I Love the Illusion: The Life and Career of Agnes Moorehead (47 page)

Agnes loved the star treatment she received at MGM during the shooting
of
The Singing Nun
. “It was a windfall for me,” she told Georgia Johnstone,
“and I couldn’t be happier — my dressing room was all done in lilacs!”
While Garson was one of her best female friends, Agnes couldn’t help but
gloat to Georgia about being billed above Greer in the film. “What a joy it
is to work on a picture again . . . and not running a race for time.” When

released,
The Singing Nun
did good business at the box office despite weak
reviews. Pauline Kael would sum up this film in her book,
Kiss Kiss Bang
Bang
: “Ricardo Montalban is a simpering simple priest; and though Agnes
Moorehead plays a nun like a witch, she is more than balanced by Greer
Garson as the Mother Prioress . . . Debbie Reynolds is less than perfection.”

Around this time, Paul Gregory had the idea of casting his wife, former
screen actress Janet Gaynor, Tallulah Bankhead and Agnes in a horror film
together. Bankhead, with whom Agnes worked with in the film
Main Street
to Broadway,
vetoed the idea because she had just completed a horror film
and was not eager to rush into another one. But Bankhead would have
welcomed working with Agnes again. According to one of Tallulah’s
biographers, Bankhead called Agnes to propose that they work together on
a Broadway show about suffragettes. Apparently Agnes was agreeable, but
the project didn’t get off the ground.

On October 7, Agnes heard from Shirley Temple Black regarding
coming to San Francisco as a guest star at the opening of the ninth annual
San Francisco Film Festival. As an honored guest, she would attend a black
tie dinner and be introduced onstage at the opening night of the Festival,
and then attend a post-opening supper dance at the Fairmont Hotel. The
Festival would also fly Agnes and a companion to San Francisco and put her
up at the Fairmont Hotel. In a postscript, in a handwritten note to Agnes,
Shirley writes, “Please, please come! Last time you were here I tried to

contact you, but you were probably too involved. This time, I’ll have many
interesting people to introduce you to. Fondly, Shirley.” Agnes did attend
and, while she had a good time, she would later say she was “embarrassed”
by all the attention.

Around this time Sean was becoming a bit of a problem. While attending
high school at Llandovery College in Wales, he suddenly just up and ran
away, which set off a search by police and his fellow students. Agnes was
concerned, but didn’t fly to Wales herself due to her filming schedule; she
did keep in touch with authorities. After four days on the run, Sean walked
into the police station at Swansea and identified himself. He was quoted as
saying, “I don’t know why I ran away, but I didn’t walk all the way to
Swansea. I had a couple of lifts and one night I slept in the park.” Before
all of this occurred Agnes had told an interviewer, “Being educated in
Europe has made him an adult all the faster. Why he even tells me what to
do.” She added wearily, “I can remember when I used to tell him.” This was
basically the crux of the problems which would develop between mother
and son in the years ahead — Agnes, firm in her own beliefs, and Sean,
having lived so long independently of her, equally strong in his and not
wanting to be treated as a child.

In December Agnes held her annual Christmas party which launched the
holiday season in grand fashion. Her guest list was always distinguished,
but this year it was even more so — perhaps due to her increased profile in
Hollywood due to the success of
Bewitched
and the recognition she got
from the Golden Globes and the Academy for
Hush . . . Hush, Sweet
Charlotte.
Her guest list was glittering, and included such old friends as
Henry Hathaway, Betty White and Allen Ludden, The Jimmy Stewarts,
The Bob Hopes, Lucille Ball and her husband Gary Morton, Kathryn
Grayson, Debbie Reynolds and Harry Karl, and Liz Montgomery and Bill
Asher. Yet, according to Cesar Romero, the guest list wasn’t only limited to
the high and the mighty in the industry. “The annual party was not just for
entertainment people . . . she always invited politicians, artists, industrialists,
writers, producers, directors, business tycoons and very often, just plain
folks.” Her servants were always invited. She hired help to come in so that
her longtime employees could enjoy the festivities. Prior to the party Agnes
would be driven to a location on Alameda Street in Los Angeles, where she
would select several newly-cut Christmas trees. “She delighted in choosing
and picking several trees for her annual Christmas bash. Nothing but the
best for her guests. She was like a child decorating the trees, too,” recalled
her maid, Freddie Jones.

