Fade to Black: A Book of Movie Obituaries

by Paul Donnelley

  FURTHER READING: Ingrid Bergman – Curtis F. Brown (London: Star Books, 1973); Ingrid Bergman: My Story – Ingrid Bergman and Alan Burgess (London: Michael Joseph, 1980); As Time Goes By: The Life Of Ingrid Bergman – Laurence Leamer (New York: Harper & Row, 1986); Notorious: The Life Of Ingrid Bergman – Donald Spoto (New York: HarperCollins, 1997).

  Elisabeth Bergner

  Born August 22, 1897

  Died May 12, 1986

  Star with a heart. Born in Vienna (according to Who’s Who and Who’s Who In The Theatre, although both give her year of birth as 1900; the usually reliable Katz has her birthplace as Drohobycz), the daughter of Emil Bergner and Anna Rosa Wagner began acting professionally in the autumn of 1919 at the City Theatre, Zurich. She began to work regularly in Germany and Switzerland as well as her home town of Vienna. She worked under Max Reinhardt, playing Katherine in The Taming Of The Shrew, and Rosalind in As You Like It among many other parts in the Twenties. Her international reputation was made on stage when she appeared as St Joan in Shaw’s play of the same name. Her first appearance on an English stage came at the Opera House, Manchester on November 21, 1933, playing Gemma Jones in Escape Me Never under the direction of Sir C.B. Cochran. Ten years earlier, she had made her film début in Der Evangelimann (1923). It was for her reprise of the character of Gemma Jones that she was nominated for an Oscar in 1935. She moved to Britain (becoming naturalised in 1938) to escape the Nazis and lived at Virginia Water, Surrey. During World War II she took in evacuated children including, for a time, the mother of the present author. She married director Dr Paul Czinner (b. Budapest 1890, d. 1972) and among her films were Nju (1925), Der Grieger Von Florenz (1926), The Loves Of Ariane (1931), Catherine The Great (1934), Dreaming Lips (1938), Cry Of The Banshee (1970) and Der Füssganger (1973). The character of Margo Channing in the short story The Wisdom Of Eve, which appeared in Cosmopolitan in May 1946 and which later became the basis for All About Eve (1950), was based on Elisabeth Bergner.

  CAUSE: She died aged 88 in London after a long illness.

  Busby Berkeley

  (WILLIAM BERKELEY ENOS)

  Born November 29, 1895

  Died March 14, 1976

  Choreographer extraordinaire. Born in Los Angeles, he was educated at Mohegan Lake Military Academy in New York before making his real stage début during a tour of The Man Who Came Back in 1917. (He had previously appeared as a child in a production of A Doll’s House in which his mother, ‘Queen Gertrude’, appeared alongside her great friend, the lesbian Alla Nazimova.) Two years later he was on Broadway appearing in Irene playing Madame Lucy opposite Irene Dunne at the Vanderbilt Theater. He was nicknamed ‘Busby’ after Amy Busby, a fin de siècle Broadway actress. He moved into movies, choreographing Whoopee (1930) at the behest of Samuel Goldwyn and then went on to work on Palmy Days (1931), Roman Scandals (1933), which featured nude girls, and 42nd Street (1933) (for Warner Bros. It was his undoubted genius that saved the company from going under, yet he had never had a day’s dance lesson in his life), Gold Diggers Of 1933 (1933), Footlight Parade (1933), Dames (1934), Gold Diggers Of 1935 (1935), Stage Struck (1935), Gold Diggers Of 1937 (1936), Gold Diggers In Paris (1938), Men Are Such Fools (1938), Babes In Arms (1939), Bitter Sweet (1940), Strike Up The Band (1940), Girl Crazy (1943), Take Me Out To The Ball Game (1949) starring Frank Sinatra and Gene Kelly, Call Me Mister (1951), Million Dollar Mermaid (1952) starring Esther Williams and many more. Away from the screen, however, Berkeley was a mixed-up individual with, some suspect, a mother complex. He bought a mansion in Beverly Hills for mum and allowed her to indulge her whim of collecting expensive antiques. On September 8, 1935, he drank too deeply and too often at a party to celebrate the end of In Caliente (1935). On the drive home he lost control of his car and ended up smashing into two cars coming in the opposite direction. Three people in the second car were killed and Berkeley was charged with second-degree murder. Warner Bros were furious – he was supposed to be directing films for them, after all! Schedules were changed so the films were shot at night and Berkeley could be in court during the day. Originally, he was wheeled into court on a stretcher. His brief was the famed Hollywood lawyer Jerry Giesler. The legal eagle produced witnesses who stated that Berkeley had not been drunk when he left the party. Coincidentally, or perhaps not, all the witnesses – Glenda Farrell, Pat O’Brien and Mervyn Leroy – were contracted to Warner Bros. Berkeley’s mother sat with him in court, holding his hand. The first jury was locked. The second voted 7–5 for acquittal and it was at his third trial on September 25, 1936, that he got off. He settled a civil suit for $95,000. Berkeley certainly had an eye for the ladies (and occasionally the boys), and not just professionally. He gave breaks to Lucille Ball, Virginia Bruce, Paulette Goddard, Betty Grable, Veronica Lake and Carole Landis. Landis’ husband, Irving Wheeler, launched a $250,000 alienation of affection suit against Berkeley in 1938 that was subsequently thrown out by the court. Berkeley’s mother died in June 1946 and not long after he slashed his wrists and throat. Discovered by his Japanese house boy he was admitted to the psychiatric ward of Los Angeles General Hospital. He was there for six weeks, during which time he lost almost 5st in weight. When he was released on July 18, 1946, he had just $650 to his name. He was helped by his old boss Jack Warner but now Berkeley was fighting a battle with alcohol. He directed his last film in 1962, 14 years before his death. He was married five times: to actress Esther Muir (b. 1895, d. August 1995), Myra Steffens, Marge Pemberton, actress Merna Kennedy (b. September 7, 1908, d. December 20, 1944), actress Claire James and Etta Dunn.

