A Tribute to Larry: May 22, 1907 - July 11, 1989

Today is the 25th anniversary of the passing of Sir Laurence Olivier. Many have called him the world's greatest actor. Indeed, he mesmerized theatregoers and movie audiences alike, for six decades with his stellar performances.

Whether on stage or in a movie, from breaking the rules on Romeo and Juliet, from capturing every woman's imagination as Heathcliff, to his Academy Award winning Hamlet, to alternating nights between Shaw and Shakespeare, Caesar and Antony, Laurence Olivier gave himself fully to each role and inhabited those characters he played. 

Peggy Ashcroft and Laurence Olivier in Romeo and Juliet

"Larry's Romeo was denigrated by every critic but one- St John Ervine- was proof of their blindness to the challenging and original road he was taking, and was to make his own, in the classics. Happy Days indeed!" --Peggy Ashcroft

Wuthering Heights

"But an actor was there, an actor one had never seen on the screen before. The embers took fire; light blazed; with delighted astonishment one saw a new Olivier. The role of Heathcliff might have been made for him." --Dilys Powell


Greer Garson as Elizabeth Bennett and Laurence Olivier as Mr. Darcy in Pride and Prejudice

"Good looks are not sufficient, or even great talent. Laurence Olivier has both. Tall, dark, and handsome, he is a splendid actor. But, in addition, that certain magic spark in a player's personality must have the power to bring out all the sweet yearnings of an adolescent and to make older women behave in a very silly fashion." --John Davies


While in costume for Hamlet, Olivier receives his Oscar for Henry V from fellow actor Ray Milland

"He was a brilliant runner of theatres, a brilliant man of the theatre, a brilliant impresario, a very great film director, and remains the greatest actor of his generation." --Peter Hall

Olivier with his second wife, Vivien Leigh; photo by Angus McBean

"I believe Laurence Olivier to be the greatest actor of our time."

"To have seen her [Vivien] and Larry together in their prime was to have glimpsed a kind of divinity." --Noel Coward (1974, 1967)

Olivier and Vivien Leigh as the title characters in
 Antony and Cleopatra

"There are at least three qualities which explain the Olivier phenomenon. The first, of course, is sheer talent. The next quality is sheer animal magnetism. Third, I suppose, is ambition. No question but that Larry has had colossal ambition." --Anthony Quayle

As Archie Rice in The Entertainer

"No man has graced his profession better than Larry Olivier has graced ours. He represents the ultimate in acting. He's the actor's most admired actor." -- Cary Grant 

"In an interview with the Daily Telegraph Magazine, Joan Plowright recalled one night when Ingmar Bergman and Olivier 'talked about both having ministers for fathers and what effect that had on them. A certain amount of guilt complex. And maybe this compulsive need to work. An ingrained need to work. An ingrained sense of service.'" --from Olivier by Logan Gourlay

Laurence Olivier in Marathon Man with Dustin Hoffman

"It is difficult for me to believe that he is gone- what a rich legacy he leaves behind- not only of his brilliant talents and extraordinary range of achievement, but the memory of his own vital, courageous personality, his determination and power as performer, manager, director and defier of lightning, the originality of his approach to every new and challenging venture, his physical bravery, not only on the stage but in the valiant way in which he faced his few failures and defeats, and above all his refusal to give up when he became so ill." --John Gielgud

Larry was married three times during his lifetime, all actresses: Jill Esmond (1930 to 1940), Vivien Leigh (1940 to 1960) and Joan Plowright (1961 to 1989 (his death)). He fathered four children, sadly none with Vivien, though she did suffer two miscarriages during their marriage. Olivier won multiple awards for his acting and directing, including two special Oscars.

In Hollywood, he has his own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In London, there is a life sized statue of Olivier outside the Royal National Theatre and a commemorative stone for him at Westminster Abbey. Additionally, the Laurence Olivier Awards for acting are given out annually in his name.

In Memoriam 1913 - 1967

Today marks the anniversary of the death of Vivien Leigh, who passed away at the young age of 53, from tuberculosis. She worked hard her entire life to be successful at her craft. For myself, and many others, she is the world's greatest stage and screen actress.

From the child who announced she would not sing, but recite; to the starlet who captured the world's imagination as Scarlett; to the award-winning actress who gave herself completely to each of her roles; today, we mourn the world's loss and celebrate the life Vivien lived.

Vivian Mary Hartley and her mother Gertrude Hartley

Vivien was born in India, in November 1913, to British parents. At the age of 6, she was sent to a convent school in England and only saw her parents sporadically over the next few years. It was here that Vivien made the decision to one day become a great actress.

Vivien on her wedding day to Leigh Holman

In 1932, Vivien married Leigh Holman, a barrister, at the age of 19. The following year, she gave birth to her only child, a daughter she named Suzanne. Shortly after her daughter's birth, Vivien returned to the acting world. Her breakout role came from the play, The Mask of Virtue, as the courtesan Henriette, in 1935. Her uncommon beauty combined with her mesmerizing performance turned the critics on their ears and they dubbed her the Fame In A Night girl. Film companies took note and the offers poured in for her choosing. Vivien accepted an offer from Alexander Korda's company, London Film Productions, for 50,000 GBP for five years.

The Mask of Virtue

Shortly after this, she began a torrid affair with a married actor named Laurence Olivier. This affair culminated with the two of them leaving their respective spouses in 1937, so they could move in together and live as a couple. In August 1940, after obtaining divorces, and after they each had made cinematic history (Larry as Heathcliff and Vivien as Scarlett), the two married quietly in California.

