Katharine ("Kay") Gratten Aldridge was an American actress and model, best known for playing feisty and imperiled heroines in black-and-white serials during the 1940s.
Kay Aldridge, c. 1940s
The damsel in distress is a narrative device in which one or more men must rescue a woman who has been kidnapped or placed in other peril. Kinship, love, lust or a combination of those motivate the male protagonist to initiate the narrative.
Frank Bernard Dicksee's 1885 painting Chivalry
Rembrandt's Andromeda chained to the rock – a late-Renaissance damsel in distress from Greek mythology.
Paolo Uccello's depiction of Saint George and the dragon, c. 1470, a classic image of a damsel in distress.
John Everett Millais' The Knight Errant of 1870 saves a damsel in distress and underlines the erotic subtext of the genre.