James Curtis
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2 “do anything much”: Jane Feely Desmond to the author.
3 “Dad was kidding”: Diane Disney Miller to the author.
4 “My mother thought”: Tierney, Self-Portrait, p. 173.
5 “excessively brutal”: Dore Schary to ST, 7/18/52, Dore Schary Papers, Wisconsin State Historical Society, Madison.
6 “Unable to understand”: ST to Garson Kanin, 7/30/52, Gordon-Kanin Papers/SW.
7 “thrilling”: ST to Garson Kanin, 7/30/52, Gordon-Kanin Papers/SW.
8 “fulfilled my contract”: Albuquerque Tribune, 8/6/52.
9 “at loose ends”: Garson Kanin to George Cukor, 9/5/52, Gordon-Kanin Papers/SW.
10 “needed a friend”: Garson Kanin to ST, 9/4/52, Gordon-Kanin Papers/SW.
11 “appointed time”: June Dally-Watkins, The Secrets Behind My Smile (Cambelwell, Victoria, Australia: Viking, 2002), p. 99.
12 “twenty-five”: June Dally-Watkins to the author, via telephone, 8/25/06.
13 “Remaining here”: ST to Ruth Gordon and Garson Kanin, 9/9/52, Gordon-Kanin Papers/SW.
14 “subdued and effeminate”: Time interview transcripts, 1952.
15 “Bogart and Tracy”: Peter Viertel, Dangerous Friends (New York: Doubleday, 1992), p. 238.
16 “It’s the parts”: Dallas Morning News, 4/13/52.
17 “marvelous actor”: Lauren Bacall to the author, via telephone, 2/10/06.
18 “You and Spence”: Emily Perkins to Katharine Hepburn, 8/22/52 (KHLA).
19 “goddamn silly”: George Cukor to Garson Kanin and Ruth Gordon, 9/11/52 (AMPAS).
20 “run off”: ST to Garson Kanin, 10/1/52, Gordon-Kanin Papers/SW.
21 “I was surprised”: William Self to the author.
22 “I can’t tell you”: Constance Collier to George Cukor, 10/13/52.
23 “I stood”: Hepburn, Me, p. 48.
24 “understood clearly”: New York Times, 10/18/52.
25 “fine spirits”: George Cukor to Constance Collier, 10/23/52 (AMPAS).
26 “NO REPORT”: ST to Garson Kanin, 11/1/52 (LOC).
27 “facing a decision”: Lowell Sun, 10/31/52.
28 “special dispensation”: Charleston Daily Mail, 11/26/52.
29 “very close”: Time interview transcripts, 1952.
30 “Don’t ever leave me”: Ardmore, “Tracy,” n.d. When later asked about this particular quote, Chuck Sligh replied, “I could easily imagine that he said that. I don’t know, but I could imagine. He NEEDED her. You know, these daily telephone calls and so on. I think that all indicated a need for her help. Whether she was still his wife actually or not.”
31 “good-bye Charlie”: Garson Kanin to ST, 12/1/52, Gordon-Kanin Papers/SW.
32 “difficult to get information”: ST to Ruth Gordon, n.d. (LOC).
33 “not my best”: Scott Eyman, “Clarence Brown: Garbo and Beyond,” Velvet Light Trap, spring 1978.
34 “cards wonderful”: Dore Schary to ST, 7/23/52, Dore Schary Papers, Wisconsin State Historical Society, Madison.
35 “simply great”: Dore Schary to ST, 7/31/52, Dore Schary Papers, Wisconsin State Historical Society, Madison.
36 “thoroughly respectful”: New York Times, 11/14/52.
37 “the kind of film”: New York Herald Tribune, 11/14/52.
38 total billings: The figures for Plymouth Adventure are from the Mannix ledger.
39 “It sank!”: Dore Schary to Selden West, New York, 1/5/78 (SW).
40 “not at all convinced”: Garson Kanin to George Cukor, 8/18/51, Gordon-Kanin Papers/SW.
41 shot a test: Reynolds’ test was shot on the fly, sandwiched between rehearsals of the musical numbers for I Love Melvin (1953).
