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Hello Body House Members;

The turkey’s been downed, the weather’s cooled off and the holiday season is revving up!

Christmas is my favorite holiday. So, I thought we’d leave 2024 with a bang!

December’s featured classic movie star is none other than that ballsy, brassy broad, Bette Davis.

Davis stood only 5’3 tall, but she was a behemoth in the entertainment industry for many years.

Her performances won her Academy awards and her personality won her fans and foes alike.

Bette Davis’s feud with Joan Crawford is legendary.

Although, I suspect both Davis and Crawford had on going battles with many.

See this article I wrote on Norma Shearer where Crawford often complained that Shearer got the choice roles because she was married to an MGM producer and not because she had the merit.

Have a look at this video on the Timeline of the Feud between Bette Davis & Joan Crawford.

Davis’s Life & Passing…

Ruth Elizabeth “Bette” Davis was born on April 5, 1908 in Lowell, Massachusetts and passed away on in a hospital in Paris, France on October 6, 1989.

She was the daughter of Harlow Morrell Davis (1885–1938), a law student from Augusta, Maine, who went on to become a patent attorney and Ruth Augusta (née Favór; 1885–1961), from Tyngsborough, Massachusetts.

Davis had a younger sister; Barbara Harriet (1909–1979).

In 1915, after Davis’s parents separated, Davis and her sister Barbara attended a series of spartan and/or strict boarding schools in the Massachusetts area, in their formative school years.

Davis’s final years were marred by a long period of ill health. She still managed to take acting work until shortly before her death from breast cancer.

Davis was entombed in Forest Lawn-Hollywood Hills Cemetery in Los Angeles, alongside her mother Ruthie and sister Bobby. On her tombstone is written: “She did it the hard way.”

Bette Davis passed on with more than 100 film, television, and theater roles to her credit.

Known For…

Bette Davis had several nicknames such as “The Queen of Hollywood” or the “First Lady of the American Screen” and “The Fifth Warner Brother” during her career.

Davis was and still is regarded as one of the greatest actresses in Hollywood history; noted for her willingness to play unsympathetic, sardonic characters.

Bette was known for her performances in a range of film genres, from contemporary crime melodramas to historical and period films and occasional comedies, although her greatest successes were her roles in romantic dramas.

Davis had a way of bringing a forceful and intense style to her acting, as well as, the ability to transform herself physically.

She gained a reputation as a perfectionist who could be highly combative. She often had confrontations with studio executives, film directors, and co-stars which were widely reported.

Her career spanned nearly 70 years and had dramatic ups and downs.

She admitted that her success had often been at the expense of her personal relationships.

The Hollywood Canteen…

Davis was the co-founder of the Hollywood Canteen in 1942 – The Hollywood Canteen club was started by Bette Davis and John Garfield and had the backing of 42 unions and guilds in the entertainment industry, plus thousands of celebrity volunteers from the Hollywood Victory Committee and beyond.

The Hollywood Canteen was a way for Hollywood to show support to U.S. Troops who were heading overseas.

The club offered the service people a chance to meet, dance and be waited on by various celebrities from Hollywood.

The Canteen offered food, dancing and entertainment for servicemen and was staffed by members of the entertainment industry. Davis served as Canteen president through the end of the war.

In 1983, Davis received the Distinguished Civilian Service Medal from the Department of Defense for her work with the Hollywood Canteen.

The Hollywood Canteen was then made into a movie!

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Davis was the first female president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

She won the Academy Award for Best Actress twice, was the first person to accrue ten Academy Award nominations for acting and was the first woman to receive a Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Film Institute.

In 1999, Davis was placed second on the American Film Institute’s list of the greatest female stars of classic Hollywood cinema.

Career Highlights and Top Movies…

After appearing in Broadway plays, Davis moved to Hollywood in 1930, but her early films for Universal Studios were unsuccessful.

**Davis was preparing to return to New York as she’d had small roles for all her years in Hollywood thus far. It was the actor George Arliss who insisted Davis play the leading female role in the Warner Bros. picture The Man Who Played God (1932).**

For the rest of her life, Davis credited Arliss with helping her achieve her “break” in Hollywood.

