How to Be a Movie Star

by William J. Mann

  [>] "expressed great admiration": Mike Todd FBI file, memo dated April 20, 1956.

  [>] outside "artistic control": Department of State memorandum of conversation, April 3, 1956, Mike Todd FBI file.

  [>] likening Khrushchev to a Hollywood movie magnate: NYT, February 3, 1958.

  [>]–14 "best secret weapon": This is quoted in Dick Sheppard, Elizabeth: The Life and Career of Elizabeth Taylor (Warner Books, 1975), although no specific attribution is given.

  [>] a summit meeting between East and West: NYT, January 28, 1958.

  [>] "only had to utter": Photoplay, October 1958.

  [>], [>] rehearsals for Cat on a Hot Tin Roof Richard Brooks papers, AMPAS.

  [>] "dogged it": HCSBU.

  [>] "Once the camera begins to roll": Heymann, Liz.

  [>] "Liz is blissfully happy": Photoplay, March 1958.

  [>]–18 seeing a plane go down over the mountains: I have assembled this account by using various newspaper articles from the New Mexico area where the crash occurred, which offered considerably more details than the national press. The Associated Press compiled many of these reports for an article that was syndicated in some papers, such as the Abilene, Texas, Reporter-News, on March 23, 1958. I also used the detailed report of the Civil Aeronautics Administration, dated April 17, 1959, after it had concluded the investigation of the crash.

  218 George Hight: This comes from the interview with Glenda Jensen, www.in70mm.com.

  6. Protecting Interests

  [>] "old harpy": Interview with Robert Shaw.

  [>] "she would be hiding," "squeezing producers dry": Hopper, The Whole Truth and Nothing But.

  [>] "Good News": Modern Screen, [nd] 1958, Constance McCormick Collection of scrapbooks, USC.

  [>] "a small figure": Photoplay, June 1958.

  [>] "The goddess Todd had built": Motion Picture, March 1960.

  [>] extravagantly crossed out: Richard Brooks Collection, AMPAS.

  [>] "a lost lamb": Photoplay, June 1958.

  [>] "beauty, talent and youth": LAT, September 1, 1958.

  [>] "Elizabeth Taylor and Eddie Fisher": New York Post, August 29, 1958.

  [>] The limited Los Angeles opening: Philip K. Scheuer described her performance: "Elizabeth Taylor, proud in her humility as Maggie, cat of the title, and surpassing all her previous portrayals." LAT, August 30, 1958.

  [>] "The ready-made market": Boxoffice, August 18, 1958.

  [>] "couldn't get enough": My description of Elizabeth's affair with Eddie Fisher comes from an interview with Fisher, as well as his memoir, Been There, Done That.

  [>] "Eddie Fisher says Debbie's home": Hartford Courant, September 9, 1958.

  [>] EDDIE FISHER IS DATING: Los Angeles Herald Express, September 8, 1958.

  [>] When the phone rang: She didn't mention it in her memoir, but in Hedda's column, dated September 13, 1958—two days after her explosive front-page interview with Elizabeth—she reported, rather innocuously, that she "couldn't have been more surprised when Liz Taylor phoned to say, 'I'm home.'" When Hedda replied she thought the star was heading for Europe, Elizabeth said she'd caught a cold in New York and was "homesick, so here I am." Columns were written a few days ahead of publication, so perhaps after this phone call, Hedda tried ringing Elizabeth back at Frings's house, and it was then that the heated conversation about Fisher took place. Or maybe both conversations were part of the same phone call, but Hedda intended to reveal the juicier parts of it in her next day's column—only to have the Times editors decide to turn it into a front-page story. But the most likely possibility is that the September 13 quote was made up—perhaps with Elizabeth's publicists' approval—once word was sent out that the star was returning to Los Angeles. If so, it wouldn't have been the first time one of Hedda's columns was written ahead of time using publicist-supplied anecdotes that hadn't yet occurred (or might never occur). Her remark on September 10 that Cat on a Hot Tin Roof was doing better business in New York than even Gone With the Wind had one major problem: Cat had not yet opened in New York on September 10.

