1) Page xi: ". . .an increasingly successful and busy radio actress, doing as many as six shows a week." In fact, she performed in as many as six shows a day.
SOURCE: AM interview with Chuck Schaden in Chicago, 17 June 1971.
Oral Interview
Written transcript
2) Page 15-16: [Of Lily Miller in Ah Wilderness!] ". . .dependent on her brother and his family for her livelihood." In fact, Lily is employed as a school teacher. Most likely she lives with the family as a social convention since she is still unmarried, as does/is Sid.
SOURCE: Bard.org
3) Page 45: "Apart from the Mercury Wonder Show . . . in August 1943 and a performance of King Lear on CBS Radio's Mercury Summer Theater on September 13, 1946, Moorehead never worked with her foremost mentor and Svengali again." In fact, there were additional radio broadcasts together, including several appearances on Orson Welles Radio Almanac throughout Jan-July 1944; 10 April 1945, on The Master of Ballantrae for the CBS Radio series This Is My Best; and the 31 March 1946 broadcast of the Radio Readers Digest episode Back for Christmas.
SOURCE: recordings of most of these programs, including their broadcast dates, are available at the Internet Archive:
Almanac Part 1
Almanac Part 2
This is My Best
For the Radio Reader's Digest episode, the site from which I had obtained the recording is no longer hosting it and it is not available at the Internet Archive:
Wellesnet
This log lists the episode but mentions only OW, not AM:
Program Log
I have uploaded my copy of the MP3 file here, from where it may be downloaded (69MB). If you listen, you will hear AM playing OW's wife:
Download Here
4) Page 61 quotes lines of dialog from The Seventh Cross, which AM does not speak in the film.
SOURCE: Warner Archive DVD release.
5) Page 101: ". . .had Moorehead won any laurels for her performance in The Lost Moment, she should have passed them on to makeup artist Bud Westmore." In fact, Bud Westmore, though credited, did not create the age-makeup appliances. They were made by George Bau, at the request of Bud's brother Perc Westmore.
SOURCE:
The Makeup Gallery, Page 1
The Makeup Gallery, Page 2
6) Page 108: "Fanny and Lily are both spinsters living with their brothers' families while pining for wedded bliss to men who show no inclination to marry them. . . ." In fact, Sid proposes marriage to Lily repeatedly.
SOURCE: Warner Archive DVD release of Summer Holiday.
7) Page 122: "Moorehead was nominated for Best Actress in a Supporting Role in 1949 for the second of four times." In fact, this was her third Oscar nomination.
SOURCE: IMDb Awards Page
8) Page 141: [Of her desire to reside in Beverly Hills] "She finally arrived there in 1953. . . ." In fact, newspaper articles of the day put this purchase at early 1952. [Similar statement page 213]
SOURCE: Hedda Hopper's column Looking At Hollywood, published 23 February 1952:
Download Page Here
9) Page 152: "It turned out to be her last film at Warner Bros." In fact, in 1956 she filmed The Story of Mankind at Warner Brothers, who distributed it.
SOURCE: IMDb Page
10) Page 156: "Her well-meaning but ineffectual estranged husband is played by Robert Keith." In fact, Christine and Paul are not estranged, they are divorced.
SOURCE: Fourteen Hours DVD released by Fox Film Noir. Also:
Wikipedia
11) Page 165: "She. . .escapes costume designer Walter Plunkett's worst excesses in mostly gray dresses." In fact, she wears variously-colored dresses in green, blue, brown-patterned, and red.
SOURCE: Showboat DVD, released by TCM.
12) Page 194: "Though she would make several TV movies at Universal in the early 1970s, Agnes Moorehead would make only two feature films there in the course of her career." In fact, The Lost Moment, which was a co-production of Universal and Walter Wanger, was filmed at Universal Studios, which brings the count to three. [Similar statement page 207]
SOURCE:
-See page 200, which attests to this fact.
-Opening credits for film.
IMDb Page
13) Page 200: ". . .two other CinemaScope epics that Moorehead would suffer through later: Raintree County and How the West Was One [sic]." In fact, Raintree County was filmed in MGM Camera 65, and How the West Was Won was filmed in Cinerama.
SOURCE:
IMDb Raintree County
IMDb HTWWW
14) Page 200: "Moorehead liked to tell the story of how Lucille Ball. . . ." Unsourced. In fact, it was Lucille Ball who told this story, to author Jim Brochu.
SOURCE: Tranberg, page 266.
15) Page 201: "As Aspasia Conti says to Susie Parkington in a line that was omitted from the film, "Ma petite--when a lady is naked it is called 'decollete'." In fact, the line is included in the film.
SOURCE: Mrs. Parkinton, Warner Archive DVD release.
16) Page 208: "For what is the woman wearing? Pink, lavender, and orange with a green scarf for contrast!" In fact, Sara is wearing a solid blue outfit with pink and green scarves tied together at the neck.
SOURCE: All That Heaven Allows, Criterion DVD release.
17) Page 221: "Moorehead died of uterine cancer, which is caused by a virus and not set off by external, environmental factors." In fact, uterine (endometrial) cancer is not caused by a virus. From mayoclinic.com: "Doctors don't know what causes endometrial cancer. What's known is that something occurs to create a genetic mutation within cells in the endometrium — the lining of the uterus."
SOURCE: Mayo Clinic
18) Page 266: "To commemorate this notable role, she had herself painted as Queen Elizabeth." In fact, the painting of AM as QE1 was executed a few years earlier, at the request of the artist.
SOURCE:
News Article 1
News Article 2
I would venture a guess that, whoever cast the roles played by AM and CR in their scene of "The Story of Mankind" was influenced by these renaissance-style portraits of them.
19) Page 285: ". . .even after Dale is killed on the stairs. . . ." In fact, Dale survives to the end, where she is seen working with Cornelia to complete her new book. The character who is killed on the stairs is Judy.
SOURCE: The Bat, which is in public domain: Internet Archive
20) Page 309: ". . .she had resisted the temptation to bob her famously auburn tresses in her youth. As far as we know, she kept her hair long up until that day in 1961. . . ." In fact, as a young woman in her late teens and early twenties, AM wore her hair short, as evidenced throughout her college yearbooks.
SOURCE: Muskingum College yearbooks, dated 1921-1924. Samples, as scanned from my books:
21) Page 311: ". . .a wealthy couple perpetually at daggers drawn." In fact, only in the pictured scene. Usually there was a cool, patronizing courtesy between them.
SOURCE: Who's Minding the Store DVD, released by Olive Films.
22) Page 336: ". . .Sister Alma at one of her services at 'The Haven of the Open Hand.'" In fact, Sister Alma's place is called The Church of the Open Hand.
SOURCE: What's the Matter with Helen? DVD, released by MGM Home Entertainment.
23) Page 344: ". . .where she was at this time building a new home for herself." In fact, the new house was already built by this time.
SOURCE: Quint Benedetti, chapter 15.
Message Thread | This response ↓
« Back to index | View thread »