Hollywood Mysteries #26 - Marion Davies: Secret Child, Citizen Kane...and a Murder Mystery.

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  • เผยแพร่เมื่อ 25 พ.ย. 2024

ความคิดเห็น • 60

  • @VintageVera
    @VintageVera 5 หลายเดือนก่อน +36

    Supposedly Hearst damaged Marion's career by insisting she star in costume dramas rather than exploit her natural gift for physical comedy and mimicry.

    • @HollywoodMysteries
      @HollywoodMysteries  5 หลายเดือนก่อน +4

      That's true!

    • @heidibee501
      @heidibee501 5 หลายเดือนก่อน

      I am sure if she believed that she could have convinced him to do otherwise. It's onvious her audience loved it too. It would seem that was enough for her.

    • @hcombs0104
      @hcombs0104 5 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

      Marion Davies was not unlike Carole Lombard. Both actresses could play drama, but really stood out in comedy.

    • @JanissGoddess
      @JanissGoddess 5 หลายเดือนก่อน +3

      Thank you so much for this look at Marion Davies. I am a huge fan of hers and her talent. If you look carefully at some of her work, especially in Show People, you might notice that actresses that came after her such as Carole Lombard and yes, Lucille Ball might have borrowed a little bit from her.

  • @emilien.
    @emilien. 5 หลายเดือนก่อน +18

    I have just barely started watching this video and I'm already enraptured. In my mind, and with sincere admiration for her talents, she'll forever be delightfully entwined in my mind with the story of Rosebud. Marion, I salute thee.

    • @HollywoodMysteries
      @HollywoodMysteries  5 หลายเดือนก่อน +3

      The definition of a mixed blessing for her, that film!

    • @emilien.
      @emilien. 5 หลายเดือนก่อน

      @@HollywoodMysteries Agreed! The whole story of Orson Wells writing Citizen Kane in hiding, why he named the sled Rosebud -- you can't make this stuff up.

  • @lauriewarner4848
    @lauriewarner4848 5 หลายเดือนก่อน +17

    People that trash others that are just living complicated lives, need to get a life. She was a wonderful down to earth beauty, that was a great kind human. There are just as many stories about her helping others, including WRH. So folks give her, the respect.

  • @ValerieFelitto
    @ValerieFelitto 5 หลายเดือนก่อน +18

    In everything I have ever come across about her states that Marion was a nice down to earth person. Good for you for straightening out a cruel legend that's so out of date

    • @HollywoodMysteries
      @HollywoodMysteries  5 หลายเดือนก่อน +4

      Yes, she has been unfairly dismissed for many years

  • @stephaniec3619
    @stephaniec3619 5 หลายเดือนก่อน +12

    I’d love to see you do a piece on Mabel Normand. I love watching all of your videos, I learn so much about the silent film era mostly. I love old movies of the 30’s and 40’s. Katherine Hepburn is my favourite actress of all time,

    • @HollywoodMysteries
      @HollywoodMysteries  5 หลายเดือนก่อน +4

      We’re definitely planning on doing a video on Mabel Normand (maybe Katharine Hepburn too!)

  • @heidibee501
    @heidibee501 5 หลายเดือนก่อน +9

    I have a decent collection of older movies but I'd only heard of Marion Davies indirectly. She was beautiful although l liked her blonde look best because it receded in effect, allowing her features to take center stage. Her movies were exactly my taste going by the description here. The love between her and Hearst is indisputable. She stayed with him through good times and bad. It's a crazy, sweet story.

    • @HollywoodMysteries
      @HollywoodMysteries  5 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

      Yes, we agree - let us know your thoughts on her movies if you get to check any out!

  • @anthonysheppard9247
    @anthonysheppard9247 5 หลายเดือนก่อน +10

    What a really interesting life ,this channel is going from strength to strength ❤

    • @HollywoodMysteries
      @HollywoodMysteries  5 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

      Thank you - and great to see you back again!

