Over the Rain-Forest and the Still Water Beach

<a href="http://www.tripadvisor.com/LocationPhotos-g1015495-Mismaloya_Banderas_Bay_South_Shore_Pacific_Coast.html"><img alt="Mismaloya Photos" src="http://media-cdn.tripadvisor.com/media/photo-s/01/c3/b6/ee/night-of-the-iguana-set.jpg" /></a><br /><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Abandoned movie set, Mismaloya, Mexico: photo courtesy of TripAdvisor </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /><span style="font-size: small;">The programmers at Turner Classic Movies may not have planned the schedule with me in mind, but they’ve lined up a fine mix of films for me on my birthday this year.</span><br /><br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2PrzT6K3OHqc6ANHLd_12wZce2Jp6jbsK-oBdNkgCQqlpJ17fXIZkE8GO5g0IMDGDG_bJ2T2K64Ag-UjauXTpo3caFV37-iTRPg9JyxtZit-teuGK5i8TWKRVJqfVjL5XHHVRuEP1oO9K/s1600/Wings+of+Desire.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="192" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2PrzT6K3OHqc6ANHLd_12wZce2Jp6jbsK-oBdNkgCQqlpJ17fXIZkE8GO5g0IMDGDG_bJ2T2K64Ag-UjauXTpo3caFV37-iTRPg9JyxtZit-teuGK5i8TWKRVJqfVjL5XHHVRuEP1oO9K/s320/Wings+of+Desire.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bruno Ganz in <i>Wings of Desire</i></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-size: small;">I share my day with Sir Laurence Olivier (born May 22, 1907), and TCM has programmed some films of his that I haven’t seen, including <i><a href="http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/112933/Term-of-Trial/overview" style="color: blue;">Term of Trial</a> </i>(1962) co-starring the great French actress, Simone Signoret. Later on in the day my beloved San Francisco provides the setting for the 1955 sci-fi classic, <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0048215/" style="color: blue;"><i>It Came from Beneath the Sea</i></a>, in which the city is attacked by a radiation-enlarged octopus. In the evening, this month's TCM guest programmer, Deborah Winger, is set to appear. Among her choices is one film I haven’t seen but have had on my to-watch list for a long time: <a href="http://www.doubletakemagazine.org/int/html/wenders/" style="color: blue;">Wim Wenders</a>' 1987 classic, <i>Wings of Desire</i> brought its director the Best Director prize at Cannes in 1987 and won or was nominated for a raft of other awards.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Winger has also chosen to spotlight John Huston’s masterful production of Tennessee Williams' <i>The Night of the Iguana</i> (1964), one of the great film adaptations of Williams' work. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /><a name='more'></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Tennessee Williams had vacationed in Mexico during 1940, and his experiences at the Hotel Costa Verde outside Acapulco later formed the basis for his 1948 short story entitled <i>The Night of the Iguana</i>. Over time, the story evolved into a stage play that debuted on Broadway in 1961 starring Bette Davis in the role of Maxine Faulk, Margaret Leighton as Hannah Jelks and Patrick O’Neal as The Reverend T. Lawrence Shannon. It is Tennessee Williams' final masterpiece.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgC3si3bvA14jIBYQLeGpild1IM2QV-QSxOOBvWtEX7hmIGZvJ9JDeIwkC5H-mVp3-kJbgB3X214ktC-1vLHG90Wn__wTMC10ZrggZzAni1lK0GvCR7J8SHVtB8qhhIT4EnIABixVwEkTPU/s1600/leighton+williams+oneal.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="190" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgC3si3bvA14jIBYQLeGpild1IM2QV-QSxOOBvWtEX7hmIGZvJ9JDeIwkC5H-mVp3-kJbgB3X214ktC-1vLHG90Wn__wTMC10ZrggZzAni1lK0GvCR7J8SHVtB8qhhIT4EnIABixVwEkTPU/s320/leighton+williams+oneal.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Margaret Leighton, Tennessee Williams and Patrick O'Neal</td></tr></tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Reverend Shannon is an alcoholic Episcopal priest locked out of his church for stirring up scandal and reduced to working as a guide on a bus tour south of the border. A new scandal involving a nubile young woman in his group of mostly biddies has consumed him. As the play begins, Shannon brings his party to the broken down hotel of his friend Maxine and her late husband Fred on the Mexican seacoast. Also staying at the hotel are Hannah Jelks, an itinerant artist, and her elderly grandfather, a 'practicing' poet.  As Shannon wrestles with his demons he forms a bond with Hannah who is also in spiritual crisis.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The stage production was rocky from the beginning, but it was also acclaimed and successful, running for 316 performances. <i>The Night of the Iguana</i> received Tony nominations for Best Play, Best Producer and Best Actress - for which Margaret Leighton won the award - and was also chosen the best new play of the year by the New York Drama Critics' Circle. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnmLTWc0EjIM4H0paoQk4oeop8x8ULA2zWRotFKzTAE5-BDgncq51Oda1WIg-IWbdOWlI_uG922G65uiN3L2oX45NQYdYBitex_iZbLnemRqhnPvol2ts9VFsMlRCE8g5tVQffpiKcjvAv/s1600/Bette+as+Maxine.