I Love the Illusion: The Life and Career of Agnes Moorehead (23 page)

Agnes had plenty to keep her busy. The New Year began with a major
radio performance. Agnes portrayed Regina Gibbens on
The Theatre Guild
of the Air
presentation of Lillian Hellman’s
The Little Foxes.
Supporting
Agnes in this starring performance would be Thomas Mitchell and Zachary
Scott.
The Little Foxes
had been immortalized on the stage by Tallulah
Bankhead and on film by Bette Davis. It tells the story of a cold-hearted
woman who deliberately allows her husband to die of a heart seizure
by coldly walking out on him as he begs for his heart medication. The
performance aired over ABC on January 4, 1948. The response was
excellent. Helen Hayes wrote Agnes on January 19, gushing, “I listened to
you on the
Theatre Guild
and was thrilled by your ‘Regina,’ and then a few
nights later a thrilling, pixilated ‘Marilly’ who has become such a real
person in our lives, truly amazes me! Your ‘Regina’ brought a vivid picture
of you, yourself, to my mind, and I won’t be happy now until I see you
some day play that part.” This letter had been typed up to this point, and
then Hayes writes in her own hand, “You would look so much better than
Tallulah did.” Her friend and publicist, Peter Opp, wrote, “You wuz
wonderful. I’m working now on a retirement fund for Bankhead and
Davis.” While she was in New York preparing for
The Little Foxes,
Agnes
took time out to attend a Saturday matinee of
A Streetcar Named Desire
at
the Ethel Barrymore Theatre on January 3. The show made a star out of a
young actor from Nebraska named Marlon Brando.

Agnes received an intriguing offer to replace Judith Anderson on stage in
Medea,
with Hume Cronyn directing. Judith Anderson was renowned for
her interpretation and anybody who stepped into the role would have very
large shoes to fill. Hume Cronyn, on behalf of the producers’, spoke
privately of having Agnes replace Anderson in the stage play and Agnes said
she would consider it. But in April, the producer Robert Whitehead wrote
to Agnes with the news that they decided to close the show at the end of
May, “otherwise you would have heard from me before this as I am a great
admirer of your work and I do hope I will sometime have the pleasure of
being associated with you.” It was another lost opportunity to do one of the
great parts on the legitimate stage in a lead role.

Agnes did take an active interest in trying to move beyond supporting
roles in motion pictures. She did attempt to get the lead in
Sorry, Wrong
Number
, when it was being made into a movie, on the basis that the part
had been written for her. She also read a novel she felt would be tremendous
for her,
Friendly Persuasion.
It is the story of a Quaker family during the
Civil War. Agnes wanted to play the part of the mother. She even inquired
to the author Jessamyn West about buying the screen rights to the novel.
She was disappointed when she was informed by Miss West’s publisher that
the screen rights had already been sold to Frank Capra for his Liberty
Pictures. But Capra, himself, would never film the novel. Instead, he sold
it and
Friendly Persuasion
was later filmed in 1956 with Gary Cooper, with
Dorothy McGuire in the part Agnes wanted to play.

Hedda Hopper reported in her March 4, 1949 column that “Agnes
Moorehead is writing her own experiences as a Wisconsin school teacher
into a screenplay titled,
The Golden Land.
It’s about an earthy, unusual
character Aggie would like to portray on the screen. Warners is interested.”
Nothing came from this effort.

In the summer of 1948, Agnes and Jack discussed the possibilities of
opening a professional school of the dramatic arts along with a first-class
summer theatre. They discussed locating it with
Monterey Peninsula College
in Monterey, California,
where the Lees had property
and some of Jack’s relatives
lived. They discussed associating with the college and
indicated that some of their
friends in Hollywood and
New York would help teach
and fund such a school. They
went as far as to discuss such
items as good will with existing
theatre groups, possibilities
in recording, training for the
studios, outlets for frustrated
actors, equipment, financing,
administration. They had
Remsen Bird, a consultant with
Monterey Peninsula College,
write to a Mr. S.F. Morse to interest him in helping to fund such an endeavor.
In a subsequent letter to Agnes, Bird would write that “As you know, Jack
certainly does, he (Morse) owns everything in these parts.” Apparently Mr.
Morse was interested. Bird later wrote to Agnes again (interestingly the
letters are all addressed to Agnes and while Jack is mentioned in the letters
he isn’t part of the salutation), stating, “There is considerable interest in the
Monterey Peninsula College in the field of the dramatic arts and it might
be that a plan could be worked out that would be suited to what you plan
and what they plan. It looks like we would be in Los Angeles sometime in
the latter part of this month and if we come down we shall hope to see you
and Jack. If what Mr. Morse has written strikes a fire with you perhaps you
will come up and we can have a little conference.” But apparently plans did
fall through. The “Moorehead School” (again one wonders how Jack felt
about a school in which he was involved was named after Agnes without
any mention of him) never did open. But Agnes never gave up the hope of
such an enterprise and would later successfully open her own acting school.

for the school never did jell. He
received a featured part in the touring
company of the play
Command
Decision.
He was cast as a war correspondent. It was a good part and
must have lifted his spirits to some
extent. Perhaps because of the good
news, the Lees also began to think
about adopting a baby again.