  CAUSE: He died aged 81 of natural causes in Palm Springs.

  Milton Berle

  (MENDEL BERLINGER)

  Born July 12, 1908

  Died March 27, 2002

  ‘The thief of bad gags’. Berle was born in New York, the fourth son of five children of Moses, a painter, and store detective Sarah (d. May 31, 1954) Berlinger. His siblings were Phil (b. 1901), Francis (b. 1904), Jack (b. 1905) and Rosalind (b. 1913). He was schooled at New York Professional Children’s School and took to the stage at the age of 5. By the age of 6 he was entering “Charlie Chaplin contests” and usually won. Aged 12, he changed his name from Berlinger to the more manageable Berle. In November 1920 he lost his virginity to a dancer in the Broadway show, Florodora, in which he was appearing. She saw him gawping at her and invited him into her dressing room. The entire performance lasted just seconds. “One second her hand was undoing my buttons, the next she had me inside her – and from what I know now, there was room in there for the entire Sextet.” He worked in nightclubs and theatres before moving to radio in 1934. He had made his film début in The Perils Of Pauline (1914) aged 6. He was also in Birthright (1920), The Mark Of Zorro (1920) and Ruth Of The Range (1923). Claims that Berle was the first person to appear on television, in an experimental broadcast in New York City in 1928 can be discounted. His other films included Poppin’ The Cork (1933) as Elmer Brown, New Faces Of 1937 (1937) as Wallington Wedge, Radio City Revels (1938) as Teddy Jordan, Tall, Dark And Handsome (1941) as Frosty, Sun Valley Serenade (1941) as Jerome K. ‘Nifty’ Allen, Rise And Shine (1941) as Seabiscuit, Whispering Ghosts (1942) as H.H. Van Buren, A Gentleman At Heart (1942) as Lucky Cullen, Over My Dead Body (1943) as Jason Cordry, Margin For Error (1943) as Moe Finkelstein and Always Leave Them Laughing (1949) as Kip Cooper. In the late Forties, Fifties and much of the Sixties 5́ 10˝ Berle concentrated on television. He was the star of The Milton Berle Show on NBC from June 8, 1948 until 1959. A similar show was revived on ABC from September 1966 until January 6, 1967 but it was destroyed in the ratings by The Man From U.N.C.L.E. and was dropped. In 1960 Berle made a cameo appearance as himself in the Marilyn Monroe–Yves Montand feature Let’s Make Love in which he tried to make Jean-Marc Clément funny. He was also in It’s A Mad Mad Mad Mad World (1963) as J. Russell Finch, The Loved One (1965) as Mr Kenton, Don’t Worry, We’ll Think Of A Title (1966) as himself, Who’s Minding The Mint? (1967) as Luther Burt
on, a film director in Where Angels Go, Trouble Follows (1968), For Singles Only (1968) as Mr Parker, Can Hieronymus Merkin Ever Forget Mercy Humppe and Find True Happiness? (1969) as Goodtime Eddie Filth, Seven In Darkness (1969) (TV) as Sam Fuller, Lepke (1975) as Mr Meyer, a blind man in Won Ton Ton, The Dog Who Saved Hollywood (1976), The Muppet Movie (1979) as Mad Man Mooney, Broadway Danny Rose (1984) as himself, Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure (1985) as himself, Going