Actor Of The Month

Hi

Its that time of the month again, and incredibly half a year has passed since I began these articles.

DOUGLAS FAIRBANKS JR (1909-2000)</span>
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Whilst it would not be strictly true to say that Douglas Fairbanks jnr was born with a silver spoon in his mouth – to achieve that he would have had to have been the result of the union of Douglas Fairbanks snr and his second wife Mary Pickford – it would be correct however, to say that with a father like Douglas Fairbanks at that time the acknowledged king of Hollywood, he should have been well on the way to achieving at least the status of Crown Prince. Unfortunately this was far from being the case, in fact if anything the reverse was true, for many years relations between father and son were strained and for much of his adolescence, although conceding that the family name opened many doors to him, he was often forced to make his own way in the world unaided and alone.

Douglas Elton Fairbanks jnr was born in New York City on December 9th 1909, the son of the legendary swashbuckling hero of Hollywood adventure pictures Douglas Fairbanks sr and Anna Beth Sully the daughter of a Rhode Island cotton magnate. As a child his parents referred to him as ‘The Boy’ which in turn was miss-pronounced by his Irish nurse as Bye, a nickname he would be called ever after by both family and friends. For his part Douglas Fairbanks sr found it difficult to bond with his son and on one occasion stated publicly that he had no more paternal feelings for his son than

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‘a tiger in the jungle with his cubs’.

Fairbank’s opinion of his father was similar saying

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’He was very undemonstrative. There was never an embrace or a hug. And he was never around; he’d disappear for months on end. He’d never remember birthdays or Christmas’.

As a boy Douglas was educated at the Hollywood School for Girls, at the time one of the few boys to attend, then the Bovee School, the Passadena Polytechnic, the Harvard Military Academy and the Colligate Military School in New York, later Fairbanks discussed his education thus:-

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‘My education was off and on, actually more off than on. I went to regular schools up to the age of twelve, had tutors after the age of thirteen and continued the equivalent of high school with tutors’.

Years later this failure to attend and study for a University degree would cause him some embarrassment.

In 1916 at the age of seven he faced the film cameras for the first time being seen as a newspaper boy in his fathers picture for the Fine Arts Film Company ‘The American Aristocracy’ and in 1921 then aged 11 he was in the un-credited role of a boy in his fathers production of ‘The Three Musketeers’ (1921).
By this time Fairbanks parents had separated – they divorced in November 1919 when he was aged 9, and he was living with his mother. But for all of this initially he had no wish to follow his father into the acting profession instead he trained to become an artist and studied painting and sculpture under private tutors in London and at the Lyceee Janson de Sailly in Paris.
By 1923 his mother, despite being well looked after financially by Fairbanks sr, found it difficult to manage the family’s finances. In his book Salad Days, Fairbanks jr revealed the circumstances that made him return to the film studios:

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‘…She [Sully] also strained the purse of her second husband, James Evan jr, of Pittsburgh, so I began my career in films at thirteen. My father didn’t react at all well to this, but my mother didn’t want him to interfere with this because although he left her a good deal of money, she went right through it. And I was at that time keeping about six or more other people – grandparents, an aunt, an uncle and a cousin etc’

In that year at the age of thirteen, Jesse Lasky, of the Famous Players-Lasky Corporation offered him the starring role in the forthcoming production ‘Stephen Steps Out’ an offer intended purely and simply to capitalise on the Fairbanks name. In the days leading up to the premier The New York Times announced that:

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‘Paramount gave their newest star, an adolescent Douglas Fairbanks Jr., every advantage in his film debut. As support, young Fairbanks had some of the best talent from the studio's stock company,’

The film, a comedy based on the Richard Harding Davis novel ‘The Grand Cross of the Crescent’ told the story of Stephen Harlow Jr (Fairbanks) who fails a class in Turkish history, and, as a result, can't graduate from college. His irate father, Stephen Sr who has endowed the college, sends the boy to Turkey to learn some history. On the way he gets caught up in a Turkish revolution led by Muley Pasha and after a series of adventures rescues the sultan’s son.

