Long before one-named celebrities became a fixture in American pop culture — before Oprah, before Madonna, even before Cher — there was Acquanetta.
For decades the raven-haired beauty, who appeared in a series of B-movies in the 1940s, was the Valley’s biggest celebrity, a larger-than-life personality who starred in countless corny television ads for her husband’s Lincoln Mercury dealership and hosted “Acqua’s Corner,” a local TV show that accompanied Friday late-night movies.
“We never thought much about (her fame) when we were growing up,” said Lance Ross, Acquanetta’s oldest son. “We knew about it, but only because everywhere we went she was recognized and people wanted her autograph.”
Acquanetta’s early years are shrouded in a sort of biographical haze. In a 1942 spread in Life magazine, she claimed to have been born Burnu Acquanetta (“Burning Fire Deep Water”) to Arapaho parents in Ozone, Wyo., in 1921. But she grew up as Mildred Davenport in Pennsylvania.
She started her career as a model, then signed with Universal Studios in 1942. A press agent dubbed her the “Venezuelan Volcano,” possibly an homage to Carmen Miranda, aka the “Brazilian Bombshell.”
Acquanetta’s first role was as a harem girl in “Arabian Nights” in 1942. A year later, she appeared as the Gorilla Girl in “Captive Wild Woman,” which Universal hoped would spawn a series of sequels. The trailer alone — www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKbCE0ydNFA — is a classic of B-movie camp.
The highlight of Acquanetta’s film career came in 1946, when she starred as Lea, the High Priestess in “Tarzan and the Leopard Woman.”
Acquanetta married Los Angeles businessman Jack Ross in 1953; the couple moved to Mesa a couple of years later. Together they supported innumerable charities and arts organizations, notably Mesa Lutheran Hospital (now Banner Mesa Medical Center), Phoenix Indian School and Scottsdale’s Sagebrush Theatre.
A collection of her poetry, “The Audible Silence,” was published in 1974.
She and Ross had four sons together and divorced in the 1980s. Acquanetta died in Ahwatukee Foothills in 2004.
“She was the most remarkable person, with an unbelievable generosity,” said Lance, president of Ross Property Advisors in Scottsdale. “She did so many things for so many people. I think about her every day.”
