I Love the Illusion: The Life and Career of Agnes Moorehead (58 page)

Many of the obituaries, as Agnes had foreseen, emphasized her role as
Endora and usually the picture included was of her made up as that iconic
character. This was only natural due to the success of the show and its
reach. But the obituaries also reflected on her overall career as well.
Variety
,
the “Bible” of show business, said that as an actress Agnes was “considered
one of the most versatile in range.” The
Washington Post
called her “a gifted character actress who ranged easily from being elegant, assured and
arresting to being confused, cackling and comical.” The
New York Daily
News
called her “outstanding and versatile.” The
New York Times
said that
while, “Miss Moorehead was perhaps best known to modern audiences as
Endora, the witch . . . she was a highly versatile actress who was equally
at home on television or radio as on the stage and in the movies.”
Newsweek
called her “gifted.” Those are two words seen over and over in
the obituaries — gifted and versatile.

Her friends and colleagues remembered her warmly:

D
EBBIE
R
EYNOLDS
:
“She was a brilliant actress and a brilliant teacher. She
was so spiritual. We became very close friends and
my fondest memory of Agnes would be of me calling
her up and telling her to ‘light the fire’ — she had
this enormous fireplace and could literally stand
inside of it — and then we would just kick off our
shoes and talk for hours before this roaring fire.”

P
AUL
G
REGORY
:
“She had a basic love of herself and the love of her
craft. There was nothing retiring about Agnes. She
had an enthusiasm for many subjects . . . so many
actors you have to hit them over the head to get a
performance out of them. You didn’t have to kiss-ass
with Agnes.”

J
ANE
W
YATT
:
“She was a brilliant actress and a wonderful human
being.”

N
ORMAN
C
ORWIN
:
“Aggie was a woman of great kindness, very compassionate, alert, prompt . . . She was reliable, steady
and without peer as an actress in our industry.”

H
IMAN
B
ROWN
:

“If Agnes had been born in England, she would have
been knighted. She would have been Dame Agnes
Moorehead — she was as good as there was.”

Q
UINT
B
ENEDETTI
:

 

“She was just bigger than life.”

 

J
ANE
W
YMAN
:

 

“Aggie was so versatile . . . each character she played
was different from the other. I was very fond of her.”

 

K
ARL
M
ALDEN
:

“She was a quiet person and quiet people don’t get
noticed much. Her whole thing was up there
(onscreen) and when she wasn’t acting she was as
normal and nice and sweet as anyone I knew. It was
a pleasure knowing her.”

C
AROL
L
YNLEY
:

 

“She was quite simply always a joy.”

 

R
OSE
M
ARIE
:

 

“She was a wonderful lady and a tremendous actress.”

 

B
ERNARD
F
OX
:

 

“She was always a consummate professional.”

 

K
ASEY
R
OGERS
:

 

“She was bigger than life, yet down to earth.”

 

W
ILLIAM
A
SHER
:

 

“She was so good at everything she did. I was crazy
about her.”

 

M
ARY
R
OEBLING
:

“Despite her fame there was nothing pretentious
about Agnes; she displayed the same ease and grace
with youngsters as she did with the elite of the world.”

J
OSEPH
C
OTTEN
:

“Aggie was the most disciplined actress we ever
met. She was the hardest working member of our
profession.”

L
UCILLE
B
ALL
:

“Agnes was a dear and valued friend — an elusive one
— because she was forever helping someone in our
business. She was one of the greatest teachers and
comedy advisors in our profession. Her timing was
impeccable . . . I admired her greatly and miss her
every day.”

Finally, a poem by C
HARLES
L
AUGHTON
:

T
O A PURE ARTISTE
T
O A BEAUTIFUL CREATIVE SOUL
T
O A KIND
,
GOOD LADY
A L
AVENDER
Q
UEEN
B
EST EVER IN
F
AIRY TALES
M
Y ETERNAL LOVE AND ADMIRATION

AFTERWORD

Her body was flown from Rochester to Dayton, Ohio so she would be
buried in the family crypt at Dayton Memorial Gardens near her beloved
father and her sister. She was transferred in a 13-gauge, sealer-type casket
which cost $1,035. In her will she requested that no funeral service or
memorial be held for her and her wishes were respected — she also requested
that the nature of her final illness not be revealed. Her estate, when her will
was probated, was estimated to be in excess of $400,000. Her last will and
testament was signed in Los Angeles on August 23, 1973, only eight
months before she died.