The six reel film was released at the Rivoli Theatre on the 18th November 1923, directed by Joseph Henabery it also starred Theodore Roberts,a renowned scene stealer as Stephen Harlow Sr, Noah Beery sr as the villainous leader of the revolution Muley Pasha and also featured Harry Myers, James O Barrows and Pat Moore.
The following day The New York Times when reviewing the film reported:-

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‘In "Stephen Steps Out,"…… Douglas Fairbanks Jr. makes his bow to the picture-going public. He is a splendid type of a healthy American boy, obviously a novice in screen acting, which sometimes is in his favor as he gives a more natural performance than some of those players whose names are constantly being shown in lights and shadows. He is 16 years old, and has inherited his father's infectious and hearty laugh.
"Stephen Steps Out" is a jolly light comedy, slumping unfortunately in a few sequences to bathos. Young Fairbanks is supported by a good cast, Theodore Roberts playing the role of Stephen Harlow, and young Fairbanks the son of the same name. Mr. Roberts is a little too old for the part as he could easily be young Harlow's grandfather. Then there is Harry Myers who has the part of Harry Stetson, a forceful and imaginative newspaper correspondent, and Noah Beery who impersonates Muley Pasha.
The producers have selected a part for young Fairbanks in which he does not have to do much more than be himself ….. The poor part of the story is where the old Professor and his wife are seen going over their dwindling bank balance. If this had not been overdone, the comedy would have been quite good throughout, as young Fairbanks is always interesting even if he is not called upon to do much acting……. This film is a good, light, entertainment’
New York Times November 19th 1923’.

Despite receiving favourable notices for his performance the film was a failure andFamous-Players-Lasky [I]immediately dropped their interest in him.
Convinced that his future now lay in acting Fairbanks jr continually approached Paramount for work and in 1925 he was taken on by the studio and appeared in minor roles in ‘The Air Mail’ with Warner Baxter, Billie Dove and Mary Brian and ‘Wild Horse Mesa’ (both 1925) with Jack Holt. During the same year he also worked at United Artist in the Samuel Goldwyn production ‘Stella Dallas’The picture directed by Henry King starred Ronald Coleman with Belle Bennett in the title role, Lois Moran as her daughter Laurel and Fairbanks Jr as Laurels’ boy friend Richard Grosvenor. The film, a weepy, tells the story of a daughter’s devotion to her brash, coarse, vulgar mother. The film had its first public showing on November 26th 1925 and the following day the influential New York Times film critic said in his review:

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‘…those who witness the love scene between young Richard Grosvenor (Douglas Fairbanks Jr) and Laurel (Lois Moran) will find it a pictorial chapter that will linger long in their memory. It is all so natural, so sweet and genuine, so true to life, so fervent and sincere, so tender.’
New York Times November 27th 1925’.

Back to Paramount by 1926 and playing the minor role of Triton in ‘The American Venus’ a picture showing seventy-five bathing beauty queens and which was dominated by Louise Brooks, and then playing Sonny Galloway in the Allan Dwan picture ‘Padlocked’ a dreadful film starring Lois Moran and Noah Beery. At this time his parts began to improve although he had to move to another studio to enable it to happen; In ‘Broken Hearts of Hollywood’ (1926) for Warner Brothers he found himself in third billing spot behind Patsy Ruth Miller and Louise Dressler and working at Metropolitan in ‘Man Bait’ (1927) was again third behind Marie Provost and Kenneth Thompson.

In the next two years he moved through the studios appearing in such varied pictures as ‘Is Zat So’, ‘A Texas Steer’ ,(both 1927), ‘Dead Man’s Curve’ ‘The Power of the Press’, ‘The Barker’, ’A Woman of Affairs’ (all 1928). In 1929 he performed for the first time on stage appearing in Los Angeles in the John van Druten and Maxwell Anderson plays ‘Young Woodley’ and ‘Saturdays Children’. This brought him to the attention of Warner Brothers who signed him to a contract and he made his studio debut in the starring role of Douglas Stratton playing opposite Loretta Young in the 1929 picture based on the John B Hymer play ‘Fast Life’ the first of five films the couple would appear in together between 1929 and 1933. On June 3rd 1929 he married the up and coming actress Joan Crawford at Saint Malachy’s Roman Catholic Church New York. MGM quickly hoping to cash in on the event paired the two together in ‘Our Modern Maidens’ (1929). The marriage lasted until 1933 when the gossips linked Crawford having an affair with Clark Gable and on May 12 1933 the couple were divorced.
With his star in the ascendant in 1930 he finally received his first major breakthrough when director Howard Hawks approached him to play the part of Lieutenant Douglas Scott in his forthcoming picture ‘The Dawn Patrol’. Hawks as a great friend of Douglas Fairbanks sr had known ‘Doug’ jr as he put it’ since he was in short trousers’ and desperately wanted him for the part. The only complication was that Fairbanks had agreed to make a picture for John Barrymore. Hawks told him to contact Barrymore who graciously agreed to let Fairbanks Jr work with Hawks.

