Movie star Claudette Colbert was depicted as a fictional character by Chester Gould in the comic strip DICK TRACY. Colbert was then at the peak of her popularity. The same year she was in "It Happened One Night", a smash hit which transformed Columbia Pictures from a poverty row studio to one of the majors.
The character of Jean Pennfield is introduced and becomes involved in the war against crime.
Finally she gets killed,
a fate that befell a few pretty girls too many in this strip.
Dick Tracy comics featured a number of characters who resembled celebrities. Jean Penfield had a boyfriend named "Jimmy White" who was modeled after Jimmy Cagney.
Jimmy Cagney and Alice White. The name "White" could have been used because of Alice White, who worked with Cagney in the movies during this period.
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000010/?ref_=tt_cl_t1
Claudette Colbert:
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001055/
Dick Tracy site:
http://www.dicktracymuseum.com/
Dick Tracy comic strip in 1934:
http://martingrams.blogspot.com/2013/04/dick-tracy-1934-year-in-review.html
:
DICK TRACY AND AMERICAN CULTURE by Garyn Roberts mentions Claudette Colbert:
http://books.google.com/books?id=K-OCBcT1O4UC&pg=PA67&lpg=PA67&dq=jean+penfield+claudette+colbert&source=bl&ots=Ud8fOx896C&sig=EfTrAiqfzg0U2q3uTkkzni6FRmg&hl=en&sa=X&ei=XohQUuXaFoXgqgHNiYHoAQ&ved=0CD0Q6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=jean%20penfield%20claudette%20colbert&f=false
Alice White
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0924442/?ref_=tt_cl_t4
A
