Jimmy Stewart
Page 49
“It was a wonderful life.”—Leonard Klady, Variety reporter
“He was my favorite friend and he was a patriot.”—Lew Wasserman
“He was the quintessential American face. He loved the work and respected the people who made him a star. He was a role model and inspiration.”—Charlton Heston
“He was a shy, modest man who belonged to cinema nobility.”—Jack Valenti
“He taught me that it was possible to remain who you are and not be tainted by your environment. He was not an actor…he was the real thing.”—Kim Novak
“There is nobody like him today.”—June Allyson
“Robert Mitchum died last week of emphysema, while James Stewart succumbed to heart failure (As if). The more probable cause is that someone asked God what America was like, and in order to save time He decided to call a couple of expert witnesses.”—Anthony Lane, film critic for The New Yorker
“He was the most special actor I’ve ever worked with.”—Betty Hutton
“He was a great actor, a gentleman and a patriot.”—President Bill Clinton
“Jimmy Stewart’s modesty meant he never understood that greatness that others saw in him. We shared so many of life’s precious moments with him and his late wife, Gloria. We’ll miss him terribly but know they’re happy to be together. Our prayers are with his children during this very difficult time.”—Ronald and Nancy Reagan
“He was uniquely talented and a good friend.”—Frank Sinatra
“He was a gracious and generous man.”—Tom Capra, son of Frank Capra
“America has lost its role model and I’ve lost a great friend.”—Bob Hope
“He was one of the nicest, most unassuming persons I have known in my life. His career speaks for itself.”—Johnny Carson
“Farewell, Mr. Smith.”—Sony Pictures, in a full-page ad in the Hollywood Reporter
But none of these expressed the sense of both eternal joy and profound grief better than the two that follow. The first was from Jimmy’s daughter Kelly Stewart Harcourt, who said, immediately after the funeral, “My parents’ love and friendships with the familiar faces filling the church had sustained them…in the familiar closing line of It’s a Wonderful Life, no man is a failure who has friends. So here’s to our father, the richest man in town!”
And the second was from Karolyn Grimes, who played little Zuzu in that grand Capra film, whose petals represented the essence of life itself to young George Bailey. In her sixties when she heard of Jimmy’s passing, she said, simply, “I think there will be bells ringing tonight.”
Sources
RESEARCH INSTITUTIONS
The following research facilities were used by the author:
The Margaret Herrick Library of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Beverly Hills, California.
The New York Public Library, New York City.
The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, New York City.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Allyson, June, with Frances Spatz Leighton, June Allyson, New York: Putnam’s, 1982.
Auiler, Dan, Vertigo: The Making of a Hitchcock Classic, New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1998.
Basinger, Jeanine, The It’s a Wonderful Life Book, Norwalk, Conn.: The Easton Press, 2004.
Bazin, André, and Hugh Gray, translator, What Is Cinema, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992.
Bogdanovich, Peter, Peter Bogdanovitch’s Movie of the Week, New York: Ballantine, 1999.
Bogdanovich, Peter, Pieces of Time, New York: Arbor House/Esquire, 1973.
Bogdanovich, Peter, Who the Hell’s in It? New York: Knopf, 2004.
Brough, James, The Fabulous Fondas, New York: David McKay Company, 1973.
Campbell, Joseph, The Hero with a Thousand Faces, Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1972 (reprint edition, originally published in hardback in 1949).
Capra, Frank, The Name Above the Title: An Autobiography, New York: Macmillan, 1971.
Chandler, Charlotte, It’s Only a Movie: Alfred Hitchcock, A Personal Biography, New York: Simon & Schuster, 2005.
Cooke, Alistair, Alistair Cooke’s America, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1973.
Dewey, Donald, James Stewart: A Biography, Atlanta: Turner Publishing, 1996.
Dietrich, Marlene, Marlene Dietrich: My Life, New York: MacMillan, 1991.
Durgnat, Raymond, The Strange Case of Alfred Hitchcock, Cambridge: MIT Press, 1978.
Eyles, Allen, James Stewart, Briarcliff Manor, N.Y.: Stein and Day, 1984.
Fishgall, Gary, Pieces of Time: The Life of James Stewart, New York: Scribner, 1997.
Fonda, Jane, My Life So Far, New York: Random House, 2005.
Freedland, Michael, Jane Fonda: A Biography, New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1988.
Gabler, Neal, An Empire of Their Own, New York: Anchor, 1989.
