The Mammoth Book of Hollywood Scandals (46 page)

It cannot be disputed that Bette Davis was a force with which to be reckoned; she was a woman who had no fear of standing up to the studio or fellow actors and actresses at a time when it was relatively unknown to do so. Therefore, it is easy to imagine that she was a woman who liked to have a say in her daughter’s life too. However, in fairness to Bette, this could be said for most mothers, and yet children who are not in the public eye tend to complain to friends and siblings, rather than put their thoughts into print.

As well as stories that accused Bette of trying to control her daughter’s decisions, the book also detailed how Bette was a victim of assault by her then husband Gary Merrill, who had adopted B. D. as a child. It should be noted, however, that Merrill later denied such stories, stating that the author had been motivated by “cruelty and greed”.

My Mother’s Keeper
portrayed Davis as a drunken party animal who made a fool of herself at various public events, but the stories – seen through the eyes of B. D. – seemed to take many events out of context, seeing what many thought to be funny moments as something more sinister or contrived. In fact, so concerned were Bette’s friends on reading these stories that they came forward to say that they had witnessed some of the parties and events described in the book, but they had seen things happening in a completely different way; that the events that were embarrassing to B. D. were actually entertaining to the rest of the guests at the party.

The book caused a sensation, and adding to the gossip was the fact that the memoir had a vast amount of conversational quotes supposedly between mother and daughter. This prompted many to question just how many of their conversations could possibly be remembered word for word after all these years. The conversations themselves were often grim and did not portray Bette in the best light, describing how she could not cope with B. D. having a successful marriage and almost willed it to fail in order for her daughter to go back to loving Bette and Bette alone. Even the cover of the book was a cruel blow, showing the aged actress with grey hair, wrinkles and bright red lipstick “bleeding” all around her mouth.

During the book tour, B. D. was asked if her work bore any comparison to that of Christina Crawford’s memoir. She immediately denied that it did and went on to detail a story in which she had met Joan Crawford herself on the set of
Whatever Happened to Baby Jane
. According to B. D., the actress recoiled from her intended handshake, looked her up and down, and demanded she have no contact with her children, twins Cindy and Cathy, as B. D. would surely be a terrible influence on them. This, said Crawford, was due to Bette’s daughter having an “unprotected childhood”.

B. D.’s distaste for Crawford was clear to see, and she then described that while Christina was always looking for love from her mother as a child, B. D. herself had for the most part a very happy childhood, full of love and devotion from her actress mother. “There was no child abuse,” B. D. said. “Mother never inflicted child abuse.” This raised questions from readers, because if her relationship with Bette had been a good one, why did she feel the need to write such a scathing account of their life together?

“I love my mother very much,” she said, before going on to explain that if she didn’t, she would never have written the book, never mind publish it. She also described how the publication was an attempt to present her side of the relationship in a way Bette “cannot burn, throw away or ignore”. According to B. D. her mother would frequently shut out everything she did not want to hear, and writing the book was the daughter’s (perhaps somewhat naive) way of trying to make Bette change.

It soon became apparent that one of the things that had spurred on the writing of the memoir was Bette’s relationship (or lack thereof) with B. D.’s husband Jeremy and their two sons Justin and Ashley. According to B. D., Davis was allegedly nasty and unpleasant to all members of her family, and even “terrorized” Justin and Ashley when they were small. This did not make sense to many people, particularly as B. D. was so quick to assure people that her own childhood was one of love and devotion.

What made her comments even more surprising was that Davis had worked on a movie
(Family Reunion)
with Ashley, during which time he had said some wonderful things about his grandmother. This, according to B. D., was as a result of having to say those things in order to keep her happy. Not so, said
People
magazine reader John Shea, who had worked with both Bette and Ashley on the set and found Davis to be very patient with her young grandson. According to Shea, each morning they would meet in Bette’s dressing room to rehearse, and every day would involve the same thing – a great deal of love, support and coaching from grandmother to grandson.

B. D. Hyman never received a great deal of public support after the publication of the book and this can be seen clearly through internet forums and YouTube comments even today. Of course, Christina Crawford had her fair share of detractors, too, but whereas she could be seen as having a definite reason for wanting to come out against her abusive mother, readers felt that the same just could not be said for Hyman. With no actual physical abuse involved, for the most part B. D. just came across as a disgruntled woman, angry at her controlling mother and anxious to get her to listen to her side of the story.

Sadly, it seemed clear to friends of Bette Davis that her heart had been broken by the supposed disloyalty expressed by her daughter, and her health seemed to get worse over the next few years before her death in 1989. For her part, Davis responded to
My Mother’s Keeper
in her own book,
This ’n That
, which was published in 1987. The book is a series of stories about Davis’s life and career, though she left it to the very end before mentioning her daughter’s work.

The last, untitled chapter is an open letter, which starts “Dear Hyman” and goes on to express a sheer disbelief at what had been written in her book. In the two-page note, Bette accuses her daughter of a lack of loyalty and appreciation for the life she was given, and says she believes her to be a great writer of fiction. The actress also states that she has no idea why the book was called
My Mother’s Keeper
and says that financially she had been a keeper of her daughter for many years, and continued to be so through the selling of the book. She also added a postscript which included many letters of support for the actress, before promptly disinheriting her disloyal daughter.

After both Joan and Bette’s deaths, public support has continued unabated and their films are still sold on DVD and watched on television. Both ladies are still legendary, and whether you love ’em or hate ’em, it is clear that they just don’t make them like Davis and Crawford any more. Despite claims put forward by their daughters, their fans still think of them as two of the greats, and it is likely to remain that way for the foreseeable future.

