How to Be a Movie Star

by William J. Mann

  [>] "long flannels": LAT, October 4, 1949.

  [>] "very much the inadequate teenage Hollywood sort": Filmed interview with ET, George Stevens Collection, AMPAS.

  [>] liked the "ring" to it: Cronin, George Stevens Interviews.

  [>] the cover of Time magazine: Elizabeth's face graced the cover of the 101 22, 1949, issue. She had been slated to appear several months earlier, but when Quo Vadis, the picture in which she was set to star, was temporarily shelved, Time lost its news hook and dropped plans for the Taylor cover. Intrepid press agents, however, kept after Time, pushing Elizabeth again and again, and finally scored their coup. See Hedda Hopper's column, Hartford Courant, May 26, 1949.

  101 "The Most Exciting Girl in Hollywood": Photoplay, January 1950. This was in part a response to the criticisms from the British press, as Maxwell makes mention of it and defends Elizabeth as simply being unafraid "to act her age"—that is, like a teenager.

  [>] Principal photography began on Tuesday: Daily production log, George Stevens Collection, AMPAS.

  [>] waiting on the sidelines with a blanket: Sara supposedly complained that the exposure to the cold water affected Elizabeth's menstrual cycles, a story that is often told in the Taylor legend. Alexander Walker sourced the story to "private information" in his book Elizabeth. Although Walker is generally a reliable source, production records do not bear out his claim that Sara kept Elizabeth confined to her room for three days. The log shows that Elizabeth reported to work every day that she was called during the location shooting in Tahoe (GCS, AMPAS).

  [>] "I use the camera": Cronin, George Stevens Interviews.

  [>] she was not charmed by it; Ava Gardner was her idea of beautiful: Cosmopolitan, July 1973.

  [>] "too many freckles": Interview on Larry King Live, January 15, 2001, CNN transcripts.

  [>] "I've just got to take off ten pounds": Photoplay, September 1947.

  [>] costume budget of $6,600: Production notes, A Place in the Sun, GCS, AMPAS. Wardrobe costs for Shelley Winters were $1,655 and $1,320 for Montgomery Clift.

  [>] "with a sort of benign tyranny": NYT, April 2, 1950.

  [>] "hero worship": ET, Elizabeth Taylor.

  [>]–4 he decided that everything was all wrong: Clift was upset with the slant that Stevens was bringing to the script, which downplayed Dreiser's social criticisms and made the main character less ambitious and more sympathetic. Consequently, the factory girl (Winters) who drowns needed to be less likeable. Anne Revere, who played Clift's mother, seemed to feel that Stevens toned down the original script so that it wouldn't be branded as leftist or worse—the movie was being shot when the House Committee on Un-American Activities was attempting to expose Communists in Hollywood. Revere, soon to be blacklisted for her liberal associations, may have been overly sensitive to any perceived political changes, because Stevens was not afraid, a year later, to offer his resignation from the Directors' Guild after it proposed that its members adopt a non-Communist loyalty oath (NYT, October 29, 1950). Also see Bosworth, Montgomery Clift.

  104 "Downbeat, blubbery, irritating": Bosworth, Montgomery Clift.

  [>] "I'm not called an actor out there": Bosworth, Montgomery Clift.

  [>] Clift was moody, dark, and sultry: I have based my description of Clift's life and outlook on conversations with Jack Larson, Miles White, and Tom Mankiewicz, as well as Bosworth, Montgomery Clift, and Robert LaGuardia, Monty: A Biography of Montgomery Clift (W. H. Allen, 1977).

  [>] "pantywaist": LAT, November 21, 1949.

  [>] "Bartending": Bosworth, Montgomery Clift.

  [>] the premiere of his film The Heiress: I based my account on Bosworth, newspaper accounts, and conversations with Jack Larson and Kevin McCarthy.

  [>] "already being linked together": Russell Holman to J. H. Karp, October 27, 1949, GSC, AMPAS.

  [>] "those boy boys": Waterbury transcript, GSC, AMPAS.

  [>] "Liz did the old Garbo trick": Hedda Hopper syndicated column, as in the Hartford Courant, November 25, 1949. Hedda also cleverly let on that she knew the truth wasn't quite so simple. In the same column, she mentions Mira Rostova as Monty's "girlfriend." She knew very well that Rostova was not his girlfriend, but by using the term she indicated that she knew Elizabeth wasn't either.

  [>] So good was the publicity in 1949–1950: For a wide assortment of obviously studio-generated stories, see the articles files at NYPL.

  [>] "He was my best friend": Interview on Larry King Live, January 15, 2001, CNN transcripts.

  [>] "a loving and lasting friendship": ET, Elizabeth Takes Off. Elizabeth has also stated that she was a virgin when she married Nicky Hilton, and there's no reason to disbelieve her. So that would seem to preclude a sexual relationship with Clift.

