Peter Lawford

by James Spada

  In March 1980, twenty-four-year-old Sydney wrote Peter a letter from Palm Beach, where she was staying with her mother and sister Robin at the Kennedy compound. She told her father that although she was working in her uncle Ted Kennedy’s presidential campaign, it wasn’t her relationship to the senator that impressed people when she was introduced to them — it was the fact that she was Peter Lawford’s daughter. When they hear that, she said, “people almost pass out!”

  Sydney added that she was enclosing the address of a young man who was eager to receive an autographed picture of Peter and asked her father to oblige him. Then she concluded, “Don’t be surprised if a million more [such requests] come in. You’re really loved and admired by so many people, Daddy. It makes me feel so proud.”

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  I will always be grateful to the late Milton Ebbins for sharing his memories of his thirty-two-year association with Peter Lawford so freely. They have enriched this book immeasurably, and I will always be grateful for his good humor and his patience with my endless questions during more than forty hours of interviews over the course of two years. He opened many other doors to me as well, and I thank him very much for that.

  I enjoyed meeting and talking with Peter’s other friends, acquaintances, and associates quoted in this book, all of whom impressed me with their openness and their affection for Peter. I am indebted to each and every one. I also greatly appreciated my conversations with those people who have not been quoted directly in the text, but whose observations and memories helped me weave the tapestry of Peter Lawford’s life: Ross Acuna, Richard Anderson, Joe Bleeden, Malcolm Boyes, Richard Brian, George Campbell, Gordon Carroll, Sergeant Jack Clemmons, Fielder Cook, Carlyne Dick, Gordon Douglas, Lenny Dunne, Anne Francis, Ray Gosnell, Adolph Green, Clarence Greene, Robin Gregg, Herbert Hirschmoeller, Jean Howard, Ruth Jacobson, Ron Joy, Charles Lane, Bethel Leslie, George Maharis, Mickey McCardle, Doug McClure, Ann Miller, John Miner, Ricardo Montalban, Pauline Morton (Mrs. Laurence Harvey), Dorothy Neu, Larry Newman, John O’Grady, Leo Penn, Cesar Romero, Janice Rule, Vi Russell, Ann Rutherford, Mary Sanford, Don Short, Burt Solomon, Rick Somers, Bill Travilla, Hazel Washington, Watson Webb, Michael Winner, William Reed Woodfield, and Gene Yusem.

  Thanks also to those who took the time to write to me with their memories and observations: Jules Dassin, Allan Davis, Irene Dunne, Greer Garson, Elizabeth Greenschpoon, Deborah Kerr, Pax Lohan, Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., and Fred Zinnemann.

  For all of his help, advice, and enthusiasm, warm thanks to my able associate Christopher Nickens, whose thoughtful suggestions improved this book and whose sense of humor helped me through the tough stretches. I’m grateful as well to my agent, Kathy Robbins, who always pushed me to do the best work I can; to my insightful and keen-eyed editor, Charles Michener, who urged me to write a “big” book; to this project’s original champion at Bantam, Steve Rubin; to my friend and former editor Laura Van Wormer, whose enthusiasms are infectious, and who had the idea for an eBook version of this book; to Lauren Field at Bantam, who good-naturedly answered all my legal questions; and to my British publisher, Mark Barty-King of Bantam U.K., who was very helpful in a number of ways.

  For their assistance during my research and travels for this book, I’d like to thank the following good people:

  In Los Angeles — Michael Szymanski, Cindy Jones, Tom Boghossian, Milo Speriglio, Gene Poe, Theresa Seeger, Tony Brenna, Karen Swenson, Randall Henderson, Jill Evans, Marci McKee, Diana Brown of Turner Entertainment, J. B. Annegan, Sabin Gray, Barry Dennen, Ben Platt, Garrett Glazer, and Rick Carl.

  In London — Paul Easom, Tom Wordsworth, Tony Frost, Colin Dunne, Peter Evans, Mark Reid, Lieutenant Colonel P. Emerson of the Indian Army Officers’ Association, T. R. Shaw, Patrick Davies of the Eastleigh Borough Council, Mrs. E. Smith of the Lord Chancellor’s Department, the staffs of the Public Record Office and The India Office, Patricia Cowley, Mrs. C. Bourdillon, Mrs. Gladys M. Bain, Mrs. J. R. Boston, and N. Lawford.

  In Palm Beach — Milton Green, Leslie Weinberg, Curtis Kelly, Bernard Shulman, and Thom Smith of the Palm Beach Post.

  In Miami — Walter Finley and Kevin Van Horn.

