Read Twitch Upon a Star Online
Authors: Herbie J. Pilato
Twitch Upon a Star (10 page)
In 1998, he served as executive producer on the independent film,
Roses
.
On February 7, 2000, he underwent surgery for lung cancer and the outlook seemed positive. But on April 28, that prognosis turned grim, and he died suddenly at the age of sixty-four, leaving behind his third wife, Melanie, son Adam, and daughter Meghann.
Years before, “kid brothers” was one of the many commonalities Elizabeth shared with her friend Sally Kemp, whom she met while attending the New York American Academy of Dramatic Arts. Kemp had few memories of Skip when they were all young and didn't recall much of Skip's relationship with his father. But what she did recall is noteworthy:
I too had a brother Skip's age, two years younger than I. Elizabeth and I were starting our adult lives and careers; our brothers were still in school when we first knew each other and I seldom saw them together. She seemed fond of him; he was cute, blond, curly haired, choirboy face but our paths at that age didn't meet very often. Little brothers weren't foremost in our minds. Whenever I was with Bob (Sr.) and Elizabeth it was in a more adult situation. Skip would be doing whatever it is young boys do. Bob seemed very proud of Elizabeth when I was with them and Buffy (Harkness, Bob's second wife), too, was proud of her. It was all, from my point of view, very warm, funny, and delightful. Bob often made Elizabeth and I sing Broadway songs for him and any guests around. I saw only a privileged, affectionate family. One I envied at times. Buffy was always gentle, gracious, and perfectly lovely to everyone. If there was any trouble underneath I never saw it.
After Robert Montgomery passed away in 1981, Kemp on several occasions spent time with Skip and his family and found him to be “a charming man, very like his father.” She was sad when he died “far too young,” succumbing to lung cancer in 2000, and she still has infrequent contact with his family.
Bicoastal from birth, in their youth, Lizzie and Skip were at home among Hollywood stars and the East Coast upper crust. They both attended elite private educational facilities that provided solid preparation for their adulthood. But while Skip left Hollywood behind, Lizzie delved right into the mix of it, helped along by that refined academic background.
From September of 1939 to June of 1950, she attended the Westlake School for Girls, an exclusive elementary academic hall in Beverly Hills. From September 1950 to June of 1951, she was enrolled at the aristocratic Spence School for Girls (where she played field hockey) in New York City.
The following information for both facilities was gathered from their respective websites:
In October 1989, the Boards of Trustees of both the Westlake School for Girls and the Harvard School, a military school for boys that was established in 1900, agreed to merge the facilities. Today, Harvard-Westlake School is an independent coeducational college preparatory day school, grades 7â12, that ultimately commenced in September of 1991. In 2010, 566 of its students took 1,736 A.P. tests in 30 different subjects, and 90% scored 3 or higher. The school ranks among the top high schools in the country in number of National Merit Semifinalists. In the class of 2011, there were 90 students who received National Merit Recognition, with 28 students as National Merit Semifinalists.
Clara Spence, a visionary educator, founded her Spence School for Girls in 1892, welcoming ten students to a brownstone on West 48th Street in New York City. The outside world of politics, the arts, and the community was embraced in her school and from the beginning Spence girls developed a keen sense of self-confidence and assumed their roles as significant members of the community. The facilities motto, “Not for school but for life we learn,” has defined a Spence education throughout its long history. Or as Spence herself once said of her renowned facility it was “a place not of mechanical instruction, but a school of character where the common requisites for all have been human feeling, a sense of humor, and the spirit of intellectual and moral adventure.
All of which describes Lizzie in spades.
Actress June Lockhart, best known for her iconic roles as the intergalactic mother
Maureen Robinson
on TV's
Lost in Space
(CBS, 1965â1968) and the kindly country physician,
Dr. Janet Craig
on
Petticoat Junction
(CBS, 1963â 1970), played an integral role in Lizzie's life.
Before her stops in
Space
and at
Junction
, she was guest-star on
Bewitched
in a first-season episode called “Little Pitchers Have Big Fears” which co-starred Jimmy Mathers, brother to Jerry Mathers, better known as
The Beaver
on
Leave It to Beaver
(CBS/ABC, 1957â1963).
Years before her
Bewitched
guest-spot, Lockhart made nine appearances on
Robert Montgomery Presents
. She is the daughter of actors Gene and Kathleen Lockhart who portrayed
Mr.
and
Mrs. Bob Cratchit
in the 1938 film edition of
A Christmas Carol
, in which June played one of the
Cratchit
children. Reginald Owen who, decades later guest starred on
Bewitched
as
Ockie
, boyfriend to Marion Lorne's
Aunt Clara
(and
Admiral Boom
in 1964's
Mary Poppins
movie), played
Scrooge
.