  [>] "I was a virgin": The Advocate, October 15, 1996. In this interview, Elizabeth also claimed that she helped Monty "realize" he was gay—a statement most of his friends discount. As supportive as Elizabeth was, "Monty was already very comfortable with himself," said Jack Larson. Part of Clift's legend has him being deeply conflicted over his homosexuality. While he did indeed have some turmoil as a gay man living in the spotlight, most of his friends insist that he was not as miserable or as conflicted as he has been portrayed.

  [>] "might have suggested fancies": Waterbury transcript, GSC, AMPAS.

  [>] with Monty and Roddy McDowall at the Park Plaza: ET, Elizabeth Taylor.

  [>] "copious notes": Heymann, Liz.

  [>] "work at it": Waterbury transcript, GSC, AMPAS.

  110 "Tell Mama all": For this important moment in Elizabeth's career, I have synthesized several accounts given by the director. See the American Film Institute's Dialogue on Film (May-June 1975), as well as Cronin and Moss.

  [>] Bob Precht: Syndicated UPI story, Hartford Courant, December 12, 1949. Ironically, Precht would go on to marry Betty Sullivan, daughter of columnist Ed Sullivan and a bridesmaid at Elizabeth's wedding to Nicky Hilton.

  [>] Ralph Kiner: Hartford Courant, December 23, 1949.

  [>] "a real guy": Hedda Hopper syndicated column, as in the Hartford Courant, December 26, 1949.

  [>] Enter Conrad Nicholson Hilton, Jr.: See Thomas Ewing Dabney, The Man Who Bought the Waldorf: The Life of Conrad N. Hilton (Duell, Sloan and Pearce, 1950) and Whitney Bolton, The Silver Spade: The Conrad Hilton Story (Farrar, Straus and Young, 1954).

  [>] "He won't be annoyed": Photoplay, June 1950.

  [>] "With all this 'bride' talk": LAT, February 18, 1950.

  [>] "I wish you'd seen the wedding": Hedda Hopper syndicated column, as in the Hartford Courant, February 8, 1950.

  [>] "I won't have cold fish": Photoplay, August 1950.

  [>] "something nice": Photoplay, August 1950.

  [>] The Metro wardrobe girls pitched in: LAT, April 13, 1950.

  [>] calling the union "ideal": Hedda Hopper syndicated column, as in the Hartford Courant, April 30, 1950.

  [>] "Let's hear it for the bride": Walker, Elizabeth. Walker sources this quote to "private information."

  [>] "It's about as plunging": Los Angeles Citizen-News, May 5, 1950.

  [>]–18 "It was as the soft rays of the setting sun": Photoplay, June 1950.

  [>] "I'd prefer a gang war": Walker, Elizabeth. He does not source this.

  [>] "I think this is the best thing I've done": NYT, April 2, 1950.

  [>] "all set to give her a verbal slugging": Photoplay, August 1951.

  [>] "Nick kind of got a kick": Larry King Live, January 15, 2001, CNN transcripts.

  [>] "I was naïve": Cosmopolitan, September 1987.

  [>] "It scarred me," "Divorcing Nick": ET, Elizabeth Taylor.

  [>] "The fairy tale's over": Photoplay, May 1951.

  [>] "gambling and playing around": Los Angeles Examiner, December 8, 1950.

  [>] to stalk Elizabeth again: ET, Elizabeth Taylor.

  [>] "Here was this gorgeous damsel": Stephen M. Silverman, Dancing on the Ceiling: Stanley Donen and His Movies (Alfred A. Knopf, 1996).

&
nbsp; 123 "should be run out of town": Silverman, Dancing on the Ceiling.

  [>] "movie-minded mother," "high time": This, as well as the description of Elizabeth's apartment and the conversation she had with Hopper there, comes from Photoplay, August 1951.

  [>] "You're growing up fast": LAT, May 20, 1951.

  [>] "The surprise of the evening": Lindsay Durand to George Stevens, May 22, 1951, GSC, AMPAS.

  [>] "I sincerely believe": Irving Asher to George Stevens, May 25, 1951, GSC, AMPAS.

  [>] held at the Fine Arts Theatre: There are extensive memos, reports, and seating charts contained in the GSC, AMPAS.

  [>] "Here is a heroine": LAT, August 15, 1951.

  [>] "the top effort of her career": NYT, August 29, 1951.

  [>] "so far beyond anything she has done previously": Variety, August 17, 1951.

  4. Acting Out

  [>] "no longer take the embarrassment": Memo from Eric Stacey to Jack L. Warner, June 20, 1955, Giant production papers, JWC, USC.

  [>], [>] "explosive," "far more capable men": Memo from R. Gordon Bau to Henry Ginsberg, June 14, 1955, JWC, USC.

