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The Man Who Saw a Ghost: The Life and Work of Henry Fonda

Page 39

by Devin McKinney

“Men commit actions”: Chesler, 48.

  “immediate trigger”: FML, 208.

  “in a mood”: ibid.

  “arranged this solution”: ibid., 209.

  Dr. Knight: Clinician and Therapist: Selected Papers of Robert P. Knight, ed. Stuart C. Miller (New York: Basic Books, 1972), includes recollections by colleagues Erik Erikson and Margaret Brenman-Gibson, and a portrait of the doctor by his neighbor and patient Norman Rockwell.

  “disposes of an estate”: Kingsport Times, 5/11/1950.

  “a tactless woman”: Sheilah Graham, Confessions of a Hollywood Columnist (New York: Bantam, 1970 [1969]), 225.

  “It was just a bore”: PB, 122.

  7. THE RIGHT MAN

  “‘In the middle of the journey’”: Alvarez, 169.

  suburb of Darien: Bridgeport Sunday Post, 9/9/1951.

  four-story brownstone: Olean Times Herald, 9/6/1950.

  a custody bid: MLSF, 78.

  guardianship: Traverse City Record-Eagle, 7/3/1950.

  shoots himself in the abdomen: MLSF, 72–73; DTD, 51–56.

  “very favorable condition”: Idaho State Journal, 1/8/1951.

  Jane has her doubts: MLSF, 73.

  Henry believes him: PB, 128.

  “No one ever talked”: DTD, 46.

  “She remained cool”: Lowell Sun, 1/8/1951.

  torn knee cartilage: Cedar Rapids Gazette, 10/4/1950.

  “was almost unable to go on speaking”: Olean Times Herald, 11/6/1950.

  “This is my first tour”: Wisconsin State Journal, 3/6/1951.

  snowstorm: Madison Capitol Times, 3/20/1951.

  “If I get a chance”: Cedar Rapids Gazette, 3/26/1951. See also Council Bluffs Nonpareil, 3/26/1951; Wisconsin State Journal, 3/26/1951.

  “I don’t feel it”: Logan, 262–63; FML, 217–18.

  “had become so identified”: E. J. Kahn, Jr., “Profile: The Tough Guy and the Soft Guy—I,” The New Yorker, 4/4/1953, 62.

  “will charge $8”: San Mateo Times, 9/21/1951.

  advance ticket sale: Uniontown Evening Standard, 12/20/1951.

  show sells out: Marion Star, 11/3/1951.

  “absorbing and generally entertaining”: Nevada State Journal, 11/16/1951.

  Potter: Hayward interview transcript.

  Kazan: ibid.

  “feeling that I was cheating”: ibid.

  “an honest second act”: FML, 222.

  The notices are glumly approving: Osborn, dust jacket.

  “deep beneath the waters”: John P. Marquand, Point of No Return (New York: Bantam, 1952 [1949]), 492.

  “There was nothing to explain”: ibid., 458–59.

  “A single light”: Osborn, 139.

  “My life has been peppered”: FML, x.

  the tour in Baltimore: Cedar Rapids Gazette, 12/14/1952.

  “is not the greatest play”: Oakland Tribune, 4/8/1953.

  he rejects: FML, 226; Cedar Rapids Gazette, 7/12/1953; Sheboygan Press, 5/28/1954; Waterloo Daily Courier, 7/9/1954.

  three options he is given: FML, 227.

  “One-nighters”: Bradford Era, 10/2/1953.

  headquarters of the American Federation of Musicians: San Antonio Express, 9/4/1953; Joplin Globe, 10/3/1953.

  to cede partial rights: Callow, 225.

  “What do you know”: ibid., 227.

  “I consider Fonda”: http://theatreisterritory.com/tag/charles-nolte.html. Nolte had previously played a crew member in Mister Roberts.

  Henry Fonda has “the gift”: El Paso Herald-Post, 11/5/1953.

  advance Broadway ticket sale: Cedar Rapids Gazette, 12/2/1953.

