In response to the hysteria: Ibid., 166.
Sex had been written: Green and Laurie, Show Biz, 288.
When it opened: Ibid., 81.
Tickets sold for the extraordinary: Ibid.
The play was making: Leider, Becoming Mae West, 152.
No newspaper, including: West, Goodness Had Nothing to Do with It, 80.
“I’m going to dig”: Ibid., 74.
The charge: obscenity: February 9, 1927 THREE PLAYS BY MAE WEST, Lillian Shlissel (Routledge, 1997), 8.
“It was no rose”: West, Goodness Had Nothing to Do with It, 87.
The Shanghai Gesture was about: Brown, Show Time, 82.
the headline in the New York Herald Tribune: Leider, Becoming Mae West, 155.
“an obscene, indecent, immoral”: Ibid., 15.
The jury handed down: Grand jury indictment of Mae West, William Morganstern, James Timony, John Cort, The Moral Producing Company, and the Cast of Characters, Case 168495.
The judge applauded the decision: Leider, Becoming Mae West, 167.
Welfare Island: Now Roosevelt Island.
pay a fine of $500: Ibid., 168.
The Captive reopened and closed: Ibid., 164.
The Captive ’s translator: Hornblow to author, January 12, 2000.
“She cried and she screamed”: Mansfield to author, April 24, 1997.
Eight: Formerly Ruby Stevens of the Cabarets
Ruby tested for the part: Broadway Nights press book, 1927.
The cameraman: Ibid.
Miss Chatterton was quiet: Account by Wilbur Morse Jr., in Ella Smith, Starring Miss Barbara Stanwyck (New York: Crown, 1974), 5.
Kane was so impressed: Broadway Nights press book.
The Noose closed in New York: Suzanne Fraseur, Variety, June 8, 1927.
Business was slow: Ibid.
Ruby, Dorothy Sheppard, and Mae Clarke: BS, in Gladys Hall, Modern Screen, November 1937.
going in and out: Dixie Willson, Photoplay, December 1937.
Dorothy Sheppard was now: Walda Mansfield to author, March 4, 2000.
“lost all sense”: Mae Clarke to S. R. Mook, January 1932.
Once her mood abated: Dolores Hope to Stephen Silverman, February 29, 2000.
Shurr was a short: Ibid.
Shurr suggested that Mae: Clarke, Featured Player, 29.
Donaldson played song after: Ibid., 28.
Next Mae called her friend: Mansfield to author, April 1997.
with little diamonds: Clarke, Featured Player, 29.
“Besides, he was cute”: Ibid.
White liked what he saw: Review, Variety, August 24, 1927. Elizabeth Hines starred in the show when it toured out of town.
Mae was given two: Clarke, Featured Player, 30.
Ruby was looking: Mansfield to author, April 1997.
Her ambitions of being: Edwin Kennedy in Ruth Waterbury, TV Radio Mirror, December 1966, 42.
“This is crazy”: Ibid.
Watters had been: Gilbert Gabriel, New York Sun, September 2, 1927.
The play was given: Variety, May 11, 1927.
The producer sent the script: Hopkins, To a Lonely Boy, 248.
Hopkins thought the play: Ibid.
Hopkins’s experience: Ibid., 77.
Writing and acting: Ibid.
Jones moved away from: Ibid., 154.
“from the unconscious”: Arthur Hopkins, “The Lost Theatre,” New Outlook, January 1933, 21.
Watters was delighted: Hopkins, To a Lonely Boy, 249.
“Atta boy, Skid”: Totheroh, Burlesque.
“Yeah,” Skid says: Anyone who saw that production of Burlesque never forgot it. Studs Terkel, who saw the production in Chicago in its 1929 tour, remembered the final scene, the final line of the play, sixty-nine years later when I interviewed him in December 1997. “How could I forget that night?” he said. “I remember that moment, that line, when they were hoofing and she says, ‘Marriage is for better or worse,’ and he says, ‘Better for me and worse for you.’ Never forgot it.”
“engaging, lovable”: Hopkins, To a Lonely Boy, 249.
“sort of rough poignancy”: Ibid.
He leaned back: Madsen, Stanwyck, 31.
Instead, he agreed to pay: Walter Ramsey, Modern Screen, May 1931.
“Hopkins told me his terms”: Madsen, Stanwyck, 31.
“the perfect team”: Hopkins, To a Lonely Boy, 249.
Four days into rehearsals: Nancy Bernard to author, April 21, 1998.
“Ruby never paid”: Ibid.
Hopkins’s rehearsals were known: New York American, January 1928.
Hopkins stayed in the shadows: Roy L. McCardell, New York Morning Telegraph, April 2, 1922.
