CAUSE: On the morning of September 8, 1965, Dandridge’s manager Earl Mills arrived at her apartment, D2/El Palacio Apartments, 8495 Fountain Avenue, West Hollywood, California, to help with preparations for the New York gig. He had a key but when he tried to let himself in he found the chain was on the door. Thinking Dandridge was asleep, Mills went away for around two hours. He again used his key when he returned but still the door was chained. By now he was worried so he got the tyre jack from his car and broke the door down. Mills discovered Dandridge on the bathroom floor. She was dead. Psychologists tell us women rarely commit suicide in the nude. Dandridge had a blue scarf on her head and some make-up on her face, but otherwise she proved the exception to that rule. Mills called an ambulance and Dandridge’s doctor. In one of Hollywood’s many strange tales Dandridge had given a letter to her manager in an envelope addressed to: “To Whomsoever Discovers Me After Death – Important”. Inside was the hand-written message: “In case of my death – to whomever discovers it – Don’t remove anything I have on – scarf, gown or underwear – Cremate me right away – If I have anything, money, furniture, give to my mother Ruby Dandridge – She will know what to do. Dorothy Dandridge ” Following an autopsy, Dandridge was embalmed and then cremated and interred in the Columbarium Of Victory, Freedom Mausoleum at Forest Lawn Memorial-Parks, 1712 South Glendale Avenue, Glendale, California 91209. A memorial service was attended by Sidney Poitier, Sammy Davis, Jr, James Mason, Pearl Bailey and her former lover Peter Lawford. Two days after her death reports began to circulate that she had died from a blood clot caused by a fractured toe. In November 1965 the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner announced “Dorothy Dandridge died as a result of an overdose of drugs [Tofranil, an anti-depressant] used to treat psychiatric depression.” In her bank account was the sum total of $2.14.
Bebe Daniels
(PHYLLIS DANIELS)
Born January 14, 1901
Died March 16, 1971
Radio star. Born in Dallas, Texas, she was raised in Los Angeles and began making films aged nine. Five years later, 5́ 3˝ Bebe graduated to adult films. She made over 200 shorts. In April 1921 she was jailed for ten days for speeding in Santa Ana, California. Remarkably, her cell was furnished by a large department store and restaurants competed with each other to feed her. Nearly 800 Hollywood dignitaries visited her. She rarely spent time in her cell except when posing for photographs. She was hounded by the press for interviews finally becoming exhausted and refusing one request with the words, “No, tell him I’m out.” She was let out of prison after nine days for good behaviour and Paramount immediately capitalised on the free publicity by starring her in a film called Speed Girl (1921). In 1936 she moved to England with husband Ben Lyon (they married in June 1930) where they stayed for ten years. They returned to the States in 1946 but by 1949 were back in England where they starred in the successful radio show Life With The Lyons and appeared in films such as Life With The Lyons (1954) and The Lyons In Paris (1956).
CAUSE: In 1963 she suffered the first of a series of strokes that partially disabled her. She died in London of a cerebral haemorrhage aged 70.