Warner Bros. signed her to a five-year contract, and she remained with the studio for the next 18 years.

She finally hit some film role gold when Davis signed with Warner Bros. in 1932 and had her critical breakthrough playing a vulgar waitress in Of Human Bondage (1934).

She won the Academy Award for Best Actress in 1935 for her performance in Dangerous (1935).

Other notable movies during the 1930s are: Dark Victory (1939), Marked Woman (1937) and Jezebel (1938).

Up until the late 1940s, she was one of American cinema’s most celebrated leading ladies. It was during the 1940s, that Davis was invited to leave her hand prints in the forecourt of Grauman’s Chinese Theatre.

Her big hits of the 1940s are The Letter (1940), The Little Foxes (1941), and Now, Voyager (1942).

A period of decline in the late 1940s was redeemed with her role as a fading Broadway star in All About Eve (1950), which has often been cited as her best performance.

**Davis received Best Actress nominations for ‘Eve‘ and for The Star (1952), but her career struggled over the rest of the decade.**

Her last nomination came for her role as the psychotic former child star Jane Hudson in the psychological horror film What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962) along side Joan Crawford.

Whatever Happened to…

Her last Oscar nomination was for the horror film What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962), which also starred Joan Crawford. Davis believed it could appeal to the same audience that had recently made Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho (1960) a success.

**Davis negotiated a deal for ‘Baby Jane‘ that would pay her 10 percent of the worldwide gross profits in addition to her salary. The film became one of the year’s big successes.**

Davis also received her only BAFTA nomination for this performance in ‘Baby Jane‘. Her daughter Barbara (credited as B.D. Merrill) played a small role in the film. When she and Davis visited the Cannes Film Festival to promote it, Barbara met Jeremy Hyman, an executive for Seven Arts Productions.

After a short courtship, Barbara married Hyman at the age of 16, with Davis’s permission.

In 1977, Davis became the first woman to receive the American Film Institute’s Lifetime Achievement Award.

In the latter stage of her career, Davis kept busy working throughout the 70s and 80s. Her last complete cinematic part was in the drama The Whales of August (1987).

Davis’s name became well known to a younger audience when Kim Carnes‘s song “Bette Davis Eyes” (written by Donna Weiss and Jackie DeShannon) became a worldwide hit and the best-selling record of 1981 in the U.S., where it stayed at number one on the music charts for more than two months. Davis’s grandson was impressed that she was the subject of a hit song and Davis considered it a compliment, writing to both Carnes and the songwriters, and accepting the gift of gold and platinum records from Carnes, and hanging them on her wall.

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BETTE DAVIS’S LOVE LIFE

Bette Davis was married four times and had three children with two different husbands. She was once widowed and three times divorced, and raised her children as a single parent.

She was also known as having numerous affairs.

A second test was arranged for Davis, for the 1931 film A House Divided. She hastily dressed in an ill-fitting costume with a low neckline, she was rebuffed by the film director William Wyler, who loudly commented to the assembled crew, “What do you think of these dames who show their chests and think they can get jobs?”.

**William Wyler would become an important figure in Davis’s life. She envisioned him as the perfect type of man and considered him her equal in the industry and intellectually. Yet, they never had a full on relationship, although an affair was apparent.**

Harmon Oscar Nelson​​ (m. 1932; div. 1938)​

Bette met her first husband Harmon Oscar Nelson when she was at boarding school. He also went by the nickname “Ham”.

She married the musician on August 18, 1932, in Yuma, Arizona.

Their marriage was scrutinized by the press; his $100 a week earnings ($1,885 in 2020 dollars) compared unfavorably with Davis’s reported $1,000 a week income ($18,850).

Davis addressed the issue in an interview, pointing out that many Hollywood wives earned more than their husbands. The situation proved difficult for Nelson, who refused to allow Davis to purchase a house until he could afford to pay for it himself.

Nelson was able to enforce his wishes because, at the time, the husband had the management and control of the community property, which included the wife’s earnings, and the wife could not obtain credit without her husband’s consent. This was the 1930s remember.

