Wonderland Burlesque's Let's All Go To The Movies: I Wanna Be A Star! - Part 1 of 3

Wonderland Burlesque's 

Let's All Go To The Movies

I Wanna Be A Star!

Part 1 of 3

For the next three Let's All Go To The Movies posts, we'll be going deep in the heart of Hollywood learning all about the entertainment industry and its dirty, dirty ways via film. What better way to learn?

Today? We're bound for Hollywood - with one film which veered awfully close to the real life of its star, one flop which helped nearly bankrupt a studio and began a downward turn in the career of its star, and, finally, one of the rawest, ugliest tinsel town stories every committed to film.

With some of these movies there's a great deal of lore to unpack, so let's get to it!

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Make Me A Star

(1932)

(A small-town delivery boy who longs to become a cowboy actor in Hollywood westerns leaves home to try his luck, but quickly discovers his acting ability is not up to snuff despite his diploma from the National Correspondence Academy of Acting. An actress who has taken a shine to the young man gets him a bit part in one of her films, but he screws that up, too. Finally, the actress convinces the studio to put the lad in a western spoof, without telling the actor its a parody. Her plan works perfectly, with the actor none the wiser until the movie is up on the screen where it becomes a huge hit.)

(Based upon the 1922 novel Merton At The Movies by Harry Leon Wilson and the 1923 play adapted from the novel by George S. Kaufman, and Marc Connelly, this pre-Code romantic comedy film was directed by William Beaudine and stars Stuart Erwin, Joan Blondell, and ZaSu Pitts.)

(Many of Paramount's top stars make cameos as themselves in the film, including Maurice Chevalier  , Gary Cooper, Tallulah Bankhead, Jack Oakie, Charles Ruggles, Clive Brook, Claudette Colbert, Fredric March, and Sylvia Sidney.)

(The play, Merton of the Movies, opened on Broadway at the Cort Theatre on November 13, 1922 and ran for 392 performances. This film is a remake of the 1924 silent film Merton of the Movies and was remade once more in 1947 as Merton of the Movies starring Red Skelton.)

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The Star

(1952)

(A middle-aged Oscar-winning actress is considered by the industry as a Hollywood has-been. Her life in shambles, she clings to the hope of resurrecting her career as a leading ingénue, but no one will hire her. In addition, she's penniless with creditors selling off everything she owns. She's constantly nagged by her her sister and brother-in-law, who still see her as their meal ticket. Divorced, she shares custody of her teen daughter, whom she tries to hide her problems from, which becomes impossible as the actress hits rock bottom. When a former actor reenters her life, he does all he can to show her that there is life beyond the camera, but our actress doesn't want reinvention - she wants revitalization and is more than willing to do whatever it takes to reclaim her status as a star.)

(This drama was directed by Stuart Heisler and stars Bette Davis, Sterling Hayden and Natalie Wood.  Though the film would prove to be a critical and commercial failure, Bette Davis still received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress.)

 (Davis hoped that lightening would strike twice and that this film would do what 1950's All About Eve had done to revitalize her career. It did not. Despite another Best Actress nomination, it didn't slow the downward trend in her fortunes which would plague her throughout the 1950's.)

Bette Davis and Oscar

(At one point in the film, the actress, drunk out of her mind, grabs her Oscar from the mantel and says, "c'mon, Oscar, let's you and me get drunk." Initially, the Oscar shown is one of Davis's own. However, when it came time to film the driving sequence, the Oscar had to sit on the dashboard, held in place by the rearview mirror - well, it turned out to be too short. You see, the Oscar statuette, and the ones Davis had previously won, didn't have the space at the base for the brass plate used to personally engrave it. That renovation didn't happen until 1947. So, a modern statuette had to be substituted for the scene.)

(Davis may have been on a bit of a downward turn in her career, but she still held power on the set. It seems there was a scene which required teen Natalie Wood to dive off a pier into the sea. However, due to a near fatal accident when she was nine, Wood - who would eventually die from drowning - had developed a crushing fear of water. When it came time to film the scene, Wood became increasingly hysterical with each take. Davis soon had enough... she intervened, demanding that they cease filming and use a stunt double for the actual dive.)

