A few fun facts about Hollywood celebs
By Lucie M. Winborne
Poised and put together. Larger than life, with foibles and blemishes carefully airbrushed by the Hollywood publicity machine. That was the image of Hollywood’s classic stars. But no doubt their fans occasionally wondered if, out of the spotlight, the lords and ladies of Tinseltown’s golden age were just as human as the rest of us. That they indeed were is evidenced by some lesser-known facts about our favorite celebs.
Who could be surprised, for example, to learn that Fred Astaire was quite the perfectionist, given those flawlessly suave dance routines that could only have been achieved by tireless practice and dedication? But Fred’s exacting standards didn’t end on the dance floor. Once, while viewing one of his films in a theater and spotting something he didn’t like, he insisted that the production company, RKO, pull all of the film’s prints from circulation.
A relentless quest for realism that actually endangered some of his actors was behind Howard Hughes’ brand of perfectionism. For 1930’s Hell’s Angels, Hughes hired real-life fighter pilots to perform certain flying scenes, but as the required stunts became more hazardous, a number of them dropped out. Three of those who remained died during filming, and Hughes himself suffered a skull fracture while performing the film’s riskiest stunt.
Was Alfred Hitchcock a cinematic genius? Of course. Was he also prone to unhealthy obsessions with his lovely leading ladies? You bet. Tippi Hedren, star of The Birds, so entranced the legendary director/producer that at one point he paid crew members to spy on her during film breaks. Not surprisingly, Hedren later claimed Hitchcock “put me in a mental prison.”
In an industry where looks are paramount, stars suffered from the same insecurities about their appearance as the average fan. Audrey Hepburn considered her shoulders too angular, her nose and feet too big, and admitted to wishing she wasn’t “so flat-chested.” But her makeup artist knew how to play up Hepburn’s best feature: After applying mascara, he meticulously separated the actress’ eyelashes with a safety pin. Grace Kelly was a stickler for saturating her hands with lotion, reportedly because that was where “people show their age first.” And some actresses, including Joan Crawford, even had some of their molars removed to accentuate the hollows in their cheeks.
Offscreen, actors unwound with everything from games to dreaming up inventions. Humphrey Bogart not only played tournament chess, but he also was a certified tournament director. Mickey Rooney managed to achieve a No. 7 ranking in the World Poker Tour Invitational despite having never played Texas Hold’em in his life. And Marlon Brando developed a device for tuning conga drums, as well as “traction-optimizing swimming shoes” for better pool workouts. According to his patent lawyer, Brando applied his typical intensity to the invention process, refusing to be referred to as an actor or to talk about his craft while working on a design.
Fortunately, he never followed through on one idea — a commercial telephone line called “Dial-a-Fart.” Stars aren’t always just like the rest of us.
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