What's more, June's father Gene was good friends with Lizzie's father Robert, both of whom were instrumental in the founding of the Screen Actors Guild (S.A.G.). Gene also made four appearances on
Robert Montgomery Presents
, of which three were with June (and directed by Grey Lockwood). Meanwhile, Kathleen Lockhart had a small role in Robert Montgomery's 1946 film,
The Lady in the Lake
.
Although June did not appear with Lizzie in any episodes of
Presents
, she recalls:
I used to watch her work. And I remember seeing her once in rehearsal. She was very professional, and her reputation for always doing live TV was legendary. And the directors that I worked with, who had also worked with her, said she was just a joy and lots of fun. And that was my experience with her when I did
Bewitched
. Both she and Bill Asher were fun to work with. We shot the episode at the Rancho Golf Course on Pico Blvd. and Motor Avenue [in West Los Angeles]. There wasn't a dressing room for Elizabeth or me. So I joked with her and asked,
What are we supposed to do? Change in the front seat of the car?
But then a short time later, the crew brought in a few portable dressing rooms. I was just glad I didn't have to change outside on Motor Avenue.
However, June's stint on
Bewitched
is not her most vivid recollection of Elizabeth. That part of her memory is savored from another time, decades before, when they both attended the Westlake School for Girls in Beverly Hills. Although June was a senior and Lizzie was just in kindergarten, the two crossed paths one very special morning when only four people in the worldâJune, Elizabeth, Miss Carol Mills, the Westlake principal, and a very uniformed Robert Montgomeryâwere there to experience what June now reveals for the first time anywhere:
In the middle of World War II, Robert Montgomery was in the South Pacific, I believe as Lt. Commander or higher. So, one day, there we were, Elizabeth and I, both at Westlake. I was coming back from the Borders wing on campus, back over to the classrooms and Miss Mills was standing next to Elizabeth, outside where the circle driveway was. I greeted them both and Ms. Mills said,
Wait here a minute, June
. So I stood with them and asked,
What's going on?
And she said,
You'll see
. And within a few moments a car pulled up and out got Robert Montgomery in full uniform, back from a very long trip overseas in the South Pacific. Upon seeing her father get out of the car Elizabeth, with screams of delight, ran towards him. And he picked her up in his arms and hugged her so tight. He then came over to Miss Mills and I, greeted us, and then got back in the car with Elizabeth and drove away. Of course there were tears on our cheeks after seeing this great reunion between Elizabeth and her father. And he came to pick her up in the middle of the school day ⦠and there was nobody else around ⦠there were no other students milling about; no one. Just Miss Mills, me, and Elizabeth. And I remember that day clearly, even so vividly I can remember where the sun was at the time. It must have been maybe 11:30 or 12 noon. And of course no one was let out of school in the middle of the day unless it was really very important. So Miss Mills and I just looked at each other and it was a sweet wonderful warm moment that we had just witnessed. A very exciting moment, too, because we later learned that Robert Montgomery had just returned not only from the South Pacific but [that] it was a very important business. He did not just come back on leave, where he would be home for a month or so, and then have to go back. It wasn't like that. He was back for good. And whatever work he was involved with in the South Pacific was very top secret.
After revealing this story, June laughs in irony upon learning that Lizzie's first episode of
Robert Montgomery Presents
was titled “Top Secret,” in which she played none other than the daughter to her father's character, a spy, who teamed together for a covert adventure in a foreign land.
In January 1965, Elizabeth talked to reporter Eunice Field and
TV Radio Mirror
magazine for the article, “Elizabeth Montgomery: You Know Her as a Witch, Now Meet Her as a Woman.” “I'm afraid I gave my teachers gray hair,” she said, “because all I could think of was
Dramatics
.”
But it was her mother who saved her from getting Ds in every subject; she'd permit little Lizzie to take part in school plays only if her daughter maintained a B average. Miss Mills, Lizzie's headmistress at Westlake, would call the Montgomery child into her office and say, “You're not stupid. You need to apply yourself and you can get all A's.” Lizzie would curtsy and reply, “Yes, Ma'am,” and then go to the drama department instead of the library as she had promised, all of which became a weekly ritual.
“I spent half my time in the headmistress's office,” she admitted to
TV Guide
in 1961, “and the other half,” she said, in the drama department. Her classmates included the distinguished daughters of actors Spencer Tracy, Herbert Marshall, and Alan Mowbray, and classical pianist Arthur Ruben-stein (father to actor John Rubenstein, who later co-starred with
Bewitched
guest-star Jack Warden on the 1980s CBS series,
Crazy Like a Fox
).
But Lizzie was unimpressed. She was bored with school, and always knew that
she
“wanted to be actress.”
Beyond her homebound performance as
Snow White
, her first public theatrical performance would be at Westlake, when she was just 6, in that French language production of
Little Red Riding Hood
. “Naturally,” she had said of this early endeavor, “I already knew enough to go to Daddy for professional advice.”