As was her custom,
Agnes positioned herself
at the front door where
she would remain for the
entire evening — warmly
welcoming her guests
upon their arrival and
then wishing them a
Happy Holiday as they
left. The festivities would
usually begin around 4 in
the afternoon and lasted
until about 9 in the
evening. According to
Quint Benedetti, who met
Agnes as a student in her
acting class and later
became her road manager
for the one-woman shows,
she would prepare for the
party weeks in advance
and have professional set
decorators come to Villa Agnese and decorate the house, making it look like
“a fairyland.” Kasey Rogers, who would later attend these parties after
inheriting the role of Louise Tate on
Bewitched
, recalls that a sit-down
dinner would be served “on her large back patio at tables which seated six
or eight. Wine was served in colored glasses, each shaped like a cluster of
grapes.” At around 8pm, members of the Beverly Hills High School Choir
would come in to cap the evening by singing Christmas carols. Laurie Main
was another perennial guest at the Christmas parties, recalling them as
“grand fun — everyone who was anyone in Hollywood was there.” Main
remembers one Christmas party in particular and the joke which Agnes had
at his expense.

“One year I wasn’t feeling well,” recalls Main, “so I said, ‘I think I’ll just
stand by the fireplace.’
“Agnes wryly replied, ‘Oh, that is brave of you.’
“‘Really — why?’ I asked.
“‘ You’ll see,” smiled Agnes.’
“When I stood by the fireplace, hardly anyone came near me. Oh, they
might have stopped for a moment to say, ’hello’ and then they just moved
on. I went and told Agnes this and she said, “Well, what did you expect?
They thought you were ostracized so they didn’t want to be seen with you!.’
and then she let out one of her trademarked huge laughs.”
Her efforts every year were noted by the Hollywood press — one article
called Agnes, “one of Hollywood’s most superb hostesses . . . part of
Hollywood tradition, in the grand and gala manor of filmdom’s golden
era.”
The year was capped by twin honors accorded to Agnes; the first, by the
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which invited her to be
a member of the nominating committee to select the Best Foreign Film
nominees for 1965. It was somewhat ironic that in a year when Agnes was
herself denied an Academy Award in part due to the exceptional performances
and films featuring foreign-born actors that she would be selected to be on
the nominating committee to select the nominees for best foreign film, but
she was honored to be asked and eagerly accepted. The second was her
election to the Board of Directors of the Screen Actors Guild, which
carried a three-year term with meetings every other Monday night at
8:30 p.m. Often she attended these board meetings in the company of her
friend, Karl Malden, who recalled, “Her television series,
Bewitched,
was
sponsored by Chevrolet. Every year they gave her a new car. Now Aggie
hated to drive. She used that car maybe once a week and had some neighbor
kid take her to a store or something. Around that time she became an active
member of the Screen Actors Guild and she would call me and ask if I
wouldn’t mind driving her to the SAG meetings. Of course I didn’t mind.
So this went on for several weeks. One day as we were driving, she asked
me if I wanted a new car. I was surprised and asked her what she was talking
about. She explained that Chevrolet gives her a car every year which she
never really uses. I told her I would buy it from her as a new car since it
only had about 3,000 miles on it. She insisted that she sell it to me as a used
car. So we decided to use a dealer. The dealer said he couldn’t sell it as used
unless it had at least 8,000 miles on it. So she had this neighbor kid using
it all the time until the odometer got up to 8,000 miles and at that point I
bought it from her as a used car. I used it for many years.”

1966 would be a fairly quiet year professionally for Agnes. With the exception
of working on
Bewitched
and a few television guest appearances, in addition
to a few dates with her one-woman show, she appeared in no major motion
pictures (though
The Singing Nun
, shot in the fall of 1965, was released) or
stage plays. She did have plenty of time for social functions including a
testimonial dinner for Dean Martin in January and a luncheon in honor of
Prince Philip held at Twentieth Century-Fox studios in March. Part of this
inactivity may have been twofold. First, because she had brought Sean
home from Wales. His disappearance from school and reports of other
infractions made Agnes feel that it might be best for him to live at home so
that she could better monitor his activities and make sure that he was
getting the kind of religious instruction that she believed would turn him
around. To that end, she enrolled him into Sunday school at Beverly Hills
Community Presbyterian Church, where, according to a letter she received
from Pastor Samuel Allison, Sean was to be in Sunday school “promptly
at 9:30am each Sunday and dismissal at 10:40 a.m.” Sean also received
“beautifully illustrated books,” which the pastor instructed Agnes were to
be “read at home with your help and encouragement.” She also enrolled
him into a private school in Beverly Hills, where she later told the press,
“Sean is taking special courses in Algebra, Geometry and Physics. All the
teachers are French and he has to learn in that language.”