INTRODUCTION
“the man from dream city.” Kael, “The Man from Dream City.”
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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.
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“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.”
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“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.
Coney Island's famous Steeplechase Park. The gig paid five dollars a day, ten dollars on weekends. Grant worked Tuesdays through Fridays, and weekends. a witness to all this “homosexuality.” Higham and Moseley, Cary Grant, 37. They claim to have conducted the interview with Burns a few years before his death.
Grant insisted that in 1925 … he returned to England. The source of the fanciful story of Archie's return to England in 1925 was Archie Leach himself. While appearing in summer stock in 1930, he was invited to write a profile of himself for the local newspapers and crafted what amounts to a colorful fiction of his early life, including the supposed 1925 trip back home. This trip shows up repeatedly in biographies of Grant, based on this profile, embellished with all manner of detail and color, but without any basis in fact. Grant was to continue to use this method of misdirection to throw off all those who sought to write about him, and it usually worked quite effectively. In later works and interviews, for example, Grant “confessed” that he came from a strong theatrical background and that his father, Elias, was a wealthy clothing manufacturer. One of the strongest “pieces of evidence” Higham and Moseley use to “prove” that Grant was Jewish and that Elsie was not his mother is the 1962 Who's Who in America entry on Cary Grant, in which she is identified as Lillian. It is fairly certain that Grant himself was the source of the mixup in names, as he constantly sought to protect his mother from the prying eyes of writers, researchers, and biographers. Finally, Elsie and Lillian are similar-sounding names, easily mistaken in transcription or translation, an error Grant would not have bothered to correct.
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“I had quite a run of stage successes …” Quoted in John Paddy Carstairs, “He's Grand—and He's Grant,” Film Pictorial, December 17, 1932.
“He was never a very open fellow …” Quoted in Wansell, Haunted Idol, 65. “happy acquaintance.” Grant, “Archie Leach.” According to Grant, it was not OrryKelly but another young, hustling actor by the name of Max Hoffman Jr. who introduced him to Reginald Hammerstein. This is, most likely, another instance of Grant's masterful use of misdirection, as all evidence points to Orry-Kelly being the one. It is interesting to note that Grant never refers to or mentions Orry-Kelly by name in any interview or autobiographical writings, including “Archie Leach.”
Golden Dawn. The show starred Louise Hunter and Paul Gregory. Archie received generally good notices, including one from The New York Times, which called him a “handsome young newcomer.” Golden Dawn was made into a Warner Bros. movie in 1930 starring Vivienne Segal and Walter Woolf King. It is mostly remembered for being one of the first Hollywood feature films to be shot entirely in color.
Polly with a Past. This show was written by Ina Claire and originally produced on Broadway by David Belasco.
June took an instant dislike to Archie. Quoted in Harris, Cary Grant, 41; original source unknown.
Rosalie. By the 1920s Broadway had become a seeding ground for the many national theaters belonging to various producers/theater owners. Before talking pictures, a show that opened on Broadway became the model for a live touring version that would play in every major city in America. For Archie, the opportunity to tour meant national exposure with star billing, a major step up in his theatrical career.
Orry-Kelly, costume designer for Boom Boom. It remains a mystery what role, if any, Orry-Kelly played in convincing the Shuberts to sign the still largely unknown Archie Leach away from the Hammersteins.
“Without the ability …” Cary Grant, “Archie Leach.” open-air Municipal Opera in St. Louis. Orry-Kelly may have been involved in the Shuberts' decision to send Archie to St. Louis.
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“Some men squeeze a line to death …” Michael Curtiz, Time, July 27, 1962.
Sternberg and Dietrich. Sternberg directed Dietrich in seven classic movies (eight if the German version of The Blue Angel is counted, a film Sternberg reshot in English after the success of Morocco). These include The Blue Angel (1930, German and English versions), Morocco (1930), Dishonored (1931), Shanghai Express (1932), Blonde Venus (1932, with Cary Grant), Scarlet Empress (1934), and Devil Is a Woman (1935). Both Scarlet Empress and Devil Is a Woman were box office failures.
“Hate … mannerisms …” Interview by Suzy Parker, March 31, 1956; in Wayne, Cooper's Women, 143.
With the Hays Office gaining power in Hollywood. In the wake of threats by the federal government to appoint a board of censorship similar to the one already in place in England, the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America created an authority to self-regulate the film industry. In 1922 the association appointed Postmaster General Will Hays to enforce a predetermined formula of standards. Not everyone greeted Hays's arrival with the official warmth that the studio heads did. Chaplin, always the iconoclast, had signs hung over the men's room of his studio declaring “Welcome ill Hays.” It would take ten years for the code to bring about a regulated ethic that became the industry standard. Until then the studios tried on an individual basis to see how far they could stretch the limits of what became known as the Hays Office. Thus in 1929, when profits were beginning to dip, Carl Laemmle tried, without success, to bring Mae West and her controversial show to Hollywood via Universal Studios. Two years later, with the studio on the brink of bankruptcy, Paramount risked everything by taking on the woman and her reputation, along with the property that had enjoyed such success on Broadway. As always it was money, not morals, that ruled Hollywood.
