I Love the Illusion: The Life and Career of Agnes Moorehead (40 page)

Lord Pengo
was running on Broadway when Agnes celebrated her 62nd
birthday on December 6; of course, unofficially, it was her 56th birthday.
Paul sent her a telegram: “Dear Aggie, you are so clever. I know you are not
as old as you say you are, but it does help in getting character parts. Love
you with all of my heart. Happy Birthday and many more. Paul.” The cast
and crew presented her with a huge birthday cake that night after the
performance as the audience serenaded her to “Happy Birthday.”

On December 15, Agnes received the sad news that Charles Laughton
had died after a battle with cancer. Their mutual friend, Remsen Dubois
Bird, later wrote Agnes, “. . . it is good to know he has been freed. So many
persons in Charles and we knew the best one.”

Despite this, Agnes would end 1962 in high spirits, having participated
in two well-received, if not well-reviewed, shows. She was on Broadway,
and in movie houses:
How the West Was Won
was opening to strong box
office. She felt more confident than she had in some time regarding her
career as the New Year approached. The year 1963 would be a key year in
Agnes’ career, though she really didn’t realize it, because of her decision to
participate in a pilot for a television series, one that would win her more
fame and popularity than she ever dreamed.

As 1963 began Agnes was enjoying her run on Broadway in
Lord Pengo,
but
after an initial burst of box office success, attendance began to dwindle and
expenses began to mount. The show closed on April 20, 1963 after 225
performances, including the six-week road tour prior to the New York
opening. It was an exhausting, yet rewarding experience, but after six
months of doing the same play night after night, especially in a part which
was less than stellar, Agnes was ready to move on.

Her first opportunity came
when Jerry Lewis offered her
a part in his new comedy,
Who’s Minding the Store?
This
would be Agnes’ second film
with Lewis, the last time
appearing as Lewis’ wife
and
mother in the Martin and
Lewis film
Pardners,
seven
years earlier. She would play
yet another mother role in
this one too — this time the
wealthy owner of a department
store whose daughter, played
by Jill St. John, falls in love
with the misfit typically
played by Lewis. The film
began shooting shortly before
Lord Pengo
closed and Agnes
almost immediately flew on
to California to begin filming her scenes. On her first day on the set, Lewis
sent her a dozen roses along with a note: “I consider it a privilege to work
with such a fine actress, and I hope you enjoy working in ‘films for fun’.”
It was a quick shoot, in a painless role which Agnes could have done in her
sleep. The film was, as usual for a Lewis picture from this period, a huge
box office success and even got some decent notices, such as this review
from
Commonweal:
“With its zany humor and extravagant slapstick, this
comedy is sometimes reminiscent of that ‘Mad, Mad World’ affair. ‘Store,’
however has the advantage of being much shorter . . .” For some reason, for
the three weeks that Agnes shot
Who’s Minding the Store?
she stayed at
Debbie Reynolds’ house. Agnes also reported to her secretary, Georgia
Johnstone, “The picture is just getting along beautifully — they couldn’t
treat me any better if I was Garbo. Evidentially the rushes are good.”

For much of 1963 Agnes toured in her one-woman show, which was
given the new title of
Come Closer, I’ll Give You an Earful.
It was her first
performance of the one-woman show in almost two years and Agnes was
apprehensive. “ . . . it was quite a pressure! But I managed to get through it
without mishap and thankful that my feet are on the ground.” Typically, for
one performance, Agnes was paid between $1,000 and $1,500 per date plus
first-class accommodations and transportation. Which means, if she played
75 individual dates she earned well over $80,000, cushioned by an
occasional television job and her work in the Lewis film as well as the final
months with
Lord Pengo.
All this brought her income for 1963 to about
$125,000, not bad in 1963 dollars. But the money seemed to go as quickly
as it came in, what with her home in Beverly Hills, farm in Ohio and the
staff who worked for her. Financial forms from the office of her accountant,
Harold R. Williams, indicate that Agnes still had unpaid advances made
from 1953–1957 and interest of over $18,000. She had unpaid advances to
the Kitchen Middens Farms made in 1958 and 1959 with interest of more
than $11,000, unpaid business management fees of $7,800, and real estate
taxes unpaid for the years 1958–1960 of nearly $5,000. But she also needed
to keep up appearances — she lived in Beverly Hills and, along with
monthly utility bills, she paid $114 per month for a pool service company,
$325 per month to fashion designer Don Loper, $122 per month to a
florist, and she subscribed to
Variety, Film Daily, Box Office Digest
and
The
Hollywood Reporter.

There was also the more than $500 per month that she was paying to
educate Sean, now attending a private school in Wales. But, as she
explained to a reporter, she believed that education was “the most important
item for one’s children’s growth . . . a basic, thorough education, a good
moral atmosphere and a training in how to stand on one’s own two feet.”
And Agnes felt that Sean would get the best education abroad as well as a
better understanding of the world by not attending either public or private
school in the United States. She also stressed discipline in raising a child.
“Most teenagers (Sean was now 14) are alike, one of their main problems is
brought about by adults who either do not, or will not give them attention,
approval and discipline which they need and expect.”

During the summer of 1963 Agnes went to Israel to present her
one-woman show at the Tel-Aviv Israel Festival. Sean took a portion of his
summer vacation and traveled with her and in between appearances they
enjoyed sightseeing. While in Israel Paul Gregory wrote Agnes with the
news that he was preparing a new show for 1964 for her,
One of My Lovers
is Missing.
He also was promising other work — if things worked out —
such as a picture that he and producer Sol Siegel were planning, “with a
wonderful part for you. This would go some time after the first of the year.
Too, there is a good possibility of a spectacular on the life of Eugene
O’Neill and I would see to it that you are prominently involved in this.”
None of these projects came to being.