Linda Darnell
(MONETTA ELOYSE DARNELL)
Born October 16, 1923
Died April 10, 1965
‘The Girl With The Perfect Face’. Born Dallas, Texas, at 4.40am, the daughter of a post office worker, Darnell was biologically precocious. She began modelling aged eleven and later won a beauty contest that had a screen test with RKO as its prize. In 1939 she was contracted to 20th Century Fox on a seven-year term. In many of her films her exotic looks were capitalised on and she was cast as the innocent ingénue. She rose to become a very popular star in the Forties but found work hard to come by when her Fox contract ended. She moved to television and the stage. She gained weight and found summer stock to be the only way of supporting herself. Her films included: The Mark Of Zorro (1940) as Lolita Quintero, Brigham Young – Frontiersman (1940) as Zina Webb, Blood And Sand (1941) as Carmen Espinosa, The Loves Of Edgar Allan Poe (1942) as Virginia Clemm, Buffalo Bill (1944) as Dawn Starlight, Hangover Square (1945) as Netta Longdon, My Darling Clementine (1946) as Chihuahua, Unfaithfully Yours (1948) as Daphne De Carter, Slattery’s Hurricane (1949) as Aggie Hobson, No Way Out (1950) as Edie Johnson, Night Without Sleep (1952) as Julie Bannon, Blackbeard The Pirate (1952) as Edwina Mansfield, Second Chance (1953) as Clare Shepherd, Dakota Incident as Amy Clarke, Zero Hour as Ellen Stryker and Black Spurs (1965) as Sadie. She married three times. Her first husband was cameraman J. Peverell Marley (b. San Jose, California, August 14, 1901, d. 1964) with whom she eloped to Las Vegas on April 18, 1943. Five years later they adopted a daughter, Charlotte Mildred, whom they nicknamed Lola. They divorced in 1951. Husband number two was brewer Philip Liebmann and they married in Bernalillo, Mexico, on February 25, 1954. Less than two years later, in December 1955, they divorced. Her final husband was airline pilot Merle Roy Robertson. They married on March 3, 1957, and divorced on November 23, 1963, the day after President Kennedy was assassinated.
CAUSE: Darnell was terrified of fire. She almost had to be forced onto the set of Forever Amber (1947) for the scene featuring the Great Fire of London and the previous year in Anna And The King Of Siam (1946) she played Tuptim, who was burned at the stake, and was herself slightly hurt. In 1965 she fell ill during a tour and stayed with her former secretary in Chicago. On April 8, 1965, she noticed one of her old films, Star Dust (1940), was playing on the late show and suggested watching it. When the film finished the secretary went to bed but Darnell remained on the settee, smoking a cigarette. She obviously did not realise just how tired she was because Darnell soon fell into a deep sleep, the cigarette still alight. The secretary escaped the blaze but Darnell was trapped. She was eventually rescued by firemen but died two days later in Cook County Hospital at 3.25pm. She was 41. Her remains were cremated but were not buried until September 1975, a full ten years after her death.
Frankie Darro
(FRANK JOHNSON)
Born December 22, 1917
Died Christmas Day, 1976
Youthful-looking star. Born in Chicago, Illinois, his parents were both circus acrobats. Darro, who made his first film when he was six, was of small stature and continued to play teenagers well into his twenties. As he matured he played jockeys or other horse-bound characters. By the mid-Fifties he was doing stunt work and all but disappeared from public view.
CAUSE: He died in Huntington Beach, California, of a heart attack three days after his 59th birthday.
Bella Darvi
(BELLA WEGIER)
Born October 23, 1928
Died September 11, 1971
Polish plaything. Born in Sosnowiec, Darvi emigrated to Paris with her parents. She was interned in Osnabrück and Auschwitz concentration camps during World War II. In 1950 she married wealthy businessman Alban Cavalade but they were divorced after two and a half years. She was a regular at the Cannes film festival and apparently slept with any journalist who showed an interest in her, although many recounted she never seemed to be particularly enthusiastic or to enjoy herself in bed. She spoke French, German, Italian and Polish. She met Darryl F. Zanuck in the French capital in June 1951 and quickly began an affair with him. Although a talented man, Zanuck often thought with his genitals and not his brain and employed dozens of women because he wanted to bed them. If they became a success it was all well and good, but if not there was always someone else. Bella was one of the unfortunate ones. In November 1952 she went to America and stayed at the Zanucks’ beach house; Zanuck arranged for her to have a screen test. Her name was changed to Darvi for DARryl and VIctoria, Zanuck’s wife. The now defunct New York Journal-American reported on July 11, 1953: “ A newly arrived French doll by the name of Bella Darvi, who has a voice like Marlene Dietrich, eyes like Simone Simone and the allure of Corinne Calvet, is hitting Hollywood with the impact of TNT. She’s got zip, zoom and zowie and in parlez-vous, she’s ravisante, chi chi and très él�
�gante. In any language that’s hot stuff.” Readers who may think this kind of guff is a relatively modern phenomena should note that it’s been around as long as Hollywood. Darvi appeared in two American films – Hell And High Water (1954) and The Racers (1954) and both flopped. Zanuck, who was still bedding her, put her in The Egyptian (1954) – but the public still didn’t take to her. Even Variety commented: “ A weak spot in the talent line-up is Bella Darvi who contributes little more than an attractive figure. Her thesping … is something less than believable or skilled.” Finally, Mrs Zanuck threw her out of the house and Bella was dispatched to Monte Carlo, where Darryl F. followed. The move resulted in the break-up of his marriage. Zanuck and Darvi split when he discovered Bella preferred the company of women to men – both in and out of bed. She also gambled away hundreds of thousands of francs. When her looks began to fade she sought solace in drink and drugs.