“It wasn't true …” Quoted in Cindy Adams, May 1982.
“I copied other styles I knew …” Quoted in Davis, “Cary Grant.”
“was a homosexual …” Dietrich made this statement many times, including in an interview quoted in Higham and Moseley. Rumors of Dietrich's own bisexuality had been floated for years; kissing another woman onscreen while dressed in a man's tuxedo in Shanghai Express didn't help, but neither did it threaten her star status. If anything, it gave her an added “takes one to know one” pedigree in evaluating potential lovers. To those who held power in Hollywood, lesbianism was simply titillating and therefore tolerated. No man, they believed, would refuse to buy a ticket to see Marlene Dietrich because she preferred women, but many would refuse to see a Cary Grant flick if they thought he was “queer.”
“If women want to wear men's clothes …” Quoted in Los Angeles Times, January 25, 1933.
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“Was there pressure on you or Cary Grant to wed …” Scott, in Hadleigh, Hollywood Gays.
Cary and Scott. On at least one occasion their relationship cost them the chance to work together. Paramount had considered teaming the two in a film about the Arctic, Spawn of the North, with Carole Lombard in the female lead. But mainly due to the persistent rumors over the duo's sexual preferences, the roles eventually went to Henry Fonda and George Raft. The film was directed by Henry Hathaway and released by Paramount in 1938.
Bachelor Hall. This name, given to the bachelor pad of Grant and Scott, was often attributed to Carole Lombard but actually came from a Paramount PR executive.
“Cary is the gay, impetuous one …” Ben Maddox, quoted (without attribution) by Gerald Clarke, in Architectural Digest, April 1996, 282.
“carrying this buddy business …” Harris, Cary Grant, 58. Grant and Scott's competitive workout routine. The details of the daily workout routine and the bet between them are from an RKO memo written by S. Barret McCormick in 1947, to publicize the chance meeting between Scott and Grant that happened during the filming of The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer.
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“Her shapely form in a blue …” Chaplin, Charles Chaplin: My Autobiography. He devotes a mere two paragraphs to Cherrill, one having to do with their meeting on the beach, and one having to do with directing her in City Lights. He omits any reference to his romantic pursuit of her.
private diaries. The personal diaries kept by Virginia Cherrill and the extensive audiocassettes she kept for use for a possible memoir were made available to the author by Teresa McWilliams, Cherrill's close friend and next-door neighbor in Santa Barbara for more than forty years.
“Most of the actresses that worked for him …” Interview by film historian Gerard Molyneaux, in Milton, Tramp, 297.
Chaplin wanting to fire Cherrill and replace her with Georgia Hale. Chaplin had done this sort of thing before. In 1925, during the filming of The Gold Rush, he had gotten his leading lady, sixteen-year-old Lita Grey, pregnant and decided to reshoot her scenes with Georgia Hale. Paramount signed Hale on the strength of her performance and cast her in its 1926 production of Herbert Brenon's The Great Gatsby. Her career ended with the arrival of talkies, for which, the studio decided, she was vocally unsuited.
The night Cary Grant met her. In most versions of their initial meeting, Grant is described as declaring his “instant love” for Cherrill, one of the many stories about them that is very likely apocryphal. Previous biographers seem to have had a great deal of difficulty discerning the precise source of Grant's quote, or to whom it is supposed to have been told. In Harris, Cary Grant, it is unattributed; in Grant, Ashman, and Trescott, Cary Grant, it is similarly unattributed, although it is slightly amended to love at “second sight (taking into account the sighting at the fights and the subsequent meeting in the commissary)”; in Higham and Moseley, Cary Grant, Grant is “fascinated” by Cherrill, who, in turn, is “warned” by none other than Orry-Kelly, in a quote that is neither sourced nor substantiated (and highly unlikely), to be wary of Grant. “Later on,” after their divorce he tells Cherrill—in a quote that sounds more like a line out of a soap opera than a commentary by Orry-Kelly, whose connection, if any, to Cherrill is never established—“We both loved him and lost him, didn't we?” In Godfrey, Cary Grant, Grant's initial reaction is that he is “charmed” by her during the commissary meeting; in Wansell, Haunted Idol, Grant is quoted (without any attribution whatsoever) as telling unnamed “friends” after the initial meeting at the commissary, “I fell in love with her the moment I saw her.” Finally, Govoni, Cary Grant, comes to this conclusion: “It was not, in any sense, a love-at-first-sight situation.” Again, the conclusion is drawn without any attribution.
Grant's back injury. According to associate director Michael Liesen, Grant had been “inattentive” and was injured when an explosion was triggered prematurely. The rest of the cast was unhurt because they had followed instructions and were standing on their spots, whereas Grant had absentmindedly drifted off his. See Godfrey, Cary Grant, 62.
Virginia Cherrill had the best sense of humor. McWilliams, recalling a conversation she had with Cary Grant in 1982 at the Hollywood Park racetrack. Unless otherwise noted, all McWilliams quotes are from author interviews.
