370 “He loved the whole experience,” author’s interview with Lon McAllister, December 1992.
371 “oddly dull and witless,” New York Times, March 12, 1945.
Flights of Fancy
375 “could match Tallulah,” Lawrence Langner, The Magic Curtain: The Story of a Life in Two Fields, Theatre and Invention, by the Founder of the Theatre Guild. New York: Dutton, 1951.
375 “I’m still just Sophie Wing,” Philip Barry, Foolish Notion, published script in Burns Mantle, ed., The Best Plays of 1944–45.
375 “thoroughly bewildering,” Boston Post, February 6, 1945.
379 “the kind of figure,” Variety, October 3, 1945.
Bested by Brando
384 “in some ways an odd choice,” Jean Cocteau, translated by Ronald Duncan, The Eagle Has Two Heads, typescript, LPA.
385 “I’ll break my nose,” author’s interview with Eleanor Wilson, July 1992.
385 “He hated acting,” author’s interview with Herbert Kenwith, September 1994.
386 “a performance far surpassing,” author’s interview with Martin Manulis, April 1993.
387 “he was really magnificent,” Show Business magazine, op. cit.
Public and Private Lives
391 “Who’s yacht is that?” Noel Coward, Private Lives, published script, Doubleday.
392 “It was absolutely outrageous,” author’s interview with Buff Cobb, February 1994.
394 “a bit coarse in texture,” Graham Payn and Sheridan Morley, eds. The Noel Coward Diaries. Boston: Little, Brown, 1982.
395 “You were so gay and sweet,” included in Rawls, op. cit.
398 “If my breast was savage,” TB.
399 “as lonely as I was,” Florence Desmond, Florence Desmond. London: Harrap, 1953.
Skidding
401 “Anything I do that you don’t like,” author’s interview with Phil Arthur, October 1994.
404 “Take care of yourself,” included in Rawls, op. cit.
405 “the audience eating out of her hands,” Carol Channing, Just Lucky I Guess: A Memoir of Sorts. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2002.
406 “Mr. Dewey is neat,” speech reproduced in TB.
406 “Miss Bankhead’s rough magnetism,” Edwin McArthur, Flagstad: A Personal Memoir. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1965.
406 “wanted to tear that jockstrap,” author’s interview with William Weslow, July 1993.
409 “Tallu and Lady were like sisters,” Donald Clarke, Wishing on the Moon: The Life and Times of Billie Holiday. New York: Viking, 1994.
409 “Holiday’s dressing room door,” author’s interview with William Dufty, August 1994.
409 “she’s all over her,” Clarke, op. cit.
410 “she is essentially a child at heart,” letter from Tallulah to J. Edgar Hoover, FBI Tallulah Bankhead file.
412 “I never saw an actress so cooperative,” Brian, op. cit.
412 “she always built on it,” Irving Rapper to Lee Israel, LPA.
412 “the disgraceful state Miss Bankhead was in,” included in Rudy Behlmer, Inside Warner Brothers (1935–1951). New York: Viking, 1985.
412 “three or four things that upset me,” author’s interview with William Orr, November 1993.
414 “Cronin immediately confessed,” Donald Seawell to Lee Israel, February 22, 1971, LPA.
414 “censured Miss Bankhead,” New York Times, January 17, 1951.
415 “the last she’d ever give,” Gill, op. cit.
Mixed Highs and Lows
419 “I’m going to do some broadcasts,” New York World Telegram and Sun, September 29, 1950.
420 “outraged bellow of professional rage,” Collier’s, January 13, 1951.
422 “I have nightmares,” New York Times, November 26, 1950.
422 “They were wild,” author’s interview with Bert Cowlan, December 1993.
423 “It was very quiet,” author’s interview with Fran Bushkin, October 1993.
Stateless
429 “shoot both counsel and defendant,” Time, December 24, 1951.
429 “with the greatest reluctance and regret,” coverage of the trial comes from the New York Times, December 11–29, 1951.
432 “vain, rude, and temperamental,” Christian Science Monitor, October 9, 1951.
432 “She ordered her,” author’s interview with Fred Morritt, May 1994.
432 “she kept so much inside herself,” Donald Seawell, op. cit.
432 “I’m sincere when I say I’m grateful,” letter from Tallulah to Dee Engelbach, December 1, 1951, included in Gill. op. cit.
433 “frustrations, hostilities and resentments,” American Weekly, October 5, 1952.
