IMAGE: Steve Canyon daily comic strip, July 28, 1947 — Copyright 2014 the Milton Caniff Estate. This is the first introduction to character Madame Lynx. She was shown in the previous day’s Sunday comic, but she didn’t reveal her name until this comic strip.

One of the earliest femme fatales in “Steve Canyon“ was Madame Lynx. In the May 1953 issue of “Pageant,” Caniff notes that Madame Lynx was based on actress Ilona Massey because she’s pretty and she often “plays the type of role that he wanted Madame Lynx to play in the comic strip.”

However, some people erroneously report that Madame Lynx was based on Madame Egelichi, a character played by Ilona Massey in the 1949 Marx Brothers film “Love Happy.” This can’t be the case however, since Madame Lynx was introduced into the comic strip in 1947 and the film was released nearly two years later. (You can catch a glimpse of Madame Lynx in the trailer for the Miss Mizzou book I made; check out my blog post about the trailer for more info.)

Marilyn Monroe also had a small part in the film “Love Happy.” Though Marilyn had done other films, this was the first one that played up her sex appeal. If Caniff was an Ilona Massey fan and he was watching her in this film, I wonder if he also took notice of Marilyn Monroe, who would later inspire Miss Mizzou?