  225 "Level with me": Hopper, The Whole Truth.

  [>] "Elizabeth lived by her own rule": Fisher, Been There, Done That.

  [>] "I don't go about breaking up": I have based my account of Elizabeth's conflict with Hopper on interviews with Eddie Fisher, Robert Shaw, and others, as well as Hopper's personal papers, held at AMPAS, and her memoir, The Whole Truth and Nothing But. The quotes from the published story come from LAT, September 11, 1958. This was also edited into various syndicated versions that appeared over the next few days in papers around the country.

  [>] photographers rushed her plane: Photoplay, December 1958; LAT, September 10, 1958; various articles, Elizabeth Taylor microfiche, AMPAS, and file, NYPL.

  [>] Mike's estate ... had been worth just $1 million: Will and probate file, Michael Todd, 1958, Surrogate Court, New York.

  [>] Busman's Holiday: NYT, June 19, 1958.

  [>] "All I can say": Cosmopolitan, July 1973.

  [>] "I guess it's in my genes": Cosmopolitan, September 1987.

  [>] "the face of an angel": Fisher, Been There, Done That.

  [>]–32 "My father consoled Elizabeth": Interview with Craig Ferguson, The Late Late Show, CBS, April 11, 2006.

  [>] "I sang to the ladies": Wall Street Journal, October 8, 1999.

  [>] Born in South Philadelphia: I have based my description on an interview with Fisher, as well as his two memoirs, and the U.S. Census for Philadelphia. The family evidently moved around so much they were missed by census takers in 1930, but in 1920 the just-married Joseph Fisher was living with his wife's family, headed by parents Zelig and Ida Winokur, on Marshall Street. The neighborhood was almost entirely Jewish.

  233 "Somewhere deep inside": Reynolds, Debbie: My Life.

  [>]–34 "Believe me": Fisher, Been There, Done That.

  [>] "You betrayed me!": The phone conversation between Elizabeth and Hedda comes from Hopper, The Whole Truth.

  [>] "Whoever invented Capri pants": Hopper, The Whole Truth.

  [>] "This will hurt you": LAT, September 11, 1958.

  [>] "I must say": Hopper, The Whole Truth.

  [>] lima bean soup: Fisher, Been There, Done That.

  [>] "It doesn't look good": Sidney Skolsky's column, New York Post, September 9, 1958.

  [>] "a great guy": Motion Picture, March 1960. It was reported that Debbie's call came on September 11—obviously before she had seen Hedda's piece.

  [>] "Eddie left Debbie": Secondary quote, no primary attribution, used in Amburn, The Most Beautiful Woman in the World.

  [>] MGM "flacks" going in and out: LAT, September 10, 1958.

  [>] visit a marriage counselor: Fisher, Been There, Done That. The LAT reported the "over the wall" anecdote on September 10, but gave the reason as Debbie being so distraught she needed to see a doctor.

  [>] "We have never been happier": LAT, September 12, 1958.

  [>] DEBBIE: I LOVE EDDIE: New York Herald Tribune, September 12, 1958.

  [>] "untenable positions": New York Morning Telegraph, September 19, 1958.

  [>] "He isn't coming home": Los Angeles Examiner, September 12, 1958.

  [>] "wasn't quite the 'little darling'": HCSBU.

  [>] "forget them": Reynolds, My Story.

  [>] "protect her own interests": Heymann, Liz.

  [>] "still very much in love": The Hartford Courant reported on the story that ran in the Chester Times on September 14, 1958.

  [>] "I'm the heavy": Los Angeles Examiner, September 12, 1958.

  [>] "full responsibility": New York Daily News, September 13, 1958.

  [>] "how blind love can be": LAT, September 13, 1958.

  [>] "Insiders know": UPI syndicated column, Middletown (Connecticut) Press, September 13, 1958.

