Marion Davies
Marion Davies (born January 3, 1897; died September 23, 1961) was an American comedic actress.
Early life
Davies was born Marion Cecilia Douras in Brooklyn, New York, the youngest of five children born to Bernard J. Douras,[1] a lawyer who moved in New York City political circles, and Rose Reilly, formerly of Jersey City, New Jersey. Her elder siblings included Rose, Reine, and Ethel. A brother, Charles, drowned at the age of 15 in 1906. She liked to do puzzles.
The Douras family lived near Prospect Park in Brooklyn, but already the bright lights of Manhattan beckoned to the sisters. The sisters changed their surname to Davies, which one of them spotted from a realtor's sign in the neighbourhood. Even at a time when New York was the melting pot for new immigrants, having a Anglo-Saxon surname greatly helped one's prospects.
The Davies girls all hit the Great White Way, and Marion was signed on as a chorine in Florenz Ziegfeld's spectacular annual "Ziegfeld Follies" revues. Massively and expensively staged and brimming with the best comedic and musical talent, Ziegfeld's productions also showcased some of the most sensationally attractive young women in the world.
Career and Scandal
Though one of the greatest silent screen comediennes, Marion Davies is best remembered today for her relationship with newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst. Even during her career, her high-profile social life often obscured her professional achievements.
Along with other lovelies starting out in the 1916 "Follies" –– like Olive Thomas and Mae Murray –– Marion's beauty, vivacity and talent made her a star, and she soon outgrew the chorusline. Also like Thomas and Murray, she exchanged her popularity on stage for success in the movies.
After making her screen debut in late 1916 in a fashion newsreel, modeling gowns by Lucile (Lucy, Lady Duff-Gordon), she appeared in her first feature film in 1917's Runaway Romany, for which she also wrote the script. Playing mainly light comedic roles, she quickly became a major movie personality, making a small fortune which enabled her to provide financial assistance for her family and friends.
By the mid-1920s, however, Marion's career was often overshadowed by her relationship with married media mogul William Randolph Hearst and their fabulous social life at San Simeon and Ocean House in Santa Monica.
Hearst had met her soon after she'd started working in movies, and formed Cosmopolitan Pictures solely to produce starring vehicles for her. Hearst's relentless efforts to promote her career instead had a detrimental effect, but he persisted, making Cosmopolitan's distribution deals first with Paramount, then Goldwyn, and then Metro Goldwyn Mayer. Marion, herself, in her published memoirs The Times We Had, concluded that Hearst's over-the-top promotion of her career, in fact, had a negative result.
Hearst loved seeing her in expensive costume pictures such as When Knighthood Was in Flower (1922), Little Old New York (1923), Janice Meredith (1924) and Quality Street (1927), but in retrospect she seems to have fared just as well, if not better, in contemporary comedies like Tillie the Toiler, The Fair Co-Ed (both 1927), and especially two directed by King Vidor, The Patsy and the backstage-in-Hollywood saga Show People (both 1928), where she showed a shining comedic talent and pantomimic skills. The Patsy contains her wonderful imitations, that she usually did for friends, of silent stars Lillian Gish, Mae Murray and Pola Negri.
The coming of sound made Marion nervous, because she had never completely overcome a childhood stutter. But with her usual persistence she did well, and made several memorable comedies and musicals during the 1930's, including Marianne (1929), Not So Dumb (1930), The Florodora Girl (1930), The Bachelor Father (1931), Five and Ten (1931) with Leslie Howard, Polly of the Circus (1932) with Clark Gable, Blondie of the Follies (1932), Peg o' My Heart (1933), Going Hollywood (1933) with Bing Crosby, and Operator 13 (1934) with Gary Cooper. She was involved with many aspects of her films and was considered an astute businesswoman. Her career, however, was hampered by Hearst's insistence that she play distinguished, dramatic parts, as opposed to the comic roles that were her forte. She also harboured an increasing dependence on alcohol, hiding bottles of liquor in San Simeon's toilet tanks. However, her body of work has often been praised by contemporary critics.
Hearst reportedly had tried to push MGM executives to hire Marion for the role of Marie Antoinette in Marie Antoinette (1938). Louis B. Mayer had other ideas and hired producer Irving Thalberg's wife Norma Shearer for the part instead. Hearst reacted by pulling his newspaper support for MGM, and moved Cosmopolitan Pictures to Warner Bros.'s studios, but stayed only a few years. Davies' films there, including Page Miss Glory (1935), Hearts Divided, Cain and Mabel (both 1936), and Ever Since Eve (1937), her last film. Cosmopolitan Pictures folded, so Marion left the screen and retreated to San Simeon.
