My Life with Cleopatra

Walter Wanger, the producer of
Cleopatra
, attended Dartmouth, served as a reconnaissance pilot with the Signal Corps of the U.S. Army in Italy in WWI, was appointed attaché to the American Peace Mission headed by President Wilson, and attended the Paris Peace Conference. In the early 1920s, Wanger worked at Paramount Studios where he acquired the novel
The Sheik
, which was made into a successful film starring Rudolph Valentino. After a brief hiatus in England, Wanger returned to Paramount where he was general manager of production from 1924 to 1931. He was president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences from 1939 to 1941, for which he received an Honorary Academy Award in 1946. The producer of more than sixty motion pictures, including the first outdoor color film and
Queen Christina
,
Scarlet Street
,
Stagecoach
,
Foreign Correspondent
,
I Want to Live
, and
The Invasion of the Body Snatchers
, he worked with such directors as John Ford, Alfred Hitchcock, George Cukor, Victor Fleming, Fritz Lang, and Don Siegel; and such stars as Ingrid Bergman, the Marx Brothers, Henry Fonda, Charles Boyer, Cary Grant, Claudette Colbert, Fredric March, Susan Hayward, and Greta Garbo. He married Justine Johnson, a Ziegfield Girl, and later the actress Joan Bennett with whom he had two daughters. He died in 1968.

Joe Hyams was a Hollywood columnist, former movie editor of
This Week
magazine, and Hollywood correspondent for the
New York Herald Tribune
. He was the author or co-author of over two dozen books, many of which are bestselling biographies of Hollywood stars. He died in 2008.

CONTENTS
 

PROLOGUE
 

What I have to say in this book may shock some hypocrites and offend some moralists. This is not to imply that my book is a deliberate attempt to provoke controversy. The controversy was already there.

I have been told by responsible journalists that there was more world interest in
Cleopatra
, which I produced, and in its stars—Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, and Rex Harrison—than in any other news event of 1962.

Cleopatra
is not only the most written about motion picture in history, but it was also the most talked about. As you will discover, never have so many people known so little about a subject which, obviously, intrigued them.

What emerges in these pages is my story of the most expensive and perhaps greatest motion picture in film history. As the producer, I had a bird’s-eye view of the whole operation, plus a certain degree of detachment. I must add here, however, that I saw the happenings of the four hectic years the film was in production only through the eyes of the producer. I am neither a journalist nor a moralist. My concern was always that of a man who measured everything against one yardstick—how will this affect the picture and Elizabeth Taylor, who
is
the picture?

Making a motion picture about Cleopatra had always been a dream of mine. I first became aware of the Egyptian queen, so beautiful and wise that she almost ruled the world, when, as an undergraduate at Dartmouth almost half a century ago, I read
Théophile Gautier’s story, “One of Cleopatra’s Nights.” That started me reading everything I could find about her—from Plutarch’s
Life of Antony
in North’s excellent translation to Shakespeare’s classic, one of the great tales of human love.

My interest continued long after I became a motion-picture producer in Hollywood. During the next forty years and sixty pictures I cherished a hope that I could one day make a film about Cleopatra.

But there was one major problem. Who could play Cleopatra? I visualized her as more than just a great actress. She had to be the quintessence of youthful femininity, of womanliness and strength.

I saw Eleonora Duse, Sarah Bernhardt, and Ellen Terry, but by the time they had reached stardom they were too old to play Cleopatra. Then, some years ago, I saw Elizabeth Taylor in
A Place in the Sun
. I was overwhelmed. Despite the modern clothes and dialogue, she came through to me as the one young actress who could play Cleopatra. She is the only woman I have ever known who has the necessary youth, power, and emotion.

Here was my Cleopatra. From then on I never lost sight of my goal. A while later, I bought
The Life and Times of Cleopatra
, a book by Carlo Maria Franzero, for $15,000—a modest beginning for the most expensive picture of all time.

Eventually I moved to 20th Century-Fox. My first project to go into work was
Cleopatra
. As you will soon see, the studio executives were opposed to the kind of large-scale motion picture I wanted to make and to Elizabeth Taylor as its high-salaried star.

The lack of enthusiasm did not deter me. As I see it, the most important function of an independent producer such as myself is to find material that he believes will interest the public all over the world. Like any creative artist, he must be prepared for and even expect opposition when he wants to do something different and important. As my own experience proves, a producer must be ready to battle for what he believes in.

I remember that when I first proposed
The Sheik
to Paramount they were shocked, as a love story between a white woman and an Arab was considered too radical. The movie not only made a star of Rudolph Valentino, but it made millions.

There was studio opposition when I bought
An American Tragedy
from Theodore Dreiser for $90,000 at a time when every film had to have a happy ending, and the word “tragedy” in a title was anathema.

The Paramount sales department was in an uproar when I purchased
Beau Geste
, which had no love story and was, to boot, a French title.

The Technicolor Corporation warned me they would not be responsible for the result if I took a Technicolor camera out of the studio to film
The Trail of the Lonesome Pine
, because they couldn’t control the light. This first outdoor color spectacular was so successful it opened up a multi-million-dollar market for Technicolor, who were so grateful they gave me stock bonuses.

Another case in point is
I Want to Live!
my last picture before
Cleopatra
. I made it in opposition to pressures from police, politicians, and press, as well as the studios. Nevertheless, Susan Hayward received an Academy Award for her brilliant portrayal of Barbara Graham.

During the making of
Cleopatra
, however, I received more than my anticipated share of opposition. Certainly, no novel I have ever read about Hollywood had as many fantastic crises, hairbreadth escapes, personal melodramas, and as much executivesuitesmanship as can be found here.

I began writing this book some time ago with Joe Hyams. Day after day for many weeks we studied the reams of newsprint and millions of words written about
Cleopatra
. Together, we interviewed many of the people who worked in the film. Then, Joe’s probing questions, based on his own research and interviews in Hollywood, helped me reconstruct all the pertinent events of my life with
Cleopatra
.

Although the book is in journal form and we have attempted to be accurate with all the dates, some events could not be pinpointed. The majority of the dates are, however, as accurate as my memory allows.

Why did
Cleopatra
cost so much and take so long to film?

These were our basic problems.

We were forced to try to produce the film without being properly prepared—before we had a script or a well-thought-out and practical production plan or organization. These factors alone cost us millions of dollars in wasted time, in scrapped sets, in false starts and costly commitments.

There was a continuing problem brought on by the fact that the studio had lost more than $60,000,000 in the past few years. Consequently, the jockeying for power among the incumbent Board of Directors and minority stockholders resulted in conflicting, expensive, on-again, off-again decisions from on-again, off-again groups in power.

In addition to being the star of the picture, Elizabeth was also a partner in the enterprise. People who read fan magazines may be surprised to learn of the Elizabeth Taylor who is a real professional concerned with every aspect of picture making. She will receive over two million dollars for her role, but she is worth every penny of it.