  [>] "I followed him around": From "George Stevens: A Filmmaker's Journey," GSC, AMPAS.

  [>] "Cut, I fucked up": Stevens told this to Alexander Walker. See Walker, Elizabeth.

  [>] "She'd had the MGM training": Memories of Giant, from the Special Edition DVD edition of Giant (2001). Other Baker quotes also come from this source.

  [>] he'd begin shouting: ET, Elizabeth Taylor.

  [>] why tempers boiled over: This is attested to in the JWC, USC. See also the various biographies of Dean, especially Val Holley, James Dean: The Biography (St. Martin's Press, 1996).

  [>] Their drinking had become legendary: See Rock Hudson and Sara Davidson, Rock Hudson: His Story (William Morrow and Company, 1986). These anecdotes were all confirmed to me by Mark Miller.

  [>] "Dearest George": ET to George Stevens, May 19, 1955, GSC, AMPAS.

  [>] "more than just glib dialogue": NYT, April 12, 1964.

  [>] "We are not royalty": Michael Wilding with Pamela Wilcox, The Wilding Way: The Story of My Life (St. Martin's Press, 1982). Various newspaper articles, NYPL and AMPAS, gave accounts of the wedding of ET and Wilding.

  134 "I just want to be with Michael": Daily Express, February 17, 1952.

  [>] "everything a doctor could have ordered": Look,, July 10, 1956.

  [>] the etiology of the Wilding marriage: This has been reconstructed by carefully reading everything that has been previously written about this period, including Elizabeth's own recollections and contemporary newspaper reports. It became very apparent that some degree of calculation was going on behind the scenes when the tone of Elizabeth's press changed considerably from the summer of 1951 to the fall as the scoldings she was frequently given were replaced once again by accolades. (This is separate from the near-unanimous critical praise for A Place in the Sun and is specific to reports on her personal life.) The decision to back out of the proposed idea for an independent company and to sign up again with MGM is also better understood when Wilding is factored into the account. The scenario as presented here—of career calculation playing a part in the Wilding marriage—fits with what was told to me by Robert Shaw, who remembered Hedda Hopper's take on it, and was deemed credible when run by such observers as Dick Clayton, Tom Mankiewicz, Henry Baron, Hank Moonjean, and Kevin McCarthy.

  [>] ring was paid for not by him: This comes from Walker, who interviewed many of those around during that period, including Anna Neagle.

  [>] Kay Young filed for divorce: See, among many sources, Los Angeles Herald-Express, November 13, 1951.

  [>] "They were married": New York Daily News, November 24, 1960.

  [>] "cornball sentimental about Benny Thau": Look,, July 24, 1956.

  [>] "fishing trip": Hollywood Citizen-News, December 12, 1951.

  [>] "I don't think you know": Hopper, The Whole Truth and Nothing But.

  [>] the idolization of Judy Garland: Wilding, The Wilding Way.

  [>] "sophisticated": Photoplay, January 1952. Of course, sophisticated often suggested "bisexual," and indeed Wilding may have enjoyed relations with both sexes. He described himself (and Stewart Granger) as "womanizers" in The Wilding Way. Yet what's apparent from reading his memoir is that his cowriter, Pamela Wilcox (the daughter of his mentor Herbert Wilcox), probably wrote most of it (the book is described "as told to"). The frequent references to Elizabeth as "Liz" don't sound like a man who was her husband for several years and who surely knew her abhorrence for the nickname. The book contains many factual errors, not least of which is saying that Hedda published her accusation in her column years before she actually did so. Given Pamela Wilcox's family connection to Wilding, she may have been attempting to whitewash his life. Wilcox also downplayed the homosexuality of the man she lived with for many years, the director Robert Hamer, in the book she wrote about him, Between Hell and Charing Cross (Allen and Unwin, 1977). For more, see Charles Drazin, The Finest Years: British Cinema of the 1940s (André Deutsch, 1998). "Womanizer" was another word often used for circumspect homosexuals, who, after all, were often escorts to glamorous women. Consider the cases outlined in my Behind the Screen: How Gays and Lesbians Shaped Hollywood (Viking, 2001) and Kate: The Woman Who Was Hepburn (Henry Holt, 2006).

  138 "Whom does he think": Hedda Hopper to Mike Cowles, Hedda Hopper Collection, AMPAS. For more, see Anthony Slide's discussion of this in Stallion, June 1986, and my Behind the Screen.

  [>] "Oh, Mikey": HCSBU.

  [>] "an oasis": ET, Elizabeth Taylor.

  [>] Hedda could be counted on: This is seen in a letter she wrote to the actor Raymond Burr, who costarred with her son on TV's Perry Mason. Confronted with evidence of Burr's homosexuality, Hedda wrote that his secret was safe with her. All he had to do was "call on the mother of Paul Drake [her son's role on Perry Mason] and I will stand up and swear anything for you." (Hedda Hopper to Raymond Burr, September 16, 1963, HHC, AMPAS.)