  “and is eager”: Oakland Tribune, 10/16/1953.

  “aloof”: Lowell Sun, 12/9/1953.

  “What direction?”: Charleston Gazette, 12/10/1953.

  “[We’re] just one happy family”: Charleston Gazette, 12/14/1953.

  “At least five people”: ibid.

  “I got into a slight squabble”: Tucson Daily Citizen, 1/16/1954.

  putting his fist through a door: Nevada State Journal, 10/27/1953.

  acclaim across the board: Chillicothe Constitution-Tribune, 1/30/1954.

  “one of the great shows”: Uniontown Morning Herald, 1/27/1954.

  “a throat-grabbing chunk”: Waterloo Daily Courier, 7/9/1954.

  “I am in that near-comatose state”: Beckley Post-Herald, 3/3/1954.

  “Queeg deserved better”: Wouk, The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial, 128.

  “the toughest scene”: Corpus Christi Caller-Times, 2/21/1954.

  cries onstage: FML, 228.

  Caribbean locations: Portland Press-Herald, 9/11/1948.

  “homosexual”: McBride, 543–44.

  Brando’s involvement: Albuquerque Journal, 2/19/1954.

  “who has aged”: ibid.

  “Bullshit!”: FML, 230.

  “I had no intention”: Long Beach Independent, 7/30/1954.

  “an Irish”: McBride, 547.

  “screw up”: ibid., 548.

  Fonda feels a blow: Norman, 88; PB, 123.

  Ford appears at Henry’s door: Norman, 89.

  “Just a great actor”: Ford interview on Criterion Collection DVD of Young Mr. Lincoln.

  Ward Bond: McBride, 550.

  “I despised that film”: ibid., 552.

  half of all American homes: Whitfield, 153.

  thirty-nine episodes: www.tv.com/shows/henry-fonda-presents-the-star-and-the-story/season/?season=all.

  “appalling to see an actor”: Waterloo Daily Courier, 7/27/1959.

  “I am an actor”: Valparaiso Videlio-Messenger, 7/22/1954.

  “vast wasteland”: Newton N. Minow, Equal Time: The Private Broadcaster and the Public Interest (New York: Atheneum, 1964), 45.

  “secret ambition”: News Television and Radio Guide (Lima, OH), 3/12/1955.

  “I want to do the picture”: Portsmouth Herald, 11/10/1954.

  eighty thousand dollars: News Television and Radio Guide (Lima, OH), 3/12/1955.

  “astoundingly restrictive”: DTD, 78, 85.

  Susan admits to being fearful: Norman, 91.

  “Don’t cry”: ibid., 71.

  “probably the biggest movie”: El Paso Herald Post, 5/23/1955.

  David O. Selznick and Mike Todd: ibid.

  The movie will have: ibid.

  six million dollars: ibid.

  “You understand, don’t you”: Brough, 124.

  Henry finds his daily pages: Oakland Tribune, 10/27/1959.

  “If I’d seen it”: Lebanon Daily News, 8/2/1956.

  “It was as if we were”: Norman, 90.

  granted a divorce decree: Newport News, 12/8/1955; Long Beach Independent, 5/3/1956.

  Anita Ekberg: Salt Lake Tribune, 5/24/1959; NBN, 8; Collier, 99.

  Venice Film Festival: Humboldt Standard, 8/27/1955.

  “laughing” with Italian starlet Loren Pastini: San Antonio Light, 10/27/1955.

  She and Henry meet: NBN, 2.

  “There was something pure”: ibid.

  “barbaric and primeval”: ibid., 30.

  Augusto Torlonia: “Italy: Lord of the Earth,” Time, 7/4/1949; available at www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,888539,00.html.

  “Eurotrash”: DTD, 109.

  Franchetti history: NBN, 43–44, 116–17.

  beaten by her brutish brother: ibid., 43.

  she had inspired: Carlos Baker, Ernest Hemingway: A Life Story (New York: Scribner’s, 1969), 486.

