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Authors: Shaun Considine
Tags: Fiction
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narrowly escaped death when the engine of her car caught fire and she was trapped behind the wheel. She also learned how to smoke and talk dirty. "I felt so out of it, at nightclubs and things, I thought maybe if I started smoking I'd look sophisticated. So I started smoking. And then I decided I'd like to swear a little. So I became quite a bad swearer." "She had to unlearn everything that she had been taught was proper," said writer Franc Dillon. "She had to appear physically flamboyant in order to make her employees suspect she would have glamour on the screen."
Warner's, a studio known predominantly for its male-oriented gangster and crime pictures, went along with the new Bette. "They didn't know what to do with strong women," said Joan Blondell. "We were used to being cast as the arm piece—the girlfriend, the showgirl, the moll—always as background interest for guys like Jimmy Cagney or Eddie Robinson. Then Bette came along and started yelling for equal time. She was the first one to take on Jack Warner. She had no fear." Warner, still smarting over the loss of Jean Harlow, who made
Public Enemy
for his studio and then skipped over to M-G-M to become a star, gave the executive order that Bette Davis was to receive the full blond-bombshell treatment, Burbank economy style. She posed for studio stills wearing backless gowns, skimpy playsuits, and in the obligatory swimsuit shots. Later, as first lady of the studio, she would deny she had ever posed for cheesecake pictures, but Joan Blondell said, "Baloney! She did them. We all did them, and were damn glad to be asked. It wasn't as if we ever showed anything; heck, we wore more in those so-called sexy beach photos than they do on Fifth Avenue today."
With the publicity photos came the press releases, equally synthetic. "Bette Davis' weight has been insured with Lloyd's of London," said one bulletin. "Presently at 107 Ibs., if she goes to 120 the insurance company will pay Warner Brothers $30,000!"
A press book issued during this time gave the following "Portrait of Bette Davis":
She said she would never bleach her hair but she did.
She can tell a woman's age by her elbows.
She is not interested in Mahatma Gandhi's health.
She loathes scented stationery and has never been to a pawn shop.
She crawls over rather than under a fence, and completely bald men do not fascinate her.
She follows famous murder cases closely and wouldn't spank a baby if she had one.
The new, tempestuous Bette was shown on the screen in
20,000 Years in Sing Sing,
with Spencer Tracy; he was a gangster and she was his moll. "I was good as the moll," she said. In her memoirs, taking a second slight swipe at Joan Crawford, Bette described her next film—"A little gem called
Parachute Jumper,
opposite young Douglas Fairbanks, the Crown Prince of Hollywood, scion of Pickfair, and consort to M-G-M's Princess Royal, Joan Crawford."
In
Parachute Jumper,
Bette had to learn how to type, chew gum, and "toss slang," for the role of a nervy, gum-chewing secretary. "It is very difficult to talk while chewing gum," she said, but, according to a publicity release, "Succeed she did, and today she can hold her own with so seasoned an expert as Joan Blondell."
Fairbanks, Jr., who had scored at Warner Bros. two years before in
Little Caesar,
had an unusual nonexclusive contract with the studio. His salary for
Parachute Jumper
was four thousand dollars a week (compared with Bette's $ 750), and he was to receive top billing above the title, with Davis below, in third place. 'After the planes," she said.
She was looking forward to working with Fairbanks, however, if only "to razz him up a little" about his choice in wives and his phony British accent. "He was still to become Great Britain's last Earl," she said, "but he was already saying 'profeel,' for one's side view." Before she could dissect his dialect or his lovely wife, Joan, Bette was stricken
Warner's, a studio known predominantly for its male-oriented gangster and crime pictures, went along with the new Bette. "They didn't know what to do with strong women," said Joan Blondell. "We were used to being cast as the arm piece—the girlfriend, the showgirl, the moll—always as background interest for guys like Jimmy Cagney or Eddie Robinson. Then Bette came along and started yelling for equal time. She was the first one to take on Jack Warner. She had no fear." Warner, still smarting over the loss of Jean Harlow, who made
Public Enemy
for his studio and then skipped over to M-G-M to become a star, gave the executive order that Bette Davis was to receive the full blond-bombshell treatment, Burbank economy style. She posed for studio stills wearing backless gowns, skimpy playsuits, and in the obligatory swimsuit shots. Later, as first lady of the studio, she would deny she had ever posed for cheesecake pictures, but Joan Blondell said, "Baloney! She did them. We all did them, and were damn glad to be asked. It wasn't as if we ever showed anything; heck, we wore more in those so-called sexy beach photos than they do on Fifth Avenue today."
With the publicity photos came the press releases, equally synthetic. "Bette Davis' weight has been insured with Lloyd's of London," said one bulletin. "Presently at 107 Ibs., if she goes to 120 the insurance company will pay Warner Brothers $30,000!"
A press book issued during this time gave the following "Portrait of Bette Davis":
She said she would never bleach her hair but she did.
She can tell a woman's age by her elbows.
She is not interested in Mahatma Gandhi's health.
She loathes scented stationery and has never been to a pawn shop.
She crawls over rather than under a fence, and completely bald men do not fascinate her.
She follows famous murder cases closely and wouldn't spank a baby if she had one.
The new, tempestuous Bette was shown on the screen in
20,000 Years in Sing Sing,
with Spencer Tracy; he was a gangster and she was his moll. "I was good as the moll," she said. In her memoirs, taking a second slight swipe at Joan Crawford, Bette described her next film—"A little gem called
Parachute Jumper,
opposite young Douglas Fairbanks, the Crown Prince of Hollywood, scion of Pickfair, and consort to M-G-M's Princess Royal, Joan Crawford."
In
Parachute Jumper,
Bette had to learn how to type, chew gum, and "toss slang," for the role of a nervy, gum-chewing secretary. "It is very difficult to talk while chewing gum," she said, but, according to a publicity release, "Succeed she did, and today she can hold her own with so seasoned an expert as Joan Blondell."
Fairbanks, Jr., who had scored at Warner Bros. two years before in
Little Caesar,
had an unusual nonexclusive contract with the studio. His salary for
Parachute Jumper
was four thousand dollars a week (compared with Bette's $ 750), and he was to receive top billing above the title, with Davis below, in third place. 'After the planes," she said.
She was looking forward to working with Fairbanks, however, if only "to razz him up a little" about his choice in wives and his phony British accent. "He was still to become Great Britain's last Earl," she said, "but he was already saying 'profeel,' for one's side view." Before she could dissect his dialect or his lovely wife, Joan, Bette was stricken
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