  In Honolulu — Frankie Anderson (Jean MacDonald) and the staff of the Honolulu Star Bulletin.

  In Las Vegas — Bethel Van Tassel and Stephen Allen of the Las Vegas News Bureau.

  In New York — Eddie Jaffe, Michel Parenteau, Allison Solow, Sharon Churcher, George Zeno, Lou Valentino, Loretta Barrett, Elizabeth Mackey, Nancy Stauffer, Loretta Weingel-Fidel, Lester Glassner, Edward Fay, F. Gilman Spencer, and Reed Sparling.

  In Boston — Richard Branson, Bill Modlin, Eric MacLeish, and John R. Cronin of the Herald.

  Many thanks for the courtesies extended to me by the following librarians: Marilyn Wurzburger, Carol Moore, Janette Emery, and Megan McShane, of the Special Collections Department of the Arizona State University Library in Tempe, Arizona, where Peter Lawford’s papers are housed; Sam Gill and the staff of the Margaret Herrick Library of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences; the staff of the Lincoln Center Library of the Performing Arts; the staff of the British Film Institute Library; Ned Comstock and the staff of the Department of Special Collections of the University of Southern California; Michael Desmond and the staff of the John F. Kennedy Library in Boston; the staffs of the Ronald Reagan, Jimmy Carter, Gerald Ford, Richard Nixon, Lyndon Johnson, Dwight Eisenhower, and Franklin D. Roosevelt presidential libraries.

  Fellow authors who kindly provided me with assistance include Bart Andrews, Peter Collier and David Horowitz, Leo Damore, Lester David, Dominick Dunne, Barbara T. Gates, Fred Guiles, Neal Hitchens and Randall Reise, Cliff Jahr, J. Randy Tarraborelli, Anthony Summers, Robert Windeler, and Donald Zee.

  I’d also like to thank my family and friends for their support, love, and encouragement throughout the nearly four years of work on this book, particularly my father, Joseph Spada, and my friends Glen DeFeo, Dan Conlon, Dennis Lowman, and Mark Meltzer.

  NOTES ON

  SOURCES

  PART ONE

  I spent a resonant and rewarding month in London rummaging among the ghosts of Peter Lawford’s ancestors, gathering the vital statistics of May Bunny and her husbands, and Sir Sydney Lawford and his wives, at the Public Record Office, the Lord Chancellor’s Department, and The India Office.

  I gleaned details of May’s youth and early adulthood from an unpublished 1963 interview with Hedda Hopper, from various newspaper and magazine articles by and about her, and from Bitch! — The Autobiography of Lady Lawford, as told to Buddy Galon (Branden Press). Although Bitch! is a fascinating and entertaining book, I have made highly selective use of it because of Lady Lawford’s penchant for exaggeration, obfuscation, and, sometimes, outright deceit about her past. I’ve used only those facts that jibe with independent research.

  Many of the details of the courtship and marriage of May and Ernest Aylen were provided to me by his niece Katharine Eden during an interview conducted on March 9, 1989, and in her letters to me dated April 4 and June 19, 1989. May’s descriptions of Indian railway travel were in a dispatch she wrote for the London Evening News in 1931. Additional details of May’s background were provided by Buddy Galon in an interview conducted May 10,1989.

  Sir Sydney’s cousin Valentine Lawford shared information on the Lawford family tree, of which he has made a study. Details of Sir Sydney’s military career were provided by the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers, and by Sir Sydney’s Burke’s Peerage listing. Sir Jocelyn Lucas’s reminiscences of Sir Sydney were published in the London Times on February 20, 1953.

  I gathered the facts of Peter Lawford’s early life and film career from a variety of magazine and newspaper interviews with him and Lady Lawford published during his rise to stardom in the 1940s. Principal among these was “Peter Lawford Life Story,” a two-part biographical series by Kirtley Baskette published in Modern Screen, July and August, 1946, that is the most detailed and accurate account of Peter’s ear
ly life ever published in a magazine format. Other sources were Lady Lawford’s autobiography, her newspaper columns published in the early 1930s, and the August 26, 1931, profile of Peter in the London Sunday Dispatch, “Wise Little English Film Star.”

  I learned a great deal about Peter’s childhood from my numerous interviews with Milt Ebbins between November 1988 and December 1990, as well as from my interview with Deborah Gould on August 23, 1989.

  Lady Lawford’s views on corporal punishment — and her use of the practice on Peter — were detailed in her article “I Favor the Hairbrush” in The American Weekly, July 9, 1950.

  I used Patricia Seaton Lawford’s memoir The Peter Lawford Story very selectively as a source; I have taken from it only information about Peter’s life that I could independently verify.

