The Lana Turner News Archive
Typically, I will leave the news articles that are on the homepage up for a week or so and then afterwards I will put them here, so that visitors can still read them if they wish. They will be arranged by the date for easy viewing.
02/06
OCEANSIDE, Calif. - Moss Mabry, an Academy Award-nominated costumer designer who dressed Doris Day and helped fashion the style of movies such as "Giant" and "The Way We Were," has died. He was 87.
Mabry, who lived in the northern San Diego Count town of Vista, died at a hospital in Oceanside following a long illness that included respiratory and heart problems, said Gary More, a friend for 40 years. A spokesman for Tri-City Medical Center said Mabry died early Wednesday, but did not release any other details.
Mabry dressed some of Hollywood's leading ladies, both on and off the screen, More said. His acquaintances included Lana Turner, Lauren Bacall, Elizabeth Taylor, Grace Kelly, Doris Day and Liza Minnelli.
He sometimes accompanied celebrities on shopping trips to New York or Paris to help them choose their clothes, More said.
Mabry designed costumes for many of the Doris Day movies and also was a good friend of her co-star Rock Hudson, with whom he played weekly bridge games, More said.
His career began with wardrobe work in the 1950s and spanned more than three decades. He worked on more than 80 movies, including "Dial M for Murder," "Portnoy's Complaint," "The Manchurian Candidate" and "Mutiny on the Bounty."
Mabry never won an Oscar but he was nominated four times for costume design: In 1956 with Marjorie Best for "Giant,"; in 1964 with Edith Head for "What a Way to Go,"; in 1965 for "Morituri," and with Dorothy Jeakins in 1973 for "The Way We Were."
He said that "Giant" was his most challenging job. The script called for 42 costume changes to reflect how Taylor's character aged over the course of 30 years.
Elegance and simplicity marked his work and "he could do historical pieces beautifully," More said.
Born in Marianna, Fla., Mabry designed costumes for his high school plays but he studied mechanical engineering at the University of Florida.
"He was going to work on bridges in college and he decided that he really loved to draw and he got very interested in hats," More said.
Mabry came to Hollywood, where he attended art school and went to work for celebrity fashion designer Don Loper before getting a contract with Warner Brothers. He went on to work with several other major studios.
When he finally retired some 20 years ago, Mabry moved to Vista, where he had a property he named "Raindrops Hill" after his dog, Raindrops. He raised whippets and also kept a Jack Russell terrier.
"He always had four or five whippets. He was always surrounded by a sea of dogs," More said.
Mabry himself was a fashion plate. Good-looking and standing well over 6 feet tall, he was witty, generous and "very glamorous," More said.
"He certainly cut a swatch. He never drove anything but a fabulous convertible," More said.
"He was a ... wonderful dancer, wonderful host, wonderful at everything he did," said Cleo Ronson, another longtime friend.
After retiring, he still did some private design work for clients.
"He always designed for women. They were always calling him," Ronson said.
Mabry left no survivors. Services were pending.
08/05
Barbara Bel Geddes Dies
(appeared with Lana in 1961's By Love
Possessed)
The Associated Press
LOS ANGELES -- Barbara Bel Geddes, the winsome actress who rose to stage and
movie stardom but reached her greatest fame as Miss Ellie Ewing in the
long-running TV series "Dallas," has died. She was 82.
The San Francisco Chronicle said she died Monday of lung cancer at her home in
Northeast Harbor, Maine. Jordan-Fernald Funeral Home in Mount Desert, Maine,
confirmed the death Wednesday, but owner Bill Fernald said the family asked that
no further information be given out.
Bel Geddes, daughter of renowned industrial designer Norman Bel Geddes, was
nominated for an Academy Award for best supporting actress for the 1948 drama "I
Remember Mama" and was the original Maggie the Cat on Broadway in "Cat on a Hot
Tin Roof."
"Dallas" came late in her career. She had retired to take care of her husband,
Windsor Lewis, after he fell ill with cancer in 1966. He died in 1972.
Her earnings depleted by his long illness, she found work scarce for a
middle-aged actress and said she was "flat broke" in 1978 when she accepted the
role as matriarch of a rambunctious Texas oil family.
Though castigated by critics, "Dallas" hurtled to the top of the audience
ratings and spawned copycat shows. Bel Geddes won an Emmy in 1980 as best lead
actress in a drama series and remains the only nighttime soap star to be so
honored.
Bel Geddes called "Dallas "real fun," but it was also marked by tragedy. In
1981, Jim Davis, who played Miss Ellie's husband, Jock Ewing, died.
