I Love the Illusion: The Life and Career of Agnes Moorehead (73 page)

MOST COMPREHENSIVE AND INTELLIGENTLY
-
WRITTEN BIOGRAPHIES EVER
PUBLISHED
, B
EWITCHED
-
RELATED
,
OR OTHERWISE
. T
HIS BOOK NEEDS TO
BE READ
;
PLAIN AND SIMPLE
,
WITHOUT QUESTION
;
BAR
-
NONE
. And that’s

not faint praise; nor is it delusion or fantasy. It’s real; as legitimate as the
manifold talents that imbued the physical, psychological, spiritual and
theatrical nature of Agnes Moorehead.

Whether portraying Endora, the feisty magical mother to Elizabeth
Montgomery’s saintly Samantha Stephens on TV’s classic sitcom
Bewitched
,
singing neurotic with her Oscar-nominated performance as Fanny Minafer
in
The Magnificent Ambersons
, voicing control and graceful munificence
and posture as Sister Cluny in
The Singing Nun
, or even grunting herself
into silence as a farm woman battling tiny aliens in her classic
Invaders
episode of TV’s
The Twilight Zone
, Moorehead’s creative spark ignited any
big or small stage and screen that was fortunate enough to host her presence.
She was
old school
, personally and professionally, but retained and embraced
an open mind-set that helped to catapult her status as a respected actress
and human being; a co-existence that remains timeless and accessible to
her multitude of adoring fans via massive body of work. Each one of her
performances was different from the next. Though she created personas that
stemmed from every walk of life, low or high, not one of her characters
lacked spine or courage; those traits — those
gifts
— belonged solely to
Moorehead. In suit,
I Love The Illusion
doesn’t cater to those gifts; it christens
them, itself becoming a gift to the reader in the process.

In this new Internet age of quick answers to thoughtless questions and
illiterate treks on the information highway,
I Love The Illusion
offers a
patient, steady and sturdy study of insight into one of the great theatrical
minds of all time. Agnes Moorehead commanded any stage, motion picture
or TV show, special and movie on which she appeared. Charles Tranberg
now does the same with the written word in this detailed true-to-life tale of
an amazing and gutsy actress who paved and sustained the path for anyone
whose interest is great in any creative or technical skill, craft or art of fancy.
Whatever your delight, doctrine or purpose is with reading this book, you’ll
walk away with not only a complete understanding of the personal and
professional existence of a fine actress, but a fine understanding of how to
have a complete life and career.

In short, anyone with a goal is indebted to Agnes Moorehead for
displaying how to have and make a successful and honest living. Fortunately,
that hefty price has been paid in full by Charles Tranberg, whose painstaking
research, prose and revelations into the glorious days of Agnes Moorehead
has transformed
I Love The Illusion
into an engrossing and provocative
reality.

