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. 

Bankhead onstage in "The Little Foxes" at the Temple Theater in 1941

Source: Photographed by Cook for the Birmingham News

via Alabama Dept of Archives & History Digital Archives

Bankhead in her dressing room at the Temple Theater during the run of "The Little Foxes" in 1941

Source: Photographed by Cook for the Birmingham News 

via Alabama Dept of Archives & History Digital Collections

The Temple Theater in 1925

Source: BhamWiki

The Temple Theater in 1965

Source: BhamWiki

Tallulah remains a cultural icon of sorts. It's been a while since I read this 1987 novel by George Baxt, but I remember enjoying it.

Movies with Alabama Connections: Faithless

Despite her talents and wide success as an actress in live theater, her outrageous behavior and rapier wit, Alabama native Tallulah Bankhead never made much impact in the movies. She easily conquered stages in New York and London, and also appeared on radio and television before her death in 1968, but Alfred Hitchcock's 1944 film Lifeboat is considered her only real success on the silver screen. 

Previously on this blog I've written about that appearance in the Hitchcock film, which also included a performance by another Alabama native, Mary Anderson. I've also discussed Talluah's appearances with Lucille Ball--one as herself and another as interpreted by Lucy. I recently watched Bankhead in the 1932 pre-Code movie, Faithless. I enjoyed it very much and thought I would discuss it here. 

The years from 1929 until mid-1934 are known as the "pre-Code" era in Hollywood. In 1930 the studios agreed to adopt the Motion Picture Production Code  that outlined topics forbidden in their films. The subjects ranged from drug use, prostitution and homosexuality to adultery and excessive violence. Strict enforcement did not begin until mid-1934, so many early sound films made during that brief period cover behaviors that would largely disappear from most American studio films until the Code was abandoned in 1968. Faithless includes such uncomfortable topics for the prudish as wild parties among the wealthy and the widespread deprivations of the Great Depression that lead Tallulah's character into promiscuity and then prostitution. And things end happily for Tallulah, which the Code did not toperate.

Bankhead's co-star is Robert Montgomery, a very successful actor and the father of actress Elizabeth Montgomery, who also had a long career in film and television. More comments are below.  

Faithless was released on October 15, 1932, by MGM; running time is a brisk 77 minutes. Beaumont directed a number of films between 1915 and 1948, including some with other stars such as John Barrymore and Joan Crawford. This film is based on Mildred Cram's story "Tinfoil".

Tallulah plays Carol Morgan, a rich New York socialite in love with advertising executive Bill Wade [Montgomery]. The film opens with Carol on the phone talking to Bill as they plan their evening. Clever repartee follows. 

Carol is very good at lounging around until late morning.

Bill Wade is an advertising executive pulling down $20,000 a year, which was a fabulous amount in 1932 America. We never do learn how these lovebirds met.

Being a spoiled socialite, Carol knows how to pout when needed, even if it is over the telephone.

Carol and Bill return from their date to her upscale apartment  

This film is worth watching just for the fabulous furniture, lighting and costumes filling the screen in the first half.

Bill and Carol seem headed for marriage. Based on their exchange here, they will do well in the conversation department:

Carol: I've nice feet, haven't I? Hmmm?

Bill: Can't expect a man to write poetry about feet at five o'clock in the morning.

You can find other great quotes from the film here. Especially hilarious is the long case Carol makes to Bill concerning her suitability as a wife.  

Bill and Carol make plans to marry, even launching the announcement at a large party of her friends. But roadblocks quickly pop up. Bill wants to live off his salary, not her inheritance. Carol, who seems to be very wealthy, is not impressed with his job or his income. The two break up.

Carol continues to party and blow through her inheritance until one day her bankers tell her she's broke. As in she-doesn't-have-one-thin-dime broke. 

How could this have happened? she wants to know. You spent all your money, they say.

Carol goes to see Bill and confesses her newly-acquired poverty. Problem is, Bill has lost his job that very day and is headed to Chicago to see what kind of job he can find. Carol doesn't want to do that and their possible reconciliation doesn't happen. Bill's younger brother Tony is on hand to offer his negative opinion of Carol. Before all this happens, though, Carol and Tony have the kind of barely veiled sex talk that must have driven the prudish in the audience right out of the theater. 

Now broke, Carol makes the rounds of friends she can bunk with and borrow money from until her welcome wears out. A wealthy cad finds her at the gaming tables of Monte Carlo [where Carol had suggested she and Bill go on their honeymoon] and makes her his mistress.

Bill tracks down a very drunken Carol at her benefactor's apartment, and after he leaves Carol is so humiliated she leaves her lover.

Now Carol is near rock bottom, waiting in a breadline. Naturally they run out of bread just as she reaches the window. She is forced to give her landlady her shoes to pay something toward rent.

