James Curtis
Page 122
20 “Mr. Tracy’s performance”: New York Times, 4/18/31.
21 brutally bad: The week’s figures for Quick Millions are from Variety, 4/22 and 4/29/31.
22 flat rate: Details of the Hughes loan-out are from Tracy’s Legal Department file (FOX).
23 Armory in Culver City: The shooting schedule for Ground Hogs is in the Jack Mintz Collection (AFI). Mintz was unit manager on the picture.
24 “take three steps”: Ridgeway Callow Oral History with Rudy Behlmer, 1974 (AFI).
25 “It had always been there”: Interview with Ardmore, 7/5/72.
26 “shy side”: Ardmore, “Tracy,” n.d.
27 “seen a few rushes”: S. R. Mook, “Spencer Tracy as I Know Him,” Screen Book, March 1938.
28 “drink the least little bit”: Interview with Ardmore, 7/5/72.
29 “direct imitation”: Variety, 6/30/31.
30 undeniable losers: Quick Millions posted a loss of just under $3,000 on worldwide rentals of $278,000. Figures for both Quick Millions and Six Cylinder Love are from the research library of Karl Thiede.
31 “most marvelous picture”: Ruth Biery, “Worry! Who—Me? Say!” Photoplay, December 1932.
32 twelve drafts: The writing of She Wanted a Millionaire is documented in the Fox script files at USC and UCLA.
33 “rather private person”: Joan Bennett (and Lois Kibbee), The Bennett Playbill (New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1970), p. 216.
34 lose weight: Variety, 8/11/31.
35 “YOU HAVE LOST”: Jane Feely Desmond to the author, via telephone, 2/23/04.
CHAPTER 8 THE POWER AND THE GLORY
1 “wild, attractive Irishman”: Bennett, The Bennett Playbill, p. 209.
2 “Having an affair”: Rumors of Tracy’s involvement with Joan Bennett and John Considine’s jealousy are discussed by Ruth Biery in “Worry! Who—Me? Say!” although Biery says all this was going on while Tracy was still addressing the actress as “Miss Bennett.” Bennett herself, in an interview with David Heeley and Joan Kramer in 1985, said, “I didn’t know him socially at all, so I can’t account for his behavior off the set.”
3 “my dressing room”: Doug Warren, James Cagney: The Authorized Biography (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1983), p. 132.
4 Sheehan’s attorney: Details of Winfield Sheehan’s illness are from Variety, 12/8/31, 12/22/31, and 1/12/32.
5 Sky Devils: Details of the film’s pre-release engagements are contained in a memo from Lincoln Quarberg to Hal Horne, 1/29/32 (AMPAS). The film did equally well in New York, where brisk business was reported at the 2,200-seat Rivoli.
6 “After the preview”: S. R. Mook, “Tough to You,” Picture Play, September 1932.
7 “go down to the brewery”: Mook, “Spencer Tracy as I Know Him.”
8 “ever since they can remember”: Silver Screen, July 1932.
9 “telephone repairmen”: O’Brien, The Wind at My Back, p. 156.
10 “six days off”: Dan Thomas, “Movie Colony Glimpses and Inside Stuff,” undated clipping (SLT).
11 “the picture that sold me”: Mook, “Checking Up on Tracy.”
12 “future B.O. strength”: Motion Picture Herald, 4/2/32.
13 “domestic rentals”: Worldwide rentals of $548,693 yielded a profit of $19,456 on Disorderly Conduct. According to the research library of Karl Thiede, the film’s negative cost was $298,972.
14 “The last two parts”: S. R. Mook, “Tracy Talks!” Screenland, January 1934.
15 “I could not but add up”: Tracy, The Story of John, p. 123.
16 “I was so pleased”: Interview with Ardmore, 6/27/72.
17 “I was disappointed”: John Tracy, “My Complicated Life” (Part One), Volta Review, June 1946.
18 “a little more absurd”: Los Angeles Times, 6/19/32.
19 “steadfast faith”: S. R. Mook, “The Man Who’s Had Everything,” Screenland, October 1943.
20 results of a survey: Variety, 8/23/32.
21 “If pressed”: Mook, “Tough to You.”
22 considerably richer: Details of Tracy’s loan-out to Warner Bros. are from his Fox Legal Department file.
23 “going to a picture”: Mook, “Spencer Tracy as I Know Him.”
24 “every possibility”: Lewis E. Lawes to Jack L. Warner, 8/12/32 (WB).
25 Warren Hymer: Hymer’s behavior on the set of 20,000 Years in Sing Sing is documented in the film’s production file (WB). Tracy’s handling of Hymer is described in S. R. Mook, “Every-Day Tracy,” Silver Screen, January 1933.