  Information about Peter’s role in Lord ]eff, and details of his Screen Actors Guild day player and MGM contracts, is contained in the MGM legal files.

  Louise Barker-Fred shared her reminiscences of Peter aboard ship in a letter to me dated December 17, 1989, and in an interview conducted on January 5, 1990.

  Peter’s life in Palm Beach and his earliest days at MGM were described for me during interviews with Lucille Ryman Carroll on June 28, 1989, Connie Savage Dalton on February 19, 1989, Dorothy Neu on May 5, 1989, Muriel O’Brien on May 6, 1989, Mary Sanford on May 5, 1989, and Lillian Burns Sydney on July 22, 1989. The files of the Palm Beach Post supplied several interviews with Peter over the years in which he discussed his life in Palm Beach.

  Some of Peter Lawford’s reminiscences about his career at MGM are contained in Aljean Harmetz’s profile of the MGM players, “She Wanted to Be a Moooovie Star,” in The New York Times, November 12, 1972.

  PART TWO

  The associates of Peter’s with whom I spoke for Part Two, in addition to those already cited, include Mrs. Gary Cooper on April 27, 1989, Jackie and Barbara Cooper on December 8, 1989, Ken DuMain on March 2, 1988, Dominick Dunne on March 3, 1989, Molly Dunne on March 31, 1989, Richard Fielden on May 10, 1989, Leonard Gershe on June 4, 1989, Hurd Hatfield on March 23, 1990, Prince Franz Hohenlohe on April 10, 1989, Arthur Julian on November 16, 1988, Janet Leigh on June 8, 1989, Dick Livingston on March 23, 1989, Jean MacDonald on April 3, 1989, and October 11, 1989, Roy Marcher on March 22, 1989, Joe Naar on August 31, 1988, Fred Otash on November 15, 1988, Peter Sabiston on June 6, 1989, Dick Sargent on January 24, 1990, Don Weis on November 21, 1989, and Paul Wurtzel on April 5, 1989.

  Background on Lana Turner was provided by her autobiography and by Cheryl Crane and Cliff Jahr’s Detour. Peter’s quotes about Lana come from his 1940s interviews and from the interviews with him conducted by Jerry Le Blanc and published in the London Sunday People in November 1974.

  Information on all of Peter’s films and the details of his business relationship with MGM were culled from the MGM legal files and the files of the Margaret Herrick Library of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

  The information about Peter’s visits to call girls was gathered from his voluminous FBI file, released to me by the Justice Department pursuant to a Freedom of Information Act request.

  Sal Mineo’s revelation that he had an affair with Peter Lawford is contained in Boze Hadleigh’s Conversations with My Elders. Lady Lawford’s descriptions of Peter’s homosexual liaisons are a part of her autobiography.

  Peter’s quotes about Elizabeth Taylor are from Jerry Le Blanc’s series of interviews with him in the London Sunday People. Greer Garson’s reminiscences of Peter’s matchmaking are contained in a letter to me dated October 3, 1989.

  Many of the details of Peter’s romance with Sharman Douglas are contained in twelve letters she sent to Peter between July 19, 1949, and June 14, 1950.

  Allan Davis’s quotes about Rogue’s March are contained in a letter to me dated August 6, 1989.

  Some details of Sir Sydney’s death were taken from Bitch!, as well as from contemporary Honolulu and Los Angeles newspaper accounts.

  PART THREE

  Interviews quoted in this section and not previously cited were with Bill Asher on June 1, 1989, Joey Bishop on February 16, 1989, Sammy Cahn on March 10, 1990, Jeanne Carmen on December 6, 1989, Rab and Alice Guild on October 11, 1989, Matty Jordan on March 28, 1989, Phyllis Kirk on April 20, 1989, Dick Martin on March 16, 1989, Dolores (Naar) Nemiro on January 5, 1989, Arthur Natoli on April 4, 1989, Bob Neal on June 28 and August 24, 1989, John Newland on November 21, 1989, Don Pack on November 9, 1988, Robert Slatzer on September 1, 1988, and Bonnie Williams on December 29, 1988.

  Peter’s quotes about his artistic free agency are contained in an interview published in the Hollywood Citizen-News on June 24, 1953.

  Many of the details of Peter’s courtship of Pat Kennedy are contained in an interview with Peter by Maxine Arnold published in the June 1955 issue of TV Radio Mirror, Peter’s description of his first encounters with Joseph P. Kennedy are contained in his London Sunday People interview. The quotes attributed to Lady Lawford in this section are from contemporary newspaper accounts.