"It was like losing her own husband again," said "Dallas" producer Leonard
Katzman. "It was a terribly difficult and emotional time for Barbara."
In March 1984, Bel Geddes was stricken with a major heart attack. Miss Ellie was
played by Donna Reed for six months, then Bel Geddes returned to "Dallas,"
remaining until 1990, a year before CBS canceled the show.
In 1945, Bel Geddes made a splash on Broadway at 23 with her first important
role in "Deep Are the Roots," winning the New York Drama Critics Award as best
actress.
She announced to a reporter: "My ambition is to be a good screen actress. I
think it would be much more exciting to work for Frank Capra, George Cukor,
Alfred Hitchcock or Elia Kazan than to stay on Broadway."
Hollywood was quick to notice.
In 1946 she signed a contract
with RKO that granted her unusual request to be committed to only one picture a
year. In her first movie she costarred with Henry Fonda in "The Long Night," a
disappointing remake of a French film.
Her second film was a hit playing a budding writer in George Stevens' "I
Remember Mama," the touching story of an immigrant family in San Francisco
starring Irene Dunne as Mama. With her delicate features and patrician manner,
Bel Geddes became a popular leading lady in films.
"I went out to California awfully young," she remarked. "I remember Lillian
Hellman and Elia Kazan telling me, 'Don't go, learn your craft.' But I loved
films." After four movies, Howard Hughes, who had bought control of RKO in 1948,
dropped her contract because "she wasn't sexy enough."
Bel Geddes was devastated. But it turned out to be a good happenstance. She had
time to return to the stage, and she scored a triumph in 1955 as Maggie the Cat
in Tennessee Williams' "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof."
Yet her biggest Broadway success was "Mary, Mary," a frothy marital comedy by
Jean Kerr, which opened in 1961 and ran for more than 1,500 performances.
In her film career, Bel Geddes was able to work with great filmmakers such as
Kazan ("Panic in the Streets") and Alfred Hitchcock ("Vertigo"). She also
costarred with Danny Kaye in "The Five Pennies" and with Jeanne Moreau in "Five
Branded Women."
"By Love Possessed" in 1961 was her last film for 10 years. She made her final
films in 1971 — "Summertree" and "The Todd Killings."
Among Bel Geddes' other major theater credits were roles in Terence Rattigan's
"The Sleeping Prince" (1956); Robert Anderson's "Silent Night, Holy Night"
(1959), which co-starred Henry Fonda; and Edward Albee's "Everything in the
Garden" (1967). Her last Broadway appearance was in 1973, when she starred in
another Kerr comedy, "Finishing Touches."
She was born in New York City on Oct, 31, 1922. Her father, born Norman Geddes,
and mother, maiden name Helen Belle Sneider, coined Bel-Geddes as the title for
a magazine they were planning. He took the name without a hyphen as his name.
The couple divorced when Barbara was 3.
"I didn't see much of my father," she said, "but I absolutely adored him." After
her education in private schools, he found her a job at a summer theater and
used his connections with stage people to help her get work.
Her first role was a walk-on with Ethel Barrymore in "The School for Scandal" at
a summer theater. Her father helped land her Broadway debut in the 1941 "Out of
the Frying Pan," for which a critic called her "plump, pleasing and amusing."
She dropped 20 pounds and continued in a variety of roles until her breakthrough
in "Deep Are the Roots."
Early in her stage career Bel Geddes married Carl Schreuer, an electrical
engineer, and they had a daughter, Susan. The marriage ended after seven years
in 1951, and that year she married director Lewis. They had a daughter, Betsy.