‘The Dawn Patrol’ told of the exploits and the hardships endured by a squadron of British fighter pilot in the air over France during the First World War. Richard Barthlemess, a major star of silent movies played the main role of Captain Courtney the leader of the squadron with Fairbanks Jr as his best friend Lt Scott. ‘The Dawn Patrol’ had its premiere at the Winter gardens New York on July 10th 1930, it received excellent reviews and played to packed audiences throughout making in its first week $51,200. It won a Best Original story academy award for author John Monk Saunders and it made a star of Douglas Fairbanks Jr.
Between 1929-33 he worked exclusively at Warner’s First National appearing in twenty-three pictures and gradually increasing both his reputation and exerting greater influence on which films he made and agreeing script content: during this period he appeared in a number of fine pictures including among which were as Rico’s best friend Joe Massara in ‘Little Caesar’ (1931), Baron Nikita ‘Nikki’ Krasnoff in ‘Scarlet Dawn’ (1932) and in the title role of the fighter Jimmy Dolan in ‘The Life of Jimmy Dolan’ (1933) his final picture playing opposite Loretta Young.

In ‘The Life of Jimmy Dolan’ based on the Betram Millhauser & Beulah Marie Dix play ‘Sucker’, Fairbanks jr played the title role of a light heavyweight boxing champion who appears to the outside world as a clean living sportsman but who in real life is a heavy drinker and womaniser. When a reporter threatens to reveal his double life to the papers Dolan accidentally kills him. Waking up the next morning he learns of the reporters death and also finds that his manager and girl friend have both left him taking his wristwatch with them. He learns that their car was in an accident and that both of the occupants have been killed. As the stolen wristwatch is the only means of identification for the burnt beyond recognition bodies, it is naturally assumed that Dolan is one of the victims. Running away he drifts round the United States followed by an old detective. He eventually finds refuge in a home for crippled children and is content to remain there until he is forced to reveal his identity when he takes part in a boxing match to earn the money to save the home. The film ends happily when the detective refuses to arrest him. John Wayne then a struggling actor aspiring to make his way in pictures plays Smith a young boxer pitted against the brutal King Cobra in the second section of the prize-fight. Wayne appears in three scenes lasting barely two minutes total repeating ‘I’ll box his ears off ‘before being badly beaten off camera.

The film was completed in 24 days between November 14th and December 16th 1932 opened for a one week period at the Rialto Cinema in New York on June 14th 1933, and later released in the United Kingdom under the title of ‘The Kids Last Fight’.

Also in 1933 Fairbanks went on loan to RKO and appeared in the film ‘Morning Glory’ starring Katherine Hepburn, making only her third screen appearance, and Adolphe Menjou. The film, a screen adaptation of the Zoe Atkins play, premiered in New York on August 16th 1933 and earned Hepburn the first of her four Best Actress Academy Awards. On his return to Warner’s Fairbanks jr demanded a salary increase and the studio digging their heels in refused, ‘Captured’ (1933) a film about life in a First World War prisoner of war camp was his final picture for the studio. Facing unemployment he decided to move to England where he contacted the Hungarian producer and leading light of London Film Productions Alexander Korda. Korda was planning his big budget production ‘The Rise Of Catherine The Great’ and he considered Fairbanks perfect for the part of Grand Duke Peter. The picture directed by Paul Czinner cost a reputed £400,000 making it one of the most expensive films ever made in England at that time. The film flopped but critics said that ‘Fairbanks’ definition of the fuming Peter is one of the best he has ever done.’ During the same year he also made his British stage debut at the Manchester Opera House playing Michael Robbins opposite Gertrude Lawrence in ‘The Winding Journey’ and later that year appeared again with Lawrence in the London West End at The Queen’s Theatre in Moonlight is Silver and a year later the pair were seen on screen together in ‘Mimi’ (1935) a non singing version of ‘La Boheme’. In between the stage and screen appearance with Gertrude Lawrence he had returned briefly to the United States and RKO to appear with Colleen Moore and Genevieve Tobin in ‘Success At Any Price (1934).

In 1936 after appearing with Linda La Plante in ‘Man of the Moment’(1935) for Warner Brothers British he briefly remained in England forming his own production company Criterion Films and appearing in three pictures ‘The Amateur Gentleman’ and ‘Accused’ (both 1936) and ‘Jump For Glory’ (1937).When the project failed after a fifth project never materialized the production company folded and almost immediately he returned to the United States and was offered the part of Rupert of Hentzau in the David O Sezlnick production of ‘The Prisoner of Zenda’ (1937). His initial doubt over whether to accept the role were brushed aside by his father commenting that the part of the villainous Hentzau was one of the best roles ever written for the screen adding that in his opinion a dog could have played role and walked away with the picture.

