Myrna Loy (68 page)

13. “Myrna Loy performs”:
Hollywood Reporter
, Feb. 14, 1936.

14. “You wouldn’t”: Hall, “That Other Me,” 4.

15. “Naturally”: quoted in
Philadelphia Bulletin
, “I Want a Wife like Myrna Loy,” July 13, 1947.

16. “Present treatment”: Breen to Mayer, July 1, 1936, PCA files for
Libeled Lady
, AMPAS.

17. “reflects unfavorably”: Breen to Mayer, Aug. 31, 1936, PCA files for
Libeled Lady
, AMPAS.

18. “When I”: Weingarten, quoted in “Hollywood in the Thirties,” 2; Harlow . . . did want to join: Stenn to the author, Sept. 28, 2008; Thalberg had agreed: Ford,
John Ford
, 148.

19. “the balancing”:
Time
, Oct. 19, 1936.

20. “In those days”: Weingarten, quoted in “Hollywood in the Thirties,” 7.

21. “reek with”:
Variety
, Nov. 4, 1936; Schallert:
LA Times
, Oct. 8, 1936; Canby:
New York Times
, Feb. 1, 1981; Hepburn: quoted in Weales,
Canned Goods as Caviar
, 224.

22. “this huge”: Greene,
The Graham Greene Film Reader
, 139.

23. total of 250 tailors: Gutner,
Gowns by Adrian
, 58.

24. rights to the story:
Variety
, Feb. 27, 1935; Burke’s biographer: Hayter-Menzies,
Mrs. Ziegfeld
, 160.

25. she later said: Rainer, quoted in Brenner, “The Last Goddess,” 397.

26. “Miss Loy”:
New York Times
, April 9, 1936; Cecilia Ager:
Variety
, April 15, 1936; Harrison Carroll:
LA Herald Express
, April 16, 1936.

27. “No matter”: Breen to Thalberg, Dec. 4, 1935, PCA files for
Parnell
, AMPAS. Earlier drafts of the identical letter were first sent to Walter Wanger Productions and to Jason Joy at Fox.

28. “about as fiery”:
New York Times
, June 4, 1937.

29. “some twenty”: ML, quoted in Hall, “So You Want to Be a Movie Star?” 3.

30. Gable blamed Crawford: Thomas,
Joan Crawford
, 93.

31. “Myrna Loy behaves”:
Time
, June 14, 1937; “showing physical contact”: Breen to Mayer, Aug. 29, 1936, PCA files for
Parnell
, AMPAS.

32.
Parnell
preview postcards: John Stahl Collection, USC.

33. The
Infidelity
screenplay is part of the University of South Carolina’s Warner Bros./Turner Entertainment F. Scott Fitzgerald Screenplay Collection; Fitzgerald had listed: Latham,
Crazy Sundays
, 86.

34. “a deep bow”: Fitzgerald to Hunt Stromberg, June 27, 1938, in Fitzgerald,
Correspondence
, 509; “the whole thing”: quoted by Charles McGrath, “Fitzgerald as Screenwriter,”
New York Times
, April 22, 2004.

35. “Thalberg was dead”: Crawford, quoted in Newquist,
Conversations with Joan Crawford
, 181; “The world of art”: quoted in Thomas,
Thalberg
, 321; “he’d taken”: Loos,
Kiss Hollywood Good-by
, 134.

36. “The public”:
Photoplay
, July 1938, 9.

12. TROUBLE

1. had begun dating someone else: Stenn,
Bombshell
, 190–93.

2. Harlow’s medical care: Stenn,
Bombshell
, 201; Golden,
Platinum Girl
, 210.

3. “I just don’t”: ML, quoted in Hall, “So You Want to Be a Movie Star?” 5; salaries:
LA Evening Herald Express
, April 7, 1939.

4. “Hell, they were”: quoted in Bull and Lee,
The Faces of Hollywood
, 68.

5. Lombard had been trying: Swindell,
Screwball
, 208.

6. “Daddy”: quoted in Stenn,
Bombshell
, 194.

7. “Minnie”: Dr. Saxton Pope to ML, undated [June 1937] letter, MLP, Box 32, folder 1.

8. “L. B. Mayer sent”: Loos,
Kiss Hollywood Good-By
, 161.

9. “temporary colostomy”: “Surgery,”
Time
, May 10, 1963; “Bill Powell was”:
LA Evening Herald Express
, April 7, 1938.

10. ranked as the fourth:
Variety
, Jan. 5, 1938; “a complete”:
Variety
, Oct. 26, 1938.

11. “Christ, he”: Joseph Mankiewicz, quoted in Geist,
Pictures Will Talk
, 88.

12. “might have figured”:
Motion Picture Herald
, April 23, 1938.

13. “Judicious cutting”:
New York Daily Mirror
, April 16, 1938.

14. “An Earthbound Boy”: E. B. White,
New Yorker
, May 21, 1938, 164.