CAUSE: In the spring of 1968 Darvi tried to kill herself with an overdose of barbiturates. It was just one of many attempts at suicide. She finally succeeded when she gassed herself aged 42 in Monte Carlo.
Marion Davies
(MARION CECILIA DOURAS)
Born January 3, 1897
Died September 22, 1961
Misunderstood mistress. Born in Brooklyn at 6am, lawyer’s daughter Marion Davies would probably rate no more than a footnote in most movie books were it not for her long-lasting relationship with newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst. He ordered his newspapers to overhype her as an actress but as Dorothy Parker said of her, “She has two expressions: joy and indigestion.” She had three older sisters and all four eventually went onto the stage. The 5́4½˝ Marion was blonde, beautiful, graceful and stuttered in a most delightful way. She was in the chorus of the revue Stop! Look! Listen! when she met Hearst, who was immediately taken with her. (However, a story that he attended her 1916 show Ziegfeld Follies every night for eight weeks just so he could see her seems to be without provenance.) He was 34 years older than her and married. Mrs Hearst wouldn’t give him a divorce and Marion showed a modernity ahead of her time by agreeing to a relationship without the benefit of clergy. Hearst began his master plan to make Marion a superstar and help her family into the bargain. Her father, Bernard J. Douras, became a magistrate, thanks to Hearst’s influence. As for Marion, Hearst hired the best vocal, posture and acting coaches for his young protégé and placed her in films shot in his New York studio. Her first feature film, Cecilia Of The Pink Roses (1918), in which she played the poor little rich girl lead, was treated by Hearst’s film critics with a reverence worthy of the Second Coming. Other, more discerning, journalists wrote it off as nothing very special. Her films, When Knighthood Was In Flower (1922) in which she played Henry VIII’s sister Mary Tudor, Little Old New York in which she was resilient Irish girl Patricia O’Day and Janice Meredith in which she took the lead part of a wealthy New Jersey landowner’s daughter were more successful. Again the Hearst press was undiluted in its praise, the chief cheerleader being Louella O. Parsons. Hearst hired writer Frances Marion at $2,000 a week to create roles for Marion. However, when it was suggested that Marion had a gift for light comedy that could be exploited Hearst wouldn’t listen. He felt that Marion was going to be the next Mary Pickford. When he moved his studio to Culver City, California, in 1924, Marion became the mistress of his massive monstrosity, San Simeon. Hearst allowed no alcohol to be served at his parties but his wily mistress would sneak off to the ladies and the bottle of gin she kept there. Davies was paid $10,000 a week to appear in films and was kept in splendour on the set, where she enjoyed the use of a 14-room ‘dressing room’. As if that was not enough, Hearst also had an 118-room, 55-bathroom mansion built for her at 415 Palisades Beach Road, Santa Monica. The walls were decorated with a dozen portraits of Marion in her most famous roles, all commissioned by Hearst. The tycoon used his newspaper empire whenever he could to further Marion’s career and, if necessary, blocked others who got in her way. When Norma Shearer beat off Marion for the lead in The Barretts Of Wimpole Street (1934) Hearst forbade any of his papers from mentioning Shearer’s name. It wasn’t a completely one-way street, however. Davies didn’t waste her money. She invested in property and was wealthy enough to help Hearst out in the late Thirties, when he was bankrupt, by lending him $1 million. In 1941 both were deeply hurt by Orson Welles’ film Citizen Kane and its supposed portrayal of their relationship. Marion wasn’t the vacuous plaything that Susan Alexander was in the film. The last word in the film, “Rosebud,” was supposedly Hearst’s nickname for Marion’s pudenda. When Hearst began to ail, Marion stood by him, but when he died aged 88 on August 14, 1951, in 1011 North Beverly Drive, Beverly Hills she was asleep and his body was removed before she was informed of his demise. Mrs Hearst banned