  • @LisaRent
    @LisaRent 5 หลายเดือนก่อน +19

    I have a hard time believing Chaplin went after Davies because he preferred very young teenage girls, not mature women.
    Also, my great grandmother and her daughter, my great aunt, used to party at Hearst Castle with WRH and Marion Davies. I would love to know more about the parties because both of my ancestors were very spicy, for women of the 1930’s.

    • @emilien.
      @emilien. 5 หลายเดือนก่อน

      @LisaRent Charlie had a hard time too... 🤣🤣

  • @hcombs0104
    @hcombs0104 5 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

    I heard all the stories of how untalented Marion Davies was, and how Hearst pushed her on the public. So, I was very surprised when I found myself watching her first talkie, called Marianne, late one night. Right away I could see she very easily played musical comedy, and was criminally underrated.

  • @douglasduncan100
    @douglasduncan100 5 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

    Another great story thank you I love learning new parts of history and you do it so well a lot of teachers could pick up some tips in engaging students from you 😀

  • @stephaniestanley8041
    @stephaniestanley8041 5 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

    The lovely narrator ❤

  • @janethayes5941
    @janethayes5941 5 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

    You absolutely have the perfect voice for this content.

  • @JR-ld2xx
    @JR-ld2xx 5 หลายเดือนก่อน +4

    I agree with you about Marion Davies. Have you ever been to Hearst Castle? I got stories about the Castle etc. If you like to know.

    • @HollywoodMysteries
      @HollywoodMysteries  5 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

      Yes tell us!

    • @JR-ld2xx
      @JR-ld2xx 5 หลายเดือนก่อน

      @@HollywoodMysteries OK. I apologize for the delay of response. Here we go… I was fortunate to live in California. If you live in California and never visited the Hearst’s Castle. You should. It’s something you don’t see in any other place in the United States. Hearst had a similar castle in Mexico, but it was ransacked by Pancho Via. The Hearst family lives in a secluded area close to the castle. You can find pictures of their residents. The Hearst castle is in between from Los Angeles and San Francisco. He did this to be a rest stop for the Hollywood entertainers. It had a port, and airstrip. The rooms are simple and not elaborate. The dinning-room is a long table, but the width is half the normal size. The reason, so people can talk across the table. Condiments, were left in the bottle it came in, and dinner wear was causal. He served regular hot-dogs, & hamburgers. Billiards, Tennis courts, and 30? person theatre. When California, opened to visitors. Visitors were shown clips, (filmed there), of who came to Hearst's Castle in the theatre. One clip would show Charlie Chaplain and Errol Flynn?, playing tennis. Later California, change the clip, because they never did play together but at different time periods. There is an amazing indoor pool. An aqua blues, gold, woven in the pool, & columns. I can not give a good description of it. There is an outdoor pool. It’s like you are in Italy. With columns. I pretty sure that one has been used in the different media. When Mr. Hearst went to Europe, he went shopping in various countries to pick out everything for the interior of the castle. It’s like an English style manor. Even so, Mr. Hearst is not a Saint. His style of living, was not pompous. He did not, expect people to pay him to stay there. I don’t know if you mentioned this film, called Cat's Meow. It’s the Hollywood make on what happened to Thomas Ince. Also, the staff doesn't bring up Citizen Cain. Nor do they talk about Mr. Hearst and Marion Davies negatively. I appreciate that you wanted me to tell you. I hope I did a good job. Thank you. If you are ever thinking of going there, let me know, I can meet you there.

  • @scottwhittaker4959
    @scottwhittaker4959 3 หลายเดือนก่อน

    Wow. My mind has been altered.

  • @lorincowell6944
    @lorincowell6944 5 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

    Her niece, Pepi, died 89 years ago, this Tuesday.