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnmLTWc0EjIM4H0paoQk4oeop8x8ULA2zWRotFKzTAE5-BDgncq51Oda1WIg-IWbdOWlI_uG922G65uiN3L2oX45NQYdYBitex_iZbLnemRqhnPvol2ts9VFsMlRCE8g5tVQffpiKcjvAv/s320/Bette+as+Maxine.JPG" width="248" /></a></td></tr><tr style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bette Davis as Maxine Faulk on Broadway</td></tr></tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Legendary writer/director/producer Joshua Logan’s reaction to Bette Davis’ performance was enthusiastic: “She was svelte, handsome, voluptuous, wicked, wise, raffish, slightly vulgar – in fact, she was ideal for the part and gave the play added dimension.” But Davis was deeply unhappy in the production and began regularly missing performances. She left the show in April 1962 and Shelley Winters, who replaced her, quickly understood why Davis and her understudy, Madeleine Sherwood, had both been miserable in the part. It seems co-stars Patrick O’Neal and Margaret Leighton routinely undermined the actresses who played Maxine by using the age-old stage trick of moving slightly for a few seconds to divert the attention of the audience whenever they set up her lines. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIu2XHOjvpDtVyAtIKK0uWEHNafB82AFqrWd9g1thjsl8Ofjkl5QUawUd-EnzpDhflVVwevQcscE7ex0DGXWsc9_4cJOy7r49Wzz362rQPRPgIFX69SDq7yf9SfzfZTjcEVa61apSVcdEm/s1600/burton+and+gardner.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIu2XHOjvpDtVyAtIKK0uWEHNafB82AFqrWd9g1thjsl8Ofjkl5QUawUd-EnzpDhflVVwevQcscE7ex0DGXWsc9_4cJOy7r49Wzz362rQPRPgIFX69SDq7yf9SfzfZTjcEVa61apSVcdEm/s320/burton+and+gardner.jpg" width="283" /></a></td></tr><tr style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Richard Burton and Ava Gardner</td></tr></tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The journey of <i>The Night of the Iguana </i>from stage to screen began with a call from producer Ray Stark to writer/director John Huston during the play's Broadway run. Huston, no stranger to adapting great works (<i>The Maltese Falcon</i>, <i>The Treasure of the Sierra Madre</i>, <i>Moby Dick</i>, etc.), was interested and the two quickly began working out the details of their collaboration. They agreed on casting: Richard Burton as Shannon, Deborah Kerr as Hannah and Ava Gardner as Maxine. Burton and Kerr signed on immediately but Miss Gardner required some courting. Both Stark and Huston flew to Madrid, where Gardner was then living, and spent days wining and dining her until she agreed to take the part. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: small;">Huston and Stark disagreed on one major point, Stark wanted to film in color but Huston preferred black and white for fear that the vibrant colors to be found everywhere on location in Mismaloya, Mexico (azure skies and seas, multi-hued flora and fauna) would distract from the story. Years later, in his memoir, Huston wrote, “Looking back now, I think I was probably wrong.” He was. Color could only have underscored the power of Williams' evocative meditation on the tangle of spiritual and physical yearnings that drive human life.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><span id="goog_1507063323"></span><span id="goog_1507063324"></span><span id="goog_1507063326"></span><span id="goog_1507063327"></span><span id="goog_1507063328"></span><span id="goog_1507063329"></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJJ6l1wcotC-RFnac8HK5SjH6eF7OWilYOJCDfaxtVS9ZpJem-J45Meob9kUm5ESmAS9el7k8TUUhusCdrOxDOUxWsNmWgNlLrFdJ3AXGemIGtiONa8gAUZ6KtqIiF5_lL5UR9NLvrd8uV/s1600/huston+and+burton.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="255" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJJ6l1wcotC-RFnac8HK5SjH6eF7OWilYOJCDfaxtVS9ZpJem-J45Meob9kUm5ESmAS9el7k8TUUhusCdrOxDOUxWsNmWgNlLrFdJ3AXGemIGtiONa8gAUZ6KtqIiF5_lL5UR9NLvrd8uV/s400/huston+and+burton.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">John Huston and Richard Burton</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-size: small;">At the time location work began on <i>The Night of the Iguana</i>, Richard Burton had not yet sacrificed his talent for fame and riches. One of the great, classically trained actors to emerge from Britain in the post-war era, Burton’s finest performances were defined by depth and soul and enriched by his majestic voice, piercing blue-green eyes and potent physical presence. As Deborah Kerr observed in a diary she kept during the shoot, Burton was at his peak as an actor at this point and she agreed with Ava Gardner that </span><span style="font-size: small;">"he makes everyone else act well, he is so good himself."</span><span style="font-size: small;"> Burton’s agonized rendering of the Reverend Shannon's dark night of the soul seems, at times, a glimpse into his own conflicted nature. Though he was not Oscar-nominated for this role (it was for his performance in <i>Becket </i>that earned his Best Actor nod in 1964), Burton would be nominated a total of seven times for an Academy Award, winning none, though he was otherwise acknowledged with BAFTA, Golden Globe and Tony awards. When the filming of <i>The Night of the Iguana</i> got under way in October 1963, Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor were living together but not yet married; their life of paparazzi-infested, glittering excess had just begun. Even so, Huston later wrote, "There were more reporters on the site than iguanas..."