Overboard (1989) as himself, a hotel clerk in Driving Me Crazy (1991) and Let Me In, I Hear Laughter (1999) as himself. Rivalry existed between Berle and several comics. Groucho Marx once told Berle, “You’re not funny,” only for Berle to reply, “Everything I know, I stole from you, Grouch.” Marx had the last line. “Then you didn’t listen.” As well as his performing career Berle was known in Hollywood for his apparently enormous penis. Betty Grable commented: “They say the two best hung men in Hollywood are Forrest Tucker and Milton Berle. What a shame. It’s never the handsome ones. The bigger they are, the homelier.” In January 1992 when Berle was 83, a 24-year-old woman saw him in a restaurant. He signalled her to come over to his table, and greeted her with “You have such beautiful breasts. I’d love to put my head between them.” She said thank you before Berle continued, “I have something big and beautiful, too. Here, have a feel,” and proceeded to force her hand into his crotch. She gave him her phone number and two days later he called her for a date. Berle sent a stretch limo, complete with a bottle of champagne inside, to pick her up. She recounted: “I barely got through the front door [of his house] before he attacked me. He pulled me to him and we kissed. Then he stepped back, and took his pants off and I got the shock of my life. Here was a man in his eighties standing stark naked before me and he was huge! It must’ve been over a foot long and sent shivers of fear up my spine. And, to my horror, he forced me to give him oral sex. But Milton didn’t get excited. Then he joined me down on the floor and we tried to make love, but it was just a total bust.” Berle married 5́ 5˝ former showgirl Joyce Matthews (b. New York, December 6, 1919, d. Laguna Beach, California, January 17, 1999) in 1941 and they adopted a daughter, Victoria Melanie. They divorced in Reno, Nevada, in October 1947. On June 16, 1949 they remarried and in 1950 they re-divorced. In New York on December 9, 1953 Berle married press agent Ruth Cosgrove. They adopted a son, William, in 1962. Cosgrove died in April 1989. In 1992, Berle married Lorna Adams. He also had affairs, some by his own unsubstantiated admission, with Lucille Ball, Veronica Lake, Lana Turner, Marilyn Monroe (during, he claimed, the 1948 filming of Ladies Of The Chorus although it may be that Berle actually slept with the burlesque performer Dixie Evans and later mistook her for Marilyn), Theda Bara, Ann Sheridan and Nancy Reagan. In 1995 Berle was accused of ruining a 33-year-old bellman’s sex life by grabbing his crotch and squeezing. The bellman at the Taj Mahal Hotel in Atlantic City says that he told Uncle Miltie, “You look terrific for your age,” which may have irritated him because of the mention of his age. He said Berle then “lunged for his crotch and squeezed” necessitating later hospital visits. Berle fought the suit, saying: “I’m nearly 88-years-old. I have better things to do in my life than go around grabbing some guy’s crotch. Hell, at my age, I’m lucky if I can find my own crotch.”

