Dark Victory_The Life of Bette Davis
Page 52
14. Bette Davis, “Uncertain Glory,” p. 117.
15. Warner with Jennings, p. 8.
16. Kennedy, p. 162.
17. Warner with Jennings, p. 6.
18. Gabler, p. 191.
19. Ibid., p. 190.
20. Gussow, Zanuck, p. 49.
21. Warner Bros. Archives, University of Southern California (USC), legal files, May 21, 1931, to December 19, 1933.
22. Ibid., January 2 to September 30, 1936.
23. Stine and Davis, Mother Goddam, p. 20.
24. Lonely Life, pp. 124–25.
25. Ibid.
26. Ibid., p. 135.
27. Gabler, p. 196.
28. Lonely Life, pp. 135–36.
29. LeRoy and Kleiner, pp. 115–16.
CHAPTER 4. AN ACTRESS IN MOTION
1. Lonely Life, pp. 40, 52, 59–60; Leaming, p. 52.
2. Ibid., p. 60.
3. Ibid., p. 113.
4. Ibid., p. 130.
5. USC, legal files, May 21, 1931, to December 19, 1933.
6. Leaming, p. 103.
7. Stine and Davis, Mother Goddam, p. 41, quoting Gladys Hall, Modern Screen.
8. BU, box 2, folder 5: Boston Post clipping, undated; Boston Globe, March 8, 1933.
9. Lonely Life, p. 133.
10. USC, legal files, January 2 to September 30, 1936: interoffice memo, September 24, 1936.
11. Leaming, p. 98.
12. Lonely Life, p. 131.
13. USC, legal files, May 21, 1931, to December 19, 1933.
14. Lonely Life, p. 135.
15. Stine and Davis, Mother Goddam, p. 42.
16. Swindell, Tracy, p. 102.
17. Andersen, Affair, pp. 79–80.
18. Cagney, pp. 118–19.
19. Baldwin, p. 7.
20. Lonely Life, p. 136.
21. Fairbanks, p. 192.
22. Lonely Life, p. 138.
23. AMPAS, clippings file for The Working Man, Warner Bros. accounting sheet dated April 6, 1933.
24. Vieira, pp. 220–21; Warner Bros. accounting sheet dated April 6, 1933.
25. BU, scrapbook 108.
26. BU, scrapbook 63; Boston Sunday Globe, June 21, 1931.
27. USC, legal files, May 21, 1931, to December 19, 1933.
28. Lonely Life, p. 132.
29. Leaming, p. 103.
30. Ibid., p. 107; Sikov.
31. Stine and Davis, Mother Goddam, p. 44.
32. O’Brien, p. 183.
33. Davis with Davidson, November 25, 1955, p. 29.
34. Lonely Life, p. 141.
35. Bergman, p. 49.
36. Ibid., p. 48.
37. Cagney, p. 60.
38. Ibid.
39. Warren with Cagney, p. 102.
40. Stine and Davis, Mother Goddam, p. 54.
41. Leaming, p. 108.
42. Stine and Davis, Mother Goddam, p. 42.
43. Cagney, pp. 52–53.
44. Lonely Life, p. 141.
45. Stine and Davis, Mother Goddam, p. 57.
46. Stardust: The Bette Davis Story, dir. Peter Jones, Turner Classic Movies, 2006.
47. Lonely Life, p. 142.
48. Howard, p. 208.
49. Lonely Life, p. 141.
50. Shingler, “Malevolence.”
CHAPTER 5. THE FIRST OSCAR
1. Stine and Davis, Mother Goddam, p. 55.
2. Leaming, p. 109.
3. Ibid., p. 110.
4. Ibid., p. 111.
5. Behlmer, Inside Warner Bros., p. 15: Wallis to Mayo, September 13, 1934.
6. Bette Davis, “Uncertain Glory,” p. 119.
7. Jerome Lawrence, p. 357.
8. Lonely Life, p. 147.
9. Quirk and Schoell, p. 70.
10. Lonely Life, p. 149.
11. Brophy, pp. 227–28; http://encycl.opentopia.com/term/Curate’s_egg.
12. http://www.thanhouser.org/people/eagelsj.htm.