</span><br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5Q3sjrUOon4TAIHVNuWz8ohm6KrlYQFU22B2pE8_sBwuBl4AYlQS9XoUwRgJwmWMibOYuiqtMPkWtpYk48rdJ06nAEI2qH2R3TU58CAol7lcAypOTXxO4LkxXc68Sc3Qq_hbX6pdJ2eGu/s1600/huston+on+set.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="247" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5Q3sjrUOon4TAIHVNuWz8ohm6KrlYQFU22B2pE8_sBwuBl4AYlQS9XoUwRgJwmWMibOYuiqtMPkWtpYk48rdJ06nAEI2qH2R3TU58CAol7lcAypOTXxO4LkxXc68Sc3Qq_hbX6pdJ2eGu/s400/huston+on+set.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">John Huston</td></tr></tbody></table></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><div style="text-align: right;"></div><div style="text-align: right;"></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifkA3-EcuYb5up0GL5fxefQfxeKwO2K-3gvvdCWYP0LnBK0-df8XGWwM4R708IMnyYI9Yudqqg2dEFKWNzpgPD0g3zL5MakZIzkMkIlBjUpYuIC2XpogRwuvYv6MuRCpiaeg4kU7FwIH6U/s1600/Ava+Gardner+gorgeous+youth.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifkA3-EcuYb5up0GL5fxefQfxeKwO2K-3gvvdCWYP0LnBK0-df8XGWwM4R708IMnyYI9Yudqqg2dEFKWNzpgPD0g3zL5MakZIzkMkIlBjUpYuIC2XpogRwuvYv6MuRCpiaeg4kU7FwIH6U/s200/Ava+Gardner+gorgeous+youth.jpg" width="184" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A very young Ava Gardner</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><span style="font-size: small;">Ava Gardner’s Maxine Faulk was a departure from the character as written by Williams and portrayed on the stage. Warmer and softer, Ava’s Maxine personified the “openness and freedom of the sea” Williams had envisioned, but lacked the man-eating qualities of the original. Huston, who felt Williams’ Maxine became far too devouring by the play's end, was responsible for these changes. Ava <span id="goog_1232263459"></span><span id="goog_1232263460"></span>Gardner later recalled that Tennessee was never entirely happy about Huston’s tinkering with the character but she also noted, “…anyone seeing the film knows that John’s choice was the only one that fit.” And Gardner committed herself fully to her role. In an earthy, raucous performance, she allowed herself to appear casual to the point of dishevelment. Clad in a loose serape and toreador pants through much of the film, she had lines penciled in under her eyes and her hair tied back into a loose ponytail to de-emphasize her glorious good looks. During filming, Kerr recorded a comment of Huston's that for Ava it may have been a real disadvantage to be so beautiful, "...it has made her appear publicly as someone she is not, and in her work has made her appear the kind of actress she is not." </span><span style="font-size: small;">For this performance Ava Gardner received the best reviews of her film career. Reflecting in her memoirs she wrote, “I have only one rule in acting – trust the director and give him heart and soul. And the director I trusted most of all was John Huston. Working with him gave me the only real joy I’ve ever had in movies.” </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1FAl4nQmnkZnc3CVIV2V2CaJr8pY1CBOkJn-ULhVU6uJVp21KWBch4yYyZmVqZeu9LE1OhlOdWgdM8qYteb_0xF0Wg0ab5qbfQBGEeY4k6_BB9T9qpJxm-kXEtWE72PHlS6z7JCRwmYLn/s1600/ava+and+deborah.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1FAl4nQmnkZnc3CVIV2V2CaJr8pY1CBOkJn-ULhVU6uJVp21KWBch4yYyZmVqZeu9LE1OhlOdWgdM8qYteb_0xF0Wg0ab5qbfQBGEeY4k6_BB9T9qpJxm-kXEtWE72PHlS6z7JCRwmYLn/s400/ava+and+deborah.jpg" width="311" /></a></td></tr><tr style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ava Gardner and Deborah Kerr</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span id="goog_1232263433"></span><span id="goog_1232263434"></span>Hannah Jelks is an intriguing entry in Deborah Kerr's filmography. Kerr portrayed sensitive ladies of delicacy and reserve to perfection, but Hannah was slightly different, a "Thin-Standing-up-Female-Buddha," in Tennessee Williams' words. Down-on-her-luck, adrift in Mexico and living by her wits and intuition, the spinster has only her remaining dignity, the care of her 97-year-old grandfather and her paintbox to keep her going.</span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">As the international press descended on the set, Kerr admitted that she was beginning to "feel more and more like Hannah in this movie." Reporters insisted on quizzing her for 'dirt' on Burton, Taylor and others, and, in her diary, she quoted Hannah's sentiments, "Nothing human disgusts me unless it is unkind or violent." Kerr added, "I do loathe and detest unkindness and violence and gossip and troublemaking and envy and malice."</span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">On the day filming of <i>The Night of the Iguana</i> ended in late 1963, Deborah Kerr put down her thoughts in her journal, "It's funny how you get so close to a bunch of people on a movie. It is constant making and breaking of emotional relationships - some of the people you work with and get to know so closely, you may never see again." An interesting reflection, coming on the heels, as it did, of completing a film about the redemptive power of human connection.