Grant's bed. Waterbury, “Story of Cary Grant.”
“The only thing I got …” Levant, Memoirs, 91.
“I can't say that I'm in love with Miss West …” Los Angeles Times, October 16, 1933. Grant kept his word and never worked with Mae West on another film. In the eleven films she made, he was the only leading man to appear with her onscreen more than once.
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“The first day that Cary, the perfectionist …” Niven, Bring on the Empty Horses. Grant's trip to England. Sources on Grant's trip to England include papers, articles, and other related documents archived in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences; the materials on file at the British Film Institute research division; research documents in Bristol; court records in England, Los Angeles, and the United States; author interviews with Teresa McWilliams; and the private, unpublished diaries and papers of Virginia Cherrill.
Fishponds. The institution was one of the worst medical facilities in all of Great Britain. The rooms were filthy, the patients unattended, the food lousy. Elias chose it because it was a state-run facility that cost him exactly one pound a year.
Grant was devastated. Some have suggested that Grant knew of his mother's incarceration since childhood, that he had been told of it by his father, and that he accepted his father's new life in Southampton as part of their accord. There is no evidence of this, nor does it seem the least bit plausible. Grant would certainly have been in contact with his mother during the nineteen-year period of their separation. The best proof that Grant did not know his mother was alive—besides the psychological behavior her abandonment caused him—is the simple, incontrovertible fact that prior to learning she was alive, he never visited her, wrote to her, or sent her money. the day of his wedding. It's possible that one of the reasons Grant married Cherrill in London was to avoid the California equal-division-of-property statutes. But as Grant was shortly to discover, full-time residency and place of income were the overriding legal considerations.
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“Movie stars operate in an ether …” Peter Rainer, Los Angeles Herald-Examiner, December 1, 1986.
Cherrill's claims of Grant's violence. The story has been published in various forms elsewhere, most notably in Higham and Moseley, Cary Grant, but without a shred of supporting evidence. No police report was ever filed. No medical report exists. Grant's fit of violence may have taken place, but if Grant was leaning ever so slightly toward divorce, Cherrill probably was, too, and incidents of violence nearly always serve as an avenue of sympathy for the victim at civil trial.
“I had been at a party with friends …” This quote appeared in several newspapers and in Wansell, Haunted Idol, 102.
“You know what whiskey …” Quoted in Godfrey, Cary Grant, 66. The Grant/Cherrill divorce proceedings. Public records on file at the Los Angeles County Superior Court.
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“My first great chance came in 1936 …” Quoted in Grant, “What It Means to Be a Star,” Films and Filming, July 1961.
“Cary was the perfect central-casting fag …” The source of the quote insists upon being and will remain anonymous.
“too effete.” The quote appears in various forms in numerous publications, including Harris, Cary Grant, 71. The source here is the offspring of a well-known Hollywood figure of the time, who wishes to remain anonymous.
Grant accepted radio work. Grant may have had other motives for suddenly changing his mind about appearing for free on the airwaves. He had heard that Virginia Cherrill was in New York alone, and he couldn't resist having a paid excuse to make the trip east, in the hope of somehow running into her and reconciling, neither of which happened.
“I could never get weak-kneed …” McGilligan, George Cukor, 86. “the queen of the roost.” Ibid., 125.
Frank Horn. Ibid., 127. “Until then he was a successful young leading man …” Schickel, Men Who Made the Movies, 182.
Cukor … claimed … that he had discovered Grant. For the rest of his life Cukor insisted that Sylvia Scarlett was the film that “discovered” Cary Grant and that therefore he, Cukor, was responsible for Grant's long and illustrious Hollywood career. Sarris, in You Ain't Heard Nothin' Yet, reflects on all those who claimed Grant as their discovery:
“Mae West has tried to claim credit for ‘discovering’ Grant for She Done Him Wrong but he had already made seven movies before the West come-on certified his stud status. The late George Cukor insisted that Sylvia Scarlett put Grant over with the moguls. Since the movie itself was such a commercial and critical dud at the time, and almost destroyed Katharine Hepburn's career, Cukor's assertion seems downright bizarre. Nor did Grant's involvement with Marlene Dietrich and Josef von Sternberg in Blonde Venus do much for his own image. Although he was listed in casts with such yesteryear icons as Carole Lombard, Sylvia Sidney, Tallulah Bankhead, Jean Harlow, Frances Farmer, and even Grace Moore, he was most effective in a light-fun way with Nancy Carroll in Hot Saturday and The Woman Accused, and with Joan Bennett in Big Brown Eyes and Wedding Present.”
“Sylvia Scarlett was my breakthrough …” Quoted in Nelson, Evenings with Cary Grant, 83.
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“I am most keenly reminded …” Bogdanovich, Who the Devil Made It?, 382.
“If I had stayed at Paramount …” Nelson, Evenings with Cary Grant, 84.