  “She’s a character”: PB, 127.

  “sad and boring”: NBN, 34.

  8. THE WRONG MAN

  O’Hara: FML, 4.

  current reading: Henry Fonda, “My Current Reading,” Saturday Review of Literature, 7/31/1948, 29.

  “in the old days”: John O’Hara to H. N. Swanson, 9/29/1963; O’Hara to Swanson, 2/5/1965; Swanson to O’Hara, 3/18/1969. Contents synopsized in the Calendar of the John O’Hara Letters to H. N. Swanson, 1955–1970, Penn State University Archives, available at www.libraries
.psu.edu/digital/speccolls/FindingAids/oharaswanson.frame.html.

  Hitchcock: Patrick McGilligan, Alfred Hitchcock: A Life in Darkness and Light (San Francisco: HarperCollins, 2004), 535. See also Devin McKinney, “The Right Man,” The Believer, March/April 2008, 13, 27.

  “the somnambulistic quality”: Herbert Brean, “A Case of Identity,” Life, 6/19/1953, 97.

  Hitchcock reckoned this a misjudgment: François Truffaut, Hitchcock (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1967), 177–83.

  scissoring her eyes: FML, 254.

  villa on the Mediterranean: FML, 256–57; DTD, 107–14.

  “a dentist’s waiting room”: NBN, 53.

  realistic oil studies: Abilene Reporter-News, 1/5/1962.

  “renting period”: DTD, 120.

  amount of business logged: Oakland Tribune, 7/10/1956; Abilene Reporter-News, 6/31/1956; Austin Daily Herald, 10/17/1956; Fresno Bee, 9/13/1956; Long Beach Independent, 2/28/1957.

  “Medics are warning”: Burlington Daily Times-Herald, 10/22/1956.

  “Each achievement”: NBN, 74.

  Southwest Airways: Hayward, 69.

  Oklahoma oil: Ada Evening News, 11/15/1953.

  independent production deal: New York Times, 2/11/1955.

  never star in a TV series: Long Beach Independent, 4/28/1957.

  “save a dollar”: Connellsville Daily Courier, 1/4/1960.

  handpicked by the star: Kittanning Leader-Times, 6/22/1959.

  “looked so startlingly”: Oakland Tribune, 9/16/1959.

  “I guess he doesn’t plan”: ibid.

  “underwritten”: Gibson, 21.

  “Start it rolling”: ibid., 24–25.

  a quarter of it Fonda’s own money: ibid.

  Henry is miscast as Jerry: ibid., 57.

  When Henry meets Dr. Brenman-Gibson: ibid., 108.

  “with a fixed”: ibid., 36.

  “zest and fine realism”: Corpus Christi Times, 12/6/1957.

  a nauseous Bancroft: Gibson, 106.

  shouting at the playwright: FML, 263; Gibson, 107; Henry Fonda and Glenn Loney, “In the Words of Henry Fonda,” Cue, 12/20/1969, 12.

  “the most odious experience”: Gibson, 107.

  “the birth of a star”: Mansfield News-Journal, 1/25/1958.

  selling his quarter share: Winnipeg Free Press, 9/27/1965.

  “can’t stomach Hollywood”: Long Beach Independent, 5/28/1957.

  “I imagine if we could hear”: Anderson, Silent Night, Lonely Night, 34.

  “excessively verbose”: New York Times, 12/4/1959.

  “that I find this talky”: San Mateo Times, 12/22/1959.

  Gena Rowlands: Elyria Chronicle-Telegram, 11/8/1960.

  “I was discovering myself”: NBN, 107.

  “the father I never had”: ibid., 174.

  “If it had been maybe ten years later”: Norman, 94.

  “Just the slightest of slaps”: NBN, 72.

  “if he had done it more often”: ibid.

  “completely friendly”: Fresno Bee, 3/16/1961.

