How to Be a Movie Star

by William J. Mann

  [>] "losing her breakfast": Memo dated October 4, 1955, GSC, AMPAS.

  [>] distress over Dean's death: "We felt she was upset over James Dean's death," reads a memo found in the GSC dated October 4, 1955.

  [>] she'd sustained some serious damage: Memo dated October 3, 1955, GSC, AMPAS.

  [>] "more ill than she had ever been": Memo dated October 3, 1955, GSC, AMPAS.

  [>] MGM agreeing to release Warners: Memo from Hoyt Bowers to Henry Ginsberg, October 3, 1955, JWC, USC.

  [>] "exploratory operations," "to finish the picture": Memo from Tom Andre to Eric Stacey, October 3, 1955, GSC, AMPAS.

  [>] "following completion of the picture": Memo from Tom Andre to Eric Stacey, October 4, 1955, GSC, AMPAS.

  [>] "the extreme mental duress": Report of John H. Davis, MD, to A. Morgan Maree and Associates, March 12, 1956, GSC, AMPAS.

  [>] the primary diagnosis was volvulus: These were written up in a letter sent to Stevens, found in the GSC. It's important to remember, especially with the very unusual volvulus diagnosis, that Elizabeth was trying to insist that her illnesses were work-related for insurance purposes, hence the blame being put on Stevens.

  [>] "obstruction in her intestine": Memo from Tom Andre to Eric Stacey, October 5, 1955, GSC, AMPAS.

  [>] "he saw no reason": Memo from Tom Andre to Eric Stacey, October 8, 1955, GSC, AMPAS.

  [>] "the Taylor situation": Memo from Eric Stacey to J. L. Warner and Steve Trilling, October 7, 1955, JWC, USC.

  [>] "she had been a very sick girl": Memo from Tom Andre to Eric Stacey, October 8, 1955, GSC, AMPAS.

  [>] "Then why do I feel this terrible pain?": Look, July 24, 1956.

  [>] totaled $44,309.40: Letter from Charles Mackie, certified public accountant, to the Fireman's Fund Insurance Company, December 26, 1955, GSC, AMPAS.

  [>] "and she's forgotten all about illness": LAT, November 11, 1955.

  149 rated as a "good" risk: Insurance folder, Giant, memo dated May 13, 1955, GSC, AMPAS.

  [>] Strip City: Various sources allowed me to describe this long-running, popular club, including ads in the Los Angeles Mirror and online interviews with jazz patrons. The NYT noted on July 13, 1960, that many delegates to the Democratic National Convention, held that year in Los Angeles, visited Strip City. See also Roy Porter and David Keller, There and Back: The Roy Porter Story (Continuum Publishing, 1991) and Rachel Shteir, Striptease: The Untold History of the Girlie Show (Oxford University Press, 2005).

  [>] Jennie Lee: LAT, July 19, 26, August 23, 1955; May 31, 1956; April 30, 1957; Adam magazine, Vol. 1, No. 11, 1957; San Bernadino Sun, July 8, 2007. Her fame would be immortalized in the debut single of the pop duo Jan and Dean, aptly called "Jennie Lee."

  [>] "fond of his Scotch": Beverly Hills [213] magazine, January 11, 2006.

  [>] "strip movie": Confidential, November, 1955.

  [>] Robert Harrison: I based my account of Harrison and Confidential on various sources, including Harold Conrad, Dear Muffo: 35 Years in the Fast Lane (Stein and Day, 1982); American Film, February 1990; Sam Kashner and Jennifer MacNair, The Bad and the Beautiful: Hollywood in the Fifties (W. W. Norton, 2002); Robert Hofler, The Man Who Invented Rock Hudson: The Pretty Boys and Dirty Deals of Henry Willson (Carroll & Graf, 2005); and Samuel Bernstein, Mr. Confidential: The Man, His Magazine and the Movieland Massacre That Changed Hollywood Forever (Walford Press, 2006).

