Evening star., 1943-10-24
.OLLYWOOD


Tallulah Bankhead is definitely
the sort of person to have on your
side in fight.
So strong is her personality that
she was legend long before the
age when most actresses are accept
ing their first good parts.
Tallulah came to Hollywood on
her second film eXcursion-With the
laurelS of the drama critics award
for 1912 for her performance in the
Thornton Wilder Pulitzer prize play,
Skin of Our Teeth" The lure that
brought her back to the film capital
after an absence of II years is the
role of Mrs. Porter in "Lifeboat"
Astute officials at Twentieth Cen
tury-FoX baited the hook with AL
fred Hitchcock. English director, her
favorite, who read her 80 pages of
the script over the phone to New
York.
Her WarinesS in refusing various
other offers to return to films has
been due to the mediocre results of
her first trip to Hollywood 10 years
ago.
Since then, both motion pictures
and Tallulah Bankhead have ma
tured and her estimate of films is
higher. Says she:
Miss b. on Postwar.
Motion pictures are one of the
most powerful forces in the world
today, so powerful that they may
have a most important role in our
winning the peace as well as the
war. l consider a film like The
Human Comedy the best possible
propaganda we could use to sell
American ways of living and think
ing
She said a great deal more-sound,
sincere political talk-With hardly
comma to mark a breather. She is
intelllgently interested and active
in political movements, an interest
that comes naturally to the daughter
of the late William B. Bankhead,
first Speaker of the House of Repre-
sentativeS from the South and first
chosen unanimously by the House.
She has other kin in governmental
circles too-it is family tradition.
The conversation. pleasantly one
sided, veered from politics to good
manners. which she regards highly
at this stage of her life; TO beautiful
language, to biblical literature, to
Shakespeare, which she says she
learned to love as a child. Her
father, a thWarted actor who went
into politics, read aloud to her to
teach her these things.
In an aside she asked her secre-
tary, who entered the dressing room
with Miss Pat Hitchcock, If they
had left the package of cold meat in
Mr.. HitChcock's dressing room. She
fears he will develop stomach ulcers
through negleCting meals while
working so intensely on the film they
are doing. She learned about stom- /
ach ulcers herself while missing
meals on tour the past couple OF
seasons.
Beebe's magination.
"Nibbling on meat will give you
energy and protect your stomach"
she says.
Quicker than a shot, she was back .
at the conversation again. like a
horse that knows his way about the
race track without an officious
Jockey to guide him.
'IntervieWerS are interesting" she
remarked reflectiVely. You never
know what they are going to say. .
Once, Lucius Beebe he of the dia-
mond gardenia lapel ornament,
came to see me. I was in slacks.
clean and pressed, to be sure. but
slightly drab, with plain shirt. In
the resulting piece he wrote, Mr.
Beebe described me in some detail
as floating about in Madonna blue
negligee, with feathers, against a
background of satin furniture. Mr.
Beebe created much more glamor-
Gus and interesting account Of me
than ! furnished him.
In her pleasant present generosity.
she did not mention other interview
ers who have attributed sensational
quotations to the lively lady in times
past.
rTo11-,1Dl, Of