  “I can only reproach myself”: Long Beach Independent, 3/16/1961.

  she and a traveling companion: New York Times, 8/1/1966; Bridgeport Post, 8/1/1966; Bucks County Courier-Times, 11/10/1966; Bridgeport Telegram, 11/11/1966.

  rented a Bel Air house: Albuquerque Journal, 6/29/1961.

  “I made my first picture”: Corpus Christi Caller-Times, 9/10/1961.

  “the greatest acting challenge”: Cumberland Sunday Times, 11/26/1961.

  “about a writer”: Greeley Tribune, 12/18/1961.

  “to the radiologist’s”: Corpus Christi Times, 3/16/1962.

  “We talked”: Mansfield News-Journal, 1/28/1962.

  rudiments of the classical guitar: ibid.

  “that the theatre”: New York Times, 3/4/1962.

  “is a long time to watch”: Bridgeport Post, 1/30/1962.

  “party” block: ibid.

  “Lael!”: Kanin, 75–77.

  “I love you”: ibid., 150.

  “just the God damnedest”: Springer, 38.

  Critics too are uncertain: ibid.; New York Times, 2/23/1962; Time, 3/2/1962, available at www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,939893,00.html; Harold Clurman, The Collected Works of Harold Clurman: Six Decades of Commentary on Theatre, Dance, Music, Film, Arts and Letters, ed. Marjorie Loggia and Glenn Young (New York: Applause, 2000), 475; Oakland Tribune, 3/11/1962.

  covered with bruises: Anderson Daily Bulletin, 3/28/1962.

  a film version is rumored: Salina Journal, 6/15/1962.

  A small item appears: San Mateo Times and Daily News Leader, 10/31/1935.

  Another version of the same incident: Galveston Daily News, 11/16/1935.

  9. NEW FRONTIER AND HIDDEN AGENDA

  vital center: Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., The Vital Center: The Politics of Freedom (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1949).

  “in the air”: William Safire, Safire’s Political Dictionary (New York: Oxford University Press, 2008), 465–66.

  “tracked the trajectory”: Hoberman, 117.

  “political party”: California Voter Registry, Los Angeles City Precinct No. 1674; available at www.ancestry.com.

  Anti-Nazi League: Charles J. Maland, Chaplin and American Culture: The Evolution of a Star Image (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1991), 162.

  “the most prominent manifestation”: ibid.

  Vittorio Mussolini, Leni Riefenstahl: Corpus Christi Times, 11/30/1938; Salt Lake Tribune, 12/1/1938; Las Vegas Daily Optic, 12/2/1938; Kalispell Daily Inter-Lake, 1/7/1939.

  “a front for the Communist Party”: Larry Ceplair and Steven Englund, The Inquisition in Hollywood: Politics in the Film Community, 1930–1960 (Champaign: University of Illinois Press, 2003), 109.

  “challenging it to substantiate”: Logansport Press, 8/18/1938.

  “lack of funds”: Ceplair and Englund, 110–11.

  “‘Red’ really means”: Leslie Fiedler, An End to Innocence: Essays on Culture and Politics (Boston: Beacon, 1966 [1955]), 13.

  spies inside the U.S.government: see R. Bruce Craig, Treasonable Doubt: The Harry Dexter White Spy Case (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2004); Allen Weinstein and Alexander Vassiliev, The Haunted Wood: Soviet Espionage in America—The Stalin Era (New York: Random House, 1999); and Report of the Commission on Protecting and Reducing Government Secrecy (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1997), A-37.

  “many fine people”: Ronald Reagan, An American Life (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1999), 114.

  an FBI informant: Friedrich, 320.

  Committee for the First Amendment: John Cogley, Report on Blacklisting—I: Movies (New York: Fund for the Republic, 1956), 6.

  “The accused men”: Stefan Kanfer, A Journal of the Plague Years (New York: Atheneum, 1973), 79.

  “It was a sorry performance”: Friedrich, 326.

  “of what in the United States”: Greil Marcus, The Manchurian Candidate (London: British Film Institute, 2002), 61.

