"MRS. SMITH" ON MICKEY ROONEY'S LETTERS TO HER : HE WAS OPEN AND HONEST : SHE MIGHT HAVE BEEN THE ONLY WOMAN IN HIS LIFE HE COULD TRUST LIKE THAT

Excerpt:  Mickey was very open in his letters to Smith, who read us some passages from his correspondence with her.  Not love letters per se, they were filled with recollections and sometimes anger, but always Mickey in his own, heretofore unpublished words:

March 1950: She (Martha Vickers) could hardly stand up when I came home.  After I'm at the studio all day, and the kid is there, I don't need to be a nanny.
 

June 1958: referring to Barbara Ann and specifically to her attempted suicide by an overdose of pills; "Thanks for your concern.  She is all right. I just don't want to get trapped again.  They use my house as if it's their house to party.

February 1966: "I appreciate both of your calls and help.  I appreciate 'Mr. Smith's kind of assistance...  This has been the biggest nightmare and it never seems to end... I'd like to meet sometime soon... Please call me... I miss being close to you - I can still smell your scent.

"I think I saw a side of Mickey that he revealed to no one else," Smith said. "He was very romantic, kind; he had a very nostalgic sense; and I was able to experiment sexually with him that I couldn't with my husband.  He was very athletic.  Very.  He was quite inventive..."

She continued; "Also, we lent him money over the years, and much of it was never repaid.  We just chalked it up to Mickey.  He did give Mr. Smith his start."

The years wore on, but Mickey continued to regard Mrs. Smith as his close confidant, revealing to her his disappointment that the life he had enjoyed when they first met in the 1940's was gone and that age had caught up with him.  They stopped seeing each other when he was in his nineties, even though they were still writing.  She told us that she attempted to contact Mickey just before his death.

"While we were in some communication, I was virtually locked out of his life after all the problems," she said.  "It was as if the family crying for him had put a wall up between Mickey and the outside world. I tried several times but was thwarted each time.  Just before his death, I attempted to send a car for him to bring him back to our house.  I believe it was his daughter-in-law that said that he was not interested.  I cannot believe that for one minute.  At no time had MIck ever told me about abuse or anything like that.  I learned about that on the news.  He always told me how content he was.:

In one letter to Smith, Mickey wrote, "As always, I miss you my dear.  As we get older, I begin to forget this or that. But don't think for a minute that I ever forget about us...."

Mrs, Smith heard about Mickey Rooney's death on the news.

"I was crestfallen.  My heart broke.  I remember all of our good times, our closeness, our being intimate for over sixty years.  I felt I lost a piece of myself with his death."

Notes: These excerpts are found in pages 480 and 481.  Rooney died in 2014 and for all his drama he was ninety-four years old.  He was buried in Hollywood Forever cemetery.

MICKEY ROONEY IN TROUBLE WITH THE MOB AND MARRIED TO A WOMAN WHO HAD BEEN MARRIED TO A MOBSTER

Of all the wives Mickey Rooney had, perhaps the one that Mrs. Smith thought to be the user was Elaine Mahnken, who had started modeling as a teenager and had first been married to a man who went to prison for armed robbery.  Divorced, and a young woman, she went home to live with her mother, a neighbor of Rooney. She grew up seeing him on the Andy Hardy series he starred in, and also admired him as a musician. (He played piano and drums.) But what was in it for her?

Excerpt:  "For thirty days, Mickey proposed to Elaine every night (reminiscent of his courtship of Ava.) For thirty days, Elaine politely told Mickey that she wasn't in love with him...."  (page 325)

It was 1952. He was thirty-two and she was twenty-three. She claimed he was already in financial upheaval. Her ex-husband was in similar trouble with the mob.

Excerpt: (Elaine speaking) "I handled the finances for two and a half years.  Finally, the government was paid, all our bills were paid.  And I took the envelope that contained all of our unpaid bills.  And I said, 'Look Mickey, no more debts.' And what was the thanks I got? Two weeks later Mickey went up to Vegas to play a nightclub date.  He went to the tables and lost fifty grand, just like that. We were back in the hole again.  When I heard that I threw up my hands and said, 'No more.  From now on he could take care of his own finances."  (Page 326)

 

Excerpt: .... " Mickey found out that Elaine was "meeting" her ex-husband.  She claimed he owed money to the mob in Vegas and needed cash to replay them, and he needed it right away because they were putting the heat on him.  She pleaded with Mickey to lend him the money, "as one human being to another," which he refused....  (page 326)

Elaine's ex also put pressure on Mickey for money. The man was murdered with two shots to the back of his head by men working for Mickey Cohen, the mobster.

Excerpt:  "The pseudonymous Mrs. Smith told us, "She (Elaine) didn't give a shit about Mick. She saw him as a sugar daddy who might be able to get her in the movies... Mickey tried to keep her happy... He bought her a vacation home in Lake Arrowhead, a new house in Studio City, and all kinds of toys, like a speedboat, clothes, servants.  She lived like a queen.  But Mickey gets bored easily," his longtime mistress admitted.  "They lived separate lives, and Micky was on to new girls, gambling and living ... well, living like Mickey.  She was living in Lake Arrowhead and partying... I'm also pretty sure she was f***ing her ex-husband who was a hood and e-con, and (she) was giving him money before he was killed.  Mickey was constantly whining to me about her.  He just dreaded another divorce.  (Pages 326-327)

Missy here!