02/27/05
|
12/30/04
Artie Shaw, Clarinetist and Star Bandleader Who
Made Music Swing, Dies at 94
Artie Shaw, the clarinetist and bandleader whose recording of "Begin the
Beguine" epitomized the Big Band era, died Thursday at his home. He was 94. Shaw
had long suffered from adult onset diabetes and likely died of complications of
the disease, said Larry Rose, his personal assistant since 1993. "He just
reached a point where he was tired of fighting. He wasn't able to really enjoy
life anymore," Rose said. Shaw's attorney and longtime friend Eddie Ezor said he
had been in declining health for some time and apparently died of natural
causes. He said Shaw's caregiver was with him when he died.At his peak in the
1930s and '40s, Shaw pulled in a five-figure salary per week and ranked with
Benny Goodman, Tommy Dorsey and Glenn Miller as the bandleaders who made music
swing. But he left the music world largely behind in the mid-'50s and spent much
of the second half of his life devoted to writing and other pursuits.His
band's recording of Cole Porter's "Begin the Beguine" was intended to be the "B"
side of the record. Instead, it became a huge hit, topping the charts for six
weeks in 1938 and making Shaw famous at age 28.Among his other hits, some with
his big band and some with his quartet, the Gramercy Five: "Frenesi," "Dancing
in the Dark," "Nightmare," "Back Bay Shuffle," "Accent-tchu-ate the Positive,"
"Traffic Jam," "They Say," "Moonglow," "Stardust," "Thanks for Ev'rything,"
"Summit Ridge Drive" and "My Little Nest of Heavenly Blue."He composed some of
his songs, such as "Interlude in B Flat," a 1935 work that featured an unusual
combination of clarinet and strings.He worked with such jazz legends as Buddy
Rich, Mel Torme, Gordon Jenkins and, at a time when most white bandleaders
refused to hire blacks, Billie Holiday.Another famous roster: his wives. They
included actresses Lana Turner (wife No. 3, 1940), Ava Gardner (No. 5, 1945),
Evelyn Keyes (No. 8, 1957) and novelist Kathleen Winsor, author of the 1944
best-seller "Forever Amber" (No. 6, 1946).The marriage to Keyes, best known for
playing the middle of the three O'Hara sisters in "Gone With the Wind," lasted
the longest, until 1985, but they led separate lives for much of that time."I
like her very much and she likes me, but we've found it about impossible to
live together," he said in a 1973 interview.Entertainment mogul Merv Griffin, a
former big band crooner, praised Shaw's musical accomplishments Thursday and
said his romantic exploits made him the "Howard Hughes of the clarinet."After
his first burst of stardom, his good looks made Hollywood come calling. It was
while filming "Dancing Coed," 1939, that he met Turner. In 1940, he appeared in
another musical, "Second Chorus," and got two Academy Award nominations for
his musical contributions for best score and best song ("Love of My Life.")A
volatile and superbly intelligent man, Shaw hated the loss of privacy that
stardom brought, had little use for signing autographs and once caused an uproar
by calling jitterbugging fans "morons." He later said he was just referring to
the rowdy ones."I could never understand why people wanted to dance to my
music," he once said. "I made it good enough to listen to."He chafed at having
to play "Begin the Beguine" ad nauseam, wishing audiences would be more willing
to
accept new material. ("I mean, it's a good tune if you are going to be
associated with one tune, but I didn't want that.")He retired from performing
several times finally putting down his clarinet for good in the mid-'50s. After
that, he lived in Spain for a time, operated a farm, and turned to literature
full time. He was a voracious reader since childhood, and had already produced a
well-received autobiography, "The Trouble with Cinderella," in 1952."I did all
you can do with a clarinet," he said. "Any more would have been less."He put
out two collections of short fiction, "I Love You, I Hate You, Drop Dead!" and
"The Best of Intentions." He spent years working on a voluminous
autobiographical novel tracing the rise of a young jazz musician, whom he called
Albie
Snow."I've lived for a long time and I've learned a few things that I'm passing
on," he said.He was recently named a Jazz Master by the National Endowment for
the Arts and was looking forward to getting his award on Jan. 7, Ezor said.
"Someone will accept for him," Ezor said.Shaw was born Arthur Arshawsky on May
23, 1910, in New York City; his immigrant parents struggled to earn a living in
the clothing business.He began his professional career while still in his
teens, first playing saxophone, then switching to clarinet to take advantage of
a job opportunity.By the time he was in his early 20s, he was a highly paid
member of a CBS radio orchestra. After the first of his many retirements from
the music business, he returned to New York and began assembling his first
orchestra. "Begin the Beguine" and fame followed not long afterward.He enlisted
in the Navy during World War II and wound up spending most of his time leading a
band, giving shows for the troops.An outspoken liberal, Shaw was called before
the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1953 when it was investigating
Communist influence in entertainment. For once, Shaw was contrite, telling
committee members he had attended a couple of Communist meetings after the war
because of his interest in social justice and world peace but had never joined
the party or given it any money."I hate to admit that I was a dupe, but I guess
I
was," he said. Committee members responded with sympathy, one telling him to
go out and use his talent "to fight for true Americanism."His only musical
activity in recent years was conducting a revival band he organized in the early
1980s, featuring arrangements Shaw's bands had used in the past. He did not
play his clarinet.Shaw was often asked about his supposed rivalry with fellow
clarinetist Goodman. He said: "Benny, who was every bit as dedicated as I was,
wanted to be an instrumentalist he was a superb technician while I wanted to be
a musician. I think my mind was more complex than his."