  [>] "It seems unbelievable": AP syndicated report, Hartford Courant, September 14,1958.

  [>] "For many years": Mrs. G.L.H. to Hedda Hopper, September 11, 1958, HHC.

  [
>] "I consider the show people": Mrs. Betty Reifel to Hedda Hopper, October 7, 1958, HHC.

  [>] "I am so disgusted": Mrs. Marion D. Sparks to Hedda Hopper, October 1, 1958, HHC.

  243 "There is so much feeling": Mrs. A. L. Wood to Hedda Hopper, September 16, 1958, HHC.

  [>] "As far back as I can": Mrs. E. R. Gross to Hedda Hopper, October 14, 1958, HHC.

  [>]–44 "I had little respect": B.M.S. to Hedda Hopper, September 12, 1958, HHC.

  [>] "not to the acting profession": Mrs. John La Peire to Hedda Hopper, September 30, 1958, HHC.

  [>] "rat she trapped": Anonymous to Hedda Hopper, [nd], HHC. The foil remains in the Hedda Hopper Collection, though the cheese, thankfully, has been discarded.

  [>] "I always feel": Kathy Hammer to Hedda Hopper, October 1, 1958, HHC.

  [>] "the blame should be placed": Mrs. W. Doolittle to Hedda Hopper, [nd] 1958, HHC.

  [>] "Imagine a woman": "Fanny's Column," The Evanston Review, [nd] 1958, HHC.

  [>] "Randy and I": Pat Scott to Hedda Hopper, [nd] 1958, HHC.

  [>]–45 "beautiful job of reporting": "Jack" to Hedda Hopper, [nd] 1958, HHC.

  [>] "one of the finest jobs": Corinne Griffith to Hedda Hopper, September 12, 1958, HHC.

  [>] "gutsy and slashing piece": Florabel Muir to Hedda Hopper, September 11, 1958, HHC.

  [>] "one of the best pieces": Sammy Fuller to Hedda Hopper, September 11, 1958, HHC.

  [>] "Please do something": Anonymous to Hedda Hopper, September 12, 1958, HHC.

  [>] "Keep the Catholic": Mrs. Preston Miller to Hedda Hopper, October 6, 1958, HHC.

  [>]–46 "mess of pottage": Lucy Davis to Hedda Hopper, September 26, 1958, HHC.

  [>] "multiple marriages": Dr. Ida Mary Trask to Hedda Hopper, September 13, 1958, HHC.

  [>] "the devil's daughter": Anonymous to Hedda Hopper, [nd] 1959, HHC.

  [>] "God bless you": Mary L. Jenkisson to Hedda Hopper, September 12, 1958, HHC.

  [>] "The die was cast": J. Frank Smith to Hedda Hopper, [nd] 1958, HHC.

  [>] "just another beak-nosed Jew": Mrs. Celeste Davey to Hedda Hopper, September 12, 1958, HHC.

  [>] "Gone are the days": Unsourced article, October 2, 1958, Lana Turner file, NYPL.

  246–47 "I was so thoroughly": Theresa Dzriham to Hedda Hopper, [nd] 1958, HHC.

  [>] "Taylor is even worse": Anonymous to Hedda Hopper, [nd] 1958, HHC.

  [>] "You play by the rules": Anonymous to Hedda Hopper, September 11, 1958, HHC.

  [>] "So the Eddie Fisher sponsor": Mrs. Preston Miller to Hedda Hopper, September 25, 1958, HHC.

  [>] Various petitions were received: These are preserved in the HHC.

  [>] "never to see": Richard Brooks Collection, AMPAS.

  [>]–48 "I am more than a little shocked": Mary Grant to Liggett & Myers Tobacco, October 1, 1958, a copy of which was mailed to Hedda Hopper and kept in her files, HHC.

  [>] "7,000 nasty letters": Fisher, Been There, Done That.

  [>] if Eddie and his sponsor could: LAT, September 28, 1958.

  [>] "the season debut of Eddie's show": Associated Press report; see Hartford Courant, October 3, 1958.