  CAUSE: In December 1998 Berle suffered a stroke which left him with severe eye problems. His estranged son Bill said, “I haven’t spoken to him in years. And now that I know he had a stroke, I don’t intend to call him.” On April 3, 2001, tests at Cedars-Sinai revealed that Berle was suffering from colon cancer. Doctors decided not to operate. His wife Lorna stated, ”It’s a small tumour in his colon. He isn’t scheduled for any surgery, but that could always change. He is in no pain.” He died of colon cancer in his sleep at 2.45pm, on Wednesday, March 27, 2002 and was cremated and his ashes interred in Hillside Memorial Park, 6001 West Centinela Avenue, Los Angeles 90045. The cemetery was obviously expecting a throng of friends, admirers and fans to attend the service. Around 150 chairs were set up outside the chapel complete with loud speakers to hear the memorials and a heavy security presence. Sadly, when the service began only four of the chairs were occupied. Eulogies were delivered by Norm Crosby, Red Buttons, Connie Stevens, Don Rickles, Jan Murray, Larry Gelbart and Richard Moll (best known as Bull from Night Court and Berle’s son-in-law). Ed Begley arrived late and had to sit outside with the “ordinary people”.

  Paul Bern

  (PAUL LEVY)

  Born December 3, 1889

  Died Labor Day (September 5) 1932

  Suicidal executive? The name of Paul Bern would be all but forgotten but for his marriage to Thirties sex symbol Jean Harlow and for the strange manner of his death. Bern was born in Wandsbek, Germany the son of Julius Levy and Henrietta Hirsh. The family emigrated to America in 1899 and settled first in Newark, New Jersey, then at 3781 Third Avenue in New York. He became an actor, studying at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. In 1911 he moved in with one of his fellow students, 5́ 3˝ Dorothy Millette (b. Indianapolis 1886). They were together for ten years (until she was hospitalised) and right up to his death, Bern paid her bills and living expenses, $350 per month. In 1920 he landed a job writing for the Samuel Goldwyn Company. He moved from studio to studio before finally making his mark in 1923. Over the next two years he directed five silent films for Paramount. In 1929 he became production supervisor at MGM. Bern was a modest, cultured gentleman who shunned the false hilarity and the hectic revelry of Hollywood and ignored the glittering parties that were so fashionable in those early golden years of Tinseltown. In early 1930 Bern met blonde bombshell Jean Harlow and championed her cause (unsuccessfully) to Irving Thalberg. He may have not been successful professionally but he triumphed personally; Harlow and Bern were married on July 2, 1932, at her mother’s home. The news shocked Hollywood. No one had realised the intensity of their relationship. On the surface, the match seemed strange, perhaps ludicrous. Harlow was the epitome of everything glamorous, the embodiment of the Hollywood girl. Bern was exactly the opposite. Marriage between the two seemed improbable at best, disastrous at worst. Additionally, there was the untrue allegation that Bern was impotent. It was reported that Adela Rogers St. John, the famed Hollywood writer, had gone to see Jean after her engagement and learned Bern hadn’t told her about himself. “Then it’s true,” Harlow allegedly burst out, and began to cry. “But Paul loves me, for my mind, my spirit, my companionship, for me. He’s paid me the highest compliment I’ve ever had. No man has ever loved me before for what’s best in me.” Two months later he was dead. It was eleven years to the day since the Fatty Arbuckle scandal had enveloped Hollywood.

  CAUSE: Bern died from a bullet in the brain at 9820 Easton Drive, Beverly Hills. His death was officially classed as suicide, and was as unexpected as it was shocking. Those closest to Paul and Jean couldn’t, wouldn’t believe it. True, the couple had been seen to argue occasionally. Perhaps more than might be expected in two people after a mere eight weeks of marriage. There were no signs of depression in Bern. He’d been coming to the studio daily, putting in long hours on work (as well as a screenwriter, Bern had worked as a production executive and a director) that required tremendous concentration on detail. He could hardly have continued functioning if his despondency were so deep. Yet, it was widely presumed, he must have been secretly distraught; it seemed like a clear-cut case of suicide. The entire movie industry was taken by surprise, stunned by the tragic news. Harlow was visiting her mother at 1353 Club View Drive, Beverly Hills, at the time. When she heard about her husband’s death, she collapsed in tears, locked herself in a bedroom and, inconsolable with grief, refused to talk to anyone. The corpse was found by the chauffeur-cum-butler, John Herman Carmichael. He entered the master bedroom on the morning of September 6, to ask if Bern was ready for breakfast, and instead found his employer lying on the floor – between the bed and dresser, in a sea of blood – and promptly fainted. A .38 calibre gun, serial number 572972, was in Bern’s hand. On the table next to the bed was a note written in what auth
orities assured all was Bern’s hand. It was scribbled in a green Morocco-bound notebook, and stated, rather cryptically: Dearest Dear:

