Tuesday, March 7, 2023

Hooray for Hollywood? - Volume One

During my never-ending excavations of used book stores, flea markets and antique shows, I am always looking for something that catches my eye regarding my affinity for classic movies and stars. I recently parted with $3.00 so that I could bring home the book seen here, "Hollywood on Hollywood," a collection of remarks on Tinseltown made by the stars who worked there. Compiled by Doug(las) McClelland, who penned many a biography of famous performers, it is full of a variety of quotes that I will periodically share with my readers. Naturally, I've also unearthed photos to go with! So here come the first 15.

"I have been in show business for twelve years. They have known me in Hollywood but two. Yet as picture-making goes, two years is a long time. Nevertheless, my advice has never been asked about a part in a picture. I found out I was going into Susan Lenox (1931) in Del Monte. Read it in the paper. When I walked on the set one day, they told me I was going to play Red Dust (1932) in place of John Gilbert. I have never been consulted as to what part I would like to play. I am paid not to think." -- Clark Gable, 1932. (This is the first time I had ever heard that John Gilbert had ever even been considered for Red Dust...! More vintage pics and info on Gable here.)

"Hollywood was capable of hurting me so much. The things about Hollywood that could hurt me (when I first came) can't touch me now. I suddenly decided that they shouldn't hurt me-that was all." -- Joan Crawford, Photoplay, 1930s. (This reminds me of JC's approach to eating, too. She would always leave the food that tasted the best on the plate, presumably things like rich potatoes or desserts, in an effort to keep her figure.)

"To survive in Hollywood, you need the ambition of a Latin American revolutionary, the ego of a grand opera tenor and the physical stamina of a cow pony." -- Billie Burke, 1940s. (Best known as Glinda in The Wizard of Oz (1939) and for playing a variety of dithering society types, it sounds like Miss Burke was made of strong stuff underneath that exterior.)

"Hollywood is a chain gang and we lose the will to escape; the links of our chains are forged not of cruelties, but of luxuries: we are pelted with orchids and roses; we are overpaid and underworked." -- Clive Brook, 1933. (I enjoyed this description of the lure of Tinseltown for those brought to it from afar.)

"Hollywood has come a long way since its infancy, when signs on for-rent apartments warned, 'No Dogs or Actors!' We didn't even have the doubtful distinction of first billing!" -- Gloria Swanson, 1949. (Do check out Glo's fur-lined cloak with matching hat and those platform shoes!)

"Back in the forties everybody went to the movies. There were houses open twenty-four hours a day where the seats never cooled. Soldiers, war workers on the swing shift, housewives, school children, couples on a date, pensioners-they all packed in to see the dreams Hollywood printed on celluloid, preferably in gorgeous Technicolor." -- Keenan Wynn, 1959. (Certain parts of Wynn's life could be made into a fascinating movie, too!)

"(In 1930s) Hollywood there was an exclusive clique, and no matter how big a name you were on Broadway, until you made it in the movies you didn't exist. I was just another Broadway star and didn't rate." -- Ethel Merman, 1978. (Regardless of her ability, I don't think that Merm had quite the right face & figure to make it as a leading lady in 1930s Hollywood. But I did enjoy her in the Eddie Cantor musical comedies she made nonetheless.)

"People tell you that the reason a lot of actors left Hollywood when sound came in was that their voices were wrong for talkies. The truth is that the coming of sound meant the end of all-night parties. With talkies, you couldn't stay out till sunrise anymore. You had to rush back from the studios and start learning your lines, ready for the next day's shooting at 8 am. That was when the studio machine really took over. It controlled you, mind and body, from the moment you were yanked out of bed at dawn until the publicity department put you back to bed at night." -- Louise Brooks, 1979. (This is an interesting alternative theory about the shift in personas during the transition to sound, though I doubt it's completely accurate. I LOVE the earrings she's wearing here!)

"Yes, there was racism in Hollywood in the 1930s and 1940s. I dealt with it as I deal with it in my own race; I ignore it and concentrate on non-racism. I have no regrets about my years in Hollywood. I loved the weather there." -- Butterfly McQueen, 1984. (Trivia Tidbit: Miss McQueen was part of the the first incarnation of The Wiz, but her role was cut during out of town tryouts. She remained onboard as understudy to the role of Addaperle, Good With of the North.)

