I Love the Illusion: The Life and Career of Agnes Moorehead (64 page)
Read I Love the Illusion: The Life and Career of Agnes Moorehead Online
Authors: Charles Tranberg
HAPTER
15
“C
URTAIN
”
“I do think she did begin to tire of the show . . . ,” Kasey Rogers to
author, 1/11/04.
“Either you come in or you will be put on suspension . . . ,” Quint
Benedetti to author, 7/23/03.
Agnes “stood straight as a dime . . . ” & “nobody had more fun at the
party than Paul Lynde,” Debbie Reynolds to author, 6/20/04.
Kay Gable to Agnes, 12/7/71, The Papers of Agnes Moorehead,
Wisconsin State Historical Society Archives, Box 131.
Freddie Jones to Agnes, 1/7/72, The Papers of Agnes Moorehead,
Wisconsin State Historical Society Archives, Box 131.
“A star danced and you were born . . . ,” Mary Roebling to Agnes,
12/6/71, The Papers of Agnes Moorehead, The Wisconsin State Historical
Society Archives, Box 129.
“Your marble halls are not ringing with the laughs we used to have . . . ,”
Jack Kelk to Agnes, The Papers of Agnes Moorehead, The Wisconsin State
Historical Society Archives, Box 132.
“We all miss you and send gobs of love . . . ,” Debbie Reynolds to Agnes,
The Papers of Agnes Moorehead, The Wisconsin State Historical Society
Archives, Box 132.
“One of my relatives . . . ,” Harry Ackerman to Agnes, 3/16/72.
“Call me when your back in town . . . ,” Harry Ackerman to Agnes
4/12/72, The Papers of Agnes Moorehead, The Wisconsin State Historical
Society Archives, Box 132.
“I will be doing more one-woman shows . . . ,”
Chicago Today,
1/4/72.
“When I called Freddie on March 6th . . . ,” Franklin Roemer to Agnes,
4/2/72, The Papers of Agnes Moorehead, The Wisconsin State Historical
Society Archives, Box 132.
Burry Fredrik to Agnes, 5/24/72, The Papers of Agnes Moorehead,
Wisconsin State Historical Society Archives, Box 132.
Background on the second tour of
Don Juan in Hell
came from
Final
Dress
(John Houseman, pg. 475-476).
“As to your stay in New York . . . ,” Mary Roebling to Agnes, The Papers
of Agnes Moorehead, Wisconsin State Historical Society Archives, Box 132.
“My Dearest Agnes . . . ,” Ricardo Montalban to Agnes, The Papers of
Agnes Moorehead, Wisconsin State Historical Society Archives, Box 132.
“Montalban had no background . . . When Agnes did this . . . ,” Paul
Gregory to author, 10/22/03.
Telegrams to Agnes on opening night of
Don Juan in Hell,
The Papers of
Agnes Moorehead, Wisconsin State Historical Society Archives, Box 137.
“I can see her still . . . ,” John Houseman in
Final Dress
(pg. 475).
Clive Barnes’
New York Times
review which Houseman spoke of
appeared in the
Times
on 1/16/73,
Stage: Shaw’s ‘Don Juan in Hell’ at 70.
Lynn Kear’s description of Agnes’ voice being “strong and dignified,”
Agnes Moorehead: A Bio-Bibliography
(pg. 144).
Agnes being so exhausted that she would have to be carried to her motel
room, Quint Benedetti to author, 7/23/03.
Cesar Romero’s comment that
Gigi
was Agnes’ “hardest show” and Fred
Carmichael’s comment about it being “an unhappy experience for her from
first to last,” Warren Sherk’s
A Very Private Person.
Recollections of Freddie Jones (“she often mentioned how serene it was
at the farm . . . ”) and those of Margery Stover come from Warren Sherk’s
A Very Private Person.
“. . . slowly wheedling her way into Agnes’ life,” Quint Benedetti to
author, 7/23/03.
Debbie Reynolds and Laurie Main expressed to me their admiration
for this young nurse, and how Agnes came to value her friendship and
companionship, in their interviews with me.
Agnes being “pensive,” Paul Gregory to author, 10/22/03.
“She called and said she wanted to say goodbye . . . ,” Himan Brown to
author, 6/6/03.
“She looked tired and worn . . . ,” Laurie Main to author, 4/21/04.
“I have to go to the hospital . . . ,” Debbie Reynolds to author, 6/20/04
“. . . somehow you all make me homesick telling me about the snow and
the deer . . . ,”
A Very Private Person.
“I begged her to allow me to try and find Sean . . . ,” Debbie Reynolds
to author, 6/20/04.
“Well, Debbie, it’s over . . . I’m dying . . . ,”
Debbie, My Story
(pg. 387).
“Agnes had a firm belief that in order to maintain her glamourous image
as a star . . .” and “. . . her last word was ‘mama,’”
The Lonely Courage of
Agnes Moorehead
from
New York Daily News,
6/30/74.
Ricardo Montalban finding out of Agnes’ death,
A Very Private Person.