Shooting the Anthony Hope novel ‘The Prisoner of Zenda’ began on March 9th 1937 and the completed picture had it’s New York premier almost six months later on the 2nd September: it starred Ronald Coleman in the duel role of Major Rudolph Rrassendyll and Rudolph V, his female lead was the actress Madeline Carrol playing Princess Flavial and the fine cast was completed with Raymond Massey as Black Michael and the veteran actor C. Aubrey Smith and David Niven as the kings loyal supporters. The picture proved to be hugely popular with the film going public, from its peers The film received two Academy Award nominations for Alfred Newman – Best Musical Score and Best Art Director – Lyle R Wheeler. one critic later summing up Fairbanks performance said:

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‘Even with Massey and Colman putting in the best performances of their careers, it is Fairbanks that steals the film. Hentzau is suave, witty, and playful. He jokes as he kills. He's more than happy to run from a fight, but not because he is a coward; he simply sees no reason to stick around. Fairbanks has the charm and sex appeal to pull off the role, and in their climatic battle, it is sometimes hard to root against him’.

Following the success of ‘Zenda’ Fairbanks went to work at RKO immersing himself in work turning four pictures during 1938 two comedies ‘Joy of Living’ and ‘The Rage of Paris’ ‘Having a Wonderful Time’ and portraying a con man in ’The Young in Heart’. A year later he made yet another memorable picture playing along with Victor MacLaglen and Cary Grant the three sergeants in the tale of the British Raj ‘Gungha Din’ (1939).

During 1940 he returned briefly to the stage appearing in the Noel Coward production ‘Tonight At 8-30’ and a year later working at United Artists, he played both of the brothers Lucien and Mario Franchi in ‘The Corsican Brothers’ (1941). This would prove to be his final screen appearance for six years for with war already in progress in Europe and the prospect of the United States involvement becoming increasingly imminent Fairbanks made approaches to obtain a commission in the United States Naval Reserve only to find that a university education was a major requirement and his lack of such a thing would prove a major obstacle:

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‘….Years later, I wanted to get a commission in the US Naval Reserve. The war in Europe began, and I was not anxious to come up through the ranks if I could help it. The US Navy insisted on a university education, which I didn’t have….’

Desperate means called for desperate measures as Fairbanks explained, the problem was solved:

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‘What I did was take a correspondence course with the University of California, and got my degree that way. After that I was able to apply for my commission,

During the Second World War Fairbanks briefly served as a special envoy to South America and then moved to England where he was assigned to Lord Louis Mountbatten’s staff and studied British methods of training and cross channel harassment operations and became so expert that he later returned to the United States and helped to organise and participate in military operations in the invasion of Sicily and Southern France with what would later become the Navy Information Operations Command. For his work he was later awarded the U.S Navy’s Legion of Merit with bronze V, The Italian War Cross for Military Valour, the French Legion d’Honneur, the Croix de Guerre with Palm and the British Distinguished Service Cross. In 1949 he was made an Honorary Knight Commander of the British Empire -one of only seventy American citizens to be so honoured.

In 1947 Fairbanks returned to Hollywood and United Artist playing the title role of Sinbad in the Arabian Nights fantasy ‘Sinbad The Sailor’(1947) with a fine supporting cast that included Maureen O’Hara, Walter Slezak and Anthony Quinn.

A confirmed Anglophile during the late 1940 he moved to London and continued to appear in pictures until the mid 1950s. He later transferred to television where between 1953 – 56 he presented his own television series ‘Douglas Fairbanks Presents’ and appeared in guest spots in numerous soaps and comedy shows.

In 1968 he returned to the United States and appeared on stage in Los Angeles and San Francisco in ‘My Fair Lady’ and although his appearances were rare, during 1970-72 he was in ‘The Pleasure Of His Company’ playing the part of a rich witty globetrotter, a role he later played again at the Phoenix Theatre London. In 1973 he was in Chicago appearing in ‘The Secretary Bird’ and was also in ‘Present Laughter’ in Washington. By this time he had sold his London house and returned to live in Palm Beach.

On May 7th 2000 in New York Douglas Fairbanks jr died at the age of 90, his body was interred in the Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Hollywood California in the crypt as his father.

Regards

Arthur

Hi


ACTOR OF THE MONTH.