Vivien Leigh and Laurence Olivier

World War II broke out and the Oliviers, being very patriotic, returned home to England. Vivien said, I know London is not the safest place in the world right now, but it is still my home and that's where I want to be. 

Part of Vivien's war service included going on a tour with ENSA, which is the British version of the USO. In 1943, Vivien, along with several other performers, went to North Africa to visit the troops. They toured several locations and even performed for the King of England. Among her performances, she did a special recitation mocking her character Scarlett O'Hara called The Terror of Tara.

The Doctor's Dilemma

In addition to her film roles, Vivien often portrayed characters on the stage, tackling numerous plays, including a few by Shaw and Shakespeare. She said she preferred being on the stage to making movies, a sentiment shared by Olivier. When she and Olivier were asked if they had ever thought of quitting the stage, the couple replied, Often, but it's an idle dream.

Duel of Angels

Larry and Vivien remained married until 1960. After her divorce, Vivien continued to act and made her final two movies, The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone and Ship of Fools. She also went on a world tour with her companion, Jack Merivale. Marriage rumours circulated around the two, but those rumours were in vain.

Jack Merivale and Vivien, 1961

Late Friday night, on July 7, 1967, Vivien was found in her bedroom by her partner, Jack Merivale. He recalled, And I... looked in the bedroom and there she was, asleep, with Poo Jones curled up beside her. And I went into the kitchen to make myself some soup out of a tin. I had that and I went back into the bedroom, and she was lying on the floor. So I tried to wake her, with no result, and then she wasn't breathing so I tried mouth to mouth resuscitation, what I knew of it, and no result whatsoever. Then I was pretty sure she was dead." (from Hugo Vickers' biography, Vivien Leigh).Vivien had passed away, leaving this world far too soon, at the age of 53.

Vivien Leigh, 1965

Saturday night, July 8th, London's theater district went dark for an hour in tribute to this great lady.

At her memorial service, her good friend Emlyn Williams read the following lines from John Donne:

She, to whom all this world was but a stage.
Where all sat hark'ning how her youthful age
Should be employ'd, because in all she did
Some Figure of the Golden times was hid.
Who could not lack, whate'er this world could give,
Because she was the form, that made it live.


Rest in Peace, Vivien.



30 Things You May Not Know About Gone With The Wind

1. Four out of the five main cast members died in their fifites: Vivien Leigh (Scarlett) passed away at the age of 53; Clark Gable (Rhett) at 59; Leslie Howard (Ashley) at 50; and Hattie McDaniel (Mammy) at 57. Olivia de Havilland (Melanie) is still living. She currently resides in Paris, France.

Olivia de Havilland as Melanie Wilkes

2. Three directors worked on the film: George Cukor, Victor Fleming and Sam Wood. Only Victor Fleming received credit and the Oscar for Best Director.

3. The opening scene of Gone with the Wind was ultimately filmed five times. After the first time it was filmed, Selznick decided the Tarleton twins' hair was too orangey, so he had it re-shot. Then it was filmed again when Victor Fleming replaced George Cukor. Vivien Leigh looked too tired in another scene. And lastly, it was shot again, when according to Fred Crane, the etiquette expert Susan Myrick, said that no southern girl would show her bosom so early in the day, which is when they decided Vivien should wear the white, prayer dress.

Vivien Leigh as Scarlett with the Tarleton Twins, played by Fred Crane and George Reeves, in one of the deleted scenes.

4. The first scene filmed was the burning of Atlanta, which was actually the burning of other movie sets on the backlot named Forty Acres, including the King Kong set.

5. After the barbecue at Twelve Oaks, there is a scene in which all the men are gathered together discussing war. This is the only scene in the movie in which all of Scarlett's future husbands (Charles Hamilton, Frank Kennedy and Rhett Butler) appear together.

6. According to Frank Buckingham, Clark Gable would sometimes eat garlic before his kissing scenes with Vivien Leigh. Buckingham was a film technician who worked for Alexander Korda. Korda sent him to observe the making of Gone With The Wind.

Clark Gable as Rhett and Vivien Leigh as Scarlett

7. The scene in which Scarlett gives Ashley a sash for his uniform, while he's home on Christmas leave, is the last scene that George Cukor directed.

Vivien Leigh and Leslie Howard

8. Gone With The Wind is the only movie Alicia Rhett, who played India Wilkes, ever made. Originally, she read for the part of Melanie, but George Cukor didn't think she had enough acting experince to play Melanie, so he assigned her the part of India.

9. Alicia Rhett was an artist and sketched her co-stars during breaks while filming. Later in life, she painted a portrait of Alexandra Ripley, who went on to author Scarlett, the sequel to Gone With The Wind.

Alicia Rhett (India Wilkes) sketches Ann Rutherford (Carreen) while Evelyn Keyes (Suellen) looks on.

10. Vivien Leigh decided she'd be the one to play Scarlett, long before she arrived in Hollywood and auditioned. 'A curious incident was noted by film critic C.A. Lejeune, who had accompanied the cast [21 Days Together] on the last day of shooting down the Thames to Southend on a steamer. It had been raining and during the long wait between shots talk had turned to MGM's plan to make a movie of the current best-seller in America, Gone With The Wind. Someone suggested that Olivier would make the ideal Rhett Butler. "Larry won't play Rhett Butler," was Vivien's prophetic comment, "but I shall play Scarlett O'Hara, wait and see." '- Love Scene, by Jesse Lasky, Jr

11. David O. Selznick wanted Tallulah Bankhead to play Belle Watling. He also used Mae West's name in regard to the role as a publicity stunt. Selznick's final choice for Belle was Ona Munson.

