Lana Turner in popular culture

Lana Turner, 1942

The story of Turner's chance discovery by William Wilkerson at a Hollywood malt shop at age 16 was widely circulated during her lifetime, and went on to become a part of Hollywood mythology.[4][5] Varied accounts as to where the discovery occurred were recounted in publication and via word of mouth during her early career in the late 1930s and early 1940s, with a popular retelling having the meeting occur at Schwab's Pharmacy.[6][7] Shortly after Turner's rise to fame, the owner of the malt shop in which the discovery took place erected a metal plaque on the seat which Turner had occupied when she met Wilkerson, and soon the shop became inundated with young women hoping to experience the same chance occurrence.[5] Wilkerson's son, journalist William Wilkerson III, wrote on the lasting cultural impact of Turner's discovery in 1995:

On that January day, a Hollywood myth sprang to life. In one brief, glittering moment, a schoolgirl was plucked from a soda fountain counter and catapulted into the eternal firmament of stardom. But, curiously, while Hollywood's history is littered with dozens of noteworthy discovery stories, this one stuck. Lana's much quoted "discovery" became one of the town's most enduring legends. It became famous as "the Hollywood Cinderella Story" because it combined a young girl, Cinderella; a powerful publisher, the handsome prince; and a letter to agent Zeppo Marx, the glass slipper that transformed her life.[5]

Scholar Kim Fields similarly wrote about the lasting cultural relevance of Turner and her discovery story in her 2007 book An Intimate Affair: Women, Lingerie, and Sexuality, noting that it is emblematic of "the American Dream fulfilled ... Because of her, being discovered at a soda fountain has become almost as cherished an ideal as being born in a log cabin."[2]

Following her feature film debut in Mervyn LeRoy's They Won't Forget (1937), Turner was the first woman to receive the nickname the "Sweater Girl" due to her form-fitting attire which accentuated her bust.[8][9] Though she herself detested the nickname, it was one with which she became synonymous over the duration of her career,[10] and it would come to be applied to several actresses throughout the 1940s and 1950s.[11] Several years after the release of They Won't Forget, Modern Screen journalist Nancy Squires wrote an extensive article on Turner, in which she noted that she had "made a sweater look like something Cleopatra was saving for the next visiting Caesar."[12]

Turner's rise to fame and establishment as a Hollywood sex symbol[13] following They Won't Forget was concurrent with World War II, and she became a prominent pin-up model at the time, appearing painted on the noses of U.S. fighter planes bearing the title "Tempest Turner."[14] MGM appointed her to tour the United States West Coast and sell war bonds in various cities in the summer of 1942.[15] During the tour, Turner began giving out kisses to the highest buyers, and by the end of the 10-week tour, had sold $5.25 million (equivalent to $82.2 million in 2019) in war bonds.[15]

Turner with Frank Sinatra c. 1944

One of the earliest popular culture references to Turner is in Frank Sinatra's 1944 recorded version of "Nancy (with the Laughing Face)."[16] During this time, Turner and Sinatra had been carrying on a romantic affair.[17] She would later be named in Nina Simone's 1958 version of the song "My Baby Just Cares for Me," which appeared on her album Little Girl Blue.[18]

Copies of "Lana Turner has Collapsed" (1964) by Frank O'Hara at the Museum of the City of New York in 2007

A 1941 Chrysler Newport owned by Turner and her husband, Bob Topping, at the National Automobile Museum

In 1962, writer Harold Robbins published the novel Where Love Has Gone, which was inspired by the scandal surrounding Turner after her daughter, Cheryl Crane, stabbed her lover, Johnny Stompanato, to death during a domestic struggle in their Beverly Hills home.[19] A film adaptation of the novel was made in 1964.[19] In response to the release of the novel and film, Turner told a journalist: "I suppose I'll be getting bugged by that question."[19] The same year, poet Frank O'Hara wrote the poem "Lana Turner has collapsed" (1964), which was based on a headline he had seen stating that Turner had collapsed at a social gathering.[20]

In 1985, artist Andy Warhol produced a silkscreen print of Turner in her youth,[21] and she was photographed by Warhol in Polaroid the same year; one Polaroid image from the shoot would later sell in auction for $3,750.[22]

Writer James Ellroy depicted Turner again (alongside Stompanato) in his 1990 novel L.A. Confidential (1990).[23] Brenda Bakke went on to portray her in a scene of the 1995 film adaptation by director Curtis Hanson.[24] Also in 1990, Turner was referenced on the rap section of Madonna's "Vogue" next to stars from the Golden Age era of Hollywood such as Rita Hayworth, Lauren Bacall, and Marilyn Monroe.[25] Despite her recurring prevalence in popular culture, upon her death in 1995, writer and critic John Updike wrote in The New Yorker that Turner "was a faded period piece, an old-fashioned glamour queen whose fifty-four films, over four decades didn't amount, retrospectively to much ... As a performer, she was purely a studio-made product."[26]

In 2002, Turner was commemorated by artist Eloy Torrez in an outdoor mural, Portrait of Hollywood, painted on the auditorium of Hollywood High School, her alma mater, alongside numerous other famous alumni.[27] Beyoncé Knowles, as a member of Destiny’s Child, for awhile adopted a look and fashion sense reminiscent of Turner. American singer-songwriter Elizabeth Grant (b. 1985), better known as Lana Del Rey, devised her stage name inspired by Turner and the Ford Del Rey sedan.[28][29] A 2011 article on Del Rey in The New Yorker described Turner as a "titan of red-lip, Old Hollywood glamour."[28]