Authors: Marc Eliot
The Awful Truth
was nominated for Best Picture …
The other Best Picture nominees for 1937 were Victor Fleming's
Captains Courageous,
William Wyler's
Dead End,
Sidney Franklin's
The Good Earth,
Henry King's
In Old Chicago,
Frank Capra's
Lost Horizon,
Henry Koster's
One Hundred Men and a Girl,
Gregory La Cava's
Stage Door,
William Wellman's
A Star Is Born,
and the winner, William Dieterle's
The Life of Emile Zola.
The other Best Actress nominees were Greta Garbo (George Cukor's
Camille
), Janet Gaynor
(A Star Is Born),
Barbara Stanwyck (King Vidor's
Stella Dallas
), and the winner, Luise Rainer
(The Good Earth).
The other Best Supporting Actor nominees were Thomas Mitchell (John Ford and Stuart Heisler's
The Hurricane
), H. B. Warner
(Lost Horizon),
Roland Young (
Topper,
another Cary Grant movie), and the winner, Joseph Schildkraut
(The Life of Emile Zola).
The other Best Director nominees were William Dieterle
(The Life of Emile Zola),
Sidney Franklin
(The Good Earth),
Gregory La Cava
(Stage Door),
and William Wellman
(A Star Is Born).
Grant at the 1938 Academy Awards.
As their player contracts expired, more and more actors attempted to go “the Cary Grant route,” something the studio heads feared
might one day bring down the structure of the entire system. Within a month of that year's ceremonies, the U.S. government formally instituted an antitrust suit against the studios, claiming that their absolute control over the three branches of their business—the production, distribution, and exhibition of movies—constituted an illegal monopoly that prevented independent filmmakers and theater owners from fairly competing for talent, distribution, and houses to screen their product. In 1948 the case finally came before the Supreme Court, and the studios signed a consent decree that ended their iron grip on Hollywood filmmaking forever. (See notes for “One.”)
a party at “21” to meet Alfred Hitchcock.
Hitchcock first arrived in America on August 22, 1938, aboard the
Queen Mary.
He was accompanied by his wife, Alma, and their daughter, Patricia.
“One of the marks of a great director …”
Haskell,
Holding My Own,
25.
Cary Grant's 1939 visit to London and Bristol.
Some of the information for this sequence of events comes from McCann,
Cary Grant.
Additional material comes from an article by Philip French, in
London Observer,
August 25, 1996. The author contacted the FBI on several occasions, under the auspices of the Freedom of Information Act, to obtain Cary Grant's FBI file. The official response was a carefully worded statement that said no such file existed. In a letter dated January 17, 2003, in response to “Request #0971956-000, regarding Cary Grant,” the FBI stated, “Based on the information furnished, a search of the automated indices to our central records system files at FBI headquarters located no records responsive to your FOIPA request to indicate you and/or the subject(s) of your request have ever been of investigatory interest to the FBI.”
“picture of another sucker.”
Quoted in an article by Norma Abrams and Gerald Duncan,
New York Daily News,
December 12, 1938.
“If you haven't seen Cary Grant …”
Bogdanovich,
Movie of the Week,
97.
As Peter Bogdanovich rightly points out.
Ibid.
“They both wanted the beach house …”
Interview by the author. The source of this quote wishes to remain anonymous.
“Cukor's strategy was to keep Cary Grant …”
McGilligan,
George Cukor,
162.
“Plenty of room up front.”
This was one of Grant's favorite parables. He told it for years. It first found its way into print in an interview conducted by Duncan Underhill for the
New York World-Telegram,
January 24, 1942.
“Cash and Cary.”
The idea that Grant, who had previously married one of the most beautiful women in Hollywood, would be interested in the rather homely Barbara Hutton led everyone, including the gossip columnists, to suspect that his motives were other than true love. The phrase “Cash and Cary” became something of a joke in Hollywood, whenever
the Grant-Hutton relationship was spoken of, which was quite often. Its appearances in the gossip columns amused neither Hutton nor Grant.