Clark Gable and Ona Munson

12. Gone With The Wind marked the second time Thomas Mitchell and Barbara O'Neil (aka Mr. and Mrs. O'Hara) played a married couple. They'd previously played husband and wife in "Love, Honor and Behave."

Thomas Mitchell as Gerald O'Hara and Barbara O'Neil as Ellen O'Hara

13. Barbara O'Neil, Scarlett's mother Ellen, was only three years older than Vivien Leigh. Ms. O'Neil was born in 1910 and Vivien was born in 1913.

14. Hattie McDaniel's father, Henry, had been born into slavery and was a Civil War veteran. Hattie won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Mammy in 1940.

Hattie McDaniel as Mammy

15. Thomas Mitchell did not receive an Oscar nomination for Gone With The Wind. However, he was nominated for Stagecoach and won for Best Supporting Actor in 1940.

Oscar Night, 1940: Spencer Tracy, Vivien Leigh with her Oscar for Scarlett, Thomas Mitchell and Fay Bainter

16. Tomorrow is Another Day was one of the book's titles before being changed to Gone With The Wind.

17. The book's title, Gone With The Wind, was taken from a line in the poem Cynara, by Ernest Dowson. The poem is about obsession for a lost love.

18. Scarlett's name was originally Pansy.

19. There was serious talk from the studio about changing Vivien Leigh's name to Virginia Lee, so she'd sound more like a Southern girl instead of the British girl she was, and be more acceptable to the public.

20. Vivien Leigh went through 28 different hairdos as Scarlett O'Hara. Here are just a few examples of her hairstyles:

21. Walter Plunkett, costume designer, created over 5,000 pieces of clothing for Gone With The Wind.

22. F. Scott Fitzgerald worked on the movie's script.

23. Gone With The Wind premiered first in Atlanta, on December 15, 1939, followed by premieres in New York and Hollywood. Leslie Howard didn't attend the Atlanta premiere as he'd returned to England due to the outbreak of WWII. Hattie McDaniel wasn't allowed to attend due to segregation laws.

Vivien Leigh, Clark Gable, Margaret Mitchell, David O. Selznick and Olivia de Havilland in Atlanta

24. Vivien Leigh didn't attend the New York premiere on December 19, 1939. Instead, she and Laurence Olivier skedaddled off together for some private time.

25. When asked by a newspaperman, in 1937, how he felt about playing Ashley Wilkes, Leslie Howard looked slightly puzzled and quizzically responded, Ashley who-did-you-say? Well, -er, excuse me, but who in the deuce is he? Howard had been so busy with his production of Hamlet that he hadn't heard about Gone With The Wind or the poll that ranked him as top choice for Ashley. Howard never did read the book.

Vivien Leigh and Leslie Howard in the Paddock scene

26. Vivien Leigh, Leslie Howard and Olivia de Havilland were British. Howard was born in England; Vivien was born in India to British parents; and Olivia was born in Japan, also to British parents.

27. Margaret Mitchell won the Pulitzer Prize for Gone With the Wind.  "... [she] received news of the prize by phone, along with multiple requests for interviews. Hating publicity, she fled to a gospel concert at a small black church in Atlanta with her husband John Marsh, her publisher Harold Latham and her black housekeeper Bessie Jordan. The press scoured the city but never found her. It was a glorious night for Margaret Mitchell." -Margaret Mitchell: American Rebel

28. Special lighting was used to make Vivien Leigh's gray-green eyes appear a solid green to match the description of Scarlett's eye color.

Vivien Leigh as Scarlett O'Hara

29. After the raid on Shantytown, and the death of Frank Kennedy, Rhett brings home a "drunk" Ashley from Belle Watling's. This is the only scene the four main characters (Scarlett, Melanie, Ashley and Rhett) share.

Ashley, Melanie, Rhett and Scarlett

30. Thomas Mitchell, who played Scarlett's father Gerald, was only about nine months older than Leslie Howard, who played Scarlett's love interest Ashley. Mitchell was born in 1892 and Howard was born in 1893.


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All the World's Going to Love This Lover

Motion Picture Magazine, 1932

by Elisabeth Goldbeck

He looks a bit like Ronald Colman, which isn‘t exactly an accident— but that's where their resemblance ends. Laurence Olivier is younger, livelier and more impulsive- and he’s had all sorts of acting experience. Moreover, he’s desperately in love- and acts it on the screen. Can you think of anything that will hold him back?

Laurence Olivier up to now, has been known to movie fans chiefly as the man who looks like Ronald Colman. Great prophecies for his screen future have been made on the basis that he's a younger and livelier edition of the reticent Ronnie. He has just turned twenty-four.

Naturally, Laurence hates this kind of publicity, though he admits that on the screen there is a striking resemblance between them. This came about because Laurence played Ronald's part in Beau Geste on the London stage.

The English public had been mad about Colman in the picture version, Laurence explained, so the producer thought, in his whimsical way, that it would be well for me to look as much like him as possible. He told me to do so, and first of all to grow a mustache and cut it like Colman's.

This he did, with the aforementioned results. But it would be too bad if Laurence were to be regarded as a claimant for Colman's honors. He has too much charm and individuality and talent of his own to deserve such a fate. And, moreover, the two men are really not in the least alike— except for that general similarity which all well-bred Englishmen seem to have.

Laurence is taller, and slimmer, and more impulsive, and livelier, and not one-tenth as mysterious. His eyes are blue, instead of brown. He's happily married, and didn't have any parental opposition to his stage career, and he's gregarious and accessible. Really not at all like Ronnie— except in a great yen for England.