In total, the couple were married for six and a half years. They divorced in December 1938, over Bette’s affair with business magnate Howard Hughes. Additionally, Davis had several abortions during their marriage.

Husband #2 – Arthur Farnsworth​​ (m. 1940; died 1943)​

Farnsworth died after leaving the Brown Derby restaurant when he let out a blood curdling scream and collapsed on Hollywood Blvd. He fell backwards and slammed his head on the sidewalk. An autopsy revealed that he died from a blood clot to the brain due to a skull fracture that had happened previously.

Davis said she had no idea what could have happened, unless it was that time, two months previous, when he fell down the stairs rushing to answer the phone.

Bette was hauled before a coroner’s inquest. She reiterated her story. The Coroner said that the injury was not that old. That it had occurred as recently as two weeks before and looked like he had been hit with something.

Ultimately, the case was ruled an accidental death, but rumors persist to this day that Farnsworth and Davis had a knock down, drag out fight that resulted in the fractured skull that eventually lead to his death.

Husband #3 – William Grant Sherry​​ (m. 1945; div. 1950)​

In 1945, Davis married artist William Grant Sherry, her third husband, who also worked as a massage therapist. She had been drawn to him because he claimed he had never heard of her and so was not intimidated by her.

In 1945, Bette tried again with William Grant Sherry, an artist. She gave birth to their daughter, Barbara Davis Sherry, nicknamed B.D., in 1947. (See picture below)

The relationship was extremely passionate, but he became violent with Bette, a friend revealed. The pair, who split up in 1950, fought over their daughter’s custody.

William later married B.D.’s nanny, Marion Richards.

“He was a very childish type of human being, [but out of our marriage] came this marvelous daughter who has been the greatest fun of my life,” Bette gushed.

Below are Bette Davis, her 3rd husband William Grant Sherry and their daughter. Barbara Davis Sherry, nicknamed B.D., in 1947.

In 1947, at the age of 39, Davis gave birth to daughter Barbara Davis Sherry (known as B.D.), and later wrote in her memoir that she became absorbed in motherhood and considered ending her career.

As she continued making films, however, her relationship with her daughter B.D. began to deteriorate.

Husband #4 – Gary Merrill​​ (m. 1950; div. 1960)​

She met her final husband, actor Gary Merrill, on the set of All About Eve, where he played her lover.

The couple wed in 1950 and would remain together for a decade, adopting two children, Michael and Margot.

“Gary was a macho man, but none of my husbands was ever man enough to become Mr. Bette Davis,” said Bette, who divorced Gary in 1960 due to his drinking.

She never married again. “Love is a big joke on all of us,” Bette said. “I chose very foolishly, but how can one regret this choice? I believe in one thing in this world: Out of everything comes some good, even if you just learn something.”

Bette Davis’s Numerous Affairs

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Bette tried not to mix work with pleasure, but there were exceptions. She and Joan Crawford both carried a torch for actor Franchot Tone.

“She took him from me,” said Bette about the man who would become Joan’s husband. “I have never forgiven her for that and never will.”

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The one lover that Bette wanted most was William Wyler, the director of some of her best films, including Jezebel, Dark Victory and The Little Foxes.

“He was everything I ever dreamed of in a man, so love and passion soon followed,” said Bette, who found him to be both desirable and her intellectual equal.

“The love of her life was Willie Wyler,” Bette’s longtime personal assistant, Kathryn Sermak, the author of Miss D & Me: Life With the Invincible Bette Davis, tells Closer. “She always stated that it just wouldn’t have worked because they were both very strong people.”

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Bette also reportedly had an affair with Humphrey Bogart, her costar in Dark Victory, and Glenn Ford, whom she shared the screen with for the first time in A Stolen Life. Those romances never went anywhere.

“Rather odd people become actors, and they are vain,” Bette said. “They are much vainer than women.”

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Later in life, Bette admitted that she was a very passionate woman. “I liked sex in a way that was considered unbecoming for a woman of my time,” she confided. “The way I felt was only considered appropriate for a man. It was both a physical and emotional need. It had advantages in the pleasure it brought me, but it also made me a victim — dependent.”

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