by Hodel, Steve
So now I am trying to translate all this into words and scenes. I confess to stage fright since I want this to be so very good, and it will inevitably fall way short. I hope you will not be disappointed in it. It is good to be working at writing again. The papers here say Ferrer is planning to direct and act in Matador with Aubrey [sic] Hepburn. Does this affect anything? Hope not!
I’m working hard and hope to send you some scenes soon.
Love,
Dorothy
(The children send love and want to know how soon can they see Moby Dick? It is their most favorite story.)
Letter No. 9
754 Locust St.
Pasadena
Jan 10, 1955
Dearest John,
You will never know what your Christmas gift meant to the children. It arrived at the psychological moment on Christmas Eve. It was the only gift they received, except the things I gave them, so it had a special and unexpected magic about it. It set in motion one event….It seems that Kelvin, who is 12, has been harboring a passion for paint. As the messenger left the door, Kelvin was demanding $33.33 immediately! (He waived the 1/3 cent). He made a beeline for the art store 2 blocks away, and came back loaded down with easel and paints. He set up the easel and hasn’t stopped painting since. I am sending you his first efforts. His mind is made up. He is merely marking time until I (who in his eyes can accomplish any miracle) make the arrangements to go to Paris. His teachers are a somewhat paint smeared copy of Goya reproductions, and a very smeared copy of Picasso reproductions. I got them the Metropolitan Museum reproductions—have you seen them? –but he ignores all other painters. He is a gifted child, but what direction he will go needs time to see.
He is now acting out the story he told me when he was three: “Blood and brains were going for a walk and they met a skeleton. Blood said, “Can I have a ride on you?” Brain said, “Let me ride on top!” The skeleton said, “All right!” “But it was the WRONG BODY!” –This beautiful little parable, which he has forgotten he told me, is now being demonstrated. Whether painting is his particular skeleton I don’t know. I think all one can do is to praise and admire and wait. The paintings are his way of thanking you.
Too bad about MATADOR – but we’ll find something better. Paul wishes to talk to me about BRIDGE OF SAN LUIS REY. We’ve been delayed getting together. First he had flu, and then the children in pitiless succession for the last two weeks. When a germ reaches our house, it ceases to be a sickness and becomes an epidemic! I am enclosing a clipping I found. What about this—as a hot jazz musical? It is your St Louis.
I’d love to have an indication of what you’d like me to do. I’m dying to get started earning this money you are giving me!
All my love and the childrens.
Dorothy
I found the perfect story for you: BRIDGE OVER THE RIVER KWEI. [Sic] Got terribly excited and wrote the publisher about the rights. Found they were already sold to guess who?—Sam Spiegel! Have you a way—guile or force—to get it from him?
[Author Note: Mother’s intuition was spot on! Sam Spiegel produced the film and it premiered in Los Angeles in December 1957. It was a huge hit, winning seven Academy Awards (Oscars).]
Letter No. 10
754 Locust
Pasadena
May 7, 1955
Dear John,
I read in the paper yesterday that Bogeaus has signed Barbara Stanwyck to do THE BRIDGE OF SAN LUIS REY and has a cameraman scouting out locations in Lima. So for the second time in the last six months I pulled a page out of the typewriter rolled up a useless bundle of MS and threw it in the deepest drawer of my desk. What rotten luck! – wasted money and wasted time. To interpolate a gentle criticism, that bastard Paul might have checked on ownership. Bogeaus did produce it before.
I feel I still owe you a script for the money you sent me. As you know, it was the desire to write a good script that prompted my letter to you. I’ll follow my original hunch and do an original story, probably a book. But it will belong to you. I hate the feeling of all that unearned money. Most of all I want to give a good concrete reason for the completely irrational belief you have always had in my talents! And how important that belief has been to me you will never guess.
I have been thinking about a story of a little boy and his mother, loosely based upon you and your mother and that kind of gay, piratical gallantry she had, and Gram, rooted so solidly in the soil of the country. I saw them, I think, in a way that no one else did; they lived vividly and recreated their lives for me. Their own and that of your great-grandfather, and your grandfather’ (you must resemble him a little). I feel a kind of nostalgia for that breed which seems to be dying out; I despise the small cautious people who have taken their place. Their story is one of trains, of constant journeying, of precariousness; of that curious deep-seated love of horses which your mother had – remember the kind of funeral she wanted? It should have the mood of a lazy summer day in a small town, so quiet you can hear the buzzing of flies and the switching of horse’s tails, but with a thunderstorm brewing on the edges of the town; never breaking, but just about to. It should be told very simply, with a little of the feeling of Sherwood Anderson, only different. If you come right down to it, it’s a story you should write.
Anyhow, thank you for everything, darling. I’m sorry the other things didn’t work out. All my love, as always.
Dorothy
Letter No. 11
Courtown House
Kilcock
County Kildare
Ireland
4th June, 1955
Dear Dorothy:
I am ever so sorry, dear, that things turned out the way they did on Matador. However, whatever you read about the Bridge of San Luis Rey was inaccurate. The story has not been sold and I think it would be a good idea for you to do a screenplay of it – that is if it is sufficiently attractive to you.
