Cary Grant (59 page)

The following research facilities were used by the author:

The Margaret Herrick Library of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences,
Beverly Hills, California

The New York Public Library, New York City

The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, New York City

The British Film Institute

The Bristol Information Center

Agee, James.
Agee on Film.
Vol. 1. New York: Grosset's Universal Library, 1969.

Ashman, Chuck, and Pamela Trescott.
Cary Grant.
London: W.H. Allen, 1986.

Auiler, Dan.
Vertigo.
New York: St. Martin's Press, 1998.

Barlett, Donald, and James B. Steele.
Empire: The Life, Legend and Madness of Howard
Hughes.
Toronto: George J. McLeod, 1979.

Berg, A. Scott.
Goldwyn: A Biography.
New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1989.

Bergquist, Laura. “The Curious Story Behind the New Cary Grant.”
Look,
September 1, 1959.

Bogdanovich, Peter.
Pieces of Time.
New York: Arbor House, 1973.

———.
Who the Devil Made It?
New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1997.

———.
Peter Bogdanovich's Movie of the Week.
New York: Ballantine, 1999.

Brown, Peter Harry, and Pat H. Broeske.
Howard Hughes: The Untold Story.
New York:
Diane Publishing, 1996.

Buehrer, Beverley Bare.
Cary Grant: A Bio-Bibliography.
Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1990.

Chaplin, Charles.
Charles Chaplin: My Autobiography.
New York: Simon and Schuster,
1964.

Curtis, Tony.
Tony Curtis: The Autobiography.
New York: Morrow, 1998.

Davis, Debra Sharon. “Cary Grant: A Candid Conversation with America's Epitome of
Elegance.”
Playboy Guide,
Spring-Summer 1981.

Deschner, Donald.
The Films of Cary Grant.
Secaucus, N.J.: Citadel Press, 1973.

Diamondstein, Barbaralee.
The Landmarks of New York.
New York: Harry Abrams, 1993.

Dickens, Homer.
The Films of Katharine Hepburn.
Secaucus, N.J.: Citadel Press, 1971.

Donaldson, Maureen, and William Royce.
An Affair to Remember: My Life with Cary
Grant.
New York: Putnam, 1989.

Durgnat, Raymond.
The Strange Case of Alfred Hitchcock, or the Plain Man's Hitchcock.
Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press, 1978.

Eyman, Scott.
Ernst Lubitsch: Laugher in Paradise.
New York: Simon and Schuster, 1993.

Fairbanks, Douglas Jr.
The Salad Days.
New York: Doubleday, 1988.

Gabler, Neal.
An Empire of Their Own.
New York: Crown, 1988.

Gentry, Curt.
J. Edgar Hoover: The Man and the Secrets.
New York: W.W. Norton, 1991.

Godfrey, Lionel.
Cary Grant: The Light Touch.
New York: St. Martin's Press, 1981.

Govoni, Albert.
Cary Grant: An Unauthorized Biography.
Chicago: Henry Regnery, 1971.

Grant, Cary. “Archie Leach.”
Ladies' Home Journal,
January/February 1963 (Part 1), March
1963 (Part 2), April 1963 (Part 3). Referred to in text as Grant's “autobiography.”

Hadleigh, Boze.
Hollywood Gays.
New York: Barricade Books, 1996.

Hamilton, Ian.
Writers in Hollywood: 1915–1951.
New York: Harper and Row, 1990.

Harris, Warren G.
Cary Grant: A Touch of Elegance.
New York: Doubleday, 1987.

Haskell, Molly.
Holding My Own in No Man's Land.
New York: Oxford University Press,
1997.

Haver, Ronald.
A Star Is Born.
New York: Bonanza Books, 1980.

Higham, Charles.
Kate.
New York: W.W. Norton, 1975.

Higham, Charles, and Roy Moseley.
Cary Grant: The Lonely Heart.
New York: Harcourt
Brace Jovanovich, 1989.

Holden, Anthony.
Behind the Oscars.
New York: Simon and Schuster, 1993.

Hotchner, A. E.
Sophia Living and Loving.
New York: William Morrow, 1979.