His Most Surprising Habit

 He has an air of complete indifference, an isn't-it-all-silly manner, as if everything he said and did were quite by accident, with no serious intent. He alternates between an attitude of patience and bursts of extravagant enthusiasm that cause him to throw himself around, gesticulate, give imitations, and then suddenly subside into his former inertia. Nothing in his conversation may seem to account for these wild changes of mien. It's as if an electrical connection were made, and after sparkling a moment, abruptly broken. He seems completely flexible in mind and body. And he has that disarming characteristic of many young Englishmen—in the very nicest way, he assumes that the world is his oyster.

Laurence has been married for a year and a half to Jill Esmond (who made her talkie debut as Ruth Chatterton's daughter in Once a Lady), and they're terribly in love. The press agents don't want the public to know of the marriage, because they're afraid the fans won't be properly thrilled when Jill and Laurence are teamed on the screen. But if the public knew how romantic they are in private, they'd be more thrilled than ever.

For instance, here's a typical episode in the life of the romantic Oliviers. They decided to go fishing at Catalina Island. Not having much money, they borrowed some from the butler. They missed the boat, and with a total capital of sixty-three dollars, they flew over to the island.

Laurence Olivier and his wife, Jill Esmond

Which Proves They're in Love

We couldn't afford the good hotel, said Laurence in one of his illuminated moments, so we stayed at a lovely little dump where we just slept— got nothing, not even a cup of tea. We couldn't afford meals, because we wanted to go deep-sea fishing the next day— and that costs money. So we caught some sand-dabs, and took them into a little restaurant and asked them to cook them for us. We just acted as if they were accustomed to do that sort of thing. The next day, we went out in a boat and I caught a marlin. It was swell. I did everything wrong, the boatman was furious with me, and I didn't deserve to catch it. In the midst of it, Jill held it while I put another reel in the camera. Later we hired a motor boat and ran into a school of porpoises, leaping about. We headed right into them and took motion pictures. That night we caught more dabs and took them in to be cooked.

After a couple of days of that, they came back to civilization, broke, sunburned, and very apologetic because the fish weighed only ninety-seven pounds. You know you have to be in love to do things like that. We had a swell time, Laurence was really flashing now, because we made our own fun. We do that wherever we go.

His Father Advised the Stage

The Oliviers met while appearing in a play together in London, where Laurence had been acting ever since he left school. He was born thirty miles from London in the English countryside, and his father was a reverend. Just an ordinary country parson, as Laurence explains. He went to public school at Oxford. And he sang in a choir in London— the same choir in which Ralph Forbes sang. All English actors started out as choir boys, it seems. Ralph, Noel Coward, Ivor Novello, Anthony Hushell, and the rest. They all gathered at Olivier's house one night recently and sang anthems and masses, which they all knew by heart— the most extraordinary Hollywood gathering you ever saw.

At his father's suggestion, strangely enough, he became an actor. He had always wanted to be one, so he worked hard, both at training school and in stock companies, around London. From then on, he always worked. He never missed a week. Consequently, young Olivier has a list of past experience that is simply appalling to the Hollywood mind, and cannot be assimilated all in one dose. It's best just to say that he has had amazingly thorough training, in every conceivable type of part, from irresponsible youth to dashing old roues. Of late, however, he has specialized in the romantic kind.

He was the original Captain Stanhope in the London production of Journey's End, and played in Noel Coward's Private Lives both in London and New York. It was during the New York run of the latter that both he and Jill received picture offers. Laurence couldn't decide offhand whether to accept RKO's proposition or not. His indecision passed for caginess, and each time he hesitated they made him a better offer, until at last, with no lawyer to guide him, he signed a contract with all sorts of desirable provisions and promises, and plenty of leeway for returning to the stage each year, if he had the urge.

His Screen Career to Date

Laurence was to have had his screen start as Pola Negri's leading man in her comeback picture, A Woman Commands. But with one thing and another, production was delayed, so he was rushed into the romantic lead of Friends and Lovers, opposite Lily Damita. And then, just when the Negri picture was ready to start, he contracted jaundice. When he bleached out, they loaned him to Fox for The Yellow Ticket, in which—perhaps because he was English— he seemed to make Elissa Landi act more natural than in any previous picture.
  

Westward Passage

And that's about all, sighed Laurence, lapsing into his patient mood, except that I think American cops are unbearably rude. It wasn't hard to rouse him, once that subject had been mentioned. It's very hard for English people to get on with a certain kind of American. It's mostly the lower classes. They seem to resent the English. These Irish cops, for instance — and all cops do seem to be Irish— hate Englishmen. If a traffic cop stops you, when he finds you're an Englishman, he becomes hard-boiled and says insulting things that he wouldn't be allowed to say in England. It must be because of our accent. They think anyone who has one is trying to be high-hat. Many Americans are annoyed because the English speak their language in a way that they can't understand. They forget that, after all, it's the English language— spoken the way it was originally spoken.

How Americans Amaze Him

Another reason some Americans resent us is because so many undesirable English people have come here and represented themselves as being typically English— very high-hat and ill-mannered poseurs, who have prejudiced everyone against us. Just as we think of the typical American as a millionaire, very crude and noisy, with a long black cigar in his mouth, and horrible manners. Some Americans have manners so much better than the English that they make me feel, 'What should I do now? How should I act?' But most English people have no conception of what a nice American is like. 

What amazes Laurence most is the casual way in which Americans are always traveling to the end of the earth and back. My home is only thirty miles from London, he said, but when my family goes up to London, they take days to prepare. They pack and fuss and stew and get as excited as if they were going around the world. The whole house is in an uproar. I wish you could have seen their faces when I first told them I was going to America. They all had a stricken look, as if I were about to be lost forever. I kept saying, 'It's only four days across, you know,' but they regarded it as a frightful journey.