Grant's decision to leave Paramount. He would not make another movie for Paramount until 1954, when he came out of retirement to star in Alfred Hitchcock's To Catch a Thief.
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“As the tall, dark, and handsome male star …” Steven Cohan, “Cary Grant in the Fifties: Indiscretions of the Bachelor's Masquerade,” Screen 33, no. 4 (Winter 1992).
Signing with Frank Vincent. According to Higham and Moseley, Cary Grant, Grant was not actually represented by Vincent and Edington but was their partner, having secretly invested much of his savings in the business. Higham and Moseley claim as their source Kendall Carly Browne, Vincent's longtime personal secretary, who “confirmed” that Grant was, in fact, his own agent and split his standard 10 percent commission three ways.
Harry Cohn. Cohn (often referred to as “Horrible” Harry Cohn), his brother Jack, and Joe Brandt had at one time all worked for Carl Laemmle, the founder of Universal Pictures. Cohn began Columbia Pictures in 1924 from C.B.C. Films Sales Company, which he had founded in 1920. C.B.C. stood for Cohn, Brandt, and Cohn. Harry Cohn changed the name after a major financial reorganization, and because everyone in Hollywood referred to it as “Corned Beef and Cabbage.”
a vulgarian, womanizer, and tantrum-throwing tyrant. Sarris, You Ain't Heard Nothin' Yet, 29.
“Howard was the most restful man …” Quoted in Brown and Broeske, Howard Hughes, 125. A necessary word about the nature of the Grant-Hughes relationship, erroneously described in Higham and Moseley. Brown and Broeske express it best: “Following Grant's death in November 1986, writers began depicting their association as a lascivious homosexual affair. Several of them claimed that Hughes and Scott were lovers. Cary and Howard supposedly fell into each other's arms when the romance between Scott and Grant cooled. But there are no direct sources to prove a Hughes-Grant affair … three exhaustive studies of Howard's life found no hints of bisexuality [emphasis added]… ‘Howard had so many enemies, including the FBI, that even the most discreet homosexual encounter would have been uncovered,’ said Robert Maheu, the former FBI special agent who became Hughes's second-in-command in the 1950s. And Noah Dietrich told his biographers that he had heard the rumors but knew them to be false.” Brown and Broeske claim to have read Hughes's entire 2,059-page FBI file, which was personally supervised by J. Edgar Hoover. They insist there is no trace of any homosexual activity on Hughes's part, nor in the 100,000-page legal, sexual, and psychological abstract ordered by the Hughes estate. Curiously, one of Higham and Moseley's “sources” for “proof” of Hughes's homosexuality and his supposedly ongoing affair with Cary Grant was Noah Dietrich, one of Hughes's personal aides, who died before they named him as one of their sources. To date, the author has found no evidence of Hughes's homosexuality, and no one who claims to know of any affair between Hughes and Grant. Brown and Broeske also strongly question Grant's “homosexual” affair with Scott, but their research here is marginal at best. the famed Trocadero nightspot. The famed restaurant and club was located at 8610 Sunset Boulevard. Along with Ciro's (8433 Sunset) and Mocambo (8588 Sunset), it was the favorite spot for the show-business crowd during the height of the studio era. The Trocadero was one of Grant's favorite places to relax, as was the Brown Derby restaurant, located near Hollywood and Vine.
“For years I had begged Paramount …” Quoted in Carroll, Motion Picture, February 1941.
Phyllis Brooks on first seeing Cary Grant. “The first time I saw Cary was at Marion Davies'…he was there with Ginger Rogers. He was so tanned he was almost black, while Ginger was lobster red from the sun. It was funny.” Brooks is quoted in Nelson, Evenings with Cary Grant, 89.
“the love of her life.” Ibid., 89. “the Brooks.” Waterbury, “Story of Cary Grant,” 55.
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“The great majority of screwball comedies …” Sarris, You Ain't Heard Nothin' Yet, 96–97.
Irene Dunne. Dunne's other film roles prior to The Awful Truth include John Stahl's Back Street (1932), John Cromwell's Ann Vickers (1933), William Seiter's Roberta (1935), and James Whale's Show Boat (1936). The Awful Truth was her twenty-third movie. She would costar opposite Grant twice more, before playing what would become her signature role, Mama in George Stevens's I Remember Mama (1948). She was nominated a total of five times for an Academy Award for Best Actress, including for The Awful Truth, but never won.
“Frustration arises inevitably …” Sarris, You Ain't Heard Nothin' Yet, 95. The best short essay on screwball comedy (with essential references) may be found here on pages 89–100.
Frank Capra, who was threatening to walk out on … Columbia. Although his relationship with Cohn was a difficult one, Capra continued to make films for Columbia until 1939. In 1934 It Happened One Night was the first picture to win all four of the major Academy Awards—Best Picture, Best Director (Capra), Best Actor (Clark Gable), and Best Actress (Claudette Colbert). Capra won again as Best Director in 1936 for Mr. Deeds Goes to Town. That picture was nominated as well but lost to Robert Z. Leonard's The Great Ziegfeld. Capra won Oscars for You Can't Take It With You (1938, Best Director, Best Picture) and nominations for Best Director and Best Picture in 1939 for Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. In 1946, as an independent (Liberty Films), he was nominated as Best Director and Best Picture for It's a Wonderful Life.