Goldwyn was … “mad for the material.”
Berg,
Goldwyn,
316.
“I am heartbroken …”
Ibid.
“When I go to the movies …”
Grant, interviewed by Carroll,
Motion Picture,
February 1941.
“Irene and I sit here and worry …”
Ibid.
Grant's relatives killed.
The bombing raid on Bristol was reported in the
Los Angeles Examiner
and the
New York Daily News,
January 28, 1941.
“The consensus was that audiences …”
Hitchcock, quoted in “Murder—With English on It,”
New York Times Magazine,
March 3, 1957.
“a minor figure in a fast film industry …”
Quoted in Spoto,
Dark Side of Genius,
222.
“Cary Grant is a great comedian …”
Quoted in Schickel,
Men Who Made the Movies.
“a dear, dear man.”
Quoted in McBride,
Frank Capra,
445.
Grant's special affection for Jean Adair.
Details of this story are from the
New York Daily Mirror,
September 11, 1944.
Grant wearing only the tops of his pajamas.
From a syndicated Tintypes column by Sidney Skolsky, “Hollywood Is My Beat,” January 3, 1946.
“among the industry's … most pro-Communist offerings.”
Internal FBI memorandum, May 11, 1944.
“known Communist connections …”
Internal FBI memorandum, November 20, 1944.
“no chance of reconciliation.”
Quoted in Florabel Muir,
New York Daily News,
August 16, 1944.
“I can't portray Bing Crosby …”
Quoted in Kent Schuelke, “Cary Grant,”
Interview,
January 1987. This was one of Grant's final sit-downs, conducted four months before his death.
“Why, Cary Grant, of course!”
Cole Porter's often-quoted comment likely came after Grant had already been offered the part. In fact, Porter's first choice was his very close friend Fred Astaire, who wanted no part of it.
“I know of not one single soul …”
Govoni,
Cary Grant,
131. It is safe to say there was no love lost between Wilder and Grant. Years later, when interviewed by Al Cohn at
Newsday
(December 19, 1964), Grant was reminded of Wilder's comment and tersely replied, “Well, maybe
he
hasn't been to my house. Maybe he doesn't know the same people I know.” While Grant never appeared in a Billy Wilder film, in 1958 Wilder directed
Some Like It Hot,
in which Tony Curtis did a devastatingly accurate impersonation of Grant, as a character who had trouble making love to women.
Hughes had the bathrooms custom-built.
Brown and Broeske,
Howard Hughes,
302.
Cook's budget and cold turkey sandwiches.
Lloyd Shearer, “Intelligence Report,”
Parade,
March 12, 1989.
“there wasn't a paper …”
Quoted in Barlett and Steele,
Empire,
164.
peanut butter and jelly sandwiches at “21.”
Walter Weiss [maître d'] obituary,
The New York Times,
October 15, 2002.
“It was all very flattering …”
Quoted in Brown and Broeske,
Howard Hughes,
251.
“
Notorious
resumes the general visual key …”
Durgnat,
Strange Case of Alfred Hitchcock,
195.
“carefully trained and coached …”
Margaret McDonnell (a contract story editor), a memo to David O. Selznick, August 7, 1944. In the memo McDonnell conveyed Hitchcock's idea for a new movie she had discussed with him at “a long lunch last Friday.” This germ of an idea may be seen again in several later Hitchcock films, by both genders, and across generations, most vividly in
Strangers on a Train, To Catch a Thief, Vertigo, North by Northwest,
and
Psycho.
“a kissing sequence that made …”
Sarris,
You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet,
257.
“I'd been flying for a lot longer …”
Quoted in McCarthy,
Howard Hawks,
156–57.
“All we did was to change plans …”
Hedda Hopper,
Chicago Tribune,
June 26, 1947.
Grant joins MCA.