  Edward Dmytryk: Nicholas Christopher, Somewhere in the Night: Film Noir and the American City (New York: Shoemaker & Hoard, 2006), 76.

  Larry Parks: Randy Roberts and James S. Olson, John Wayne, American (New York: Free Press, 1995), 346.

  Jane Fonda will later criticize: MLSF, 67.

  become a bitter detractor: PB, 136.

  Ike from Abilene: Uniontown Evening Standard, 6/6/1952.

  a public defection: Harrisburg Daily Register, 10/13/1952.

  “Eisenhower seems to have”: Steinbeck, America and Americans, 222.

  HUAC hearings: Stephen E. Ambrose, Nixon: The Education of a Politician, 1913–1962, vol. 1 (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1988), 157–60.

  “she had spurned”: ibid., 209.

  antilynching bill: Zoe Trodd, ed., American Protest Literature (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2006), 279–80.

  Gahagan, Downey, Boddy: Ambrose, 209–10.

  symphony of smear: Herbert S. Parmet, Richard Nixon and His America (Bost
on: Little, Brown, 1990), 186.

  “Long after Watergate”: ibid.

  “Such fuckin’ lies”: PB, 136.

  “can be seen”: Feeney, 52–53.

  “If you ever saw”: ibid., 92.

  “It is the sum”: Barnard Bulletin, 10/27/1952.

  cross-country fund-raiser: Charleston Gazette, 10/7/1956; Austin Daily Herald, 10/17/1956.

  “Henry Fonda looked”: Butte Montana Standard, 10/28/1956.

  “intimately”: PB, 136.

  “is withdrawn”: Vidal, United States, 799.

  Puerto Rican houseboy: Syracuse Post-Standard, 7/31/1963.

  high campaign gear: Provo Daily Herald, 7/14/1960; Oxnard Press-Courier, 6/28/1960; Long Beach Independent, 9/17/1960; Oxnard Press-Courier, 9/30/1960; Hayward Daily Review, 10/27/1960; Florence Morning News, 11/2/1960. Fonda’s PT-109 ad is at http://www.livingroomcandidate.org/commercials/1960/henry-fonda.

  The Ed Sullivan Show: Syracuse Post-Standard, 2/11/1961.

  National Cultural Center: Alice Goldfarb Marquis, Art Lessons: Learning from the Rise and Fall of Public Arts Funding (New York: Basic Books, 1995), 55.

  the president will thank him: New York Times, 5/20/1962.

  “a registered Republican”: Sarris, Confessions of a Cultist, 52.

  Alger Hiss trial: Fiedler, An End to Innocence, 3–24; Whitfield, 27–31; Allen Weinstein, Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Trial (New York: Knopf, 1978).

  Ronald Reagan: Edward M. Yager, Ronald Reagan’s Journey: From Democrat to Republican (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield), 98.

  “There is something a bit wicked”: Andrew Sarris, “Film Fantasies, Left and Right,” Film Culture (Fall 1964): 34.

  based on Stevenson and Nixon: Burlington Daily Times-News, 10/24/1963.

  “a couple of lines”: Auburn Citizen-Advertiser, 8/30/1963.

  will likewise vanish: Marcus, 61.

  “Gentlemen, the president”: John Baxter, Stanley Kubrick: A Biography (New York: Carroll & Graf, 1997), 189–91.

  “I’m beginning to feel”: San Antonio Light, 3/19/1963.

  sitting in a dentist’s chair: FML, 284.

  The courage of life: John F. Kennedy, Profiles in Courage—50th Anniversary Edition (New York: HarperCollins, 2006 [1956], 225.

  “What makes it a ‘Western’”: Kael, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, 42.

  “Long before he even suspected”: Joseph Heller, Catch-22 (New York: Dell, 1974 [1961]), 85.

  Democratic Study Group: Julian E. Zelizer, On Capitol Hill: The Struggle to Reform Congress and Its Consequences, 1948–2000 (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2004), 104.

 

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