As I read these passages, and the rest of the book, it seems to me that Mickey Rooney was a man who makes decisions on a whim, or as dictated by his sexual drive, and doesn't stop to think much.  He's always running from one situation to another.  Mrs. Smith is the stalwart one in his life who maintains her own marriage while being the consistency in his life.

So I ask you if today we would consider Mrs. Smith to be a "co-dependent" who, because he has her, helps him continue to maintain a chaotic way of living.  It seems to me that she accepted him as he was, giving him an unconditional kind of love that did not depend on him performing as a Hollywood star, as a husband, as a father to her children (if she had any), and so on.

 

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"MRS. SMITH" WAS HOLLYWOOD-CLOSE TO MICKEY ROONEY and KNEW HE'D BEEN ADDICTED : MISSY ASKS YOU

Mrs. Smith, who was in a relationship with Hollywood star Mickey Rooney, was clearly "in the know" when it came to Mickey and the actresses he worked with.  She says she got involved with him 1940ish.

She says that the studio got both Judy Garland (the star of Wizard of Oz) and Mickey Rooney hooked on drugs, sleeping pills (downers) and amphetamines (uppers) and that is how the studio controlled and managed their child stars.  Mickey and Ava Gardner, in their first marriages to each other, went out to clubs and drank heavily.  According to the authors Ava new he was screwing around but when she got word that he had gone off with a fifteen year old girl, she knew she was on the way out of that marriage.  It seems to me that Mickey Rooney may have been addicted to booze and sex and gambling. He was debt with the bookies and as a result there was always debt as well as his ability to earn more because, at least for some time, he was a top earning star.  The studio knew all this about him but they didn't stop casting him.  He was addicted to Ava, even after their divorce he wanted her back.

  

Missy asks you!  Are you an addict?  What of?  

When in your life did your addiction begin?

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HOW DID "MRS. SMITH KEEP A RELATIONSHIP WITH MICKEY FOR SIXTY-FIVE YEARS?

Mrs. Smith spoke to the authors of The Life and Times of Mickey Rooney.

..."I became sexually involved with Mickey between his divorce of B.J. and his marriage to Mart.  Mickey is a very caring and passionate lover.  While we never considered a relationship beyond clandestine meetings and coorespondence, it also was a friendship like no other.  We were able to tell each other our deepest secrets and confidences, which we have done for over sixty years.  We never had a scheduled time or meeting setup; it just happened...well, when it happened.  Whenever we could sneak away. While the sexual aspect eventually was not the focus, we remained almost soul mates.  I heard about the travails with his flavor of the years, and I was able to unload my problems. We both listened and commented.  It was actually better than being in psychoanalysis.  ...  We sometimes talked on the phone, and many times we corresponded  We never sent any letters to our homes; we were very careful... (page 478)

The two led their own lives but Mrs. Smith was in attendance at parties where Mickey, the life of the party, clearly went into another room to have sex with someone (other than her) or left with a woman.

Mrs. Smith also had strong opinions of his various wives.  She thought Martha was a drinker who humiliated him.  Elaine took money from him to help pay off her first husband's gambling debts but seem to be into him for the money.  Barbara, whom Mickey had children with, was murdered and Mrs. Smith reported this terribly traumatized  Mickey.  Soon after he married Barbara's best friend, Marge, who became mother to the four children he'd had with Barbara.  Carolyn, Mrs. Smith reported, was temporarily of interest to Mickey, at a time when he wanted to give up Hollywood and hide out.  Jan was possessive but willing to settle down with Mickey.

So we know that in some way Mrs. Smith and her husband were film-business or Hollywood connected, because there was some socialization with Mickey.  Also, they were close enough that the couple loaned money to Mickey that he never repaid....

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"MRS. SMITH " : THE MISTRESS WHO LASTED 65 YEARS THROUGH OLD HOLLYWOOD ACTOR MICKEY ROONEY'S EIGHT MARRIAGES

This won't be the first time here at MISTRESS MANIFESTO that I've elected a name-unknown woman to the pantheon of Mistress of the Month. I did so back in June of 2017 when I elected "Evey" the once-upon-a-time mistress of singer-songwriter James Taylor. We saw that relationship through the eyes of his then wife, singer-songwriter Carly Simon.  

This month we learn about "Mrs. Smith" who was in an unconventional relationship with Rooney for sixty five years. The book was published in 2015 and she was alive to be interviewed at the time.

The book "The Life and Times of Mickey Rooney" is the primary source for this month's posts.  It's considered to be a definitive biography by authors WIlliam J. Birnes and Richard Lertzman.

MRS. SMITH

Born in 1920, an actor, singer, and dancer with roots in vaudeville stage entertainment, Mickey Rooney started out as a baby and made his first film in 1926. Born Joe Yule, Jr. in Brooklyn, New York, he became a famous Hollywood star young and was the top earning Hollywood star in the late 1930's. He's most known today for staring with Elizabeth Taylor in the equestrian film National Velvet in 1944.  A child actor who retained his youthful looks into his thirties, Rooney would go on to take roles in several other equestrian films but by age 40 the height of his career was in the past, yet he soldiered on. Rooney lived to be 93 years old and by then had worked in three hundred films. He was never a hands-on father but most of his children were proud to be his and loved him. In real life he lived to bet on the horses and was an investor in the Santa Anita horse-racing park.