  [>] He sang "Moonlight Becomes You": My description of his show comes from the TV preview listings, Hartford Courant, September 30, 1958.

  [>] "those appearing with Fisher": unsigned letter, unsourced, HHC.

  [>] "better if Eddie didn't appear": Walker, Elizabeth.

  [>] "Some cautious ad men": Unsourced article, September 20, 1958, Eddie Fisher microfiche, AMPAS.

  [>] "war whoop": This is quoted in McLean, "The Cinderella Princess and the Instrument of Evil," in McLean and Cook, Headline Hollywood. I have been unable to locate the original reference in Variety.

  [>] "In their profession": Edward Hoyt to Hedda Hopper, September 26, 1958, HHC.

  [>] "We spent most of our time": Fisher, Been There, Done That.

  [>] "siding with Elizabeth": Heymann, Liz.

  [>] "oriented toward short-term profit": For a fascinating consideration of Hollywood scandals and how they played out in the press, see McLean and Cook, Headline Hollywood.

  [>] "the greatest binge": Ezra Goodman, The Fifty-Year Decline and Fall of Hollywood (MacFadden Books, 1962).

  [>] "the Church of Latter-Day Debbie": Carrie Fisher, Wishful Drinking (Simon & Schuster, 2008).

  [>] "Dear Debbie": Photoplay, June 1958.

  [>] "Judas Iscariot": Joanna Walsh to Hedda Hopper, September 25, 1958, HHC.

  [>] "A no-good mother": Pat Ryan to Hedda Hopper, September 11, 1958, HHC.

  252 "excuses for her neglect": Mrs. A. L. Wood to Hedda Hopper, September 16, 1958, HHC.

  [>] "Does she not even have": Mrs. E. R. Gross to Hedda Hopper, October 14, 1958, HHC.

  [>] "It makes me furious": "A Texas housewife" to Hedda Hopper, September 30, 1958, HHC.

  [>] "for her recent role": New York Daily News, September 17, 1958.

  [>] "Debbie loved Eddie": Motion Picture, May 1960.

  [>] "Debbie Reynolds—her hair": Motion Picture, March 1960.

  [>] "Elizabeth Taylor may discover": Motion Picture, March 1960.

  [>] "No sweeter girl": Unsourced magazine, January 1959, Debbie Reynolds file, NYPL.

  [>]–54 "Debbie is a thousand times": Eileen Casper to Hedda Hopper, [nd] 1958, HHC.

  [>] "an intelligence far above": Janet Wilson to Hedda Hopper, [nd] 1958, HHC.

  [>] "Tammy gave enjoyment": Annabelle Barnett to Hedda Hopper, September 25, 1958, HHC.

  [>] "Debbie has more beauty": Anonymous to Hedda Hopper, [nd] 1958, HHC.

  [>] "In Hollywood": Goodman, The Fifty Year Decline and Fall of Hollywood.

  [>] "You know who those friends": Motion Picture, May 1960.

  [>] "[Their] whole relationship": LAT, August 13, 1995.

  [>] "That's how [stars]": Outsmart Magazine, August 1998.

  [>]–55 "I had no control": Fisher, Been There, Done That.

  [>] "strong personality": Motion Picture, March 1960.

  [>] "but only if you lived": Fisher, Been There, Done That.

  [>] "frigid and sexually unresponsive": World Entertainment News Network, wenn.com, May 14, 2001.

  [>] "My father's story": The Advocate, February 3, 2004.

  [>] "on whose slender shoulder": Charles Denton syndicated column, Hartford Courant, September 6, 1959.

  [>] "all except the light": Los Angeles Examiner, September 12, 1958.

  [>] Camille had been Miss Burbank: LAT, May 4, 1949; June 8, 1956; December 30, 1956; March 1, 1958.

  [>] "voluptuous": Outsmart Magazine, August 1998.