While she was in Israel, Agnes’ mother, now nearly 80 years old, was
hospitalized at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, and underwent
surgery apparently for intestinal problems. Agnes wrote to Georgia
Johnstone that “2 large stones were found and removed from Mother’s
gastro-intestinal tract, and that she has a new opening in her intestine.” The
operation was a success but at Mollie’s age the recovery phase was
prolonged and she was hospitalized for several weeks. Agnes had also told
Johnstone that “I only hope and pray that she will have some good normal
years ahead of her.” Agnes would have no way of knowing that the unsinkable
Mollie would live another 28 years and outlive her famous daughter. Agnes
was so pleased by the treatment that her mother received that she offered to
perform a concert for the staff of the Mayo Clinic. She was taken up on this
offer by the head of Surgery at the Clinic, Dr. David Carr, who pointed out
that during 1964 the Mayo Clinic would celebrate its 100th birthday, and
the Mayo Foundation its 50th anniversary, and one of the events planned
related to a special recognition day sponsored by the Rochester Chamber of
Commerce. “This is an attempt by the community to pay tribute to the
contributions of the clinic and foundation to the city of Rochester.” He
said a special script was being prepared by “professional script writers and
it has been suggested that you might play the leading role in that production.”
While she didn’t do this show, she did eventually present to them a portion
of her one-woman show and, of more importance, she constantly gave
Mayo good publicity and began to go there for her own checkups.

Also during that busy summer of 1963 Agnes made a guest appearance
on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s popular talk program,
Flashbacks,
appearing along with Basil Rathbone. She was outspoken about
her regard for the modern theatre and her appearance caused a sensation.
She asserted that she believed that many present-day playwrights are “pretty
sick” and heading her list was Edward Albee, the author of
Who’s Afraid of
Virginia Woolf?,
which had just won the New York Drama Critics’ Circle
Award as the best play of the year. According to Agnes, Albee was, “very
intelligent, psychologically perceptive but full of hate and revenge.” She
also felt that
Virginia Woolf
was “not realistic by any means.” Adding more
salt to the wound, she asserted that, “If Albee’s theatre was the only kind
then I would get out. He has great talent but he can only wallow in the
gutter.” Then she went back to the theme of her 1961 lecture about using
the theatre as a positive force for peace in the world. “I think that the
theatre can instruct, that it can make the human being better, more
compassionate, and more understanding.” Both Agnes and Rathbone
agreed that the present types of “realistic” plays being presented were not
enhancing people. She got a lot of feedback, most of it positive. “Thank
God for actresses like you,” wrote one Ruth Patterson of London, Ontario.
A Mrs. Coughlin wrote, “You are the best guest they have had on that
program in our opinion,” and a Mrs. Harmon Johnson wrote, “. . . She so
intelligently, courageously, passionately and positively, expressed her views
about the present decadent trend in our dramatic productions.”

In the fall of 1963, as Agnes began yet another tour of her one-woman
show, she received an offer to play the part of Nora Nash in the musical
A
Little Night Music.
Around the same time, she was sent the script of a pilot
of a half-hour comedy series where she would once again play a mother, but
with a twist — this mother was a witch.

In 1963 Screen Gems, the television arm of Columbia Pictures, was
developing a series about the whirlwind romance between a beautiful young
witch and a mortal that leads to marriage. The studio had a huge success in
1958 with the film,
Bell, Book and Candle,
with James Stewart and Kim
Novak, which explored this theme. Veteran producer Harry Ackerman (
The
Donna Reed Show, Father Knows Best, Dennis the Menace
) was approached
by his superior at Screen Gems, Bill Dozier, about developing a series based
on that film. Ackerman liked the idea and set out developing the show. To
flesh out this idea, he chose a contract writer named Sol Saks to write the
pilot. Saks was a veteran wrier who got his start in radio, most prominently
on the successful
Duffy’s Tavern.
Ackerman and Saks came up with a character
named Cassandra (or Cass for short), a young witch, who meets a young
mortal, an advertising executive named Darrin, and falls in love and
marries him. All this to the chagrin of her mother who believes her daughter
is giving up her way of life — a much preferable one to her mind — to be
the wife of a mere mortal. This scenario was titled
The Witch of Westport.

The Witch of Westport
was initially offered to actress Tammy Grimes.
Grimes, however, decided that an offer from Noel Coward to appear in his
Broadway production of
High Spirits,
a musical based on his play
Blithe
Spirit
— another supernatural comedy — was more enticing at this stage in
her career. She turned Ackerman down. (Apparently, at the time, the idea
was to team Grimes with a young actor named Dick Sargent in the husband
role, but as it turned out Sargent was also tied up with another project.)
The search was on for a new lead actress.

Around this time the beautiful young actress Elizabeth Montgomery, the
daughter of screen and television star Robert Montgomery, and her
husband, director William Asher, were shopping around a television series
that would allow them to work together. Asher, a veteran director, who
helmed episodes of
I Love Lucy, The Shirley Temple Show
and
The Danny
Thomas Show,
among others, had developed an idea for a series titled
The
Fun Couple,
about a wealthy debutante who marries a mechanic. He
brought this idea to Bill Dozier at Screen Gems, who immediately told
Asher about
The Witch of Westport,
which had a similar theme as the show
Asher was pitching — about a seemingly mismatched couple who fall in
love and marry. Montgomery and Asher embraced the new series. The
witch now had a new face — that of 31-year-old Elizabeth Montgomery.