The five-foot-two actor was an unlikely lothario because - I hate to say this - he was not physically the most handsome of men. Yet, he had attractive energy and charisma and according to Mrs. Smith he was an energetic and inventive lover. His chaotic life was fueled and fired by gambling - betting on the horse races, drinking, and womanizing, though he married eight time, fathered ten children, and had unknown numbers of other lovers. He himself said in his own memoir that he could have just about anyone. (He liked women who were taller than he was.) So it was entirely intriguing to me that he had a mistress, a married woman who socialized in some of the same Hollywood circles that he did. It's evidence that the mistress can play an entirely different role than a wife and that a mistress can be a mistress for a lifetime. There is no evidence that he Kept Mrs. Smith financially but she says he gave her husband his start in the business and that they lent him some money that was never paid back.

A married woman herself, Mrs.

Smith, the name used by the authors to hide her identity, comes at us in chapter 26 of the book, a chapter called Time May Lie Heavy Between.

"We were both at a party, a little tipsy and ... well, it happened."  So begins the story of a former actress  - her long-term spouse is still unaware of her unconventional sixty-five year love affair with Mickey Rooney, which lasted from the 1940's until his death.  She was also his confidant, pen pal, friend, and possibly the only person to whom Mickey unlocked his deepest secrets, desires, and fears."  (page 477) 

Mrs. Smith had taken a vow of silence - self imposed - and was finally ready to speak!

She may have been the only person on earth that he could trust to be his confidant and though they got together here and there, when possible. He wrote to her, so she clearly had some way to receive his letters and keep them without risking her marriage. She knew of his affairs and his marriages, the intense drama of his life, especially when one of his wives with whom he had four children was murdered, and his addictions of which there were a few, and perhaps there was no one who got to know the human being that Mickey was better.

Stick with us this month as we learn more!

Missy

You may also be interested in these posts that are in my archives:

June 2017

EVEY – Singer-Songwriter James Taylor’s Japanese New York Mistress and His Wife, Singer-Songwriter Carly Simon

August 2015

BOB HOPE

So Many Women So Little Time - Who Was The Long Married Comedian – Actor and Patriot’s Mistress? Sandy Vinger For One

September 2017

PAUL NOVAK – 27 Years as Mae West’s Much Younger Live-In Companion: Protective and Loving Till The Day She Died

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Notes: IMDb : Micky Rooney also provided some of the information for this post.

The beautiful actress Ava Gardner was his first of eight wives, and Mickey Rooney's other seven wives were not well known individuials.

BEHIND THE CANDELABRA -THE FILM

IMBd BEHIND THE CANDELABRA FILM (2013) 

Saw this film - saw it again. I liked it.  I thought Michael Douglas, as Liberace and Matt Damon as Scott Thorson, acted wonderfully.

But the story is also of a relationship that was hidden from Liberace's adoring fans, and that began when a much older man took advantage of another not-yet-legal one.  There is always a question of maturity and a question of choice. 

Have you had a relationship with a much older adult that began when you were underage?

How do you feel about it?  Leave me a comment!

Missy

SONDRA LOCKE : THE UGLY END : CLINT HAS MOVED ON AND FINANCIAL MACHINATIONS BEGIN

After Clint Eastwood bought Sondra Locke the house, following her second abortion and the a sterilization, he bought a house for her husband, Gordon.  However, she was presented what appeared to be a lease agreement for that house, which was explained to her as a business maneuver to his benefit. She had been paid less than market rate salaries for her work in the films she appeared in with Clint - the Dirty Harry films.  Finally for Sudden Impact she got a substantial raise for her acting. Wishing to improve her career, Sondra took a directorial position for another film that would not be a collaboration with Clint.  Clint seemed to resent it in some way.  When he was elected mayor of Carmel, California, the town he considered home, his responsibilities put a further distance in their relationship. For Sondra and Clint's relationship might have been a well kept secret when it came to the public, even as they had as a couple many friendships and associations with Hollywood's biggest names.  In 1987 the tabloids were catching up with them.  It was reported that Clint had given Sondra a big engagement ring.  The ring was a gift from a friend. By the Christmas - New Years season 1988, Clint was behaving as if Sondra was no longer his "bestest of the westest." Her women friends felt he was treating her badly and suggested she get a lawyer.  She talked to one, just in case.

Excerpt: page 248 :

"I hesitated to bring it up while you were shooting this film," he began, " but I was .... uh... thinking, it's come to my attention that you... uh... and Gordon are sitting on my only real estate in Los Angeles."

Sitting on his real estate!  Gordon and I? Incredible!

"Your real estate?  Your real estate! That's outrageous, Clint." He actualy looked caught.

"Well,... uh...well... uh, I was thinking maybe you could go stay with Gordon for a while."

He said it as if it were a casual and normal request. 

****

Page 250  Gordon called:

"Listen to me carefully. Stay calm, do you understand? Gordon said. With that my pulse quickened.

"What is it? Just tell me quick,: I almost screamed.

"Clint has locked you out of your house. The sissy waited until you were safely at work, then he changed the locks."

