Claudette Colbert: She Walked in Beauty

349 Pages·2008·1.18 MB·English

by  Bernard F. Dick

Claudette Colbert
Hollywood Legends Series
Ronald L. Davis, General Editor

ClaudetteColbert
She Walked in Beauty
Bernard F. Dick
UNIVERSITY PRESS OF MISSISSIPPI • JACKSON
www.upress.state.ms.us
The University Press of Mississippi is a member of the Association
of American University Presses.
Copyright © 2008 by University Press of Mississippi
All rights reserved
Manufactured in the United States of America
First printing 2008
(cid:1)
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Dick, Bernard F.
Claudette Colbert : She walked in beauty / Bernard F. Dick.
p. cm. — (Hollywood legends series)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-60473-087-6 (cloth : alk. paper) 1. Colbert, Claudette.
2. Motion picture actors and actresses—United States—Biography.
I. Title.
PN2287.C659D53 2008
791.4302(cid:2)8092—dc22
[B] 2008003953
British Library Cataloging-in-Publication Data available
For Katherine

CONTENTS
Acknowledgments ix
Preface xiii
Chapter 1. Lily of Saint-Mandé 1
Chapter 2. Becoming Claudette Colbert 15
Chapter 3. Commuting to Work 36
Chapter 4. “Ready When You Are, C. B.” 58
Chapter 5. That Wonderful Year 77
Chapter 6. A Night to Remember 100
Chapter 7. The End of a Modern Marriage 109
Chapter 8. Life after Oscar 121
Chapter 9. Blaze of Noon 146
Chapter 10. Claudette and the “Good War” 167
Chapter 11. Slow Fade to Legend 179
Chapter 12. The Last Picture Shows 201
Chapter 13. The Long Voyage Home 215
Chapter 14. She’s Back on Broadway 231
viii CONTENTS
Chapter 15. The Stigma 247
Chapter 16. Slow Fade to Black 263
Chapter 17. Envoi 284
Broadway Plays 299
Major Radio Appearances 300
Major Television Appearances 302
Filmography 303
Source Notes 305
Index 319
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I have been fortunate in being able to correspond with a number of people
who either knew Claudette personally and were eager to talk about her or
were sufficiently knowledgeable about her career to offer valuable help.
My deepest gratitude goes out to the following:
John E. Burke, who read this manuscript diligently and offered much use-
ful criticism;
Ned Comstock, the University of Southern California’s premier archivist
(as well as one of the best in the country), for finding Claudette Colbert
material in collections that I would never have thought of consulting;
Sharon Drum, Washington Irving High School librarian, who gave me
access to the school’s archives;
Marjorie Fox, wife of the eminent stage designer Frederick Fox, who
designed the set for Julia, Jake and Uncle Joe, the play that both Claudette
and the Foxes felt should never have been produced on Broadway;
George Gaynes, who came to my aid again and described the tryout tour
of A Community of Two, in which he costarred with Claudette;
Father James Grear, who met Claudette in Barbados and became her
confessor;
Anthony Greco, who supplied me with much needed tapes of Claudette’s
films;
Paul Gregory, who produced Claudette’s most successful Broadway play,
The Marriage-Go-Round, and recounted the enormous problems he had
with her;
ix