Bette Davis’s son Michael has continued to champion his mother’s memory as both a loving parent and wonderful actress, running her estate and hearing from countless fans who tell him even now just how much the actress has inspired and entertained them over the years. The same can be said for Crawford’s twins Cindy and Cathy, who have always denied their part in any awful childhood.

In spite of that, both B. D. Hyman and Christina Crawford have always stuck fast to the claims they made in their books, and B. D. actually went on to publish another volume,
Narrow is the Way
, in 1987. This book was not as popular, however, and she has since started her own church where she writes religious volumes and very rarely speaks publicly about her mother.

All suspicious deaths cause headlines in Hollywood, and there have been a great many over the years. But in 1979 two veteran actors were brutally murdered within days of each other and people began to wonder: Was there a serial killer on the loose, or were the deaths just a strange but tragic coincidence?

Charles Wagenheim was born on 21 February 1896 in New Jersey and suffered shyness for much of his childhood. His quiet nature was not something he particularly liked about himself so in an effort to gain some confidence, he decided he would try his hand at acting. The work was hard but rewarding; his shyness subsided somewhat and he became so enthralled with the idea of becoming a professional actor that he enrolled in an acting course at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts.

After graduating in 1923, Wagenheim went to Broadway where he was involved in several successful shows and ended up touring with a Shakespearean acting company. However, having most certainly developed a bug for the profession, he craved success not just on the stage, but in movies too, so in the late 1920s he moved to Hollywood to find his fame and fortune.

It was here that he received his first disappointment on the bumpy road to fame, when he discovered that work in Hollywood was very different to the New York theatre. While he had achieved a great deal of success on the East Coast stage, suddenly nobody seemed to want him in large roles in the movies. He therefore spent most of his time playing tramps, waiters, taxi drivers and anything else that came his way.

He did not complain, however, as the small roles he obtained helped to pay the bills, and after just over a decade of struggle, in 1940 he was given one of his best parts, as an assassin in Alfred Hitchcock’s
Foreign Correspondent
. His career continued on a slow but steady path, and after playing a thief in the 1959 film
The Diary of Anne Frank
television came knocking at his door. It was there that, in the 1960s and 1970s, he found most of his roles, including a popular, regular role as Halligan in
Gunsmoke
.

In his later years, Charles Wagenheim lived quietly with his psychologist wife and earned money as landlord of a number of apartments that he had purchased in years gone by. Still, he continued to win the occasional acting job, too, and in 1979 took on a role on the TV show
All in the Family
, where he worked with fellow actor Victor Kilian.

Kilian was also born in New Jersey and had gone into acting as a teenager by joining a vaudeville company. His early career took an eerily similar path to that of Wagenheim, appearing on Broadway before trying his hand in the movies at the end of the 1920s. However, Kilian’s career in films had been more successful than Wagenheim’s, and he quickly became known as a stellar character actor, with roles in the likes of
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
(1938) and 1939’s
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
, in which he played Pap Finn.

Unfortunately his career was tragically marred during one film which saw him working with John Wayne. During a particular fight scene, things took a horrifying turn when he suffered an injury so bad that it led to the loss of an eye. Then in the 1950s things became bleak again when he was a victim of communist blacklisting in the McCarthy witch-hunts, which had hurt the careers of many actors and writers alike. Still, these setbacks did not deter the hard-working actor and he persevered with his career, appearing in various theatre shows and later making the successful switch to television, just as Wagenheim had done. It was while working on the small screen that he achieved a great deal of success and became a household name by starring as the Fernwood Flasher in
Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman
.

By the time Kilian worked with Charles Wagenheim in an episode of
All in the Family
, both actors were well into their eighties. The episode was entitled “The Return of Stephanie’s Father” and revolved around the story of alcoholic Floyd Mills, who arrived at the home of main characters Archie and Edith to try and sell them his daughter, whom they had already been looking after.

Floyd is staying in a rundown, prostitute-filled hotel when Arthur and Edith arrive to negotiate with him over the care of the child. Before they meet him, however, they encounter the desk clerk played by Kilian, who asks the couple if they want to rent the room for an hour. Assuring him that they’re not interested in sex as they’re already married, they then move over to some chairs in the lobby, one of which is occupied by a tramp played by Wagenheim. At first he seems reluctant to leave, but eventually moves from his perch when Archie tells the tramp that there is an unconscious man in the alley who appears to have some money on him. “Oooh thank you,” Wagenheim says, as he scuttles towards the door.

The two roles played by Kilian and Wagenheim may have been small, but they certainly raised a laugh or two during the filming. Unfortunately, just weeks later, before the episode was aired, the laughter stopped when tragedy struck both of the actors.

Charles Wagenheim’s wife Lillian had previously suffered a stroke and a nurse, Stephanie Boone, was hired to help out at the couple’s apartment at 8078 Fareholm Drive. Little did they know, however, that the woman apparently had a criminal record for armed robbery, and she now saw the Wagenheims as easy targets and allegedly began stealing items from their home.

Details of the last moments of Wagenheim’s life are sketchy, but there are two theories as to what might have happened. The first is that the actor had become suspicious that his wife’s nurse had been writing cheques and cashing them for her own gain. He had been keeping tabs on the woman, and after finding that he was right with his suspicions, had decided to have it out with her. She became so incensed at his bravado that their encounter inevitably led to Wagenheim’s death.

The other theory is that the unsuspecting actor came back to the apartment after shopping and caught Boone rifling through his drawers and stealing items. Once again, he confronted her and demanded to know what she was up to, and the scenario ends with the same result as the first – she kills him after a heated argument.

Nobody is entirely clear on what exactly happened in the house that day but we do know this: on 6 March 1979 (which quite coincidentally was fellow-actor Victor Kilian’s birthday) Charles Wagenheim was severely beaten around his head while in the bedroom of his apartment. The pounding he received was enough to knock him to the ground and ultimately kill him.