And, of course, now that I'm in California, they haven't the remotest idea where I am. This is just too far for their imaginations. It's all very hazy and mythical. If I am any prophet at all, Laurence will be in the mythical land for some time to come. He is exactly the hero you pictured in a hundred English novels. You can forget about the resemblance to Ronald Colman. Young Mr. Olivier will get along on his own merits. 



 

Will Clark Gable Ever Marry Carole Lombard?

by Ford Black

Motion Picture Magazine
February 1939

One thing is sure, Clark and Carole are madly in love, but your guess is as good as Hollywood’s whether they’ll marry.
 
The odds in Hollywood, where you can get a bet from the wise guys on practically anything at all, are about fifty-fifty that IF Jane Peters ever marries The Moose, it'll be the beginning of the bust-up of the grandest, finest romance Hollywood has ever known—off or on screen…!

"You'll notice I've got that "IF" in capitals. Because the same wise guys will give you about ten to one that that "IF" never becomes "when."

You see, Jane Peters is Carole Lombard. That's her real name; Carole Lombard is just something a numerologist gave her. And The Moose is her pet name for Clark Gable, the guy she’s in love with, and vice-versa. That is, she calls him “The Moose” when she’s talking about him, with others. When she talks with him, she just calls him “Poppy.” And he calls her “Ma.”

That’s how it is with Clark and the Lombard. That’s how it’s been for more months than cynical Hollywood ever believed it possible for two people to be as deliriously, insanely, happily, head-over-heels in love with each other in movieland.

But before they can ever get married, there’s quite a bit of technicality in the way, The matter of Clark’s being divorced from or by Rhea Gable, the lady to whom he’s still married.

A great number of people, in and out of Hollywood, have been wondering when Rhea Gable will ever give Clark a divorce. You’ve probably read innumerable items and rumors in the gossip columns about it. There’s probably been more baseless twaddle written about Clark's marital status than about anybody else's in Hollywood—even Georgie Raft's.

But recently, I learned, from one of those pretty accurate and trustworthy sources, that only the other day, Rhea Gable, growing annoyed and consequently articulate about the constant reiteration of question-marks about when she'd ever divorce Clark, replied: "But he's never even asked me to!"

And that quite effectually shut up the interrogation, for the time being at least. As a matter of fact, the real low-downers of Hollywood are convinced that there'll never be a Rhea-Clark divorce. They feel, although the principals never openly discuss the matter, that Clark and Carole both feel that the situation is quite all right as it stands. Hollywood has its own table of ethics about things like this—a set of rules and taboos that are governed to a large extent by such things as publicity and the so-called "hinterland reaction." Hollywood fears, above all else, the wrath of millions of moviegoers whose moral sensibilities are assumed to be as fragile as gold-leaf, and as pure. There is justification, says that part of Hollywood which treads lightly, for an assumption that if Clark Gable should be divorced from Rhea Gable, and then leap headlong into an immediate remarriage with Carole Lombard, that the box-office status of both Gable and the Lombard would suffer a deep pain in the intake.

 

And what Hollywood can't stand at all is a drop in box-office rating.

So, since the world of movie fans apparently takes it for granted, and quite all right, too, that Clark is not in love with his wife, but is in love with Carole, the two of them seem content to let it lie at that, and why change the situation?

There has, in the past, been terrific studio pressure to "kill" all publicity linking the Lombard and Gable names. It was a policy in line with that fear of the hinterland reaction. But of late, we in Hollywood who make our living by writing about it have noticed that from the two studios concerned—Carole's Paramount and Clark's M-G-M—there has been a gradual but definite lightening of the taboo.

Both studios may just as well be—because Clark and Carole themselves aren't bothering with even a semblance of hide up! You'll see them go careening down Ventura Boulevard in that dusty station wagon of theirs, both of them togged in dirty old overalls and farm clothes, laughing like a couple of high-school sophomores. They're probably on their way back to town after an afternoon of bulldogging and steer-tossing on the San Fernando valley ranch of either of 'em —both Carole and Clark have ranches out there, and are nuts about roping cattle.

Or you'll see them at the niteries, as obviously and utterly in love with each other as a couple of newlyweds. Their birthday gag-gifts to each other are famous. As a matter of fact, Hollywood never thinks of either of them without the other. They're as inseparable as ham-and-eggs. Many a married couple of Hollywood aren't as irrevocably linked in Hollywood hostesses' minds as are the Lombard and the Gable. In Hollywood, you wouldn't think of inviting one without the other.

AND that's as it should be, if you skip Victorian conventions and get down to the real "savvy" of the situation. They ARE in love. They're grand for each other. I believe that Carole Lombard has done more, in a material and spiritual way both, for Clark Gable than all the rest of his life added up. She has certainly done more to make life worth the living for him than any of his other associations. I mean, she's brought him the real fun and joy of living —a thing that Clark, in all his previous striving and seeking, has never found before. True, he was married twice—the first time to Josephine Dillon, some years older than himself, who taught him a lot about voice control and diction and stage deportment, because that's her business. The second time (and still) to Rhea Langham, the society woman, years older than himself, again. Rhea dazzled him, and gave him a taste of how things are done in the upper tiers of social life. But she didn't bring him sheer, downright fun. Neither of those women, admirable as they are in their spheres of life, brought him the fun that fun-loving Carole Lombard did. Carole is an ex-Mack Sennett girl. She has no social aspirations, yet she is one of Hollywood's most sought after guests. She has no exalted ideas about histrionics, yet she is one of Hollywood's top box-office stars. Carole, therefore, can and does give Clark the social status Rhea gave, and the theatrical standing and help Josephine gave—but in addition, she also gives a whole-hearted comradeship and good-fellowship.

