Nice article on Angela. I am so glad that I was fortunate enough to see her lecture at the National Film Theatre in the 1970's, and treasure my signed copy of the "Mame" album from her Broadway smash hit.

Bob Hope's family emigrated to the USA in 1908, when he was just five years old, so obviously too young to have made an impression at such a tender age.

He often quipped that he let England when he realised that he could never be Queen.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worl...m-herself.html

Thought Walter and other golden era fans might be interested in this! ⏫

Oh Walter what was Angela Lansbury like to meet -I don't imagine her to be the diva type,Was she chatty?

Are you suggesting that Bob Hope had a big ego?! 😉

I knew that they were friends, but I have never heard that Frank wanted to marry MM. I doubt if it would have saved her. Poor Marilyn was just too screwed up for anyone or anything to save her unfortunately.

I didn't exactly chat to Angela, I watched her being interviewed by Rex Reed at the NFT, and then got her autograph in the foyer, just one of many fans with the same idea.

She was very entertaining, and extremely patient with an idiot in the audience who insisted that she had sung "Only a bird in a gilded cage" in "The Portrait of Dorian Gray". She explained that it was in fact, "Goodbye Little Yellow Bird" and he practically called her a liar when he said, "Not in the version that I saw!"

Like everyone else who had ever worked with him, including Barbara, she said that Elvis was delightful, and a very polite young man who always sent her a card on Mother Day. She was memorable as his mother in Blue Hawaii.

Bob Hope obviously made that crack with tongue in cheek, but I am sure that he had a very healthy ego. I think that like so many performers who came from very humble backgrounds, he needed to be noticed and to be loved.

I still say that he was the best, and classiest host at the Oscars, so different from the shambles that ceremony has sunk to today.

Nice to see this thread still going. Just had a good catch-up. I love reading about old Hollywood.

Thank you glad your still enjoying! Please feel free to contribute! 😘

I wouldn't rule out Angela appearing on stage again -afterall she Londons West End in 2014 aged nearly 89 and by all accounts was terrific and very agile!

I'm afraid all stars have the odd eejit or ott fool to deal with but I'm sure Angela handled herself well and with Grace!

How many Oscar ceremonies did Bob Hope actually host?

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/fea...l-years-*****5

Truly awful situation

The Mickey Rooney story was depressing. I always thought that last wife was too good to be true when I saw them together in interviews.

Bob hosted the Oscar ceremony 19 times, the first was 1939, when Gone With the Wind picked up so many that he quipped that the evening was a benefit for David O Selznick.

His last time was in 1977 when he introduced "The Golden Boy and his Golden Girl are together again tonight, William Holden and Barbara Stanwyck". That was when Bill Holden broke away from the script to pay tribute to Barbara.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hyOJN5BdTeo

Just to say that this thread is very interesting, thank you.

Glad that you like it, please do join in anytime you feel like it.

Thank you very much! Glad it's giving you pleasure and always feel free to join in the fun if you so wish 👍

http://m.meadvilletribune.com/news/l....html?mode=jqm

Might well be of interest to some hardcore golden era Hollywood fans!
What a fiery but passionate relationship they had!

Thanks for the YouTube link Walter -what a lovely tribute William Holden gave Barbara Stanwyck there and she was clearly genuinely emotionally touched and perhaps a little embrassed at him praising her so heavily in public!

By the way as a random side question -Was Bob Hope considered to be a screen heartthrob or sex symbol in his day?

I have just listened to an audio recording of an extract from the book on Amazon. I guess that it has been released to commemorate Sinatra's Centenary. I might order it fro my local library, but I wouldn't buy it. Ava of course had an affair with Bob Taylor around the same time she was working with Barbara in MGM's East Side, West Side in 1949. Luckily they had to be very nasty to each other in their one brief scene together, so I should imagine they both found that pretty easy to play.

Glad that you like the Oscars clip. I was fortunate enough to see Bill Holden pay a similar tribute to Barbara before bringing her on to the stage of the Lincoln Centre in 1981. Just six months later he was dead, after a drunken fall in his home when he hit his head on the edge of a table.

Bob Hope was many things, but NEVER a sex symbol or a heartthrob, although he often got the girl at the end of the film.

Yes I agree, this thread is a great read!

Had Ava and Barbara been friends or friendly previous to Avas transgression with Barbara's husband?
Would you say that William Holden was Barbara's closest male friend amongst the acting community? Which other actors (male) were in her friendship zone to use a modern phrase?


