Good day to remember Lila Leeds

If you took a poll asking who is eastern New Mexico’s most famous resident of all time, the choices would likely include:

• former pro football star Hank Baskett

• music producer Norman Petty

• or maybe actor Ronny Cox or former U.S. Treasurer Katherine Davalos Ortega, both graduates of Eastern New Mexico University.

The list would not include Lila Leeds, a teenage beauty queen who dropped out of Clovis High School to pursue a career in the movies. But she could have been a star if she’d been born in a different era.

Today is a good day to remember Lila Lee Wilkinson (screen name Lila Leeds) because recreational marijuana use is headline news across the country. Marijuana was in the news in 1948, also ... and if you got caught smoking it, you were hauled off to jail.

That’s what happened to Leeds, a rising Hollywood starlet who hung out with the likes of Academy Award nominee Robert Mitchum and former child star Jackie Cooper. A Lana Turner lookalike, Leeds was engaged to Turner’s ex-husband when police in Los Angeles received the tip:

Movie stars were smoking pot in Leeds’ home.

Newspapers of the day reported police peeked through the home’s windows — even feeding Leeds’ dog treats so it wouldn’t bark and give away their surveillance — until they witnessed residents inhaling.

“I’m all washed up,” the 31-year-old Mitchum told reporters as he was taken into custody that night. “This is the bitter end.”

For Mitchum, it wasn’t. He spent 43 days in jail for his crime, but his 55-year acting career included 137 film credits, mostly as a tough guy. His last role — “James Dean: Live Fast, Die Young” — was released in 1997, the same year Mitchum died at age 79.

Leeds, 20 in 1948, barely worked again after the drug scandal. She had three credited roles in movies prior to her arrest; just one afterward — “She Shoulda Said No!,” which was produced to capitalize on her arrest.

No doubt, she shoulda said no to pot in 1948. Today, it’s legal to buy and use marijuana for recreational purposes in 11 states, including California. New Mexico is considering plans for state-run stores to sell marijuana as soon as next year.

A little too late for Lila Leeds.

David Stevens writes about regional history for Clovis Media Inc. Contact him at:

[email protected]