Sean was not mentioned in the will. “I declare that I am single and have
no children, natural or adopted, living or deceased.” She was generous to
the people who served her so well for so long. Her personal maid, Freddie
Jones, was bequeathed $5,000. Olivia Garland, a.k.a. Polly, was bequeathed
$5,000 and her sable jacket. Her friend Tanya Hills, who befriended her
late in her life, was bequeathed $1,000 and her beaver coat with the sable
collar. Her attorney’s wife, Vanya Rohner, was left her two mink coats. The
only entertainment figure remembered in the will was Elizabeth
Montgomery, who would receive Agnes’ diamond sunburst pin only upon
the death of Aggie’s mother (Mollie gave the pin to Montgomery anyway).
She remembered various charities she had helped support during her lifetime: The Motion Picture Country House and Hospital received $5,000.
The Pacific Garden Mission of Chicago received $5,000. The New York
Gospel Mission to the Jews, Inc. in New York City also received $5,000. To
the Radio Bible Class of Grand Rapids, Michigan went $2,500.

For Muskingum College, she left $25,000 with instructions to fund one
or more complete or partial scholarships to be known as the “Agnes
Moorehead Scholarships.” She also bequeathed half of her manuscripts and
theatrical library to the University of Wisconsin and the other half to
Muskingum College. She left her collection of bibles and biblical research
material to John Brown University of Siloam Springs, Arkansas. She left her
farm including “all buildings and other structures, crops, livestock, machinery
and all furnishings and other tangible property located upon or used in
connection with the operation of said farm” to John Brown University; she
requested that they operate the farm as a memorial to her father and mother,
solely for “university, missionary and /or retreat purposes — and does not
attempt to, and does not sell, lease or rent the farm or in any way suffer or
permit the mining of coal thereon.” In a provision, she also looked out for
the Stover family who were living on the farm. “It is my strong desire that
Mr. and Mrs. E.V. Stover, so long as either or both be living, be retained as
caretakers of the farm, and be allowed to live in the small old house located
on the farm.” She also stated that it was her desire that Freddie and Polly
be offered employment as domestics in connection with the maintenance of
the large house located on the farm.

She left her mother all of her clothing and jewelry as well as one-half of
all income received by her Executor during the administration of her estate.
Furthermore, she instructed that her estate should pay for all expenses for
insurance, maintenance, upkeep and repair of the farm and that if Mollie
were “at any time, in need of funds for her reasonable care, maintenance
and support, then my trustee may pay to or for the benefit of my mother,
such part of the principal of the Trust Estate, up to the whole thereof, as
the trustee shall deem necessary to provide for my mother’s reasonable care,
maintenance and support.”

She left her Beverly Hills home to her attorney, Franklin Rohner, along
with “all household furnishings and all personal property located therein.”
This last item was surprising to Debbie Reynolds, who was the executioner
of the estate. She maintains that Agnes’ original will had no such provision.
According to Debbie the house was originally left to her mother and all
proceeds from selling the house were to go to Mollie. Yet Paul Gregory
maintains that it didn’t make sense to leave the house to Mollie since she
wasn’t about to move to California and was comfortable living in her small
two-story house in Reedsburg and would have free access to the farmhouse
in Ohio during her lifetime. Why leave a house to a woman who was 88
years old and not likely to live in it? Besides, Agnes’ will made sure that her
mother would be comfortably taken care of for the remainder of her life.