  • @LulasSong
    @LulasSong 5 หลายเดือนก่อน

    GREAT film! A classic. Kudos to Orson Wells.❤

  • @christinetanguay949
    @christinetanguay949 9 วันที่ผ่านมา

    Olive Thomas was the first referred to as a flapper. Staring in the movie the flapper 1920.

  • @donaldpfitzgerald
    @donaldpfitzgerald 5 หลายเดือนก่อน +4

    Who narrates these stories? Wonderful job!

    • @HollywoodMysteries
      @HollywoodMysteries  5 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

      It's all in-house from our small team of two. Thanks for watching!

  • @MyDarkmarc
    @MyDarkmarc 5 หลายเดือนก่อน +6

    There are very few stars who are actually loved by other stars but there is one name who was in reality a very loved and liked star. This charming little blonde evokes a whole thesaurus of admiring adjectives: warm, generous, fun-loving, beautiful, spunky, personable, giddy, saucy, vivacious, joyous, bubbly, pert, breezy and sentimental. As Charlie Chaplin, described her in his biography, "To my surprise, she was quite the comedienne, with charm and appeal and would have been a star in her right without the cyclonic William Randolph Hearst behind her.
    Being Hearst's mistress for thirty-odd years Marion became the butt of innumerable Hollywood jokes resulting from the preposterous amount of publicity that the Hearst papers wrote and said about her. Hearst had decreed that a day shall not pass without some mention of Marion Davies in his chain of newspapers and much of they pose came from the pen of loyal gossip columnist Louella O. Parsons. There was a running joke in Hollywood that was a quote that was repeated over and over again that actually came from Parsons. In reviewing one of Marion's costume potboilers, Yolande (1924, Metro-Goldwyn) she had said, "Marion Davies, in costumes of the English period, has never looked lovelier." That joke was amusing as most of them were, and Marion herself would have enjoyed laughing over it, but other "jokes" were not so harmless. The most notorious of the Marion Davies "jokes" was of course, the character of Susan Alexander in Orson Welles' Citizen Kane (1941, RKO), as the no-talent mistress of newspaper baron Charles Foster Kane, Susan is pushed into an operatic career which is unequivocally beyond her abilities. But the fact is that Marion Davies was NOT a no-talent actress. Marion was indeed a delightful mimic and a sparkling comedienne, and if her singing and dancing were not so topnotch, she was far better than many of her contemporaries in Hollywood. But, Hearst saw her only in a fantasy of romanticism and female respectability, and built her career around a series of ridiculous costume dramas, thwarting her talents as a comedienne. Marion, who loved Hearst "Pops" undeniably and did not give a damn about her career most of the time she would usually acquiesced. Hearst loved Davies with great devotion and certainly would have married her if his wife Millicent would have consented to a divorce.
    Marion Cecelia Douras was born on January 3, 1897 in Brooklyn, New York. As Marion grew up and as her formal education had ended, she began a career as a chorus girl on Broadway where she eventually found herself in the famed Ziegfeld Follies. But Marion wanted more than to dance. Acting, to Marion, was the epitome of a show business career and aimed her sights in that direction. Marion Davies’ name should be indelibly ranked among the top screen comics. Displaying a, comedy sense that seemed to be an early precursor to screwball (in many ways her presence and comedic timing is not unlike that of Carole Lombard), she had the potential to be a great comedic star. Davies claimed to have wanted to maintain a relatively low profile, and for the most part that’s what happened until she ultimately left Hollywood in 1937 to devote herself to Hearst and events at his San Simeon ranch. Davies seemed to have little interest in Hollywood, and believing that she never really had any talent, often wondered how she ended up in the business. Davies could not have been more wrong in her perception about her acting abilities-a very bright talent, she was particularly known for her spot-on mimicry of Lillian Gish, Pola Negri and Mae Murray in the very funny, The Patsy (1928, MGM), and also in Show People (1928, MGM), which was loosely based on Gloria Swanson's film career which told the story of an actress who rose from slapstick