40 Photos of Veronica Lake on the Set of “Sullivan’s Travels” (1941)

Despite their effortless, screwball chemistry on screen, Veronica Lake’s time on the set of Sullivan’s Travels (1941) was marked by major behind-the-scenes tension, largely stemming from a secret she kept until the first day of shooting. When production began on May 12, 1941, the 18-year-old Lake was six months pregnant with her first child, a fact she had withheld from writer-director Preston Sturges and Paramount Pictures.

Sturges was furious when he realized her condition on the first day of filming, reportedly needing to be calmed down by crew members. Legendary costume designer Edith Head was tasked with concealing Lake’s growing bump throughout the 10-week shoot. Because the plot required Lake’s character (“The Girl”) to disguise herself as a boyish hobo alongside Joel McCrea, Head used oversized men’s suits, baggy coats, and strategic framing, along with a body double for physical stunts, to hide the pregnancy. Filming wrapped on July 22, 1941, and Lake gave birth to her daughter, Elaine, just one month later.

While Lake later wrote in her autobiography that Sullivan’s Travels was “a joy to make” and praised the comedic change of pace, her co-star Joel McCrea strongly disliked working with her. Lake was notoriously moody and difficult on set, a reputation that followed her throughout the 1940s. McCrea found her behavior so frustrating that he initially turned down the male lead in their next scheduled pairing, I Married a Witch (1942), famously quipping, “Life’s too short for two films with Veronica Lake.” (The two eventually buried the hatchet years later to co-star in the 1947 Western Ramrod.)

Sullivan’s Travels was only Lake’s second major studio role following her breakout earlier that year in I Wanted Wings. The film solidified her signature “peek-a-boo” hairstyle, where a long wave of blonde hair fell over her right eye, as a national phenomenon. Even when tucked under a cap for her tramp disguise, the hairstyle remained a focal point of Paramount’s publicity campaign, turning Lake into one of Hollywood’s biggest box-office draws almost overnight.