  [>] "The progressive coming of age": Memo prepared for Dorothy Manners, Giant Collection, Warner Bros. Archives, USC.

  [>] "What Confidential proved": Ezra Goodman, The Fifty Year Decline and Fall of Hollywood (Macfadden Books, 1962).

  [>] "to flipping over": American Film, February 1990.

  [>] "A neighbor of Liz Taylor": LAT, September 21, 1955.

  [>] "Whether it's true or not": Look, July 24, 1956.

  [>] "brother and sister": ET, Elizabeth Taylor. She also made this comment to Larry King in an interview on CNN that aired February 3, 2003.

  [>] "typical row": Wilding, The Wilding Way.

  [>] "It does something to a man": Interview on Larry King Live, February 3, 2003, CNN transcripts.

  [>] she and Mature carried on an affair: Fisher, Been There, Done That. There may also have been an affair with Frank Sinatra; Fisher would report that Elizabeth told him that she'd gotten pregnant by Sinatra and had an abortion. Elizabeth has denied the story.

  156 WHEN MIKE WILDING CAUGHT: Confidential, July 1956.

  [>] about actress Kim Novak: This is based on revelations from the Confidential trial in Los Angeles. See Bernstein, Mr. Confidential.

  [>] months earlier than has ever been reported: Hank Moonjean believed that Todd may have even been present at Elizabeth's house the night of Montgomery Clift's accident in May 1956. Moonjean, who was not present, claimed that Elizabeth told him Todd paid the ambulance driver. However, there are no other reports of Todd being present that night; Kevin McCarthy, who was there, insisted Todd was not present.

  [>] "the beautiful wife": unsourced fan magazine, August 1956, NYPL.

  [>] all-night romp through Paris: Look,, July 24, 1956.

  [>] Sammy was having an affair with Ava Gardner: Kashner and MacNair, The Bad and the Beautiful.

  [>] "I know how to pose for a picture": The quote comes from J. Randy Taraborrelli, Elizabeth (Warner Books, 2006), although specific original attribution is not given.

  [>] "I feared it": Wilding, The Wilding Way.

  [>] "restless to be back": Photoplay, January 1957.

  [>] Kevin McClory and Elizabeth Taylor: Information comes from interviews with Shirley MacLaine and Susan McCarthy Todd, as well as Michael Todd Jr. and Susan McCarthy Todd, A Valuable Property: The Life Story of Michael Todd (Arbor House, 1983).

  [>] "who kept the factory humming": Basinger, The Star Machine.

  [>] "swathed in a turquoise blue robe": Shirley MacLaine, You Can Get There from Here (W. W. Norton, 1975).

  [>] not counting the cost of extras: Memo from Joe Finn to J. J. Cohn, July 5, 1956, Raintree County file, MGM Collection, USC.

  [>]–65 "soap opera with elephantitis": Bosworth, Montgomery Clift.

  [>] Father George Long: Bosworth wrote about the priest who said "fuck," but did not name him. Kevin McClory admitted to Mike Todd Jr. that Long covered for his affair with Elizabeth. See Mike Todd Jr. and Susan McCarthy Todd, A Valuable Property. Eddie Fisher also wrote of a priest who was having an affair with Monty Clift (Fisher, Been There, Done That).

  [>]–66 "cork-twister": ET, Elizabeth Taylor.

  [>] a serious car accident: I have based my account on interviews with Kevin McCarthy and Jack Larson. I also attempted to reconcile various accounts given by Elizabeth in several different tellings of the story. Also see Bosworth, Montgomery Clift.

  [>] "accordion-pleated mess," "Adrenaline does something": Interview on Larry King Live, January 15, 2001, CNN transcripts.

  [>], [>] "All my revulsion," "It would come up": ET, Elizabeth Taylor.

  168 for Moby Dick at Mocambo: Photoplay, January 1957.