queen to femme fatale. Both films were very ably directed by King Vidor. In addition to the Castle at San Simeon, Hearst build Marion a beach house located at Santa Monica which cost an estimated cost of $7 million. The beach house consisted of 118 rooms and 55 baths, the furnishings included twelve full-length oil portraits showing Marion in various cinema roles. Marion's friends referred to the beach house as the "Versailles of Hollywood." When Marion sold the house to the state of California in the late 1950s much of the beach house was demolished by the mid-1960s. When talkies became all the rage Marion was understandably nervous because she had a stutter and was worried she wouldn't make a successful transition to the new medium, but she was a true professional who had no problem with the change. For Marion's sound film debut she appeared as a World War I French farm girl in Marianne (1929, MGM), singing, dancing and mimicking Maurice Chevalier and Sarah Bernhardt and falling for the rough charms of dough-boy Lawrence Gray. Marion had all ready appeared in MGM's all-star, all-talking pastiche, The Hollywood Revue of 1929, singing and dancing to the song "Oh What A Man, What A Man." The trouble was that Hearst still saw Marion as the romantic, dramatic heroine. Irving Thalberg tried his best to urge Hearst that Marion be allowed to do what she did best "comedy" but he was ignored by Hearst. For Marion's next film Hearst selected The Barrett's Of Wimpole Street but Thalberg had reserved that plum role for his wife Norma Shearer, Then Hearst set his slights on Marie Antoinette but that role also went to Shearer again. That was the last straw for Hearst and they parted company with Hearst moving Marion and her portable dressing room on wheels to Warner Brothers.
    Marion and Shearer had always been good friends. She was one of Shearer's bridesmaids at the 1927 wedding to Thalberg, but after her MGM departure Hearst forbade the named of Shearer to appear in any of his newspapers.
    By 1937 Hearst's empire began to crumble and Marion at age 40 retired from the screen. At one point during the Great Depression, it looked bad for Hearst, Marion loaned him one million dollars and Hearst was able to survive the Depression.
    On August 14, 1951 Hearst died at the age of 58 in the home he shared with Marion. The family did not invite her to the funeral and she was not mentioned in his will since she was provided for separately. Hearst's death did leave Marion in voting control of the Hearst organization. In the end Marion agreed to relinquish her voting rights and serve as an advisor at the salary of $1 dollar a year.
    Also, on October 31, 1951 Marion (age 54) eloped to Las Vegas with a former naval officer and ex-stuntman, Captain Horace Brown. This was Marion Davies' first marriage. She lived her final years in solitude except for one public appearance on January 9, 1960 when gossip columnist Hedda Hopper presented a one-hour television special "Hedda Hopper's Hollywood" and one of the guests was Marion Davies. At one point Marion Davies got up from her seat and walked over to where Hedda Hopper was standing and a slightly tipsy Davies greeted the revered columnist with, "Hello, Hedda, you old shit."
    In her later years, Davies became heavily involved with charity work, donating $1.9 million in 1952 to establish a children's clinic at UCLA and establishing the Marion Davies Foundation to help fight childhood diseases. In 1956 Davis suffered a minor stroke and was diagnosed with cancer of the jaw, which was successfully operated on. Davis' health continued to decline during that time, and on September 22, 1961 she succumbed to cancer. She left an estate estimated at more than $30 million. Curious side note: Patricia Lake (nee Van Cleeve) was always introduced as the niece of Marion Davies. After Patricia's death, her will revealed she was instead the child of Davies and her long-time love, Hearst. Perhaps Mary Astor who worked with Marion in the comedy Page Miss Glory (1935, Warner Brothers), summed up the off-screen Marion best: "She was not sharp and inquisitive, nor was she a dumb blonde. She was bright and funny. Her warmth and kindness could have taught many of us a great deal about the art of loving."

  • @Cua-tanet
    @Cua-tanet 5 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

    When do we get to see Emma Stone play Marion Davies?

