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Joining Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer was like walking into a dream world.
In the MGM commissary I'd see stars like Fred Astaire, Lana Turner, June Allyson, Judy Garland, Elizabeth Taylor, Deborah
Kerr, Esther Williams, Robert Taylor, Van Johnson, Gene Kelly, Ava Gardner, and Frank Sinatra. You could get a severe case
of insecurity when you came into makeup in the morning and found yourself seated between Elizabeth Taylor and Ava Gardner.
Louis B. Mayer was head of MGM at the time, and when he threw a party, the stars
would all be there.
Ava Gardner, who was so beautiful she took my breath away, came up to me at a
newsstand on the Metro lot. She wasn't wearing any makeup, but even so, her beauty was radiant. She told me that she had just
seen one of my films, and she thought it was excellent. I was a nobody, and she certainly didn't have to do that. But this
wasn't unusual; in those days, at least, it seemed that the bigger the star, the nicer and more down-to-earth he or she was.
A Feeling of Sad
Dignity
Are
two children too much to pay for Love ?
When a married woman falls in love with another
man, she must expect trouble. But Deborah Kerr never dreamed she'd have to face such devastating heartache!
"There are several linings to dark clouds," Deborah Kerr said. It is rather good to learn that. It is good to learn the
heights, the depths and the power that life holds. It tests your strength."
There wasn't an actual cloud in
the sky above her, as she spoke. It was springtime in the Alps, and she was in Klosters, one of the most beautiful, exclusive
and expensive Swiss villages, where she had lived, off and on, for almost a year. Where, certainly, her strength had been
tested, again and again. Peter Viertel, very tall, very broad-shouldered, very masculine, lived in Klosters, also. He was
there to write a book. The Pleasure Seekers, which is out now, and a smash hit.
The polite explanation of Deborah's being
in Klosters was that she was relaxing from the tremendous strain of four movies made in quick succession. The film brought
her $800,000, but four big films, one right after the other, tires any actress, particularly a sensitive one like Deborah.
However,
the artistic side of her life meant very little to her in Klosters. Her excuse for being in Klosters was that there she could
find privacy. From there she could easily go back and forth to London, every weekend, to see her daughters. She adored her
children. They adored her. But they were then wards of the British court because this was the action bher husband had taken
when he had learned about her and Peter Viertel. That discovery had happened in Vienna in May, 1958.
Some loves grow
greater because of opposition. The love of Deborah Kerr and Peter Viertel has. Two more worldly people, at least on the surface,
it would be hard to find. When they met in Vienna that May, she was the co-star of The Journey
with Yul Brynner. Peter Viertel was the writer of the screenplay. They were both married. They were both parents.
The marriage of Deborah Kerr and Anthony Bartley (son of Sir Charles and Lady Bartley of London, a great British
war hero, a wearer of the DFC medal), had long been called an "ideal" one. Peter Viertel's marriage wasn't even mentioned.
It existed, but so did his dating of Joan Fontaine and his dating of Bettina, the beautiful model who is still expected to
marry the Ali Kahn. There had been many beautiful women in Peter Viertel's life up to and including Ava Gardner. Tony Bartley
is almost as debonaire a man as Peter Viertel, but he has a fifferent heritage. Born and reared an upper class English
gentleman, there are, in his book, things that are not done, and there is also his belief that an Englishman's home is
his castle.
Tony and Deborah met during the war. He was in love with Deborah, almost at first sight. He sent her a cable
asking her to marry him. His parents had met the lovely actress and approved of her. She was very shy then, very insecure,
and the Bartleys certainly didn't know that she had already gone through two bitter love disillusions. Deborah forgot them,
too, when she got Tony's cable. He asked, "Will you marry me?" She cabled back, "Yes, when?" November 28th, 1945 was the date
in the very fashionable St George's Church in Hanover Square, London. It was charming, wonderful, and so, so correct. It was
a perfect beginning for what Deborah and Tony believed would be a perfect, most correct future life.
Peter Viertel's upbringing
is quite the opposite. Peter was raised in the most bohemian side of show business. His mother is the famous Salka Viertel,
who was greta Garbo's best friend and scripter of many of her films. All during his boyhood and young manhood, Peter met only
the most dashing and colorful people. He always knew how to do all the smooth things, like playing the best tennis, swimming
in the best pools, riding the best horses, and paying the best compliments. He buddy-buddied up with young John Huston, and
other big names. He traveled. He wrote. He didn't write importantly, but he got important studio assignments. He married and
seven years ago, he had a daughter. At fashionable dinner parties in the film colony, he flirted with the pritty ladies.
So, there
was the set-up for Vienna, spring of 1958. Peter had been hired by Brynner, and Tola Litvak, who was producer-director of
"The Journey," to touch up the script which another writer had originally done. Litvak and Brynner jointly owned
The Journey. The two men are great friends and are the type who would most like a sophisticate like Peter.