JANUARY

LORETTA YOUNG


Last month I wrote about the American swashbuckling hero and gentleman of the screen Douglas Fairbanks jr who starred with John Wayne in ‘The Life of Jimmy Dolan‘. This month I am returning to the same film and highlighting Fairbanks female lead in that picture Loretta Young an actress who was born ninety-two years ago this day and who appeared in five pictures with Fairbanks and three with one of her best friends - John Wayne.
To all outward appearances the life of Loretta Young gave the impression of a woman who:-
‘Remains a symbol of beauty, serenity and grace. But behind the glamour and stardom is a woman of substance whose true beauty lies in her dedication to her family her faith and her quest to live life with a purpose’
Others have said:-
‘It seemed to take her a long time to find happiness in life and while she was seeking it, she suffered even as she stumbled. Never however, did she lose the quiet charm which reached those around her as dignity, loyalty and sincerity.’
But there was also another side to Loretta Young
‘The Young recipe for permanent popular appeal seems simple enough, but it was not developed and refined without thought and discipline. The Loretta behind the lovely shadow on the screen is by no means sweetly simple.
A shrewd and extremely well balanced woman she has handled her producers with a polite firmness that has subjugated the most masterful of them‘.
The shrewdness and harder edge during her career saw her take on and win successful lawsuits against NBC for using the introduction of her old shows, and again for ‘the unlawful exhibition of her shows abroad’ and earned for her the nickname “Attila the Nun’
Gretchen Young was born in Salt Lake City Utah on Monday the 6th January 1913 Later as a teenager at her confirmation, as was the custom of the day in catholic proceedings, she adopted as her second name that of a popular Saint - Michaela. Her parents were Gladys Royal Young and John Earl Young. Born the third of four daughters the others being Polly Anne Young, Elizabeth Jane Young (later to become Sally Blane and their half sister Georgiana Young - who was the product of her mothers second marriage to George Belzer when Loretta was aged ten - all of whom with varying degrees of success, would eventually go on to find careers in the acting profession.
John Young had a reputation as being a ladies man and when Loretta was aged three Gladys Young left Salt Lake City and taking her three children, but minus her husband, moved to California where the family stayed with Gladys’s sister before moving on to Hollywood where she opened and ran a theatrical boarding house. Her husband later followed her but when after reputedly being found in a compromising situation with a maid he was thrown out and the couple divorced.
The October 23rd 1948 edition of “Picturegoer Film Magazine” contained an article entitled ‘Let’s Look At Loretta’ in that article was the following paragraph. It is included without comment:-
‘Quite recently there came to light a chapter of family history which revealed the finer side of her character. Her father left the family many years ago when they were tiny children. Suddenly, however, a man who had lived many years under an assumed name appealed to her for help. Loretta made full provision for him. She had him nursed through his final illness. Only when he died was it generally known that the father who through his latter years blamed himself for deserting his daughter was not himself deserted by her‘.
Gladys kept her ear to the ground and was not backward in coming forward if it could help her children get a career in films. Whenever and wherever possible Gladys tried to find work for them as extras in various film studios and in 1917 at the age of four the young Gretchen appeared before the film cameras for the first time playing the un-credited role of a fairy in the Jesse L Lasky Feature Play Company production of ‘The Primrose Ring’ starring Mae Murray. It was reported at the time that Murray was so taken by the young child that she tried to adopt her. The picture was released on the 7th May 1917 and by the middle of September of the same year she had made her second appearance billed as Gretchen Young playing a young child in the Universal feature ‘Sirens of the Sea’.
In 1919 she turned up at Famous Players earning $3.50 playing a child on an operating theatre table in ‘The Only Way’, and two years later she played child parts in ‘White and Unmarried’ and ‘The Sheik’. By this time she was attending the Ramona Convent Alhambra California where she remained until 1927 when at the age of fourteen she left school.
In that year she received a phone call from Mervin LeRoy of First National asking her to pass a message on to her elder sister Polly saying that she was required for a small part in a forthcoming production ‘Naughty But Nice‘. As her sister was absent she went in her place and got the part instead. The film a John McCormack production starring Colleen Moore and Donald Reed led to her being offered a contract, a change of name from Gretchen to Loretta the name of Colleen Moore’s favourite saint, and minor un-credited parts in ‘Her Wild Oat’ (1927) and ‘The Whip Woman (1928).