Natalie Wood and Bette Davis

 (It should also be noted that thirteen years later, Wood would star in her own 'movie star on a bender' film, 1965's Inside Daisy Clover, which we'll be covering later as part of this series of posts.)

Barbara Lawrence

(Actress Barbara Lawrence has an interesting role in the film as Davis' acting nemesis. Though her on screen time is quite limited, her presence is appears five times throughout the film. After she is mentioned as an up-and-coming star by an agent, a drunken Davis drives by her house in a mock tour of stars' homes. Then, Davis is confronted on the street by Lawrence's image in a drugstore ad. Next Davis comes face to face with a huge portrait of Lawrence as she enters an producer's office. Finally, a spiteful Davis uses Lawrence's vacant dressing room to alter her clothes and makeup for a  screen test. Other Fox stars referenced in the film include Victor Mature, Debra Paget, Mitzi Gaynor, and Jeanne Crain.)

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Follow A Star

(1959)

(A dry cleaner clerk, who sings, dreams of big time stardom. To achieve his goals, he takes elocution lessons from a woman who shares a studio with a female colleague who teaches piano. The clerk quickly finds himself smitten with the piano teacher, which interfers with his elocution lessons. Later, when the clerk goes to see his favorite singer in concert, he causes a bit of chaos when he starts singing along with the performer. The singer, whose career is on the wane, realizes that the clerk's voice is much better than his own, so he tricks the clerk into recording a song, which the singer then tries to pass off as his own. When his elocution teacher realizes what's happening, she makes it her business to expose the singer as a fraud and help the dry cleaner clerk become a huge star. As the curtain falls on a standing ovation, the clerk quietly sneaks off arm in arm with the piano teacher.)

(This British black and white musical comedy was directed by Robert Asher after star, Norman Wisdom had a falling out with his regular director John Paddy Carstairs. It also features June Laverick, Jerry Desmonde, Hattie Jacques, Fenella Fielding, and Richard Watts.)

(Co-star Fenella Fielding strongly disliked the picture's star, Norman Wisdom, and was one of the few actresses unafraid to speak about it: "Not a very pleasant man," she said. "Hand up your skirt first thing in the morning. Not exactly a lovely way to start a day's filming.")

(Despite his wandering hands, turns out Wisdom is a family man. While he's receiving elocution lessons from Hattie Jacques, the piano teacher, played by June Laverick, is giving a lesson to a young student. The student is Norman Wisdom's real life son Nick Wisdom. Later, Laverick gives a lesson to another child, who just happens to be Norman Wisdom's daughter, Jaqui Wisdom.)

(Sir Norman Wisdom was an English actor, comedian, musician and singer best known for a series of comedy films produced between 1953 and 1966. His fame in South America, Iran and many Eastern Bloc countries, particularly in Albania where his films were the only ones with Western actors permitted to be shown by dictator Enver Hoxha, was akin to that of Jerry Lewis. Charlie Chaplin once referred to Wisdom as his "favorite clown.")

Norman Wisdom

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Star!

(1968)

AKA: Those Were The Happy Times

(Featuring extravagant musical production numbers, this bio-pic depicts the life of entertainer Gertrude Lawrence with all it's on and off-stage drama and fun.)

(This biographical musical film was directed by Robert Wise and stars Julie Andrews, Richard Crenna, Michael Craig and Daniel Massey.  Initially released as Star!, it was re-titled as Those Were the Happy Times for its 1969 relaunch.)

 

(After Sound Of Music proved to be such a huge hit, Twentieth Century Fox wanted more of the same. Fortunately, Andrews had a signed a two picture deal in order to make Sound Of Music, so the studio dusted off an old discarded idea and assigned Andrews as its star. She signed on for $1 million against 10 percent of the gross plus 35 cents for each soundtrack album sold.)

(The film's origins date back to 1955! It was initially developed as a musical/drama vehicle by Warner Brothers for Judy Garland, as a follow-up to her triumph in 1954's A Star Is Born. However, when Garland failed to bring home the Oscar, Jack L. Warner decided to shelve the film because working with Garland and husband, producer Sidney Luft had been an absolute nightmare.)