26 “crazy about my performance”: Whitney Stine, “I’d Love to Kiss You …”: Conversations with Bette Davis (New York: Pocket Books, 1990), p. 129.
27 “only George Arliss”: Stine, “I’d Love to Kiss You,” p. 131.
28 “joked his way through it”: Joan Bennett to David Heeley and Joan Kramer, New York, 11/20/85 (TH).
29 “giving medals”: Mook, “Spencer Tracy as I Know Him.”
30 “an atrocity”: Variety, 9/27/32.
31 “something about horses”: Thomas, “Movie Colony Glimpses and Inside Stuff.”
32 “He comes home”: Mook, “Tough to You.”
33 “people he liked”: Spencer Tracy, “My Pal, Will Rogers,” Hollywood, December 1935.
34 “first to the café”: New York Times, 8/25/35.
35 “feel about nightlife”: Mook, “Spencer Tracy as I Know Him.”
36 all-time low: Me and My Gal finished its week at the Roxy with a pallid $22,000 and fared no better in general release. An exhibitor in Harrisburg, Illinois, called it a “rough and ready comedy-drama that has its moments, and at times seems to show promise of getting somewhere but never reaches there, and when it’s over you have the feeling that it was just another little picture with detectives and bad bank robbers all mixed up with the wisecracks of Tracy and Bennett. We ran it on a Sunday and Monday and were sorry, as it drew very poor on these days” (Motion Picture Herald, 4/15/33). According to the research library of Karl Thiede, worldwide rentals totaled just $391,564. With a negative cost of $308,684, the film posted a loss of $82,550.
37 “very much makeup”: New York Sun, 2/24/33.
38 “The manuscript crackled”: Jesse L. Lasky (with Don Weldon), I Blow My Own Horn (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1957), p. 246.
39 “predicate all our plans”: Variety, 1/17/33.
40 “They sent me the script”: Colleen Moore to the author, via telephone, 3/26/77.
41 “sex relationship”: Sidney Kent to Winfield Sheehan, 3/7/33.
42 “The schedule calls”: Preston Sturges to Solomon Sturges, 3/27/33, Preston Sturges Collection, Department of Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, University of California Los Angeles.
43 “dialogue overlapped”: S. R. Mook, “Master Mugg,” Screenland, April 1933.
44 “This isn’t a business”: Philip Trent (Clifford Jones) to Selden West, via telephone, 9/29/93 (SW).
45 “I was 21 years old”: Lincoln W. Cromwell, M.D., Dear Spence: Letters to Spencer Tracy from His Medical Student, unpublished manuscript, 1980, preface, p. 1 (SW).
46 “four to eight films a year”: Mook, “Master Mugg.”
47 “ogling the poinsettias”: Tracy, “The Kid Brother.”
48 “go out and get drunk”: (Suspect Name Redacted), interview with victim’s former driver, 6/27/34, FBI file 7-749 (SW).
49 “the best of my recollection”: Colleen Moore to Selden West, 12/9/77 (SW).
50 “He just went on”: Colleen Moore to Selden West, via telephone, 12/15/77 (SW).
51 “when the latter picture is released”: Hollywood Reporter, 4/29/33.
52 “wandered off”: Frank Tracy to Selden West (SW).
53 “what Carroll needs”: Frank Tracy to Selden West, via telephone, February 1993 (SW).
54 “What are you dissatisfied about?”: Tracy, “Making Faces at Life” (Part V).
55 “complement his realities”: Fay Wray, On the Other Hand (New York:
St. Martin’s Press, 1989), p. 145.
56 “most daring”: Hollywood Reporter, 6/19/33.
57 “frightened us”: Ibid., 6/20/33.
58 “most in all the world”: Los Angeles Examiner, 6/23/33.
59 Sheehan got $3,000: Details of Tracy’s loan-out to Columbia are from his Fox Legal Department file.
CHAPTER 9 THE AMOUNT OF MARRIAGE WE’VE EXPERIENCED
1 “The situation was not”: Frederick Lewis, “Spencer Tracy Conquers Himself,” Liberty, 10/9/1937.
2 “They had decided”: Lorraine Foat Holmes to Selden West.
3 “Borzage had a way”: James Bawden, “Loretta Young,” Films in Review, November 1987.
4 “Irritable as a bear”: Mook, “Tough to You.”
5 “Her diction”: Jane Feely Desmond to the author.
6 “Louise and I stood up”: Carter Bruce, “I’m Glad I Married Before I Came to Hollywood,” Modern Screen, October 1933.
7 “The papers forced us”: S. R. Mook, “The Truth About the Tracy Separation,” Movie Mirror, November 1933.
8 “I gave them a statement”: Mook, “Tracy Talks!”
9 “very susceptible”: New York Times, 3/30/95.