42 “exceptional enough”: George Cukor to Ruth Gordon and Garson Kanin, 9/26/52 (LOC).
43 “superficial nonsense”: Garson Kanin to George Cukor, 12/10/52 (AMPAS).
44 “MEETING”: ST to Garson Kanin, 11/19/52, Gordon-Kanin Papers/SW.
45 “sense of humor”: Jean Simmons to the author, via telephone, 1/10/05.
46 “MAD”: Ruth Gordon to George Cukor, 11/27/52 (AMPAS).
47 “extremely interested”: Garson Kanin to ST, 7/9/51, Gordon-Kanin Papers/SW.
48 “have some edge”: George Cukor to Ruth Gordon, 10/10/52 (AMPAS).
49 “a lot of talk”: Levy, George Cukor, p. 210.
50 “wonderful woman”: George Cukor to Charles Higham, Time-Life History of the Movies, 6/22/71, Columbia University.
51 “going along well”: ST to Garson Kanin, 12/21/52 (LOC).
52 “pretty deep stuff”: Garson Kanin to ST, 9/25/52, Gordon-Kanin Papers/SW.
53 “organized my hotel”: Dally-Watkins, The Secrets Behind My Smile, p. 104.
54 “Talk about people”: Lambert, On Cukor, p. 212.
55 “He loved”: Schickel, The Men Who Made the Movies, p. 177.
56 “In the play”: George Cukor to Ruth Gordon and Garson Kanin, 9/26/52 (LOC).
57 “devastating”: Richard Burton to Dick Cavett, September 1980.
58 “Evelyn Keyes”: Garson Kanin to ST, 1/1/53, Gordon-Kanin Papers/SW.
59 “stinkin’ ”: Leland Hayward to Ernest Hemingway, 3/10/53 (EH).
60 “disturbing element”: Lawrence Weingarten to George Cukor, 2/25/53 (AMPAS).
61 clashed bitterly: Cukor’s objections are outlined in a letter to Weingarten, 3/2/53 (AMPAS).
62 “At first they think”: George Cukor to Ruth Gordon and Garson Kanin, 4/24/53 (LOC).
63 “Hollywood people”: Leland Hayward to Ernest Hemingway, 12/3/52 (NYPL).
64 “he looks great”: Leland Hayward to Ernest Hemingway, 1/16/53 (NYPL).
65 The deal: Details of the agreement to film The Old Man and the Sea are contained in a letter to Leland Hayward from Robert M. Coryell of the William Morris Agency, 3/2/53 (NYPL); and in an M-G-M meeting memorandum by F. L. Hendrickson, 8/12/53, Turner Entertainment/SW.
66 “talk things over”: Ernest Hemingway to Leland Hayward, 3/15/53 (EH).
67 “Hemingway … was afraid”: Dallas Morning News, 11/13/55.
68 “big fight”: Carlos Baker, ed., Ernest Hemingway: Selected Letters, 1917–1961 (New York: Scribner, 1981), p. 817.
69 “practical time”: Ernest Hemingway to Leland Hayward, 4/23/53 (NYPL).
70 “He believes”: Faith Service, “His Son Made Spencer Tracy What He Is Today!” Movie Classic, August 1933.
71 “people thought”: Ardmore, “John,” n.d.
72 “I only saw him”: Seymour Gray to Selden West.
73 “I went to Las Vegas”: Susie Tracy to the author, Brentwood, 1/28/05.
74 “STILL HERE”: ST to Ruth Gordon, 4/13/53, Gordon-Kanin Papers/SW.
75 “he was joking”: Gottfried Reinhardt to Garson Kanin, 4/27/53, Gordon-Kanin Papers/SW.
76 “on a European train”: Lambert, On Cukor, p. 217.
77 “real, honest story”: Schickel, The Men Who Made the Movies, p. 235.
78 “absolutely convinced”: Garson Kanin to Robert E. Sherwood, 7/16/53, Gordon-Kanin Papers/SW.
79 “long and happy”: Los Angeles Examiner, 8/10/53.