  May Lawford’s meticulously kept scrapbook of her son’s wedding, comprising hundreds of newspaper clippings, provided me with invaluable details from such publications as the New York Daily News, New York Journal American, Boston Sunday Globe, and the dispatches of the Associated Press, United Press International, and the International News Service. The Honolulu Star Bulletin provided some information about the honeymoon.

  Alex Gottlieb’s quotes are from the November 27, 1954, cover story on Dear Phoebe in TV Guide. Other articles supplying information about Dear Phoebe were “A He-Man Named Phoebe,” by John Maynard, in the Honolulu Advertiser, April 24, 1955, and Maxine Arnold’s TV Radio Mirror piece.

  Dore Schary’s memories of his part in John F. Kennedy’s 1956 vice- presidential campaign are contained in his oral history at the John F. Kennedy Library in Boston.

  These articles provided additional quotes and details on The Thin Man: TV Guide’s cover story of October 26, 1957; another TV Guide piece, “It’s for Real,” November 11, 1958; “Thin Man Lawford Fattening Up Career,” by John L. Scott in the Los Angeles Times, October 11, 1959; “Chewing the Fat with the Thin Man,” by Joe Hyams; “Rebellious Thin Man,” New York Herald Tribune, April 12, 1959.

  Sam Giancana’s checkered history has been covered in a number of books. Judy Campbell’s versions of her relationships with Giancana and Jack Kennedy have been published in her autobiography, My Story, in her People magazine interview with Kitty Kelley published on February 29, 1988, and in Gerri Hirshey’s April 1990 Vanity Fair profile, “The Last Act of Judith Exner.”

  I culled some of the details of John F. Kennedy’s presidential campaign from his numerous biographies, from The Making of the President 1960, by Theodore S. White, from the oral histories at the JFK Library, and from a scrapbook of campaign clippings Peter kept.

  PART FOUR

  Many of the aforementioned interviews contributed information for this section, as well as my conversations with Ken Annakin on July 3, 1989, Phil Ball on May 17, 1990, Bette Davis on October 5, 1988, Daniel Greenson on June 3, 1990, James Hall on May 30, June 3, and June 5, 1990, Natalie Jacobs on June 9, 1990, Chuck Pick on January 9, 1989, Lee Remick on February 10, Mae Shoopman on March 2, 1990, Henry Silva on June 6, 1990, Scottie Singer on May 9, 1989, Mickey Song on May 29, 1990, and Sam Yorty on March 3, 1990.

  Stephen Birmingham’s profile “The Peter Lawfords of Hollywood” appeared in Cosmopolitan in October 1961. Peter’s extended interview with Vernon Scott, “The White House Is Still Wondering What To Do With Me,” was published in McCall’s, January 1963. Good Housekeeping published Helen Markel’s portrait of Peter, “The Many Lives of Peter Lawford,” in its February 1962 issue.

  I found confirmation that Hedda Hopper’s blind items early in 1962 concerned Peter and Lee Remick in her personal papers, which are maintained at the Margaret Herrick Library.

  I drew many of the details of Marilyn Monr
oe’s last few months from Anthony Summers’s superb investigatory biography of Monroe, Goddess. There was additional information in the voluminous report of the Los Angeles district attorney’s office of its 1982 re-investigation into Monroe’s death, and in Robert Slatzers book The Curious Death of Marilyn Monroe.

  Peter’s interview in Hyannis Port following Marilyn’s death was with Marianne Means and syndicated by the Hearst Headline Service. The New York Times article on Susan Perry’s evening at the White House was published on October 30, 1961.

  PART FIVE

  Interviews in this section not cited previously include Carroll Baker on May 11, 1990, Victoria Burgoyne on December 3, 1988, Doris Day on April 28, 1988, Marion Dixon on January 9, 1989, Richard Donner on July 19, 1990, John Farquhar on March 15, 1989, James Goldstone on September 6, 1989, Isabel Heyel on November 6, 1988, Erma Lee Riley on January 6, 1989, David Salven on September 6, 1989, Richard Stanley on January 19, 1990, and Graham Stark on April 3, 1990.

  The separation agreement between Pat Lawford and Peter is part of the Peter Lawford collection of the Arizona State University Library.

  Sally Marks’s article about Salt and Pepper, “Hurricane Sammy Hits the Thames,” was published in the Los Angeles Times on September 3, 1967.

  Alma Cousteline gave me her version of what transpired the night Judy Garland cut her face with the razor blade for my 1983 book, Judy and Liza. Peter’s quotes on the same subject are from a 1972 BBC documentary on Judy.