Carol scrapes together enough money to buy a bowl of soup and runs into Bill in the restaurant. He has a job as a truck driver and asks her to marry him, saying the past is past. 

Bill loses that job, and is injured on his new one as a truck driving strikebreaker or scab. He  needs medicine that neither of them can afford. 

Carol is briefly forced into prostitution to buy the medicine. A policeman confronts her, but instead of arresting Carol he gets her a job at the very cafe where she had tried and failed earlier to get work.  

Bill finally recovers, and they get married and hopefully, after all their ups and downs, live happily ever after.

This film's story is hardly original, and cliches abound, but the two stars and the supporting actors make it work. In its review the New York Times declared Faithless to be a "lumbering species of drama" but did acknowledge the "capable portrayals" of the leads. 

The first half is full of crisp, often funny dialog, great sets and costumes. The second half pours on the pathos but manages to keep it from being too cloying. Bankhead's legendary theatrical performances were not preserved on film, but we get some idea of her range here in a role that displays her talents for both  wit and drama. 

Lucy and Tallulah

Two of the most iconic actresses of the 20th century are Lucille Ball and Alabama native Tallulah Bankhead. 

Ball's career began in modeling in 1929, followed by a few years as chorus girl in various Broadway productions. She moved to Hollywood and made her first film appearance in 1933. During the 1930's and 1940's she had small or supporting roles in a number of movies, including one with the Marx Brothers and another with Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire and even a Three Stooges short. She also does a sexy turn as the private detective's secretary in the 1946 film noir The Dark Corner. 

In 1940 she married Cuban band leader Dezi Arnaz. By the early 1950's the two had a successful touring act with Lucy playing a housewife desperate to get into Arnaz's stage show. CBS-TV, which had already rejected a pilot from the couple, decided maybe such a program could succeed after all. I Love Lucy premiered on October 15, 1951, and the rest is history. The show became one of the most popular and influential comedies in the history of television. This show and its successors, The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour, The Lucy Show, and Here's Lucy, kept its star on television almost continuously until 1974. 

Tallulah Bankhead's career had a different trajectory. She was born in Huntsville on January 31, 1902, into a prominent political family. 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 won, 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 a few more stage and film roles and even played the Black Widow in a 1967 episode of Batman. She also made two appearances on different Lucille Ball shows, one in the flesh and one in spirit. Explanations are below the photos.

"Lucy Fakes Illness" broadcast on December 18, 1951, is the 16th episode of I Love Lucy's first season. Lucy claims if Ricky doesn't hire her for his nightclub act, she'll have a nervous breakdown. One of her "symptoms" is the delusion she is Tallulah Bankhead. Lucy has the look down, doesn't she? At the time of this broadcast Tallulah was in the midst of her popular radio show. 

Miss Bankhead herself appeared on the Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour in "The Celebrity Next Door," a 60-minute episode broadcast on December 3, 1957.

Lucy learns that her new neighbor is Tallulah Bankhead, so she tries to impress her with a dinner party at which Fred and Ethel pose as the help. Of course, a feud erupts between Lucy and Tallulah, but by the time the episode ends Lucy has everyone participating in a PTA show at Little Ricky's school.

Bette Davis was originally slated to star as the next door celebrity, but a horseback riding accident prevented her appearance. Bankhead was second choice. The reversal seems appropriate, since Davis played Bankhead's Broadway role in the film version of The Little Foxes.

The episode is full of spicy exchanges with Lucy and responses from Tallulah; you can read a few here.

Desi, Lucy & Tallulah in the 1957 episode

Source

Film Actresses from Alabama Before 1960 (4): Mary Anderson

Back in January of this year I did a post in the "Movies with Alabama Connections" series on Lifeboat, a 1944 Alfred Hitchcock film that starred two state natives, Tallulah Bankhead and Mary Anderson. Now I'd like to do a post in this series on Mary Anderson.

She was born in Birmingham on April 3, 1918 or perhaps 1920. She attended Howard College [now Samford University] and started acting in the theater department there. Her BhamWiki entry says she was runner-up in the Miss Birmingham contest. 

The 1930 U.S. Census shows 12-year old Mary living with her parents James O. and Mary E. Anderson, younger brother James and her 72-year old grandfather. The family lived at 533 McMillan Avenue in southwest Birmingham. By the 1940 census she is living at 5757 Franklin Avenue in Los Angeles. Mother Mary and brother James are also shown living with her. The record notes she had finished two years of college. 

Those census records do not settle the question of her birth year. The 1920 and 1930 census both estimate her birth year at 1918; the 1940 census estimates 1921. 

