to live in Los Angeles where she worked in a dress shop. Sadly on June 5, 1957 she died at the young age of forty-one. Maxine was buried at Inglewood Memorial Park in Inglewood, California.
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