Ince Scandal
William R. Hearst and Marion Davies lived as a couple for decades but were never married as Hearst never divorced his wife. At one point he reportedly came close to marrying Davies, but decided his wife's settlement demands were too high.
Davies, although with Hearst for years, also privately dated other actors. In the mid-1920s, Davies became involved in an affair with actor Charlie Chaplin, and in the mid-1930s she was involved with actor Dick Powell. Hearst was incredibly jealous and possessive of her, even though he was married throughout their relationship.
The alleged affair with Chaplin became the stuff of legend in 1924 when Hearst, Davies and Chaplin (among other actresses and actors) were on Hearst's yacht with film producer Thomas Ince when Ince was killed.
In spite of no supporting evidence, rumours have circulated since that time that Hearst mistook Ince for Chaplin and shot him in a jealous rage. The rumours were dramatised in the play The Cat's Meow, which was later made into a 2001 film (of the same name) starring Edward Herrmann as Hearst, Kirsten Dunst as Davies, Eddie Izzard as Chaplin and Cary Elwes as Ince.
Decline
By the early 1930s, Hearst's empire crumbled, and he was beginning to lose everything. Over Hearst's objections, Davies sold many of the gifts he had given her over the years (supposedly worth $2 million of American dollars) to raise money to bail him out; Davies commented that the "gold digger had fallen in love." When Hearst died, his family had every trace of Davies' presence in his home removed, and when discussing his life and legacy, made no reference to her.
Ten weeks after Hearst's death, Davies married for the first time, on October 31, 1951, at the age of fifty-four. Her husband was former sea captain, policeman and sometime actor, Horace G. Brown. It was not a happy marriage (he allegedly encouraged her drinking): Davies filed for divorce twice, but neither was finalised. Marion's friends, and the media, noticed a remarkable physical similarity between Brown and the young William Randolph Hearst.
In her last years, the generous Marion Davies was involved with charity work: in 1952 she donated $1.9 million to establish a children's clinic at UCLA, which still bears her name. She also fought childhood diseases through the Marion Davies Foundation.
She suffered a minor stroke in 1956, and was later diagnosed with cancer of the jaw. Although she had an operation which appeared to be successful, Davies fell and broke her leg in 1960. The last time Davies was seen by the American public was on January 10, 1960 on an NBC TV special called Hedda Hopper's Hollywood. Hosted by Hedda Hopper, guest interviews included (besides Davies herself) an extremely eclectic mix of then-current and former stars such as: Lucille Ball (a friend of Hopper's), Francis X. Bushman, John Cassavetes, Robert Cummings, Walt Disney, Janet Gaynor, Bob Hope, Hope Lange, Anthony Perkins, Debbie Reynolds, James Stewart, and Gloria Swanson.
Her health continued to decline, and Davies died of cancer in 1961, in Hollywood. Her funeral was attended by many old-time Hollywood legends including Mary Pickford, Mrs. Clark Gable, and President Herbert Hoover. She is buried in the Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Hollywood. She left an estate estimated at more than $30 million dollars.
After the death of Davies' niece, Patricia Lake (née Van Cleeve), Lake's family announced that she was in fact the daughter of Marion Davies and William Randolph Hearst; prior to the announcement, it had been said that Lake was the daughter of Rose Davies (Marion's sister) and her first husband, George Van Cleeve. Although the claim does not appear to have been verified independently, Lake and her husband—Arthur Lake, who played Dagwood in numerous films—were buried beside Davies.
Davies was rumoured to be the inspiration for the shrill, talentless Susan Alexander character portrayed in Orson Welles' Citizen Kane, which was based loosely on Hearst's life. This portrayal has led to various portrayals of her as a loose, drunken woman, the most recent of which was Melanie Griffith's in HBO's RKO 281. Welles himself deeply regretted that so many assumed Susan Alexander was a carbon copy of Davies— he felt that the real Davies was a great actress and a wonderful woman. Davies was also portrayed by Virginia Madsen in the telefilm The Hearst and Davies Affair (1985) (with Robert Mitchum as Hearst) and Heather Macnair in Chaplin (1992). Madsen later became a Davies fan and said that she felt she had inadvertently portrayed her as a stereotype, rather than as a real person. Many film historians and fans resent the negative reputation Kane garnered her, and have worked to restore her image in the public eye. Their efforts included a 2001 documentary which featured appearances by friends and costars who tearfully remembered Davies, even four decades after her death.
See also
- History of Santa Monica, California in the 1920s A short history of Ocean House.