  [>] Wilding's career would have been ruined: Wilding himself (or his cowriter, Pamela Wilcox) alleged in The Wilding Way that Hedda published the charges about him and Granger around the time of his marriage to Elizabeth under a two-column headline with a photo of the two of them "larking about" on Granger's boat. He even has Humphrey Bogart calling him to alert him about the story. But it is not true. An exhaustive computerized check of Hedda's columns and the pages of the Los Angeles Times, as well as a thorough search of all articles collections at NYPL, USC, and AMPAS, failed to turn up any such piece. The story never appeared until Hedda's 1963 memoir The Whole Truth and Nothing But. It was only then that Wilding launched a lawsuit, not a decade earlier as some accounts imply. Stewart Granger compounded Wilding's error in an interview he gave to C. David Heymann by claiming that he wasn't part of the story until he called Hopper to tell the "frigging bitch" exactly what he thought of her. In Granger's version, Hedda inserted him into the story to retaliate. It seems as if both Wilding and Granger were doing their best to spin the stories to their advantage years later. Their distortions unfortunately made it into official accounts of Elizabeth's life, not only in Heymann's, but also in Donald Spoto, A Passion for Life: The Biography of Elizabeth Taylor (HarperCollins, 1995).

  138 "as fond of Stewart Granger": LAT, February 23, 1952.

  [>] "holding hands": HCSBU.

  [>] "like drunken sailors": Wilding, The Wilding Way.

  [>] "Walt Disney, Snow White setting": ET, Elizabeth Taylor.

  [>] "Elizabeth Taylor is an example": Hartford Courant, July 18, 1955.

  [>] "a born mother": Ladies' Home Journal, April 1954.

  [>] On July 9 a convoy of Warner Bros. trucks: Most previous accounts have reported that Elizabeth and the cast and crew spent the entire summer—or three months—in Marfa. The Giant production materials in the Jack Warner Collection, USC, disprove this. A small film crew did remain for at least another week, getting some additional location footage.

&n
bsp; [>] "guarantee Liz Taylor": LAT, September 12, 1955.

  [>] "My tastebuds get in an uproar": Look, July 24, 1956.

  [>] "He became very introspective": Interview on Larry King Live, January 15, 2001, CNN transcripts.

  [>] "It was a very liquid evening": From "George Stevens: A Filmmaker's Journey," GSC, AMPAS.

  [>] "causing acute pain": Memo dated July 15, 1955, GSC, AMPAS.

  [>] "she must have medication": Eric Stacey to J. L. Warner and Steve Trilling, July 16, 1955, JWC, USC.

  [>] a few hours for wardrobe talks: Memo from Eric Stacey to J. L. Warner and Steve Trilling, July 21, 1955, JWC, USC.

  [>] "caused by wearing very tight breeches": Report of John H. Davis, MD, to A. Morgan Maree and Associates, March 12, 1956, GSC, AMPAS.

  [>] didn't return until August 8: Memo from Eric Stacey to J. L. Warner and Steve Trilling, August 8, 1955, JWC, USC.

  [>] both of them were stung by a bee: Ladies' Home Journal, September 1990.

  [>] "If she opens a beer can": Look, July 24, 1956.

  [>] "Elizabeth Taylor might be facing blindness": unsourced, undated article, NYPL.

  [>] "I couldn't wear it": Look,, July 24, 1956.

  [>] ruptured intervertebral disc: Report of John H. Davis, MD, to A. Morgan Maree and Associates, March 12, 1956, GSC, AMPAS.

  [>] Meticorten and Demerol: Letter from Paul E. McMaster, MD, "to whom it may concern," dated September 23, 1955, GSC, AMPAS.

  [>] caused the Giant company to shoot around her: Memo from Tom Andre to Eric Stacey, August 8, 1955, GSC, AMPAS. This is also described in a memo from Eric Stacey to J. L. Warner and Steve Trilling, August 11, 1955, JWC, USC.

  [>] "If she felt well enough": Memo from Tom Andre to Eric Stacey, August 11, 1955, GSC, AMPAS.

  146 "Dr. McMasters recommended": Memo from Tom Andre to Eric Stacey, August 12, 1955, GSC, AMPAS.

  [>] "Hey, wait for me!": Look,, July 24, 1956.

  [>] "very bad headache": Memo, August 31, 1955, GSC, AMPAS.

  [>] her temperature was found to be 99.6: Memo from Tom Andre to Eric Stacey, September 26, 1955, GSC, AMPAS.

  [>] "remain in bed": Memo from Eric Stacey to J. L. Warner and Steve Trilling, September 27, 1955, JWC, USC.