  [>] cautioning McClory against being seen with Elizabeth: My descriptions are based on conversations with Susan McCarthy Todd, Shirley MacLaine, and Henry Baron, as well as Todd, A Valuable Property.

  [>]–69 "I've never really been": LAT, October 31, 1956.

  [>] "It must have set him": Todd, A Valuable Property.

  [>] Giant premiere: Notes in Giant file, JWC, USC.

  [>] "She got hold of that": Waterbury transcript, GSC, AMPAS.

  [>] "a new artistry": Motion Picture Herald, October 11, 1956.

  [>] "a woman of spirit": NYT, October 11, 1956.

  [>] "Miss Taylor, whose talent": Variety, October 10, 1956.

  [>] launched a campaign: Giant promotional files, JWC, USC.

  5. Over the Top

  [>]–73 Dick jetted from Hollywood to New York: Pan Am passenger lists, August 16, 1955; September 13, 1955; various newspaper articles.

  [>] "the hottest man in show bu
siness": Vincent X. Flaherty's column, Los Angeles Examiner, February 5, 1957.

  [>] "Imagine, a duchess on a bus": Associated Press wire reports; see, for example, Hartford Courant, July 3, 1957.

  [>] "An openhanded sort": Time, July 15, 1957.

  [>] "My wife is pregnant": This story has been reported in several different ways. Todd's defense of Elizabeth was used as an example of his quick temper in various articles and columns. In some versions, it's Todd who says that the world isn't ready for another one of him. But this seems to be the most accurate account. See, for example, Time, July 15, 1957.

  [>] "There must be $10,000": This comes from Walker, Elizabeth, sourced to "private information."

  [>] "Call the American Embassy": LAT, July 5, 1957. Also see various Associated Press reports, Mike Todd Collection, NYPL.

  [>] "He was sort of the top": Katharine Hepburn, Me: Stories of My Life (Alfred A. Knopf, 1991). For more on the Hepburn-Hughes relationship see my Kate: The Woman Who Was Hepburn.

  [>] "Mike and I hope": Screen Album, August 1957.

  [>] "I've been an actress": LAT, March 16, 1958.

  [>] South Pacific: LAT, October 31, 1956.

  [>] the Todds had bantered with reporters: Photoplay, March 1958; various articles, NYPL.

  [>] "I love him madly,": Motion Picture, July 1957.

  178–79 "There's no such thing": LAT, January 5, 1957.

  [>] "Thirty carats": Todd, A Valuable Property.

  [>] the glove was left behind: Bosworth, Montgomery Clift.

  [>], [>] "pacing through the rooms," "For the first time in weeks": Modern Screen, [nd] 1957, part of the Constance McCormick Collection, USC.

  [>] "Hollywood is in the business of lying": Confidential, September 1957.

  [>]–81 "a marriage of equals": New York Mirror, March 9, 1961.

  [>] "They go off": Walker, Elizabeth. Apparently this comment was made directly to Walker by Todd.

  [>] "Glamour dames": New York Daily News, November 24, 1960.

  [>] "It's nice to be married": quoted in Cy Rice, Cleopatra in Mink (Paperback Library, 1962), no original source given.

  [>] "I loved it when": ET, Elizabeth Taylor.

  [>] "I don't profess": New York Mirror, March 9, 1961.

  [>] Todd carried her up to the balcony: LAT, February 4, 1957.

  [>] reported to have cost $80,000: New York Daily News, November 24, 1960. See also Elizabeth Taylor, My Love Affair with Jewelry (Simon & Schuster, 2003).

  [>] "Life in Europe": LAT, June 13, 1957.

  [>] "scattering Yankee dollars": Photoplay, October 1957.

  [>] missed their flight to Nice: This was covered extensively, as the various articles in the Elizabeth Taylor file at NYPL show. See, for example, LAT, June 22, 1957, and the Hartford Courant, June 23, 1957.

  [>]–84 "There's no doubt": ET, Elizabeth Taylor.