  • @EnzaRagone
    @EnzaRagone 5 หลายเดือนก่อน +8

    I know I'm in the minority, but I really didn't care for the film Citizen Kane - I think it's really overrated and feel I'll never get back those two hours of my life. I saw the Marion Davies analogies and thought they were really unfair as she was an extremely talented actress and deserved way more respect. Thanks so much for telling it like it is.

    • @rosannacellini2158
      @rosannacellini2158 5 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

      I'm an old movie buff, and I'll second that. "Citizen Kane" was overrated, and I never cared for Orson Wells, as an actor. He was weird. Lol

    • @EnzaRagone
      @EnzaRagone 5 หลายเดือนก่อน

      @@rosannacellini2158 I totally agree with you.

  • @diankelly6689
    @diankelly6689 2 หลายเดือนก่อน

    I wonder why so many stars have issues with alcohol abuse when it was outlawed federally. It must of been nice for the law not to apply for the rich and famous and political officials.

  • @PattyMarshall-l8v
    @PattyMarshall-l8v 5 หลายเดือนก่อน +4

    The surname "Davies" is Welsh not English .

    • @HollywoodMysteries
      @HollywoodMysteries  5 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

      It is - but the family still chose it to try and fit in. Maybe a compromise..

  • @constipatedinsincity4424
    @constipatedinsincity4424 5 หลายเดือนก่อน

    Do you know the image Kaloma?

  • @Lucinda-zr9su
    @Lucinda-zr9su หลายเดือนก่อน

    Wat h the movie " the cats meow" about Hearst shooting a man to death on the yacht n how it was covered up.

  • @HappyChickPea
    @HappyChickPea 5 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

    She is brilliant in the Patsy. Davies is my favorite fashion icon of the 20s, and she was treated horribly by media and the Hearst family.

  • @darkside77777
    @darkside77777 5 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

    to learn more about Miss Davies - READ the book - Marion Davies: Captain of Her Soul.

  • @RenataCantore
    @RenataCantore 5 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

    Love is Love ❤️ 32 years. I respect that.

  • @LulasSong
    @LulasSong 5 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

    Al Voice again?

    • @HollywoodMysteries
      @HollywoodMysteries  5 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

      Nope, I am very much a regular human being!

  • @patriciahenderson2096
    @patriciahenderson2096 5 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

    Is Bette Davis one of Patricia Lake's bridesmaids?

    • @HollywoodMysteries
      @HollywoodMysteries  5 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

      I thought the exact same thing but couldn't find a source - looks like her!

  • @allenschmitz9644
    @allenschmitz9644 5 หลายเดือนก่อน

    She became a Hollywood real estate mogol.😅

  • @pennyguglielmini417
    @pennyguglielmini417 5 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

    All I see when I look at her is she seemed to have no problem carrying on with someone else's husband. Hearst was married. She was well aware of that fact. Enough said.

    • @selecttravelvacations7472
      @selecttravelvacations7472 5 หลายเดือนก่อน

      Mrs Hearst lived on the E. Coast, He lived on the W. Coast. She lived her life and he lived his. Much cheaper than divorce. There’s no need to judge their life choices. He asked for a divorce and his wife would not grant it.

    • @pennyguglielmini417
      @pennyguglielmini417 5 หลายเดือนก่อน

      @@selecttravelvacations7472 I'm not judging, I'm stating facts. It is irrelevant to God that they lived on different coasts. And Davies knew he was married from the beginning. It's true that times have changed since the Bible was written but God has not. Married is married, it's for life. It was wrong thousands of years ago and it's still wrong.

  • @lindacosta3265
    @lindacosta3265 5 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

    I had a hard time to listen to this narrative as the reader is purposely like singing at the end of each frase😮😢

  • @walcoman
    @walcoman 3 หลายเดือนก่อน

    The word is MAG NATE .......try to at least pronounce words correctly if you want to be taken seriously.