</span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: small;">It was on an evening in 1940 while in Mexico, that Tennessee Williams watched the sun set on a tree of golden lemons. He would later write a poem about it that provided inspiration for the story that became a play and then a film.  The poem was revised slightly and incorporated into <i>The Night of the Iguana</i>.  Here, Cyril <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Delevanti, who portrayed Nonno in the film, recites the verse popularly known as <span style="color: blue;">"</span><a href="http://youtu.be/8eW6v7zoUNk" style="color: blue;">Nonno's Poem</a><span style="color: blue;">"</span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"> (click title to view). </span></span><br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitKApfhg3kQ98LKYcU8zOJiNGeHVRjT3eFquEGNCdrj21NYVvaaOmdtlH7IysTagp4X-pYauw8lfrCYQluJGQdxdV_p_AizNls7vRL-I_4O36GVxDkern2wPoKkWdW9h6eSWlcbDAJpKQ0/s1600/hannah+and+nonno+arrive.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitKApfhg3kQ98LKYcU8zOJiNGeHVRjT3eFquEGNCdrj21NYVvaaOmdtlH7IysTagp4X-pYauw8lfrCYQluJGQdxdV_p_AizNls7vRL-I_4O36GVxDkern2wPoKkWdW9h6eSWlcbDAJpKQ0/s400/hannah+and+nonno+arrive.jpg" width="322" /></a></td></tr><tr style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cyril Delevanti and Deborah Kerr</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">John Huston spent many, many years of his life in Mexico, and was living not far from Mismaloya, in Las Caletas, while working on his autobiography in the late 1970s. Sixteen years had passed since the making of <i>The Night of the Iguana</i> and the location site was now deserted. All that remained were the ruins of the buildings constructed for his film. Huston wrote, "No one - other than an old man who passes there on an occasional trip between Las Caletas and Vallarta - seems to give a damn what happens to the place. He would like to see it torn down and given back to the iguanas. The old man is me of course."</span></span><br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoyarEYIRxOur8BW2E-nPTbAxPkyNQT1uiWq-DIvsnbVc3BHCKJ5rv5X3-bXfnxFv0Winr-_YWp9NtgO45zrUJ31wvtKqIJMVRa7eiYuh_XREEGYLZyK48uWlzHPN5LSXBHJTL833zNb_Q/s1600/huston+living+in+Mexico+1979.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="261" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoyarEYIRxOur8BW2E-nPTbAxPkyNQT1uiWq-DIvsnbVc3BHCKJ5rv5X3-bXfnxFv0Winr-_YWp9NtgO45zrUJ31wvtKqIJMVRa7eiYuh_XREEGYLZyK48uWlzHPN5LSXBHJTL833zNb_Q/s400/huston+living+in+Mexico+1979.jpeg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">John Huston in Las Caletas, 1979</td></tr></tbody></table><i><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">...I was at the</span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"> Hotel Costa Verde <span style="color: #f1c232;"><span style="color: #38761d;">over the rain-forest and the still-water beach</span> </span>which were the off-stage background for </span></i><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Night of the Iguana</span><i><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">.</span></i><br /><div style="text-align: right;"><i><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">~ Tennessee Williams, </span></i><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Memoirs </span></div><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><b><u>Sources</u></b>:</span></span><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><i>An Open Book </i>by John Huston, McMillan (1980)</span></span><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><i>Ava: My Story</i> by Ava Gardner, Bantam (1990)</span></span><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><i>Dark Victory: The Life of Bette Davis</i> by Ed Sikov, Henry Holt (2007)</span></span><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><i>Deborah Kerr Personal Collection</i>: <a href="http://www.deborahkerr.es/" style="color: #cc0000;">http://www.deborahkerr.es</a></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>

Ava Gardner Cyril Delevanti Deborah Kerr John Huston Laurence Olivier Ray Stark Richard Burton TCM Tennessee Williams The Lady Eve (author) The Night of the Iguana Wim Wenders Wings of Desire Over the Rain-Forest and the Still Water Beach

Abandoned movie set, Mismaloya, Mexico: photo courtesy of TripAdvisor The programmers at Turner Classic Movies may not have planned the schedule with me in mind, but they’ve lined up a fine mix of films for me on my birthday this year.Bruno Ganz in W…

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Father and Mother Were Movie Stars: Leatrice Gilbert Fountain Remembers