Jones, Ken D., Arthur F. McClure, and Alfred E. Twomey.
The Films of James Stewart.
New York: Castle Books, 1970.

Kael, Pauline. “The Man from Dream City.”
The New Yorker,
July 14, 1975.

Kashner, Sam, and Nancy Schoenberger.
A Talent for Genius: The Life and Times of
Oscar Levant.
New York: Villard, 1994.

Kriendler, H. Peter, and H. Paul Jeffers.
“21”: Every Day Was New Year's Eve.
Dallas:
Taylor Publishing, 1999.

Leff, Leonard J.
Hitchcock and Selznick.
New York: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1987.

Leff, Leonard J., and Jerold L. Simoons.
The Dame in the Kimono.
New York: Grove
Weidenfeld, 1980.

Levant, Oscar.
Memoirs of an Amnesiac.
New York: G. P. Putnam, 1965.

McBride, Joseph.
Frank Capra: The Catastrophe of Success.
New York: Simon and
Schuster, 1992.

McCann, Graham.
Cary Grant: A Class Apart.
New York: Columbia University Press,
1996.

McCarthy, Todd.
Howard Hawks: The Grey Fox of Hollywood.
New York: Grove Press,
1997.

McDougal, Dennis.
The Last Mogul: Lew Wasserman, MCA and the Hidden History of
Hollywood.
New York: Random House, 1998.

McGilligan, Patrick.
George Cukor: A Double Life.
London: Faber and Faber, 1991.

Meyers, Jeffrey.
Gary Cooper: American Hero.
New York: Cooper Square Press, 2001.

Milton, Joyce.
Tramp: The Life of Charlie Chaplin.
New York: HarperCollins, 1996.

Moldea, Dan E.
Dark Victory: Ronald Reagan, MCA and the Mob.
New York: Viking,
1986.

Nelson, Nancy.
Evenings with Cary Grant: Recollections in His Own Words, and by Those
Who Knew Him Best.
New York: Warner Books, 1993.

Niven, David.
Bring on the Empty Horses.
New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1975.

Parish, James Robert.
The RKO Gals.
New Jersey: Rainbow Books, 1974.

Parish, James Robert, and Ronald L. Bowers.
The MGM Stock Company: The Golden
Era.
New York: Arlington House, 1973.

Roberts, Randy, and James Olson.
John Wayne: American.
New York: Free Press, 1995.

Sarris, Andrew.
You Ain't Heard Nothin' Yet.
New York: Oxford University Press, 1998.

Schickel, Richard.
The Men Who Made the Movies.
New York: Atheneum, 1975.

———.
Cary Grant: A Celebration.
New York: Little, Brown, 1983.

———.
D. W. Griffith: An American Life.
New York: Simon and Schuster, 1984.

Server, Lee.
Robert Mitchum: Baby I Don't Care.
New York: St. Martin's Press, 2002.

Shipman, David.
The Great Movie Stars: The Golden Years.
New York: Crown, 1970.

Siegel, Scott, and Barbara Siegel.
The Encyclopedia of Hollywood.
New York: Facts on
File, 1990.

Spada, James.
Grace: The Secret Lives of a Princess.
New York: Dolphin Books, 1987.

———.
Peter Lawford: The Man Who Kept the Secrets.
New York: Bantam, 1991.

Spoto, Donald.
The Dark Side of Genius: The Life of Alfred Hitchcock.
New York:
Ballantine, 1983.

Summers, Anthony.
Goddess: The Secret Lives of Marilyn Monroe.
New York: Macmillan,
1985.

Thomas, Bob.
King Cohn: The Life and Times of Harry Cohn.
New York: Bantam, 1958.

Tuska, Jon.
The Films of Mae West.
Secaucus, N.J.: Citadel Press, 1973.

Vermilye, Jerry.
Cary Grant.
New York: Galahad Books, 1973.

Wansell, Geoffrey.
Haunted Idol: The Story of the Real Cary Grant.
New York: Morrow,
1984.

Waterbury, Ruth. “The Story of Cary Grant.”
Liberty,
March 11, 1939.

Wayne, Jane Ellen.
Cooper's Women.
London: Hale, 1988.