80 “co-starring days”: Los Angeles Times, 8/13/53.
81 “one word of French”: Garson Kanin, “I Remember Spence and Kate,” Center for Cassette Studies, West Hollywood.
82 “Old Florentine”: ST to Louise Tracy, n.d. (SLT).
83 “shocking routine”: Garson Kanin to George Cukor, 9/17/53 (AMPAS). Where Kanin’s account of Tracy’s visit to Cap Ferrat differs in his book Tracy and Hepburn, I have chosen to regard this letter, written within days of the actual events, as likely the more accurate of the two.
CHAPTER 27 A GRANITE-LIKE WEDGE OF A MAN
1 “That film”: Lawrence Weingarten, AFI seminar.
2 “I have a hunch”: Los Angeles Times, 5/9/52.
3 “For the vitality”: New York Times, 10/25/53.
4 a loss: The Mannix ledger shows a cost of $1,424,000 for The Actress, and do
mestic billings of just $594,000. It was the first Tracy picture since Whipsaw to post total billings of under $1 million.
5 “Failure … is a more common”: Schary, Heyday, p. 258.
6 “adhered too closely”: Darryl F. Zanuck to Sol Siegel and Richard Murphy, 8/21/53 (USC).
7 “STARTED NEW YEAR”: ST to Ruth Gordon and Garson Kanin, 1/11/54, Gordon-Kanin Papers/SW.
8 “not going”: Emily Torchia to Selden West.
9 “newest admirer”: Lowell Sun, 2/5/54.
10 “beginning of the end”: Eyman, “Clarence Brown: Garbo and Beyond.”
11 “disgusted, upset”: Tornabene, Long Live the King, p. 345.
12 “He saw me”: Robert Wagner to the author, Brentwood, 8/29/05.
13 “He’d agonize”: “Edward Dmytryk,” Films in Review, December 1985.
14 “Spence did everything”: Edward Dmytryk, It’s a Hell of a Life But Not a Bad Living (New York: Times Books, 1978), p. 182.
15 “pissed off”: Hugh O’Brien to the author, via telephone, 5/1/05.
16 “down-to-earth”: Ronald Neame (with Barbara Roisman Cooper), Straight from the Horse’s Mouth (Lanham, Md.: Scarecrow Press, 2003), p. 145.
17 “diffident at working”: Dmytryk, It’s a Hell of a Life, p. 185.
18 “I told Tracy”: “Richard Widmark Part II,” Films in Review, May 1986.
19 “one thing pleased me”: Hollywood Citizen-News, 4/14/52.
20 Tracy’s guests: Tracy made careful note of his drug and alcohol intake in his 1955 datebook.
21 “she and Tracy”: Sandy Sturges to the author, via telephone, 3/30/04.
22 “our first evening”: Dmytryk, It’s a Hell of a Life, p. 201. In his book Dmytryk has this taking place in August 1955, when he and Tracy were on their way to France to make The Mountain. But Tracy’s datebooks show that he flew directly to Paris for the start of that film and that Hepburn was still touring Australia at the time. Dmytryk dined with Tracy and Hepburn on May 11, 1954.
23 “Years ago”: Los Angeles Times, 1/31/54.
24 “go to London”: Jane Feely Desmond to the author, via telephone, 3/29/04.
25 “granite-like wedge”: Bad Day at Parma, incomplete screenplay by Millard Kaufman, 8/26/53 (MGM).
26 “Daddy loves”: Jill Schary Zimmer, With a Cast of Thousands (New York: Stein and Day, 1963), p. 50.
27 “liked the idea”: Millard Kaufman to the author.
28 “We simplified it”: Dore Schary, Oral History with Mr. and Mrs. Robert C. Franklin, Columbia University, November 1958.
29 “his opinion”: Ibid.
30 “people at Metro”: John Sturges commentary track, Bad Day at Black Rock, laserdisc edition, Criterion Collection, 1991.
31 “an idea”: Joseph J. Cohn Oral History with Rudy Behlmer, August–November 1987 (AMPAS).