In 1928 she received her first important part playing the role of a young circus performer named Simonetta who is found abandoned as a young and brought up by two clowns Lon Chaney and Bernard Siegel in the MGM film ‘Laugh Clown Laugh’. Other featured roles quickly followed including ‘The Magnificent Flirt’, ‘The Head Man’ and ‘Scarlet Seas’ (all 1928). The following year she appeared in her first talking picture ’The Squall’, and ‘The Girl in The Glass Cage’(1929) and signing a new contract for Warner’s came under the auspices of producer Darryl F Zanuck who immediately saw her potential as one of the screens favourite innocents and gave her the part of Muriel in ‘The Careless Age’(1929). The film paired her for the first time with Douglas Fairbanks jr. the first of five films she would make with the actor. ‘The Forward Pass’ (1929) again with Fairbanks jr also saw her working for the first time with her great friend John Wayne.
In 1930 she faced the first crisis in her life when after appearing with actor Grant Withers in ‘The Second Floor Mystery’ (1930) the pair eloped to Yuma and got married. The move was disastrous, Loretta was seventeen Grant Withers nine years her senior and a divorced man. Although to the public outwardly charming, Withers was irresponsible and a heavy drinker. Unlike the normally staid and dependable Loretta, he passed bad cheques, refused to pay bills, and In a year of marriage, he was sued and arrested several times and sacked by Warner Bros. The couple appeared in one final picture together - the aptly named ‘Too Young To Marry (1931) after which Loretta divorced Withers and set about restoring a reputation had been nearly destroyed.
In the same year she made one picture for Fox appearing in her second picture with John Wayne. The circumstances were slightly different from the couples first picture together. In the “Forward Pass’ Wayne had only a peripheral un-credited role, now for ‘Three Girls Lost’ he found himself playing the second male lead and Loretta Young’s love interest with a cast that as well and Loretta Young and John Wayne also included Lew Cody, Joan Marsh and Joyce Compton. Wayne’s role as an architect who is falsely accused of murder brought good reviews from the critics but before he could take advantage of them he found himself out of work when his option was dropped by the studio, two years would pass before the couple would work together again.
Following her divorce Loretta threw herself into her work starring in films such as ’Big Business Girl’, ’I Like Your Nerve’, ’Platinum Blonde’, ’The Ruling Voice’, ’Life Begins’ (all 1932), ’Employees Entrance’, ’Grand Slam’, ’Zoo in Budapest’ (all 1933) and ’The Life of Jimmy Dolan’ (1933) in which as the films leading lady she was able to lobby Warner’s on Wayne’s behalf to get him the small role of a boxer.
In the middle of 1933 Loretta once again assisted Duke to overcome a difficult personal situation. Following their seven year courtship Josephine Saenz’s parents had finally given their consent for her to marry John Wayne, only one obstacle now stood in their path, as a Presbyterian Wayne could not marry Josie in a Catholic church on the high alter, and for his part, he had no intention of converting to Catholicism, Young, one of the families best friends -John Wayne continued to call her Gretchen long after she had changed her name - suggested the ceremony be held at the Bel-Air estate of her mother and on June 24th 1933 at a ceremony conducted by Monsignor Francis J Conaty, and attended by over one hundred guests among whom were Henry Fonda, Grant Withers and Loretta Young, John Wayne married Josephine Alicia Saenz. A year later on November 23 when Josephine gave birth to Michael Wayne as one of her oldest friends it seemed natural for her to become Michael’s Godmother.
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In 1934 Darryl F Zanuck left Warner Brother’s to take over Fox which subsequently became 20th Century Fox. He also took Loretta Young with him and she made her 20th Fox debut playing Julie Rothschild in the Alfred Werker film ‘The House of Rothschild (1934). She followed this up with Born to be Bad and ‘Bulldog Drummond Strikes Back - with Ronald Coleman in the title role. ‘Caravan,’ ‘The White Parade’ (all 1935) and as Margaret Masklyne in Clive of India (1935) again playing opposite Ronald Coleman in the title role.
In 1935 Loretta Young faced the second greatest crisis of her life and potentially the most damaging of her career. In that year she was offered the role of Claire Blake starring opposite Clark Gable in 20th Century Fox production ‘The Call of the Wild’. Directed by William Wellman and based on the Jack London novel, the picture was tagged as a rip roaring tale of the Yukon Gold Rush.
A contemporary critic viewed the film somewhat differently saying:-
‘….The unconvincing romance recorded on screen provided a travesty of Jack London’s novel. ….I doubt that London would have approved of the comic subordinate played by Jack Oakie, but I found it a relief from the always perfectly coifed, glamorously lit, and dramatically deficient Loretta Young, who alternated clenched jaw determination with looking adoringly at Clark Gable (who was doing his usual lovable rogue type)’.
