Claudette Colbert was not Hollywood’s greatest beauty, but her trim little figure, round, kitten-like face, and obviously intelligent good humor made her a bit of a sex symbol, much to her own surprise. By 1934 she’d adopted the hairstyle she kept for life: a short, auburn bob with a fringe of bangs. Although a partygoer and social animal, Claudette was also known as a tough-as-nails professional, overseeing her lighting and camera angles. Her right profile was known as “the dark side of the moon,” and scenes had to be staged so as not to show it. She was also self-conscious about her short neck—directing her in a 1956 TV show, Noël Coward reportedly snapped, “If only Claudette Colbert had a neck, I’d wring it!” “When it comes to details, I’m a horror,” she admitted cheerfully, though downplaying the profile story. “Why not have your good side showing?
Eve GoldenWe worked so hard,” [Joan Blondell] said, “and hardly ever had a day off . . . Saturday was a working day and we usually worked right into Sunday morning.” Joan’s good nature may have worked against her in the long run. While fellow Warner Brothers workers Bette Davis, James Cagney, Olivia de Havilland and Humphrey Bogart fought like lions for better roles and more creative input, Joan took things in stride, at least through the early 1930s. “I just sailed through things, took the scripts I was given, did what I was told. I couldn’t afford to go on suspension—my family needed what I could make.
Eve GoldenCalling Billie Burke a “character actress” is like calling the Grand Canyon “quite a slice.” Though she’s best known for dithering supporting roles in such films as The Wizard of Oz, Topper and Dinner at Eight, Billie was a stage star, silent movie star, and a brilliant dramatic actress as well. Her comic talent was only the tip of the iceberg.
Eve Golden[Joan Blondell] biographer, Matthew Kennedy, quotes her as admitting, “If I had taken myself more seriously . . . if I had fought for better roles as, say, Bette Davis did . . . I think I might have been a damned good dramatic actress. But it was just my way; I don’t think I ever had the security of feeling confident in myself, really, ever. I used to think, ‘I’m just lucky to be here!
Eve GoldenIt was Joan Blondell’s good fortune—and good sense—to develop a screen character that aged well. When middle age and increasing weight took their toll, she was able to segue into playing wry, wisecracking old dames. Many of her contemporaries fell by the wayside, but Joan stayed busy. She didn’t maintain the high-profile popularity she’d had in the early 1930s, but she kept working, to critical acclaim.
Eve GoldenNot many performers are equally at home in drama and comedy; Claudette Colbert was one of those few. It’s hard to decide whether she was more brilliant in screwball comedies like It Happened One Night, The Palm Beach Story and Midnight, or tragedies like Imitation of Life and So Proudly We Hail! The most modern of actresses, she was also one of the most talented.
Eve GoldenOne of the greatest was the blonde, urbane Ina Claire, who seemed a Dorothy Parker story or New Yorker cartoon come to life.
Eve GoldenBut interviews with [Margaret Dumont] reveal her to have been a perceptive and talented comic actress. “Many a comedian’s lines have been lost on the screen because the laughter overlapped,” she said in the 1940s. “Script writers build up to a laugh, but they don’t allow any pause for it. That’s where I come in. I ad lib—it doesn’t matter what I say—just to kill a few seconds so you can enjoy the gag. I have to sense when the big laughs will come and fill in, or the audience will drown out the next gag with its own laughter.” A much harder job, it must be stressed, onscreen than onstage. Margaret Dumont objected to the term “stooge,” with her usual dignity. “I’m a straight lady,” she insisted, “the best straight woman in Hollywood. There’s an art to playing straight. You must build up your man, but never top him, never steal the laughs from him.” She showed great insight into the Marx Brothers’ brand of humor: “The comedy method which [they] employ is carefully worked out and concrete. They never laugh during a story conference. Like most other expert comedians, they involve themselves so seriously in the study of how jokes can be converted to their own style that they don’t ever titter while approaching their material.
Eve GoldenBlonde movie stars in the 1950s seem to have been pretty much divided between breathy bombshells (Marilyn Monroe, Jayne Mansfield) and slim, elegant swans (Grace Kelly, Eva Marie Saint). Producers didn’t really know what to do with Judy Holliday, a brilliant, versatile actress who simply didn’t fit into any easy category. Though she left behind a handful of delightful films, one can’t help feeling a sense of waste that her gifts were not better handled by Hollywood (or, for that matter, by Broadway). Perhaps, like Lucille Ball, Judy Holliday would have blossomed with a really good sitcom; but, unlike Lucy, she never got one.
Eve GoldenGroucho Marx continued to alternately call Margaret Dumont “a great lady” and to denigrate her in interviews. But he seemed, at the end, to realize how important she’d been to his career. When accepting his 1974 Lifetime Achievement Oscar, the ailing Groucho told the audience, “I only wish Harpo and Chico could have been here—and Margaret Dumont.
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