Winnie Lightner (September 17, 1899 – March 5, 1971) was an American motion picture actress. Perhaps her most famous role was as a gold-digger named Mabel, in Gold Diggers of Broadway (1929). Lightner was often typecast as a wise-cracking gold-digger and was known for her talents as a comedienne and singer.
Winnie Lightner was born Winifred Reeves in Greenport, New York, but was raised in Manhattan's Hell's Kitchen by her aunt and uncle Margaret ...
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Winnie Lightner (September 17, 1899 – March 5, 1971) was an American motion picture actress. Perhaps her most famous role was as a gold-digger named Mabel, in Gold Diggers of Broadway (1929). Lightner was often typecast as a wise-cracking gold-digger and was known for her talents as a comedienne and singer.
Winnie Lightner was born Winifred Reeves in Greenport, New York, but was raised in Manhattan's Hell's Kitchen by her aunt and uncle Margaret and Andrew Hansen. She had a successful career in vaudeville and finally made it to Broadway. Winnie Lightner was the first movie performer in history ever to be censored for what she said or sang on screen rather than for anything she did visually. In 1928, she made a Vitaphone short in which she sang "We Love It", "God Help a Sailor on a Night Like This", "That Brand New Model of Mine", and "We've Got a Lot to Learn." A censorship board in Pennsylvania held the release of the film because of the content of Lightner's songs. According to film...
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