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlSGSA81MlOJy4z6AOeD9MJ7kpnXZOeeegTbRCLjJM0Z3KEXAYTyz1LxRqfoIkxPnrQVEJM5lyNxKdOiOH2pK-HtKdE_PF7ZjNN5P5g11erTKqBrCmihKjZISNSngKoxHTmN6oHkapyD_m/s1600/hollywood+postcard+cathay+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlSGSA81MlOJy4z6AOeD9MJ7kpnXZOeeegTbRCLjJM0Z3KEXAYTyz1LxRqfoIkxPnrQVEJM5lyNxKdOiOH2pK-HtKdE_PF7ZjNN5P5g11erTKqBrCmihKjZISNSngKoxHTmN6oHkapyD_m/s1600/hollywood+postcard+cathay+2.jpg" /></a></div><span lang="EN" style="font-size: 11pt;">Just over a year ago, as Turner Classic Movies prepared to honor silent screen legend John Gilbert with a day of his own for the first time during “Summer under the Stars” 2010, I interviewed Leatrice Gilbert Fountain, daughter of the actor and his second wife, silent screen star Leatrice Joy. Leatrice Fountain and I had become acquainted several months earlier and it seemed a perfect idea to publish a discussion of her father’s career on the same day TCM fêted him. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /><a name='more'></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN" style="font-size: 11pt;">Leatrice and I have stayed in touch ever since, and over this 4^th of July weekend we spent more time talking about her memories…</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN" style="font-size: 11pt;">Leatrice’s story has its origins in 1918, when John Gilbert and Leatrice Joy met on a Peralta Studio picture called <i>One Dollar Bid</i>. He was kind to the nervous actress who hadn’t worked for a while and was preparing for a scene. He was also taken with her - and she thought he was the most attractive man she’d ever seen.  Their romance began when they met by chance months later.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYNUpF3G065fWD6Mb2mIsHVJmUIhaHA7kKx9z4HaS7q6Lf4dlYn8y6kGYESJGSDDSDU4xCIsXcvWo2EOAC76HyiFWY5O9Jy6I43mrzKi3fOUKjhwOYzpyYHBJNokTGRHkpyEfrLG_0j5wj/s1600/leatrice+joy+3+b.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYNUpF3G065fWD6Mb2mIsHVJmUIhaHA7kKx9z4HaS7q6Lf4dlYn8y6kGYESJGSDDSDU4xCIsXcvWo2EOAC76HyiFWY5O9Jy6I43mrzKi3fOUKjhwOYzpyYHBJNokTGRHkpyEfrLG_0j5wj/s1600/leatrice+joy+3+b.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Leatrice Joy</td></tr></tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN" style="font-size: 11pt;">From their early days together and throughout their marriage, Joy had the bigger career and salary. In 1922, the year she married Gilbert, she signed with Paramount to be groomed for stardom by Cecil B. DeMille. She had been working for Goldwyn and when that contract ended, her brother Billy, then her agent, got in touch with DeMille knowing C.B. had lost his great star Gloria Swanson and was looking for a replacement. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN" style="font-size: 11pt;">John Gilbert was on his way up, but during his time with Joy he hadn’t yet made the films that firmly established his stardom. The couple’s relationship was always tempestuous, and they were apart as often as they were together. For his part, DeMille would have liked the pair to part permanently. Their daughter recounted this story: </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN" style="font-size: 11pt;">“Father had drinking problems, the two would quarrel, and sometimes mother would show up at the studio looking sleepless and unhappy. DeMille finally told her that she must move out of her home until the picture was finished and stay with her mother who lived nearby. This of course infuriated Jack and they fought bitterly. A few days later she was driving on Hollywood Blvd. and saw him ahead of her. He stopped, parked, and walked into a barber shop. She parked behind him, walked into the shop and got into the chair next to his. Neither spoke. When the barber asked her what she wanted she said, I want a haircut just like his (in those days women did not enter the sacred masculine environs of the barber's). It did not cross her mind that this might interfere with the film she was shooting with her long flowing curls. Poor DeMille...” </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN" style="font-size: 11pt;">Some have called Joy a forerunner to Katharine Hepburn and Rosalind Russell because her leading roles were often as emancipated women (and she became famed for her boyish, close-cropped haircut). She was one of Paramount’s top stars and the best known of her films is DeMille’s first version of <i>The Ten Commandments</i> (1923) in which she had one of the featured roles.</span><br /><br /><span lang="EN" style="font-size: 11pt;">Young Leatrice was born in September, 1924, just as her parents were divorcing. Her uncle Billy tried hard to keep Gilbert away from mother and daughter, and her father played virtually no part in the girl’s life for many years; she remembers that she called Billy Joy “Uncle Daddy.” </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifAwVE4tLhPGOo_LCyN3mceoooktoR3lGz2dQ45Dv0ICfi4YqvjJing4qV8qV_Ej_m4vi3LfXocZoEBgwMKKFTXNfxKIyuaF_gYSr7DH8ahuE3Zz42aC-YZsOzTLwNmA_z47zazTLpGJul/s1600/john+gilbert.