13. Sperber and Lax, p. 53.
14. USC, The Petrified Forest file: daily production and progress report.
15. Caine, pp. 227–28.
16. USC, legal files, January 2 to December 29, 1935.
17. New York Times, July 23, 1936.
18. Stine and Davis, Mother Goddam, p. 76.
19. Ibid., p. 35.
20. USC, legal files, January 2 to September 30, 1936; Berg, Kate Remembered, p. 124; Eyman, p. 168; New York Times, February 23, 1936; Hanson, AFI Catalog, 1931–1940, pp. 1335–36; Stine and Davis, Mother Goddam, p. 121.
21. Lonely Life, p. 156.
22. Hanson, AFI Catalog, 1931–1940, p. 796.
23. USC, legal files, January 2 to September 30, 1936.
24. Ibid.
25. Leaming, p. 115.
26. Lonely Life, p. 150.
27. Wiley and Bona, p. 65.
28. Ibid.
29. Lonely Life, p. 154.
30. Stine and Davis, Mother Goddam, p. 74.
31. Ibid.
32. BU, scrapbook 23: Boston Globe, February 26, 1939.
33. Lonely Life, pp. 154–55.
34. Hanson, AFI Catalog, 1931–1940, pp. 68, 779.
35. Stine and Davis, Mother Goddam, p. 72.
36. Ibid., p. 76.
37. BU, scrapbook 11.
38. Huston, p. 187.
39. Warner with Jennings, p. 247.
40. USC, legal files, January 2 to December 29, 1935.
41. Ibid., January 2 to September 30, 1936.
42. Wiley and Bona, p. 65.
43. Leaming, p. 111; Schatz, p. 202.
44. BU, scrapbook 13: Motion Picture Daily, January 18, 1937. Finler, p. 244. There is a discrepancy between the Motion Picture Daily’s reporting of the star’s 1935 income and a Warner Bros. internal accounting sheet, which claims that between 1931, when she first signed on at Warners, and late 1936, the studio paid Davis $74,941.67 while working and $71,583.33 while not working (which is to say, while she wasn’t clocking in on a particular film), for a total of $146,525.00, or about $30,000 per year. Still, Davis clearly earned less for herself than she earned for the brothers Warner.
45. New York Times, February 26, May 1, and May 26, 1936.
CHAPTER 6. UP IN ARMS
1. Stine and Davis, Mother Goddam, p. 76.
2. Lonely Life, pp. 156–57.
3. USC, legal files, January 2 to September 30, 1936.
4. Warner with Jennings, p. 248.
5. BU, scrapbook 11: Louella Parsons, Los Angeles Examiner, June 20, 1936.
6. Slide, p. 238.
7. USC, legal files, January 2 to September 30, 1936.
8. John T. McManus, “Bette Davis Here: Stop,” New York Times, March 29, 1936.
9. BU, box 3, folder 8: Boston Globe, April 3, 1936. BU, box 2, folder 8: Boston Post, April 4, 1936; Boston Herald, April 4, 1936.
10. BU, box 1: telegram from Harlow M. Davis, April 5, 1936.
11. USC, legal files, January 2 to September 30, 1936: Martin Gang to Roy Obringer, April 6, 1936.
12. USC, legal files, January 2 to September 30, 1936.
13. Ibid.
14. Ibid.
15. Ibid.
16. Ibid., October 1 to December 24, 1936.
17. Stine and Davis, Mother Goddam, p. 77.
18. The Dick Cavett Show, ABC, November 17, 1971.
19. USC, legal files, January 2 to September 30, 1936.
20. Ibid.
21. Bette Davis to Jack L. Warner, June 21, 1936; USC, legal files, January 2 to September 30, 1936.
22. USC, legal files, January 2 to September 30, 1936.
23. Ibid.
24. Ibid.
25. Daily Mail, September 16, 1936.
26. Warner with Jennings, p. 248.
27. BU, scrapbook 11.
28. Lonely Life, p. 159; Stine and Davis, Mother Goddam, p. 77.
29. BU, scrapbook 10: British Daily Express, August 18, 1936.
30. BU, scrapbook 10: Glasgow Evening Citizen, August 18, 1936.
31. Lonely Life
, p. 160.