her from his funeral. Three months later, on October 31, 1951, she married Captain Horace G. Brown, Jr in Las Vegas, Nevada. In 1957 she gave $1.5 million to a children’s hospital in Los Angeles. Her other films included: Beverly Of Graustark (1926) as student Beverly Calhoun, Tillie The Toiler (1927) as stenographer Tillie Jones, Quality Street (1927) as schoolteacher Phoebe Throssel, Show People (1928) as wannabe actress Peggy Pepper, Not So Dumb (1930) as bimbo Dulcinea Parker, The Floradora Girl (1930) as Daisy, It’s A Wise Child (1931) as benevolent meddler Joyce, Five And Ten (1931) as heiress Jennifer Rarick, Polly Of The Circus (1932) as acrobat Polly Fisher, Blondie Of The Follies (1932) as Blondie McClune, Going Hollywood (1933) as Sylvia Bruce, Page Miss Glory (1935) as hotel chambermaid Loretta, Cain And Mabel (1936) as former waitress-turned-actress Mabel O’Dare and Ever Since Eve (1937) as stenographer Marge Winton.
CAUSE: She died in Hollywood aged 64 of cancer. She was buried a few feet from Tyrone Power in Hollywood Memorial Park, 6000 Santa Monica Boulevard, Hollywood, Los Angeles 90038.
FURTHER READING: The Intimate Biography Of Marion Davies– Fred Lawrence Guiles (New York: Bantam, 1973).
Bette Davis
(RUTH ELIZABETH DAVIS)
Born April 5, 1908
Died October 6, 1989
Mother Goddam. Bette Davis was born in Lowell, Massachusetts, home of the witchcraft trials; her ancestors were accused of sorcery. She had one sister, Barbara, known as Bobby (b. Winchester, Massachusetts, October 25, 1909, d. July 1979 of a heart attack). The 5́ 3˝ Bette made her first professional appearance playing a dancing fairy in A Midsummer Night’s Dream for the Mariarden School of Dance on July 23, 1925. Her early professional life was full of setbacks. In September 1927 she auditioned for Eva Le Gallienne in New York and was turned down with the cutting comment, “You are a frivolous little girl.” Her first screen test in 1929 was not a roaring success either. “Her features are too irregular. She isn’t glamorous or beautiful enough. She is a problem to light and she doesn’t have enough s[ex] a[ppeal].” When studio boss Sam Goldwyn saw the test he yelled, “Who in hell did this to me? She’s a dog!” When Bette saw the test herself she “ran from the projection room screaming”. She took another screen test on October 14, 1930, this time for Universal and was offered a contract. On December 8, 1930, she set out for Hollywood by train with her indomitable mother, Ruthie (b. Lowell, Massachusetts, September 16, 1885, d. 655 Ramona Street, Laguna Beach, California, July 1, 1961, at 8am of coronary thrombosis). A young studio worker was sent to meet Davis at the station when she arrived on December 13, 1930. He returned empty-handed with the words: “No one faintly like an actress got off the train.” Her first films – Way Back Home (1931) as Mary Lucy, Bad Sister (1931) as Laura Madison and Seed (1931) as Margaret Carter – were not roaring successes, although after seeing Seed, Louella O. Parsons noted: “Keep an eye on Bette Davis; that girl has something worth developing.” In September 1931 she was sacked by Universal. On November 18, 1931, she signed her first contract with Warner Bros at $300 a week. The contract was just for one film, The Man Who Played God (1932) in which she played Grace Blair, but Bette impressed enough for the studio to offer her a 26-week extension and raise her wages to $400 a week. How
ever, over the first three years of the contract it became obvious that Warners had no real idea of where to place Bette. After directing a trio of unknown starlets in Three On A Match (1932) Mervyn Le Roy commented, “I think Joan Blondell will be a big star, Ann Dvorak has definite possibilities, but I don’t think Bette Davis will make it.” On August 18, 1932, in Yuma, Arizona, she lost her virginity aged 24 when she married her first husband, musician Harmon ‘Ham’ Oscar Nelson, Jr (b. 1907). Davis claimed that she had suggested the name Oscar for the Academy Award (known previously as ‘the Statuette’) after her first husband. Her friend Roy Moseley believed this was how the Oscar came to be known. The marriage would not be an especially happy one. Ham was a