Hopkins sought naturalness: Ibid.
Oddly, it was during: Ibid.
that he came to understand: Hopkins, To a Lonely Boy.
He saw vaudeville: Ibid., 102.
His only safety: Ibid., 103.
Hopkins watched Ruby work: Ibid., 250.
He’d first seen: Ibid., 148.
Hopkins worked as well: Ibid., 161.
During the summer months: Variety, July 20, 1927.
“a big drunken lout”: Hal Skelly, “That’s Why Whitey Was Born,” New York Times, February 11, 1934.
Like Skid, Skelly: New York Herald Tribune, June 17, 1934.
“elected for the job”: Jane Ellen Wayne, Stanwyck (New York: Arbor House, 1985), 20.
Hopkins wanted a musician: Kashner and Schoenberger, Talent for Genius, 63.
Levant had just returned: Levant, Memoirs of an Amnesiac, 79.
“full of technical ornamentation”: Ibid., 65.
He studied the work: Ibid.
he and Ruby became good friends: Walter Ramsey, Modern Screen, May 1931.
“got through marveling”: Modern Screen, October 1934, 96.
“never heard one person”: Ella Smith, Starring Miss Barbara Stanwyck, 11.
President Coolidge announced: World Almanac and Book of Facts for 1928, 118.
“We have not yet reached”: Meltzer, Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?, 3.
The opening night audience: Alexander Woollcott, New York World, September 2, 1927.
“the trick first”: New York Times, September 2, 1927.
“more touching piece”: Walter Winchell, Opening Nights, September 2, 1927.
“no account and palpably”: Alexander Woollcott, New York World, September 2, 1927.
“Young Barbara Stanwyck”: Variety, September 7, 1927.
Every time she moved her hand: BS, in Jane Ardmore, TV Radio Mirror, May 1967.
The 650-seat theater: New York Times, September 5, 1927.
The show was grossing: New York Times, n.d.
“Chorus girls stripped”: Terence O’Flaherty, San Francisco Chronicle, March 18, 1967.
“She just looked at me”: Gene Vaslett to author, October 19, 1996.
“she sat there”: Mansfield to author, April 1997.
“She was the rage”: Levant, Memoirs of an Amnesiac, 82.
Ruby sent a note to Mr. Nast: Ibid.
“the only girl who’d”: BS, in Jane Ardmore, Above and Beyond/“This Chorus Girl’s Made It.”
The catcalls so agitated Ed: Edwin Kennedy, in Jane Ardmore, TV Radio Mirror, December 1966.
The play wasn’t doing: Variety, September 21, 1927.
Ona Munson was brought in: Ibid.
He had written screenplays: Veiller, The Fun I’ve Had, 239–41.
Alexander Woollcott described the opening: NY World, September 20, 1927.
agent, who refused to read it: Ibid.
Burlesque was right behind: Variety, n.d., 50.
Two weeks after Burlesque opened: Walter Ramsey, Modern Screen, May 1931.
Manhattan Mary opened: Featured in the play was Paul Frawley, brother of Bill, whom Mae Clarke described as “the star of the two brothers because he was younger and handsomer and a singer, therefore the love interest. In those days, your comedians were secon
d bananas.” Featured Player, 32.
“There-it-is, one, two”: Ibid., 33.
A couple of weeks later: Clive Hirschhorn, The Warner Bros. Story (New York: Crown, 1979), 34.
The lines went around: Kevin Brownlow, Hollywood: End of an Era (Thames Television, 1980).
“that when the guy opens”: Mosley, Zanuck, 92.
“If we can get him”: Ibid.
Jolson agreed to make: Herbert G. Goldman, Jolson: The Legend Comes to Life (New York: Oxford University Press, 1988), 149–52.
In the picture, directed by Alan: The Jazz Singer program notes, 1927.
Zanuck came up with: Gussow, Don’t Say Yes Until I Finish Talking, 44.
“The public won’t put up”: Kotsilibas-Davis, Barrymores, 78.
Nine: Broadway’s Favorite Son
“Frank Fay’s a great guy”: Levant, Memoirs of an Amnesiac, 79.
“the big time”: Milton Berle to author, October 1997.
“Albee’s Irish Rose”: New York Telegraph, July 11, 1926.
“the Chairman”: New York American, May 30, 1926.
After a run of eight: New York Tribune, July 11, 1926.
“They never went after”: Elliot Norton, New York Times, November 5, 1944.
“You’d meet a vaudevillian”: Irving Fern, Jack Benny (New York: Putnam, 1976), 18.
“not what they used”: Frank Fay, Philadelphia Inquirer, March 4, 1928.
