“I’ve never been in a Hollywood fight or feud. I have the most wonderful memory for forgetting things.” So said Marilyn Monroe, according to Hollywood gossip columnist Sidney Skolsky (in his memoir, Don’t Get Me Wrong — I Love Hollywood, 1975).
If Monroe’s assertion is true, she was one of a very small number. “Feuds were rampant in [midcentury] Hollywood, jealousy and temperament spilling through the tight and tinseled air of competition” (Jane Wilkie, Confessions of an Ex-Fan Magazine Writer, 1981). Stars feuded with other stars, with gossip columnists and with the studio brass; columnists and moguls feuded with each other and among themselves. In rare cases — less rare when Sinatra was involved — the protagonists came to blows and, in at least one case, to bites.
The fan magazines loved it all. As everyone in the business understood, “Feuds were good business” (Vanity Fair, Apr 1, 1997). And they offered irresistible opportunities for hyperbole, such as this from columnist Mike Connolly (Screen Stories, Nov 1964): “Donna Douglas and Max Baer, Jr., of The Beverly Hillbillies haven’t been getting along. In fact, one cynical setsider says, ‘They remind me of Hitler and his generals!’” Or this from Cal York about an encounter between Hope Lange and Connie Stevens: “They exchanged stares that would have put out the fire in Dante’s Inferno, and then Connie turned around and walked off without a hello or a goodbye!” (Photoplay, May 1962).
Coverage of Tinseltown feuds became a fan mag staple early on. In the ‘30s, for example, gossip columnist Eric Ergenbright issued this report about Joan Crawford and Jean Harlow (Movie Classic, Aug 1936): “You’ve heard about that now time-honored feud between Joan C— and Jean H—. Well, it seems that an unlucky chap, who had just been talking with Miss H—, made a grave mistake while chatting a few minutes later with Miss C—. Unthinkingly, he addressed her as Miss H—. And from all accounts, there was H— to pay!”
Whatever the decade, Crawford could be counted on for a newsworthy contretemps, including, among others, with Claudette Colbert in the ‘40s, Liz Taylor and her Johnny Guitar costar, Mercedes McCambridge, in the ‘50s (Wilkie, 1981). Her most remembered feud, of course, was with Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? costar Bette Davis. According to Wilkie the two had enjoyed a longstanding antipathy, though Davis, “it is presumed, was merely bored” by her adversary. That is, until Crawford, unhappy that Davis alone had garnered an Oscar nomination for Baby Jane, managed to wind up on the awards stage anyway, accepting the trophy on behalf of winner (and unwitting co-conspirator) Anne Bancroft. After that Davis took her shots where she could, e.g., “Pepsi-Cola Princess Joan Crawford had no sooner bowed out of her co-starring spot with Bette Davis in Hush, Hush Sweet Charlotte than Bette and Olivia de Havilland obliged the producer’s still photographer by posing together — with a bottle of Coca-Cola between them!” (Mike Connolly, Screen Stories, Dec 1964).
Pixieish, baby-voiced Connie Stevens gave Crawford a run for her money in the multi-feud department, starting with Debbie Reynolds. TV Star Parade (Sep 1960) reported, “Not since the days when Norma Shearer and Joan Crawford battled it out for queen of the MGM lot has Hollywood rocked with such a fur-flying female feud. This is no paper feud made up by press agents: the girls aren’t talking and the wise restauranteur makes sure Connie’s table is in the back if Debbie walks in the front.” Debbie was succeeded by a fellow television blonde, Dorothy Provine. While “Snooper” called the feud a “big battle for power” at Warner Brothers (Motion Picture, May 1962), Mike Connolly (Screen Stories, Apr 1963) revealed that “Dorothy’s been doing some impish imitations of Connie and her ponytail at various parties.” Columnist Steve Brandt (Movieland and TV Time, Dec 1963) noted that the two had “turned their open feuding into a three way bout now that Diane McBain has entered the picture.”