15. “Miss Loy”:
New York Daily News
, July 23, 1939; “I was the brave”: ML, quoted in Hall, “That Other Me,” 4.

16. Collins’s widow:
Variety
, July 13, 1938.

17. “unnecessary drinking”: Breen to Mayer, April 20, 1937, PCA files for
Test Pilot
, AMPAS.

18. “Comes now”: quoted in Skolsky,
Hollywood Citizen News
, Dec. 11, 1937; “Spencer Tracy would have”: Strickling, quoted by Tornabene,
Long Live the King
, 206.

19. “had all the authority”: Crawford, quoted in Newquist,
Conversations with Joan Crawford, 113
.

20. 838 planes:
Hollywood Reporter
, April 15, 1938.

21. Fleming replaced him: Michael Sragow,
Victor Fleming
, 592.

22. “a woman’s place”:
London Evening Standard
, Oct. 15, 1938; “Studios Turn”:
Variety
, June 22, 1938.

23. “Clark was always”: ML, quoted in Chierichetti, “Myrna Loy Today,” 10; “very beautiful”: ML, quoted in Barthel, “Quartet of Queens.”

24. as late as 1974: ML, interview by James Day, “Day at Night,” Jan. 27, 1974, WNET-TV.

25. References to the Italian invasion: Douglas Churchill,
New York Times
, June 26, 1938.

26. third place:
Variety
, May 10, 1939.

27. “That near-war”: Joe Laurie Jr.,
Variety
, Oct. 5, 1938.

28. “if the crisis”: Joe Laurie Jr.,
Variety
, Sept. 28, 1938.

29. “the only ‘ism’ ”: Dorothy Parker, quoted in Rosten,
Hollywood
, 133.

30. “The town has become”: Ruth Rankin,
Photoplay
, June 1938, 25.

31. “I have very few”: ML, quoted in Arthur, “Interview with Myrna Loy,” 8.

32. French warships:
LA Examiner
, July 14, 1939.

33.
Confessions of a Nazi Spy:
Schatz,
Boom and Bust
, 267.

34. At a private: Donald Ogden Stewart,
By a Stroke of Luck
, 236.

35. Motion Picture Artists Committee:
LA Evening News
, Dec. 1, 1937; Gianos,
Politics and Politicians in American Film
, 61.

36. Hollywood Anti-Nazi League: May 6, 1955, affidavit in ML’s FBI file, Dept. of Justice, FBI archives; backers: Stuart and Thompson,
I Just Keep Hoping
, 46.

37. Myrna’s signature: FBI report on ML, Feb. 10, 1965, Dept. of Justice, FBI archives.

38. Herbert Hornblow:
LA Evening Herald Express
, Sept. 15, 1938; die of a stroke:
New York Times
, May 7, 1942.

39.
The Rains Came
premiered:
LA Examiner
, Sept. 15, 1939.

40. story conference: notes to August 26, 1938, conference on
The Rains Came
, 20th Century–Fox Collection, Performing Arts Archives, USC; British consul: notes to May 13, 1938, conference on
The Rains Came
, 20th Century–Fox Collection, Performing Arts Archives, USC.

41. “I want to be wicked”: ML, quoted by Ed Sullivan,
New York Daily News
, Aug. 7, 1939.

42. “I’m pretty much”: ML, quoted in a 1939 20th Century–Fox press release, film file for
The Rains Came
, Core Collection, AMPAS.

43. Joseph Breen had warned: Breen to Selznick, Dec. 10, 1937, PCA files for
The Rains Came
, AMPAS.

44. “No picture in years”: Parsons,
LA Examiner
, Sept. 15, 1939; “Fox reported”: 20th Century–Fox press release, film file for
The Rains Came
, Core Collection, AMPAS.

45. interstudio agreement: Loan-out agreement for ML, Spencer Tracy, and Robert Taylor, Dec. 12, 1937, Fox Collection, UCLA; “She should be”: notes on August 26, 1938, conference on
The Rains Came
, 20th Century–Fox Collection, Performing Arts Archives, USC.

46. “Miss Loy has”: James Francis Crow,
Hollywood Citizen News
, Sept. 7, 1939.

47. he’d be the wind: Barthel, “Quartet of Queens.”

48. “only sporadically”:
New York Herald Tribune
, Sept. 9, 1939; brooding atmosphere:
Daily Variety
, Sept. 7, 1939; “one of her finest”:
Hollywood Reporter
, Sept. 7, 1939.

13. THINGS FALL APART

1. sojourn in Big Sky country:
New York Journal American
, Feb. 28, 29, 1940.

2. purchase part of the . . . ranch: Probate court document, Dec. 10, 1942, Estate of David F. Williams.

3. “I’m not the perfect”: ML in
San Francisco Examiner
, Dec. 3, 1939.

4. “still another actress”:
Photoplay
, Feb. 1941, 52.