Gardner, Gerald, The Censorship Papers: Movie Censorship Letters from the Hays Office, 1934 to 1968, New York: Dodd, Mead, 1987.
Gilbert, Julie, Opposite Attraction: The Lives of Erich Maria Remarque and Paulette Goddard, New York: Pantheon, 1995.
Grady, Billy, The Irish Peacock: The Confessions of a Legendary Talent Agent, New York: Arlington House, 1972.
Gussow, Mel, Don’t Say Yes Until I Finish Talking, New York: Doubleday, 1971.
Harris, Warren G., Clark Gable: A Biography, New York: Harmony Books, 2002.
Hayward, Brooke, Haywire, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1977.
Heston, Charlton, In the Arena, New York: Simon & Schuster, 1995.
Higham, Charles, Kate: The Life of Katharine Hepburn, New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 1975.
Laurents, Arthur, Original Story, New York: Knopf, 2000.
LeRoy, Mervyn, Mervyn LeRoy: Take One, New York: Hawthorn Books, 1974.
Logan, Josh, Josh: My Up and Down In and Out Life, New York: Delacorte Press, 1976.
Martin, Deana, with Wendy Holden, Memories Are Made of This, New York: Harmony Books, 2004.
McBride, Joseph, Frank Capra: The Catastrophe of Success, New York: Simon & Schuster, 1992.
McClure, Arthur, Ken D. Johnes, and Alfred E. Twomey, The Films of James Stewart, Cranbury, N.J.: A.S. Barnes and Company, 1970.
McDougal, Dennis, The Last Mogul: Lew Wasserman, MCA, and the Hidden History of Hollywood, New York: Crown, 1998.
McGilligan, Patrick, Alfred Hitchcock: A Life in Darkness and Light, New York: Regan Books, 2003.
Meyers, Jeffrey, Gary Cooper: American Hero, New York: Cooper Square Press, 1998.
Morris, Edmund, Dutch: A Memoir of Ronald Reagan, New York: Random House, 1999.
Newquist, Roy, Conversations with Joan Crawford, New York: Berkley Publishing Group, 1981.
Pickard, Roy, Jimmy Stewart: A Life in Film, New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1993 (originally published by Robert Hale, Ltd., England, 1992).
Quirk, Lawrence J., James Stewart: Behind the Scenes of a Wonderful Life, New York: Applause Books, 1997.
Quirk, Lawrence J., Margaret Sullavan: Child of Fate, New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1986.
Robbins, Jhan, Everybody’s Man: A Biography of Jimmy Stewart, New York: Putnam’s, 1985.
Sarris, Andrew, The American Cinema, New York: Dutton Paperback, 1968.
Sarris, Andrew, Confessions of a Cultist, New York: Simon & Schuster, 1971.
Sarris, Andrew, You Ain’t Heard Nothin’ Yet, New York: Oxford University Press, 1998.
Sarris, Andrew, The John Ford Murder Mystery, London: British Film Institute, 1976.
Schickel, Richard, The Men Who Made the Movies, New York: Atheneum, 1975.
Shipman, David, The Great Movie Stars: The Golden Years, New York: Bonanza Books, 1970.
Smith, Starr, Jimmy Stewart Bomber Pilot, St. Paul, Minn.: Zenith Press, 2005.
Spada, James, Grace: The Secret Lives of a Princess, New York: Doubleday, 1987.
Spoto, Donald, The Dark Side of Genius: The Life of Alfred Hitchcock, New York: Ballantine Books, 1983.
Teichmann, Howar
d (as told to), Fonda: My Life, New York: New American Library, 1981.
Thomas, Bob, King Cohn, New York: Bantam Books, 1967.
Thomas, Tony, A Wonderful Life: The Films and Career of James Stewart, Secaucus, N.J.: Citadel Press, 1997.
Thomson, David, The New Biographical Dictionary of Film: Expanded and Updated, New York: Knopf, 2004.
Truffaut, François, Hitchcock/Truffaut, New York: Touchstone Books, 1985.
Wagner, Walter, Beverly Hills: Inside the Golden Ghetto, New York: Grosset and Dunlap, 1976.
Weinberg, Herman G., The Lubitsch Touch: A Critical Study, New York: Dutton, 1968.
Wiley, Mason and Damien Bona, Inside Oscar: The Unofficial History of the Academy Awards, New York: Ballantine, 1986.
Winters, Shelley, Shelley II, New York: Simon & Schuster, 1989.