Weller, Sheila.
Dancing at Ciro's.
New York: St. Martin's Press, 2003.

Wiley, Mason, and Damien Bona.
Inside Oscar.
New York: Ballantine Books, 1986.

Wood, Robin.
Hitchcock's Films.
New York: Castle Books, 1969.

“the man from dream city.”
Kael, “The Man from Dream City.”

the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Mayer organized the multiplestudio “house” organization to deal with the fundamental shift in Hollywood toward labor unionism in what had been, for its first twenty years, a freewheeling, managementdominated factory town. The Academy was formally introduced by Mayer at a dinner party held at the Ambassador Hotel on January 17, 1927. Douglas Fairbanks, a charter member of the Academy (and one of the founders of United Artists), came up with the idea of merit awards for achievement as a way to promote movies to the public.

Grant's snubbing by the Academy.
Grant was by no means the only major star never to have won a competitive Oscar. Many Hollywood legends—Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, the Marx Brothers, W. C. Fields, Greta Garbo, Fred Astaire, Kirk Douglas, Mickey Rooney, Maurice Chevalier, Bob Hope, Barbara Stanwyck, Robert Mitchum, Errol Flynn, Edward G. Robinson, Danny Kaye, and Jerry Lewis—never won an Oscar for their acting. Alfred Hitchcock never won one for direction. Grant, ever the outsider, made this observation about the Oscars after Fredric March's 1946 win for Best Actor (in William Wyler's
The Best Years of Our Lives
over Grant's longtime friend Laurence Olivier's self-directed
Hamlet
): “There is something embarrassing about all these wealthy people publicly congratulating each other. When it all began, we kidded ourselves and said, ‘All right, Freddie March, we know you're making a million dollars. Now come up and get your little medal [for
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
] for it.'” Grant's specialty, “light comedy,” he was fond of telling friends and interviewers alike, “has little chance for an Oscar.”

Aided by a 1948 landmark antitrust lawsuit.
The federal lawsuit was
SIMPP v. Paramount Pictures.
The decision in the case was handed down in February 1948 and
effectively ended the majors' forty-year domination of the production, distribution, and exhibition of motion pictures.

“poor judgment.”
The lawsuit was filed on August 8, 1969, in Los Angeles Superior Court against MCA and Universal Studios, asking for damages in excess of $8 million over the sale of four pictures coproduced by Grant and Donen that were financed by Universal prior to their eventually being purchased by MCA. The four films were
The Grass Is Greener, That Touch of Mink, Operation Petticoat,
and
Father Goose.
Sources:
Los Angeles Herald Examiner
and
Variety.
The sale voided the lawsuit.

“personal reasons.”
Quoted in Sheilah Graham, syndicated gossip column, March 1970.

Cynthia Bouron … One columnist claimed to have known it was coming …
In his March 1970 column in the
Hollywood Citizen-News,
entertainment editor John Austin wrote, “I and my fellow columnists have been aware of this story for weeks, some of us for months… Few of us are muckrakers and it is a great shame, a tragedy, in fact, that Cary Grant, at the age of 66 with an honorable career behind him, has been subjected to all this before it has even been established that he is the father of Miss Bouron's child.”

Grant secretly flew to the Bahamas …
Grant zigzagged his way around the world during the Bouron affair, traveling to Bristol, then the Bahamas, stopping in New York at the Warwick Hotel, then back to Beverly Hills, then to Las Vegas and home again. He flew in a private DC-3 that Howard Hughes provided for his unlimited use.

Judge Laurence J. Rittenband.
Grant may actually have fled on the advice of his attorney, fearing the hard line that Rittenband was known for, especially when it came to celebrities. Prior to the Bouron case, Rittenband had presided over the Elvis Presley divorce and Marlon Brando's custody battle, and in each instance his decision heavily favored the wife. A few years after the Bouron case, Rittenband would be the presiding judge in the sensational Roman Polanski sex-with-a-minor case, in which, it was rumored, despite an agreed-upon plea bargain he intended to throw the book at the wayward director. Like Grant, Polanski, very likely on the advice of his attorney, fled the country.