If the romance wasn’t occurring on the screen it was certainly evident off of it. Gable and Young embarked on a passionate affair at the end of which Loretta found herself pregnant. With the strict morality codes in force at the time and the fact that Gable was married, confiding only with her mother Gladys, the pair left Hollywood and moved to Europe where on November 6th 1935 she gave birth to a daughter whom she named Judith and on her return to the United States gave the impression that she had adopted a daughter.
Returning to 20th Century Fox she immersed herself in her work appearing in fifteen pictures in the next three years among which were the title role in ‘Ramona,’ and ‘Ladies in Love’ (both 1936), ‘Love is News’, ‘Café Metropole’, ‘Second Honeymoon’ (all 1937), as Countess Eugenie de Motijo starring opposite Tyrone Power in the disappointing Allan Dwann directed ‘Suez’ (1938): and a Sally Goodwin in ‘Kentucky’ which brought Walter Brennan his second Best Supporting Actor Academy Award.
During this period her firmness with directors, her independence and her insistence on a fee of $150,000 per film began earning her a reputation for being difficult to work with and was beginning to wear thin on both Zanuck and 20th Century Fox. When cast in the role of Mrs Mabel Bell the wife of the inventor Alexander Graham Bell in the 1939 film ‘The Story of Alexander Graham Bell’ the studios refusal to let her play the role as a deaf mute enraged her, and subsequently she refused to sign a new contract with the studio. “20th Century attempted to put a boycott on her asking the major studios not to employ her.
From 20th century she made one film at United Artists ‘Eternally Yours’(1939) for Walter Wanger Productions which produced from Virginia Field who worked with Young on the picture the comment:-
‘She was and is the only actress I really dislike. She was sickeningly sweet, a pure phoney. Her two faces sent me home angry and crying’
Of the main studios during this period only Columbia were prepared to employ her and at a vastly reduced salary. In 1940 she signed a three picture contract - it would ultimately increase to five - with the studio. And in the same year married for the second time. Her husband was Tom Lewis, a businessman, producer and writer with whom she had two children. The couple were married With little fanfare, at the church of St Paul the Apostle in Westwood, near Young’s Brentwood home.
At Columbia her reputation for being difficult continued with her. On the set of the 1941 picture ‘Lady From Cheyenne’ her co-star Robert Preston said her personality:- “She worked with a full length mirror beside the camera. I didn’t know which Loretta to play to - the one in the mirror or the one that was with me’.
After finishing the picture ’A Night To Remember’ (1943) she completed her contract with Columbia. Moving on to Paramount she appeared in ‘China’ co-starring with Alan Ladd then beginning to achieve his star status but in preparing Ladd’s future the studio had encountered a problem. Ladd was about to be drafted and paramount wanted to utilize his services for as long as possible and he was rushed in the picture. The film billed optimistically as “China as big a picture as the nation that inspired it” tells the story of a pair of American opportunists - Ladd and William Bendix who are in pre war China selling petrol to the Japanese Army. On their travels to Shanghai they meet a school teacher (Loretta Young) and a group of children escaping from the Japanese. Despite his cynicism Ladd and Bendix assist the party to escape, but He is later forced to change his mind about his beliefs after witnessing an atrocity.
On August 1944 Loretta gave birth to her son Christopher Lewis. These circumstance restricted her to appearing in only two pictures that year - the first ‘Ladies Courageous’ (1944) for Universal Studios, told the story of the story of a group of female pilots known as the ‘Woman’s Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron’ whose job it was to deliver bombers from the factory to their destination. The second ‘And Now Tomorrow’ for Paramount saw her teamed up again with Alan Ladd. Directed by Irving Pichel from the novel of the same name by Rachel Fields The cast included Barry Sullivan as Young’s fiancé and Susan Hayward as Janice Blair Young’s sister. Other supporting roles were supplied Beulah Bondi, Cecil Callaway and Grant Mitchell.
Boiled down to its bare bones this romantic drama was very slight in plot amounting to the pairing off of four lovers, Loretta Young gave a sympathetic performance as a rich woman who goes stone deaf before she is due to marry her fiancé (Barry Sullivan) - although intending to marry her, while she is under treatment he falls in love with her younger sister, (Susan Hayward). Alan Ladd, a man whose youth was spent in poverty but who surmounted all difficulties to become a specialist, treats Loretta Young. He despises her wealth but admires her courage. Critic were mixed one stated that :-
“the acting makes the most of a theme which seems to have possibilities which have not been fully developed“.
While the New York Times observed somewhat caustically:- ‘What it was that this actress never had, she still hasn’t got it’.
