Veda Pierce, L.A.s most odious monster, dead at 98

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Set us as preferred From the beginning, Mildred vowed that her daughter Veda would have all the things this newly blossoming post-war suburban paradise could offer.They lived in a charming Spanish Colonial house in Glendale, the kind of place where there were more kids than cars on the street.Veda’s days were filled with stickball, piano lessons and ballet.

If she fancied a dress in the display window at the Broadway or Bullocks, it would appear in a fancy box on her bed a few days later.But this pampered childhood was not enough for Veda.She had her eye on the bigger house, the fancier car, the wealthier man — a drive for riches that would destroy her life and make her one of the greatest L.A.

movie villains of all time.Veda died last week.Well, the actress who played her, Ann Blyth, passed away at 98.But this L.A.

monster is so etched into my mind that I long ago stopped being able to differentiate between the actress and the character.Veda’s story unfolds in “Mildred Pierce,” the classic James M.Cain novel and 1945 Joan Crawford film.The movie is an apex of film noir, filled with dark shadows, moody lighting and ominous swaying palm trees.

But it is also a memorable — and much analyzed — meditation on class in the American century.We meet the Pierces as Mildred is struggling to make ends meet.Her husband can’t hold a job, so she starts baking cakes.

She eventually gets a job as a waitress at a downtown L.A.coffee shop, but keeps it a secret for fear Veda will judge her.

She eventually scores her own American dream, opening a chain of restaurants with locations in Beverly Hills, Laguna Beach, Glendale and beyond.But Veda has zero admiration for Mildred’s rapid upward mobility, striking the pose of a blue blood who looks down on hard work.Veda loves to torture Mildred about being a middle-class striver...