(A letter followed telling her not to return to the house where she had been allowed to stay rent free by Mr. Eastwood.... This was the house that he had supposedly gifted to Sondra. Next boxes were delivered with her personal effects including her clothes - in effect moving her out of that house. Gordon refused the boxes.  By not accepting these boxes Gordon knew they would have to go back to the house she had lived in or be put in storage. But perhaps the worst of it was learning that Clint had two children in Carmel.)

Page 270

My mind was still searching to get all his actions lined up. For at least the last four years, Clint had been living this double lie, going between me and this other woman, and having children with her. Two babies had been born in the last three years of our relationship, and they were't mine. More pain was heaped onto my pain about my own abortions and subsequent tubal ligation.

(In court hearings Sondra learned that she was not in Clint's will but the other woman with children was.)

To this point I will conclude my excerpting of Sondra's book.  What she went through would devastate anyone.

WHAT OPINION DO YOU HAVE OF WHAT YOU'VE READ?

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SONDRA LOCKE : ABORTIONS and STERILIZATION : CLINT WAS NOT GOING TO CHANGE HIS NATURE OR HIS LIFESTYLE

Sondra Locke and Clint Eastwood didn't just go from hotel to old house he owned with his wife in Sherman Oaks. From 1977 through the 1980's she says they acquired most of their homes.  These included Sun Valley, Idaho.  Then a house in Carmel, near the ocean.  He considered it "home" while she thought of Los Angeles as 'home." Because she traveled with him as well, it does seem as that he was mostly living with her. It was the ranch near Mount Shasta that they had the conversation in which to decide on a second abortion...

These passages from ages 170-171

"What are we gonna do? I asked, gently approaching the subject we'd been postponing.

"Well, baby, you know how I feel," Clint said.

I had learned that I was pregnant.

It was not my first pregnancy. The previous year in the summer of 1978, we had to face the same dilemma, and I had reluctantly agreed to an abortion. IT was a hard and painful decision, but Clint had convinced me that it was the only reasonable answer.  It was difficult for me to argue the point, because Maggie had only just learned about us then, and Kyle and Alison (Clint Eastwood's children with his wife Maggie) had had no time adjust.  However, the concept of abortion was not something I had ever even turned over in my mid: I had never been pregnant, no close friend of mine had been pregnant,  Even Gordon, with whom I naturally talked about everything, only said, "It's something only you and Clint should decide."

"In truth, I had never contemplated having a family or not.  But "abortion," despite my pro-choice" politics, was a horrible word and, if I had allowed myself to think about it, a horrible deed.  But denial can be a short term savior, so I flipped a switch somewhere in my head and heart and had taken denial's hand.  After all, Clint had been a clear and unmovable on what he wanted me to do. I abstracted it all. Through a reliable reference, Clint had arranged for a doctor at UCLA to perform the abortion for me.  A woman.  I liked her immediately; she was sensitive and thoughtful and before I knew it, it was all over.  And I tried to forget.

But now in 1979, we had to face the same decision again.... Before I had met Clint my gynecologist had suggested and fitted for me an IUD. Because my sex life was not very active, he did not think I should be constantly taking birth control polls. Clint complained of the IUD - it was uncomfortable for him, he said.  And he too was not in favor of birth control pills, so he suggested a special clinic at Cedars Hospital where they taught a 'natural' method of birth control.  It was the same rhythm' system that historically has been used to determine the fertile days for those who are attempting to achieve pregnancy......

"Well, you know I feel the same way I did before, sweetie.  I don't really want more children." Clint told me softly.  I'm concerned about you're having another abortion, though."

***

Clint convinced Sondra that it would be best to avoid the pill and prevent any further abortions through sterilization on the basis that this was the healthiest option.

***

I could feel my heart in my throat.  It was not that Clint was taking something away from me that I had absolutely counted on or had consciously planned on... it was just that any decision from which there is no going back is a scary one. (page 171-172)

***

Clint asked Sondra if she wanted to spend her life with him or not.  He reasoned that he was a lot older than she and that the sterilization would be the best thing for their life together.  Her husband Gordon and another friend took her to the hospital; Clint was not going to make an appearance and have the press figure things out.  Then he made a show of giving Sondra the Sherman Oaks house, which she did not want. so he told her to go find herself that she could love and decorate and he would buy it for her.  In 1980 she found her house In Los Angeles - Bel Air. It cost $1.1 million - a deal at the time. Gordon, her husband, helped her design it and renovate it. The Warners Brothers studio also helped.

DO YOU THINK SONDRA SHOULD HAVE LEFT CLIFF A THIS POINT?

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SONDRA LOCKE : THE GOOD AND THE BAD OF BEING A MARRIED WOMAN HE CALLED SNOW WHITE - INVOLVED WITH A MARRIED MAN SHE CALLED DADDY : CLINT EASTWOOD

In these passages Sondra Locke's memoir, she describes the good and bad, the benefits and the accommodations, of accepting life with him unmarried, as his mistress. This is the second time I've read the book from cover to cover and I'm sensitive to two things; One that Sondra had no intention of divorcing her husband who she thought of as her only family and that husband, Gordon, was accepting of his wife, Sondra, being another man's mistress. 

