Wednesday, June 30, 2010

SUSAN HAYWARD & LENA HORNE born on this day...



I was unique in that I was a kind of black that white people could accept. I was their daydream. I had the worst kind of acceptance because it was never for how great I was or what I contributed. It was because of the way I looked.

[quoted in Brian Lanker's book "I Dream A World: Portraits of Black Women Who Changed America", New York: Stewart, Tabori & Chang, 1986)] My own people didn't see me as a performer because they were busy trying to make a living and feed themselves. Until I got to café society in the '40s, I didn't even have a black audience and then it was mixed. I was always battling the system to try to get to be with my people. Finally, I wouldn't work for places that kept us out . . . it was a damn fight everywhere I was, every place I worked, in New York, in Hollywood, all over the world.

You have to be taught to be second class; you're not born that way.

It's not the load that breaks you down, it's the way you carry it.
Always be smarter than the people who hire you.

A little nepotism never hurt nobody, honey. If you got it, use it. Press on with it. Remind them of it.

In my early days I was a sepia Hedy Lamarr. Now I'm black and a woman, singing my own way.

On love: Don't be afraid to feel as angry or as loving as you can.
My identity is very clear to me now, I am a black woman, I'm not alone, I'm free. I say I'm free because I no longer have to be a credit, I don't have to be a symbol to anybody; I don't have to be a first to anybody. I don't have to be an imitation of a white woman that Hollywood sort of hoped I'd become. I'm me, and I'm like nobody else.




Susan Hayward in "I Want To Live" Best Actress Oscar Winner 1958.
Trivia


Was diagnosed with brain cancer, allegedly the result of being exposed to dangerous radioactive toxins on location in Utah while making The Conqueror (1956). All the leads John Wayne, Agnes Moorehead, John Hoyt, Hayward and the director Dick Powell died of cancer. The case is still a scandal.

Interred at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Catholic Church, Carrollton, Georgia, USA.

She portrayed an alcoholic in three films, Smash-Up: The Story of a Woman (1947), My Foolish Heart (1949) and I'll Cry Tomorrow (1955)) and was nominated for an Oscar for each performance.

Her footprints at Grauman's Chinese Theatre are the only ones set in gold dust.

Her first marriage to actor Jess Barker was a stormy one and ended with a bitter custody battle of her twin sons and a suicide attempt by Susan. Her second to rancher Eaton Chalkley was a long and happy one until he died suddenly of hepatitis nine years later. She left Hollywood for five years in deep mourning, returning in 1971.

Took over the ballsy role of stage star Helen Lawson in Valley of the Dolls (1967) in 1967 after Judy Garland was fired.

Was one of many starlets in 1939 who auditioned for the part of Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind (1939).

Measurements: 36 1/2-26-35 1/2 (as noted in "Hollywood Studio Magazine), (Source: Celebrity Sleuth magazine)

Replaced an ailing Barbara Stanwyck in Heat of Anger (1972) (TV), which was to have been a pilot for a TV series to be called "Fitzgerald and Pride."

In Italy, almost all of her films were dubbed by either Lidia Simoneschi or Rosetta Calavetta. She was occasionally dubbed by Dhia Cristiani.
Reportedly did not get on at all with Bette Davis during the filming of Where Love Has Gone (1964).

Was the original choice to play Margo Channing in All About Eve (1950), but was dropped from the project after being considered too young. The part was then given to Claudette Colbert before being given to Bette Davis, who went on to receive a Best Actress Oscar nomination for her performance.

Was born on the same day, and same place (Brooklyn N.Y) as singer Lena Horne .

Personal Quotes

"I learned at a very early age that life is a battle. My family was poor, my neighborhood was poor. The only way that I could get away from the awfulness of life, at that time, was at the movies. There I decided that my big aim was to make money. And it was there that I became a very determined woman."

"I never thought of myself as a movie star. I'm just a working girl. A working girl who worked her way to the top -- and never fell off."