Carole is a man's girl. Clark is a man's man. He's no society butterfly; he'd rather wear dungarees or hunting-khaki than tails and an opera hat. He'd rather engage in some utterly, hilarious and often unmentionable bits of clowning, on the rabelaisian side, than take part in a la-de-da cocktail fight at Mme. de la Ritz's society soiree. And when it comes to joining him in the low-down gaggin', Carole's his girl. Just the other day, you maybe read about how she ribbed him because of the dance steps he's having to learn for his newest picture…

So shamefaced is Clark about having to learn to do pretty dance steps that he has kept the stage barred to all visitors. He's as embarrassed as a man in a lingerie shop. So what does Carole do? She gives a box to a friend of hers in the M-G-M publicity department, knowing that said friend can crash the closed doors on the Gable set.

"Give this to Clark," she says. The friend enters the strictly closed set. Clark sees him coming and smells the gag. "You blankety-blank-blank," he yells; "it's a RIB!"

It is! Clark opens the box, and finds that Carole has sent him a ballet skirt, embroidered with his own initials; and a pair of ballet slippers, pink, size 11. AND— a dozen pansies...!

I COULD tell you a lot of gags Clark played on her, too. But I won't. Because they're the downright lowdown humor kind that good fellows play on each other, and they don't take repeating. They're always clowning; always playing. Clark taught her how to shoot, and now they go skeet-shooting together, and now and then on hunting trips. She gave him two of the finest guns that could be bought—and that sort of shooting-ware costs in the high hundreds. She gives him other things. When she isn't working herself she spends much of her time on the sidelines, as Clark works. She gives him help, coaches him from her own innate sense of stagecraft. She rehearses his lines with him.

She is believed responsible, too, for a growing carefulness about the roles he plays; the pictures he works in. Clark used to play anything, do any "business" and speak any lines the studio gave him. That was all right, when he was on the upgrade and had laid his future in M-G-M's hands. But now he's a star, now it's his own care and lookout to protect the position he has attained as the No. 1 male star of the screen.

And recently, he has been decidedly careful and critical about his roles. He won't go ahead on a picture any more until he is completely satisfied with story, script, role, lines, business. He held up production on both Test Pilot and Too Hot to Handle until the scripts were revised to suit his ideas. And, insiders believe, to suit Carole's ideas of what her man should play. In fact, it's pretty generally accepted that Carole is Clark's professional mentor far and away beyond what appears on the surface.

She's doing fine for him, too. Clark is still at the top. He's drawing some $7,000 a week. He has developed a sense of humor and likability that wasn't his before Carole. True, he was always a pleasant, personable chap. But there was a hard-to-knowness about him; a shell of reserve; a lack of warmness in his contacts. Since Carole, that shell has vanished.

Nobody calls him "Mister Gable" any more. He's just "Hey, Clark!" to everybody, from the lowliest messenger-boy on the lot to Louis B., himself.

There was a time when the wise ones feared he would go Hollywood; that was at the beginning of his meteoric rise. Maybe he would have; it's tough to escape it. Hollywood thanks Carole for steering him around the menace.

True, he has his shoes made, specially, in London. True, he has the finest tailors in America cut his clothes. But that is business, isn't it? Outside of business, he puts on no "big" act. With Carole, he goes to neighborhood movies rather than snooty operas or symphonies. That ranch of his, that you read so much about—why, it's only a two-acre spot in San Fernando Valley; much smaller than many a lesser movie name boasts. And don't get excited about the screwy stories you may read of how magnificent it is. He doesn't even own it— he leases it from Rex Ingram.

He has no valet. I know a lot of $300-a week hams in Hollywood who have'em, but not Clark. He has only two servants— a cook and a housekeeper.

Reason he doesn't own his place is because (he says this himself) he wants no ties to hold him in case he ever decides to cut loose and move.

HE HAS no illusions about himself, nowadays. I remember there was a time, in the dim past, when he imagined he was a pretty fine actor. But something probably Carole, again—has knocked that out of him. Like Carole's own opinion of herself as an actress, Clark now admits he's "just lucky."

 

That goes not alone for his screen success, but for his offscreen life's livability, as well. Clark knows that it's given to few individuals to achieve the all-around happiness that is his today—an assured place in his chosen profession; a steady and big income; freedom from worries and entanglements; and a beautiful woman to love him.

He knows he's lucky; it isn't just a bit of phony modesty with him when he says "I'm just a lucky stiff!"

He knows it won't always last. He's looking forward to the time when there won't be seven grand a week in the pay envelope. He's being frugal, without being miserly. He doesn't put on any costly "dog."

He lives economically; doesn't throw his money around. Banks what he can of it, after the government takes it share. When the time comes, as it inevitably will, for him to abdicate his screen throne, he'll have a nice sockful of living-money.

He thinks he'll maybe do directing, or script writing, when that time comes. Or he may just retire. His idea of heaven on earth would be to have enough money to live comfortably and quietly—go hunting often—travel a bit—and have fun.

Preferably with Jane Peters.

Who Are They?

Jack Holland
Motion Picture Magazine
January, 1941

 

EVERYONE who attends the flickers each week is pretty sure he knows all about the stars who flash across the scene, yet some of their best known characteristics are mysteries to many. Hence, the game of—Who Are They? 

 

The idea is simply to put a well-known star in a short scene, describing something relating to him as a person or as an actor. Then it's your job to guess who the character is.

 

All right—let's go. Let's see how well you know your movies!