Agnes returned to MGM where
she was cast as James Stewart’s mother
in the film
The Stratton Story.
It is
the inspiring story of Monty
Stratton, who lives with his mother
on a cotton farm in Texas. Stratton
meets a baseball talent scout (played
by Frank Morgan) who eventually
takes Monty to California to join the
Chicago White Sox training camp.

While in California he meets Ethel (June Allyson), who becomes his wife.
Monty is signed by the White Sox and becomes an all-star. Then, tragedy
strikes and Monty is injured in a hunting accident. Due to the injury his
leg is amputated. Monty fights despair and depression and eventually gets
fitted with an artificial leg. He battles to come back and ends up pitching
in an all-star game which ends with him retiring the opposing side in the
final inning, winning the game. The film was well made and enjoyable. The
part of Mother Stratton was not demanding but, significantly, Agnes met
on the set a man more than twenty years her junior, a handsome young
actor named Robert Gist, who has a small part as Larnie. Within a year she
and Jack would separate and within two years Gist would be accompanying
Agnes on tour with the stage production of
Don Juan in Hell
as stage
manager — at Agnes’ insistence.

Muskingum College, which only a year earlier had presented Agnes with
an Honorary Doctorate of Literature, now wanted her monetary support.
Her friend and the president of the college, Robert N. Montgomery, sent
her a pointed letter: “Well, I am trying again . . . as you know, I have
written you a number of times expressing the hope that you would make a
gift to Muskingum. But my letters haven’t had what it takes because as yet
I have failed each time. You have already indicated two or three times that
you will do something, but evidently the matter has been overlooked. I
recall that when I was out in California two years ago you mentioned to me
that your income placed you in the top bracket as far as maximum income
tax was concerned. Since that is the case, it means that a gift to Muskingum
would cost you relatively little because you would have to pay so much of
it in income tax anyhow. I do not know, but my guess is that you would be
one of three or four of our graduates who are in the top income bracket.”
That was the hard-sell, now he switched into a soft-sell by mentioning
somebody he knew she might respond to — her father. “I wonder if you
have ever thought of starting a memorial fund in memory of your father.
The Moorehead name has been an honored one in Muskingum history for
many years. I would love to see a Moorehead Memorial Library on the
campus . . . ” Agnes’ instructions to her secretary are written on the back of
this letter: “ans. Ruth, not this (just skip)” — Ruth was Dr. Montgomery’s wife
and a dear friend of Agnes’ who had recently written a chatty, friendly letter.

Johnny Belinda
was released in the early fall of 1948 to enthusiastic
reviews.
Variety
called the film, “a compelling, adult drama, told with
sensitive taste.” Jane Wyman’s performance was called “boff ” and
“compellingly artistic.” Lew Ayres was called “of equal worth” and, in their
supporting roles, Agnes and Charles Bickford were lauded for their
“commanding performances.” Most reviews particularly lauded Wyman’s
brilliant performance as the deaf mute but the entire cast and the film were
also handsomely praised.
Time
stated that Bickford and Moorehead did a
“solid job.” The
St. Louis Globe-Democrat
would write that Lew Ayres,
Agnes and Bickford are “equally earnest.” The
New York Times
would put
the picture at number one on its list of best films of 1948. The film also
became one of the top-grossing of the year.

By the time the film premiered, Ronald Reagan and Jane Wyman had
separated and were in the process of divorcing. To show his support for his
estranged wife Reagan had attended the Hollywood premiere of the film —
going stag — and it led to rumors that the couple might reconcile, but it
wasn’t to be. When
Johnny Belinda
premiered in London in late 1948,
Reagan was in England shooting the film
The Hasty Heart.
On Savoy Hotel
stationary he hand wrote a letter to Agnes dated January 1, 1949:
Dear Agnes,
Happy New Year and Thanks for your nice letter. We are hard at work

on the picture now after a few weeks of taking a bow here and there. I’m
trying to keep an open mind but must para-phrase a line or two from
Annie
Get Your Gun
and sing, “Anything they can do we can do better.”

Enough of that! Must’nt sound like a colonial. Don’t know whether
you’ve heard but
Johnny Belinda
is “standing room only” and is being held
over. It received great reviews in papers that ordinarily are anti-American in
policy.

I guess I’m a country boy at heart but Calif. is going to look awfully
good one of these days. Give my best to that guy of yours and save some
“sunshine” for me. Best Ronnie

P.S. Some of our “bleeding hearts” on the board (SAG) should try this
“life under socialism,” they better hurry though because these people don’t
talk like they are going to try it much longer.

It is clear by this letter that Reagan and Agnes shared an increasingly
conservative viewpoint. Obviously Reagan felt a political kinship with
Agnes or else he wouldn’t have referred to “bleeding hearts” on the Screen
Actors Guild in the way he did with her. It is also clear that Reagan, a
long time liberal, was already evolving in his political views — contrary to
those who have argued that it came about through his courtship with the
conservative Nancy Davis, who would be his second wife, but who he hadn’t
even met as yet. He also doesn’t display any bitterness toward Wyman and
speaks proudly of how her film is doing.