pleasant enough fellow but Bette believed he lacked ambition. He was also unhappy at her being the breadwinner. Added to this he was a chronic masturbator, a premature ejaculator and, Bette believed, possessed of homosexual tendencies. She had a number of affairs while they were married, notably with Howard Hughes and William Wyler. Nelson was not naïve and when he discovered his wife was sleeping with Hughes he cunningly placed a tape recorder under the bed to capture the sounds of their lovemaking. He later blackmailed Hughes for a not inconsiderable sum of money. The affair with Wyler was more serious; she would later describe him as the love of her life. It began during the filming of Jezebel (1938) and ended in October 1938 when Wyler sent Davis an ultimatum in a letter – divorce her husband, Ham Nelson, and marry him or he would marry someone else. The following week he married actress Margaret Tallichet. (The next film Wyler and Davis made together was, ironically, entitled The Letter [1940].) Bette began working on Of Human Bondage (1934) playing the cockney Mildred Rogers on February 12, 1934, and when the film was released on June 8 she received rave reviews. Life called it “perhaps the finest performance ever given on screen.” Variety was equally effusive about Dangerous (1935), in which Davis played Joyce Heath, saying, “This is perhaps her best achievement.” It was certainly considered so at the time because, on March 5, 1936, Davis won an Oscar for her performance. However, all was not yet roses in Davis’ professional career. On June 20, 1936, a day after her lawyer sent the studio a letter asking for her contract to be reviewed, she was suspended by Warner Bros. Jack Warner offered to raise her salary from $1,600 to $2,000 but Bette held out for $3,500. Her co-star Barbara Stanwyck called Davis “an egotistical little bitch”. She had a point: Davis also added that she would return to the studio if the films she was offered were suitable to her talents. Warners refused to budge. On August 3, 1936, Bette left the country to make films in Europe. But Jack Warner wasn’t giving up that easily. “It is high time something were done to make people under contract to the studios realise that a contract is not a mere scrap of paper to be thrown aside because they happen to make a good picture or two,” he grouched. On September 9, 1936, Warner Bros issued an injunction in England against Bette making films outside the studio. On October the case came to trial. Bette was represented by Sir William Jowitt (1885–1957) and Warners by the equally distinguished Sir Patrick Hastings (1880–1952). In court one day he became so frustrated by Bette that he pulled his wig off and threw it onto the floor. Despite this petulance he won the case for the studio after five days and Bette was ordered to pay costs. She wrote an apologetic note to Warner and found that he agreed to waive part of the costs and began to put her in more suitable pictures. One such was Jezebel, regarded by many as the best film ever produced by Warners. On November 22, 1938, Ham Nelson filed for divorce, which was granted on December 6, of the same year. Three months later, on February 23, 1939, Jezebel won Bette her second Oscar. She also appeared in Kid Galahad (1937) as Louise ‘Fluff’ Phillips, That Certain Woman (1937) as Mary Donnell, It’s Love I’m After as Joyce Arden, The Sisters as Louise Elliott Medlin starring opposite Errol Flynn, Dark Victory (1939) as Judith Traherne, Juarez (1939) as Empress Carlotta von Habsburg and The Old Maid (1939) as Charlotte Lovell, which also won rave reviews. In 1939 she made The Private Lives Of Elizabeth And Essex (1939) in which she played Elizabeth I who, despite the claims of her supporters, was decidedly not a virgin. Playing Essex was Errol Flynn, with whom Bette had worked a year earlier. They did not get on. She believed he was overrated, while he believed her dislike of him stemmed from a refused invitation from her to him for drinks. Whatever the truth there was no love lost, as was evident in one scene in the film, where Elizabeth had to slap Essex. Bette did not pull her punch and whacked Flynn with all the might she could muster. She