I love the drawings you sent me. The photograph of “The Artist as a Young Man” does everything to explain why you are so proud of him…you might tell him that I am too.
I very much like your idea about the novel, but it would be my suggestion that you do the screenplay first.
I might be paying a fast visit to California during the next few weeks, and when I do I want very much to see you and the boys.
Meanwhile…
All my love,
John
Letter No. 12
1014 Milan St.
South Pasadena
[Nodate]
Dear John,
I am completely at the end of my rope and I don’t know what to do—for the first time in my life. I was in the hospital for three days (they suspected cancer, but this I couldn’t tell anyone) – The possibilities of that are pretty well eliminated, I think. Steven brought me a letter to the hospital which said we had to be out of our house in three days. That means we should have been out today. I called my employer today and he said since I had used company money ($500) he was going to proceed on embezzlement charges unless it was paid back this week. Of course I left the hospital immediately. Steve gave me the dispossess notice, without notifying my doctor or anything. I seem to fail at everything I attempt. If it were not for the great and generous love of the children, and of you, I would not care to live. But this love obliges me to go on.
I am in such fear about the children I even cabled George asking him if I could send them to him. This is the last thing I want for them, and in any case he will probably politely refuse. What will happen to them? They are so wonderful, and I am so afraid for them. It isn’t your problem, but I feel like someone who is drowning. I called Morgan today and explained a little of this, although being in the accountant’s office I couldn’t say much. If the 500 is returned I can go back to my job (not that I want to) but it is a living. We are homeless, and tomorrow I have called in a second hand man to buy what things we have. I have 25¢ at the moment. I was supposed to be in the hospital for another two weeks, but I have medicines which I think
will enable me to go on working. The doctor does not believe there is anything wrong with me except complete physical and nervous exhaustion. It has been a long hard pull for the last twelve years, and I suppose it’s finally catching up with me, in my old age. The job plus washing, ironing, cooking and cleaning is hard, but when I’m well I can do it. Don’t you think the children are fine? But now, when in some ways they need me the most, I seem to be giving out.
It will only be a few years more that they need me. If only I could be strong just a little longer!
I’m not throwing this problem in your lap. But I would appreciate some advice.
Love,
Dorothy
Author Notes:
I have serious doubts that Mother ever actually sent a cable to our father, requesting sending us to him in the Philippines. Her whole life was about trying to keep the four of us together until we “became of age.” It is dramatic and I’m sure John responded by sending the necessary money to help keep mother and children together.
Letter No. 13
JOHN HUSTON
KATEL ITO JAPAN-NOV 14, 1957
DOROTHY HODEL INFORMED ME ONE SON IN HOSPITAL RENT DUE OTHER OBLIGATIONS PRESSING SHE DESIRES 300 DOLLARS IMMEDIATELY YOU ALREADY ADVANCED HER LAST NINETY DAYS IN EXCESS OF 1,000 DOLLARS. CABLE INSTRUCTIONS
MARK
MARK COHEN
9606 SANTA MONICA BLVD.
BEVERLY HILLS CALIFORNIA - NOVEMBER 14, 1957
IS HODEL KID REALLY SICK OR ANOTHER DODGE ACT ACCORDING YOUR OWN JUDGMENT.
REG RDS
JOHN
Author Notes:
These sets of telegrams were the last two “letters” in the Huston File.
Mark Cohen was John’s long time agent/business manager. Most of Dorothy’s “emergency pleas for money” went through Mark. Here we see Mark relaying an urgent request from Dorothy to John and his reply, with eyes wide open, wanting to know if Mark thinks it is “real” or just another ploy [in his words, “a dodge act”] from Dorothy?
After seeing these letters for the first time, my personal respect for John has gone WAY UP. While he may have been known in filmdom as “A Genius and a Monster” it is clear from these many letters that he continually threw lifesaving dollars our way throughout the decade of the 1950s. Without his aid, it is doubtful that we would have been able to stay together as a family, and for this I would like to offer a most sincere, THANK YOU, JOHN!
It was only two years after this letter that I joined the Navy as soon as I turned 17. [1958]
John Huston—What did he know? When did he know it?
Earlier, I alluded to the fact that I believed that John Huston’s “hunch” was that he either knew or strongly suspected that George Hodel was the killer of Elizabeth “Black Dahlia” Short, and possibly other victims.
We have already examined a number of my previously stated reasons why I believe this. Here is a quick review:
1. John and George had been close friends since their teens.
2. Both were geniuses who looked at life and shared a slightly different wiring than most of us mere mortals. Both men listed the Marquis de Sade high on their list of heroes, and were recognized as having “sadistic natures.”
3. Both were in competition for and shared the mind, heart, and body of a truly remarkable woman, Dorothy Huston Hodel.
4. John, as a Hollywood A-list filmmaker, knew and associated with screenwriters: Rowland Brown [also a paramour of Dorothy Hodel] Gene Fowler, Steve Fisher, Ben Hecht, as well as being a close personal friend of Peter Viertel, who John hired in 1950 to write the screenplay for what would become one of his greatest films—African Queen.