1. A suave gentleman sits flippantly drinking cocktails and playing the detective in the game of "Murder." Who is he?

 

2. A young chap sits at his drums and gives out with a snappy swing solo while his mother accompanies him on the piano. Who is he?

 

3. A sophisticated lady turns to a gentleman beside her and says, "Why shouldn't I play this part? I don't care if it's a mother role. Why, I'd play Wally Beery's grandmother if it were a good part!" Who is she?

 

4. A young man with traces of a once adorning beard is haunting a Hollywood night club with a dark, exotic beauty on his arm. He turns to her and says, "Really, I'm too busy to be a husband." Who is he?

5. A charming lady who's not as old as people think she is waits patiently at home while her husband of a few years slaves for hours as an assistant cutter at M-G-M. Who is she?

6. A former great tragedienne of the screen laughs heartily as she imbibes glasses of champagne in a comedy. In private life she takes carrot juice on the advice of her escort. Who is she?

7. An intense actress does not deny that she is still unhappy because of her recent divorce from her former orchestra leader and agent husband. Who is she?

8. A prominent blond singer-actress returns home from work one day only to see her new house burned to the ground. Later she sees her marriage go up in smoke. Who is she?

9. A comely brunette looks at herself in the mirror and says, "I do look like Hedy Lamarr at that!" Who is she?

10. A rather thin but romantic looking man went on a ski trip, jumped the wrong way, and came back with a cut knee and a loss of athletic ambition. Who is he?

11. A former blonde who is now "natural" puts away a pair of dancing shoes and sits down to read "How To Be a Dramatic Actress." Who is she?

12. A plump individual writes out a nice sized check addressed to the Income Tax Department. In his budget he puts down the size of the check and adds a note, "Price of return to the United States." Who is he?

13. A short man who chews cigars and leers like gangsters and who recently discovered a scientific cure for a social disease in a recent picture, tries to find a vacant space on his walls at home for a newly purchased painting. Who is he?

14. A brash young man sits writing a book, the title being "The 1940 Version of Casanova." Who is he?

15. A stalwart man passes a theater where a picture of his is showing and says to himself, "I wish I'd never taken that woman." Who is he?

16. A portly man sits in a barber shop reading a book called "Lorenzo Goes to Hollywood." Who is he?

17. A pert little blonde throws a picture script aside but doesn't listen any more to the swing recordings of her ex-husband. Who is she?

18. A sultry brunette puts a pin in a flowery and sketchy garment and says, "I wish this thing would wear out." Who is she?

19. A handsome man sits reading a travel book while his dog, Arno, gazes suspiciously at him on the floor. Who is he?

20. A singer spends his evenings teaching his twins to vocalize while they, intermittently, ask him if his nag has come in yet. Who is he?

21. A beautiful brunette sends a wedding present to her newly married young sister and then wonders why she hasn't married yet. Who is she?

22. A petite girl divorces her husband to marry the man whose wife divorced him so he could marry the petite girl. Who is she?

23. A long, lanky gentleman says, "At last I know who John Doe is." Who is he?

24. A red-headed girl pens a letter to the collegiates at Harvard and says, "You're not so hot either!" Who is she?

25. An exotic blonde motions to a friend, then exclaims, "My legs are tired. Will you please see what the boys in the back room will have?" Who is she?

26. A wavy-haired and handsome young man looks at himself in the mirror and says, "These dimples burn me up!" Who is he?

27. A tall, dark, and handsome man sits looking at the ocean and wonders why brooks used to intrigue him so much more than the sea. Who is he?

28. A fellow pulls out a saxophone from his trunk, blows a few dulcet tones, reminisces a bit, and then decides he'd still prefer eating pop corn with Claudette Colbert on a bench. Who is he?

29. A pert little woman says to a reporter, "My husband does all the talking for me, thank you!" Who is she?

30. A personable and fleet-footed gentleman sits surrounded by music manuscripts, tears his hair, and says, "If I could only write just one hit tune I'd be so happy!" Who is he?

31. A handsome man buys a ticket on a liner and asks, "Do all state-rooms come equipped with girls under the bed?" Who is he?

32. A reddish-haired and rather quiet gentleman putters in his garden at home and wonders if Martha still has her vineyard. Who is he?

33. A cultured and refined gentleman looks at the charming lady beside him and says to her, "There's nothing like hume." Who is he?

34. A husky man guides his tractor over his ranch and gazes admiringly at his blonde wife who has learned that nothing is sacred. Who is he?

35. A delightful and intriguing lady falls in a mud puddle and says, "Oh well, let the chips fall where they may." Who is she?



 

STOP! 

 

Answers are posted below this photo!

 

 

 

Answers to—Who Are They?

1. William Powell
2. Jackie Cooper
3. Joan Crawford
4. Orson Welles
5. Mary Astor
6. Greta Garbo
7. Bette Davis
8. Alice Faye
9. Joan Bennett
10. Tyrone Power
11. Ginger Rogers
12. Charles Laughton
13. Edward G. Robinson
14. Mickey Rooney
15. Spencer Tracy
16. Edward Arnold
17. Lana Turner
18. Dorothy Lamour
19. Errol Flynn
20. Bing Crosby
21. Margaret Lindsay
22. Vivien Leigh
23. Gary Cooper
24. Ann Sheridan
25. Marlene Dietrich
26. Richard Greene
27. Cary Grant
28. Fred MacMurray
29. Jean Arthur
30. Fred Astaire
31. Robert Taylor
32. James Cagney
33. Ronald Colman
34. Clark Gable
35. Greer Garson

 

 

Incredible Selznick

INCREDIBLE SELZNICK
Hollywood, January 1938
by Lupton A. Wilkinson

The only logical answer to David O. Selznick's career is, "It's a lie!" True, he started young, as well as broke and under dramatic circumstances. Yet he had to take time to batter his way into the consciousness of Show-me Town, which for two years let him knock on doors and sent out word, "Go and get a reputation." Then, when the portals opened, he broke a world's record for getting fired fast; bounced back and (it's on the records, Mr. Ripley!) forced himself into attention as a producer of Westerns.