The scandal, however, refused to die.
Many questions remain unanswered to this day. Bouron was a high-priced call girl and had a long criminal record. The most serious charge against her was a felony arrest for theft in 1967, which was eventually dismissed. She had been married twice and was the mother of two previous children. Her first husband was former stuntman Milos Milocevic, whom she had married in 1964 for a reportedly high five-figure sum, to save him from deportation to his native Yugoslavia, where he faced a fifteen-year prison term for army desertion. Two years later, in February 1966, five months before her pre–agreed-upon divorce from him became final, Milocevic's dead body was found beside that of Barbara Rooney, who was married at the time to actor Mickey Rooney. He apparently committed suicide after killing her. On October 30, 1973, three years after Bouron's failed attempt to bring a paternity suit against Grant, her dead body was found in the trunk of a stolen car in a Hollywood supermarket parking lot. The cause of death was determined by the Los Angeles Coroner's Office to have been bludgeoning
with a claw hammer. Finally, the child Bouron accused Grant of fathering, a girl she named Stephanie Andrea Grant Bouron, was described in the police report as being “of strong Negro blood.” The murder case was never solved. According to the North Hollywood police, “several friends of the victim stated she would often pick up men at bars or restaurants.” When asked for a comment about the discovery of Bouron's body, Grant had none.
a “close friend.”
John Austin,
Hollywood Citizen-News,
April 2, 1970.
As the night of the Awards approached.
Grant gave Dyan Cannon the okay for an exclusive interview with syndicated gossip columnist Sheilah Graham one week after he received his Award. In it, Cannon gave some details of the night she and Grant spent together the night before the ceremonies. According to Cannon, Grant read his acceptance speech to her and asked her approval of its content; and she “read him my loser's speech.” Graham ended her column hinting that Grant and Cannon were contemplating getting back together, a bit of deliberate “family man” PR that Grant no doubt encouraged to help repair whatever damage his image might have suffered over Bouron. Grant took early control of his relationship with the Hollywood and national gossip columnists, and it was said that despite his always friendly and cooperative demeanor, he loathed every one of them. He sued Graham in 1940 over a piece she ran suggesting a little bit too strongly that Grant was gay and everybody in Hollywood knew it. He later dropped the lawsuit. His regular “contacts,” as he called them, were Hedda Hopper, John Austin, Ben Maddox, Leonard Lyons, Sidney Skolsky, Earl Wilson, Walter Winchell, and Ed Sullivan.
a six-minute montage of clips.
The montage of Cary Grant clips was put together by Mike Nichols. The only clip Grant asked Nichols to specifically include was his crying scene from 1941's
Penny Serenade,
a performance for which he was to receive one of his two Oscar nominations. The only film he insisted be excluded was
Singapore Sue,
a short he made while still in New York. It was his first appearance on film, and he always claimed he couldn't stand it.

“I'm reminded of a piece of advice …”
Cary Grant, “How to Dress Confidently,”
This Week
(supplement to the
Los Angeles Times
), April 1, 1962.

Bristol is the seventh-largest city.
Official University of Bristol website—“History, Architecture, Churches, Statues and Landmarks.”
http://www.bris.ac.uk/
.

Archibald Alec Leach.
Alec
is the familiar form of
Alexander
(as
Dick
is to
Richard
) and is the way the name appears in the birth records.
the unexpected death of her firstborn.
“It was only recently that I recognized a clue to the cause of my mother's retreat within herself. Some years prior to my birth my parents had another child…a baby boy who, alas, died of some sort of convulsions after only a few months of life.” Grant, in “Archie Leach.”

Archibald Leach was born on January 18, 1904.
The birth records of Archibald Alec (Alexander) Grant were not registered until February 29, 1904, five weeks after his
arrival—not an unusual amount of time in those days. Nevertheless, this time lapse has resulted in excessive confusion as to his actual birth date, his ethnic background, and his “true” parental heritage—specifically that he was secretly Jewish and/or adopted. The author found no substantial factual evidence supporting either of these claims. Nor has any solid evidence been found for any conspiratorial coverup of “real” origins, parents, heritage, and the like. At least one previous biographer has used reports that Grant was circumcised as “proof” that he was Jewish. If he was circumcised, it is probably because his mother insisted on it after the death of her first son, believing, as many did at the time, that circumcision helped prevent infant infection and disease. No reliable records have thus far been found of any such procedure actually having been performed on the baby Leach for either medical or religious reasons. Furthermore, while it is almost always done within days after birth, circumcision may be performed at any time.

