Cary Grant (60 page)

Coney Island's famous Steeplechase Park.
The gig paid five dollars a day, ten dollars on weekends. Grant worked Tuesdays through Fridays, and weekends.
a witness to all this “homosexuality.”
Higham and Moseley,
Cary Grant,
37. They claim to have conducted the interview with Burns a few years before his death.

Grant insisted that in 1925 … he returned to England.
The source of the fanciful story of Archie's return to England in 1925 was Archie Leach himself. While appearing in summer stock in 1930, he was invited to write a profile of himself for the local newspapers and crafted what amounts to a colorful fiction of his early life, including the supposed 1925 trip back home. This trip shows up repeatedly in biographies of Grant, based on this profile, embellished with all manner of detail and color, but without any basis in fact. Grant was to continue to use this method of misdirection to throw off all those who sought to write about him, and it usually worked quite effectively. In later works and interviews, for example, Grant “confessed” that he came from a strong theatrical background and that his father, Elias, was a wealthy clothing manufacturer. One of the strongest “pieces of evidence” Higham and Moseley use to “prove” that Grant was Jewish and that Elsie was not his mother is the 1962
Who's Who in America
entry on Cary Grant, in which she is identified as Lillian. It is fairly certain that Grant himself was the source of the mixup
in names, as he constantly sought to protect his mother from the prying eyes of writers, researchers, and biographers. Finally, Elsie and Lillian are similar-sounding names, easily mistaken in transcription or translation, an error Grant would not have bothered to correct.

“I had quite a run of stage successes …”
Quoted in John Paddy Carstairs, “He's Grand—and He's Grant,”
Film Pictorial,
December 17, 1932.

“He was never a very open fellow …”
Quoted in Wansell,
Haunted Idol,
65.
“happy acquaintance.”
Grant, “Archie Leach.” According to Grant, it was not OrryKelly but another young, hustling actor by the name of Max Hoffman Jr. who introduced him to Reginald Hammerstein. This is, most likely, another instance of Grant's masterful use of misdirection, as all evidence points to Orry-Kelly being the one. It is interesting to note that Grant never refers to or mentions Orry-Kelly by name in any interview or autobiographical writings, including “Archie Leach.”

Golden Dawn.
The show starred Louise Hunter and Paul Gregory. Archie received generally good notices, including one from
The New York Times
, which called him a “handsome young newcomer.”
Golden Dawn
was made into a Warner Bros. movie in 1930 starring Vivienne Segal and Walter Woolf King. It is mostly remembered for being one of the first Hollywood feature films to be shot entirely in color.

Polly with a Past.
This show was written by Ina Claire and originally produced on Broadway by David Belasco.

June took an instant dislike to Archie.
Quoted in Harris,
Cary Grant,
41; original source unknown.

Rosalie.
By the 1920s Broadway had become a seeding ground for the many national theaters belonging to various producers/theater owners. Before talking pictures, a show that opened on Broadway became the model for a live touring version that would play in every major city in America. For Archie, the opportunity to tour meant national exposure with star billing, a major step up in his theatrical career.

Orry-Kelly, costume designer for
Boom Boom.
It remains a mystery what role, if any, Orry-Kelly played in convincing the Shuberts to sign the still largely unknown Archie Leach away from the Hammersteins.

“Without the ability …”
Cary Grant, “Archie Leach.”
open-air Municipal Opera in St. Louis.
Orry-Kelly may have been involved in the Shuberts' decision to send Archie to St. Louis.

“Some men squeeze a line to death …”
Michael Curtiz,
Time,
July 27, 1962.

Sternberg and Dietrich.
Sternberg directed Dietrich in seven classic movies (eight if the German version of
The Blue Angel
is counted, a film Sternberg reshot in English after
the success of
Morocco
). These include
The Blue Angel
(1930, German and English versions),
Morocco
(1930),
Dishonored
(1931),
Shanghai Express
(1932),
Blonde Venus
(1932, with Cary Grant),
Scarlet Empress
(1934), and
Devil Is a Woman
(1935). Both
Scarlet Empress
and
Devil Is a Woman
were box office failures.