It seems that Clint Eastwood was also happy that Sondra stayed married to Gordon. Two, that Sondra was into the relationship for the long haul, even though Clint remained married and she had two abortions and a tubal ligation, giving up any future children with him or another man, at his insistence. In the mid 1970's Gordon was having a romance with another man.

1975 : "Although Clint was clearly Daddy in the dynamics of our relationship, I seemed to bring out the little boy in him. And although he loved me for my childlike nature, he brought out the woman in me. Clint seemed astonished at his need for me, even admitting that he'd never been faithful to one woman - because he'd never been in love before," he confided.  He even made up a song about it: " She made me monogamous."  That flattered and delighted me. I would never doubt his faithfulness and his love for me. (page 145)

In the beginning when we were in Los Angeles, Clint and I stayed in his private  apartment adjacent to his office on the Warners lot. Soon we moved into his small house in Sherman Oaks, which he and Maggie's (Clint's wife) had acquired during his Rawhide success...... (Sondra hated the architecture and interiors but it was a respite from hotel rooms.)

***

1978 : Almost as if it were a nonevent, he answered, "Maggie wants to go to Hawaii."  I stood there dumbstruck.

"What do you mean a vacation? You didn't mention anything  to me." With Clint everything usually came out in little tiny snippets, but this one really threw me.

"Maggie asked about you and I told her," said Clint.

"What do you mean?  What did she say?"......

"She wants us to go there with the kids to see if we can 'work things out,' save our marriage, I guess," he replied.  (page 151)

(Clint said that he told his wife it was not just an affair and that he loved Sondra. This wife filed for a legal separation but not a divorce and did not actually divorce him till 1984.)

***

...  In retrospect it's interesting how the whole 'marriage or not" issue evolved for me with Clint.  In the beginning, I guess I wanted Clint to be divorced and marry me.  ...  Then, as the years went by somehow it did not seem to matter.  I truly believed that Clint and I did not need papers to validate the commitments we had made to each other.... And Clint knew the nature of Gordon's and my relationship, and was unconcerned that legally we were still married. In my conscious mind then, my marriage with Gordon was financial protection for him.  If something happened to me, he would be saved from unnecessary taxes on any assets I would leave behind. ... 

DO YOU THINK SONDRA's MARRIAGE TO A GAY MAN THAT SHE WOULD NOT GIVE UP MADE HER MORE VULNERABLE TO CLINT?

SONDRA LOCKE : MEETING CLINT EASTWOOD and THEN SOME! THEIR INSTANTANEOUS CONNECTION

Sondra Locke had an acting career before she and her husband, Gordon, came to Los Angeles - Hollywood. Gordon was reportedly homosexual and Sondra stayed married to him. They were living in the city when, in 1975, her agent called her to meet with Clint Eastwood, for consideration for a part in the film The Outlaw Josie Wales, which became a hit. Upon meeting him on the set, Sondra experienced an attraction and Clint began to court her right away.

Excerpt pages 138 - 139:  The next night Clint sat across from me at a table for two in a cozy restaurant only a shot drive from the Wahweap Lodge. We both ordered steak and baked potatoes. It was that kind of place.

His gray-green eyes studied me again.  "I find it hard to think of what to say when I'm with someone I really like," he confided.

My pulse quickened. "Me too." Then my eyes returned to my plate for another long silence.  I wanted to fill the empty space with words.  But what words? I told him how happy I was that Kaufman wanted me to be in this film, ad how much I was looking forward to the experience, ad how much I loved the location and how - and how -

"I was the one who wanted you in the film" he interrupted....

"Really?"

"I'll never forgot meeting you for Breezy, Sondra."

"But you didn't hire me for that film, did you," I teased.

"No, I didn't. Big Mistake." He smiled.  I hadn't noticed how long his eyelashes were, how aquiline his nose. "But I've hired you ow."

"I'm glad," I genuinely blushed.

Even though our instant rapport was completely different from out office meetings, it was still just as real, just as natural. I could almost forget that he was Clint Eastwood, could almost believe he was some handsome stranger that I had happened to meet while on vacation in Arizona.  But after dinner as we walked to the car, I was quickly reminded of exactly who he was when I glanced back toward the restaurant.  There, with their noses glued to the window was every waitress and customer, straining to get a last glimpse.

We were both completely silent as we began that twenty minute drive back to the hotel, where this dram of an evening would end.  Then suddenly, but easily, I felt his large hand touch mine.  My fingers involuntarily responded, instantly wrapping themselves around his - a perfect fit.  He turned and looked at me, and squeezing my hand a little tighter, pressed down on the accelerator, making our car surge forward, faster and faster, back toward the Wahweap Lodge.

Once at my door all that was necessary was another look at each other.  There was no conservation, no maneuvering, it was all as natural as if it were happening for the thousandth time, but as exciting as any first time could be.  He pulled me into his arms and kissed me gently, delicately.  Then lifting me up, like some knight bearing his maiden, he carried me across the room to the bed.  Physically I thought he was the most gorgeous man I had ever seen - his heroic face, his tall, tithe, muscular body. And in spite of his size and power, he was a gentle, affectionate, thoughtful, and yet intensely ardent lover.  I thought of nothing except the moment.  There was nothing in his past I wanted to know about, and nothing I wanted to tell, and certainly nothing I wanted to address about my future reality.  We made love that night, not once, but several times.  It was truly magic. Together, it seemed that, through we were two bodies, two hearts... in perfect accord we were one.

