Fade to Black: A Book of Movie Obituaries

by Paul Donnelley

  CAUSE: On April 10, 1972, Betty and Dick Haymes presented the Oscar for Best Scoring. During the ceremony Betty felt a pressing in her chest, but continued anyway. After the show she was due to fly out of Los Angeles but had difficulty breathing and was taken to St John’s Hospital, Santa Monica, where she was diagnosed with lung cancer. On May 6, 1972, she underwent an operation to see if the cancer had spread to her lymph glands. It had. She underwent chemotherapy and convalesced at home, 164 Tropicana Road, Las Vegas. Bills needed to be paid and so she returned to work. The cancer returned with a vengeance and she was readmitted to St John’s in September 1972, where she underwent yet more surgery. The cancer’s advance in her lungs had been halted but it had spread to her intestines. Once again she returned to work. On April 24, 1973, a spokesman at St John’s announced Betty was ill with a duodenal ulcer. Not long after, she underwent a hysterectomy. Betty was sent home but later readmitted to St John’s where she died, around 5pm, aged 56. Her funeral was held at All Saints Episcopal Church, Beverly Hills. Betty was cremated and her ashes interred in the Sanctuary of Dawn at Inglewood Memorial Park, 720 East Florence Avenue, Inglewood, California 90301. After Betty’s death her daughter Jessie visited her mother’s safe deposit box. At the very bottom, underneath a few documents, lay an envelope containing a note. Betty had written: “Sorry, there’s nothing more.”

  FURTHER READING: Betty Grable: The Reluctant Movie Queen – Doug Warren (London: Robson Books, 1982); Pin-Up: The Tragedy Of Betty Grable – Spero Pastos (New York: Berkeley, 1987).

  Lew Grade, Baron Grade of Elstree

  (LOUIS WINOGRADSKY)

