Sitting Pretty: The Life and Times of Clifton Webb

278 Pages·2011·3.11 MB·English

by  Clifton Webb

Sitting Pretty
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Hollywood legends series
Carl rollyson, general editor
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Sitting Pretty
t He li f e a n d ti m e s o f
C l i f t o n we b b
Clifton Webb with David L. Smith
Foreword by Robert Wagner
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.
Lyrics from “Picture You Without Me” by Cole Porter, p. 117, reprinted
by permission of the Cole Porter Estate.
Letter from Noel Coward to Clifton Webb, p. 177, © NC Aventales AG
1946; by permission of Alan Brodie Representation, Ltd,
www.alanbrodie.com www.noelcoward.com.
Copyright © 2011 by University Press of Mississippi
All rights reserved
Manufactured in the United States of America
First printing 2011
∞
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Webb, Clifton, 1893–1966.
Sitting pretty : the life and times of Clifton Webb / Clifton Webb with
David L. Smith ; foreword by Robert Wagner.
p. cm. — (Hollywood legends series)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-60473-996-1 (cloth : alk. paper)
— ISBN 978-1-60473-997-8 (ebook) 1. Webb, Clifton, 1893–1966.
2. Motion picture actors and actresses—United States—Biography.
I. Smith, David L. (David Lee), 1929– II. Title.
PN2287.W4549A3 2011
791.4302’8092—dc22
[B] 2010049423
British Library Cataloging-in-Publication Data available
To John and Betsy Neylon,
who came to know and love Clifton Webb through his estate collection,
and without whose kindness this book would not have been possible
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Contents
Foreword ix
Preface xi
Acknowledgments xiii
Introduction xv
Chapter 1. The Noses Have It 3
Chapter 2. First Vision of a Name in Lights 19
Chapter 3. Art and Opera 31
Chapter 4. Making Progress and Moving Up 42
Chapter 5. Dancing into Xanadu 55
Chapter 6. To Europe in Search of Adventure 74
Chapter 7. In Love with Jeanne Eagels 83
Chapter 8. Great Plays, Then the Great War 103
Chapter 9. The War Starts, Blithe Spirit Leads to Laura 130
Chapter 10. More Movies, More Parties, and Garbo 157
Chapter 11. A Top Box-Office Draw 184
Chapter 12. Stars and Stripes Forever 206
Chapter 13. Clifton and Mabelle, Together Forever 223
Stage Appearances 232
Filmography 236
Bibliography 239
Index 245
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Foreword
I made two pictures with Clifton Webb, Titanic and Stars and Stripes For-
ever, but I really got to know him when he invited me into the social
circle that centered around the house that he shared with his mother,
Mabelle.
Mabelle ruled the roost, and Clifton was happy that she did, but he
had his own eccentricities. I remember an African gray parrot bundled
carefully into a large brandy snifter at dinner parties.
Clifton actually had several quite different careers—as a gifted dancer
on Broadway during the 1920s, as a theatre star in such plays as Noel
Coward’s Blithe Spirit, as a distinctively acerbic movie star—but to me he
will always be remembered as a wonderful host and friend to my family
and myself. It was a job he took seriously, because Clifton’s friends were
the elite of their time: Jeanne Eagels, Cole Porter, Harpo Marx. It was
Clifton who introduced me to Noel Coward.
People who read this book will get to know Clifton as an adoring son,
as a dancer, as an actor. And to be perfectly honest, they will also get to
know him as an endearing snob, for the names drop fast and furiously.
After reading the book, I feel honored to have been included in Clif-
ton’s circle, for his chapters read as if they were written by Elliot Temple-
ton, the character he played so beautifully in The Razor’s Edge. Templeton
was supposedly based by Somerset Maugham on an English social but-
terfly named “Chips” Channon, but to me Elliott Templeton is Clifton
Webb.
It’s a loss that Clifton abandoned the writing of his autobiography, but
it’s a blessing that David L. Smith has rescued it from the scrap heap and
finished Clifton’s story.
I’m grateful that Clifton was my friend, and I’m grateful that this book
exists.
robert w agner
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