 

(In an attempt to duplicate its earlier success with The Sound of Music, Twentieth Century Fox produced three incredibly expensive, large-scale musicals over a period of three years: 1967's Doctor Dolittle, 1968's Star! and 1969's Hello, Dolly!. Unfortunately, this type of musical had fallen out of favor with the general public, something reflected in the box-office performance of all three movies. Despite expensive, massive pre-release publicity campaigns, all three films lost equally massive amounts of money for the studio. Ironically, Twentieth Century Fox would not recover financially until it's highly successful theatrical re-issue of The Sound of Music in early 1973.)

(By the numbers:18 stars and principal actors/actresses were backed by 141 speaking actors and actresses, 178 bit players and 9,847 background players, with about 620 used in a single sequence. 6,815 hand prop items were made to order or obtained from antique shops.185 sets were built and used. Andrews' wardrobe, designed by Donald Brooks, set a record for the largest number of costumes for an actress in one movie, at 125, 95 of which were evening gowns. Overall, 3,040 individual costumes were made, and more than 500,000 feet of film was shot - producing one, big, bloated musical with the extremely long running time of 175 minutes!)

(In its initial run, Star! was a commercial disappointment. While being screened for pre-paid audiences, about 20 minutes of studio-requested and director-approved cuts were literally being scissored out of prints in the projection booths of movie theatres across the country as it played, but to no avail; people were still not interested.) 

(The studio also tried revamping their ad campaign to appeal to a younger movie-goers. One featured a shot of Andrews posed with a motorcycle - an on-location joke which was not a scene in the film. Print ads were altered to try and make the movie look like a soap opera with the addition of "Loves Of A..." to the title. Both failed to ignite additional interest.)

(In the spring of 1969, the studio withdrew the film from release entirely in order to re-edit and relaunch it with a whole new identity. After a bit of primitive market research where they tested audience response to three titles: Music For The Lady, Star!, and Those Were The Happy Days, with the latter getting the best response, the title was altered to Those Were The Happy Times, in order to avoid confusion with Barbra Streisand's Happy Days Are Here Again and Mary Hopkin's Those Were The Days. Then, oddly, they removed many of the musical numbers while preparing the new movie posters to look more like those of The Sound Of Music. Sliced down to two hours, director Robert Wise had his name removed from the credits. Yet, despite all their efforts, there was no business or interest to be found.)

(When the film made it's premiere on American television, the title reverted to Star! though the version shown was the two hour one. It happened to debut in the UK at the same time, and they were treated to the original version - minus the overture and the intermission.)

(Peter Cook, Robert Stephens and Ian McKellen were all under consideration to play the role of Gertrude Lawrence's best friend, Noël Coward. McKellen went so far as to do a screen test for the role, performing Coward's own Parisian Pierrot, receiving an ovation from director William Fairchild and the crew. However, Noël Coward had the last word... and insisted that his godson Daniel Massey play him in the film. Massey had made his theatrical movie debut as a young boy, playing Coward's son in the 1942 wartime drama, In Which We Serve. The film received seven academy award nominations, including a best supporting actor nod for Daniel Massey, but won none. That said, Massey did win a Golden Globe as Best Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture)

(In addition, Noël Coward recommended Patricia Routledge - later, of Keeping Up Appearances fame - to play Beatrice Lillie, another of Gertrude Lawrence's dearest friends. However, Lillie, who was still very much alive, had something else in mind: she demanded to play herself, even though she was 73 and in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease at the time. Ultimately, because Lillie would not sign off on the script if someone else were to play her, the character ended up being removed from the screenplay entirely.)