  Born December 25, 1906

  Died December 13, 1998

  The ultimate showman. Lord Grade was born in Tokmak, near Odessa, Ukraine, the eldest of four children, three boys and a girl, of Isaac Winogradsky (b. Odessa, Russia, 1879, d. Hammersmith Hospital, London, October, 1935 of Hodgkin’s disease), and his wife, Golda (later Olga) Mary Eisenstadt (b. Alexandrovsk, Russia, 1886, d. Grosvenor House Hotel, Park Lane, Mayfair, London, January 16, 1981) who married exactly nine months before his birth. The other children were Boris (later Barnet, then (Sir) Bernard Delfont, then Baron Delfont of Stepney; b. Tokmak, September 5, 1909, d. July 28, 1994), Lazarus (later Leslie) (b. London, June 3, 1916, d. France, October 15, 1979 from the effects of a stroke) and Rita (b. London, January 23, 1925). Isaac Winogradsky was an enthusiastic businessman but all his endeavours ended in failure; it was his wife who was the powerhouse in the family. In 1912 Isaac Winogradsky moved his family from Russia to London’s East End. Young Louis was sent to Rochelle Street School in Shoreditch, but because he could not speak English was put in a class with younger children. A keen intelligence, a photographic memory and the ability to learn quickly resulted in him being more fluent than his parents. He won a scholarship to college but decided to work instead and, aged 15, took a job in a clothing company. Two years later, with his father, he set up an embroidery factory. Adopting the name Louis Grad, he became a dancer and called himself the world champion Charleston dancer after winning a contest at the Albert Hall that was judged by the impresario C.B. Cochran and Fred Astaire. In 1926 he became a professional hoofer and toured Britain and Europe (appearing at the Moulin Rouge, a Parisian newspaper misspelled his name as Grade and he accepted the mistake) as “Lew Grade, the Dancer with the Humorous Feet”. In the following decade he retired from dancing and began a new career as a show business agent. With Joe Collins, the father of actor Joan (b. Bayswater, London, May 23, 1933) and novelist Jackie (b. Fordwych Road, Hampstead, north London, October 4, 1937), Grade formed the Collins and Grade Agency and booked acts that he had seen when he was touring as a dancer. During the Second World War he served briefly as an entertainment officer in the army but left because he was unfit for duty – the Charleston had wrecked his knees. On June 23, 1942, at Caxton Hall register office in London, he married Kathleen Sheila Moody (b. June 23, 1921), a singer and dancer and formerly one of Beams’ Breezy Babes. Kathy Grade was a Roman Catholic and, as a result, Olga Winogradsky refused to attend the ceremony, although the two women later became good friends. In 1952 they adopted a son, Paul (b. August 1952), after Kathy had several miscarriages. Grade claimed that his marriage was the “best deal I ever made”. In January 1943 he and Collins split and Grade took over his brother’s business while Leslie was serving his country. On demob the brothers formed Lew and Leslie Grade Ltd. Despite his blustery exterior, Grade was nervous and to hide his fear he took to smoking huge cigars. In time Lew and Leslie Grade Ltd became the second largest theatrical agency in Europe after William Morris. In America they represented, among others, Jack Benny, Bob Hope, Lena Horne, Danny Kaye, Dorothy Lamour and Louis Armstrong. The advent of independent television in Britain in the Fifties allowed them to expand their portfolio. With theatre impresarios Prince Littler and Val Parnell, who ran the Stoll Moss group, and Binkie Beaumont, Grade formed the Independent Television Corporation (ITC). The company took a stake in ATV which had the franchise for weekday television in London and weekend TV in the Midlands. ATV moved into America, purchased Elstree film studios and, in 1965, took over Stoll Moss, Britain’s biggest theatre chain and then bought Northern Songs, which had the rights to The Beatles’ song publishing, and Pye Records. Among the ATV fare was Emergency Ward Ten, The Saint, The Power Game, Danger Man, The Prisoner, The Persuaders, Stingray, Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet and Space 1999. In 1976, in a joint project with Italian television, he produced the biblical epic, Moses The Lawgiver, starring Burt Lancaster. He followed it with the even more ambitious Jesus Of Nazareth (1977), and claimed that Pope Paul VI had suggested the film during an audience at the Vatican. Pope John Paul II was a fan and Grade became one of the few Jews to be a papal knight. Grade’s next success was The Muppet Show, an offshoot of the multi-Emmy award-winning The Julie Andrews Hour. The puppet show ran for 120 episodes over five years and spawned five films and numerous videos. Grade also produced The Tamarind Seed (1974), The Return Of The Pink Panther (1974), Farewell My Lovely (1975), The Eagle Has Landed (1976), The Cassandra Crossing (1976), The Boys From Brazil (1978) and The Big Sleep (1978). His Raise The Titantic (1980) was a costly flop prompting Grade to quip, “It would have been cheaper to lower the Atlantic.” Two films were more successful – On Golden Pond (1981) and Sophie’s Choice (1982), although the euphoria was tempered by a court battle with the Australian entrepreneur Robert Holmes à Court that resulted in Grade leaving the company amid much rancour. In June 1982 Grade became chairman and chief executive of the London-based Embassy Communications International but the only noteworthy film was Champions (1984), the tale of jockey Bob Champion who beat cancer to win the Grand National. His last film was Something To Believe In (1998) but it was not a notable success. Lew Grade was knighted in 1969 and made a peer in 1976. His only hobby was work and he was usually at his desk by 7am. He rarely took holidays and loved making and executing deals. He relied on handshakes rather than written contracts and expected others to honour the same. Lew Grade, like Samuel Goldwyn, often found quotes and anecdotes attributed to him. Many he denied but some he confessed to. Among his pearls: “All my shows are great. Some of them are bad, but they are all great.” One day he and Leslie were in a restaurant when Leslie suddenly jumped up, “I’ve forgotten to lock the office safe.” “Don’t worry,” said Lew, “we are both here.” When car phones started to become fashionable Bernie Delfont had one fitted in his Rolls-Royce so Lew had to get one to keep up with his brother. One day on the five minute drive from his flat to his office, he rang Delfont. “Hang on,” said Bernie, “I’m on the other line.” During pre-production on Jesus Of Nazareth, Grade was asked the names of the disciples. “Well, there’s Luke and Matthew and John … I’ll let you know the others when I’ve finished reading the script.” He denied all of these had ever occurred. Ones he did admit to include: “My English isn’t so good. I leave you to put in any grammar;” “The trouble with this business is that the stars keep 90 per
cent of my earnings;” “When I get home, I have my food in front of the TV, then I start phoning. You get much better results phoning people when they’re quiet and happy. I love the phone. I don’t believe in writing letters;” “When I whisper I’m still shouting” and “I have one week’s holiday a year. I don’t really need any more. When I’ve made a sale, that’s a holiday.”

  CAUSE: Still working, he died of heart failure in the London Clinic, 20 Devonshire Place. He was 91. Three days later he was buried in the Liberal Jewish cemetery in Willesden, north London. He left £8,423,342.

  FURTHER READING: The Grades – Hunter Davies (London, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1981); Still Dancing My Story – Lew Grade (London: Collins, 1987).

