Fay Wray
Oh, that is an interesting letter! It said that "a sign of maturity is when you find-after seeing KING KONG many, many times-that you are more interested in the early part of it before we even meet Kong." He said "I like to look at that over and over again."
Now the copyright has been extended 20 years, but prior to that they paid no attention to these people, and some of them really need help.
Now I feel that whatever I say has to be accepted. No one can deny me anything. Anything! And that is an achievement, I think, to come to the age I am today. It makes me feel very free. I think it's a plus, it's really a plus for me.
Natalie Wood had been in a series that I did! REBEL came right after and she was suddenly a big star! She had a lovely quality, just lovely, and on one occasion on our show she played a very old lady and did it extremely well. The talent she had was obvious.
My play deals with a time in my life when my family, because of the Depression, came south from Canada. Well, we ended up in a town called Lark, which is 20 miles out of Salt Lake City. The housing was so inadequate that we had a real struggle.
My first husband, John Monk Saunders wrote WINGS, which won the first Academy Award for Best Picture.
My children didn't when they were little because I thought that they had to be of a certain age. I hoped they liked me well enough not to want to see me in that sort of a spot.
Michael Curtiz was not-well, he did CASABLANCA, which was a very good movie-but I didn't appreciate him at all as a director. I thought he was more like a part of the camera. He didn't have any warmth whatsoever.
Merian C. Cooper said to me that he'd had an idea for a film in mind. The only thing he'd tell me was that it was going to have 'the tallest darkest leading man in Hollywood.'
Melvyn was very compelling, because he was very sure of himself. He had great style. I had great respect for him and even had a crush on him. I liked him well enough to have that little crush. It's nice to have a crush on your leading man.
Melvyn Douglass was just a good actor who evoked these attitudes that made me like him. His style was one that I could respect. Very intelligent. His wife, Helen Gahagan, was an intelligent lady, too.
Lionel Atwill? Wild parties? I am simply amazed! Oh, no! (He was married to the ex-wife of Douglas MacArthur. I never heard of any wild parties, but how would I know? If there were any, I certainly wasn't invited to them!
Lillian Gish thought that there should be a cabinet position for the arts and I think she was right. I think she was right.
Leslie Banks, who played Count Zaroff in THE MOST DANGEROUS GAME, was an astonishingly interesting actor, a very distinguished English actor. He looked like he'd had a stroke. He had something wrong with one eye and it gave him a really scary expression.
Lauren Bacal and I had the same designer and we were in wardrobe one day at the same time, but it didn't have any particular significance for me-or for her, either, I'm sure!
Kong has hung around a long time. That is what I told him in my book: "You made only one movie and I made 80 and the one you made has been fabulously well known." So he has the edge over me, hasn't he?
Kong has always been fascinatingly present in my life. When I was in Paris at the Follie Bergere, there was a wonderful revue with King Kong. I went to see the show and a very popular Follies star was in the big hand.
KING KONG was difficult only because of the hours we had to put in. At that time, there was no protection for actors about time or anything. We worked straight through for 22 hours once on KONG.
Just scary for scary's sake is not worth anything. But, there was a fascinating story, where Claude Rains was a mindreader, and to his surprise he anticipated the winner of the derby.
Juan Tripp was a friend. Good name for an airline man, huh? "Juan Tripp after another?