“a comedy of remarriage.” Film critic and historian Richard Schickel quotes Cavell on screwball in Schickel, Cary Grant, 72–73.
Sons of the Desert. This 1933 Hal Roach comedy was directed by William Seiter and distributed by MGM. In the film, Laurel and Hardy lie about a convention they want to go to, telling their wives that Ollie must go for a curative rest to the mountains. The lie snowballs and nearly causes the two “boys” to lose their wives, before a confession by Laurel more or less redeems them.
Grant and McCarey. Peter Bogdanovich interviewed McCarey in 1969, shortly before his death, and asked the director what it was like to work with Grant on The Awful Truth. McCarey responded with a one-word answer: “Impossible.” When Bogdanovich asked him in what way, McCarey cited Grant's insecurity. The complete interview may be found in Bogdanovich, Who the Devil Made It?
The Awful Truth and the Hays Office. The film tested the limits of the Hays Office in more ways than one. Not only did it hint at unpunished adulterous behavior on the part of its lead, it also dealt comically with divorce, a subject that the censors always found questionable in comedy. The Hays Office much preferred separation by death and a noble widow or widower to even the suggestion of a happy survivor of a bad marriage. Giddy single exes, like double beds, did not often get by the official watchdogs. The film also contained what was, for its day, a very racy bedroom scene between Grant and Dunne, in which the dialogue was colorful and both stars were dressed only in their nightclothes. Dunne, to the consternation of the Hays Office, looked quite fetching in her nightie.
“remarkable for the extent …” Andrew Britton, “Cary Grant: Comedy and Male Desire,” Cine-Action! 7 (1986).
“resplendent but characterless …” Kael, “Man from Dream City.”
[14]
“Cary Grant represents a man we know.” Alfred Hitchcock, from an interview by Peter Bogdanovich, Esquire, August 1962.
Radio adaptation of The Awful Truth. The radio version proved so popular that Lux repeated it several times. Then, in a highly unusual move that demonstrated nothing so much as the enduring popularity of the film, the Gulf Screen Guild Playhouse purchased the radio rights and did an entirely new version, retaining only Ralph Bellamy from the original cast, with Robert Young and Carole Lombard cast as the Warriners.
while Scott was making Rouben Mamoulian's. The connective strands fascinate. After The Last of the Mohicans, Scott made one more film at Paramount, Rouben Mamoulian's High, Wide, and Handsome, which costarred Irene Dunne, just before she was let go in the general bloodletting that took place at the struggling studio. Dunne moved to Columbia, where she was immediately cast opposite Grant in The Awful Truth. Scott then moved to Fox, where he appeared in Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm.
Bringing Up Baby. Some of the background on production and finances is from McCarthy, Howard Hawks. Other sources as cited.
the two had to “lock-step” their way to the manager's office. The Hays Office finally approved the scene because of its heavy comic content, after being convinced by Hawks that absolutely no erotic intent was attached to or suggested by the scene.
[15]
“Only one actor was agile enough …” “Appreciations,” New York Times, July 1, 2003, editorial page.
“Sure, the government gets eighty-one cents …” Quoted in Waterbury, “Story of Cary Grant.” The interview was conducted in the spring of 1938, before Grant's sudden departure in October for London.
The Awful Truth was nominated for Best Picture … The other Best Picture nominees for 1937 were Victor Fleming's Captains Courageous, William Wyler's Dead End, Sidney Franklin's The Good Earth, Henry King's In Old Chicago, Frank Capra's Lost Horizon, Henry Koster's One Hundred Men and a Girl, Gregory La Cava's Stage Door, William Wellman's A Star Is Born, and the winner, William Dieterle's The Life of Emile Zola. The other Best Actress nominees were Greta Garbo (George Cukor's Camille), Janet Gaynor (A Star Is Born), Barbara Stanwyck (King Vidor's Stella Dallas), and the winner, Luise Rainer (The Good Earth). The other Best Supporting Actor nominees were Thomas Mitchell (John Ford and Stuart Heisler's The Hurricane), H. B. Warner (Lost Horizon), Roland Young (Topper, another Cary Grant movie), and the winner, Joseph Schildkraut (The Life of Emile Zola). The other Best Director nominees were William Dieterle (The Life of Emile Zola), Sidney Franklin (The Good Earth), Gregory La Cava (Stage Door), and William Wellman (A Star Is Born).