In 1945 Loretta’s family commitments reduced her film appearances to a single picture, while personally, she became involved in the martial situation involving her close friends John Wayne and Josephine. It had been evident for a number of years that the couples marriage had broken down and had reached a point where a reconciliation would be out of the question. All of Josephine’s friends with the exception of Loretta counselled refusing Wayne the divorce he desperately wanted in order to re-marry. For her part Loretta Young - recalling her own desperate earlier marriage to Grant Withers- advised Josephine to agree to Wayne’s request. Her counselling ultimately prevailed and on December 25th 1945 Duke and Josephine were divorced.
Ironically for Loretta Young’s career it was a point when it was at its lowest ebb with many of her critics already whispering that she was finished that she achieved her greatest glory. Dore Schary the head of RKO thought that she would be perfect for a role that he had originally wanted to offer to Ingrid Bergman, and cast her as the daughter of a Swedish farmer complete with blonde hair and a Swedish accent in the ‘Farmers Daughter.’ The film was a massive hit, and led to Loretta young being nominated for a Best Actress Academy Award. In the 1947 Academy Awards presentation ceremony the stars assembled. Beside Loretta Young the other nominations were Joan Crawford for ‘Possessed’, Susan Hayward for ‘Smash Up’ and the red hot favourite Rosalind Russell the star of ‘Mourning Becomes Electra’. What happened that night has been described thus:-
‘“As you see ….I dressed for the occasion…..just in case” she said, as she stroked the mountainous folds of emerald green taffeta standing out around her. The bright lights shone down as the deafening sound of twenty thousand clapping hands drowned out any further remarks.
…… Nearly everybody seemed amazed. The prophets and sages of the movie columns had all picked upon Rosalind Russell as a practical “cert” Loretta didn’t seem to have a chance. But for once the unexpected had happened and Loretta Young by a mere handful of votes, had won the coveted award for her work in ‘The Farmers Daughter’. She was plainly surprised, but, as she said, she had taken the precaution to get herself a stunning model in case she had to put in a personal appearance…’
This performance was followed by good work playing the title role in the comedy ‘The Bishops Wife’(1947) with David Niven - one of her favourite actors - and Cary Grant, a pioneering woman in ‘Rachael and the Stranger’ with William Holden and Robert Mitchum, and the role of a Nun in the 1949 film ‘Come to the Stable’ which brought about her second Best Actress Academy Award nomination. In Paula (1952) a drama, she played a University professor’s wife who is desperately unhappy because she cannot have a child. Driving along the highway she knocks down a small boy (Tommy Rettig), and afraid of the scandal, which might damage her husbands career, she does not report the incident to the police, but instead takes the injured boy into her home and helps him to recover his power of speech‘.
Immediately after ‘Paula’ she followed up with another heavy drama ‘Because of You’ (1952) in which for the first ten minutes of the film her character appears in a flashback style sequence of her earlier life in which she wore a blonde wig. The film was designed to ‘wring the very last tear out of the susceptible picture goer by wallowing in a warm bath of emotion’
Summing up the picture and Young’s performance as an ex prison inmate now turned nurse with Jeff Chandler, one critic commented:
‘…For the rest ‘Because Of You’ is Loretta Young as we know and like her, sympathetic and sincere, in this very weepie weepie. But to our way of thinking there is something rather unpleasant about one of our most charming screen actresses careering so widely out of character and age group‘.
In 1953 she turned her back on the large screen and settled instead, for the smaller world of television presenting ’The Loretta Young Show which ran for nine seasons until 1961 and for which she was nominated for eight EMMY Awards winning three and in addition won two of the three Golden Globe Awards that she was also nominated for. The demise of The Loretta Young Show also mirrored the end of her second marriage. An attempt to re-float the programme in 1962 calling it ’The New Loretta Young Show met with little success and it spluttered to a final conclusion in 1963.
In 1986 she made a brief return to the screen to appear in the made for television film ‘Christmas Eve’ and finally brought the curtain down on her career in the1989 film Lady in the Corner.
Now in retirement and married for the third and final time she and her third husband Hollywood designer Jean Louis moved to Palm Springs and it was while visiting the home of her sister Georgian Montalban that she died of ovarian cancer at the age of 87 on Saturday August 12th 2000.


Regards

Arthur

Hi

Does anyone know how to put images on screen? previously all I had to do was hit browse and add attachments but it doesn't seem to be that easy now.

Regards

Arthur

Sorry
This is a bit long winded but I seem to have sorted it.


Regards

Arthur

Hi

Well done Kevin great reading. Looks like I'll have to get the books out and sort something out for June'


Regards

Arthur