433 “a pallid recital of parts played and notices received,” Saturday Review of Literature, September 27, 1952.
434 “distinguished from the bilge,” New York Times Book Review, December 7, 1952.
435 “very charming,” New York Times, December 23, 1952.
435 “a perfectly strange woman,” author’s interview with Dean Fuller, June 1993.
435 “proves to be socko,” Variety, May 27, 1953.
437 “at one time or another,” undated clipping, San Francisco Performing Arts Library.
437 “foolish, strident,” Hollis Alpert, Saturday Review, July 18, 1953.
Pearls Before Swine
439 “dignity, beauty, and private conviction,” Harriet Van Horne, New York World-Telegram, January 6, 1954.
439 “faint mocking overtones,” New York Herald Tribune, January 6, 1954.
439 “where she belongs,” Chicago Tribune, January 6, 1954, unidentified clipping, LPA.
439 “a fine actress,” New York World-Telegram and Sun, January 6, 1954.
440 “willful and out of it,” author’s interview with Arthur Penn, February 1995.
440 “talk to me about it,” author’s interview with Hugh Reilly, July 1992.
440 “knew what she wanted,” author’s interview with Mary Webster, July 1994.
440 “the first one,” author’s interview with Werner Klemperer, April 1992.
442 “the victim of her talents, John Mason Brown, The Saturday Review of Literature, October 2, 1954.
The Hallelujah Chorus
447 “go to a fucking ball game,” author’s interview with Ray Foster, January 1993.
447 “a darling sense of humor,” New York Post, December 9, 1955.
452 “to prove I’m a dramatic actress,” interview by William Hawkins, New York World-Telegram and Sun, February 11, 1956.
452 “weeded out every Tallulahism,” Jean Dalrymple, From the Last Row: A Personal History of the New York City Center of Music and Drama Inc. Clifton, N.J.: J.T. White, 1975.
453 “I’ve tried as hard as I can,” author’s interview with J. Frank Lucas.
453 “pseudo-sophisticated laughter,” Cue, February 22, 1956.
453 “All in a bunch home from their little bridge party,” Tennessee Williams, A Streetcar Named Desire. New York: New Directions, 1947.
455 “a new dimension never encountered,” Plays and Players, April 1956.
455 “Are there any gays out there?,” author’s interview with Ted Hook, May 1983.
The Nadir
456 “couldn’t really carry a tune,” author’s interview with Peter Howard, December 1993.
456 “it hadn’t come out right,” author’s interview with Christopher Hewett, September 1993.
457 “Somerset Maugham” quoted in Jeffrey L. Carrier, Tallulah Bankhead: A Bio-Bibliography. New York: Greenwood Press, 1991.
458 “perfectly nice to work with,” author’s interview with Jay Harnick, February 1994.
458 “unprecedented,” Variety, May 9, 1956.
459 “startling high kicks,” New York World-Telegram and Sun, July 19, 1956.
461 “who expressed himself better,” author’s interview with Randolph Carter, March 1993.
462 “making a great effort,” author’s interview with Irma Hurley, Ap
ril 1993.
463 “she cared about being perfect,” author’s interview with Miles White, October 1992.
465 “fractured bones,” Cue, February 9, 1957.
468 “I’m fifty-four,” Even in extremis, apparently, Tallulah was coy about her age. Hurley explicitly recalled her saying “fifty-four,” but she had just turned fifty-five.
Halloween Madness
472 “She took a little blocking,” author’s interview with Warren Kemmerling, June 1993.
473 “went flying into the night,” author’s interview with Leslie Cutler, May 1993.
473 “a terrible scene,” author’s interview with Ed Strum, April 1993.
476 “I’m not going to look like Tallulah,” author’s interview with Alvin Colt, October 1992.
481 “still be racist Dixiecrats,” Washington News, October 18, 1958.
481 “rather baffles the audience,” New York Post, October 19, 1958.
483 “not saddened audiences,” San Francisco Examiner, December 28, 1958.
In Retreat
485 “I haven’t heard a bloody word you’ve said,” New York Herald Tribune, April 14, 1959.
486 “a general checkup,” The Daily News, May 23, 1959.
486 “I thought I was a friend of yours,” January 12, 1955 [actually ’56], included in Robert O’Meally, Lady Day: The Many Faces of Billie Holiday. New York: Arcade Publishing, 1991.