"I'm not a little girl from a little town makin' good in a big town. I'm a big girl from a big town makin' good in a little town." -- Mae West, 1932. (By 1935, only one person in the U.S. was pulling in more dough than Mae West. It was the obscenely-wealthy William Randolph Hearst, which really ought to tell you something about her income...!)

"We can't afford to be timid. We can't stand back and be pushed off the rungs of the ladder we have already climbed. Once you let Hollywood push you around, you might as well give up. You are beaten. Your prestige as an artist is gone, your importance and value as a personality somehow damaged. This business is not famous for its second chances. Once you arrive at the top, you've got to fight every moment to stay there. Which is why I never have and never will allow Hollywood to kick me around." -- Merle Oberon, the 1930s. (Few showbiz existences have been as captivating to learn about as Oberon's. She was a woman of many mysteries and contradictions and did try to remain a top-billed star almost to the end - even if the movies were a far cry from the ones of her hey-day.)

"I laugh every time I think of the first interview I had here in Hollywood. The article about me said I had ben a landscape engineer and a specialist with mixed-drinks. That's Hollywood! My landscape engineering amounted to digging ditches for the WPA [Works Progress Administration.] My specializing in mixed-drinks amounted to swabbing beer-puddled bars and, later, mixing drinks." -- George Montgomery, 1941. (I tended to like Montgomery, who you can read much more about here, but never found out why Maureen O'Hara claimed in her autobiography to have "loathed him.")

"Why be beautiful in Hollywood, for the love of Pete? With every car-hop in town a sensational looker, Hollywood is strictly a bull market when it comes to beauty. So if you're asking Walker, she's telling you that she'll struggle along with what she's got for the next fifty years or so. It's done all right for Walker so far. -- Nancy Walker, 1944. (Walker was eerily accurate in her prediction...! She died in 1992, close to fifty years after this remark, and was still working. More about her life and career here.)

"Hollywood personalities are really partly applesauce. We deceive the public, and get paid for it. I get paid pretty well so I deceive the public good." -- Gary Cooper, 1946. (Cooper was an actor who often got more mileage out of a part by saying as little as possible - hence his reputation for often saying "yep" and "nope" on screen! But he was granted two acting Oscars along with an honorary one, so it worked out all right...!)

"If you and your husband both work (in Hollywood) you hardly have time to say hello. You just wave in passing. Actually, I have driven home after working all night to see Desi (Arnaz) passing in a car going to work. 'That face is familiar,' I say. 'Oh yes, my husband I haven't seen for days' and I wave. In Hollywood, too-young people see too much, do too much, go too much. They see others getting divorces and they think nothing of trying it. In a small town they are restrained by example and opinion." -- Lucille Ball, 1947. (No doubt this situation was part of why she insisted that he play her husband when the radio favorite "My Favorite Husband" - with Richard Denning - moved to TV as I Love Lucy. Unfortunately, even that plan couldn't save the marriage in the end.)

That's all folks, till next time!

6 comments:

http://ricksrealreel.blogspot.com/ said...

Hi Poseidon,
Always enjoyed those type of books, with memorable quotes from those who toiled in Tinseltown!

Agree with your reaction to Ethel Merman's comment on breaking through in Hollywood. The Merm had two major chances, once in the mid'30s and again in the early '50s, at Fox I believe. While she enjoyed some success, Ethel never carried a movie. And was better in small doses!

As for Louise Brooks, her acidic comments on Hollywood may be accurate, but also showed a stance that showed why she had such a short shelf life in Hollywood, compared to say, Joan Crawford.

Cheers and dang you for getting me hooked on revisiting all those Ellery Queen episodes, Poseidon! Jim Hutton was adorable!

Rick

Dan said...

Wasn’t that fun! Love Swanson’s witty remark. I think Merman was one of those performers, like Jolson, whose personality was just too big for the screen. I recall an interview with a British music critic who, knowing her only from movies, thought her laughable. Then he saw her in “Gypsy” and was gobsmacked.
It is interesting how some of the stars had an acidic view of old Hollywood, while others, like Coop and Nancy Walker, just took things in stride. George Montgomery’s remark reminds me of “Singin’ in the Rain” - never believe your own publicity!

Ptolemy1 said...