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifAwVE4tLhPGOo_LCyN3mceoooktoR3lGz2dQ45Dv0ICfi4YqvjJing4qV8qV_Ej_m4vi3LfXocZoEBgwMKKFTXNfxKIyuaF_gYSr7DH8ahuE3Zz42aC-YZsOzTLwNmA_z47zazTLpGJul/s320/john+gilbert.jpg" width="289" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">John Gilbert</td></tr></tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN" style="font-size: 11pt;">Baby Leatrice arrived as John Gilbert’s career was about to skyrocket. He had co-starred in the newly formed MGM’s first production, <i>He Who Gets Slapped</i> (1924), with Lon Chaney and Norma Shearer. But it was in 1925, the year his divorce from Joy was finalized, that Gilbert achieved the heights. He starred in MGM’s production of Erich von Stroheim’s opulent <i>The Merry Widow </i>and also starred in the film that established MGM’s reputation, King Vidor’s smash hit <i>The Big Parade</i>. Just over a year later, not long after the demise of Rudolph Valentino, Gilbert and Greta Garbo co-starred for the first time - in Clarence Brown’s sensual <i>Flesh and the Devil </i>(1926), a runaway success. John Gilbert was now Hollywood’s top romantic lead, adored by millions and in the midst of a great romance with Garbo.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjP8CbEVrm3NmxPIkSpbcxWvOLACvTcngqkni8n0MGv8a7h4QLiwrvpeaon34BI7KSKNjzEHuzEnhZB8F4Z8GCCW5XA2mWgtE5pR5jIAgEkV9O_-jRasGs5zB3vkw6OSo453F65bPYVchAL/s1600/Cecil-Demille.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="196" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjP8CbEVrm3NmxPIkSpbcxWvOLACvTcngqkni8n0MGv8a7h4QLiwrvpeaon34BI7KSKNjzEHuzEnhZB8F4Z8GCCW5XA2mWgtE5pR5jIAgEkV9O_-jRasGs5zB3vkw6OSo453F65bPYVchAL/s320/Cecil-Demille.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cecil B. DeMille</td></tr></tbody></table><span lang="EN" style="font-size: 11pt;">At just that time, Leatrice Joy’s career began its decline. In 1925, DeMille departed Paramount, Hollywood’s reigning studio, to create his own production company. When he left, his agreement with Adolph Zukor and Jesse Lasky allowed him to take his stars with him - if they were agreeable. Joy was one of those he took. According to Leatrice Gilbert Fountain, this was at a critical stage of her mother’s career, “she hadn’t yet reached ‘name above the title’ status, but she was being built up.” Joy didn’t want to leave the studio, DeMille’s new company hadn’t yet worked out a distribution deal, and she had been happy at Paramount but, she said later, she was under the impression Zukor and Lasky didn’t want her because they agreed to let DeMille have her. When she realized this wasn’t true, she reacted, according to her daughter, “childishly.” She begged DeMille to release her, but he refused. After that she would not speak to him, “even when they were walking together.”  Joy’s success was modest with the DeMille company; she was assigned to program pictures and DeMille never directed her again. Her daughter mused, “She was a subtle actress who deserved more.”</span><br /><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="345" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/OHIWIBjoSt8" width="420"></iframe></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><div style="text-align: center;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN" style="font-size: 11pt;"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Leatrice Joy on "To Tell the Truth"</span></span></i> </span></div><br /><span lang="EN" style="font-size: 11pt;">At one point, Joy was off the screen entirely for about 18 months. During that time she toured the country on the vaudeville circuit, performing scenes and singing with an accompanist (her daughter recalled that she was awarded a gold medal as the most popular entertainer on the tour). </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN" style="font-size: 11pt;">Joy’s partnership with DeMille ended unhappily in 1928 and he reportedly held a grudge for years. She signed with MGM and made the last of her silent films for that studio.  The coming of sound effectively ended the film careers of both Leatrice Joy and John Gilbert. Her strong southern accent was considered a detriment, and his voice was called unsuitable.  Joy freelanced for a couple of years for lesser studios and then left movies for nearly a decade. Meanwhile, John Gilbert struggled to revive his waning career until he died suddenly in 1936.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMnXiHGnySOjoDw8yF-qAZGvTdVOsA0XZTDX2Oiid-346fUWhfIFMH4r4d1S1PULjojs-ODFDQztB-l_T6OZW0Bujp6xra5sh0Qz7y0ilNVSnC3ymF27b4kSiBe6JOClHh9_qJpwsJswBz/s1600/MM+62+JFK+bday+3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMnXiHGnySOjoDw8yF-qAZGvTdVOsA0XZTDX2Oiid-346fUWhfIFMH4r4d1S1PULjojs-ODFDQztB-l_T6OZW0Bujp6xra5sh0Qz7y0ilNVSnC3ymF27b4kSiBe6JOClHh9_qJpwsJswBz/s200/MM+62+JFK+bday+3.jpg" width="176" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Marilyn Monroe</td></tr></tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN" style="font-size: 11pt;">Joy’s final film was <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Love Nest</i> (1951), one of Marilyn Monroe’s early films. She told her daughter that Monroe had an effect similar to Jean Harlow’s. She wasn’t talking about her onscreen persona so much as her stunning impact on men - who stopped in their tracks and stared the moment they caught sight of her.