I thought to begin with how this book came about and some of the
research that went into it and then I’ll be very happy to take your questions.
About three and a half years ago I was doing research at the Wisconsin
State Historical Society here in Madison. It’s a wonderful place and I could
spend hours there just going through many of those historical documents.
After I had finished with the research I had gone there to do — I felt I had
time on my hands and was interested in looking at some other material —
Just for fun.
So I’m strolling through there list of collections and something suddenly
caught my eyes—The Papers of Agnes Moorehead spanning the years
1928-1974. In fact, 159 boxes of papers. Well, this intrigued me. I obviously
knew who Agnes Moorehead was having been a fan of “Bewitched” and also
a fan of classic films. So I decided to order a few boxes and see what the
collection held.
I wasn’t disappointed.
Probably three hours later, and it’s a Saturday, I remember that
because that’s the only day due to work that I can get to the archives.
It’s time to close and it was very tough to stop reading. I was hooked
and wanted to see more.
I think then and there I determined that I wanted to try and write a
book about Agnes. There had never been a comprehensive biography of her
life and I felt that these 159 boxes of papers was a great place to start.
The papers consist of:
1)
Scrapbooks.
Agnes kept scrapbooks containing all kinds of treasures. Reviews, including
reviews of most of her films, many of her television appearances and all of
her stage appearances, even the stage work she did at the American Academy
of Dramatic Art in New York City in the late 1920’s. She was incredibly fair
to future biographers too, she didn’t only keep the good reviews but she also
kept bad reviews.
These scrapbooks also contained many newspaper and magazine articles
on her life and career.
The Scrapbooks included party and dinner invitations, requests for
personal appearances, offers of acting jobs, letters from fans, co-workers
and friends alike. Christmas and Birthday cards. Itineraries for her stage
tours. Even an occasional bill she had to pay or had paid. There are telegrams
from people like Orson Welles, Bette Davis, Joan Crawford, Helen Hayes,
Hume Cronyn, Charles Laughton, Joan Fontaine, Rosalind Russell, among
many others.
In addition to Scrapbooks, the papers included papers and note books
dealing with her education with the American Academy of Dramatic Arts —
the different types of classes she took such as Shakespeare, Dance, Speech,
and even Fencing.
There were lectures she delivered over the years — with scribbled notes
in her own handwriting.
There was her much scribbled on Acceptance speech to the New York Film
Critics who had voted her the Best Actress of 1942 for her performance
in “The Magnficent Ambersons.”
The collection also includes many of her film, stage, radio and television
scripts — again with her handwritten notes on characterization and
emphasize. You get into the mind of how she would interpret a part. Many
of the scripts include scenes you never saw before because they also included
drafts which were later discarded along with the eventual shooting script —
The Bewitched
scripts in particular.
Once in a while I found notes on scripts such as a grocery list, a
Christmas list, people she wanted to invite to a party and even in one script
a half worked crossword puzzle — discarded after the shooting had been
completed and forgotten.
Going through these papers and scripts was fun — the sense of discovery
truly kept me interested and told me a great deal about Agnes Moorehead
as both an actress and an individual.
While still researching nearly every Saturday and whenever else possible
at the Archives of the State Historical Society, I also knew I had to branch
out and actually talk to people who knew and worked with her.
It was a slow process at first. I would send out a bunch of letters and get
no response or if I got any response at all it was “Return to Sender.”
Finally, a break through. I spoke to an actress named Kasey Rogers who
played the second Mrs. Larry Tate on
Bewitched
. She also gave me the title
of the book, “I Love the Illusion” because she recalled, when asked why she
became an actress, Agnes would dramatically extend her arms and say,
“I Love the Illusion!”
From Kasey I was able to get contact information for Bill Asher, the
director of Bewitched and one-time husband of Elizabeth Montgomery.
And on and on.
It was always a thrill to come home and find a message on my machine
from people like Jane Wyman, Karl Malden, Rose Marie, Jane Wyatt, Himan
Brown, Norman Corwin and many others. I kept those messages sometimes
for weeks without erasing them.
The hardest interview to get was one I felt I needed more than any other
and that was with Debbie Reynolds. Debbie was Agnes’ closest confidant and
friend for the last 12 years or so of her life. They had a mother/daughter
and teacher/pupil type of relationship and some people believe it went
beyond that. For over two years I sent several letters requesting an interview
with Miss Reynolds. Finally one day, a message from her secretary stating
that she felt she could arrange something. Three months passed and finally
a message from a hesitant Debbie Reynolds who said, “I’ve been trying to
