by Marc Eliot
a party at “21” to meet Alfred Hitchcock. Hitchcock first arrived in America on August 22, 1938, aboard the Queen Mary. He was accompanied by his wife, Alma, and their daughter, Patricia.
“One of the marks of a great director …” Haskell, Holding My Own, 25.
Cary Grant's 1939 visit to London and Bristol. Some of the information for this sequence of events comes from McCann, Cary Grant. Additional material comes from an article by Philip French, in London Observer, August 25, 1996. The author contacted the FBI on several occasions, under the auspices of the Freedom of Information Act, to obtain Cary Grant's FBI file. The official response was a carefully worded statement that said no such file existed. In a letter dated January 17, 2003, in response to “Request #0971956-000, regarding Cary Grant,” the FBI stated, “Based on the information furnished, a search of the automated indices to our central records system files at FBI headquarters located no records responsive to your FOIPA request to indicate you and/or the subject(s) of your request have ever been of investigatory interest to the FBI.”
“picture of another sucker.” Quoted in an article by Norma Abrams and Gerald Duncan, New York Daily News, December 12, 1938.
[16]
“If you haven't seen Cary Grant …” Bogdanovich, Movie of the Week, 97. As Peter Bogdanovich rightly points out. Ibid.
“They both wanted the beach house …” Interview by the author. The source of this quote wishes to remain anonymous.
[17]
“Cukor's strategy was to keep Cary Grant …” McGilligan, George Cukor, 162.
“Plenty of room up front.” This was one of Grant's favorite parables. He told it for years. It first found its way into print in an interview conducted by Duncan Underhill for the New York World-Telegram, January 24, 1942.
“Cash and Cary.” The idea that Grant, who had previously married one of the most beautiful women in Hollywood, would be interested in the rather homely Barbara Hutton led everyone, including the gossip columnists, to suspect that his motives were other than true love. The phrase “Cash and Cary” became something of a joke in Hollywood, whenever the Grant-Hutton relationship was spoken of, which was quite often. Its appearances in the gossip columns amused neither Hutton nor Grant.
Goldwyn was … “mad for the material.” Berg, Goldwyn, 316.
“I am heartbroken …” Ibid.
“When I go to the movies …” Grant, interviewed by Carroll, Motion Picture, February 1941.
“Irene and I sit here and worry …” Ibid.
Grant's relatives killed. The bombing raid on Bristol was reported in the Los Angeles Examiner and the New York Daily News, January 28, 1941.
[18]
“The consensus was that audiences …” Hitchcock, quoted in “Murder—With English on It,” New York Times Magazine, March 3, 1957.
“a minor figure in a fast film industry …” Quoted in Spoto, Dark Side of Genius, 222.
[19]
“Cary Grant is a great comedian …” Quoted in Schickel, Men Who Made the Movies.
“a dear, dear man.” Quoted in McBride, Frank Capra, 445.
Grant's special affection for Jean Adair. Details of this story are from the New York Daily Mirror, September 11, 1944.
Grant wearing only the tops of his pajamas. From a syndicated Tintypes column by Sidney Skolsky, “Hollywood Is My Beat,” January 3, 1946.
“among the industry's … most pro-Communist offerings.” Internal FBI memorandum, May 11, 1944.
“known Communist connections …” Internal FBI memorandum, November 20, 1944.
“no chance of reconciliation.” Quoted in Florabel Muir, New York Daily News, August 16, 1944.
[20]
“I can't portray Bing Crosby …” Quoted in Kent Schuelke, “Cary Grant,” Interview, January 1987. This was one of Grant's final sit-downs, conducted four months before his death.
“Why, Cary Grant, of course!” Cole Porter's often-quoted comment likely came after Grant had already been offered the part. In fact, Porter's first choice was his very close friend Fred Astaire, who wanted no part of it.
“I know of not one single soul …” Govoni, Cary Grant, 131. It is safe to say there was no love lost between Wilder and Grant. Years later, when interviewed by Al Cohn at Newsday (December 19, 1964), Grant was reminded of Wilder's comment and tersely replied, “Well, maybe he hasn't been to my house. Maybe he doesn't know the same people I know.” While Grant never appeared in a Billy Wilder film, in 1958 Wilder directed Some Like It Hot, in which Tony Curtis did a devastatingly accurate impersonation of Grant, as a character who had trouble making love to women.
Hughes had the bathrooms custom-built. Brown and Broeske, Howard Hughes, 302. Cook's budget and cold turkey sandwiches. Lloyd Shearer, “Intelligence Report,” Parade, March 12, 1989.
“there wasn't a paper …” Quoted in Barlett and Steele, Empire, 164.
peanut butter and jelly sandwiches at “21.” Walter Weiss [maître d'] obituary, The New York Times, October 15, 2002.
“It was all very flattering …” Quoted in Brown and Broeske, Howard Hughes, 251.
[21]
“Notorious resumes the general visual key …” Durgnat, Strange Case of Alfred Hitchcock, 195.
“carefully trained and coached …” Margaret McDonnell (a contract story editor), a memo to David O. Selznick, August 7, 1944. In the memo McDonnell conveyed Hitchcock's idea for a new movie she had discussed with him at “a long lunch last Friday.” This germ of an idea may be seen again in several later Hitchcock films, by both genders, and across generations, most vividly in Strangers on a Train, To Catch a Thief, Vertigo, North by Northwest, and Psycho.
“a kissing sequence that made …” Sarris, You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet, 257.
[22]
“I'd been flying for a lot longer …” Quoted in McCarthy, Howard Hawks, 156–57.
“All we did was to change plans …” Hedda Hopper, Chicago Tribune, June 26, 1947. Grant joins MCA. This arrangement was to last only three years. While it started off well, Stein's vision of the agency as a packager of its own talent ultimately proved unacceptable to Grant.
“a rather conceited, impudent …” Telegram, Grant to Samuel Goldwyn, January 2, 1947.
[23]
“I've been called the longest lasting young man …” Cary Grant, “What It Means to Be a Star,” Films and Filming, July 1961.
“Cary came out weighing …” Quoted in McCarthy, Howard Hawks, 461. See also ibid., chap. 29.
“One problem with the show …” William Frye, interview by the author.
[24]
“Selectivity always suggests art …” Schickel, Cary Grant. the directing debut of Richard Brooks. Crisis was the inauspicious start to a very successful Hollywood career. Among the films Brooks would go on to direct are The Last Time I Saw Paris (1954), Blackboard Jungle (1955), Something of Value (1957), Elmer Gantry (1960), and In Cold Blood (1967).
A Star Is Born. Some of the background information given here comes from Haver, Star Is Born, 191–205, and McGilligan, George Cukor, 218–24. The meeting between Cukor and Grant is almost always mistakenly reported as happening much later, after the film's 1954 release. The meeting actually took place in December 1952, when Cukor (who had been offered the original 1937 version but turned it down) began interviewing actresses to play the role of Esther. The first actress he saw, in December 1952, was Judy Garland. That same month he began his ultimately unsuccessful campaign to enlist the acting services of Cary Grant.
“This is the part you were born to play!” and Grant's response. McGilligan, George Cukor, 219.
“one of those periodically increasing episodes …” Interview by the author. The source wishes to and will remain anonymous.
“Heavy romance on the screen …” Quoted in Lon Jones, Star Weekly, January 1952. Cropped Grant-Monroe-DiMaggio photo. Summers, Goddess, 66–67.
“Cary was being very mysterious.” William Frye, interview by the author.
“It was the period of blue jeans …” Quoted in Robert C. Roman, “Cary Grant,” Films in Review, December 1961.
“[Chaplin] has given great pleasure to millions …” Grant, press conference to announce his retirement from film, New York Daily News, February 6, 1953.
[25]
“The results of living in reality …” Quoted in Earl Wilson's syndicated column, “It Happened Last Night,” circa 1971.
Details of Grant's Palm Springs home and life. Betsy Drake, as told to Liza Wilson, “My Life with Cary Grant,” American Weekly, August 4, 1957.
Grace Kelly. During her off days, when her presence wasn't required for shooting, Kelly liked to go over to the tiny principality of Monaco, to gamble in the state casino and visit the state gardens. While on one such visit, she was introduced to Prince Rainier Grimaldi, who insisted on giving her a personal tour of the Grimaldi castle, overlooking the waters of the Mediterranean.
[26]
“I had a theme in most of my movies …” New York Times, July 21, 1955.