  [>] "Sure Mike and I fight": New York Post, July 3, 1957.

  [>] "[Mike] really hit her": Debbie Reynolds with David Patrick Columbia, Debbie: My Life (William Morrow & Co., 1988).

  [>] "just horsing around": Photoplay, March 1958.

  [>] "We scream at each other": New York Daily News, July 11, 1957.

  [>]–85 "Elizabeth's beautiful mouth": James Bacon, Hollywood Is a Four Letter Town (Avon Books, 1977).

  [>] "She told me I was wonderful": Daily Express, September 7, 1956.

  [>] "No deep-breathing declarations": New York Mirror, March 9, 1961.

  [>] "My choice is both of them": Photoplay, March 1958.

  [>] "Talk about dull days": Hedda Hopper to Mike Todd, May 27, 1957, HHC.

  [>] "Dad felt that the films": Interview with Mike Todd Jr. by Roy Frumkes, former editor of Films in Review (hereafter Frumkes interview). The interview was originally intended for that magazine but was never published because Films in Review folded. It has since been published online at www.in70mm.com.

  187 "Mike thought food": Interview with Glenda Jensen, www.in70mm.com.

  [>] "By the time most movies": Todd, A Valuable Property.

  [>] "I burned up four girls": Todd, A Valuable Property.

  [>] publicity wizard Bill Doll: Bill Doll clipping collection, NYPL; NYT, May 9, 1943, and March 3, 1979.

  [>] Call Me Ziggy: NYT, February 15, 1937.

  [>] "so it must be the producer": Letter from Mike Todd to cast and crew of January Thaw, dated March 9, 1946, William and Audrey Roos Collection, Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center, Boston University.

  [>] a declaration of bankruptcy: The American Weekly, January 28, 1951, a copy of which is in Todd's FBI file.

  [>] "the fact that few books": FBI file on Michael Todd, file number 49–3518, December 5, 1950.

  [>] "No specific assets": FBI file number 49–3518, August 27, 1951.

  [>] "he'd kept his mouth shut": Frumkes interview.

  [>] "showmanship and excitement": NYT, March 23, 1958.

  [>] "standing room only": Hedda Hopper to Michael Todd, May 27, 1957, HHC.

  [>] "This is for us": Hartford Courant, July 11, 1957.

  [>] "renting Spain": Photoplay, March 1958.

  [>] Mike Todd liked things his way: I based my account on conversations with Susan McCarthy Todd, Miles White, Mark Miller, Dick Clayton, and others. Also see Todd, A Valuable Property and Art Cohn, The Nine Lives of Michael Todd (Random House, 1958).

  [>] "Dad's attitude was": Frumkes interview.

  [>] "very much a part": Interview with Glenda Jensen, www.in70mm.com.

  [>] "He'd have ten different ideas": ET, Elizabeth Taylor.

  [>] "Those guys were nuts": Interview with Shirley Herz by the Association of Theatrical Press Agents and Managers, 2000, at www.atpam.com (hereafter Herz interview).

  [>] "become his own brand": Unsourced article, possibly Variety, [nd] 1957, Mike Todd file, NYPL.

  [>] "needless extravagance": Todd, A Valuable Property.

  [>] "roughed it": Photoplay, March 1958.

  [>] "I've often been broke": This line of Todd's was printed many times, including in several of his obituaries. It is also found in his FBI file.

  [>] "brashness and cunning": Brooks Atkinson's observations were contained in a review he wrote of Art Cohn's biography of Todd, NYT, October 26, 1958.

  [>] "I'm spending all my time": LAT, July 28, 1957.

  [>] The baby was due: Hartford Courant, July 29, 1957.

  198 "would go the full nine months": LAT, August 12, 1957.

  [>]–99 Enter Kurt Frings: U.S. Ship Passenger Lists, August 30, 1933; October 21, 1933; April 24, 1934; January 31, 1936. Mexico-U.S. Border Crossings, May 24, 1939. Also interviews with Dick Clayton, Hank Moonjean, and Mark Miller. Also transcript of interview between Hedda Hopper and Ketti Frings, February 19, 1963, HHC.