This arrangement was to last only three years. While it started off well, Stein's vision of the agency as a packager of its own talent ultimately proved unacceptable to Grant.
“a rather conceited, impudent …”
Telegram, Grant to Samuel Goldwyn, January 2, 1947.
“I've been called the longest lasting young man …”
Cary Grant, “What It Means to Be a Star,”
Films and Filming,
July 1961.
“Cary came out weighing …”
Quoted in McCarthy,
Howard Hawks,
461. See also ibid., chap. 29.
“One problem with the show …”
William Frye, interview by the author.
“Selectivity always suggests art …”
Schickel,
Cary Grant.
the directing debut of Richard Brooks.
Crisis
was the inauspicious start to a very successful Hollywood career. Among the films Brooks would go on to direct are
The Last Time I Saw Paris
(1954),
Blackboard Jungle
(1955),
Something of Value
(1957),
Elmer Gantry
(1960), and
In Cold Blood
(1967).
A Star Is Born.
Some of the background information given here comes from Haver,
Star Is Born,
191–205, and McGilligan,
George Cukor,
218–24. The meeting between Cukor and Grant is almost always mistakenly reported as happening much later,
after
the film's 1954 release. The meeting actually took place in December 1952, when Cukor (who had been offered the original 1937 version but turned it down) began interviewing actresses to play the role of Esther. The first actress he saw, in December 1952, was Judy Garland. That same month he began his ultimately unsuccessful campaign to enlist the acting services of Cary Grant.
“This is the part you were born to play!” and Grant's response.
McGilligan,
George Cukor,
219.
“one of those periodically increasing episodes …”
Interview by the author. The source wishes to and will remain anonymous.
“Heavy romance on the screen …”
Quoted in Lon Jones,
Star Weekly,
January 1952.
Cropped Grant-Monroe-DiMaggio photo.
Summers,
Goddess,
66–67.
“Cary was being very mysterious.”
William Frye, interview by the author.
“It was the period of blue jeans …”
Quoted in Robert C. Roman, “Cary Grant,”
Films in Review,
December 1961.
“[Chaplin] has given great pleasure to millions …”
Grant, press conference to announce his retirement from film,
New York Daily News,
February 6, 1953.
“The results of living in reality …”
Quoted in Earl Wilson's syndicated column, “It Happened Last Night,” circa 1971.
Details of Grant's Palm Springs home and life.
Betsy Drake, as told to Liza Wilson, “My Life with Cary Grant,”
American Weekly,
August 4, 1957.
Grace Kelly.
During her off days, when her presence wasn't required for shooting, Kelly liked to go over to the tiny principality of Monaco, to gamble in the state casino and visit the state gardens. While on one such visit, she was introduced to Prince Rainier Grimaldi, who insisted on giving her a personal tour of the Grimaldi castle, overlooking the waters of the Mediterranean.
“I had a theme in most of my movies …”
New York Times,
July 21, 1955.
“The movies are like the steel business …”
Interview in
Pix,
December 10, 1955.
“the easiest decision I ever had to make.”
Quoted in Hotchner,
Sophia,
105.
Drake's telegram to Grant.
Betsy Drake, as told to Liza Wilson, “My Life with Cary Grant,”
American Weekly,
August 4, 1957.
“We fell in love …”
Hotchner,
Sophia,
110–12.
“Nobody doesn't like Cary Grant …”
Warren Hoge, “The Other Cary Grant,”
The New York Times Magazine,
July 31, 1977.
“I'd taken advice …”
Interview by Peter Shield,
Sunday Graphic,
October 19, 1958. Portions of this interview appear in Godfrey,
Cary Grant,
152–53.
“It was all just some sort of extended daydream …”
William Frye, interview by the author.
“In
North by Northwest
during the scene …”
Hitchcock, speech to the Screen Producers Guild, March 7, 1965, upon the occasion of his receiving the Guild's twelfth Milestone Award.