32. Today’s Cinema, September 9, 1936; Referee, September 13, 1936.
33. Sunday Express, September 13, 1936.
34. BU, scrapbook 11: Daily Express.
35. BU, scrapbook 13.
36. Warner with Jennings, p. 250.
37. Lonely Life, p. 162.
38. “Law Report, Oct. 16,” Times (London), October 17, 1936.
39. “K. C. Calls Contract a ‘Life Sentence’ on Film Star,” Daily Telegraph, October 16, 1936.
40. Evening News, October 14, 1936.
41. Lonely Life, pp. 163–64.
42. “K. C. Calls Contract a ‘Life Sentence’ on Film Star,” Daily Telegraph, October 16, 1936.
43. Lonely Life, p. 164.
44. Ibid., pp. 167–68.
45. USC, legal files, October 1 to December 24, 1936.
46. Freedland, Warner, p. 84.
47. BU, box 1: Ludovico Toeplitz to Bette Davis, August 27, 1936.
48. BU, scrapbook 10: card from George Arliss dated October 27, 1936.
49. Stine and Davis, Mother Goddam, p. 82.
50. “Miss Bette Davis Judgment on Monday,” Daily Telegraph, October 17, 1936.
51. USC, legal files, October 1 to December 24, 1936.
52. Stine and Davis, Mother Goddam, p. 81.
53. USC, legal files, October 1 to December 24, 1936: Roy Obringer to Eric Fletcher of Denton, Hall & Burgin, November 20, 1936.
54. USC, legal files, October 1 to December 24, 1936.
55. BU, scrapbook 11: Standard and Daily Telegraph, October 19, 1936.
56. BU, scrapbook 10.
57. Thanks to Martin Shingler for this observation.
58. Martin Shingler to ES, August 20, 2004.
59. Anon., “Freedom Fighter.”
60. BU, scrapbook 67.
CHAPTER 7. “IN THE WARNER JAIL”