“The movies are like the steel business …” Interview in Pix, December 10, 1955.
“the easiest decision I ever had to make.” Quoted in Hotchner, Sophia, 105. Drake's telegram to Grant. Betsy Drake, as told to Liza Wilson, “My Life with Cary Grant,” American Weekly, August 4, 1957.
“We fell in love …” Hotchner, Sophia, 110–12.
[27]
“Nobody doesn't like Cary Grant …” Warren Hoge, “The Other Cary Grant,” The New York Times Magazine, July 31, 1977.
“I'd taken advice …” Interview by Peter Shield, Sunday Graphic, October 19, 1958. Portions of this interview appear in Godfrey, Cary Grant, 152–53.
“It was all just some sort of extended daydream …” William Frye, interview by the author.
[28]
“In North by Northwest during the scene …” Hitchcock, speech to the Screen Producers Guild, March 7, 1965, upon the occasion of his receiving the Guild's twelfth Milestone Award.
“to accept the responsibility for my own actions …” Grant, “Archie Leach.” Additional information and quotes from Grant's diaries are from John Whalen, “The Trip,” Los Angeles Weekly, July 9, 1998.
[29]
“I've heard the fag rumor …” Quoted in Jeffrey Robinson, “Cary Grant: ‘I've Lived My Life,'” Redbook, March 1987, p. 28.
Joint statement of separation. The statement was issued jointly by Grant and Drake and appeared in the Los Angeles Times, October 17, 1958.
“I was doing so swell those days …” Curtis, Tony Curtis.
“I never worked it deliberately …” Ibid.
Grant's “autobiography.” Grant, “Archie Leach.”
Instead, the magazine went ahead and ran its lengthy contracted LSD story. Bergquist, “Curious Story.”
[30]
“I was a self-centered boor …” Lecture to an audience of students at UCLA, July 14, 1962.
“tycoon, bargaining with a mind …” Bergquist, “Curious Story.”
Details of Grant's Universal contract. Newsday, December 19, 1964.
“The final outrage …” McDougal, Last Mogul, 259–60.
Grant films grossed more than $10 million at Radio City. Variety, January 6, 1960. “there is no doubt that I am aging …” Quoted in The New York Times, February 2, 1961.
Mitchum and Grant's relationship during The Grass Is Greener. Some information and the Mitchum quote come from Server.
“Cary played a titled Englishman …” Quoted in The New Yorker, January 13, 2000. Grant and Drake visiting Monaco. Some of the information and the quote is from Spada, Grace, 226–27. Other sources wish to and will remain anonymous.
[31]
“How old Cary Grant? …” In 1962, Time, doing a story on Grant, was said to have wired the question to Grant, who sent back his “Old Cary Grant” reply. The story is apocryphal; no telegram was ever sent to Grant; nor did he ever reply in kind.
“I had just returned from Rome …” Interview by Henry Gris, Coronet, March 1971.
“Cary called me …” Ibid.
“I bombed right in front of Wald.” Quoted in Dean Gautschy, Los Angeles HeraldExaminer, September 28, 1963.
“No matter how good I am …” Quoted in Al Cohn, Newsday, December 19, 1964.
“consistently better than ordinary …” Andrew Sarris, Village Voice, January 1, 1964.
“I don't know …” Grant, quoted by Charles Champlin, Los Angeles Times, December 1, 1996 (obit.).
“I'm only telling you …” Interview by Roderick Mann, Sunday Graphic, July 31, 1965.
[32]
“I don't like to see men of my age …” Interview by Sheilah Graham, Hollywood Citizen-News, February 8, 1966.
“One does join in the stream of life …” Quoted in New York Daily News, February 28, 1966.
“I was sitting up front in the car …” Interview by Ticketron, 1972.
Grant and Cannon disagree before the press. Reported in Variety, August 10, 1966.
Grant declared that the institution of marriage was dying. Los Angeles Times, August 7, 1966.
“He struck me as an angry …” Interview by the author. Information regarding Grant's relationship with Taplinger, Flynn, Blackman, and Barrie is from various sources, as noted, including this interview. All Flynn quotes in this chapter are from my interview with her.
Cannon's testimony. This and all other testimony quoted is from court records, Los Angeles Superior Court.
