All About “All About Eve” (52 page)

Alexander Woollcott
: American drama critic and playwright (1887–1943). He is best remembered, however, as the prototype of Sheridan Whiteside in the Kaufman-Hart farce,
The Man Who Came to Dinner
. Woollcott himself was a fat, owlish man, very different in appearance from the distinguished Monty Woolley, who played Whiteside in the 1941 film version. (Bette Davis plays second fiddle to the imperious Woolley.)

As theatre critic for the
New York Times
and other papers, Woollcott was capricious in his judgments. He believed Charlie Chaplin “the greatest living actor” and called
The Skin of Our Teeth
“head and shoulders above anything else ever written for our stage.” Both sharp-tongued and sentimental, he wrote nothing of enduring value. It was said of him that he had every aptitude for literature except a taste for the first-rate.

acknowledgments

My first explorations for this book were not encouraging. The main obstacle was the bleak fact of the moving-van fire that destroyed so much of Joseph L. Mankiewicz’s material related to
All About Eve
. Mankiewicz himself was gone, and I didn’t know whether his survivors would welcome my overtures.

Only one member of the cast was alive, and early on I telephoned Celeste Holm. Her peremptory dismissal of my project, recorded at the beginning of this book, added to my doubts about this quixotic pursuit. I followed the phone call with a letter, which received no answer.

I wrote another letter, this one to Mary Orr, and a few days later she telephoned me. Immediately I went to New York and spent a long afternoon with her. We have stayed in touch since then, and I hope she realizes how very grateful I am. Without her, a crucial early section of this book would have been no longer than a paragraph.

From that point, momentum built. I reached Tom Mankiewicz, the director’s son, who extended every courtesy and spoke to me at length about his father’s career. He put me in touch with Rosemary Mankiewicz, the director’s widow, who was equally gracious.

These interviews, of course, had to be buttressed with all the thousands of facts and quotes and details available only in various print and electronic media. My search led literally across the country as I mined books, magazines, clipping files, cinema archives, and filmed documentaries for every conceivable embellishment to my “biography” of
All About Eve
.

At Boston University Libraries, where Bette Davis’s papers are housed, Karen Mix assembled precisely what I needed from the Davis archives. At the Billy Rose Theatre Collection of the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Christopher Frith was particularly valuable. He pointed me in all the right directions and brightened my sometimes grueling task with his good humor.

Surely no one writing about the movies could survive without the endless expertise of the following specialists in Los Angeles: Ned Comstock, of the Cinema-Television Library of the University of Southern California; Brigitte J. Kueppers, of the Arts Library–Special Collections at UCLA; Gladys Irvis of the American Film Institute’s Louis B. Mayer Library; and the army of experts at the Margaret Herrick Library of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Among the latter, Scott Curtis and Faye Thompson gave me special help, and Ed Carter set up a special screening of the 1951 Academy Awards ceremonies.

At the Los Angeles Public Library I located materials not available elsewhere. At the Huntington Library in San Marino, Shelley Bennett and Jennifer Frias provided leads about Sarah Siddons. Robyn Asleson, also of the Huntington, started by helping me with Mrs. Siddons and went on to provide clues on any number of topics.

In Dallas, where I live, the DeGolyer Library at Southern Methodist University was another gold mine, and Ron Davis, of the SMU History Department, brought many unusual sources to my attention.

Of all the collections I used, however, my most frequent quarry was the Dallas Public Library, with its excellent general collection and its outstanding holdings on film and theatre. Only rarely did I fail to find on the shelf exactly what I required. Robert Eason, now retired, was my earliest champion there. I also single out for praise every staff member in Humanities and in Fine Arts: Frances Bell, Rebecca Brumley, Roger Carroll, Yolanda Davis, John Elfers, Ruth Games, Tom Hannigan, Steven Housewright, Kate Jarboe, Kevin Jennings, Lisa Lipton, Ludmila Popelova, Ann Shelton, and Julie Travis.

Richard Kaufman, Principal Pops Conductor of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, put me in touch with Patrick Russ, an orchestrator in Hollywood who read my pages on Alfred Newman and offered many helpful suggestions.

When the time came to write the chapter on
Applause
, I was fortunate in reaching many of those associated with the original production. Charles Strouse, Lee Adams, Sidney Michaels, and Betty Comden conveyed a sense of how they created their respective parts of the show. Those who performed at various times in it—Penny Fuller, Lee Roy Reams, Diane McAfee, Garrett Lewis, and Arlene Dahl—surprised me with how much they recalled after thirty years.