“Hate … mannerisms …”
Interview by Suzy Parker, March 31, 1956; in Wayne,
Cooper's Women,
143.

With the Hays Office gaining power in Hollywood.
In the wake of threats by the federal government to appoint a board of censorship similar to the one already in place in England, the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America created an authority to self-regulate the film industry. In 1922 the association appointed Postmaster General Will Hays to enforce a predetermined formula of standards. Not everyone greeted Hays's arrival with the official warmth that the studio heads did. Chaplin, always the iconoclast, had signs hung over the men's room of his studio declaring “Welcome ill Hays.” It would take ten years for the code to bring about a regulated ethic that became the industry standard. Until then the studios tried on an individual basis to see how far they could stretch the limits of what became known as the Hays Office. Thus in 1929, when profits were beginning to dip, Carl Laemmle tried, without success, to bring Mae West and her controversial show to Hollywood via Universal Studios. Two years later, with the studio on the brink of bankruptcy, Paramount risked everything by taking on the woman and her reputation, along with the property that had enjoyed such success on Broadway. As always it was money, not morals, that ruled Hollywood.

“It wasn't true …”
Quoted in Cindy Adams, May 1982.

“I copied other styles I knew …”
Quoted in Davis, “Cary Grant.”

“was a homosexual …”
Dietrich made this statement many times, including in an interview quoted in Higham and Moseley. Rumors of Dietrich's own bisexuality had been floated for years; kissing another woman onscreen while dressed in a man's tuxedo in
Shanghai Express
didn't help, but neither did it threaten her star status. If anything, it gave her an added “takes one to know one” pedigree in evaluating potential lovers. To those who held power in Hollywood, lesbianism was simply titillating and therefore tolerated. No man, they believed, would refuse to buy a ticket to see Marlene Dietrich because she preferred women, but many would refuse to see a Cary Grant flick if they thought he was “queer.”

“If women want to wear men's clothes …”
Quoted in
Los Angeles Times,
January 25, 1933.

“Was there pressure on you or Cary Grant to wed …”
Scott, in Hadleigh,
Hollywood Gays.

Cary and Scott.
On at least one occasion their relationship cost them the chance to work together. Paramount had considered teaming the two in a film about the Arctic,
Spawn of the North,
with Carole Lombard in the female lead. But mainly due to the persistent
rumors over the duo's sexual preferences, the roles eventually went to Henry Fonda and George Raft. The film was directed by Henry Hathaway and released by Paramount in 1938.

Bachelor Hall.
This name, given to the bachelor pad of Grant and Scott, was often attributed to Carole Lombard but actually came from a Paramount PR executive.

“Cary is the gay, impetuous one …”
Ben Maddox, quoted (without attribution) by Gerald Clarke, in
Architectural Digest,
April 1996, 282.

“carrying this buddy business …”
Harris,
Cary Grant,
58.
Grant and Scott's competitive workout routine.
The details of the daily workout routine and the bet between them are from an RKO memo written by S. Barret McCormick in 1947, to publicize the chance meeting between Scott and Grant that happened during the filming of
The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer.

“Her shapely form in a blue …”
Chaplin,
Charles Chaplin: My Autobiography.
He devotes a mere two paragraphs to Cherrill, one having to do with their meeting on the beach, and one having to do with directing her in
City Lights.
He omits any reference to his romantic pursuit of her.

private diaries.
The personal diaries kept by Virginia Cherrill and the extensive audiocassettes she kept for use for a possible memoir were made available to the author by Teresa McWilliams, Cherrill's close friend and next-door neighbor in Santa Barbara for more than forty years.

“Most of the actresses that worked for him …”
Interview by film historian Gerard Molyneaux, in Milton,
Tramp,
297.