Whatever Anderson's age, she was in Hollywood in 1939 and auditioned for the role of Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind. She and hundreds of other actresses did not get that role, but she was tapped for the supporting role of Maybelle Merriwhether. In that same year she also had a small uncredited part in another high profile movie, The Women. Another Birmingham native, Dorothy Sebastian, also had a tiny role in the film. 

Anderson appeared in several other films in addition to Lifeboat. She had a significant role in 1943's The Song of Bernadette alongside Jennifer Jones, who played the title character. You can find all her acting credits here. 

In addition to the film roles, Anderson performed on a number of television shows in the 1950's and 1960's. The programs ranged from Target and Mike Hammer to Perry Mason, My Three Sons and Peyton Place. In her appearance on the 1958 episode "The Case of the Rolling Bones" on Perry Mason, she might have had a chance to trade Birmingham stories with Gail Patrick, another actress born in the city who by that time was producing the show. Anderson's final appearance was an uncredited "Old Lady in Music Store" in the 1980 film Cheech and Chong's Next Movie. 

Younger brother James [1921-1969] also became an actor; he played Bob Ewell in To Kill a Mockingbird. His credits include appearances in several Westerns and other films as well. They acted together in one movie, the 1951 noir thriller Hunt the Man Down. 

Anderson died in April 2014 in Burbank, California. Her first husband was writer Leonard M. Behrens; married in 1940, they divorced in 1950. In 1953 she married cinematographer Leon Shamroy; he won 4 Academy Awards and was nominated 14 additional times. One of those wins was for the 1944 film Wilson in which Mary Anderson played Eleanor, the youngest daughter of President Wilson. She had one child by Shamroy.

As noted below, Anderson returned to Birmingham in November 1947 for the world premier of her film Whispering City and a public appearance at Pizitz. The film premier benefited the Crippled Children's Clinic and was held at the Empire Theater on Third Avenue North.

You can find a number of photographs of Anderson, including glamour shots, at this Pinterest board. 

Anderson with actor Charles Russell in Behind Green Lights (1946)

Source: Wikipedia

Source: Listal

Source: The Film Daily 1946

Source: Birmingham Public Library Digital Collections

Source: Birmingham Public Library Digital Collections

Source: Wikipedia

This November 1947 newspaper ad announces the opening of new escalators for the first four floors of the Birmingham Pizitz store. The dark photograph in the upper left corner notes that actress Mary (Bebe) Anderson will be on hand to untie the ribbon. Others present for what was treated as a major event on November 24 were Mayor Cooper Green and representatives from Westinghouse, the company that made the escalator. That day's Birmingham News covered the addition in an article, "Pizitz store installs moving stairways."

Source: Tim Hollis and his book Pizitz: Your Store [History Press, 2010]

Anderson starred in two of the films, Henry Aldrich for President (1941) and Henry and Dizzy (1942). 

Source: Birmingham Rewound

Movies with Alabama Connections (4): Lifeboat

I saw this Hitchcock film again recently, and thought I would include it in this series of blog posts. The presence of two Alabama natives who became well-known actresses for several decades seemed connection enough. I enjoyed the film as much this time as I have previous viewings.

Despite her fame as both an actress and a personality over many decades, Huntsville native Tallulah Bankhead made few movies. She had a spectacular career on stage both in New York City and London. She expanded her reach on radio and late in her career on television. Although she made films as early as 1918 and as late as 1966, her best known one is the 1944 Lifeboat.   

That film has several notable features. The entire setting is the titular lifeboat in the North Atlantic during World War II. The boat's passengers are mostly survivors of a merchant marine ship with civilians aboard that sank in a naval battle. They are soon joined by a seaman from the German U-boat that also sank. The film is a fascinating juxtaposition of efforts at survival and passionate moral debate.

Tallulah plays a well known journalist and manages to look spectacular throughout most of her time at sea. In addition to Bankhead, the cast includes John Hodiak, Walter Slezak, William Bendix and Hume Cronyn--four actors who had significant careers in Hollywood and beyond. Novelist John Steinbeck wrote the film's story. Hitchcock makes his usual cameo in a very funny way that I won't spoil for those who haven't seen the movie. 

Birmingham native Mary Anderson plays the other female in the boat. She grew up in the city and attended Howard College before embarking on her acting career. Born in 1918, she died in April 2014 age 96. In addition to Lifeboat, she appeared in Gone with the Wind and numerous other films and television roles. Her brother James was also an actor; he appeared in To Kill a Mockingbird. 

I plan to do a more extensive post on Mary Anderson in the series on Alabama film actresses before 1960.   

Tallulah Bankhead [1902-1968] in 1941

Source: Wikipedia

Anderson with actor Charles Russell in Behind Green Lights (1946)

Source: Wikipedia