Alabama Yesterdays: Tallulah Does Birmingham

I recently read Joel Lobenthal's massive Tallulah: The Life and Times of a Leading Lady [2004]. This biography of some 590 pages could barely contain the events of Bankhead's life--and she lived "only" 67 years.

I've done several blog posts on Bankhead and will no doubt do others in the future. I wrote about her 1932 film with Robert Montgomery, Faithless and her 1944 film Lifeboat. She made two appearances, sort of, on Lucille Ball comedy shows. I've also written about a 2018 visit to the Jasper home of her father, William B. Bankhead.

Discussion of her Birmingham theatrical appearances follows this biographical sketch that I wrote for the "Lucy and Tallulah" post.

She was born in Huntsville on January 31, 1902, as a member of what became the most prominent political family in Alabama history. Her father, grandfather and uncle all served as U.S. Congressmen from Alabama; her aunt Marie would succeed her husband Thomas Owen as head of the state archives. She grew up mostly in Jasper or Montgomery with relatives and when older in New York. She and sister Eugenia were in and out of public, private and boarding schools in Alabama, New York and other places.

When she was fifteen Tallulah entered a movie magazine contest hoping to win a screen test. She did, and her father reluctantly allowed her to go to New York in the company of one of her aunts. Over the next several years she played small roles in several silent films and Broadway plays.

By 1923 she was on her own in London, and the celebrity Tallulah began to take shape. Over the next eight years she worked in a dozen plays, mostly poorly received except the 1926 London version of Sidney Howard's Pulitzer-winning They Knew What They Wanted. Yet she became one of the few people in England recognized by first name only. She was a society darling with her beauty, wit, affairs and daring outfits. One incident in particular attracted much notice. She attended a boxing match in Germany featuring fellow Alabama native Joe Louis and German Max Schmeling. Tallulah spiced up the match by shouting obscenities at the Nazis present.

In 1931 she left the depressed theater industry in London and moved to Hollywood with a contract from Paramount Pictures. Although her costars in six films included Charles Laughton, Gary Cooper and Cary Grant, none of the movies clicked with the public. For five years in the 1930's she also appeared on Broadway, again in less than stellar productions. She tested for the part of Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind, but despite interest from David O. Selznick she was ultimately deemed too old--at 34. In 1937 she married fellow actor John Emery at her grandmother's home in Jasper--but they divorced with no children in 1941.

In 1939 Tallulah's career on Broadway took a successful turn. She played Regina, the lead role in The Little Foxes, written by Lillian Hellman and based on her mother's upscale family in Demopolis. In 1942 she starred in a successful production of Thornton Wilder's The Skin of Our Teeth. Both performances won her New York Drama Critics Awards, and she toured the country in each after their Broadway runs ended. Life magazine put the actress on the cover as Regina for its March 6, 1939 issue. In 1948 her appearance in a revival of Noel Coward's Private Lives put her on the cover of Time. She also had a major role in Alfred Hitchcock's 1944 film Lifeboat; one of her co-stars was fellow Alabamian Mary Anderson.

By 1950 film and Broadway roles were becoming scarce for Tallulah as she reached age 48. She simply began another career in radio. From 1950 until 1952 she hosted the variety program The Big Show on Sunday nights. Her enthusiasm and wit, combined with guests ranging from Groucho Marx and Judy Garland to Louis Armstrong and Margaret Truman made the program a big success. Despite that, advertisers were moving to television, and when the show ended Tallulah found herself a frequent guest on variety shows there. She also wrote her autobiography, which promptly sold ten million copies.

Before her death in 1968, Tallulah had more stage and film roles and even played the Black Widow in two 1967 episodes of the television series Batman. She also made two appearances on different Lucille Ball shows, one in the flesh and one in spirit; I discuss those in the blog post noted above.

Lobenthal's biography discusses several specific theatrical appearances by Tallulah in Alabama--mostly Birmingham--as she toured the country in various revival productions. The first he notes is an early May 1937 engagement at the Temple Theater. Bankhead appeared in "Reflected Glory" a 1936 play by George Kelly in which she played actress Muriel Flood. In her curtain speech Tallulah declared that no matter where she traveled, "I am just an Alabama hillbilly." I imagine the audience loved it, even if they didn't believe it. From July 1936 until May 1937 the play toured in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Detroit, Indianapolis, Columbus, Chicago, Washington, DC, and finally Birmingham.

In early November 1938 Bankhead was back at the Temple in "I Am Different" by Zoe Atkins. In matinee and evening performances, she played Dr. Judith Held, European author of popular books on psychiatry. Vince Townsend reviewed it for Birmingham News.

Lillian Hellman's play The Little Foxes opened on Broadway on February 15, 1939. The setting is a small Alabama town in 1900. Bankhead played Regina Giddens who struggles with her two brothers controlling the family fortune. The play, based on conflicts in Hellman's mother's family in Demopolis, no doubt spoke to Bankhead. After all, she had escaped the confines of a powerful Alabama family herself.

The play closed in New York on February 3, 1940, after 410 performances. A two season tour of the U.S. began that fall which included the 1941 Birmingham productions.

In 1941 a film version was released; Bankhead lost the role of Regina to Bette Davis. That one was not the first time she starred in a Broadway production but lost the film version to Davis. In November and December 1934 Tallulah played frivolous socialite Judith Traherne. in George Brewer, Jr.'s "Dark Victory." Her performance was praised by critics, but the play was not commercially successful. Despite the short run, Davis must have seen it; she eventually admitted that her Oscar-nominated performance in the 1939 film had been modeled after Bankhead's stage version.

Bankhead in her iconic role as Regina Giddens in the 1939 Broadway production of The Little Foxes.

Source: Wikipedia

The BhamWiki entry on the Temple notes Bankhead appeared there in Noel Coward's play "Private Lives". Lobenthal describes her performing in that play more than once in Alabama in the fall 1949. Reportedly at curtain calls she waved a small Confederate flag at the audience. She had starred in a Broadway revival of the play the previous year.

As I was finishing this blog post, I just happened to find the following item in a strange source, the first edition of Reader's Digest Treasury of Wit & Humor published in 1958. There it was, on page 85:

"The always unpredictable Tallulah Bankhead has been known to introduce devastating ad libs into plays in which she was starring. One Christmas week she was playing Private Lives in Birmingham, Ala., practically her home town. In the midst of the humorous second act, while she and Donald Cook were lounging on a couch, she suddenly exclaimed, "Get away from me, you damn Yankee." And reaching into her bosom she hauled out a tiny Confederate flag--which she proceeded to wave enthusiastically. The audience shook the theater to its foundation." --Ernie Schier in the Washington Times-Herald

Lobenthal describes other ad libs--not involving a flag--in his biography. Cook, a prolific film and Broadway actor, starred with Bankhead in the 1948 revival of the play. I wonder if the great Noel Coward, the English author of the play would have approved.

You can see a list of Bankhead's Broadway appearances here.