Dargo wrote: ↑April 4th, 2023, 3:17 am
Anyone know the status of the movement to restore Fredric March's name to the University of Wisconsin's performing arts theater and which had been removed in 2018 because of some student advocates...well, lets just say they epitomized the truth in that old saying: "A little bit of learning is a dangerous thing" and had come to the false conclusion that March had been a racist, and when in fact the man had been an active supporter of the NAACP ?
(...this story always ticks me off when I think about it, and the reason I ask)
@kingrat @LawrenceA
Fredric March was innocent of racism but maybe he was not so innocent of being a sexual assaulter... Let me quote Budd Schulberg(the scriptwriter of a Star Is Born and on the Waterfront)'s words from his memoir:
He(March) would simply reach out the dressing room and pull them(actresses) in...In public he would grab them in their private places.
While I really love his works and have learnt from his biographies that he was quite a womanizer, this description is still shocking for me. March has been considered to be gentle, warm and sane since he was alive. I don't know what's wrong - maybe he was whitewashed by publicity. Anyway, I wish that his name had been cancelled not for the humored racism but for sexual assault, and the public should have known a true Fredric March.
Dargo wrote: ↑April 4th, 2023, 3:17 am
Anyone know the status of the movement to restore Fredric March's name to the University of Wisconsin's performing arts theater and which had been removed in 2018 because of some student advocates...well, lets just say they epitomized the truth in that old saying: "A little bit of learning is a dangerous thing" and had come to the false conclusion that March had been a racist, and when in fact the man had been an active supporter of the NAACP ?
(...this story always ticks me off when I think about it, and the reason I ask)
@kingrat @LawrenceA
Fredric March was innocent of racism but maybe he was not so innocent of being a sexual assaulter... Let me quote Budd Schulberg(the scriptwriter of a Star Is Born and on the Waterfront)'s words from his memoir:
He(March) would simply reach out the dressing room and pull them(actresses) in...In public he would grab them in their private places.
While I really love his works and have learnt from his biographies that he was quite a womanizer, this description is still shocking for me. March has been considered to be gentle, warm and sane since he was alive. I don't know what's wrong - maybe he was whitewashed by publicity. Anyway, I wish that his name had been cancelled not for the humored racism but for sexual assault, and the public should have known a true Fredric March.
Well, you have to remember here Rosy that this sort of thing and according to someone who has recently announced their candidacy to regain their former position in our government, "has been going on for a million years"! And so...
LOL
Yep, now THERE'S a guy who REALLY needs to be "cancelled" if ya ask ME!
Actually, and on a more serious note here, I do find it sad that March appeared to have a history of such poor behavior, and because like you said, I also have always really loved his work.
(...and a HELL of lot more than the OTHER guy I just alluded to here!!!)
Dargo wrote: ↑April 4th, 2023, 3:17 am
Anyone know the status of the movement to restore Fredric March's name to the University of Wisconsin's performing arts theater and which had been removed in 2018 because of some student advocates...well, lets just say they epitomized the truth in that old saying: "A little bit of learning is a dangerous thing" and had come to the false conclusion that March had been a racist, and when in fact the man had been an active supporter of the NAACP ?
(...this story always ticks me off when I think about it, and the reason I ask)
@kingrat @LawrenceA
Fredric March was innocent of racism but maybe he was not so innocent of being a sexual assaulter... Let me quote Budd Schulberg(the scriptwriter of a Star Is Born and on the Waterfront)'s words from his memoir:
He(March) would simply reach out the dressing room and pull them(actresses) in...In public he would grab them in their private places.
While I really love his works and have learnt from his biographies that he was quite a womanizer, this description is still shocking for me. March has been considered to be gentle, warm and sane since he was alive. I don't know what's wrong - maybe he was whitewashed by publicity. Anyway, I wish that his name had been cancelled not for the humored racism but for sexual assault, and the public should have known a true Fredric March.
Well, you have to remember here Rosy that this sort of thing and according to someone who has recently announced their candidacy to regain their former position in our government, "has been going on for a million years"! And so...
LOL
Yep, now THERE'S a guy who REALLY needs to be "cancelled" if ya ask ME!
Actually, and on a more serious note here, I do find it sad that March appeared to have a history of such poor behavior, and because like you said, I also have always really loved his work.
(...and a HELL of lot more than the OTHER guy I just alluded to here!!!)
LOL...some more now
Actually as a fan I never cared about whether Freddie's name was removed. Nor had done him himself. Reputation sounds like vanity once a person dies. So Madison, go ahead.