Oh, Mr Gable. I didn't like him for a long while, then I started studying, really looking at how he looked. I tend to go for the pretty men, my ultimate was and is Stephen Boyd, but Gable HAD something. Gorgeous when younger, without a moustache. As with so many of them, incredibly unique, you can't picture Gable working at a Target, as they say in Sunset Boulevard, they had faces then and he had a FACE. GWTW was JUST on, playing all across the nursing home where I work. Stereo Gable coming out of 47 rooms. I was struck by the fact that he was 2 years younger than I am when he died. (I have to Google my ass off anytime I film is on, so many questions pop into my head) From all I know he was a gentle man, who only wanted to hang out on his ranch. I would have dearly loved to see him naked, hahah, who wouldn't? But such were the Puritan times old Hollywood endured. LOVE him. Thanks again, so fun!

Gingerguy said...

Thesr are fascinating, and well curated here. I love what Louise had to say, and typical Mae West brio. Lucy had a busy and philandering hubby. All the photos are great! Merle seems smart, I'm still captivated by her mysteries

joel65913 said...

Lucky you! I’d love to stumble across that book. Years ago, I read one of McClelland’s books-Susan Hayward, the Divine Bitch-and loved it. In fact, I think I still have it.

I think Gable stuck with that attitude of passive compliance until the massive blunder of “Parnell” made him more willing to reject scripts he didn’t feel were right for him. Although being a contract player he still had to go along if Mayer’s mind was made up as with GWTW.

I’ve always suspected Billie Burke’s fluttery exterior concealed a will of iron. By the time she reached the period that she is mostly known for she’d been in the business for decades and her marriage to Flo Ziegfeld had to season and toughen her up.

Talent just isn’t enough sometimes for film stardom. The camera has to find something special in you and love it. Whatever that elusive element was it was something that the Merm just didn’t possess. That held true for so many of those legendary stage stars-Lynn Fontanne, Tallulah, Carol Channing, Mary Martin etc.-the talent was clearly in evidence but they didn’t connect and communicate through the lens the way a Marilyn Monroe, Audrey Hepburn or Bette Davis did. Doesn’t mean you couldn’t enjoy them, but they were best in measured doses.

I’m sure there were others as confident in who they were as Mae West but I doubt there was ever any one MORE so! Speaking of such things I would wager that Nancy Walker was right up there with Mae in the assurance of who she was and what she had to offer.

LOVE that picture of Lucy! I’m pretty familiar with her filmography and seeing her decked out (Best Foot Forward, Ziegfeld Follies and so on) but such is the power of her image in “I Love Lucy” of a simply dressed housewife that whenever I see a full on glamazon portrait it takes me back for a minute.

All the quotes (and accompanying pix) were marvelous!! Look forward to the next batch. 😊

Poseidon3 said...

Rick, obviously I like these, too. I used to do a fair amount of posts with celebrity quotes (and unusual pics to go with.) Some of them came from books called, "The 776 Nastiest Things Ever Said," "Celebrity Lies" and others from "Bitch Bitch Bitch." But it's been a few years, so I'm back at it. :-) Glad you're enjoying "Ellery Queen" even if it's overtaken much of your free time!

Dan, there are many contradictory recollections about old Hollywood... It's odd. To some it was a factory town with almost no time to party and then others seemed to live an orgiastic existence there! We may never know exactly what it was like. Or maybe it truly was different for each sort of person who wound up there. Thanks!

Ptolemy1, I'm another one who prefers Gable without his trademark mustache (Selleck, too, if the truth be told!) He was so reluctant to take on Rhett Butler, yet few then or now could come up with anyone who'd be better at it...! That face, as you say, kissing Scarlett goodbye on the posters. Very iconic.

Gingerguy, it seems like Lucy and Desi suffered from both too much time apart AND too much time together...! She adored that man. It's good that they could remain friendly after all the dust had settled. He had some truly incredible insight into what worked for early TV. Some of his methods remain in play even now. Merle was a damned hoot. My favorite tale of hers is when she insisted on a scene being shot for "Hotel" even though the maker intended to cut it. At the premiere, he braced himself for her reaction to it being gone, but when he finally turned to face her, she'd up and LEFT the theater!! Period! LOL

joel65913, I have that Hayward book (in paperback) and definitely enjoyed it, too! I completely agree with your assessment about talent before the camera. Some people somehow have a veil or a membrane between their inner selves and the camera and some give over to it 100%. I think the latter ones tended to make it further. I adored that photo of Lucy and have the same exact feeling you did. It's a big contrast from the hair tied up in a bandana, etc... That photo shoot yielded many examples (and even changes of clothing) and there was one that I REALLY wanted to use, but I only saw one example of it and it was marked with a box of ownership that rendered it unavailable for use here. ;-) Thanks much!