Here are a very few examples of what his remarkable genius for production and casting has given to Hollywood, a town long since cured of being skeptical concerning Lewis J. Selznick's son. These are reasons why moviedom says "Sir" to "the man with the medals": Brought Katharine Hepburn to Hollywood; produced A Bill of Divorcement, which made her a star. Prepared production plans for Little Women, and cast Hepburn in that. Launched William Powell in a career of stardom, in Street of Chance. Produced Sarah and Son, Ruth Chatterton's best, and Honey, Nancy Carroll's best. Recognized Fred Astaire's screen possibilities, opened the negotiations which brought him to Hollywood; produced Fred's first picture, Dancing Lady. Introduced Leslie Howard to the screen; co-starred him with Myrna Loy in The Animal Kingdom; bought the story, Of Human Bondage, that was to lift Howard (and Bette Davis) to cinema heights. Discovered Freddie Bartholomew in a world search for David Copperfield. Produced a long string of Box-office Champions for M-G-M, including Night Flight, Viva Villa and A Tale of Two Cities. Snatched Janet Gaynor from virtual retirement and startled the world with her in A Star is Born. Smashed long-standing admission records with A Prisoner of Zenda. Searched every state in the union and, from 25,000 applicants, selected an Irish-American boy, Tommy Kelly, from the East Bronx, New York City, who will be the nation's Christmas present in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Bought Gone With the Wind from the proof sheets, before the book's sale started.

David O. Selznick

What's the use? The rest is mostly a list of hits. The long trail started at a place as busy as Hollywood — the corner of Forty-Second street and Broadway, New York. It was a sad place for that particular eighteen-year-old boy to stand. Right, left and before him he could see new signs where two years earlier the seven biggest, brightest signs in the area had blinked and heralded: LEWIS J. SELZNICK.

The elder Selznick had been the kingpin of the movie business. Over-expansion and one of those sudden slumps in audience attendance (plus the bankers, those jolly fellows) had crashed the Selznick company. Creditors had received home, fine furnishings, automobiles. Lewis Selznick, under that strain had died.

David stood on that busy corner with just one dollar to his name—a dollar and the offer of a job clerking. From earliest school days the boy had studied showmanship at his father's knee. Now he made up his mind. Some day there'd be another Selznick company, not only national but international. David spent that dollar in a barber shop and went to see a man who might still listen to a Selznick talk showmanship. A two thousand dollar loan was the result and two of the quickest quickies ever made. One starred Luis Angel Firpo, the prizefighter, and was called Will He Beat Dempsey? It was made in one day, on a Manhattan roof. The second was the result of neat ingenuity. David persuaded Rudolph Valentino to review a beauty parade. He photographed the contest(and Valentino) from every possible angle. Both pictures made money; David went to Hollywood.

There followed two bitter years on Poverty Row, and plenty of trudging, before Metro gave a chance to this youngster who insisted he was a movie producer. The first day on Metro's lot found young David in an argument with an associate producer. M-G-M had bought a book. The associate producer thought the plot ought to be changed. David thought the plot ought to be followed—he still tries to keep his pictures true to their author's stories.

"I guess I was impudent," Selznick admits. He was fired. The boy asked for two weeks' grace. In that two weeks he bombarded executives with ideas until they agreed: "We'll have to put this fellow to work, or he'll run us crazy."

They put him to work, as assistant story editor. He never let them forget he was really a producer, and finally he drew the Tim McCoy Westerns as his particular charge. He cut costs, turned out popular pictures; Paramount offered him his chance at serious drama. The rise at Paramount; equal success as production head at RKO; marriage, after his success was made, to Louis B. Mayer's daughter; the time when all the studios bid for his services and Metro bid the highest; those years of happiness and accomplishment comprise vital motion picture history. One of the noteworthy things about Selznick is that he rates audience intelligence far above what many wiseacres and wise-crackers contend is the fact; further, he believes that human nature reacts to true emotion more promptly than to cynicism or "smartiness." Before A Star Is Born was completed he talked with me about why he had faith in that picture. "The only film concerning Hollywood that ever made money," he said, was What Price Hollywood? The reason was that it played the town "straight" instead of gagging it. Hollywood is a community of real drama —struggle, triumph, disappointment, folly and sacrifice—more thrilling than most stories on the screen. The public would rather have that genuine drama than the smart cracks of writers who think themselves sophisticates."

At Metro, the young producer became "the man with the medals," winning almost every important award offered, nationally and internationally, for fine pictures. He left that studio because of that old, never-forgotten dream, conceived on Forty-second street and Broadway— to put the name Selznick at the masthead of a world-famous motion picture company. John Hay Whitney and others offered him backing. What a result! Four Selznick International pictures, playing the Music Hall in New York, grossed a total of $1,024,000 in that one theatre alone. The pictures were Little Lord Fauntleroy, The Garden of Allah, A Star is Born and A Prisoner of Zenda. If you really love B pictures, you will never be a Selznick fan. He can't see the idea of making one big one and selling four skimpy ones on the reputation of the smash. He thinks that what you want is none but the best, and that none but the best is good enough for you. His name will never be associated with anything except the $1,000,000 stab or the $2,000,000 stab at the finest possibilities of the screen. I've an idea he'll go to his grave as A-picture Selznick.