Enter Deborah
Kerr. She is such a different Deborah than the reserved young woman who came to Hollywood with a contract for a quarter of
a million dollars and whose first picture was "The Hucksters" opposite Clark Gable in the United States. She was so shy then.
She used to get the nervous jitters whenever she had to enter a room or meet an interviewer. Her manners were flawless but
one could feel, despite her barrier of reserve - which was actually her shyness - the warmth of her personality.
Story By
Lisa Reynolds
DREAM WIFE (M-G-M) 1953
After making this dreary comody, Grant retired
from film-making. Here he played an American businessman who became interested in an Wastern princess, Betta St. John, who
believed in satisfying the every whim of her man, but found there was more to be said for the American career girl, Deborah
Kerr, who is chaperoning the princess on her American goodwill tour.
BALLERINA SUES 20th
FOR 'KING & I' SLIGHT
Ballerina Gemze De Lappe filed suit in New York Supreme
Court last week against 20th-Fox, Darryl F. Zanuck, Charles Brackett, and the Roxy Theatre charging that she did not receive
proper credit in "The King and I."
Through her attorney, Barry S. Cohen, the dancer alleges
that the producers "negligently, willfully and maliciously" refrained from giving her "the proper and appropriate credit due
her by virtue of her having created and performed the role of King Simon of Legree" in "The King and I." Instead Miss De Lappe
claims, they credited the role to a dancer who did not perform it. In the picture, the ballerina recreated the role she originated
in the Broadway production.
from VARIETY page 2
Wednesday, December 5th, 1956
UPDATED
Wednesday, June
10th, 2009
Deborah Kerr
BY
Robert Mitchum
In September of 1956, I arrived in Tobago, an island in the Southern Caribbean,
to begin filming Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison, directed by John Huston. Upon meeting Miss Kerr, I was impressed by her chaste
and genteel demeanor, an attitude eminently suited to the saintly character she portrayed. made touchingly mortal by a few
freckles.
The ensuing period of our association revealed many more delightful aspects
of this splendid lady, and began the rapid development of an admiration and friendship for her that I shall treasure always.
She is warmly human and sympathetic, and possessed of a humor that ranged
from the subtle to the downright wicked.
When some Hollywood organization, charged with monitoring morality, became
belatedly alarmed at the perils of pairing a nun and a marine on a desert island and sent a representative to check on our
image of propriety, Mr. Huston planned a little surprise.
We contrived a scene wherein Sister Angela overcomes the suppression of
her base animal urges and, panting and clutching, throws herself on Mr. Allison in a lustful frenzy. With no film in the camera,
we "shot" the scene for our guest, who stood agape and immobilized in shock as John quietly said, "Cut."
Huston then turned to the stunned Mr. Grizzard and said, "You should have
seen it before we cleaned it up."
There was a small Catholic church on the island and the Sisters attached
to it were invited to see the rushes when they were shown. Deborah, always mindful of their presence, strived to maintain
an on-camera deportment that would earn their approval. However, in one scene, in which she was paddling the rubber raft,
her composure cracked.
Using a palm frond as a paddle, she was stroking away furiously, with
Mr. Huston's voice from the camera boat urging her on to even greater effort. "Even harder, honey," he was saying, "Paddle
even harder." With one desperate surge of energy, the paddle snapped in two. Holding up her bloodied hands, she looked straight
into the camera and said, "That'll show you how effing hard I'm paddling, John!"
The Deborah Kerr Curtain Call Playhouse
A Fellowship League Foundation
For the Performing Arts
Her Legend Her Life and Motion Picture Career
of the Woman all Women want to be - the charming
Deborah Kerr
To
Your Health!
Never Underestimate
Your Need for
Water
The Forgotten Nutrient
Water is so abundant, available and inexpensive
yet it's often taken for granted. It is the forgotten nutrient although it ranks in importance right up there along with vitamins,
minerals, protein, carbohydrate and fat. Just by living, breathing, perspiring and going to the bathroom you can lose between
two and three quarts of water daily, which need to be repaced. Each day drink six to eight glasses of fluids like tap or bottled
water, milk and juice.
Also eat foods with a high water content, such as fruits and vegetables.
Fluid intake is especially important for older adults - you better listen to me. If you lose too much water without replacing
it, you can become dehydrated.
You might faint or feel dizzy.
Here are some ways
water works in
your body:
* Carries
nutrients to cells and carries waste products away. Water is the body's transportation system.
* Surrounds and protects joint and organs
such as kidneys from shock or injury.
* Keeps the digestive tract working and the urine clear.
* Helps maintain body temperature.
Drink
Before
You're Thirsty!
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