1. BU, scrapbook 17.
2. Lonely Life, p. 169.
3. Leaming, p. 134.
4. Dotson Rader to ES, February 18, 2004.
5. Leaming, p. 134.
6. Ibid., p. 135.
7. Spada, Davis, p. 130.
8. Powell, p. 69.
9. Ibid., p. 127.
10. Hanson, AFI Catalog, 1931–1940, pp. 1329–30.
11. Lonely Life, p. 171.
12. BU, scrapbook 17: “Glamorous Bette—Marked Woman,” unsigned fanzine article.
13. Behlmer, Warner, p. 39.
14. Spada, Davis, pp. 130–31.
15. Sperber and Lax, p. 105.
16. Wallis and Higham, p. 47.
17. Lonely Life, p. 172.
18. Sperber and Lax, p. 203.
19. Lonely Life, p. 172.
20. McGilligan, Backstory 1, p. 300.
21. Variety, June 9, 1937.
22. Leaming, p. 37.
23. Ibid., pp. 37, 41–42, 92–93, 98–99.
24. Ibid., pp. 110, 121.
25. Lonely Life, p. 153.
26. Los Angeles Examiner, June 13, 1937.
27. Lonely Life, p. 153.
28. Ibid., p. 170.
29. Leaming, p. 136.
30. USC, legal files, January 8 to June 30, 1937: Obringer to Perkins, January 14 and March 10, 1937.
31. Hanson, AFI Catalog, 1931–1940, pp. 942–43.
32. Lonely Life, p. 157.
33. Stine and Davis, Mother Goddam, p. 96.
34. Warner with Jennings, p. 253.
35. Lonely Life, p. 174.
36. Hanson, AFI Catalog, 1931–1940, p. 803.
37. Ibid.
38. Lonely Life, p. 174.
39. BU, scrapbook 13.
40. Ibid.
41. Lambert Gavin, “The Making of Gone with the Wind,” Atlantic Monthly, February 1973.
42. Warner with Jennings, p. 253.
43. Lonely Life, p. 174.
44. Behlmer, Selznick, pp. 164–67.
45. USC, legal files, January 8 to June 30, 1937: Bette Davis to Jack Warner, July 17, 1937.
46. Ibid.: Bette Davis to Jack Warner, July 26, 1937.
47. Flanner, p. 23.
48. USC, legal files, July 6 to December 6, 1937: Bridget Price to Jack Warner, July 30, 1937.
49. Radie Harris, “The Fear That Is Haunting Bette Davis,” November 1937.
50. Leaming, p. 139.
51. Boston Globe, January 16, 1933.
52. Lonely Life, p. 152.
53. Ibid., p. 173.
54. Leaming, p. 122.
55. BU, scrapbook 9.
56. Spada, Bette Davis, p. 110.
57. Ibid., p. 116.
58. Williamson, p. 79.
59. Spada, Bette Davis, p. 138; Screen Guide, “Home Life of a Movie Hellcat,” undated.
60. Spada, Bette Davis, p. 135.
61. Bette Davis, “Uncertain Glory,” p. 118.
CHAPTER 8. THE SECOND OSCAR
1. Herman, pp. 118, 174–75.
2. Hanson, AFI Catalog, 1931–1940, pp. 1064–66.
3. Higham, p. 98.
4. Hanson, AFI Catalog, 1931–1940, pp. 1064–66.
5. Herman, p. 174–75.
6. Ibid., p. 176.
7. Lonely Life, p. 175.
8. Hanson, AFI Catalog, 1931–1940, pp. 1064–66.
9. Herman, p. 177.
10. Lonely Life, p. 175.
11. Higham, Bette, p. 107.
12. Wallis and Higham, p. 50.
13. Spada, Bette Davis, p. 134.
14. Herman, p. 178.
15. Lonely Life, p. 175.
16. Ibid.
17. Herman, p. 178.
18. Ibid.
19. Ibid., p. 180.
20. Ibid.
21. USC, Jezebel file: daily production and progress report.
22. David Chierichetti to ES, January 23, 2006.
23. USC, legal files, July 6 to December 6, 1937; memo dated November 30, 1937.
24. Higham, Bette, p. 108.
25. Malcolm, pp. 8–9.
26. www.ibdb.com; Lonely Life, p. 82; Bette Davis, “Uncertain Glory,” p. 113.
27. Lonely Life, p. 82.
28. Ibid., p. 83; Bette Davis, “Uncertain Glory,” p. 113.
29. BU, box 2, folder 3.
30. Lonely Life, p. 83.
31. Ibid., pp. 83–84.
32. Ibid., p. 85.
33. Ibid., pp. 85–86.
34. Leaming, p. 49.
35. Ibsen, p. 196.
36. Higham, Bette, p. 33.
37. Spada, Bette Davis, p. 64.
38. Martin Shingler to ES, August 20, 2004.
39. Lonely Life, pp. 12, 24.
40. Ibid., pp. 88–89.
41. Boston Post, January 3, 1938; USC, Jezebel file: daily production and progress report.
42. Boston Post, January 3, 1938.
43. USC, Jezebel file: daily production and progress report.
44. Schatz, p. 225.
45. Herman, p. 182.
46. Ibid.
47. Photoplay, January 1938.
48. The Academy changed its regulations in 1944 to allow only five films to be nominated for Best Picture.
49. Boston Globe, February 26, 1939.
50. Lonely Life, p. 178.
CHAPTER 9. “A GIRL WHO DIES”