10 “Spencer and I”: Jack Grant, “Get Your Heart Broken Early,” Movie Classic, March 1934.
11 “Such fire”: Bawden, “Loretta Young.”
12 “Spencer asked me”: Grant, “Get Your Heart Broken Early.”
13 “The story was a trifle”: Bawden, “Loretta Young.”
14 “conscious of Loretta”: Gladys Hall, “Spencer Tracy’s Love Confession,” Movie Mirror, March 1934.
15 “gorgeous person”: Howard Sharpe, “The Adventurous Life of Spencer Tracy” (Part 3), Photoplay, April 1937.
16 “meant Lee Tracy”: Joan Wester Anderson, Forever Young (Allen, Tex.: Thomas More Publishing, 2000), p. 70.
17 “grows in stature”: New York American, 8/17/33.
18 “a more exacting role”: New York Daily Mirror, 8/17/33.
19 “No more convincing performance”: New York Times, 8/17/33.
20 “its first seven days”: Figures for The Power and the Glory are from Variety, 8/22, 8/29, 9/5, and 9/12/33. “A very good picture, but a box office flop,” reported an exhibitor in Elvins, Missouri. “Marvelous acting by Spencer Tracy. Too depressing and slow for the masses” (Motion Picture Herald, 11/11/33).
21 “going to the set”: Jane Feely Desmond to the author.
22 “Her dining tete-a-tete”: Los Angeles Examiner, 9/14/33.
23 “I’ve been in love”: Grant, “Get Your Heart Broken Early.”
24 Madge Evans admitted: Larry Swindell to the author.
25 “not a devout Catholic”: Jane Feely Desmond to the author.
26 “I hope you’re not”: Jane Feely Desmond to Selden West (SW).
27 “What could I say”: Leatrice Joy to Selden West, via telephone, September 1977 (SW).
28 “Securely held”: Los Angeles Examiner, 9/22/33.
29 “anything of this sort”: Sharpe, “The Adventurous Life of Spencer Tracy,” Part 3.
30 “so cheesy”: Claire Trevor to Selden West, New York City, 10/4/95 (SW).
31 “He liked the way”: John Gallagher, “Claire Trevor,” Films in Review, November 1983.
32 “run a story”: S. R. Mook, “Tracy Fights Through,” Screenland, May 1935.
33 “I’d known Louise and Spencer”: Mook, “The Truth About the Tracy Separation.”
34 “good time”: Mook, “Spencer Tracy As I Know Him.”
35 “There’s nothing about it”: Mook, “The Truth About the Tracy Separation.”
36 “The talk”: Jack Oakie, Jack Oakie’s Double Takes (San Francisco: Strawberry Hill Press, 1980), p. 160.
37 “The studio believes”: MPPDA memorandum, 6/6/33 (AMPAS).
38 “impossible to eliminate”: Sam Briskin to Dr. James Wingate, 7/22/33 (AMPAS).
39 “a fine and tender picture”: Dr. James Wingate to Harry Cohn, 10/13/33 (AMPAS).
40 “matter-of-fact sincerity”: Hollywood Reporter, 10/11/33.
41 “enchanted with the romance”: Wray, On the Other Hand, p. 230.
42 “off-set scenes”: Undated clip, December 1933 (SLT).
43 “How could it?”: Hall, “Spencer Tracy’s Love Confession.”
44 “The superintendent”: Ramsey, “Life Story of a Real Guy,” Part 2.
45 “doing arithmetic”: Tracy, The Story of John, p. 112 (SLT).
46 “being deaf”: Tracy, “My Complicated Life,” Part 1.
47 “domestic rentals”: According to the research library of Karl Thiede, domestic rentals for Man’s Castle totaled $388,000 in its initial release.
48 “the name of Spencer Tracy”: Hollywood Reporter, 1/23/34.
49 “put on the shelf”: Ibid., 1/25/34.
50 The script: Mankiewicz also received credit for adapting the play at Paramount. That version was released in 1930 under the title Men Are Like That.
51 “still married to Louise”: Ramsey, “Life Story of a Real Guy,” Part 2.
52 “Pete Are Silverton”: The full text of the extortion letter is contained in FBI file 7-749.
53 “I felt ashamed”: Tracy, “My Complicated Life,” Part 1.
54 $2,500 option: Details of the deal between Mrs. Carolyn Rothstein Behar and Fox Film Corporation are from the Fox Legal Department file on Now I’ll Tell (FOX).
55 “Tracy does the impossible”: Hollywood Reporter, 2/22/34. The Trouble Shooter (retitled Looking for Trouble) was released the same day as The Show-Off.
56 “capital performance”: New York Times, 3/17/34.
57 “His appeal”: Evening Standard, 6/4/34.