“The public will not stand”: Colgate Baker, “Girl o Mine and Frank Fay,” newspaper clipping, n.d., Shubert Archive.
“wide open with no”: Frank Fay, Philadelphia Inquirer, March 4, 1928.
Then, as he was doing: Steve Allen to author, September 14, 1999.
“always finished up”: Frank Fay, Shubert press release, 1918, Shubert Archive.
“an aversion to”: “He Never Told a Joke,” press release, Shubert Archive.
“natural; a human”: Frank Fay, 1920, Shubert Archive.
and another of his doing: Allen, to author, September 14, 1999.
Burns also saw Fay: Ibid., 99. Before Ted Healy, and before he developed the Three Stooges.
“stock company”: Boston Post, December 21, 1926.
He didn’t want her: James Robert Parish and William T. Leonard, The Funsters (New Rochelle, N.Y.: Arlington House, 1979), 358.
After Burlesque opened: Levant, Memoirs of an Amnesiac, 83.
Fay conducted the audience: Ken Murray, in Allen, unpublished manuscript, 30.
He felt he had an advantage: Press release, 1918, Shubert Archive.
“He could give you an inferiority”: Jesse White to author, February 1997.
He had a way of making: Gene Vaslett to author, May 30, 2000.
Bob Hope and Jack Benny adopted: Steve Allen to author, September 14, 1999.
In it Fay introduced: Jack Benny used this affect later.
“He always worked”: Allen, to author, September 14, 1999.
“He had a hauteur”: Milton Berle to author, October 1997.
“the wistful comedian”: Ada Patterson, Screenland, September 1933, 90.
Then he would raise: Steve Allen, to author, September 14, 1999.
“ ‘Just picture me upon’ ”: Ibid.
He called it “breaking up”: J. P. Shanley, “Frank Fay Returns,” New York Times, October 27, 1957.
Fay might stop there: Ibid.
“We just fell in love”: Walda Mansfield to author, April 25, 1997.
“something to see”: George Burns, All My Best Friends, with David Fisher (New York: Putnam, 1989), 55.
“incomparable”: Berle to author, October 1997.
Eddie Cantor said Fay: Ibid.
While Ed Wynn and Raymond: Review of Frank Fay’s Intimates, newspaper clipping, April 4, 1921.
He often shepherded more: “Why Master of Ceremonies? Ask Frank Fay, He Knows,” newspaper clipping, November 16, 1929, Shubert Archive.
“Fay would comment on”: Ibid.
Women saw Fay: Colgate Baker, New York Review, August 2, 1919.
“blonde young comic”: New York Tribune, June 1, 1926.
“auburn haired”: Boston Herald, December 26, 1926.
“I was a pugilist”: Boston Evening Transcript, December 28, 1926.
“had an aura”: Levant, Memoirs of an Amnesiac, 80.
When Fay came offstage: Berle, Milton Berle.
“And we loved to listen”: Ibid.
Frank disliked Barbara: Sidney Skolsky, newspaper clipping, 1932, Shubert Archive.
“I took it”: Walda Mansfield to author, April 1997.
Claire brought the silver: Mansfield to author, April 1997.
Claire adored Barbara: Ibid.
“thought he was the one”: Nancy Bernard Levy to author, March 21, 1998.
He had his own: Colgate Baker, New York Review, August 2, 1919, Shubert Archive.
“nobody drank because”: Mansfield to author, April 1997.
“The wonderful love”: On the inside back cover of Fay’s scrapbook, Lincoln Center.
“had always been an addict”: New York Journal, November 11, 1944, Frank Fay Scrapbook, Lincoln Center.
She had heard of: Chorus Equity Claims Against the Frank Fay Company, June 17, 1921; “Frank Fay Fables,” 1923, Actors’ Equity Files.
After only two months: They met in March, married in April, and were divorced in June of the same year.
Because of his cruelty: Allen to author, September 14, 1999.
“the fastest mind”: Maurice Zolotow, No People like Show People (New York: Random House, 1951), 204.
The audience laughed: Allen to author, September 14, 1999.
When the stage manager: Anthony Slide, The Vaudevillians: A Dictionary of Vaudeville Performers (Westport, Conn.: Arlington House, 1981).
Fay was known to look: Berle to author, October 10, 1997.
When he came offstage: Jesse White to author, February 1997.
“He was a joy”: Mansfield to author, April 1997.
“she and Fay were together”: Clara Beranger, “The Private Life of Barbara Stanwyck,” Liberty, September 17, 1932.
If Fay uttered a wish: Vaslett to author, October 19, 1996, 14.