Who would have imagined that Mollie would live on for another sixteen
years, living to the great age of 106? She remained remarkably healthy, but
began to lose her mental facilities by the early 1980’s. Her friend, Gordon
Emery, who continued to look out for Mollie and her needs, recalls he and
his wife being invited to Mollie’s for a dinner party. When they arrived,
they were welcomed by Mollie and ushered into the dining room where the
“other guests” were assembled. They were shocked when the other guests
were photographs of famous stars, that Aggie had given to her mother
through the years, sitting in their frames on dining room chairs. After a
moment, she suddenly snapped out of it and told the Emerys, “Well, I
guess they are not really real.” Mollie had begun to lose some grasp with
reality and soon after was admitted to the Sauk County Retirement Home
where she lived comfortably for the remainder of her life.

I cannot end this narrative on the life of Agnes Moorehead without
addressing a question nearly everyone has asked me — “Was Agnes
Moorehead gay?” I found no smoking gun — nothing in her papers which
indicates she ever had a lesbian relationship. I asked many of the people I
interviewed. Paul Gregory, who knew her for almost a quarter of a century
and was often blunt in his responses to my questions, said that he never saw
any indication of it, adding, “Now, Claudette Colbert, oh yes, she most
definitely was, but I can’t make that statement regarding Agnes.” Quint
Benedetti, himself a gay man, who worked closely with Aggie in the last
decade of her life, stated he was “quite sure that Agnes was not a lesbian.”
He had an interesting theory about why these rumors began. He claims that
Paul Lynde, who he knew as a child growing up in Ohio, could be quite
vicious especially when drunk, and that he began to spread rumors —
including Lynde’s famous quote, “The whole world knows Agnes was a
lesbian — I mean classy as hell, but one of the all-time Hollywood dykes.”
Benedetti says that Lynde soon was spreading rumors regarding Agnes and
Debbie Reynolds — the most enduring of the rumors.

Debbie, for her part, is quite adamant that Aggie was not a lesbian and
that they had no more than a very close and loving platonic relationship. I
asked her why she thought these rumors began. “Why, indeed? I was once
interviewed in San Francisco and this young man comes in and asks me
about a love affair I was supposed to have had with Agnes. I said, ‘Why do
you believe this?’ He says, ‘Well, everyone talks about it.’ Well, I asked him
if he thought that two women could be dear friends and love each other
without it being sexual? He says, ‘Well, I don’t know.’ I told him, ‘Agnes
wouldn’t have gotten along with you because you aren’t using your brains!’
But Agnes was very religious — piously religious. If it were true, I would
acknowledge it — there is no reason not to. If I knew that Agnes was a
lesbian I would acknowledge it, but she simply wasn’t.”

Yet, the rumor is spread in many books and articles without anything to
back it up. For instance, in David Thomson’s excellent biography of Orson
Welles, Thomson states, “Welles revered Moorehead more than any actress
he worked with. In a trailer made for
Kane
, he called her ‘one of the best
actresses in the world.’ Nothing happened between them: Moorehead was
not heterosexual.” Where did that come from? Nobody ever insinuated that
Orson or Agnes ever had anything more than a mutual admiration for one
another. Other books have also argued that Agnes was a lesbian such as
The
Sewing Circle
, which repeated the Paul Lynde quote as evidence. Boze
Hadleigh’s book
Hollywood Lesbians
included a 1972 interview that the
author had with Agnes which was not published until years after Agnes’
death. As was usual with Hadleigh, he began innocently enough in his
questioning but gradually built up to asking the critical questions. Aggie
says at one point, “A woman may love a person who is this or that, male or
female. Love doesn’t have a sex. It’s men who always have to bring sex and
activities into everything . . . Women operate on a different plane; the feelings
are emotional not physical.” Innocent enough, but at one point Hadleigh
does get a vague acknowledgement of something. “You apparently have
your own informants. I don’t know what you’ve heard, and I don’t want to
hear, and some of it may even be true.” Is it conceivable that Agnes, at some
point in her 73 years, ever had a “Sapphic” encounter? Perhaps — and if so,
what does it matter? But can this biographer say definitively that she was a
lesbian or bisexual — no. There simply is no known evidence to collaborate
it, with nobody willing to go on record affirming it. Yet many who willingly
went on the record with me deny it as inconceivable.