Olivia de Havilland and the Golden Age of Hollywood

by Ellis Amburn

Overview

This is classic Hollywood history as told through the life and career of one of its most
iconic actresses. The book benefits tremendously from the author's meeting with Olivia de Havilland after he was assigned to handle her projected memoir at the Delacorte Press in 1973. Amburn also knew many of the key figures in her life and career, a veritable pantheon of Hollywood royalty from the 30s, 40s, and 50s: Jimmy Stewart, George Cukor, and David O. Selznick, and he was an editor at William Morrow when the company published the autobiography of de Havilland's difficult sister Joan Fontaine.
Superbly researched and full of delicious anecdotes about Clark Gable, John Huston, Vivien Leigh, Laurence Olivier, Montgomery Clift, Errol Flynn, David Niven, and Bette Davis--particularly the bloody, bone-crunching fistfight Flynn and Huston waged over Olivia--this book not only profiles one of the finest actresses of her time, but also the culture of the film industry's Golden Age.
It details de Havilland's relationships with the men who sought her--Howard Hughes, Jimmy Stewart, Errol Flynn, John F. Kennedy, Burgess Meredith, and John Huston, as well as her friendships with Grace Kelly, British Prime Minister Edward Heath, Ronald Reagan, Victor Fleming, and Ingrid Bergman.
Here, too, are the fabulous and often surprising back stories of her 49 films, including Gone With the Wind, The Adventures of Robin Hood, The Snake Pit, Hush . . . Hush, Sweet Charlotte, and the two for which she won Oscars, The Heiress and To Each His Own. The account of the filming of Gone With the Wind is unique in that the author interviewed many of the people involved in the epic making of this masterpiece as Lois Dwight Cole, who discovered the novel, producer David O. Selznick, director George Cukor, agents Kay Brown and Annie Laurie Williams, Radie Harris, Vivien Leigh's closest friend in the press, and both Edie Goetz and Irene Mayer Selznick, daughters of Louis B. Mayer, head of MGM, the studio that funded, released, and ended up owning Gone With the Wind.
Also included in this biography are Olivia's adventures with Bette Davis. They appeared together in four movies and Davis tried to destroy her, but Olivia stood up to Davis as no other actress had ever dared to do. She won Davis's respect, and by the time they made their biggest hit, Hush . . . Hush, Sweet Charlotte, a lasting friendship had blossomed. Undertaking a joint national publicity tour, they attracted mobs of boisterous fans and, in private, reminisced about the Golden Age of movies, evaluated the current crop of stars, and exchanged observations about love goddesses, nudity, and parenthood.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781493049547
Publisher:	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	09/04/2020
Pages:	440
Sales rank:	284,297
Product dimensions:	5.60(w) x 8.70(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

A 1954 graduate of Texas Christian University, Ellis Amburn worked as a reporter for Newsweek before going into the book publishing industry where, he rose to the position of editor, working for such well-known publishers as Delacorte Press, Coward-McCann, and William Morrow. During his career, Amburn was an editor for such authors as John le Carré, Belva Plain, Muriel Spark, Joshua Logan and Jack Kerouac, who would be the subject of Amburn's 1998 book Subterranean Kerouac. Amburn served as editorial director for G. P. Putnam's Sons and in addition worked as a ghostwriter for Priscilla Presley, Shelley Winters, Peggy Lee and Zsa Zsa Gabor. In 1990, he produced his first biography on fellow Texan Roy Orbison. Amburn lives in High Springs, Florida, outside of Gainesville and in Tifton, Georgia.

Table of Contents

Prologue ix

Part 1 Dawn

1 Land of the Rising Sun 3

2 Max Reinhardt, Dick Powell, Mickey Rooney, and James Cagney 11

3 Errol Flynn 21

4 Anthony Adverse, The Charge of the Light Brigade, and Call It a Day 27

5 It's Love I'm After 37

6 Joan Falls in Love, Olivia Makes a Western 43

7 The Adventures of 'Robin Hood 49

8 Brian Aherne 55

9 Howard Hughes 61

Part 2 Gone With the Wind

10 David O. Seiznick 69

11 George Cukor, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Victor Fleming 79

12 The Atlanta and New York Premieres of Gone With the Wind 99

13 Jimmy Stewart 109

Part 3 Affairs of the Heart

14 Vying with Vivien Leigh and Joan Fontaine for Rebecca 123

15 With Ingrid Bergman, Burgess Meredith, John Huston, Bette Davis, and George Brent 131

16 Olivia and Joan Compete for the Best-Actress Oscar 143

17 The de Havilland Rule 151

Part 4 Years of Triumph

18 To Each His Own, the Witch Hunt, The Snake Pit, and the Cover of Time 173

19 Working with Montgomery Clift, Ralph Richardson, and William Wyler in The Heiress 187

Part 5 Fateful Decisions

20 A Streetcar Named Desire 201

21 Grace under Pressure 217

22 Marriage French Style 229

23 Grace Kelly and the Jet Set 237

24 On Broadway with Henry Fonda, on the High Seas with Edward Heath 255

25 Grand Guignol: Having Fun with Bette Davis in Hush … Hush, Sweet Charlotte 265

26 Benjamin's Illness, Olivia's Faith, Prime Minister Edward Heath Airport '77, and TV 277

27 Sunset and Evening Star 293

28 Grand Slam: Legion of Honor, National Medal of Arts, Dame Commander 307

Epilogue 321

Acknowledgments 327

Endnotes 331

Index 389

About the Author 411