Grant at the 1938 Academy Awards. As their player contracts expired, more and more actors attempted to go “the Cary Grant route,” something the studio heads feared might one day bring down the structure of the entire system. Within a month of that year's ceremonies, the U.S. government formally instituted an antitrust suit against the studios, claiming that their absolute control over the three branches of their business—the production, distribution, and exhibition of movies—constituted an illegal monopoly that prevented independent filmmakers and theater owners from fairly competing for talent, distribution, and houses to screen their product. In 1948 the case finally came before the Supreme Court, and the studios signed a consent decree that ended their iron grip on Hollywood filmmaking forever. (See notes for “One.”)
a party at “21” to meet Alfred Hitchcock. Hitchcock first arrived in America on August 22, 1938, aboard the Queen Mary. He was accompanied by his wife, Alma, and their daughter, Patricia.
“One of the marks of a great director …” Haskell, Holding My Own, 25.
Cary Grant's 1939 visit to London and Bristol. Some of the information for this sequence of events comes from McCann, Cary Grant. Additional material comes from an article by Philip French, in London Observer, August 25, 1996. The author contacted the FBI on several occasions, under the auspices of the Freedom of Information Act, to obtain Cary Grant's FBI file. The official response was a carefully worded statement that said no such file existed. In a letter dated January 17, 2003, in response to “Request #0971956-000, regarding Cary Grant,” the FBI stated, “Based on the information furnished, a search of the automated indices to our central records system files at FBI headquarters located no records responsive to your FOIPA request to indicate you and/or the subject(s) of your request have ever been of investigatory interest to the FBI.”
“picture of another sucker.” Quoted in an article by Norma Abrams and Gerald Duncan, New York Daily News, December 12, 1938.
[16]
“If you haven't seen Cary Grant …” Bogdanovich, Movie of the Week, 97. As Peter Bogdanovich rightly points out. Ibid.
“They both wanted the beach house …” Interview by the author. The source of this quote wishes to remain anonymous.
[17]
“Cukor's strategy was to keep Cary Grant …” McGilligan, George Cukor, 162.
“Plenty of room up front.” This was one of Grant's favorite parables. He told it for years. It first found its way into print in an interview conducted by Duncan Underhill for the New York World-Telegram, January 24, 1942.
“Cash and Cary.” The idea that Grant, who had previously married one of the most beautiful women in Hollywood, would be interested in the rather homely Barbara Hutton led everyone, including the gossip columnists, to suspect that his motives were other than true love. The phrase “Cash and Cary” became something of a joke in Hollywood, whenever the Grant-Hutton relationship was spoken of, which was quite often. Its appearances in the gossip columns amused neither Hutton nor Grant.
Goldwyn was … “mad for the material.” Berg, Goldwyn, 316.
“I am heartbroken …” Ibid.
“When I go to the movies …” Grant, interviewed by Carroll, Motion Picture, February 1941.
“Irene and I sit here and worry …” Ibid.
Grant's relatives killed. The bombing raid on Bristol was reported in the Los Angeles Examiner and the New York Daily News, January 28, 1941.
[18]
“The consensus was that audiences …” Hitchcock, quoted in “Murder—With English on It,” New York Times Magazine, March 3, 1957.
“a minor figure in a fast film industry …” Quoted in Spoto, Dark Side of Genius, 222.
[19]
“Cary Grant is a great comedian …” Quoted in Schickel, Men Who Made the Movies.
“a dear, dear man.” Quoted in McBride, Frank Capra, 445.
Grant's special affection for Jean Adair. Details of this story are from the New York Daily Mirror, September 11, 1944.
Grant wearing only the tops of his pajamas. From a syndicated Tintypes column by Sidney Skolsky, “Hollywood Is My Beat,” January 3, 1946.
“among the industry's … most pro-Communist offerings.” Internal FBI memorandum, May 11, 1944.
“known Communist connections …” Internal FBI memorandum, November 20, 1944.
“no chance of reconciliation.” Quoted in Florabel Muir, New York Daily News, August 16, 1944.
[20]
“I can't portray Bing Crosby …” Quoted in Kent Schuelke, “Cary Grant,” Interview, January 1987. This was one of Grant's final sit-downs, conducted four months before his death.
“Why, Cary Grant, of course!” Cole Porter's often-quoted comment likely came after Grant had already been offered the part. In fact, Porter's first choice was his very close friend Fred Astaire, who wanted no part of it.
“I know of not one single soul …” Govoni, Cary Grant, 131. It is safe to say there was no love lost between Wilder and Grant. Years later, when interviewed by Al Cohn at Newsday (December 19, 1964), Grant was reminded of Wilder's comment and tersely replied, “Well, maybe he hasn't been to my house. Maybe he doesn't know the same people I know.” While Grant never appeared in a Billy Wilder film, in 1958 Wilder directed Some Like It Hot, in which Tony Curtis did a devastatingly accurate impersonation of Grant, as a character who had trouble making love to women.
Hughes had the bathrooms custom-built. Brown and Broeske, Howard Hughes, 302. Cook's budget and cold turkey sandwiches. Lloyd Shearer, “Intelligence Report,” Parade, March 12, 1989.
“there wasn't a paper …” Quoted in Barlett and Steele, Empire, 164.
peanut butter and jelly sandwiches at “21.” Walter Weiss [maître d'] obituary, The New York Times, October 15, 2002.