488 “the kid she wanted to have,” author’s interview with Harvey Shain, September 1995.
489 “I read avidly,” Kobal, op. cit.
489 “I think it’s the only part,” Joseph Morganstern, “A Hurricane Heads Here on the Double,” January 29, 1961.
490 “I had relatives in politics,” unidentified clipping, LPA.
490 “a strong director,” author’s interview with Robert Fryer, March 1993.
490 “The boy was a man,” Mary Chase, “How Midgie Was Born,” The Philadelphia Inquirer Magazine, December 18, 1960.
491 “Tallulah’s drug addiction,” author’s interview with Anne Sargeant, September 2003.
492 “a far more consequential person,” review printed in souvenir program for Here Today, LPA.
492 “Tallulah’s ruthless honesty,” author’s interview with Robert Whitehead, March 1993.
495 “make a great president,” New York Times, August 14, 1960.
495 “her special and overwhelming ability,” Henry Hewes, Saturday Review of Literature, February 25, 1961.
496 “a wonderfully accomplished actress,” Alan Pryce-Jones, Theatre Arts, April 1961.
Last Train
498 “beautifully staged,” unpublished memoir, read at the Player’s Club.
498 “less fun and more nursemaid,” Lee Israel, Miss Tallulah Bankhead. New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1972.
499 “We had a wonderful time,” author’s interview with Jack Sydow, March 1993.
499 “be able to hear you,” author’s interview with Bill Story, May 1994.
501 “I’d promised my friend,” Kobal. op. cit.
501 “virtually on hands and knees,” Richard Coe, Washington Post, October 26, 1963.
501 “pronounced it ‘superb,’ ” Tallulah Bankhead, “Tallulah Tells All,” New York Herald Tribune, December 15, 1963.
501 “drunk as a skunk,” author’s interview with John Carlyle, March 1994.
502 “You bore me,” author’s interview with Patience Cleveland, March 1994.
504 “Sanford was summoned,” author’s interview with Isabel Sanford, March 1994.
505 “I have to give it to her,” author’s interview with Martin Aronstein, March 1993.
505 “working with a cripple,” author’s interview with Konrad Matthaei, February 1995.
508 “She’s more afraid of,” Tennessee Williams, The Milk Train Doesn’t Stop Here Anymore. Norfolk, Conn.: New Directions, 1964.
508 “Miss Bankhead, here we go,” author’s interview with Sara Neece, September 1983.
510 “What is there to say?,” January 15, 1964, included in Rawls, op. cit.
Home to London
512 “It threw the performance,” author’s interview with Emory Bass, September 1993.
514 “a bit better than the usual,” interview by Eugene Archer, New York Times, July 19, 1964.
516 “darling only to a mummy,” New York Times, May 23, 1966.
521 “the saving grace,” Life, April 9, 1965.
Winding Down
522 “wanted to do what she could to help,” Brian, op. cit.
524 “I never even go to the theater,” New York World-Telegram and Sun, March 28, 1966.
525 “Yurka was led to contemplate,” Blanche Yurka, Bohemian Girl: Blanche Yurka’s Theatrical Life. Athens, OH: Ohio University Press, 1970.
526 “Tallulah was so adaptable,” author’s interview with Brook [Seawell] Ashley, May 1994.
528 “Hellman wrote a piece,” “The Time of the Foxes,” New York Times, October 22, 1967.
528 “amiably refuting her,” New York Times, October 29, 1967.
529 “I must do it,” author’s interview with Ann Rutherford Dozier, July 1993.
530 “just a consummate professional,” author’s interview with Charles Fitzimmons, July 1993.
530 “a level and a half,” author’s interview with Robert Mintz, July 1993.
533 “I don’t understand myself,” New York Times, July 14, 1968.
534 “a flowering tree,” Show Business, op. cit.