“She was a brilliant actress and a brilliant teacher . . . ,” Debbie Reynolds
to author, 6/20/04.
“She had a basic love of herself and the love of her craft . . . ,” Paul
Gregory to author, 11/5/03.
“Aggie was a woman of great kindness . . . ,” Norman Corwin to author,
9/30/03.
“If Agnes had been born in England . . . ,” Himan Brown to author, 6/6/03
“She was just bigger than life,” Quint Benedetti to author, 7/28/03.
“She was a quiet person . . . ,” Karl Malden to author, 10/1/03.
“She was quite simply always a joy,” Carol Lynley to author, 4/10/03
“She was a wonderful lady . . . ,” Rose Marie to author, 8/1/02.
“She was always a consummate professional,” Bernard Fox to author,
3/19/04.
“She was bigger than life . . . ,” Kasey Rogers to author, 1/11/04.
“She was so good at everything . . . ,” William Asher to author, 3/28/02.
“Despite her fame . . . ,” Mary Roebling to Warren Sherk,
A Very Private
Person.
“Aggie was the most disciplined actress . . . ,” Joseph Cotten,
Vanity Will
Get you Somewhere,
“Agnes was a dear and valued friend . . . , ” Lucille Ball to Warren Sherk,
A Very Private Person.
“To a pure artiste . . . ,” Charles Laughton,
A Very Private Person.
FTERWORD
The specifics about who got what came from the last will and testament
of Agnes Moorehead.
“Now Claudette Colbert, oh, yes . . . ,” Paul Gregory to author, 11/5/03.
“. . . quite sure that Agnes was not a lesbian,” Quint Benedetti to author,
7/28/03.
Benedetti also told the author that he believed that these stories were
spread around Hollywood by Paul Lynde, who he said could be “quite
vicious.“
“Why, indeed? . . . ,” Debbie Reynolds to author, 6/20/04.
“Nothing happened between them: Moorehead was not heterosexual,”
Rosebud
(pg. 184)
“A woman may love a person who is this or that . . . ” (pg. 191) and “You
apparently have your own informants . . . ” (pg. 192), both from
Hollywood
Lesbians.
“I heard those rumors . . . ,” Dick Sargent in
Southern Voices,
December
19–January 1 (pg. 7).
“I’ve heard rumors . . . ,” Elizabeth Montgomery in
The Advocate
(1992).
“She was on 23 out of 24 hours,” Paul Gregory to author, 11/5/03.
T
HE
F
ILMS OF
A
GNES
M
OOREHEAD
AJOR OR SIGNIFICANT FILMS IN THE
M
OOREHEAD CANON ARE HIGHLIGHTED
)
1.
Citizen Kane
(1941 – RKO) Director: Orson Welles
Cast: Orson Welles, Joseph Cotten, Everett Sloane, Agnes Moorehead, Dorothy Comingore, Ray
Collins, George Coulouris, Ruth Warrick, William Alland, Paul Stewart, Erskine Sanford. 119
minutes. Black and White. AM's five-minute performance as Kane's mother is considered by some
critics to be the best performance in the film. Leonard Maltin, the film historian and critic, gave
Citizen Kane
a four-star rating in his book,
Leonard Maltin's Movie and Video Guide
(Plume, 1992),
calling it, “a film that broke all the rules and invented some new ones.”
359
2.
The Magnificent Ambersons
(1942 – RKO) Director: Orson Welles.
Cast: Tim Holt, Joseph Cotten, Dolores Costello, Anne Baxter, Agnes Moorehead, Ray Collins,
Richard Bennett, Erskine Sanford, Orson Welles (narrator). 88 minutes. Black and White. AM's
performance as Aunt Fanny is justifiably considered her best screen performance. Agnes received her
first Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress and won the New York Film Critic’s
award as Best Actress of the year. Maltin, in his four-star rating, wrote, “Welles' follow-up to
Citizen
Kane
is equally exciting in its own way.”
3.
The Big Street
(1942 – RKO) Director: Irving Reis.
Cast: Henry Fonda, Lucille Ball, Barton MacLane, Eugene Pallette, Agnes Moorehead, Sam Levene,
Ray Collins, Hans Conried, Ozzie Nelson and his Orchestra. 88 minutes. Black and White. AM's first
comedy, based on the Damon Runyon story “Little Pinks.” Her first non-Welles film.
4.
Journey Into Fear
(1942 – RKO) Director: Norman Foster (and, uncredited, Orson Welles).
Cast: Orson Welles, Joseph Cotten, Dolores Del Rio, Ruth Warrick, Agnes Moorehead, Everett Sloane,
Jack Moss, Hans Conried. 69 minutes. Black and White. AM's final Welles/Mercury production is not
up to the level of the others, but is passable entertainment.
5.
The Youngest Profession
(1943 – MGM) Director: Edward Buzzell
Cast: Virginia Weidler, Jean Porter, Edward Arnold, John Carroll, Agnes Moorehead, Scotty Beckett.