The next morning I awoke and found myself alone.  Perhaps it had been a dram.  But there on my pillow was a little scrawled reminder; "Miss you, duck." And I smiled.

From that moment on, Clint and I were inseparable.  Even on the set, working together, we couldn't take our eyes off each together.  He wanted me constantly with him, to go every place with him, even just to watch him play tennis with a friend.  "I've never known anyone that I wanted to be around me all the time,' he said seriously. "I guess I'm usually trying to get away."

C Sondra Locke

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THE HISTORIC MAX FACTOR MUSEUM IN HOLLYWOOD : AN ACCLAIMED MAKE UP ARTIST TO THE STARS CREATED THEIR IMAGES

THE HOLLYWOOD MAX FACTOR MUSEUM  Max Factor is considered "The Father of Modern Make-Up."  Restored to it's original gilded decor, this is where Factor created the looks for many a starlet and star.  This is where Marilyn Monroe became a blonde and Lucille Ball became a redhead!  The museum contains a vast collection of Marilyn Monroe costumes and artifacts.

BARBARA LODEN : TALENTED ACTOR AND DIRECTOR : MISTRESS, THEN WIFE OF CONTROVERSIAL HOLLYWOOD DIRECTOR ELIA KAZAN

BARBARA LODEN

Image from Found A Grave

1932-1980

Who says a man never marries his Mistress? Or that a woman can't accomplish something great just because she had a disadvantaged childhood? The story of our Mistress of the Month, actress Barbara Loden, begins in North Carolina, where she was raised by her grandparents, and ends in Manhattan, with lots of Hollywood in between. 

An actor who studied at the famous Actor's Studio, where James Dean, Marlon Brando, and Marilyn Monroe also studied, and which was founded in 1947 by Elia Kazan, Cheryl Crawford, and Robert Lewis, in New York City, Loden became an accomplished actor. The Actor's Studio is famous for an acting technique called "The Method," an emotion-based performance in which the actor embodies the character. Though her study there she was noted by Elia Kazan, who thought her range was limited but that when she was good she was very good. At some point they began an affair which endured.

Barbara Loden, though not a household name, was a working actress on stage, in film and on television. According to the IMBd, a film database, "A one time pin-up beauty and magazine story model, Barbara Loden studied acting in New York in the early 50's and was on the Broadway boards within the decade. She was discovered for films by legendary producer/director Elia Kazan, who was impressed with what she did in a small roll as Montgomery' Clift's secretary in Wild River (1960). He moved her up to feature status with her next tole as Warren Beatty's wanton sister in is classic Splendor in the Grass (1961). As Kazan's protégé she appeared as part of Kazan's stage company in the Lincoln Center Repertory Theater's [production of After the Fall (1964), winning the Tony and Outer Critic's Circle awards for that dazzling performance..." 

As a contemporary of actresses such as Elizabeth Taylor and Natalie Wood, Barbara was most compared to Marilyn Monroe or Jean Harlow - blonde sex goddesses. She played a version of Marilyn in "After the Fall" which had been written by Marilyn Monroe's real life ex husband, Arthur Miller and a character that most people - including Marilyn - assumed to be based on Marilyn. Yet, unlike these other actresses, she became a feminist icon after her film Wanda. Was she a feminist?  Probably not, in my opinion, but certainly she was influenced by the 1970's feminist movement.

Though she was in plays and in films, early on she appeared on television as a comedic sexy sidekick as a regular on the Ernie Kovacs Television Show. Her first husband, Larry Joachim, to whom she was married from 1954 to1967, was a TV producer and film distributor and acted as her manager and promoter and got her the audition. Together they had one son but Barbara, while still married to Larry, also had a son with Elia Kazan, with whom she had an on and off again relationship and.  After the death of his long time wife, Molly, married Kazan.

Elia Kazan was married to Molly and had children with her from 1932 to 1963.  Molly died, and that freed Elia to marry Barbara, who Molly did know of as an actor.  

Elia married Barbara in 1967, after she'd been his mistress for several years. Sadly, while they were still married at the time of her early death because of breast cancer, at the age of 48,  Kazan was rumored to be involved with another Mistress at the time. In fact, in his autobiography he admitted to having bedded the wives of a number of men who had funded his films and while the book was published in 1988, years after Barbara's death, he is not very complimentary to her. He called her a "hillbilly" for instance, because she was raised in the Appalachian Mountains in rural poverty. He, however, could be called a Turkish refugee.  As I see it, that she got out of there and attempted a career at all is more important. Barbara had risked moving to New York while still a teenager, and like many young women of her generation, took work she could get in which she relied on her beauty.

Kazan (1909 - 2003) is considered to be of one if the greatest film directors in Hollywood with numerous Oscar nominations for his films which you may have seen such as Streetcar of Desire. His films won eight. In 1999 he was given an honorary Oscar as a director, which was controversial because during the hunt for Communists in the McCarthy era, he had named names and testified against others. Many people in the film industry who were labeled as Communists were blacklisted and could no longer find work. As a result, protestors appeared outside the event. Some speculated that he had a habit of turning against people who had helped him.

