Zachary Scott: Hollywood’s Sophisticated Cad PDF
Preview Zachary Scott: Hollywood’s Sophisticated Cad
Zachary Scott Hollywood Legends Series Ronald L. Davis, General Editor This page intentionally left blank Zachary Scott Hollywood’s Sophisticated Cad Ronald L. Davis 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 © 2006 by University Press of Mississippi All rights reserved Manufactured in the United States of America First edition 2006 (cid:2) Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Davis, Ronald L. Zachary Scott : Hollywood’s sophisticated cad / Ronald L. Davis. — 1st ed. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 1-57806-837-1 (cloth : alk. paper) 1. Scott, Zachary, 1914–1965. 2. Motion picture actors and actresses—United States—Biography. I. Title. PN2287.S3425D38 2006 791.43(cid:3)028(cid:3)092—dc22 2005014819 British Library Cataloging-in-Publication Data available CONTENTS Preface vii Introduction 3 Chapter 1. Born into Wealth and Privilege 8 Chapter 2. Early College and England 27 Chapter 3. Marriage, Graduation, and Summer Stock 50 Chapter 4. Broadway and First Films 69 Chapter 5. Warner Bros. Contract Player 95 Chapter 6. Changing Partners and Directions 133 Chapter 7. Gentleman Actor 166 Chapter 8. Early Death 192 Bibliographical Essay 203 Filmography 221 Index 225 For Donna, John, Mary, and Max, friends worth emulating PREFACE As a freshman at the University of Texas in Austin, I learned that actor Zachary Scott was a native and favorite son of the city. On one of my intro- ductory tours, my uncle pointed out to me where the actor’s parents lived. Movie fan that I am, I frequently drove my parents and friends by the stately Scott residence when they visited me during my college years, little anticipating that I would one day become a film biographer. To celebrate my retirement from Southern Methodist University after forty years of teaching American cultural history, my surrogate son and I made a train trip with a group of University of Texas alumni to the Grand Tetons, Yellowstone, Glacier National Park, and through Montana to Seattle. Rather unexpectedly my collegiate spirit as a former UT Longhorn was rejuvenated by the happy experience, and I found myself longing to reestablish myself on the Austin campus. Meanwhile I had heard that the Zachary Scott papers had recently been deposited in the university’s Humanities Research Center, and the thought of writing a biography of the Texas actor, a fellow Longhorn it turned out, appealed to me. Fortunately the Scott papers proved to be a treasure trove, and I spent many hours in the HRC doing the kind of research I had come to love. Since I own a cabin in nearby Wimberley, Texas, frequent trips to Austin were more pleasure than hardship, and the Scott research gave me an excuse to reac- quaint myself with the city—no longer the overgrown country town I had come to know as a college freshman. A Wimberley artist whose work I admire put me in touch with Ann Swenson, a long-time neighbor of the Scotts. Ann not only gave me my first personal glimpses of the former Warner Bros. star, but also pointed me in the direction of the actor’s sister, Mary Lewis vii viii PREFACE Scott Kleberg. Mary Lewis’s recollections of her family were warm and added flesh to what I had been reading in the boxes of Scott letters at the HRC. She also gave me addresses for Waverly Scott Kaffaga, the actor’s daughter, Ruth Ford, the actor’s second wife, and Shelley Scott, Ruth’s daughter, whom Zachary adopted. Tom Campbell, Scott’s nephew, I discovered in Wimberley. Waverly and I had three telephone conversations from her home in Athens, Greece, and she agreed to see me when she visited Austin in the fall of 2002. When I contacted the actor’s daughter shortly after her arrival in Texas, she apologized and said that she had decided not to talk to me. “There are reasons,” she said. I expressed disappointment but accepted her decision as final. I liked Waverly immensely from our phone conversations and found her refreshingly open. I also sensed that she liked me. After declining my request for an interview, toward the end of our telephone conversation in Austin, Waverly remarked almost as a postscript, “Well, we could get together for a drink or dinner.” A few evenings later we met in a Mexican restaurant in south Austin. “I’ve checked you out,” Waverly announced once our drinks had been served. “Oh!” I said with surprise, “and what did you find?” She took a sip from her margarita and said, “You’re not a scandalmonger.” I nodded and responded, “Well, I couldn’t ask for a better report than that.” Then, thinking out loud, I said, “And how did you go about checking me out?” Waverly smiled as she replied, “I had John’s agent make some inquiries.” Suddenly I was flattered beyond belief, since John was John Steinbeck, Waverly’s stepfather and one of my favorite American authors. Perplexed about how to relax and enjoy drinks and a meal with my research subject’s daughter without appearing to interrogate her, I tried to keep the conversation as light as possible. Waverly’s comments about her father were terse yet consistently insightful. After finishing her margarita she switched to beer, saying as she pushed the empty glass aside, “I’m not having any more of those. I’m afraid of you.” She didn’t appear afraid, and we had a thoroughly delightful dinner, although it was clear that she did- n’t want to go into depth about her memories of her father. PREFACE ix Ruth Ford did not answer my letters. The one I sent to Shelley was returned, marked addressee unknown. In Los Angeles I was able to talk with actresses Janis Paige, Virginia Mayo, and Carol Bruce, director Vincent Sherman, actor Norman Lloyd, and producer Walter Seltzer and his wife, Mickey, all of whom had known Zachary Scott either professionally or socially. Eli Wallach in New York I talked to by telephone. Several of the oral histories I had conducted through the years as director of the SMU Oral History Project contained information on the Texas actor, and I reviewed those transcripts in the university’s DeGolyer Library. The Margaret Herrick Library of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the film and television archives of the Doheny Library at the University of Southern California, the Warner Bros. Archives in Los Angeles, the Columbia University Oral History Collection, the Billy Rose Theater Collection at the New York Public Library, the Austin History Center, the Center for American History at the University of Texas, and the library of Austin High School all rendered valuable information on the actor’s life and career. The early med- ical practice of Dr. Scott, the actor’s father, was documented in the Bosque County Collection in Meridian, Texas. In each case I received generous assis- tance from an eager staff at those depositories, and I thank them all. More personal gratitude must be expressed to the curators of the Humanities Research Center at UT for their guidance over weeks of research. Barbara Hall at the Herrick Library in Beverly Hills, Ned Comstock at USC, and Haden Guest at the Warner Bros. Archives were particularly helpful. Seetha Srinivasan at the University Press of Mississippi is a dream editor, and her coworkers are as gracious as Seetha herself. Judy Bland has been my patient now-and-then secretary for many years, and I delight in recognizing her role in completing this book. Among my immediate friends, I wish to acknowl- edge the encouragement given by Santiago Nambo, Pat Gurley, Danny Reynolds, Jane Elder, Luis Martin, Dana and John Pickett, Robert Nott, Diana Serra Cary, Steve Simonson, and the four pals to whom this book is dedicated. Ronald L. Davis
The list of books you might like
