Movie Anecdotes
By David Bruce
Movie Anecdotes, by Peter Hay. New York: Oxford University Press, 1990. 279 pages, not including index of names and bibliography.
This kind of book is very enjoyable to read, as it is nothing but a collection of anecdotes about movies and movie stars. Mr. Hay has published several of these collections of anecdotes, but he remains modest, as he acknowledges that the reader could be misled by the prestige of the publisher into thinking that his books are better than they really are.
Although this kind of book is enjoyable and makes good reading before going to sleep, there are a few slow parts in the book. Actually, I found it hard to get into, since it begins with the early days of the movies — not the slapstick, which I like to read about — but the very early days in which film was invented. I guess perhaps that I like celebrities a bit too much and don't want to read very much about inventors.
Another small quibble is that the book's chapter titles could be more descriptive. I think it would be very easy to half-remember an anecdote, want to look it up, but be completely stymied by the chapter headings. Some work OK, but others seem quite vague. For example, several anecdotes about the blacklist during the McCarthy era are in the chapter vaguely titled "Power Extensions." Fortunately, there is an index of names, but what happens if you forget a name?
One reason I read books such as these is to find anecdotes that make a point — especially about racism, anti-Semitism, classism, or sexism. There are a few of those in here, but many of the anecdotes show just silly Hollywood can be. In other words, there is much humor here, but much of the humor does not make a point.
However, let us begin this article by retelling an anecdote that does make a point:
Barbara Stanwyck once reserved a suite at a hotel that would not allow her black maid, Harriet Coray, to stay with her. Therefore, Ms. Stanwyck cancelled the suite, and went with Harriet to the hotel for black people, saying "I don't believe they will refuse me a room."
(The chapter that this anecdote appears in does contain a few anecdotes that make a point; the chapter is titled "Social Studies.")
I mentioned that some of the anecdotes show how silly some people in Hollywood can be. One of them was Douglas Fairbanks, who became infatuated with European royalty. Charlie Chaplin, who grew up poor, once brought him down to Earth a little by asking, "Hullo, Douglas, how's the duke?"
"What duke?"
"Oh, any duke."
People do get used to anything. For example, nudity on the screen is quite common today. It seems that today any attractive young actress must be prepared to pop her top in order to get a role in a movie. However, the first movie kiss was filmed by Thomas Edison in 1896, and some people were outraged:
"Herbert Stone, one of the earliest film critics, ... said that `magnified to gargantuan proportions, it is absolutely disgusting. Such things call for police intervention."
(I wonder if Mr. Stone was familiar with Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels and Gulliver's visit to Brobdingnag, the land of the giants? Possibly Mr. Swift would have agreed with Mr. Stone.)
Judy Holliday, star of The Solid Gold Cadillac, was a wonderful comedian, but she occasionally had to deal with advances from studio executives. During one such episode, she reached into her dress, pulled out her falsies, handed them to the studio executive, and said, "Here. I think this is what you're after."
The McCarthy era brought both Ronald Reagan (then-President of the Screen Actors Guild) and Richard Nixon to prominence. Mr. Nixon used to ask cooperative witnesses leading questions:
"This finely honed Nixonian sentence was put to Robert Taylor:
"`As far as you are concerned, even though it might mean that you would suffer, possibly at the box office, possibly in reputation or in other ways, for you to appear before this Committee, you feel that you are justified in making the appearance and would be so again if requested to do so?"
Mr. Taylor was a cooperative witness, but it backfired on him with at least one person, as shown by this conversation:
"`I'm not going to see any more of his pictures,' said one, `I'm only watching real American stars.'
"`You got it wrong,' the other replied, `he's an anti-Communist.'
"`I don't care what kind of a Communist he is,' insisted the first, `I'm not watching him.'"
Robert Redford stared in The Candidate, about a naive man running for the U.S. Senate without any idea of what he would do if he won the election. Instead of paying extras, the movie crew handed out to passersby political posters with Redford's face on them. When a crowd gathered, Redford appeared and acted. Sometimes people thought he was really running for office and so they would ask him questions. Someone once asked him, "What about welfare?" Redford replied, "Beats me."
Often, people dislike critics, but even critics have friends. Grace Kingsley once panned a movie. The manager of a movie theater where the film was running flashed a card on the screen: "Grace Kingsley thinks this is a bad picture. What do you think?" Several of Kingsley's friends were in the theater, and they stood and said, "We think Grace Kingsley is right," and walked out of the theater.
Edmund Gwenn won an Oscar playing Santa Claus in the movie Miracle on 34 Street. As he lay dying, Jack Lemmon visited him and asked if dying was dead. Gwenn replied, "Oh, it's hard, very hard indeed. But not as hard as doing comedy."
Despite my quibbles at the beginning of this book review, I could go on telling anecdotes from this book for several more pages. However, I think it's up to you to find a copy of this book and read it. Look for it in your local library, and if it's not there, don't forget why Interlibrary Loan was invented.