About Wanda. This film was a remarkable accomplishment for any woman at the time.  Film schools have been full of women in recent decades but it was the first ever film in which a woman wrote, directed, and starred.  Wanda came out in 1970. This crime drama was filmed on a low budget of about $115,000 and had a crew of four - just one other actor. It's gritty realism was notable and no doubt the character Wanda was inspired by Barbara's childhood, the woman she might have become if she had not moved to New York. It's been reported that for all his accomplishments, Kazan attempted to take credit for her film. 

Barbara discovered she had breast cancer when she was about forty-six. She attempted holistic treatment but it didn't work. Eventually she accepted radiation and then chemotherapy. At the time Kazan wanted a divorce but didn't file because of her illness. In his autobiography, he says that their relationship after the success of Wanda had changed as Barbara became more self assured and less dependent and that they were no longer intimate. However, as she first fought the disease with less traditional or "medical establishment" methods and then in desperation took radiation and chemotherapy, he didn't abandon her. It is said that she had agreed to divorce and that he had another Mistress. 

Though she never approached the celebrity of her peers such as Elizabeth Taylor, Natalie Wood, or Marilyn Monroe, the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress (United States) considered the film Wild River (1960), which Barbara acted in, to be significant.  The film Wanda is also noted by the National Film Registry and has been preserved and refurbished by UCLA.

This month I will link to much more information about Wanda, the film, and Barbara and Elia. Stick with me, won't you, and learn much more about this fascinating woman.

C 2021

References for this months posts include a wide variety or resources, some which we will link to, including Wikis, the IMBd database, YouTube videos, and Elia Kazan's autobiography. A few years ago when I wanted to write about Barbara Loden not so much was available.  Today there is great interest in her. 

You might want to search for Hollywood in my archives.

MANK FILM INCLUDES W.R. HEARST's MISTRESS MARION DAVIES

NETFLIX : MANK FILM OFFICIAL SITE 

The Old Hollywood actor Marion Davies, the long time Mistress of William Randolph Hearst, our Mistress of the Month in July 2013 here at Mistress Manifesto BlogSpot, is portrayed by actor Amanda Seyfried, in MANK.  Mank is the nickname for a screenwriter named Herman J. Mankiewicz, talented and alcoholic, who was the screenwriter for Orson Well's film Citizen Kane. Citizen Kane was supposed to be a bit of a parody of the lifestyle that Marion and W.R. had at their California "ranch," where they often entertained Hollywood friends. Originally planned as La Cuesta Encantada (Enchanted Hill) it was referred to as San Simeon,  Today it's a tourist spot called "Hearst Castle" and is about half way up the coast of California.

HEARST CASTLE ORG - Informative Site! I'm so glad that Marion's role in Hearst's life is included in the list of bio's at this site. 

EXCERPT: By the end of her career she had starred in a total of 46 films, including 16 talkies.  In the early twenties, she and Hearst moved their company, Cosmopolitan Productions, to California and joined forces with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios.  All of her major films were produced by Cosmopolitan Productions and filmed at Paramount, MGM, and Warner Brothers studios.

Shortly after meeting Heart she became his constant companion and confidante. She was Hollywood's foremost hostess, throwing lavish parties at both Hearst Castle and at a extraordinary mansion on the beach in Santa Monica.  Dignitaries, Hollywood stars and famous athletes eagerly accepted invitations to her parties.  She followed the recommendations of Hearst's financial advisors, avoided debt, and invested wisely in real estate.

During the late thirties, hard times hit Hearst Corporation, and Marion gave Hearst a check for one million dollars to save the company from collapse. According to those who knew her, this selfless act was just one example of Marion's character.

***

But what of the Davies character in Mank, a film that recieved 10 Oscar nominations, and Amanda Seyfried's portrayal of Marion? Seyfried was nominated for Best Supporting Actress.

This NPR article praises the actress: NPR ORG : AMANSA SEYFRIED SHINES AS MARION DAVIES in MANK  This article is about how the actress was turned into a Marion, wardrobe, hair, the works, for the film and is worth the read - or you can listen to the audio instead.

EXCEPT: (Amanda speaking)

"Marion was a really talented actor, she had incredible range, she was really funny, and she was able to lighten any scene that she was in,: says Seyfriend,"She was very unfiltered like I am, and she was very allergic to being dishonest, which I am absolutely, You know, the Brooklynese was kind of, just, at the end of the day, when she took her shoes off and she grabbed her bottle of gin.  She was exactly who seh was and you know, she hd no shame from where she came from."

If interested in Marion, please use the search feature embedded in this blog, or go into the archives to read the whole month!

Missy

WHEN THE LION ROARS

The Roaring Lion as icon of M.G.M. movie studios is well known.

Samuel Goldwyn and Louis B. Mayer 

were Jewish immigrants to the United State

who made their way to Hollywood and became

important and powerful men.

SUPERMAN TELEVISION SERIES

CHERI - BELLE EPOQUE MISTRESSES IN FRANCE : A FILM ABOUT AN OLDER COURTESAN AND A MUCH YOUNGER MAN

Lea, acted by Michelle Pfeiffer, is a French, pre- World War I Paris, Bell Epoch courtesan who has, until she meets a certain younger man, she calls Cheri, prideful of not ever really falling in love enough to be hurt.  Cheri was turned over to Lea by a somewhat older courtesan, a bit of a rival, who wants her son to get a good education in sex.  Now that she has fallen in love and done her job well, her rival match-makes her son with an age-appropriate and pure young daughter of yet another Courtesan. 

