美国国家公共电台 NPR In Golden Age Hollywood, Film Stars Slid Into Each Others' Telegrams

 

NOEL KING, HOST:

Letters, memos¹ and telegrams from the Golden Age of Hollywood are collected in a new book that shows Ingrid Bergman was a so-so typist, Katharine Hepburn's signature was indecipherable and Marlene Dietrich signed her letter to Hemingway, Your Kraut. NPR special correspondent Susan Stamberg says the book is a delicious peek² into very famous people's private lives.

SUSAN STAMBERG, BYLINE³: On screen, Audrey Hepburn was perfection - the bangs, the long cigarette holder⁴ in "Breakfast At Tiffany's," the lavish⁵ hat at Ascot after the poor girl coats in "My Fair Lady."

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "MY FAIR LADY")

MARNI NIXON: (As Eliza Doolittle, singing) Lots of coal making lots of heat, warm face, warm hands, warm feet, oh, wouldn't it be loverly (ph). Oh...

STAMBERG: She recorded all the songs, by the way, but Marni Nixon sang them in the movie. Anyway, perfect Audrey, it seems, had bad feet. In 1963, seeing the "My Fair Lady" script for the very first time, she wrote the director in perfect schoolgirl penmanship that she was beyond happiness with it - exclamation⁶ marks, underlinings (ph), caps - delighted. One little thing - Hepburn asks for the designer's sketches⁷ of her shoes.

BARBARA HALL: (Reading) I tell you why.

STAMBERG: Film historian Barbara Hall reads Hepburn's letter.

HALL: (Reading) One is an awful lot on one's feet when working. And since my days in the ballet, I have had trouble with me feet unless properly shoed (ph).

STAMBERG: So she asks if her private Paris bootmaker can make her movie shoes. Do we need to know this, that poor Audrey Hepburn got sore feet and (laughter) needed special shoes?

HALL: Well, I think it's the kind of thing that is great to learn about an actress. We think of them - sort of put them on a pedestal. But really, she was a regular person, and obviously a very, very charming one.

STAMBERG: And a great star who knew what she needed to do her best work. Bette Davis was like that - Warner Bros.' biggest star, two Oscars, famous for this immortal⁸ line in "All About Eve."

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "ALL ABOUT EVE")

BETTE DAVIS: (As Margo Channing) Fasten your seat belts. It's going to be a bumpy⁹ night.

STAMBERG: Years before "Eve," Bette Davis was exhausted¹⁰, overworked - no rest for the queen of Warner's.

HALL: They just kept putting her in more and more films.

STAMBERG: Again, Barbara Hall, co-author of the book "Letters From Hollywood."

HALL: She felt like she needed more time between projects.

STAMBERG: Bette Davis wrote - again, by hand - to studio head Jack¹¹ Warner protesting her contract. Studios owned their stars in those days. Davis wanted to make fewer pictures every year, more time off between pictures. She ended her very firm letter...

HALL: (Reading) Would appreciate your not communicating with me. It upsets me very much.

STAMBERG: And she adds, also arguing with me is no use. Another letter-writer in this collection is Hattie McDaniel, the first African American to win the Oscar for best supporting actress as Mammy in 1939's "Gone With The Wind."

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "GONE WITH THE WIND")

HATTIE MCDANIEL: (As Mammy) You been brave so long, Miss Scarlett. You just got to go on being brave.

STAMBERG: McDaniel was a busy actor in the 1930s and '40s, always playing a maid or servant. In 1947, she thanked gossip columnist¹² Hedda Hopper for printing kind words about her, but others criticized her for taking so many servant roles. McDaniel wrote...

HALL: (Reading) Truly, a maid or butler in real life is out making an honest dollar, just as we are on the screen.

STAMBERG: McDaniel goes on.

HALL: (Reading) I only hope that the producers will give us Negro actors and actresses more roles, even if there will be those who call us Uncle Toms.

STAMBERG: The NAACP and other civil rights organizations had started pressuring studios to get rid of stereotypical¹³ roles like McDaniel was playing, the only parts African Americans could get then. The protests had a bitter result for the Oscar winner.

HALL: Hattie McDaniel found that she was getting fewer and fewer roles because they weren't writing as many roles like that in the immediate¹⁴ postwar years.

STAMBERG: Finally, at least the last correspondence I've picked from the 137 items in this book, a telegram to director William Wyler sent in 1937 by an extremely precocious¹⁵ star-to-be.

ROCKY LANG: (Reading) Warner Bros. Studio, I admire your pictures, and I would like to work for you.

STAMBERG: Rocky Lang, co-author of the book, reads the cable.

LANG: I am 18 minutes old, blonde hair, blue eyes, weight eight pounds, and I have been called beautiful. My father was an actor - Jayne Seymour Fonda.

