Mother Jean had been forced to marry by her overbearing father; she found Mont Clair boring. By 1922, she finally become too restless to stay with him. Harlean would rarely see her father after the divorce.
Newly single Mother Jean moved her daughter to Hollywood so that she could pursue her longtime dream of being a movie star. However, at thirty-four, she was too old for the romantic leads she coveted. After two years and not one role, her father refused to continue supporting them unless they returned home.
Harlean and her mother lived with her grandfather without much change until she got scarlet fever one year at camp. Mother Jean rushed to care for her. When her daughter was well, she took a train home. There she met suave, unemployed Marino Bello. He swept her off her feet and they were soon married.
When Harlean started boarding school in Chicago that fall, she also fell in love. Charles McGrew was a twenty-year old heir to a fortune. Though she was only sixteen years old, the pair eloped in 1927 and moved to California.
Charles received the first installment of his inheritance when he turned twenty-one. He didn't need to work and the newlyweds lived a life of leisure. At first they enjoyed hiking and having picnics, but soon Harlean was bored with marriage and their predictable routine.
Harlean was delighted when Mother Jean and Bello moved to California to be with her. She had also started to meet friends around town and go out for lunch and shopping. One day, a friend asked her to come with her while she auditioned at a studio.
Harlean waited for her friend in the hallway. She caught the eye of a studio executive. He didn't believe her when she said she had no interest in being a star. He insisted on writing her a letter of introduction.
Harlean laughingly told her friends about what had happened, but they dared her to sign up with Central Casting. She accepted the dare and signed up as Jean Harlow.
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