“It was all very flattering …” Quoted in Brown and Broeske, Howard Hughes, 251.
[21]
“Notorious resumes the general visual key …” Durgnat, Strange Case of Alfred Hitchcock, 195.
“carefully trained and coached …” Margaret McDonnell (a contract story editor), a memo to David O. Selznick, August 7, 1944. In the memo McDonnell conveyed Hitchcock's idea for a new movie she had discussed with him at “a long lunch last Friday.” This germ of an idea may be seen again in several later Hitchcock films, by both genders, and across generations, most vividly in Strangers on a Train, To Catch a Thief, Vertigo, North by Northwest, and Psycho.
“a kissing sequence that made …” Sarris, You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet, 257.
[22]
“I'd been flying for a lot longer …” Quoted in McCarthy, Howard Hawks, 156–57.
“All we did was to change plans …” Hedda Hopper, Chicago Tribune, June 26, 1947. Grant joins MCA. This arrangement was to last only three years. While it started off well, Stein's vision of the agency as a packager of its own talent ultimately proved unacceptable to Grant.
“a rather conceited, impudent …” Telegram, Grant to Samuel Goldwyn, January 2, 1947.
[23]
“I've been called the longest lasting young man …” Cary Grant, “What It Means to Be a Star,” Films and Filming, July 1961.
“Cary came out weighing …” Quoted in McCarthy, Howard Hawks, 461. See also ibid., chap. 29.
“One problem with the show …” William Frye, interview by the author.
[24]
“Selectivity always suggests art …” Schickel, Cary Grant. the directing debut of Richard Brooks. Crisis was the inauspicious start to a very successful Hollywood career. Among the films Brooks would go on to direct are The Last Time I Saw Paris (1954), Blackboard Jungle (1955), Something of Value (1957), Elmer Gantry (1960), and In Cold Blood (1967).
A Star Is Born. Some of the background information given here comes from Haver, Star Is Born, 191–205, and McGilligan, George Cukor, 218–24. The meeting between Cukor and Grant is almost always mistakenly reported as happening much later, after the film's 1954 release. The meeting actually took place in December 1952, when Cukor (who had been offered the original 1937 version but turned it down) began interviewing actresses to play the role of Esther. The first actress he saw, in December 1952, was Judy Garland. That same month he began his ultimately unsuccessful campaign to enlist the acting services of Cary Grant.
“This is the part you were born to play!” and Grant's response. McGilligan, George Cukor, 219.
“one of those periodically increasing episodes …” Interview by the author. The source wishes to and will remain anonymous.
“Heavy romance on the screen …” Quoted in Lon Jones, Star Weekly, January 1952. Cropped Grant-Monroe-DiMaggio photo. Summers, Goddess, 66–67.
“Cary was being very mysterious.” William Frye, interview by the author.
“It was the period of blue jeans …” Quoted in Robert C. Roman, “Cary Grant,” Films in Review, December 1961.
“[Chaplin] has given great pleasure to millions …” Grant, press conference to announce his retirement from film, New York Daily News, February 6, 1953.
[25]
“The results of living in reality …” Quoted in Earl Wilson's syndicated column, “It Happened Last Night,” circa 1971.
Details of Grant's Palm Springs home and life. Betsy Drake, as told to Liza Wilson, “My Life with Cary Grant,” American Weekly, August 4, 1957.
Grace Kelly. During her off days, when her presence wasn't required for shooting, Kelly liked to go over to the tiny principality of Monaco, to gamble in the state casino and visit the state gardens. While on one such visit, she was introduced to Prince Rainier Grimaldi, who insisted on giving her a personal tour of the Grimaldi castle, overlooking the waters of the Mediterranean.
[26]
“I had a theme in most of my movies …” New York Times, July 21, 1955.
“The movies are like the steel business …” Interview in Pix, December 10, 1955.
“the easiest decision I ever had to make.” Quoted in Hotchner, Sophia, 105. Drake's telegram to Grant. Betsy Drake, as told to Liza Wilson, “My Life with Cary Grant,” American Weekly, August 4, 1957.
“We fell in love …” Hotchner, Sophia, 110–12.
[27]
“Nobody doesn't like Cary Grant …” Warren Hoge, “The Other Cary Grant,” The New York Times Magazine, July 31, 1977.
“I'd taken advice …” Interview by Peter Shield, Sunday Graphic, October 19, 1958. Portions of this interview appear in Godfrey, Cary Grant, 152–53.
“It was all just some sort of extended daydream …” William Frye, interview by the author.
[28]
“In North by Northwest during the scene …” Hitchcock, speech to the Screen Producers Guild, March 7, 1965, upon the occasion of his receiving the Guild's twelfth Milestone Award.
“to accept the responsibility for my own actions …” Grant, “Archie Leach.” Additional information and quotes from Grant's diaries are from John Whalen, “The Trip,” Los Angeles Weekly, July 9, 1998.
[29]
“I've heard the fag rumor …” Quoted in Jeffrey Robinson, “Cary Grant: ‘I've Lived My Life,'” Redbook, March 1987, p. 28.