answer (by pen) these questions you sent me but maybe we should talk.”
I could go for that.
She was incredibly giving and we spoke in two interviews totaling well
over three hours. She answered every question I asked and she shed light on
some mysteries in Agnes’ life such as Agnes’ relationship with her foster son
Sean.
I could still hear the tenderness in her voice when she spoke of Agnes —
some thirty years after her death.
I also had very helpful and revealing conversations with two important
people in Agnes’ life her long time theatrical producer, Paul Gregory, who
produced
Don Juan in Hell
and Agnes’ acclaimed one-woman shows and he
didn’t pull punches. He admired her but he didn’t put her on a pedestal —
he saw her as the flesh and blood person she was and his remembrances
were very vivid.
Another quite helpful series of interviews was with a gentleman named
Quint Benedecci, who spent several years as Agnes correspondence secretary
and later her road manager. He gave some wonderful insights in the private
woman behind the acclaimed actress.
Then there was interviews with many folks from Reedsburg, WI—the
community where Agnes father, Dr. John Moorehead, was for five years
Pastor of the Presbyterian Church and later after he died, Agnes’ mother,
Mollie moved back to and spent the final 52 years of her long life (she died
at age 106 in 1990 — outliving her daughter by 16 years). Agnes visited her
mother many times over those years and thanks to these folks I got to know
something about her father and especially her mother Mollie — as well as
Agnes. I’m especially indebted to a gentleman named Gordon Emery who
was kind of a caregiver for Mollie for an extended interview and also for
taking me to different sites around Reedsburg which figured in the Agnes
Moorehead story.
So in the end I interviewed nearly forty people. I am indebted to everyone
who gave me their time and recollections. It added great color and a good
deal of truth to the manuscript I wrote.
Between these interviews and the archives at the Wisconsin State
Historical Society, I also was able to get valuable material from the Billy
Rose Library in New York City which holds a series of letters exchanged
between Agnes and her long time secretary Georgia Johnstone. Some great
insights into Agnes’ thinking came from those letters.
Then there was the Orson Welles Papers at the Lily Library in
Bloomington, Indiana. Of course Orson Welles figures very large in the
career of Agnes Moorehead since she was a charter member of his acclaimed
radio group, The Mercury Theatre and later went to Hollywood with
Welles to appear in his productions of
Citizen Kane
and
The Magnificent
Ambersons
— her two greatest films and probably his two greatest films as
well.
And the Paul Gregory Papers at the University of Wyoming in Laramie —
which included a blistering letter from Mr. Gregory to Ginger Rogers who
he believed had sabotaged his stage production of a musical-comedy play
The Pink Jungle
because he believed that Ginger was jealous of Agnes, who
was her co-star.
It took three years of research and writing and the result is the book,
I
Love the Illusion: The Life and Career of Agnes Moorehead
. Over that time I
knew I would finish a manuscript but I didn’t know if I, somebody who
never wrote professionally before, could sell a book on Agnes Moorehead.
Luckily, I found BearManor Media, which specializes in books on old time
radio and films of the golden age and the publisher was enthusiastic about
the idea of a book on Moorehead and he asked me to send a few sample
chapters. And lucky again because he liked it, and sent out a contract.
I came away from this project with an enhanced admiration for the
private Agnes Moorehead. She was a woman who was very driven, but she
had to be. She was married twice, her first marriage to a man who turned
to alcohol when her career eclipsed his and then to a man who she felt later
used her to get ahead. She had great values and a unshakeable belief
system. She could be rigid, but she was always true to herself. She was the
consummate professional and in the words of virtually every colleague I
interviewed, one of the finest actresses of her time. I think my admiration
for her is the most deeply felt in the last two years of her life, when slowly
dying of cancer, she never gave up, not for an instant. She kept the pain to
herself and kept working, because she knew that without the work she
would probably die and die quickly. In those last two years she appeared on
cross country tours of two big productions:
Don Juan in Hell
in 1972 and
Gigi
in 1973. She appeared in three television movies and a mini-series and
made a number of guest appearances on episodic television. Finally, in
January, 1974 after she had completed two final radio dramas, she suddenly
quit “Gigi” which was appearing on Broadway because as she would later
say, “I just can’t stand up any more.” She quietly went to the Mayo Clinic
in Rochester, Mn and died on April 30, 1974. With the exception of
Debbie Reynolds, not one of the people I spoke too, had any idea just how
ill she was — and that is just the way she wanted it.
I’ll be happy to take some questions.
Finally I think this letter that Agnes wrote to a sixteen year old fan sums
up her philosophy of life: