The latest presentation written by Madeline Bayless and spoken by Linda Tolman is now uploaded to YouTube for your enjoyment. You can watch it below – and read the transcript here. Thank you, Madeline and Linda, for answering questions about the hideaway home we know from the Isabel Eddy letters as “Mists.”
To see other videos in the Master Class series, click here.
The following is of interest to Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy fans.
In the book Sweethearts, we learn that Jeanette first backed out of divorcing her husband, Gene Raymond, after serious threats were made against Nelson Eddy by the infamous Louie B. Mayer.
Some have questioned, did Mayer really have that power to frighten her so?
From the newly-released book, My Lunches With Orson, edited by Peter Biskind, here is Orson Welles’ take on the MGM studio boss:
HJ [Henry Jaglom]: Did anyone else offer you movies besides [Sam] Goldwyn?
OW [Orson Welles]: (Louis B.) Mayer offered me his studio! He was madly in love with me, because I wouldn’t have anything to do with him, you know? Twice he brought me over – spent all day wooing me. He called me “Orse.” Whenever he sent for me, he burst into tears, and once he fainted. To get his way. It was fake, absolutely fake. The deal was, I’d have the studio [as a producer] but I’d have to stop acting, directing, and writing – making pictures.
HJ: Why wouldn’t you have anything to do with him?
OW: Because he was the worst of them all. The rest of them were just what they were. The thing about Harry Cohn was: he looked like such a villainous Hollywood producer, there was nothing he could do that would surprise you. But L.B. was worse than Harry Cohn. He was self-righteous, smarmy, waving the American flag, doing deals with the Purple Gang in Detroit –
HJ: The Purple Gang in Detroit?
OW: Before the unions, it was all Mafia. But no one called it the Mafia. Just said “the mob.” And, mainly, the Purple Gang. They controlled all the blue-collar guys who projected the movies, pushed the dollies, swept the floors. They controlled the teamsters. They didn’t control directors or anything – didn’t need to. And when L.B. needed extra money, he got it from the Purple Gang. When he wanted strong-arm work, he’d call the Purple Gang, who’d send their tough guys into gown.
HJ: Louis B. Mayer had people hit?
OW: Beat up. I wouldn’t put it past him to have people killed. He liked to think of himself as a founding father and capo [chief] of the Mafia.
From the Bonhams auction catalog:
A Jeanette MacDonald costume from Bitter Sweet
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 1940. Short green grosgrain jacket with boned bodice, velvet cross detail on sleeves and pleated cuffs. Bearing a typed label reading “8412” and a bias label inscribed in black ink, “J. Mac Donald / Bittersweet- 1887.” Together with a matching floor-length skirt with two layers, elaborate pleating and bow detail in the back. Interior of the waistband inscribed in black ink, “J. Mac Donald / Bittersweet” and a typed label reading “8412.” Accompanied by a copy of the film. MacDonald wears this dress while speaking to the owner of Schlick’s Cafe, where she is working as a singer.