Fay didn’t like it when: Skolsky, newspaper clipping, 1932, Shubert Archive.
He preferred her in: Radie Harris, Silver Screen, December 1930, 27.
His formal education ended: New York Times, September 27, 1961.
Frank Fay made his debut: Elliot Norton, “Notes on a Genius with Guts,” New York Times, November 5, 1944.
He appeared in every: Zolotow, No People like Show People (New York: Bantam Books, 1952), 193.
“looked forward to”: Baker, “Girl o Mine and Frank Fay.”
He had appeared at: Press Department, 1918, Shubert Archive.
Ten: Having a Hunch
First National Pictures released: January 29, 1928. The film of The Noose stars Richard Barthelmess as Nickie Elkins, Thelma Todd as Phyllis, the society girl, and Lina Basquette in the Barbara Stanwyck role as Dot. William Torbert Leonard, Theatre: Stage to Screen to Television (Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow, 1981).
Some thought Lina and Barbara: Nancy Sinatra Sr. to author, August 3, 2002.
Lina, a featured dancer: In 1916, Basquette was offered a six-year contract, the longest yet offered, by Laemmle. Barry Paris, “The Godless Girl,” New Yorker, February 19, 1989, 56. The press called Lina, Pavlova Junior. Universal assigned Lois Weber to direct her in her first picture, The Juvenile Dancer Supreme: Lena Baskette in a Group of Classical Dances. Ibid.
Ziegfeld was furious: Ibid., 57.
By the time Lina got: Ibid.
Paramount Famous Lasky: Variety, January 25, 1928, 53.
Louis B. Mayer, the general manager: Crowther, Hollywood Rajah, 23.
“Fay was irate”: Levant, Memoirs of an Amnesiac, 82.
“It was instantaneous”: Clarke, Featured Player, 34, 31.
“a handsome dresser”: Ibid., 31.
“Get on th
at train”: Ibid., 36.
“You could see he had”: Ibid.
Lew Brice (1938): Herbert G. Goldman, Fanny Brice (Oxford University Press, 1992), 108–9.
The act was a musical: Ibid., 37.
The Brice and Clarke act: Variety, December 5, 1928.
“Our whole act”: Clarke, Featured Player, 38.
“People are especially critical”: Contract signed February 15, 1928, J. Walter Thompson Archives, Duke University.
He asked Barbara to marry: Radie Harris, Silver Screen, December 1930, 62.
During the crossing he: Variety, August 15, 1928.
When the boat docked: New York Times, August 11, 1928.
“Barbara’s relationship with Rex”: Walda Mansfield to author, April 4, 1997.
“if you see ten troubles”: Memoirs of Herbert Hoover. 55.
Some worried that if: Galbraith, Great Crash, 1929, 15.
“Leave it alone”: Gene Smith, Shattered Dream, 56–57.
“hadn’t had a drink”: Frank Fay to Walter Ramsey, June 1931.
Barbara and Frank rushed off: Fay, in Lucy Greenbaum, Globe Democrat, December 8, 1928. New York World, August 27, 1928.
With them was Spyros: Lucy Greenbaum, Globe Democrat, n.d.
Ruby Stevens was now: New York Times, August 27, 1928. Frank Fay claimed that Spyros Skouras was the best man at their wedding, and it has been written in biographies of Stanwyck that Skouras did attend; Barbara Stanwyck, in a memo to Helen Ferguson, wrote: “Here’s a new one Skouras was Fay’s best man at our wedding.” Larry Kleno to author. December 5, 2002.
By 5:00 p.m., Barbara was: New York Daily News, August 26, 1928.
Barbara couldn’t have cared: Samuels, “In Search of Ruby Stevens.”
“of etiquette and the niceties”: Faith Service, Motion Picture, December 1932.
“it was no way”: BS, in Walter Ramsey, “The Amazing Life of Barbara Stanwyck,” Modern Screen, July 1931.
“It was very dramatic”: John Slotkin to Shirley Eder, Detroit, November 25, 1964.
After staying in the hospital: Ibid.
Barbara said that when: Ibid.
Eddie Mannix, one of: Clarke, Featured Player, 135.
It was a picture called: Ibid., 39.
“Are you out of”: Ibid.
At Fanny Brice’s suggestion: Ibid., 43.
Mae couldn’t think: Ibid., 40, 41.
The word came back: Ibid.
Mae ate her first: Ibid., 41.
Gene, Mabel, and Maud traveled: Gene Vaslett to author, June 2, 1999.
They left the sanitarium: Vaslett to author, April 5, 2001.
A Life of Barbara Stanwyck: Steel-True 1907-1940 Page 105
