Thank you for your thoughtful replies.
I think I tend to agree with each of you about most of the women you mentioned, and share Alison's sense of mystery about
Carole Lombard. One of the many unknowable things about
Lombard was that "what might have been" for her. I think she had so many possibilities as a person and as an actress.
After reading Barry Paris' bio of
Garbo and seeing the splendid
Kevin Brownlow documentary on her several times, I'm not sure that she was waiting for the end, as many film fans thought. In her own individual, eccentric way, I suspect that she took her life as it came, having some regrets, (as anyone who has lived a few years will, despite Will Rogers' maxim).
Donna, I think your point about Manhattan is well taken, though I have wondered why
Garbo never wanted to live in a more secluded area, though, as one of the commentators in the Brownlow doc says, the area around her apartment house abutting the East River reminded her vividly of Stockholm.
I'm not sure if many of the actresses mentioned were shrewd businesswomen, though
Norma Shearer and
Constance Bennett seemed to have good sense about their money.
Colbert, who may have had the most talent comedically of the bunch, wisely grew out of stardom, (and had that second long and reportedly stable marriage, as well as the gumption and luck to play really interesting older roles on stage and tv, too). Btw, if you'd like a splendid read about all the
Bennetts, you might enjoy
The Bennetts: An Acting Family by Brian Kellow. I absolutely agree about the way that
Katharine Hepburn transformed herself into something more as she aged. Interestingly, she came from a family with money and some stability, (unlike many of the girls), though I often find myself preferring her work from the '30s, before she was sure that she was going to be "a legend" of her own creation, even though I admire her appearance of having a stainless steel self-confidence from the '40s on!
garbomaniac wrote:I am thinking of Lana Turner whom Ava Gardner spoke so highly of saying that Lana taught her how to be a STAR, which included clothes and off screen behaviors.
Wow, that says more than
Lee Server did in 500 pages on dear ol'
Ava's often puzzling choices in life!
Lana Turner, a role model for stardom. Hmm, I guess it makes sense as far as glamming it up, but I gotta think about that one. One of the problems with being educated in stardom at MGM seems to have been that the studio made a point of catering to their stars needs to an absurd degree, which I suspect affected both ladies deeply.
A relatively recent interview I saw with Andre Previn as part of the extra footage for Robert Trachtenberg's "
Gene Kelly: American Master", mentioned that at MGM in the '40s and '50s, a leading man or lady would come to expect such perks as a limo ride from one soundstage to another, even when they are right next door to one another, or the change of one word in a song or a beat, or even a pause in a script to suit the star, (even though Previn often said he'd changed something, but hadn't!).
Previn saw this, and other luxuries and accommodations--astutely, I thought-- as corrupting, and in a sense, deliberately hobbling an actor, making it much more difficult for them to accept and fit into the real world. I checked the
American Masters PBS site where this footage was recently, but unfortunately it doesn't seem to be available at present.
Thanks again for your kind responses.