32 “new boy”: Schary, Heyday, p. 279. Schary describes this exchange as taking place the Friday before the start of shooting, which would have been July 16, 1954. However, Tracy’s datebook shows their last meeting as having occurred a week earlier, on July 9, 1954.
33 “I anticipated”: John Sturges to Heeley and Kramer.
34 “hardly had it altered”: Millard Kaufman to the author.
35 “ ‘I figure’ ”: John Sturges to Heeley and Kramer.
36 “My first scene”: Ernest Borgnine to Scott Eyman, via telephone, 3/4/08 (courtesy of Scott Eyman).
37 “form of torture”: Anne Francis, interviewed in Spencer Tracy: Triumph and Turmoil, Peter Jones Productions/A&E Network, 1999.
38 “He said that Katie”: Anne Francis, quoted in Glenn Lovell, Escape Artist: The Life and Films of John Sturges (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2008), p. 103.
39 “disturbing observation”: Millard Kaufman, “A Vehicle for Tracy: The Road to Black Rock,” Hopkins Review, Winter 2008.
40 “never rehearsed”: Ernest Borgnine to Scott Eyman.
41 “on the porch”: John Ericson to the author, via telephone, 6/24/05.
42 “Ryan is bristling”: Millard Kaufman to the author.
43 “great script”: John Ericson to the author.
44 “a grownup CinemaScope”: Variety, 7/28/54.
45 “my old man”: Marshall, Blueprint on Babylon, p. 252.
46 “almost no film”: Sturges commentary track.
47 “rather apologetic”: Millard Kaufman to the author.
48 “I wondered”: Ernest Borgnine to Scott Eyman.
49 “We were interested”: John Sturges to Heeley and Kramer.
50 “He listened”: Millard Kaufman to the author.
51 “ ‘ideas in your head’ ”: John Ericson to the author.
52 “a smoker”: Millard Kaufman to the author.
53 “winning streak”: Leo Durocher (with Ed Lynn), Nice Guys Finish Last (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1975), p. 327.
54 “been on the trip”: King Vidor to Selden West.
55 “Perfect!”: Spencer Tracy, 1954 datebook (SLT).
56 “I was there”: Susie Tracy to the author, via telephone, 1/31/08.
57 “ ‘wonderful place’ ”: Ardmore, “Tracy,” n.d.
58 “firm offer”: Bert Allenberg to Eddie Mannix, 1/7/55, Turner Entertainment/SW.
59 “one of the finest”: John O’Hara, “Appointment with O’Hara,” Collier’s, 3/18/55.
60 “selling me”: Robert Wise to Selden West, via telephone, 4/30/96 (SW).
61 “not trying to be difficult”: Los Angeles Times, 3/8/55.
62 “Poor Spence”: Constance Collier to Katharine Hepburn, 4/2/55 (KHLA).
63 “talked to Spence”: Constance Collier to Katharine Hepburn, 4/16/55 (KHNY).
64 “almost impossible”: Kevin Brownlow, David Lean (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1996), p. 486.
65 “Wonderful set”: Spencer Tracy, 1955 datebook (SLT).
66 “no merit”: Katharine Hepburn to Phyllis Wilbourn, n.d. (KHLA).
67 “in a better position”: F. L. Hendrickson, memorandum, 6/14/55, Turner Entertainment/SW.
68 “arranged our shooting”: Sergio Leemann, Robert Wise on His Films (Los Angeles: Silman-James Press, 1995), p. 131.
69 “That’s crazy”: Dore Schary to Selden West.
70 “take it down”: Joseph J. Cohn Oral History.
CHAPTER 28 THE MOUNTAIN
1 “I bet”: Interview with Ardmore, 7/5/72.
2 “interested in working”: “Cagney”: James Cagney, Cagney by Cagney (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1976), p. 146.
3 “Who cares?”: Spencer Tracy, 1955 datebook (SLT).
4 “Is there a romance”: Sydney Sun, 6/5/55 (courtesy of Kerrie Tickner).
5 “I saw a report”: Sun Herald, 8/5/55 (courtesy of Kerrie Tickner).