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN" style="font-size: 11pt;">Leatrice Gilbert Fountain remembers Jean Harlow. Her family was linked to the ‘platinum blonde’ on both sides. Members of her mother's family were Christian Scientists, as was Harlow, “…my family was very fond of her. My grandmother was Jean's</span><span lang="EN" style="font-size: 11pt;"> </span><span lang="EN" style="font-size: 11pt;"> Christian Science Practitioner (like a healer). She was a really lovely person who always paid attention to a scruffy little girl hanging around [Leatrice].” She remembers the young actress as “a warm, friendly, easy-going girl. She didn’t push herself, others pushed her.” Leatrice’s ‘Uncle Daddy,’ Billy Joy, was Harlow’s first agent and arranged for her initial screen test – for which she wore a dress lent to her by Leatrice Joy. At that time Harlow was under contract to Howard Hughes, an agreement she discussed at length with the more experienced Joy.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3G5FZvSFXCDOigH3iXe5OGoN7no1fWRLniMZ_jsAZrw97VHE06U9o4zd5Nz2aMVZVJ4TvqsdiPWagnv0JkYymsf_ezayQOcIaBAvZ9e6mJDADdOl4-Pu7u8mDdF2I9fo2N2A8c4jn-3wV/s1600/harlow+wedding.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3G5FZvSFXCDOigH3iXe5OGoN7no1fWRLniMZ_jsAZrw97VHE06U9o4zd5Nz2aMVZVJ4TvqsdiPWagnv0JkYymsf_ezayQOcIaBAvZ9e6mJDADdOl4-Pu7u8mDdF2I9fo2N2A8c4jn-3wV/s1600/harlow+wedding.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">John Gilbert (right) at Jean Harlow's wedding</td></tr></tbody></table><span lang="EN" style="font-size: 11pt;">On the other side of the family, John Gilbert was the best man at Harlow’s wedding to her second husband, Paul Bern, in 1932. Bern was a writer, director and producer at MGM, and a close friend of Irving Thalberg. Bern had at once shared a bachelor pad with John Gilbert and Carey Wilson, an MGM screenwriter Oscar-nominated for <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Mutiny on the Bounty </i>(1935). Leatrice chuckled as she recalled that many years later silent screen star Colleen Moore referred to the place, a house above Sunset Blvd., as “a circus” for all that went on there.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgc_wYjNGfahUFQmBfgXEJQnMK5cduTTwJ5InFY5N5ijnUdSFvbODN1CF1EgjGPvvXRoqSH2yipZqOIYnn8RusRtAaN58ivWG1rMxQlRzSeKONWqaqsCy9tGoB7Dpwqk4_yHh2tyOHG5VT6/s1600/of+human+hearts.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgc_wYjNGfahUFQmBfgXEJQnMK5cduTTwJ5InFY5N5ijnUdSFvbODN1CF1EgjGPvvXRoqSH2yipZqOIYnn8RusRtAaN58ivWG1rMxQlRzSeKONWqaqsCy9tGoB7Dpwqk4_yHh2tyOHG5VT6/s320/of+human+hearts.jpg" width="232" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Leatrice Gilbert's first film</td></tr></tbody></table><span lang="EN" style="font-size: 11pt;">Leatrice remembers getting to know the children of other stars, Harold Lloyd’s daughters went to school with her at the Westlake School for Girls; she knew Maria Riva, Marlene Dietrich’s daughter, also born in 1924. Riva, who had a brief career as an actress and appeared on TV in the early ‘50s, seemed to Leatrice a “quiet, withdrawn child” very unlike her illustrious mother.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN" style="font-size: 11pt;">Leatrice also got to know child actors like Freddie Bartholomew and Judy Garland once she made her own foray into ‘the family business.’</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN" style="font-size: 11pt;">At 12, she portrayed Ann Rutherford (‘Annie Hawks’) as a child in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Of Human Hearts</i> (1938), starring Walter Huston, James Stewart and Beulah Bondi (Oscar-nominated for her supporting performance). Around the same time she made a screen test for Hunt Stromberg and was cast as the lead in MGM’s upcoming production of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">National Velvet</i>. The test, she told me, was a scene set the day before the Grand National, in which Velvet and Mi have a talk. Stromberg was planning to shoot the picture in England, but the advent of World War II in Europe and other issues at MGM put the picture on hold for years…</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpDHsDu1ge7T3CpjOaY4aNGZ4LCI5-QV-JxSp0fDWtDZvu_Trcc27llFq7_u2FEIfWGT5UMS0nydkzxc9Luara4bDoJG9VU3Eukm8jQrUhzFD_GGFLcsC70nTX3u9GmW4YDuJg1T0g-zN9/s1600/Ava+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpDHsDu1ge7T3CpjOaY4aNGZ4LCI5-QV-JxSp0fDWtDZvu_Trcc27llFq7_u2FEIfWGT5UMS0nydkzxc9Luara4bDoJG9VU3Eukm8jQrUhzFD_GGFLcsC70nTX3u9GmW4YDuJg1T0g-zN9/s200/Ava+2.jpg" width="150" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ava Gardner</td></tr></tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN" style="font-size: 11pt;">As an MGM contract player in the early ‘40s, Leatrice appeared in several films, including <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Random Harvest</i> (1942), <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">A Guy Named Joe </i>(1943), <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Kismet</i> (1944) and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo </i>(1944). During this time she knew all the other young hopefuls on the MGM lot, liked many and became friends with some, including future star Ava Gardner. She recalls of Ava that she was “beautiful, down-to-earth and warm when so many were distant and aloof…she was so personable.”  