STAMBERG: The real author of the telegram was Henry Fonda. In his reply to the new baby, director Wyler contradicted the cable. Wyler typed, your father never was an actor. He also said he wanted to make a test of little Jane as soon as possible. Guess she passed the test. Correspondence from "Letters From Hollywood," the subtitle¹⁶ is "Inside The Private World Of Classic American Moviemaking." Peter Bogdanovich, director in "The Last Picture Show," writer, actor, film historian, wrote the book's foreword. I asked him one question.

The decision to publish them - I mean, they were very personal letters - star to director, star to studio head - is it an invasion of privacy now to publish them?

PETER BOGDANOVICH: I don't think so. It's history.

STAMBERG: I'm Susan Stamberg, NPR News.

(SOUNDBITE OF HENRY MANCINI AND HIS ORCHESTRA'S "BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY'S")

1 memos   

n.备忘录( memo的名词复数 )；（美）内部通知

参考例句：

• Big shots get their dander up and memos start flying. 大人物们怒火中烧，备忘录四下乱飞。 来自辞典例句
• There was a pile of mail, memos and telephone messages on his desk. 他的办公桌上堆满着信件、备忘录和电话通知。 来自辞典例句

2 peek   

vi.偷看，窥视；n.偷偷的一看，一瞥

参考例句：

• Larry takes a peek out of the window.赖瑞往窗外偷看了一下。
• Cover your eyes and don't peek.捂上眼睛，别偷看。

3 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

4 holder   

n.持有者，占有者；(台，架等)支持物

参考例句：

• The holder of the office of chairman is reponsible for arranging meetings.担任主席职位的人负责安排会议。
• That runner is the holder of the world record for the hundred-yard dash.那位运动员是一百码赛跑世界纪录的保持者。

5 lavish   

adj.无节制的；浪费的；vt.慷慨地给予，挥霍

参考例句：

• He despised people who were lavish with their praises.他看不起那些阿谀奉承的人。
• The sets and costumes are lavish.布景和服装极尽奢华。

6 exclamation   

n.感叹号，惊呼，惊叹词

参考例句：

• He could not restrain an exclamation of approval.他禁不住喝一声采。
• The author used three exclamation marks at the end of the last sentence to wake up the readers.作者在文章的最后一句连用了三个惊叹号，以引起读者的注意。

7 sketches   

n.草图( sketch的名词复数 )；素描；速写；梗概

参考例句：

• The artist is making sketches for his next painting. 画家正为他的下一幅作品画素描。
• You have to admit that these sketches are true to life. 你得承认这些素描很逼真。 来自《简明英汉词典》

8 immortal   

adj.不朽的；永生的，不死的；神的

参考例句：

• The wild cocoa tree is effectively immortal.野生可可树实际上是不会死的。
• The heroes of the people are immortal!人民英雄永垂不朽！

9 bumpy   

adj.颠簸不平的，崎岖的

参考例句：

• I think we've a bumpy road ahead of us.我觉得我们将要面临一段困难时期。
• The wide paved road degenerated into a narrow bumpy track.铺好的宽阔道路渐渐变窄，成了一条崎岖不平的小径。

10 exhausted   

adj.极其疲惫的，精疲力尽的

参考例句：

• It was a long haul home and we arrived exhausted.搬运回家的这段路程特别长，到家时我们已筋疲力尽。
• Jenny was exhausted by the hustle of city life.珍妮被城市生活的忙乱弄得筋疲力尽。

11 jack   

n.插座，千斤顶，男人；v.抬起，提醒，扛举；n.（Jake）杰克

参考例句：

• I am looking for the headphone jack.我正在找寻头戴式耳机插孔。
• He lifted the car with a jack to change the flat tyre.他用千斤顶把车顶起来换下瘪轮胎。

12 columnist   

n.专栏作家

参考例句：

• The host was interviewing a local columnist.节目主持人正在同一位当地的专栏作家交谈。
• She's a columnist for USA Today.她是《今日美国报》的专栏作家。

13 stereotypical   

n.常规

参考例句：

• Personas should be typical and believable, but not stereotypical. 人物角色应该是典型和可信赖的，但不是一成不变的。 来自About Face 3交互设计精髓
• Anything could be stereotypical, so I guess it could be criticism. 任何东西都可以变的老套，所以我猜那就是一种批评。 来自互联网

14 immediate   

adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的

参考例句：

• His immediate neighbours felt it their duty to call.他的近邻认为他们有责任去拜访。
• We declared ourselves for the immediate convocation of the meeting.我们主张立即召开这个会议。

15 precocious   

adj.早熟的；较早显出的

参考例句：

• They become precocious experts in tragedy.他们成了一批思想早熟、善写悲剧的能手。
• Margaret was always a precocious child.玛格丽特一直是个早熟的孩子。

16 subtitle   

n.副题（书本中的），说明对白的字幕

参考例句：

• His new book has a subtitle.他的新书有一个副标题。
• Ah!I don't know why they don't subtitle these movies.唉！我不知道这些电影为什么不打字幕。