Lea uses all that she knows about being a woman, sex but not just, to get him back.

Taking place at a time when some Courtesans became wealthy, independent women by investing their money right, we none-the-less realize how small their world and opportunities are.  What they want for their children is a more normal life and a rise into respectability.

Lea wins the young man back. How can he forget his perfect lover when his wife is so, well, inexperienced?  In actuality Lea must turn him away when he comes back to her. an act of the most ferocious, selfless love. Her wisdom as she approaches mid-life is heartbreaking, which is why this is a good, thought-provoking and entertaining film.  And it's great to see the actress Kathy Bates in a role in which she is seductive.

C 2017  Mistress Manifesto BlogSpot  film review  Missy Rapport

WARHOLESQUE MONROE

This image from http://www.freetoshareanduse.com

 

Authentic or a copy, I don't know, but issues of Andy Warhol's series of

 MARILYN MONROE

can be found all over the world in museums and private collections. 

Here is the official site of the ANDY WARHOL MUSEUM

WARHOL ORG

 

BLONDE by JOYCE CAROL OATES : MISTRESS MANIFESTO BOOK REVIEW

This was a book I stayed home to read over one entire weekend because I COULD NOT PUT IT DOWN.  So I cancelled all else, didn't even bother to cook or even bath, and was well rewarded for sticking with it.  There was a mastery of the writer's art of telling a story here that was so good that there were times reading it when I broke down in tears, or got "the chills," and scenes that stuck with me for days after I closed the last page which was nothing less than a triumph.  

I know that Oates did a lot of research of her own, not just leaning on books claiming nonfiction that have been written by this actress who has captured the world's imagination, so those of you who have read a lot of Marilyn-themed books as I have would probably have that same urge to think : Finally someone has gotten it right!

This book was a finalist for the National Book Award, which means that it is literary fiction that was highly regarded by those in the know.  Like many people I was lured to read it by the cover (there have been many different cover designs) that are extremely suggestive of MARILYN MONROE.  So one thing a reader should not skip is the disclaimer at the front of the book that says that this is a work of fiction based on Marilyn Monroe, meaning that the author, JOYCE CAROL OATES is having her creative way with the Marilyn Monroe story.  And to be honest, even if you had never heard of MARILYN MONROE, you could think "Ah, the story of an actress of the late forties and 1950's in Hollywood," and you would still be moved.  Excellent!

C 2016 Mistress Manifesto BlogSpot / Missy Rapport  All Rights including Internet and International Rights reserved.

ARE YOU AN ACTOR WHO'SE BEEN ON THE CASTING COUCH TO GET WORK? WHAT DO YOU THINK OF MARILYN MONROE FOR DOING SO? : MISSY ASKS A QUESTION

Have you been on the casting couch in order to get acting or other work in film?  Hollywood or elsewhere?  Did you get the work you wanted by having sex with someone who hires or has power to influence those who do?  We'd like to hear your story!

Missy

MARILYN MONROE and JOHNNY HYDE : BOOK EXCERPTS from C. DAVID HEYMANN

From the book "JOE (DiMaggio) AND MARILYN - LEGENDS IN LOVE" by C. DAVID HEYMANN

... "It can be said that without Johnny Hyde, whom she'd met at the Racquet Club in Palm Springs in 1949, there would have been no Marilyn Monroe.  More than twice her age, he fell passionately in love with her, fled his family (including a wife of long standing) and set up a household with Marilyn on North Palm Drive in Beverly Hills. Repeatedly, persistently, he asked her to marry him, but just as persistently she declined insisting she loved him but wasn't in love with him.  He never the less wooed her by being kind, talking to her about openly about his intimate life, and listening to her stories about hers...  Above all, she stayed with him because she felt he really needed her.  Then in December 1950, Hyde suffered a massive heart attack and died.  Once again a father figure had vanished into thin air.
(page 50)

"The mere mention of Johnny Hyde's name by Solotaire (Joe DiMaggio's possibly best friend), brought tears to Marilyn's eyes and concomitantly caused DiMaggio to explode in a fit of anger of the sort that was fast becoming all too familiar to Monroe.

"Do we need to discuss all of her fucking ex-lovers?" he yelled.

"This Hyde jerk sounds like just another Hollywood vulture out to get laid."

Marilyn had heard enough.  Now it was her turn to vent.  "Johnny Hyde was a lovely, warm, caring man," she said.  "He gave me more than his kindness and love.  He was the first man I'd ever known who tried to understand me.  How dare you question his integrity."

Then, with neither malice or regret, Marilyn embarked on a lengthy account of the men in her life that had played instrumental roles in her personal and professional development.  The list, from Joseph Schenk, co-founder and chairman of the board of Twentieth Century Fox, to Fred Karger, her former vocal coach and lover - seemed endless to DiMaggio, but having been properly and thoroughly chastised by Marilyn for his outburst, he sat there and listened.  "He took it like a man," George Solotaire later told his son.  "Then again," he added, "What choice did he have."  (page 51)