The friends to whom this book is dedicated—Robert Sanchez, Glenn Russell, Evan Matthews, Steve Lambert, Tim Boss, Cary Birdwell, John Conway, Gary Schwartz, and Warren Butler—deserve pages of thanks for all they have done. I met them soon after I arrived in Dallas, and once a month we watch a movie together. The first time I played host, I of course screened
All About Eve
. The discussion afterwards was lively, and since then there have been many others. They have helped me during every phase of this book, often dropping everything to boost me over a hump. To quote Max Fabian in the movie, “It’s friends that count. And I got friends.”

The following persons, many of them close friends, others acquaintances or even strangers, all took time to talk with me about Hollywood circa 1950 or to discuss
All About Eve
in particular. They answered questions in person, by mail, and over the telephone, and never lost patience with my greedy quest for more information on the topic. (One person in this list predicted that in twenty years I’ll still be prodding him for details as I complete Volume 18 of the
All About Eve Encyclopedia
, and he may be right.) I feel fortunate, personally as well as professionally, to have encountered each one: Donna Atwater, Brian Baldwin, Rudy Behlmer, Roderick L. Bladel, Gary Carey, Randy Carter, Diane Challis, Richard Challis, Mary Diveny, Roger Farabee, Kenneth Geist, Mel Gussow, Joseph Guy, Sarah Hamilton, Joseph Hansen, Aljean Harmetz, Joyce Saenz Harris, Tom Hatten, Harry Haun, Jeff Herrington, David Jones, Vernon Jordan, Pauline Kael, Gerry Kroll, David Lopes, Berri McBride, Pablo Navarro, Kenneth Neely, Lawrence J. Quirk, Nancy Davis Reagan, Lester Roque, Leigh W. Rutledge, Annie Stevens, Virginia Tobiassen, and Gina Zucker.

As I was finishing the book,
Vanity Fair
published a long excerpt from it. I wish for myself and for all writers the same editorial expertise and goodwill I encountered there. Those responsible for my happy experience are Graydon Carter, Wayne Lawson, Chris Garrett, James Buss, Ann Schneider, Michael Hogan, Pat Singer, Sharon Suh, and Mersini Fialo. And at the
VF
photo shoot: Brian Harness, Coby Markum, Yvonne Coan, and Katelin Burton.

My neighbors, Ed and Zeyphene McMackin, supplied everything from computer help to apple cobbler. My cats—Margo, Eve, Phoebe, and the anomalously christened Little Bit—did all the things that cats do, and I cheer them for it. St. Jude lived up to his reputation.

Several persons who requested anonymity are also hereby acknowledged in petto.

At the last moment, just as I was ready to send my manuscript to the publisher, Martina Lawrence made a surprise visit to this country. I extended my deadline in order to include her intriguing story. Her statements added color and texture, and I’m grateful to her.

Among those who lowered the stress of publication, I thank Alan Kaufman of Frankfurt Garbus Klein & Selz for legal advice; Karen Pilibosian Thompson for meticulous copyediting; and Michael Connor of St. Martin’s Press for efficiency and good humor.

In the final spot of honor I salute my witty, perceptive, and enthusiastic editor, Elizabeth Beier, and my agent, Jim Donovan, whose love of books and movies makes him my ideal reader as well as my ideal agent.

selected bibliography

Two categories of books and periodicals are included in this bibliography: first, those that provided information on the many people connected with
All About Eve
and the Broadway musical,
Applause
, and second, books that in some way broadened my understanding of movies and those who make them. Some minor sources—books, newspaper and magazine articles, archival materials—are not listed below but are cited only in the notes section.

Acker, Ally.
Reel Women: Pioneers of the Cinema, 1896 to the Present
. New York: Continuum, 1991.

Affron, Charles.
Star Acting: Gish, Garbo, Davis
. New York: Dutton, 1977.

Aherne, Brian.
A Dreadful Man
. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1979.

Aldrich, Richard Stoddard.
Gertrude Lawrence As Mrs. A.: An Intimate Biography of the Great Star
. New York: Greystone Press, 1954.

Allen, Leigh. “The Filming of
All About Eve
.”
American Cinematographer
, January 1951.

Alpert, Hollis.
The Dreams and the Dreamers
. New York: Macmillan, 1962.