almost knocked him out. Bette later rejected the part of Scarlett O’Hara in Gone With The Wind (1939) because she thought she’d have to work with Flynn again. At 8pm on December 31, 1940, in Arizona, Bette married for the second time. Her new husband was (6)߰Arthur Farnsworth, Jr (b. Rutland, Vermont, 1906). Because of her commitments to The Bride Came C.O.D. (1941) as Joan Winfield and the film she badly wanted, The Little Foxes (1941) in which she played Regina Hubbard Giddens, there wasn’t much of a honeymoon. In October 1941 Farnsworth fell seriously ill with lobar pneumonia and Bette flew (which she hated) to his side, interrupting work on In This Our Life (1942). Much to the studio’s disquiet, she stayed by his side until his condition improved and then went back to work by train. Her film Now, Voyager (1942) contains one of the most famous of all movie scenes: in a romantic gesture that had women all over the world swooning Jerry Durrance (Paul Henreid) lights two cigarettes before handing one to Charlotte Vale (Bette). In spring 1943 Bette finished Old Acquaintance (1943) and went on holiday to Mexico while husband Farney went to Franconia. The separate vacations prompted rumours of marital discord and certainly Bette had an affair with Old Acquaintance director Vincent Sherman. But in the summer husband and wife were together again and seemingly happy to be so. On August 23, Farney had lunch with their lawyer. As he walked back to his car he cried out, fell backwards and landed on the pavement outside a cigar shop at 6249 Hollywood Boulevard. Blood poured from his nose and ears. He never regained consciousness and died on August 25. Rumours immediately started as to what had happened. An inquest stated it was an accident but murder was discussed and a number of men, including Vincent Sherman and her third husband, claimed Bette admitting pushing her husband over. The mystery remains. Her career faltered somewhat in the mid- to late Forties but her private life was boosted. She refused the lead role in Mildred Pierce (1945), a part that won an Oscar for Joan Crawford. On November 29, 1945, in the Mission Inn, Riverside, California, she married sailor William Grant Sherry (b. 1915) and, on May 1, 1947, she gave birth to daughter Barbara Davis, known as B.D. As Bette attempted to find a successful film she and Sherry split and then reconciled. It would have been a foolish person to write off Bette Davis professionally and on April 11, 1950, she began work on a film that would see her back with a bang. She was signed to play Margo Channing in Joseph L. Mankiewicz’s All About Eve (1950). Bette wasn’t the first choice for Margo, although in retrospect only Bette could have played her. Bette was Margo. The first choice was Marlene Dietrich and then Claudette Colbert, who actually signed for the part. However, she was injured in another film and withdrew, much to her disappointment even 40 years later. Jeanne Crain was considered, then Gertrude Lawrence and finally Ingrid Bergman before the call came for Bette. On the set she met an actor called Gary Franklin Merrill (b. Hartford, Connecticut, August 2, 1915, d. Falmouth, Maine, March 5, 1990), who was playing Bill Sampson and she fell in love with him almost immediately. It was in All About Eve that she delivered her most famous movie line: “Fasten your seat belts; it’s going to be a bumpy night.” It was believed that Bette based the character of Margo on Tallulah Bankhead, who wasn’t best pleased. Bette was nominated for an Oscar for her performance but lost out on March 29, 1951, to Judy Holliday for Born Yesterday (1950). Following the film’s success Bette sent a telegram to Mankiewicz. “Thanks, Joe, for raising me from the dead.” Meantime, her marriage to William Grant Sherry was breaking up and she filed for divorce. During filming he sent her a telegram asking her to reconsider. She cruelly and s