Wood, Ean, Dietrich: A Biography, Cornwall, United Kingdom: MPG Books, 2002.
Notes
FRONTMATTER
Thomas Mitchell Lawrence Quirk, from an interview with Mitchell, referring to the actor’s experience working with Stewart in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.
“That’s the great thing” Peter Bogdanovich, Pieces of Time, New York: Arbor House/Esquire, 1973, 140. (Bogdanovich writes Stewart’s words with an implied accent—“and Gawd helps ya,” which the author has eliminated for the sake of clarity.)
INTRODUCTION
“All the great stars” Allen Eyles, James Stewart, Briarcliff Manor, N.Y.: Stein and Day, 1984, 17.
“His type is” From a studio biography by house publicist Howard Strickling, written in 1938 for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios, Culver City, California. There is no identifiable source for the “fan” who wrote the letter.
Stewart’s Oscar for Best Actor Shortly after receiving the Oscar, the always gracious Stewart declared that his friend Fonda should have won. He was not alone in that sentiment. Many both in the Academy and the general public believed the award rightly belonged to Fonda but was likely denied him for two reasons. The first was that the politically conservative Academy would not want to reward Fonda’s portrayal of a character as “radical” as Tom Joad. The second reason, many believed, was that Stewart should have won the previous year for his much stronger performance in Capra’s Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, and felt his award was something of a payback for that oversight. The 1939 Best Actor Oscar went instead to Robert Donat for his performance as the title character in Sam Wood’s Goodbye, Mr. Chips, over Jimmy Stewart; Clark Gable, in Victor Fleming’s Gone With the Wind; Laurence Olivier, in William Wyler’s Wuthering Heights; and Mickey Rooney, in Busby Berkeley’s Babes in Arms.
CHAPTER 1
“The Garden of Eden” Strickling, MGM bio.
Jimsy Bogdanovich, Pieces of Time.
“I worshipped my parents” quoted by Lawrence Quirk, a respected veteran show business journalist and biographer, in James Stewart: Behind the Scenes of a Wonderful Life, New York: Applause Books, 1997. It must be noted, however, that Quirk gives little or no direct information on his sources, particularly quotes, and that his biography, more of a memory piece than a chronological fact sheet, offers no separate section of source notes.
“I wouldn’t say he was a loner” Ibid., 6.
“Doing things with my father” Floyd Miller, “This Was My Father,” McCall’s, May 1964.
“You are the” Miller in McCall’s.
Now, present in spirit This is an idea that informs the very structure of the Presbyterian Church, rooted in the Christian-Judeo belief in an invisible but all-pervasive God, and numerous Greek mythological figures, most often in the story of the virgin motherhood, wherein physical sex is bypassed as a method of impregnation in Mary, the physical absence but spiritual presence of the divine. More information on this subject may be found in the illuminating works of scholar Joseph Campbell’s classic The Hero with a Thousand Faces.
“There were…things” Quirk, James Stewart, 10.
“Jim claimed that he never” Quoted by Quirk, James Stewart, 11.
Stewart’s height and weight The Stewart side of the family was traditionally tall; Alexander was 6 foot 4 inches. Neither side had a history of underweight. Jimmy attributed a childhood bout with scarlet fever accompanied by a serious kidney infection as the reason for his lifelong slenderness.
“hard work” People, June 6, 1983.
CHAPTER 2
“There wasn’t a role” From a June 26, 1964, 20th Century Fox studio press release interview to promote Erasmus with Freckles, released as Dear Brigitte. The original title was the name of the novel from which the film was adapted, by John Haase, and the film’s shooting title, until it was changed, to capitalize on Brigitte Bardot’s otherwise unbilled appearance. The actress, at the height of her American popularity, refused to be listed in the credits for her cameo appearance in the film.
No steady girlfriends Stewart mentions this fact many times in numerous interviews, including in Quirk, James Stewart (13), which quotes Bill Swope: “He said he was inhibited around them. He had the classic variation, even in those tender years, of the Madonna-Whore complex. Good girls were to be respected, bad girls avoided…. His mother’s well meant injunctions had sunk in too well—more than she had intended, perhaps.”
“I don’t think” Alistair Cooke, Alistair Cooke’s America, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1973, 332.
“We had a real” New York Sun, May 2, 1933.
“excellent…swaggering…confident manner” Mercersburg News, February 25, 1928.