Leatrice thought back to an evening when she, Ava and another friend went out on the town to one of Old Hollywood’s great night spots, the Mocambo. She remembered that all eyes in the room followed Ava...and Ava took it in stride, paying little attention to her devastating effect on others.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN" style="font-size: 11pt;">In 1944 Leatrice joined the war effort by becoming a WAC. She was a clerk-typist for just a year when the war ended.  Out of the Army, she went to New York and for two years attended the school of Tamara Daykarhanova, formerly of the Moscow Art Theatre, source of “the method” approach to acting. Daykarhanova had been with Maria Oupenskaya’s New York acting school before Ouspenskaya relocated. At the studio Leatrice met her first husband, a fellow student. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMJf26B7eS7xLdVgjRncJVvbdqrsVAeMKuCHVSD7z-wpWrvIrEcGHEqzHIB_W1kMe81mBis0I9LYUHtf3_BefPVUVfd-G1DLRlMZ936XHgGsIVCrENHYpnkVdZy2G_eGSfj9UeUhQxIB4-/s1600/dark+star.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMJf26B7eS7xLdVgjRncJVvbdqrsVAeMKuCHVSD7z-wpWrvIrEcGHEqzHIB_W1kMe81mBis0I9LYUHtf3_BefPVUVfd-G1DLRlMZ936XHgGsIVCrENHYpnkVdZy2G_eGSfj9UeUhQxIB4-/s1600/dark+star.jpg" /></a></div><span lang="EN" style="font-size: 11pt;">Many years later, Leatrice became interested in the life and career of her father and eventually wrote his definitive biography, <u>Dark Star</u> (St. Martin's Press, 1985). Her exhaustive research on his life put her in touch with many luminaries of Hollywood’s ‘golden age.’  She interviewed the likes of Joan Crawford, Norma Shearer, Colleen Moore, Lillian Gish, Marlene Dietrich, John Ford, Howard Hawks, King Vidor, Clarence Brown and many others. She came to know and was assisted in her journey to learn more by esteemed film historian/filmmaker Kevin Brownlow (winner of an Oscar in 2010, the Governor’s Award). Along with taking part in silent film festivals world-wide in her continuing effort to restore her father's professional reputation, Leatrice became an oft-quoted source for books and documentaries about Hollywood icons as well as Hollywood itself. In the last few months I’ve come across her comments in biographies of Jean Harlow, Louis B. Mayer and Cecil B. DeMille. Charlotte Chandler’s 2011 <a href="http://eves-reel-life.blogspot.com/2011/04/marlene-dietrich-gets-personal-in.html" style="color: #990000;">biography of Marlene Dietrich</a> quotes Leatrice at length so I asked Leatrice about Chandler, the somewhat enigmatic author of several Hollywood bios…</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh06z7_S57bwJpO5ZYGc-6I_QAHcnjYPT7dJvvGygkydeusblJT2eIVrdllQ1KFU3DFHu3GfJm3utBQLHRfLxfTOuaP9pmw3fjsiUrbOuH7H5xRnmPTByDgDbaj1wjFUojY-ofMVKftXGeV/s1600/Leatrice+Gilbert+Fountain.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="193" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh06z7_S57bwJpO5ZYGc-6I_QAHcnjYPT7dJvvGygkydeusblJT2eIVrdllQ1KFU3DFHu3GfJm3utBQLHRfLxfTOuaP9pmw3fjsiUrbOuH7H5xRnmPTByDgDbaj1wjFUojY-ofMVKftXGeV/s200/Leatrice+Gilbert+Fountain.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Leatrice Gilbert Fountain</td></tr></tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN" style="font-size: 11pt;">“...I knew her and ran into her continually at MOMA in the heyday of the film department (there was nothing like it anywhere except for Langlois in Paris). And she seemed to know everyone. How she has kept herself a mystery is one in itself.”</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN" style="font-size: 11pt;">I could’ve asked Leatrice to reminisce for days, but her two visiting sons returned from a fishing expedition and it was time for us both to return to the 4^th of July weekend and our daily lives. We agreed to talk again soon…</span><br /><br /><span lang="EN" style="font-size: 11pt;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i><a href="http://classic-film-tv.blogspot.com/2010/08/about-john-gilbertan-interview-with.html" style="color: #990000;">Click here</a><span style="color: #990000;"> </span>to view my original interview with Leatrice. <a href="http://eves-reel-life.blogspot.com/2010/10/house-that-jack-built.html" style="color: #990000;">Click here</a> for my piece on the fabled history of her father's house in Hollywood.</i></span> </span><br /><br /></div></div></div>

Ava Gardner Cecil B. DeMille Jean Harlow John Gilbert Leatrice Gilbert Fountain Leatrice Joy TCM The Lady Eve (author) Father and Mother Were Movie Stars: Leatrice Gilbert Fountain Remembers

Just over a year ago, as Turner Classic Movies prepared to honor silent screen legend John Gilbert with a day of his own for the first time during “Summer under the Stars” 2010, I interviewed Leatrice Gilbert Fountain, daughter of the actor and his s…

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