What is really awful is that I don't know him. It is bizarre to hear many victims brag on his charm. Colbert, Keyes and Winters, who were harassed by him on the lot, praised him a lot. Dorothy Arzner, who directed him three times and definitely saw his wandering ways, said he was very much of a great man as well as an actor and stressed that he only loved his wife after playing opposite so many pretty actresses.
Well, it seems nothing serious happened - just a few imappropriate flirtations. But reading that he pulled others into his room, I couldn't believe that.
Oh I am sorry to say such much.. Anyway if you are a pure movie-fan you are lucky.
Fredric March makes me think of Kevin Spacey. Great actors as well as wicked sexual assaulter. More interestingly, they were both thought to be friendly and gentle and even decent for a long time. They are not the Weinstein type. They are not a bit agressive except in terms of sex. I always wonder WHY? Maybe sexual assault has nothing to do with conquest or sadistic pleasure. It is just of something of sexual desire.
Veronica Lake said in her bio March treated like dirt under his talented feet Also besides being recognized as a top star,he had managed to earn himself quite the reputation as a womanizer and by Lake's accounts he really walloped her with verbal abuse throughout production. She got back at him with a couple of now legendary bits of revenge, one involving a 40-pound weight added to Veronica's slim 98-pound figure during a scene in which March had to carry her; the other featuring a strategically placed foot during a scene shot from the waist up.
nakanosunplaza wrote: ↑June 16th, 2023, 12:42 pm
Veronica Lake said in her bio March treated like dirt under his talented feet Also besides being recognized as a top star,he had managed to earn himself quite the reputation as a womanizer and by Lake's accounts he really walloped her with verbal abuse throughout production. She got back at him with a couple of now legendary bits of revenge, one involving a 40-pound weight added to Veronica's slim 98-pound figure during a scene in which March had to carry her; the other featuring a strategically placed foot during a scene shot from the waist up.
I have read her accounts for many times. But I believe it may have happened that he sexually touched her in the midst of shooting. Not that he verbally abused her.
He gave me a terrible time during I Married a Witch. I'm sure that despite what René thought, March considered me a brainless little blonde sexpot, void of any acting ability and not likely to acquire any. He treated me like dirt under his talented feet. Of all actors to end up under the covers with. That happened in one scene and Mr. March is lucky he didn’t get my knee in his groin.
From "I'm sure that..." it seems that the comment was more like Lake's assumption which didn't spoken out directly by March. And it should be noted that she said she was treated like "dirt" - the type of "sleeping with all actors". And, "That happened in one scene". So I think the fact is that he laid his fingers on her. This is in accord with another worker's memory and the manner of Lake's revenge.
Some authors tried to repeat the episode between March and Lake. They easily related it as "Lake heard March comment on her..." or "Lake was too difficult to work with". I think NO! They misunderstood Lake's words! That is SEXUAL HARASSMENT!
He tried to bed Lake and she rebuffed him,he gave her a hardtime for the balance of filming, with the reputation he had I'm wondering what type of marriage he had.
nakanosunplaza wrote: ↑June 18th, 2023, 3:18 pm
He tried to bed Lake and she rebuffed him,he gave her a hardtime for the balance of filming, with the reputation he had I'm wondering what type of marriage he had.
I don't know about his wife, actress Florence Eldridge as much as Fredric March. But I guess she was also a complicated and sophisticated lady like Jackie Kennedy. She was thought to be high-principled and difficult, but she never showed her jealousy publicly and kept loyal on her part. And according to many of March's friends and March himself, she let him go.
By the way, it is unbelievably true that March really thought he was as conservative as depicted by the fan magazines in 30s. He revealed to his friend that he was too much like Al, the role in the Best Year in Our Lives. A very decent character and family man. And! For more than one time he had criticized the sexism in Hollywood and millitary. He was openly opposited Tracy and Hepburn's relationship and Brando's promiscuous films.
nakanosunplaza wrote: ↑June 18th, 2023, 3:18 pm
He tried to bed Lake and she rebuffed him,he gave her a hardtime for the balance of filming, with the reputation he had I'm wondering what type of marriage he had.
March's marriage was better than average in Hollywood. At least apparently. Beside magazine reporters, co-stars, directors and relations also insisted they were happily married. Some of them still kept March's letters where he said he missed her. Madison collected his love letter to his wife - which was written more than 10 years after marrying. But Elia Kazan thought they were more like mother-son. His ex-wife also thought highly of him.
Anyway I think March was a devoted husband. He slept with not many actresses in Hollywood's standard. BUT he lacked respect to women. He is a counter-example of Dicaprio who had sex with many girls but also treated them in a good manner.
But there were some females who extremely praised him. Really. In a very very exaggerated way. This is the oddest point. I am sure no one would comment on Weinstein or Spacy like that.