1. USC, legal files, August 3 to December 16, 1938. Retakes were shot on August 22.
2. The Dick Cavett Show, ABC, December 31, 1969.
3. Westmore and Davidson, p. 84.
4. Lonely Life, pp. 180–81.
5. Thomson, p. 522.
6. Lonely Life, p. 181.
7. Ibid.
8. Higham, Bette Davis, pp. 110–11.
9. Higham, p. 111.
10. BU, scrapbook 21.
11. Spada, Bette Davis, pp. 143–45.
12. Vik Greenfield to ES, August 9, 2004.
13. BU, scrapbook 21: various clippings dated August 30, 1938, and later that fall.
14. BU, box 2, folder 4: Complaint for Divorce, dated November 22, 1938, Harmon Oscar Nelson Jr., plaint
iff, versus Ruth Elizabeth Nelson, defendant.
15. BU, box 1: anonymous letter dated November 27, 1938.
16. BU, scrapbook 17: Gladys Hall, “If I Had Six Months to Live.”
17. Lonely Life, p. 182.
18. NYPLLC, Dark Victory (play) clippings.
19. Zierold, p. 212; Swanson, p. 450.
20. Hanson, AFI Catalog, 1931–1940, p. 465.
21. Lonely Life, p. 183.
22. Charles Busch to ES, May 26, 2004.
23. Sperber and Lax, p. 104; Kennedy, pp. 179–80.
24. USC, Dark Victory files: Hal Wallis to Edmund Goulding, October 27, 1938.
25. Douglas Churchill, New York Times, November 6, 1938.
26. BU, scrapbook 43: Screen Gossip, undated.
27. Kennedy, p. 178.
28. BU, scrapbook 17: Dorothy Manners, “Hollywood’s Next Great Love Story.”
29. The Dick Cavett Show, ABC, March 11, 1971.
30. Kennedy, p. 181.
31. Meyers, p. 102, quoting production memos in the Warner Bros. archive at USC.
32. Stine and Davis, Mother Goddam, p. 112.
33. AMPAS, Gladys Hall Collection, folder 141: “Bette Davis,” Modern Screen, January 28, 1939.
34. Mann, Behind the Screen, p. 171, quoting Ezra Goodman, New York Times, June 28, 1942.
35. USC, Dark Victory files: Casey Robinson to Hal Wallis, August 19, 1938.
36. BU, box 28: Geraldine Fitzgerald to Harold (Schiff?), undated.
37. USC, Dark Victory files: “Story—Changes” file.
38. Ibid.: David Lewis to Hal Wallis, November 4, 1938.
39. Ibid.: Hal Wallis’s cutting notes, December 9, 1938.
40. Ibid.: A. C. Blumenthal to Hal Wallis, March 9, 1939.
41. Ibid.: Dark Victory pressbook.
42. New York Times, March 19, 1939.
CHAPTER 10. FEUDS
1. MEYER, P. 127.
2. Stine and Davis, Mother Goddam, p. 116; BU, scrapbook 22: unsourced clipping.
3. Aherne, p. 280.
4. Ibid., p. 255.
5. Stine and Davis, Mother Goddam, p. 115.
6. Jerome Lawrence, pp. 353, 356.
7. Lonely Life, pp. 186–87.
8. USC, The Old Maid files: daily production and progress report.
9. Life, August 21, 1939.
10. Wide World Special: The Dick Cavett Show, ABC, September 19, 1974.
11. Lonely Life, p. 188.
12. Pittsburgh Press, May 17, 1939.
13. USC, legal files, January 4 to August 31, 1939.
14. Ibid.
15. Ibid.
16. Flynn, pp. 260–61.
17. USC, Private Lives file: daily production and progress report.
18. Harrison Carroll, Herald Express, June 10, 1939.
19. Olivia de Havilland, interviewed in The Adventures of Errol Flynn, dir. David Heeley, Turner Classic Movies, 2005.
20. Hanson, AFI Catalog, 1931–1940, pp. 41–42.
21. Swindell, Boyer, p. 158.