Guest appearances: Lana Turner, William Powell, Robert Taylor, Greer Garson, Walter Pidgeon. 82
minutes. Black and White. AM's first MGM film under the terms of a seven-year contract.
7.
Government Girl
(1943 – RKO) Director: Dudley Nichols.
Cast: Olivia de Havilland, Sonny Tufts, Anne Shirley, Jess
Barker, James Dunn, Paul Stewart, Agnes Moorehead. 94
minutes. Black and White. Director Nichols was a noted
screenwriter, having penned such John Ford films as
The
Informer
and
Stagecoach
.
Jane Eyre
(1944 – Twentieth Century-Fox) Director:
Robert Stevenson.
Cast: Orson Welles, Joan Fontaine, Margaret O'Brien,
Henry Daniell, John Sutton, Agnes Moorehead, Elizabeth
Taylor, Peggy Ann Garner, Sara Allgood, Aubrey Mather,
Hillary Brooke. 96 minutes. Black and White. AM’s final
film with Orson Welles. Director Stevenson later helmed
such Disney films as
Old Yeller
and
Mary Poppins.
8.
Dragon Seed
(1944 – MGM) Director: Jack Conway, Harold S. Bucquet.
Cast: Katharine Hepburn, Walter Huston, Aline MacMahon, Turhan Bey, Hurd Hatfield, Agnes
Moorehead, Frances Rafferty, J. Carrol Naish, Akim Tamiroff, Henry Travers. 145 minutes. Black and
White. The longest film AM had appeared in, up to this time. Based on the Pearl Buck novel.
9.
Since You Went Away
(1944 – Selznick International) Director: John Cromwell.
Cast: Claudette Colbert, Jennifer Jones, Joseph Cotten, Shirley Temple, Monty Woolley, Hattie
McDaniel, Agnes Moorehead, Craig Stevens, Keenan Wynn, Robert Walker, Lionel Barrymore. 172
minutes. Black and White. AM's only film for producer David O. Selznick (
Gone With the Wind
), who
also wrote the screenplay. At nearly three hours, this film beats out
Dragon Seed
in the length department
but is much more enjoyable. Leonard Maltin calls it a “tearjerker supreme.”
10.
The Seventh Cross
(1944 – MGM) Director: Fred Zinnemann.
Cast: Spencer Tracy, Signe Hasso, Hume Cronyn, Jessica Tandy, Herbert Rudley, Felix Bressart, Ray
Collins, Alexander Granach, Agnes Moorehead, George Macready, Steven Geray, George Zucco. 110
minutes. Black and White. With the exception of Orson Welles, Zinnemann may be the best director
(
High Noon, From Here to Eternity, Oklahoma!, A Hatful of Rain, The Nun's Story, A Man for All
Seasons, Julia
) that Agnes ever worked with; unfortunately this would be their only collaboration.
11.
Mrs. Parkington
(1944 – MGM) Director: Tay Gannett.
Cast: Greer Garson, Walter Pidgeon, Edward Arnold, Gladys Cooper, Agnes Moorehead, Peter
Leftward, Dan Duryea, Lee Patrick. 124 minutes. Black and White. Aggie's first film with Greer
Garson (not counting Garson's cameo in
The Youngest Profession
), and they would become lifelong
friends. Agnes won her second Academy Award nomination for this film, as well as a Golden Globe.
Agnes often said that her role in this film was her favorite.
12.
Tomorrow, the World!
(1944 – United Artists) Director: Leslie Fenton.
Cast: Fredric March, Betty Field, Agnes Moorehead, Skippy Homeier, Joan Carroll, Boots Brown.
86 minutes. Black and White. One of Aggie's least known, but better, films. It tells the intriguing
story of a couple who adopts a German boy, trying to undo Nazi influences inside of him.
Interestingly, Agnes and Betty Field would later compete with Shirley Booth for the lead in the TV
series,
Hazel
.
13.
Keep Your Powder Dry
(1945 – MGM) Director: Edward Buzzell.
Cast: Lana Turner, Laraine Day, Susan Peters, Agnes Moorehead, Bill Johnson, Natalie Schafer, Lee
Patrick. 93 minutes. Black and White. Leonard Maltin said it best in his capsule review: “glossy on the
outside, empty on the inside.” Still, it featured two future television legends: Agnes (
Bewitched
) and
Schafer (Lovey Howell on
Gilligan's Island
).
14.
Our Vines Have Tender Grapes
(1945 – MGM) Director: Roy Rowland.
Cast: Edward G. Robinson, Margaret O'Brien, Agnes Moorehead, James Craig, Frances Gifford,
Morris Carnovsky, Butch Jenkins. 105 minutes. Black and White. One of Aggie's all-time best. This
gentle and heartwarming film cast her as the Norwegian mother of little Margaret O'Brien. The
premiere of this film was held in Baraboo, Wisconsin, near Reedsburg where Agnes' mother lived and
where Aggie often visited. Leonard Maltin praised it as an “excellent view of American life.”
minutes. Black and White. Agnes’ first film with Allyson, who would also become a good personal
friend. Not much to say about this film except it had the typical MGM gloss, and little more.