Friendship with George Barrie. Barrie first called Grant after reading an interview in which Grant objected to women using hairspray. After Grant's statement, the company's stock had fallen one full point. Once they got to know each other they became frequent social companions. Grant always said he admired Barrie for having built his cosmetics empire from scratch.
[33]
“Every one of my wives left me …” Interview in The New York Times, 1971.
“My first wife …” Quoted in Donaldson, 202–203.
“she never smoked …” Quoted in Variety, January 24, 1973.
“I was there the night Mr. Grant called …” Joey Reynolds, interview by the author.
“Jennifer once walked up to the screen …” Interview by Al Cohn, Newsday, September 14, 1975.
“My intention was to make myself happy …” Guy Flatley, “About Cary Grant: From Mae to September,” New York Times, July 22, 1973.
“Jennifer is my best production.” Quoted in Warren Hoge, “The Other Cary Grant,” The New York Times Magazine, July 31, 1977.
“as periodically dependable …” The quipper wishes anonymity.
“I wouldn't think of it …” Interview by Tom Shales for the Washington Post, reprinted in the Los Angeles Times, December 25, 1981.
“I stayed close to Cary always …” Curtis, Tony Curtis.
Grant and Charlie Callas. Charlie Callas, interview by the author.
Grant trying to sound Jewish …” Ibid.
“I remember …” Lecture at Flint Center, DeAnza Community College, Cupertino, California, November 3, 1982.
“I don't have the energy for it …” Lecture at the Masonic Auditorium at San Francisco, as reported by Jennings Parrott in the Los Angeles Times, January 31, 1985. A detailed recapitulation of Grant's presentations may be found in Nelson, Evenings with Cary Grant.
Comments of doctors during Grant's stroke. There are several sources for the comments of Drs. Manlove and Gilson, and paramedic Lund, including the Los Angeles Times, People, and Warren G. Harris, Good Housekeeping, September 1987.
[34]
“I don't know how I consider death …” People, December 15, 1986.
“I would like to be remembered as a congenial fellow …” Quoted by Kent Schuelke, Interview, “Cary Grant,” January 1987.
FILMOGRAPHY
FEATURE FILMS
THIS IS THE NIGHT (1932, year of release). Paramount Publix. Directed by Frank
Tuttle. Produced by Benjamin Glazer.
Screenplay by Avery Hopwood and Benjamin Glazer, from Pouche, by René Peter and Henri Falk, also George Marion Jr. and René Peter. Principal cast: Lily Damita, Charles Ruggles, Roland Young, Thelma Todd, Cary Grant, Irving Bacon. B&W.
SINNERS IN THE SUN (1932). Paramount Publix. Directed by Alexander Hall.
Produced by Paramount Publix. Screenplay by Vincent Lawrence, Waldemar Young, and Samuel Hoffenstein, from a story by Mildred Cram. Principal cast: Carole Lombard, Chester Morris, Adrienne Ames, Alison Skipworth, Walter Byron, Reginald Barlow, Zita Moulton, Cary Grant. B&W.
MERRILY WE GO TO HELL (1932). Paramount Publix. Directed by Dorothy Arzner.
Produced by Paramount Publix. Screenplay by Edwin Justus Mayer, from I, Jerry, Take Thee, Joan, by Cleo Lucas. Principal cast: Sylvia Sidney, Fredric March, Adrianne Allen, Skeets Gallagher, Florence Britton, Esther Howard, George Irving, Kent Taylor, Charles Coleman, Leonard Carey, Cary Grant. B&W.
DEVIL AND THE DEEP (1932). Paramount Publix. Directed by Marion Gering.
Produced by Paramount Publix. Screenplay by Benn Levy and Harry Hervey. Principal cast: Tallulah Bankhead, Gary Cooper, Charles Laughton, Cary Grant, Gordon Westcott, Paul Porcasi, Juliette Compton, Arthur Hoyt, Dorothy Christy. B&W.
BLONDE VENUS (1932). Paramount Publix. Directed by Josef von Sternberg. Produced by Paramount Publix (Josef von Sternberg, uncredited). Screenplay by Jules Furthman and S. K. Lauren, from a story by Josef von Sternberg. Principal cast: Marlene Dietrich, Herbert Marshall, Cary Grant, Dickie Moore, Gene Morgan, Rita La Roy, Sidney Toler, Cecil Cunningham. B&W.