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Star 80

(1983)

(The life of a narcissistic, small-time hustler who fancies himself something of a ladies man is altered forever once he sets eyes on a pretty but naïve high school senior working behind the counter of a Dairy Queen. The hustler falls hard for the girl, believing she is perfect for Playboy magazine, which he also believes will lead to bigger and better things. The girl goes along for the ride, seeing the hustler as a worldly person she can trust. The hustler's dream becomes a reality - not only does the girl go on to be a Playboy Playmate of the month and Playboy Playmate of 1979, she also marries him. As the girl embarks upon an acting career, her hustler hustler is viewed more and more as a liability by those in her new inner circle - including magazine publisher Hugh Hefner and the influential movie director whose movie she is cast in. As the hustler continues to throw his wife's name around in order to get what he wants, the girl is encouraged by those who know them both to seek a divorce. And when the girl follows there advice and does just that? A true Hollywood tragedy unfolds.) 

(Adapted from the Pulitzer Prize-winning Village Voice article Death of a Playmate by Teresa Carpenter, this biographical drama was written and directed by Bob Fosse and stars Mariel Hemingway and Eric Roberts, with supporting roles by Cliff Robertson, Carroll Baker, Roger Rees, Stuart Damon, Josh Mostel and David Clennon. The film’s title is taken from one of Snider's vanity license plates. This was Fosse's final film as director before his death in 1987.)

(Filming began in Stratten’s hometown of Vancouver, while sets recreated Stratten’s childhood bedroom, high-school gymnasium and the Dairy Queen where she first met Snider. After Hefner refused to allow filming at his estate , an unoccupied mansion in Pasadena was renovated to resemble the infamous Playboy mansion.)

(Fosse made Paul Snider the main character in the film because he identified with him the most. Fosse once told actor Eric Roberts that watching the actor play the part of Snider, was like watching what would have become of Fosse had the celebrated director/choreographer not been successful in show business. Hugh Hefner said that Eric Roberts' portrayal of Snider was right on the money. However, William Sachs who had directed Stratten in the 1980 sci-fi comedy Galaxina claims that it was an inaccurate portrayal, and that Snider would rarely talk to anyone who wasn't Dorothy; rather he would simply look at others with a creepy 'death stare'.)

(Director Peter Bogdanovich was dating Dorothy Stratten during the filming of 1981's They All Laughed. Upon learning of Fosse's plans to film a biopic about Stratten's tragic death, Bogdanovich threatened to sue if he was unhappy with the way he was portrayed. For that reason, his name was changed, as was that of all of Stratten's movies in the film. They All Laughed became Tinsel Time,  Skatetown USA became Ball Bearings and Autumn Born was changed to Wednesday's Child. But Bogdanovich was not the only one concerned about how they would come off in the film; Hefner actually sued the producers of the film because he felt he was portrayed in an unflattering light and it damaged the Playboy brand.)

(Mariel Hemingway believed she was ideal for the part and vigorously campaigned for it. After numerous letters, telephone calls, visits to Fosse's home and readings, she was cast. It was reported by the media that she had to undergo breast augmentation in order to secure the part, however it wasn't until a 2020 documentary that Hemingway admitted that she had indeed undergone surgery for the role, insisting that , "I did it for me. I wouldn't have done that because of a movie." In an odd - some might say cringeworthy - twist, Playboy magazine would publish nude photos of Hemingway posing as Stratten after the movie's release.)

(The opposite was true when it came to casting killer Paul Snider; Fosse had to persuade Eric Roberts to take on the role. Roberts felt the character was simply too unlikable and feared the film would hurt his career. Later, noted film critic Roger Ebert, who had huge issues with the film, said Roberts deserved an Academy Award for his performance, but that Hollywood would never nominate any actor in a role that despicable no matter how well it was done.)

(According to the media, Harry Dean Stanton was in the running to play Hugh Hefner, however Cliff Robertson, who'd been researching the role by visiting Hefner's mansion, got the nod instead. The film is also notable for being Carroll Baker's first Hollywood production since her 1967 return from Europe.)

(This was actually the second film based on Stratten's murder. The first was a television film, 1981's Death of a Centerfold: The Dorothy Stratten Story, starring Jamie Lee Curtis as Stratten and Bruce Weitz as Snider.) 

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And that's all for now.

Tune in next week.

Same time, same channel!

Star! Preview - 1968

Star! Trailer - 1968

Star! Premiere - 1968

Those Were The Happy Times Trailer - 1969