arcastically read the telegram aloud to the whole company. Bette had an unpleasant side to her character. Every so often she would sort through her Rollerdex and tear out the details of those who had upset her. They would never be restored. On July 28, 1950, she and Sherry were divorced. That same day she married Gary Merrill. Just over three months later, on November 6, 1950, Bette was invited to make her hand- and footprints in the wet cement outside Grauman’s Chinese Theater. The Gary Merrills adopted two children: Margot Mosher (b. January 6, 1951) who was mentally retarded and Michael Woodman (b. January 5, 1952). Bette turned down the part of Lola in Come Back, Little Sheba (1952) that won Shirley Booth an Oscar (during her acceptance speech Booth thanked Davis). On March 16, 1953, Bette underwent an operation to correct osteomyelitis of the jaw. In 1955 she again played Elizabeth I, in her first film for three years, called The Virgin Queen (1955). She was to make only four films over the next six years and in that time, on July 7, 1960, she divorced Gary Merrill. Once again her career seemed to be in the doldrums. Then it was revived again on May 9, 1962, when she signed to appear opposite her great rival Joan Crawford in Robert Aldrich’s Whatever Happened To Baby Jane? (1962). Bette was paid $60,000, $600 a week expenses plus 10% of the gross profits. During filming Joan sent Bette little presents and notes. Bette sent them back, saying that while she appreciated the gesture she did not have the time to reciprocate. After a little while the presents began arriving at the Davis home once again. Bette was furious. “What is this crap? Christ, I’m 54 years old and my figure is shot to hell. She’s 58 if she’s a day and she’s still coming on like a dykey schoolgirl with a crush on the boobs and twat at the next schoolroom desk!” The presents stopped. Despite her infamous feud with Joan, Bette kept a picture of Crawford in her home. Nine days after shooting wrapped on Whatever Happened To Baby Jane? Bette placed an advertisement in Variety. It read: “Situation Wanted, Women Artists Mother of three – 10, 11, 15 – divorcee, American. Thirty years experience as an actress in motion pictures. Mobile still and more affable than rumor would have it. Wants steady employment in Hollywood. (Has had Broadway.) Bette Davis, c.o. Martin Baum, G.A.C., References Upon Request.” It would be fair to say the advert shocked Hollywood. It was placed before Whatever Happened To Baby Jane? was released and, obviously, before it was a hit. In later years, Bette claimed the ad was a joke. Nothing could have been further from the truth. She was desperate for work. On February 25, 1963, Bette was nominated for an Oscar for Whatever Happened To Baby Jane? but lost out. She signed to do another film with Joan Crawford, Hush … Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1965), playing Charlotte Hollis, but Joan backed out, feigning illness and Olivia De Havilland filled the gap. Bette made few films in the late Sixties and Seventies moving to television movies such as Madame Sin (1972), Scream, Pretty Peggy (1973), Dark Secret Of Harvest Home (1978), Strangers: The Story Of A Mother And Daughter (1979), White Mama (1980) and Little Gloria … Happy At Last (1982). In May 1977 her rival Joan Crawford died and her adopted daughter Christina penned the vicious Mommie Dearest the following year. Bette, whose relationship with B.D. was fraught, must have wondered if her daughter would do the same when she was dead. She didn’t have to wait that long. On Mother’s Day 1985 B.D. published a searing account of Bette entitled My Mother’s Keeper. It became a number one bestseller with its tales of alcoholism, abuse and downright nasty behaviour. It caused a rift between mother and daughter that was never healed. Bette made her penultimate film, The Whales Of August (1987) as Libby Strong, with another Hollywood survivor, Lillian Gish. They didn’t always get on. Directing was Lindsay Anderson and when, one day, he said to Lillian, “Miss Gish, you just gave us a marvellous close-up!” Bette rejoined, “She ought to know about close-ups. Jesus, she was around when they invented them! The bitch has been around forever, you know!” Lillian Gish got her own back: “That face! Have you ever seen such a tragic face? Poor woman. How she must be suffering! I don’t think it’s right to judge a person like that. We must bear and forbear.”
Fade to Black: A Book of Movie Obituaries Page 58