Keeping in mind what we’ve learned from the newly discovered “Huston Letters” with emphasis on those communications from 1948 to the summer of 1950 when George Hodel left the country, let’s now consider some new information.
Peter Viertel—African Queen-White Hunter Black Heart
Collier’s, June 13, 1953
Excerpt from Collier’s introduction of Viertel’s novel:
John Wilson is a man of limitless energy, determination and creative artistry. His reputation as a motion-picture director is tremendous. As a human being, he is unsuccessful—selfish, cynical, loveless and cruel. His projects are destined for great success or doomed to spectacular failure: for him, there is no middle ground, no mediocrity.
White Hunter, Black Heart is the story of the filming of a movie. It is also the story of Wilson’s growing compulsion to destroy, at any cost, a creature nobler than himself. It is the story of a great talent gone haywire.
Peter Viertel, the author, worked with John Huston on The African Queen in the Congo in 1951. His novel, of which this story is the final section, will be published soon by Doubleday & Company.
In 1952, screenwriter/author, Peter Viertel wrote an absolutely riveting novel, White Hunter, Black Heart. [Doubleday & Co. Garden City, NY, 1953]
Its subtitle read:
A NOVEL OF BIG-GAME HUNTING IN THE BELGIAN CONGO AND ONE MAN’S OBSESSION WITH IT.
A Roman a clef, Viertel simply changed a few names, calling John Huston, John Wilson and himself, “Peter Verrill,” he moved forward with a spectacular narrative. Viertel documents his close friendship with John and the events surrounding the 1951 making of the African Queen, and gives us a full—and in my opinion—fair view of the real Huston. We see and hear both sides: Huston’s shining genius along with his dark-sided views of life, which gained Huston the well-earned reputation of being both, “A Genius and a Monster.”
Having had a father of similar character—with tremendous strengths and weaknesses—who was both generous and sadistic in nature, I felt I better understood Viertel’s expressed love and disgust for Huston after recently rereading the “novel.”
John was a serpent who hypnotized his prey with charm and humor, then struck quickly and sank his fangs deep into his victim’s flesh.
In the light of what is now known about George Hodel, a number of quotes attributed by Peter Verrill [Viertel] to John Wilson [Huston] take on a much deeper meaning. As you read the first comments on Huston’s view and attitude on testing “friendship,” keep two things in mind. First, George Hodel and John Huston were friends since high-school, and second, John’s observations are made circa 1950-1951, just after George Hodel was about to be arrested and decided to flee the country. As we now know, George was fleeing from being apprehended for the commission of a cold-blooded, premeditated murder. [Several actually.]
Here are Huston’s comments on “Real Friendship.”
White Hunter, Black Heart, page 64:
…
“No, it’s not. To try and find out who your real friends are is very important.
“How would you propose to go about doing that, John? Randsome asked.
“Well, I don’t know. It’s kind of difficult. I think the perfect test would be to go to your friends and tell them you’ve just committed a murder, a cold-blooded, premeditated murder, and that you want to escape. There are no extenuating circumstances. All you want is help. The people who’d stick to you and help you escape without asking any questions would, I believe qualify as real friends.”
The following comments related to my mother, Dorothy, John’s first wife. They were married for seven years. The “I’d done something wrong” refers to Mother walking in and catching him in bed with another woman fairly early on in their marriage.
White Hunter Black Heart, page 214:
…
“I believe in the signs, you know. I’ve met them too often in my life to doubt them. In everything I’ve ever done. Work, or women, or gambling. Everything.”
“How do you mean?”
“Well, when I broke up with my first wife for instance. I knew I’d lost the best dame I was ever likely to meet, and I’d lost her because I’d acted like a horse’s ass. And it turned out that way. I’d done something wrong and I had to pay for it, and so every time I fell in love again
after that, I knew the disenchantment would ultimately turn up. And it did. Never failed. Because you get one good chance at everything in life, and that’s all.”
Finally, I believe the following excerpt captures John’s true psychology.
It is dangerous, over the edge, and guaranteed to fill one’s life with excitement, adventure, and, in all likelihood, misery and disappointment. I make no moral judgment here. Those, like John Huston and George Hodel, make the choice with eyes wide open. Their thinking compels and propels them forward into the Abyss.
The below conversation was between Peter Viertel and John Huston [Peter Verrill and John Wilson]. They were in Africa and far behind schedule on the filming of the African Queen. A screenwriter and close friend of Huston’s, Peter Viertel was attempting to dissuade Huston from going on an elephant hunt.
White Hunter, Black Heart, page 295-296:
Verrill [Viertel] say’s:
“Well, in order to kill one of them, you’re ready to forget the rest of us, and let the whole goddam show go down the drain. It’s not a passion this time that’s guiding you, that’s pulling you away from your responsibility. A passion would be an excuse. This time it’s a crime. Because it’s a crime to kill an elephant. And in order to commit this crime you’re willing to ruin everyone else. If you were running out on the picture because of a woman, or a better offer, or because you’d suddenly gotten bored with the whole thing, I’d go along. But this way, it’s even too rough for my taste.”