“We got there” Princeton Weekly Bulletin, March 5, 1990.
“Princeton and Jim Stewart” Strickling, MGM bio, in this particular instance, although the sentiment and the lines appear identical in numerous later MGM studio “bios.”
“Look out” and “Kiss her” Ibid., 11.
“It wasn’t Jim” Ibid., 12.
“Good Gawd” Josh Logan, Josh: My Up and Down In and Out Life, New York: Delacorte Press, 1976, 36.
“He walked away…” Logan, Josh, 36.
“gangling” Logan, Josh, 41.
“excellence easily equals” Time, exact date unknown.
“in order not to waste” Quirk, James Stewart, 42.
“an ingratiating personality” and “of no particular interest” As a talent representative who reported directly to Louis B. Mayer and Irving Thalberg, it was Grady’s job to travel the country scouting for new talent wherever he could find it, including at the many college performances he attended. Grady had begun his career as an agent in New York, where from 1917 to 1929 he handled the careers of W. C. Fields and Al Jolson; he played a key role in bringing them both to Hollywood after successful stage careers. Grady helped discover numerous future stars, including, besides Stewart, Eleanor Parker, Joan Blondell, Rock Hudson, and Van Johnson.
“Returning to Princeton” Logan, Josh, 32.
“I went home” Louise Sweeney, The Christian Science Monitor, February 19, 1980. Portions of the quote (“Mother, bless her heart…Dad shaking his head…No Stewart ever,” etc.) are from an unattributed quote of Stewart, in Jhan Robbins, Everybody’s Man, New York: Putnam’s, 1985, 29. (Robbins is one of the many Stewart bios that offer no source notes.)
CHAPTER 3
“If I hadn’t become” Bogdanovich, Pieces of Time, 130.
“The [founders of ] the University Players” Donald Dewey, James Stewart, Atlanta: Turner Publishing, 1996, 102 (unattributed).
“It was through” Logan, Josh, 33.
“Living with Sullavan” Teichmann, Fonda: My Life, New York: New American Library, 1981, 64.
“She was too” Ibid.
“She delighted” Logan, Josh, 33.
“You’re my new” Teichmann, Fonda, 68.
“The rest of the time” Gladwin Hill, New York Times, July 13, 1947.
“He’d watch” Jhan Robbins, Everybody’s Man, New York: Putnam’s, 1985, 30 (unattributed).
“howlingly funny” Logan, Josh, 35.
“Perhaps” Ibid., 36.
>
“The reviews were” Ibid.
“I’ll never forget” Stewart, from local newspaper clippings in the collections of the Historical and Genealogical Society of Indiana County, Pennsylvania, and the Jimmy Stewart Museum, and also from portions of interviews originally conducted and referenced by Gary Fishgall in his book Pieces of Time: The Life and Times of James Stewart, New York: Scribner, 1997.
“Oh yeah,” Logan, Josh, 40.
“icy” and “cold, shut-you-down” Jane Fonda, My Life So Far, New York: Random House, 2005.
CHAPTER 4
“It was a very” Jimmy Stewart, interviewed by Paul Lindenschmid and John Strauss, Ink magazine, Winter 1977.
“I was having a rough” Jimmy Stewart, personal notes and diaries, June 1964, Historical and Genealogical Society of Indiana County, Pennsylvania.
“I’m afraid Jim” Teichmann, Fonda, 78.
“We finished the…” Ibid.
“I played the accordion” Stewart, from local newspaper clippings in the collections of the Historical and Genealogical Society of Indiana County, Pennsylvania, and the Jimmy Stewart Museum.
“Appearing in ‘Yellow Jack’” Stewart, from local newspaper clippings in the collections of the Historical and Genealogical Society of Indiana County, Pennsylvania, and the Jimmy Stewart Museum.
“Your soldiers” Strickling, MGM bio.
CHAPTER 5
[Stewart] has Collier’s magazine, 1936, exact date unknown.
“Well, [on my way to California] I went home” Teichmann, Fonda, 99.
“Gosh, I never” The Spencer Tracy anecdote is from a 1968 press release written by Jack Holland to promote the release of Bandolero!
“‘I saw it” Logan memory of the event is from Logan, Josh, 89–90.
“that great new” in Lawrence Quirk, James Stewart, 59.
“She was protective” Ibid., 61.
“young all-American” Quoted in Fishgall, Pieces of Time, 82.
“They were both” Brooke Hayward, Haywire, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1977, 87–88.