58 bargain price: Figures for The Show-Off are from Variety, 3/20 and 3/27/34; and the Edgar J. “Eddie” Mannix ledger at the Margaret Herrick Library (AMPAS).
59 “deposited in the room”: William Bakewell, Hollywood Be Thy Name (Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow Press, 1991), p. 60. Wayne later told a business associate that Tracy, drunk and belligerent, had sucker punched him, and that he had reflexively—and unapologetically—knocked him out.
60 “Spence was a darling”: Judy Lewis, Uncommon Knowledge (New York: Pocket Books, 1994), p. 17.
61 “Hollywood’s too easy”: New York American, 4/22/34.
62 filled the Roxy: Box office figures for Now I’ll Tell are from Variety, 5/29, 6/5, and 6/12/34. According to data in the research library of Karl Thiede, domestic rentals just about equaled the film’s negative cost of $308,200. Foreign rentals amounted to $167,900, roughly 30 percent of the worldwide total of $472,300. It was carried on the books at a loss of $45,290.
63 “I am sure the pressure”: Anderson, Forever Young, p, 75.
CHAPTER 10 AND DOES LOVE LAST?
1 “ ‘aren’t going to do that’ ”: Ardmore, “Tracy,” n.d.
2 “Never have I seen women”: Tracy, The Story of John, p. 151.
3 “No one asked any questions”: Mook, “The Truth About the Tracy Separation.”
4 “In most ways”: Louise Treadwell Tracy, The Broader Outlook, unpublished playscript, circa 1934 (SLT).
5 “Tracy at the time was in bed”: George Wasson to Jack J. Gain, 7/2/34 (FOX).
6 “Speaking of TRACY”: Los Angeles Examiner, 7/5/34.
7 “mention of Loretta’s name”: Jack Grant, “Why Loretta Young Broke Up Her Romance,” Movie Mirror, October 1934.
8 “not an experienced actor”: Ted Perry and David Shepard, Henry King, Director: from silents to ’scope (Los Angeles: Directors Guild of America, 1995), p. 89.
9 “Here is where”: Ted Perry, Henry King Oral History, unedited manuscript, Directors Guild of America.
10 “middle of the flight”: Robert Nott, “The Kinks of Comedy,” Filmfax, December– January 1994.
11 “I recommended”: Neil McCarthy to Alfred Wright, 4/5/39 (FOX).
12 “most severe penalty”: Variety, 9/11/34.
13 “mounted the horse
”: Tracy, “My Complicated Life,” Part 1.
14 “Immersed as we were”: Cromwell, Dear Spence, p. 38.
15 “The studio gumshoed”: Lasky, I Blow My Own Horn, p. 247.
16 “Forget what’s happened”: Mook, “Tracy Fights Through.”
17 “While discussing the contract”: Jack J. Gain to Sidney R. Kent, 11/1/34 (FOX).
18 “Spence’s naiveté”: Mook, “Checking Up on Tracy.”
19 “The drama aims”: Outline, Inferno, by Philip Klein and Rose Franken, 6/22/34 (USC).
20 “He clouts the engineer”: Eric Knight to Paul Rotha, 10/27/34, Paul Rotha Papers, Department of Special Collections, University of California, Los Angeles.
21 “prove to the unsuspecting public”: Louise Treadwell Tracy, “The Women Take to Polo,” Polo, June 1935.
22 “Our shots”: Abilene Morning News, 11/23/34.
23 “Spencer Tracy reconciliation”: Los Angeles Evening Herald and Express, 12/8/34.
24 “They gave him a lot of time”: Claire Trevor to Selden West.
25 “I ran amuck”: Gladys Hall, “Why My Wife and I Are Together Again,” Movie Mirror, May 1935. Bill Davidson, in his 1988 biography of Tracy, quotes a late publicity man, one Jim Denton, as saying the actor showed up drunk one morning on the set of Dante’s Inferno and chased director Harry Lachman around the stage. Winfield Sheehan, when summoned, supposedly ordered the soundstage locked with Tracy asleep inside it. Denton went on to assert that Tracy awoke at some point and trashed the set, causing approximately $100,000 in damage.
Dante’s Inferno was shot at Western Avenue, not Fox Hills, and Sol Wurtzel would have been summoned in such an instance, not Sheehan. Claire Trevor, who would have been present, recalled no such incident, and Ralph Bellamy, who, according to Davidson, “vividly” remembered it, makes no mention of it in his 1979 autobiography. Moreover, there is nothing about Tracy damaging a set in any of the trade papers, nor in his Fox legal file, where a penalty would doubtless have been documented had Tracy caused anywhere near that much damage.
Davidson, incidentally, first reported such an incident in his 1962 profile of Tracy in Look. In that article the incident is said to have occurred in 1933, not 1935, and the alleged quotes are attributed to a “movie executive” who was a reporter at the time.