Andrew, Geoff.
The Film Handbook
. Boston: G. K. Hall, 1989.

Anger, Kenneth.
Hollywood Babylon II
. New York: Plume, 1984.

Anstey, Edgar.
Shots in the Dark
. New York: Garland, 1978.

Asleson, Robyn, ed.
A Passion for Performance: Sarah Siddons and Her Portraitists
. Los Angeles: The J. Paul Getty Museum, 1999.

Bacall, Lauren.
By Myself
. New York: Knopf, 1979.

_____
.
Now
. New York: Knopf, 1994.

Bankhead, Tallulah.
Tallulah: My Autobiography
. New York: Harper and Brothers, 1952.

Barber, Jill, and Rita Watson.
Sisterhood Betrayed: Women in the Workplace and the All About Eve Complex
. New York: St. Martin’s, 1991.

Baxter, Anne.
Intermission
. New York: Putnam’s, 1976.

Bayer, William.
The Great Movies
. New York: Grosset and Dunlap, 1973.

Behlmer, Rudy.
America’s Favorite Movies: Behind the Scenes
. New York: Ungar, 1982.

_____
.
Memo From Darryl F. Zanuck
. New York: Grove, 1993.

Behlmer, Rudy, and Tony Thomas.
Hollywood’s Hollywood: The Movies About the Movies
. Secaucus, N.J.: Citadel, 1975.

Bergner, Elisabeth.
Bewundert viel und viel gescholten: unordentliche Erinnerungen
. Munich: Goldmann, 1978.

Binh, N. T.
Mankiewicz
. Paris: Rivages, 1986.

Black, Gregory D.
Hollywood Censored: Morality Codes, Catholics, and the Movies
. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984.

Braudy, Leo.
The World in a Frame: What We See in Films
. New York: Doubleday, 1976.

Brian, Dennis.
Tallulah, Darling
. New York: Macmillan, 1980.

Brown, Gene.
Show Time: A Chronology of Broadway and the Theatre from Its Beginnings to the Present
. New York: Macmillan, 1997.

Burkhart, Jeff, and Bruce Stuart.
Hollywood’s First Choices
. New York: Crown Trade Paperbacks, 1994.

Byrge, Duane.
Private Screenings: Insiders Share a Century of Great Movie Moments
. Atlanta: Turner Publishing, 1995.

Campbell, Joseph.
The Hero With a Thousand Faces
. Cleveland: World, 1956.

Carey, Gary.
More About All About Eve.
New York: Random House, 1972.

Carrier, Jeffrey L.
Tallulah Bankhead: A Bio-Bibliography
. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1991.

Chierichetti, David.
Hollywood Costume Design
. New York: Harmony Books, 1976.

Ciment, Michel.
Passeport Pour Hollywood
. Paris: Editions du Seuil, 1987.

Collins, Joan.
Second Act
. New York: Doubleday, 1996.

Comden, Betty.
Off Stage
. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1995.

Comden, Betty, and Adolph Green.
Applause. Book by Betty Comden and Adolph Green. Music by Charles Strouse and Lee Adams
. New York: Random House, 1971.

Considine, Shaun.
Bette and Joan
. New York: Dell, 1990.

Conway, Michael, and Mark Ricci.
The Films of Marilyn Monroe
. Secaucus, N.J.: Citadel, 1964.

Corliss, Richard.
Talking Pictures: Screenwriters in the American Cinema
. New York: Penguin, 1975.

Coursodon, Jean-Pierre, and Pierre Sauvage.
American Directors
, vol. II. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1983.

Crist, Judith.
Take 22
. New York: Viking, 1984.

Custen, George F.
Twentieth Century’s Fox: Darryl F. Zanuck and the Culture of Hollywood
. New York: Basic Books, 1997.

Davis, Bette.
The Lonely Life
. New York: Putnam’s, 1962.

_____
.
This ’N That
. New York: Putnam’s, 1987.

Davis, Ronald L.
The Glamour Factory: Inside Hollywood’s Big Studio System
. Dallas: SMU Press, 1993.

Denham, Reginald.
Stars in My Hair
. New York: Crown, 1958.

Dick, Bernard.
Anatomy of Film
. New York: St. Martin’s, 1978.

_____
.
Joseph L. Mankiewicz
. Boston: Twayne, 1983.

Dowdy, Andrew.
The Films of the Fifties
. New York: Morrow, 1975.