When they weren’t chronicling a (nonexistent) romance between the two, the fan mags also reported “no love lost between Connie Stevens and Troy Donahue,” especially when Warners moved Donahue from Surfside 6 to Stevens’ Hawaiian Eye (Motion Picture, Dec 1962): “Seems to be a hassle over who gets top billing. Each wants more lines of dialogue and footage than the other, and they glare at each other until the cameras turn. When the company gave Connie a birthday party on the Hawaiian Eye set, Troy stalked off without even wishing her the usual. When asked why, he said: ‘I hate birthdays, even my own.’” Despite “Snooper’s” claim (Motion Picture, Feb 1963) that Connie “can’t stand the sight or sound of Troy Donahue,” they were friends, and Stevens visited him in the hospital just days before he died in 2001.
Why did the stars feud? Other than publicity, the common causes were personal or professional jealousy and their accompanying slights or insults. A Sinatra-Darin feud resulted from Bobby “cutting in on the Sinatra date parade” (Rona Barrett, Stardom, March 1960). As for the trouble between Becket costars Richard Burton and Peter O’Toole, “Seems Pete was signed first and got top billing. In real life, too, Peter tops Mr. B by several inches. When Rich realized this, he had his agent ask if Peter minded Burton wearing lifts in his shoes to even out their height. O’Toole sent word back that he had absolutely no objection — but he’d wear lifts, too” (“Snooper,” Motion Picture, Oct 1963). Tuesday Weld apparently insulted Dobie Gillis costar Dwayne Hickman by calling him a “farmer” on set (TV Yearbook No. 9, 1961). And Laurence Harvey managed to offend a bevy of costars, as reported by an unnamed columnist (Inside Movie, May 1964): “Capucine elected herself president of an organization called ‘The Enemies of Laurence Harvey.’ The group consists of Laurence’s ex-leading ladies on stage and screen. The latest recruits are Jane Fonda, Kim Novak, and Elaine Stritch — all of whom are incensed by Laurence’s derogatory comments about them in print. I thought they were carrying their resentment a little too far, until I interviewed Laurence myself.”
Occasionally things got physical. As Sidney Skolsky related in his memoir, “‘I’ll have your legs broken’” was one of Sinatra’s favorite expressions. Other than Ol’ Blue Eyes, reports of mayhem usually involved those most infuriating denizens of Hollywood, the gossip columnists. Joseph Cotten once kicked Hedda Hopper in the derrière at a reception in the Beverly Wilshire ballroom because of a scurrilous item she’d printed about him; according to a Vanity Fair profile of Hopper (Apr 1, 1997), “The next day Joe’s house was full of flowers and telegrams from all the people who would have liked to kick Hedda in the backside but didn’t have the courage.” In 1963 Shirley MacLaine, fed up with Mike Connolly’s abuse in his daily column, walked into the offices of the Hollywood Reporter, asked to see Connolly and, when he met her in the lobby, slapped him (Val Holley, Mike Connolly and the Manly Art of Hollywood Gossip, 2003).
But the most bizarre instance of physical retribution took place between two columnists: Sidney Skolsky and Louella Parsons. According to Skolsky (1975), Parsons became furious when one of his columns contradicted an exclusive that Parsons had bylined, and in retaliation she told their mutual employer, William Randolph Hearst, that Skolsky was a Communist. (He wasn’t.) Speaking to Hearst, Skolsky said, “Are you sure she didn’t say columnist? You know, she has a difficult time pronouncing words.” But the damage was done and Skolsky was fired. By accident several months later he wound up sharing a booth at Chasen’s with Parsons and two mutual acquaintances. After some minutes of conversation, Parsons said to him, “If I’d known you were so nice, I wouldn’t have told Mr. Hearst you were a Communist.” Furious, Skolsky struggled to cope with his anger: “I knew I couldn’t hit a woman. I didn’t know how to get rid of my hostility. ‘Ouch!’ hollered Louella. ‘What are you doing there?’ Maggie and Alva asked, surprised. ‘I just bit Louella. She knows why,’ I said.”
Image credits, beginning clockwise from upper left: (1) Movie Life Feb 1962; (2 & 3) headline, “This Feud” and photo of Connie Stevens, Photoplay Sep 1961; (4) Max Baer Jr. & Donna Douglas, Who’s Who in Television No. 14, 1964-65; (5) promotional postcard image for Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? (6) TV Yearbook No. 9, 1961.
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