  Unfortuately [sic] this is the only way to make good the frightful wrong I have done you and to wipe out my abject humiliation. I Love you. Paul A postscript added: You understand that last night was [sic] only a comedy. Chief of Detectives Joe Taylor questioned Harlow about what her husband meant by the note. “I don’t know,” she replied. “I cannot by the wildest stretch of the imagination imagine what Paul meant in that note he left.” “Did he ever talk of suicide to you?” the detective asked. “He has often talked of suicide,” Harlow said, “but never with himself in mind, that I know of.” As is the case in every police inquiry, rumours rapidly gained currency. One of them had Jean and Paul quarrelling violently the night before he shot himself to death. “That is absolutely not so,” maintained Harlow. “There were no bad feelings between us.” Butler John Carmichael confirmed this. The note Bern left was interpreted thus by Jean’s stepfather, Marino Bello: “He was apologising to Jean for his suicide. If you marry a girl and soon afterward kill yourself, that is something to apologise for.” Dr Edward Brant Jones, Bern’s personal doctor, gave public assurances he would supply his patient’s clinical records in confidence to Coroner Frank A. Nance, and that they would show it was “impossible that any other person was involved in his death”. The suggestion that someone else might have had a hand in Bern’s death came from a curious piece of testimony that went unexplained. Housekeeper Winifred Carmichael told authorities that on Sunday night – the night before Bern’s body was found – she heard a car pull out of the driveway and roar away at high speed. The driver of the car was Dorothy Millette and she and Bern had argued violently. This revelation touched off reports that Bern was murdered. However, the inquest was held on September 8, 1932, at the Price-Daniel Mortuary, and the official finding was that Bern’s death was suicide, brought on by melancholia that apparently evolved from depression and overwork. And that was how it stayed for 50 years until Bern’s friend, screenwriter Samuel Marx, decided to investigate. By this time all the principle players in the saga were dead, and any influence they may have had was no more. Marx’s investigation produced circumstantial evidence that uncovered many of the fictions that had built up around Paul Bern. Apparently, Harlow and Bern did argue the night before he died but their disagreement was about where they lived – Harlow wanted to move – not his inability to consummate their match. The ‘suicide’ note was, indeed, written by Paul Bern and not a forgery. On September 6, 1932, Dorothy Millette left her San Francisco hotel room and boarded the Delta King, an overnight ferry to Sacramento. When police searched her room they discovered numerous fan magazines about the wedding of Bern and Harlow plus letters written by Bern to Millette severing their relationship for good. On the dresser was blotting paper, on which was imprinted a single word, reversed: “Justification”. On September 14, Millette’s body was found. Her death (on September 7, 1932), like Bern’s, was adjudged a suicide. On the fateful night she had visited Bern who was worried she might declare herself Mrs Bern and thus make him a bigamist. That would undoubtedly have ruined Harlow’s career. At first all seemed to go well. They sat by the pool and drank champagne, then Millette suggested they go for a swim. Bern agreed and that was when the arguments began. She stripped off her bathing costume and offered herself to him. He spurned her advances and went to the pool house to get changed. He slipped out of his trunks and stood there naked about to wrap himself in a dressing gown. Bern kept two guns in his bedroom and within seconds Millette was standing nude beside him pressing herself against him and, tragically, pressing one of his guns against his temple. She fired, killing Bern instantly. The powerful publicity machine at MGM swung into operation to protect its star from a murder scandal. According to Marx, following Louis B. Mayer’s orders, Bern’s body was moved to the bedroom, the gun wiped with oil to remove fingerprints and placed in the director’s hand. Mayer initially also removed the note that Bern had written to Harlow from his notebook by the bed, but was then persuaded to replace it – after all, it could serve suitably as a cryptic suicide note. Another theory has Bern killing himself fearful of the shame Dorothy Millette could bring him and Jean Harlow. Millette then committed suicide when she learned of Bern’s death. Whatever the truth, Jean Harlow was compassionate in the aftermath of events. She paid for Millette’s funeral and the headstone, which was engraved “Dorothy Millette Bern 1886–1932”. Harlow gave her in death something that Dorothy Millette never had in life – Paul Bern’s name.