"My life is fair game for anybody. I spent an unhappy penniless childhood in Brooklyn. I had to slug my way up in a town called Hollywood where people love to trample you to death. I don't relax because I don't know how. I don't want to know how. Life is too short to relax."



"When you're dead, you're dead. No one is going to remember me when I'm dead. Oh maybe a few friends will remember me affectionately. Being remembered isn't the most important thing anyhow. It's what you do when you are here that's important."

You aim at all the things you have been told that stardom means -- the rich life, the applause, the parties cluttered with celebrities. Then you find that you have it all. And it is nothing, really nothing. It is like a drug that lasts just a few hours, a sleeping pill. When it wears off, you have to live without its help.

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Joan June 8th
Prince June 7th

Gemini Birthdays

Sandra June 6th
Judy June 10th
Marilyn ~ June 1st

Thursday, June 3, 2010

RUE ~ "Queen of Comedy"

"Golden Girls" star Rue McClanahan has died after a massive stroke. The actress passed away at 1:00 a.m. on June 3, her rep tells People. McClanahan, age 76, had previously suffered a minor stroke while recovering from bypass surgery earlier this year. Her rep notes that at the time of her death, McClanahan "had her family with her," saying, "She went in peace." Though McClanahan will best be remembered for her "Golden Girls" portrayal of Blanche Devereaux, she enjoyed a 50-year television career that included standout roles in "Maude," "The Love Boat," and most recently "Law & Order" and Tyler Perry's "Meet the Browns." Born in Healdton, Okla., McClanahan attended the University of Tulsa before moving to New York City where she worked as a file clerk before finding success in the theater. She was a life-long animal welfare advocate and vegetarian and supported PETA. McClanahan's death leaves Betty White as the only surviving regular cast member of "The Golden Girls," after Bea Arthur's death in 2009 and Estelle Getty's death in 2008. On a press call with Zap2it in late April, Betty spoke of her good friend and former cast mate. "Oh Ruesy. We talk about every, oh maybe three, four weeks. She lives in New York of course. And she had a bum go. She had a triple bypass and then had a stroke. And she's just doing fine. I talked with her. She's home and doing better and better and speech is all cleared up. She's in great shape. Isn't that good news?" McClanahan is survived by her sixth husband, Morrow Wilson, and her son Mark Bish. In her 2007 book "My First Five Husbands... and The One That Got Away," McClanahan wrote, "People always ask me if I'm like Blanche. And I say, 'Well, Blanche was an oversexed, self-involved, man-crazy, vain Southern Belle from Atlanta -- and I'm not from Atlanta.

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Secret Birthday Photo of John F. Kennedy and Marilyn Monroe Goes on Sale


by David Knowles

It's like a surprise party for gossip columnists and Camelotphiles: A rare photograph of Marilyn Monroe and President John F. Kennedy is up for sale. Just hours after Monroe sang her sultry rendition of "Happy Birthday" to then president Kennedy at Madison Square Garden, the film star attended a private party with the commander-in-chief where White House photographer Cecil Stoughton snapped the shot that has remained secret until now.

Taken at the home of Arthur and Matilda Krim on May 19, 1962, the photo also shows Kennedy's brother, Bobby, chatting with Monroe and the president. Harry Belafonte and his wife can also be seen. According to Kaya Morgan, the man selling the picture, Jackie Kennedy did not attend the party. "The photographer told me that when she heard Monroe would be there, [she] said 'screw this,' and left," Morgan told the Surge Desk.That the photo still exists may be the result of a Secret Service error. When Stoughton was developing his negatives from the famous party, the story goes, agents confiscated all those that showed Kennedy and Monroe together. But they missed one, Morgan said. The price for a previously secret piece of history? "A 30-inch signed original print will go for $23,000," said Morgan, who unveiled the photo on Tuesday in Los Angeles in part to commemorate Monroe's birthday.
Filed Under: Surge Desk
Tagged: Bobby Kennedy, Cecil Stroughton, Harry Belafonte, john f. kennedy, Kaya Morgan, Marilyn Monroe