  [>] elude all offers of marriage: Not for another six years, after Debbie had married for the second time, would Camille finally wed; her husband was Debbie's friend, the well-known film composer Jerry Fielding.

  256 Dan Dailey's Vegas act: Confidential, January 1957; Uncensored, September 1955; see also my Behind the Screen: How Gays and Lesbians Shaped Hollywood (Viking, 2001).

  [>] "very close friend," "who had become": Fisher, Been There, Done That.

  [>] Whatever the truth of Debbie's sexuality: A few years later, she would also forge a close emotional bond with actress Agnes Moorehead. When Moorehead died in 1974, she left Debbie as executor of her estate. "My brilliant, witty, intelligent friend," Debbie eulogized. "Funny as can be, a great teacher, a great friend. And now she was gone forever from my life." In her memoir, Debbie would acknowledge, without officially denying, the persistent Hollywood rumors that she and Moorehead had been lovers. For an in-depth study of Moorehead's representation on- and off-screen as a lesbian, and how Reynolds fit into that narrative, see Patricia White, Uninvited: Classical Hollywood Cinema and Lesbian Representability (Indiana University Press, 1999).

  [>] "I'm not taking anything away": LAT, September 11, 1958.

  [>] "Although Liz and I": Motion Picture, March 1960.

  [>] "The legend that": Photoplay, December 1959.

  [>] "Ferocious and fascinating": NYT, Sep
tember 19, 1958.

  [>] "well-accented": Variety, September 10, 1958.

  [>] "surprising sureness": Time, September 15, 1958.

  [>] Quigley poll: LAT, December 24, 1958.

  [>] "Year's most popular actress!": Middletown Press, April 5, 1959.

  [>] Two for the Seesaw: NYT, September 22, 1958.

  [>] "People keep stopping me": Hedda Hopper column, as in the Hartford Courant, October 8, 1959.

  [>] seen hugging the star: Unsourced article in HHC. There is no date, but the occasion was a party celebrating Romanoff's U.S. citizenship, bestowed on him by an act of Congress. This was in November 1958.

  [>] at Romanoff's, Elizabeth took the next step: LAT, December 5, 1958.

  [>] "the only event he and Liz": Inside Story, July 1959.

  [>] "If Taylor was not": Esquire, March 1967.

  [>] WHAT'S HAPPENING: Photoplay, May 1959.

  [>] Academy Awards ceremony: AP press report, as in Hartford Courant, April 7, 1959.

  [>] "There's nothing blue": Photoplay, August 1959.

  [>] "A traitor to Jesus Christ": Mrs. P. Steffen to Hedda Hopper, April 30, 1959, HHC.

  [>] "Jewess": This was told to me by Robert Wheaton, a close friend of director George Cukor's, in an interview for my book Behind the Screen.

  264 "swastika epidemic": Social Problems, Volume 9, Number 3, Winter 1962.

  [>] "What the hell": Heymann, Liz.

  [>] "It's a double act": Photoplay, August 1959.

  [>] "It will be the last time": Daily Express, May 13, 1959.

  7. A Second Chance on Life

  [>] "I'm so happy": Hartford Courant, May 17, 1959. Elizabeth's honeymoon might have been written off as a business expense, since she made time to do an unbilled walk-on in Mike Todd Jr.'s film, Scent of Mystery, shot in Spain and developed around a gimmick that would have made Papa proud. Smell-O-Vision came with a machine that spewed forth various aromas as the film unwound, including a floral perfume when Elizabeth, her face hidden, walks across the screen.

  [>] "The old moguls": MacLaine, You Can Get There From Here.

  [>]–68 "Are you planning": HCSBU.

  [>] The actor Martin Landau: He made this remark in the commentary for the DVD of Cleopatra.

  [>] "Hell, no!": Dorothy Kilgallen's column, New York Journal-American, April 4, 1962.

  [>] the much-older political columnist Max Lerner: He wrote about his friendship with Elizabeth in McCall's, September 1974, but gave far more personal details in an interview with Alexander Walker for Walker's book Elizabeth.