Hollywood Stories

By the Editors

This marks a new column for our site and will run from time to time. We are featuring stories that have floated around Hollywood for years, some true, others apocryphal. We hope you enjoy reading them as much as we did compiling them.

Goldwynisms

Over the years, Sam Goldwyn has been credited with many remarks such as “I read part of it all the way through,” and “If Roosevelt were alive today he’d turn over in his grave.” How many of them Sam actually uttered is unknown. He’s like Yogi Berra in that a lot of sayings were attributed to him. Both men always made for good copy.

There is one story about Sam that he wanted to produce a film adaptation of the novel The Well of Loneliness. When his staff told him the Hays Office would never approve it he asked why. They told him the main character was a lesbian. “So what?” roared Sam, “We’ll make her an American.”

Stanwyck Trumps Van Heflin

Barbara Stanwyck silently seethed when co-star Van Heflin in B.F.'s Daughter attempted to upstage her during a monologue by rolling a silver dollar back and forth between his fingers. When it became his turn to deliver a long piece of dialogue he stopped still as the crew began laughing. Looking behind him, he saw Stanwyck slowly pulling her dress up over her head. “What are you doing?” the stunned actor asked. “Showing them a trick a hell lot more interesting than yours,” she shot back.

Bette Davis

Ava Gardner recalled the first time she met the legendary star. Spotting her in a hotel lobby in Madrid, she walked up to Davis and introduced herself. “Miss Davis, I’m Ava Gardner and I’m a great fan of yours.” Bette gave her a cursory glance and shot back, “Of course you are, my dear. Of course you are.” She then continued walking. “Now there’s a star,” exclaimed the awed Gardner.

A Bill of Divorcement (1932)

This film marked the Hollywood debut of Katharine Hepburn. Co-starring with the lecherous John Barrymore was a trial for the young actress. Every chance he got Barrymore’s hands were roaming over Hepburn’s anatomy. After he ruined a scene because she screamed, she turned to him and said that he he continued to paw her she would stop acting. Barrymore simply looked at her and said, “My dear, I wasn’t aware that you begun.”

A huge egotist, Barrymore once said, “My only regret in the theater is that I could never sit out front and watch me.”

In 1920, he was said to have invited Mary Astor’s mother to have tea on his porch while he seduced then 14-year old Mary in the living room. 

A hopeless alcoholic, in his final years on the stage Barrymore often staggered through his performances, dead drunk and oblivious to catcalls from the audience. During one performance he astonished the audience by stopping in mid-sentence and relieving himself in a flowerpot.