  [>] "A notorious international character": H. J. Anslinger, Commissioner of Narcotics, to Kenneth Clark of the Motion Picture Producers and Directors Association, October 11, 1940, Production Code Administration Collection, AMPAS.

  [>] Cukor would eventually terminate: Kurt Frings file, George Cukor Collection, AMPAS.

  [>] Cronyn was peeved: A 1952 holiday greeting card addressed to "Mr. and Mrs. Hume Croninger" had prompted a stinging rebuke. "I don't mind having my name spelled with an 'I,' or even a 'K,' but I draw the line at the enclosed. This, coming on top of such a long silence, adds insult to injury." Hume Cronyn to Kurt Frings, December 29, 1952, Hume Cronyn Collection, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress.

  [>] "For Christ's sake": Walker, Elizabeth, from the author's interview with Brooks.

  [>] Cukor's idea had been: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof file in Cukor Collection, AMPAS; see also Patrick McGilligan, George Cukor: A Double Life (HarperPerennial, 1991).

  [>] the film's premiere at the Strand Theatre: Hartford Courant, July 1–31, 1957.

  [>] a Renoir, a Pissarro, and a Monet: LAT, September 28, 1957.

  [>] "Private Little Party": See various articles, invitations, program books, menus, and other memorabilia in the Mik
e Todd Collection, NYPL. Some specific newspaper accounts were: Hartford Courant, October 13, 17, 21, 1957 (Associated Press reports); NYT, October 13, 18, 1957; Variety, October 23, 1957. Also see Frumkes interview with Mike Todd Jr.

  [>] invite 1,000 wonderful people: George Stevens received an invitation and (luckily for us) never sent back his reply, keeping the whole package in his files. GSC, AMPAS.

  [>] "Dad [became] the unexpected": Frumkes interview.

  [>]–7 she'd told Hubert Humphrey: Todd, A Valuable Property.

  [>] "make him president": New York Post, August 29, 1968.

  [>] "Off! Off!": Todd, A Valuable Property.

  [>] "openly and boldly hijacked": Variety, October 23, 1957.

  [>] "My God, the sight": ET, Elizabeth Taylor.

  [>] "All hell's breaking loose": Todd, A Valuable Property.

  208 "[Mike Todd] gave the public bread crumbs": New York Daily News, October 18, 1957.

  [>] "New York fiddling": New York Herald Tribune, October 18, 1957.

  [>] "It looked on the whole like a bad circus parade": Hartford Courant, October 21, 1957.

  [>] "It was just to poke a little fun": Frumkes interview.

  [>] In Moscow Elizabeth was: Various newspaper accounts, Elizabeth Taylor and Mike Todd files, NYPL, including NYT, January 26, 1958; Hartford Courant, January 16, 1958; Daily Mirror, January 28, 1958; Daily Mail, January 18, 1958.

  [>] "the only place in the world": Daily Mirror, January 28, 1958.

  [>] "People were staring at me": Todd, A Valuable Property.

  [>] "For some persons, the film star": NYT, January 26, 1958.

  [>] "I would be a phony": Associated Press report; for example, Hartford Courant, November 11, 1957.

  [>] "canceling the rest of their world tour": NYT, November 19, 1957.

  [>] "Come on, Liz, get out.": LAT, November 27, 1957.

  [>] "This will be her last time": Associated Press report; for example, Hartford Courant, December 23, 1957.

  [>] "purely a vacation": LAT, November 27, 1957.

  [>] "bring the people": Todd, A Valuable Property.

  [>] "association by Michael Todd": Memo from J. Edgar Hoover, Mike Todd FBI file, dated April 13, 1956.

  [>] "no subversive info": Mike Todd FBI file, memo dated April 6, 1956.