Again many thanks. If you have any questions about old Hollywood please feel free to post a question on the thread as Walters breadth and depth of knowledge on the subject is amazing and I'm sure he won't mind answering as he's a generous soul. 👍

Barbara and Ava were never friends, and when she found out that Bob Taylor had fallen for Lana Turner while filming Johnny Eager in 1941, she never spoke to her again, and snubbed her when Lana invited her for a drink when they were staying at the same hotel. I believe that Barbara was very insecure, especially as she was married to a handsome heartthrob who was four years her junior, she was also very possessive.

When she heard rumours about his infidelities while he was filming Quo Vadis in Rome, she flew out to confront him, even though she was terrified of flying.
I have some of the most marvellous photo's of them in Rome, and they looked like a honeymoon couple. Barbara must have given the performance of her life, because her heart must have been breaking. She flew back to L.A. and shortly afterwards announced that she was suing for divorce. It was said that she told him, "You can have your divorce, but I will bleed you dry," and she meant it, he paid her alimony till the day he died. This was her way of hanging on to him, and a perfect example of "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned." She certainly didn't need the money, she was a very wealthy woman. In 1943 the US Treasury announced that she was the highest paid woman in the United States, earning $323.333.

Bill Holden was her closest male friend from when they met on the set of Golden Boy in 1939. He was always her "Golden Boy" and to him she was "The Queen"

Robert Stack was another good friend from around the same time, and he was almost her leading man. He started filming on The Other Love in late 1946 but became very ill, he was replaced by Richard Conte, who I must say was wonderful as her other love, (David Niven was her leading man).

Henry Fonda was another dear friend, as was Joel McCrea, Fred MacMurray, Robert Preston, Cesar Romero, Gilbert Roland, and Ray Milland

Thanks for your kind words about my knowledge of the Golden Age of Hollywood, and yes, I will be delighted to answer any questions if I can.

I must warn you though that I know absolutely NOTHING about modern films, and I have never seen Star Wars, nor do I have any interest in doing so.

Coincidentally, Barbara and Bill Holden were at the Oscars to present the Oscar for best sound recording to, Star Wars!

I would like to echo the sentiments expressed about this thread, the best thread on Digital Spy. Special thanks to Walter and Hilda for all their fascinating and interesting posts.

Interesting sounding programme on BBC2 today at 1 PM, Hollywood Actresses narrated by Sylvia Sims. You have probably seen it before Walter.

Thanks very much, I love contributing to this thread, but it is really nice to be appreciated. I am also delighted to see that we have had over 60.000 viewers

I enjoyed the Hollywood Actresses show today, although I do already have many of the interviews, including the full unedited one with Joan and Philip Jenkinson, where he asked if she would mind stubbing out her cigarette as the smoke was wafting in front of the camera.

I was actually at the National Film Theatre that Sunday afternoon in 1971 when Joan Bakewell talked to Bette Davis. I wish that the BBC would show the complete programme as they did in 1972. One reasons that I would like to see it all again was that I asked Bette a question, and I would like my friends to see me when I was just a lad of 34.

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/irela...d-95-1.2405089

Another one of the big names from the golden era leaves us

I had Maureen down as a future centenarian because she was so feisty and full of zest

The most beautiful red head to adorn our screens imo.

Sad news -RIP madam x

Very sad news. She seems to have had a very peaceful passing though, which eases things.

Very sad, and quite a shock, even though she was 95. My friend in Monte Carlo will be devastated, he met her at a party in Ireland just two years ago. Only this morning he sent her a DVD that I sent to him entitled "Discovering Maureen O'Hara" a programme on her life that I recorded from the Sky Arts Channel.

He said that she hadn't been well lately, was confined to a wheelchair, and suffering from dementia, even though she could still communicate, but perhaps it was a blessed release.

She was the last of the old Hollywood stars that I saw in the flesh, when I queued up in Harrod's ten years ago when she did a book signing session of her autobiography.

I'm sad to here that too. A good innings, though, as they say. RIP Maureen.

http://www.theguardian.com/film/2015.../maureen-ohara

Nice obituary of Maureen in The Guardian -one I think golden era film fans will like.

Awe I knew Maureen had slowed down a lot but I wasn't aware she'd become so ill. Had your friend met her many times and if so does he have an interesting anecdotes about Maureen O'Hara?

I'm glad you met her -I've read most of her autobiography and I was very impressed. She's very open about things without being tabloid or trashy.

I think that he only met her once, and I can't recall any anecdotes that weren't in the book, such as her dislike for Rex Harrison, Peter Lawford, and George Montgomery.