5. elite circles: Leonora Hornblow obituary,
Guardian
, Nov. 16, 2005.

6. “
I
was the love”: Leonora Hornblow to the author, June 10, 2005.

7. brief fling with Kay Francis: Kear and Rossman,
Kay Francis
, 113; “caused her great unhappiness”:
San Francisco Chronicle
, June 2, 1942.

8. “can’t read”: Hopkins, quoted in Marx,
Mayer and Thalberg
, 174.

9. Arthur took everything: Quit-claim, Jan. 2, 1941, Arthur Hornblow papers, courtesy Michael Hornblow. The collection has been donated to the Margaret Herrick Library, AMPAS.

10. postnuptial agreement: Feb. 5, 1937, Hornblow papers, AMPAS; handed her a bill: agreements dated Jan. 2, 1941, and May 14, 1942, Hornblow papers, AMPAS.

11. “too tired to know”: ML, quoted in Hall, “So You Want to Be a Movie Star?” 6.

12. “The men who work”: Carole Lombard, quoted in Crawford and Ardmore,
A Portrait of Joan
, 90; “Her friends knew”: Owens, “Why the Perfect Wife’s Marriage Failed,” 52.

13. he saw her: Grant, “She’s My Dream Wife,” 51.

14. “would prefer”: Hedda Hopper,
San Francisco Examiner
, May 6, 1940.

15. “I saw a lot”: Irene Selznick to Leonora Hornblow, quoted in Aronson, “Legendary Lives,” 54.

16. “Myrna Loy Admits”:
LA Times
, Nov. 16, 1940; “We have tried”: Arthur Hornblow Jr. in unsourced clip, Nov. 16, 1940, ML clippings file, NYPL.

17. “Myrna Loy has won”: Parsons,
San Francisco Examiner
, Jan. 4, 1941.

18. “The marriages of”: Owens, “Why the Perfect Wife’s Marriage Failed,” 52.

19. “When they were not”:
San Francisco Examiner
, Sept. 28, 1941; “She says no more”:
San Francisco Examiner
, June 26, 1941.

20. “Mr. Poo”: Diana Lewis in undated
Photoplay
article on Powell’s third marriage, William Powell clippings file, NYPL.

21. “When lovely Myrna”: Fred Dickenson, “When the Perfect Wife Rebels,”
Albuquerque Journal
, April 4, 1941.

22. Stanley Cavell: Cavell,
Pursuits of Happiness
.

23. “Heretofore I’ve always”: ML, quoted in
New York Post
, Aug. 10, 1940.

24. “one of the best”:
Hollywood Reporter
, Aug. 6, 1940; “the steady progression”:
New York Times
, June 6, 1941; MGM’s top ten:
Variety
, Sept. 3, 1941.

25. “The Last Time I Saw Paris”:
Time
, Dec. 23, 1940.

26. At a benefit:
LA Times
, July 14, 1940; sold cigarettes: undated 1940 or 1941 photo in Constance McCormick scrapbooks, vol. 1, Constance McCormick Collection, USC.

27. There was talk of camouflaging; “Yachts and pleasure craft”:
Variety
, Dec. 10, 1941.

28. “The Charleses”:
New York Times
, Nov. 21, 1941.

29. “but you don’t”: Mayer to Douglas, quoted in Arthur,
The Political Career of an Actor
, 56–57.

30. slurs against Douglas: Arthur,
The Political Career of an Actor
, 84; “parlor pink”:
LA Times
editorial, May 31, 1940.

31. “all born abroad”: Senator Nye, quoted in
New York Times
, Sept. 10, 1941; “You may correctly”: Harry Warner testimony, quoted in Sperber and Lax,
Bogart
, 174.

32. money for Greek War Relief: report on broadcast in
Moberly Monitor Index and Democrat
, Feb. 7, 1941.

33. Navy Relief Show:
New York Herald Tribune
, March 7, 1942; She persuaded:
Variety
, Jan. 21, 1942; Bundles for Bluejackets canteen: clipping, Dec. 31, 1941, in Constance McCormick scrapbooks, vol. 2, Constance McCormick Collection, USC.

34. Dolly Tree . . . topcoat:
LA Times
, Feb. 21, 1940.

35. “We had our first”: Russell and Chase,
Life Is a Banquet
, 109.

36. private funeral:
LA Times
, Jan. 22, 1942.

37. reward for Gable’s capture: Tornabene,
Long Live the King
, 311.

38. Mayer pulled strings: Eyman,
Lion of Hollywood
, 304; FDR’s 1942 birthday celebration: press release from Hollywood Victory Committee, Feb. 27, 1942, Hollywood Victory Committee file, Special Collections, AMPAS.

39.
Motion Picture Herald
list: Dec. 18, 1940;
Variety’s
reckoning: Sept. 3, 1941; Lamour:
Variety
, Dec. 31, 1941;
Motion Picture Herald
, Dec. 26, 1942.