LETTERS From CAMP Rehoboth |
PAST Out |
by Liz Highleyman |
Who was Tallulah Bankhead?
Decades after her heyday in the 1920s and 1930s, self-described "ambisextrous" stage and screen star Tallulah Bankhead is as famous for her bad-girl antics as for her acting talent.Bankhead was born to a prominent political family in Huntsville, Alabama, on January 31, probably in 1903 (the year is subject to debate); her mother died shortly thereafter from childbirth complications. Seeking to keep his two unruly daughters out of trouble, her father, a U.S. Congressman, sent them to convent schools, but these proved conducive venues for Bankhead's first sexual experiences with other girls. Though plump and plain as a child, Bankhead blossomed as an adolescent; at age 15, she won a movie magazine beauty contest with a prize of a small film role. Chaperoned by an aunt, she took up residence at the Algonquin Hotel in New York City, a favored haunt of the Broadway elite. There, Bankhead was seduced by renowned actress Eva Le Gallienne and met Estelle Winwood, an older English actress who would become a life-long friend and sometime lover. Bankhead also counted among her liaisons British student Napier Alington and jazz great Billie Holiday, but she turned down a casting couch invitation from John Barrymore. Breakthrough acting success eluded Bankhead in New York, and in 1923 she moved to London on the advice of an astrologer. There, she quickly achieved fame, especially among young working-class women. Over the next eight years she appeared in two dozen West End plays, which were wildly popular with fans, if not always acclaimed by critics. Documents declassified in 2000 revealed that the British intelligence service investigated hergroundlessly, it turned outfor allegedly seducing a group of Eton schoolboys. Bankhead earned considerable income, but spent profligately; by the end of the decade, she was broke and accepted a contract offer from Paramount Studios. In Hollywood, she hosted parties at her mansion that were said to have "no boundaries," and she attended shindigs at lesbian actress Alla Nazimova's lavish Garden of Allah estate. An emergency hysterectomy due to advanced gonorrhea did little to curb her omnivorous sexual appetite. "My daddy warned me about men and booze," she famously quipped, "but he never mentioned a word about women and cocaine." Bankhead had flings with Gary Cooper andallegedlywith Marlene Dieterich, but Greta Garbo apparently spurned her advances. Upon meeting Joan Crawford, who was then married to Douglas Fairbanks Jr., she remarked, "I've had an affair with your husband. You'll be next." Though Bankhead often bragged about her sexual conquests, many believed she exaggerated for the sake of publicity. Indeed, her comments suggested that she did not particularly enjoy sex. "The conventional position makes me claustrophobic," she once said, "and the others give me a stiff neck or lockjaw." Regarding Bankhead's orientation, long-time companion Patsy Kellyone of the first actresses to come out as a lesbian said "mostly it depended on Tallulah's mood... When she'd get caught up with a man, she'd go quite hetero on us." Bankhead married once, to actor John Emery in 1937, but they divorced four years later with no children. She then bought an estate in Westchester County, where she lived for extended periods with Winwood and with Kelly. She also surrounded herself with numerous pets and her "caddies"young men who mixed her drinks, lit her constant cigarettes, and sometimes provided sexual services. Following in her father's footsteps, she became increasingly involved in politics, campaigning for Democratic candidates and supporting both anti-Nazi and anti-Communist causes. Bankhead disliked movie acting, and her larger-than-life style was better suited to the stage than the screen. After making several unsuccessful Hollywood films, she returned to acting on Broadway and with national touring companies, receiving critical acclaim for her performances in The Little Foxes (1939) and The Skin of Our Teeth (1942). Though bitterly disappointed at being passed over for the role of Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind, she still took on occasional movie projects, including her most famous role as a shipwrecked journalist in Alfred Hitchcock's Lifeboat (1944). In the early 1950s, Bankhead emceed The Big Show, a popular variety program on NBC Radio; when radio gave way to television, she appeared as a guest on shows such as The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour. She also starred in a one-woman Las Vegas nightclub act and wrote a best-selling autobiography. But as Bankhead aged, her years of hard drinking and drug use caught up with her, and she became a caricature of her former self. Many of her gay male fans failed to take her efforts seriously, laughing through her performance as Blanche DuBois in a 1956 revival of A Streetcar Named Desire. Before her death from pneumonia in 1968, Bankhead's final roles were intentionally absurd, including turns as a demented mother in the British horror flick Fanatic (1965)retitled Die! Die! My Darling! in the United Statesand as the Black Widow on the Batman television series. When producer William Dozier explained his vision for the latter role, she reportedly replied, "Don't talk to me about camp, dahling, I invented it!" Liz Highleyman is a freelance writer and editor who has written widely on health, sexuality, and politics. She can be reached care of Letters from CAMP Rehoboth or at PastOut@qsyndicate.com. For further reading: Bret, David. 1997. Tallulah Bankhead: A Scandalous Life (Robson Books). Lobenthal, Joe. 2004. Tallulah! The Life and Times of a Leading Lady (HarperCollins). McLellan, Diana. 2000. The Girls: Sappho Goes to Hollywood (Robson Books). |
LETTERS From CAMP Rehoboth, Vol. 18, No. 03 April 04, 2008 |