  Sheilah Graham

  (LILY SHEIL)

  Born September 15, 1904

  Died November 17, 1988

  Gossip columnist. Born in London, the youngest of six Jewish children, Sheilah Graham became one of Hollywood’s best-known gossip columnists and was equally infamous for her affair with married writer F. Scott Fitzgerald. The affair began when they met in the legendary Garden of Allah (a notorious hotel complex owned by Alla Nazimova), at 8150 Sunset Boulevard, on July 14, 1937, and lasted until his death from a heart attack on December 21, 1940, aged 44, in Hayworth Avenue, Hollywood, California. Rumours persist that they were having sex when he expired, although she claims he was sitting in an armchair reading The Princeton Alumni Weekly when he suffered a coronary, stood up and fell to the floor, where he expired. When the affair began he was shocked by her admission to having taken eight lovers before him. Incredibly, during all their time together, she never saw him naked. Like many Hollywood writers, Graham appeared in a few films, usually playing herself. They included That’s Right You’re Wrong (1939), Jiggs And Maggie In Society (1947), Impact (1949), Challenge The Wild (1954) and College Confidential (1960).

  CAUSE: She died aged 84 in West Palm Beach, Florida, of natural causes.

  FURTHER READING: A State Of Heat – Sheilah Graham (London: W.H. Allen, 1973); My Hollywood: A Celebration And A Lament – Sheilah Graham (London: Michael Joseph, 1984); Intimate Lies – Robert Weston (New York: HarperCollins, 1995).

  Stewart Granger

  (JAMES LABLACHE STEWART)

  Born May 6, 1913

  Died August 16, 1993

  English swashbuckler. Born at 2am on a May day in 1913 in Old Brompton Road, London SW 3, Granger was a handsome, smooth actor who changed his name to avoid confusion with the American actor of the same name. He made his film début in 1938 in a movie called So This Is London and went on to appear in Fanny By Gaslight (1943), Captain Boycott (1947), King Solomon’s Mines (1950), Scaramouche (1952), The Prisoner Of Zenda (1952), Beau Brummell (1954), Bhowani Junction (1956) and many, many more. He married three times – to actress Elspeth March (September 10, 1938–April 13, 1948), actress Jean Simmons (December 21, 1950– August 12, 1960) and Caroline Lecerf (June 12, 1964–1969). Scaramouche was a dramatic swashbuckling film starring Granger in the title role plus Mel Ferrer, Eleanor Parker and Janet Leigh. The producer hired Jean Heremans, a European fencing champion, to teach the cast how to buckle their swashes. His teaching was not altogether successful. In one scene Heremans stood in for Mel Ferrer to ‘fight’ Granger. They began to fight but Granger’s sword broke and a piece of metal flew off into Heremans’ eye cutting his eyelid but, fortunately, not his eyeball. Later during filming another sword fight resulted in Granger being stabbed in the face when he didn’t parry an attack with sufficient might. Unsurprisingly, Granger was getting rather worried and asked about insurance. He was told there wasn’t any because none of the other stars had ever asked for it. He sought out MGM’s Mr Fix-it Eddie Mannix (whose wife had an affair with Superman George Reeve). Eventually, Mannix agreed to Granger’s demands. In another scene a chandelier was to fall towards Granger and he was to roll out of the way and continue fighting. An elaborate mechanism was constructed to stop the iron chandelier a foot above Granger so the camera would be able to get the most dramatic of shots. Granger was no fool and asked to see the device in action before he lay beneath it. The director was unhappy. The setting up had taken an hour and would take a further sixty minutes to reset it. Anyway, the man who had arranged it was the best in the business. Nonetheless, Granger was adamant. The order was given and the chandelier began its descent and didn’t stop until it embedded itself two inches into the ground. The director threw up and, to add insult to injury, Granger found out that the insurance policy he had fought so hard for hadn’t become operative! The slip-ups continued on the film. In another scene he was due to fight on the ledge of a theatre box 20 feet above the ground. A special corset had been designed with a wire attached to the ceiling in case he fell. During rehearsals the corset prevented Granger from moving freely so he took it off. Back on the ledge he fell and landed, hurting his shoulder, an injury that would trouble him for the rest of his life. Finally, Granger was scheduled to ‘fight’ Mel Ferrer across the theatre seats. The seating had been bought from a cinema and were the usual tip-up variety. Both actors were warned not to let their legs slip down the gap. As the ‘fight’ progressed, vainglory got the better of Granger and, as he performed a dramatic slash with his sword, his leg fell down the gap and he collapsed. Luckily, he twisted himself as he fell but the seat was ripped from its mooring with a tremendous bang. Granger lay stunned on the floor as the assistant director rushed up to him. “Oh, Jesus Christ, he’s killed himself.” Granger’s sense of mischievousness took over and he lay still, trying not to breathe. “It’s bad George, he’s not breathing. I think the poor bastard’s dead.” Then came the words that sum up Hollywood from director George Sidney. “What the hell are we going to do? The film’s only half-finished.” Granger let out a choke, “Call a doctor, you mercenary prick.” To top all that, Granger was approached by a fan at the première who marvelled at the work by the ‘stuntman’. When Granger said he had done all his own stunts, he was met with derision. “Oh, come on, Mr Granger. We know actors like you never take risks. We know it’s someone else.”