Joint statement of separation. The statement was issued jointly by Grant and Drake and appeared in the Los Angeles Times, October 17, 1958.
“I was doing so swell those days …” Curtis, Tony Curtis.
“I never worked it deliberately …” Ibid.
Grant's “autobiography.” Grant, “Archie Leach.”
Instead, the magazine went ahead and ran its lengthy contracted LSD story. Bergquist, “Curious Story.”
[30]
“I was a self-centered boor …” Lecture to an audience of students at UCLA, July 14, 1962.
“tycoon, bargaining with a mind …” Bergquist, “Curious Story.”
Details of Grant's Universal contract. Newsday, December 19, 1964.
“The final outrage …” McDougal, Last Mogul, 259–60.
Grant films grossed more than $10 million at Radio City. Variety, January 6, 1960. “there is no doubt that I am aging …” Quoted in The New York Times, February 2, 1961.
Mitchum and Grant's relationship during The Grass Is Greener. Some information and the Mitchum quote come from Server.
“Cary played a titled Englishman …” Quoted in The New Yorker, January 13, 2000. Grant and Drake visiting Monaco. Some of the information and the quote is from Spada, Grace, 226–27. Other sources wish to and will remain anonymous.
[31]
“How old Cary Grant? …” In 1962, Time, doing a story on Grant, was said to have wired the question to Grant, who sent back his “Old Cary Grant” reply. The story is apocryphal; no telegram was ever sent to Grant; nor did he ever reply in kind.
“I had just returned from Rome …” Interview by Henry Gris, Coronet, March 1971.
“Cary called me …” Ibid.
“I bombed right in front of Wald.” Quoted in Dean Gautschy, Los Angeles HeraldExaminer, September 28, 1963.
“No matter how good I am …” Quoted in Al Cohn, Newsday, December 19, 1964.
“consistently better than ordinary …” Andrew Sarris, Village Voice, January 1, 1964.
“I don't know …” Grant, quoted by Charles Champlin, Los Angeles Times, December 1, 1996 (obit.).
“I'm only telling you …” Interview by Roderick Mann, Sunday Graphic, July 31, 1965.
[32]
“I don't like to see men of my age …” Interview by Sheilah Graham, Hollywood Citizen-News, February 8, 1966.
“One does join in the stream of life …” Quoted in New York Daily News, February 28, 1966.
“I was sitting up front in the car …” Interview by Ticketron, 1972.
Grant and Cannon disagree before the press. Reported in Variety, August 10, 1966.
Grant declared that the institution of marriage was dying. Los Angeles Times, August 7, 1966.
“He struck me as an angry …” Interview by the author. Information regarding Grant's relationship with Taplinger, Flynn, Blackman, and Barrie is from various sources, as noted, including this interview. All Flynn quotes in this chapter are from my interview with her.
Cannon's testimony. This and all other testimony quoted is from court records, Los Angeles Superior Court.
Friendship with George Barrie. Barrie first called Grant after reading an interview in which Grant objected to women using hairspray. After Grant's statement, the company's stock had fallen one full point. Once they got to know each other they became frequent social companions. Grant always said he admired Barrie for having built his cosmetics empire from scratch.
[33]
“Every one of my wives left me …” Interview in The New York Times, 1971.
“My first wife …” Quoted in Donaldson, 202–203.
“she never smoked …” Quoted in Variety, January 24, 1973.
“I was there the night Mr. Grant called …” Joey Reynolds, interview by the author.
“Jennifer once walked up to the screen …” Interview by Al Cohn, Newsday, September 14, 1975.
“My intention was to make myself happy …” Guy Flatley, “About Cary Grant: From Mae to September,” New York Times, July 22, 1973.
“Jennifer is my best production.” Quoted in Warren Hoge, “The Other Cary Grant,” The New York Times Magazine, July 31, 1977.
“as periodically dependable …” The quipper wishes anonymity.
“I wouldn't think of it …” Interview by Tom Shales for the Washington Post, reprinted in the Los Angeles Times, December 25, 1981.
“I stayed close to Cary always …” Curtis, Tony Curtis.
Grant and Charlie Callas. Charlie Callas, interview by the author.
Grant trying to sound Jewish …” Ibid.
“I remember …” Lecture at Flint Center, DeAnza Community College, Cupertino, California, November 3, 1982.
“I don't have the energy for it …” Lecture at the Masonic Auditorium at San Francisco, as reported by Jennings Parrott in the Los Angeles Times, January 31, 1985. A detailed recapitulation of Grant's presentations may be found in Nelson, Evenings with Cary Grant.
Comments of doctors during Grant's stroke. There are several sources for the comments of Drs. Manlove and Gilson, and paramedic Lund, including the Los Angeles Times, People, and Warren G. Harris, Good Housekeeping, September 1987.
[34]
“I don't know how I consider death …” People, December 15, 1986.
“I would like to be remembered as a congenial fellow …” Quoted by Kent Schuelke, Interview, “Cary Grant,” January 1987.