6 “first waking thought”: Brisbane Telegraph, 7/18/55.
7 “We miss Constance”: Theresa Helburn to Katharine Hepburn, 6/29/55 (TGC).
8 “the next day”: Jane Feely Desmond to the author, via telephone, 4/6/04.
9 “simple story”: Harry Mines, draft press release, n.d. (AMPAS).
10 “a primal contest”: Marshall, Blueprint on Babylon, p. 308.
11 “a good relationship”: Dmytryk, It’s a Hell of a Life, p. 200.
12 “extraordinary”: Robert Wagner to the author.
13 “I can’t do it”: Dmytryk, It’s a Hell of a Life, p. 201.
14 “He wore it”: Robert Wagner, “My Hat’s Off to Spencer Tracy,” Movie Mirror, July 1956.
15 “He was leaving”: Bert Allenberg to Katharine Hepburn, 8/22/55 (KHLA).
16 “very unhappy”: Harry Caplan to Hugh Brown, 8/20/55 (AMPAS).
17 “Our unit”: Harry Caplan to Hugh Brown, 8/22/55 (AMPAS).
18 “giving them trouble”: Robert Wagner to the author.
19 “short line”: Margaret Shipway to Katharine Hepburn, 8/29/55 (KHLA).
20 “Those damn things”: Dmytryk, It’s a Hell of a Life, p. 204.
21 “From our viewpoint”: Fran
k Westmore (with Muriel Davidson), The Westmores of Hollywood (New York: Lippincott, 1976), p. 188.
22 “Conditions”: Harry Caplan to Hugh Brown, 9/3/55 (AMPAS).
23 “the word ‘job’ ”: Lloyd Shearer, “Spencer Tracy: Hollywood’s Least-Known Star,” Parade, 12/11/55.
24 “Young man”: Edward Dmytryk, as quoted in Close Up: The Contract Director (Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow Press, 1976), p. 365.
25 “Only parts”: Fisher, Spencer Tracy: A Bio-Bibliography, p. 56.
26 “quite a wingding”: Dmytryk, It’s a Hell of a Life, p. 205.
27 “first inkling”: Susie Tracy to the author.
28 “next six days”: Dmytryk, It’s a Hell of a Life, p. 206. Tracy’s datebook indicates three days “on the town,” not six as Dmytryk remembered it. On day four (not seven) Tracy was under a doctor’s care. He did, however, resume work on the fourteenth, just as Dmytryk has it in his book.
29 “an old bastard”: Jack Hirshberg, questionnaire for Spencer Tracy (AMPAS).
30 “prompted the tops”: Carle, “Magnificent Katharine Hepburn.”
31 “I’m not retiring”: Shearer, “Spencer Tracy: Hollywood’s Least-Known Star.”
32 “whole thing evaporated”: Frank Tracy to Selden West.
33 “terrible picture”: Gallagher, “Claire Trevor.”
34 “older brother”: “Edward Dmytryk.”
35 “long scene”: Dmytryk, It’s a Hell of a Life, p. 205.
36 “What’s the matter?”: Rosemary Clooney, Girl Singer (New York: Doubleday, 1999), p. 141.
37 “good feeling”: Fred Zinnemann to Ernest Hemingway, 12/23/55 (AMPAS).
38 “some sort of shape”: Ernest Hemingway to Fred Zinnemann, 1/3/56 (NYPL).
39 “near Katharine Hepburn”: Fred Zinnemann to Ernest Hemingway, 12/23/55 (AMPAS).
40 “disappointed”: Spencer Tracy, 1956 datebook (SLT).
41 “He said he didn’t know”: Don Page to Charles Greenlaw, 4/17/56, Jack Warner Collection, Cinematic Arts Library, University of Southern California.
42 “behaving fairly well”: Fred Zinnemann to Ernest Hemingway, 4/24/56 (AMPAS).
43 “LOOKED EXCELLENT”: Jack L. Warner to Fred Zinnemann, 5/1/56, Jack Warner Collection, University of Southern California.
44 “We notify you”: Leland Hayward to ST, 5/12/56 (NYPL).