“As a little boy …”
Quoted in Cleveland Amory, “That Touch of Class,”
Parade,
September 22, 1985, pp. 4–9.

Elsie enjoyed keeping little Archie's hair long.
“It seemed to me that I was kept in baby clothes much longer than any other child and perhaps, for a while, wasn't sure whether I was a boy or a girl,” Grant wrote in “Archie Leach.” Grant's meticulous attention to his wardrobe, particularly in his later films such as
That Touch of Mink
and
North by Northwest,
as well as his obsessional pursuit of the finest personal custom tailoring, echo Elias's occupation as a tailor, a sartorial link to his happier childhood memories of his father.
he still often preferred wearing women's nylon panties.
Harris,
Cary Grant,
194, quoting from the unpublished 1959 Joe Hyams interview made during the filming of
Operation Petticoat.

“My parents tried so hard …”
Amory, “Touch of Class.”
The value of good clothes.
Grant's complete quote regarding the value of good shoes: “I learned a lot about clothes and how to buy them from my father. We couldn't afford a great deal when I was a boy growing up in Bristol, England, but we were not unaware of what others who had money were doing. I remember I had bought three or four pairs of shoes. They were not very costly. My father reprimanded me. He said one should always look good and wear well-made things even if one doesn't have a lot of money. He taught me about clothes and that I should buy one good pair of shoes rather than four inexpensive pairs that look cheap and won't last. Shoes are very important. One should always have at least two pairs to switch off now and then. Yes, my father taught me to buy better clothes and less of them.” Davis, “Cary Grant.”

Left-handedness.
According to Leslie Caron, Grant's costar in
Father Goose,
in 1964: “He was basically left-handed, but he had trained himself to be ambidextrous. One time the prop man set a bottle he was to use in the scene by his right hand, and Cary flashed very angrily, ‘How do you expect me to pour the bottle with this hand?'” Caron, quoted by Marla Brooks, in
Lefthander,
January/February 1995, 13. In “Archie Leach,” Grant expresses gratitude that no one discouraged his natural left-handedness, as was often done in both British and American schools of the early twentieth century, where the preference was seen as an affliction.

“I [made] the mistake of thinking that each of my wives was my mother.”
Harris,
Cary Grant,
14; Grant, “Archie Leach.”

“came right up the Avon River …”
Grant, “Archie Leach.”
“That's when I
knew.
”
Grant, “Archie Leach.”
That August Archie eagerly signed a three-year contract.
“
MEMORANDUM OF AGREE
-

MENT
: Made on this day 9th, August, between Robert Pender of 247 Brixton Road, London, on the one part, Elias Leach of 12 Campbell Street, Bristol, on the other part. The said Robert Pender agrees to employ the son of the said Elias Leach, Archie Leach, in his troupe at a weekly salary of 10 shillings a week with board and lodging and everything found for the stage, and when not working full board and lodgings. This salary to be increased as the said Archie Leach improves in his profession and he agrees to remain in the employ of Robert Pender till he is eighteen years of age or a six months notice on either side. Robert Pender undertaking to teach him dancing and other accomplishments needful for his work. Archie Leach agrees to work to the best of his abilities. Signed, Bob Pender.” Nelson,
Evenings with Cary Grant,
39.

“cultured English talk.”
Ernest Kingdon (one of the cousins of young Archie who lived with him and his mother), quoted in Godfrey,
Cary Grant,
41.

“doggedly strive …”
Grant, “Archie Leach.”

“I never associated him …”
Peter Cadbury (a member of the famed chocolate family and a native Bristolean), interview by Xan Brooks,
Guardian,
August 17, 2001.
the famous B. F. Keith vaudeville circuit.
At the time, the most prestigious vaudeville circuit in America.