Chaplin wanting to fire Cherrill and replace her with Georgia Hale.
Chaplin had done this sort of thing before. In 1925, during the filming of
The Gold Rush,
he had gotten his leading lady, sixteen-year-old Lita Grey, pregnant and decided to reshoot her scenes with Georgia Hale. Paramount signed Hale on the strength of her performance and cast her in its 1926 production of Herbert Brenon's
The Great Gatsby.
Her career ended with the arrival of talkies, for which, the studio decided, she was vocally unsuited.

The night Cary Grant met her.
In most versions of their initial meeting, Grant is described as declaring his “instant love” for Cherrill, one of the many stories about them that is very likely apocryphal. Previous biographers seem to have had a great deal of difficulty discerning the precise source of Grant's quote, or to whom it is supposed to have been told. In Harris,
Cary Grant,
it is unattributed; in Grant, Ashman, and Trescott,
Cary Grant,
it is similarly unattributed, although it is slightly amended to love at “second sight (taking into account the sighting at the fights and the subsequent meeting in the commissary)”; in Higham and Moseley,
Cary Grant,
Grant is “fascinated” by Cherrill, who, in turn, is “warned” by none other than Orry-Kelly, in a quote that is neither sourced nor substantiated (and highly unlikely), to be wary of Grant. “Later on,” after their divorce he tells Cherrill—in a quote that sounds more like a line out of a soap opera than a commentary
by Orry-Kelly, whose connection, if any, to Cherrill is never established—“We both loved him and lost him, didn't we?” In Godfrey,
Cary Grant,
Grant's initial reaction is that he is “charmed” by her during the commissary meeting; in Wansell,
Haunted Idol,
Grant is quoted (without any attribution whatsoever) as telling unnamed “friends” after the initial meeting at the commissary, “I fell in love with her the moment I saw her.” Finally, Govoni,
Cary Grant,
comes to this conclusion: “It was not, in any sense, a love-at-first-sight situation.” Again, the conclusion is drawn without any attribution.

Grant's back injury.
According to associate director Michael Liesen, Grant had been “inattentive” and was injured when an explosion was triggered prematurely. The rest of the cast was unhurt because they had followed instructions and were standing on their spots, whereas Grant had absentmindedly drifted off his. See Godfrey,
Cary Grant,
62.

Virginia Cherrill had the best sense of humor.
McWilliams, recalling a conversation she had with Cary Grant in 1982 at the Hollywood Park racetrack. Unless otherwise noted, all McWilliams quotes are from author interviews.

Grant's bed.
Waterbury, “Story of Cary Grant.”

“The only thing I got …”
Levant,
Memoirs,
91.

“I can't say that I'm in love with Miss West …”
Los Angeles Times,
October 16, 1933. Grant kept his word and never worked with Mae West on another film. In the eleven films she made, he was the only leading man to appear with her onscreen more than once.

“The first day that Cary, the perfectionist …”
Niven,
Bring on the Empty Horses.
Grant's trip to England.
Sources on Grant's trip to England include papers, articles, and other related documents archived in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences; the materials on file at the British Film Institute research division; research documents in Bristol; court records in England, Los Angeles, and the United States; author interviews with Teresa McWilliams; and the private, unpublished diaries and papers of Virginia Cherrill.

Fishponds.
The institution was one of the worst medical facilities in all of Great Britain. The rooms were filthy, the patients unattended, the food lousy. Elias chose it because it was a state-run facility that cost him exactly one pound a year.

Grant was devastated.
Some have suggested that Grant knew of his mother's incarceration since childhood, that he had been told of it by his father, and that he accepted his father's new life in Southampton as part of their accord. There is no evidence of this, nor does it seem the least bit plausible. Grant would certainly have been in contact with his mother during the nineteen-year period of their separation. The best proof that Grant did not know his mother was alive—besides the psychological behavior her abandonment caused him—is the simple, incontrovertible fact that prior to learning she was alive, he never visited her, wrote to her, or sent her money.
the day of his wedding.
It's possible that one of the reasons Grant married Cherrill
in London was to avoid the California equal-division-of-property statutes. But as Grant was shortly to discover, full-time residency and place of income were the overriding legal considerations.