In addition to those cited above, I conducted interviews with: Ted Allan, Bill Blackard, Thelma Carpenter, Ann Marie Chamberlain, Virginia Cherrill, Peggy Clark, Nancy Coleman, Lenn Curley, Dortha Duckworth, Charles Elson, William Fitzula, Charles Forsythe, Ted Goldsmith, Mary Rodgers Guettel, William Hackett, Ann Hir-shberg, Rose Hobart, Peter Hobbs, Richard Hughes, Gilbert Ireland, Ted Jacobson, Alice Jernigen, Don Koll, Jack Larson, Roddy McDowall, Aline MacMahon, David Manners, Tony Manzi, Madeleine Marfield, Mary Anna Marten, Mitch Miller, Ivan Moffat, Obelia Myers, Roger Myers, Mildred Natwick, Bibi Osterwald, David Parsons, Colin Wilcox Paxton, Martha Pennington, Nella Ponazecki, Philip Reed, John Robinson, Mary Percy Schenck, Henry Sember, Betty Shirley, Alan Shulman, Edith Simmonds, Peter Stackpole, Will Stutts, Florence Sundstrum, Paul Vroom, Michael Wager, Teresa Wright, Alexei Wycoff, Jo Zeigler.
Acknowledgments
<<
I wish there were a way to acknowledge all the people who have inspired, supported, or encouraged me over the many years since I first began researching this book. Instead of pretending to be able to do that, I will restrict myself to those connected most closely to the work at hand: For their help in tracking down leads and research sources, I am grateful to Tony Grillo, Marie Ellerbe Hancock, Richard Lamparski, Richard Lillie, Nicholas Lobenthal, Lydia Lobenthal, Francis Mason, Benjamin McFall, Patrick McGilligan, John Morrone, Andrea Swiedler, Glenn Shadix, David Stenn, Bart Williams, the late Raymond Mander, and Joe Mitchenson.
Research assistance was supplied by Michael Hauser, Barbara Hughes, Bob Levin, and Cindy Mindell.
Liz and Dick Turner’s hospitality in London was a joy. Marvin Hoshino tirelessly extended his graphics expertise.
My agent, Kathy Anderson, has an astute understanding of the genre of biography as well as the nature of this biography. Cal Morgan, Lina Perl, Brian Saliba, Bridie Clark, and Adrienne Makowski at ReganBooks supplied wise editorial counsel. Joan Brookbank was a valued confidante during my early thinking about this book.
The friends, colleagues, and family members of Tallulah Bankhead who shared their recollections with me are enumerated in the chapter notes. I am so grateful for their generosity. My many friends in the Soka Gakkai International are so sage and constructive.
The staffs of the following institutions have been indispensable: In London: the Victoria and Albert Theatre Collection, the Colindale Newspaper Library, the British Library Manuscripts Collection, the Metropolitan Police Service, Records Management Branch.
In New
York: Actors’ Equity, Lincoln Center Library of Performing Arts, General Reference Collection of the New York Public Library, the Players’ Club Library, the Theater Collection at the Museum of the City of New York.
In Connecticut, the Beineke Library at Yale University in New Haven; in California, the San Francisco Performing Arts Library; in Washington, D.C., the Library of Congress, and the FBI Freedom of Information Service; in Alabama, the Tallulah Bankhead Historical Society, Alabama Department of Archives and History; in Massachusetts, Reference and Special Collections, Somerville Public Library.
Over the years, many friends and family members have read one or more chapters and given their reactions. My mother, Shirley Lobenthal, made many insightful comments. Charmane Spahr and my father, Joseph Lobenthal, read through the entire manuscript and gave honest and unsparing criticism.
About the Author
<<
Joel Lobenthal is the dance critic for the New York Sun and the assistant editor of Ballet Review. He has also written for DanceMagazine, Playbill, Quest, and the New York Times. He is the author of Radical Rags:Fashion of the Sixties, and he lives in NewYork City.
Bibliography
<<
Abbott, George. Mister Abbott. New York: Random House, 1963.
Allen, David. Sir Aubrey: A Biography of C. Aubrey Smith, England Cricketer, West End Actor, Hollywood Film Star. London: Elm Tree Books, 1982.
Baker, Michael. Our Three Selves: The Life of Radclyffe Hall. London: Hamish Hamilton, 1985.
Bankhead, Tallulah. Tallulah. New York: Harper and Row, 1952.
Barnes, E.W. The Man Who Lived Twice: The Biography of Edward Sheldon. New York: Scribner, 1956.
Barrow, Kenneth. Helen Hayes: First Lady of the American Theatre. New York: Doubleday, 1985.
Beaton, Cecil. The Wandering Years: Diaries, 1922–1939. Boston: Little, Brown, 1961.
Beaton, Cecil. Cecil Beaton’s Scrapbook. New York: Scribner’s, 1937.
Behlmer, Rudy. Inside Warner Brothers (1935–1951). New York: Viking, 1985.
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