Our topic this week is an America actress who was a star on the London stage at the age of 21, paying one of her rare visits on Datalounge is Tallulah Bankhead.
Throwing some money into Salvation Army girls' tambourines: 'Here you are, dahlings! I hear it's been a terrible season for you gypsy dancers!'.
by Anonymous | reply 3 | September 17, 2023 10:18 PM |
She was based on another DL fav: Cruella De Vil
by Anonymous | reply 4 | September 17, 2023 10:21 PM |
She was featured on an episode of the documentary series Omnibus as was Eric Porter.
by Anonymous | reply 5 | September 17, 2023 10:22 PM |
Below is the IMDB entry for the Eric Porter Omnibus episode. Both episodes were in 1968.
by Anonymous | reply 6 | September 17, 2023 10:23 PM |
She is Tallulah Bankhead!
by Anonymous | reply 7 | September 17, 2023 10:23 PM |
She was the funnier Margo Channing. IMO she gave the perfect reading of the character.
by Anonymous | reply 8 | September 17, 2023 10:24 PM |
She's a gal who could hang out with the guys
by Anonymous | reply 9 | September 17, 2023 10:25 PM |
Darling!
by Anonymous | reply 10 | September 17, 2023 10:29 PM |
She called Billie Holiday a "great negro singer"
by Anonymous | reply 11 | September 17, 2023 10:30 PM |
She sounded drunk at r2 yet articulate and with it.
Definitely one-of-a-kind.
by Anonymous | reply 12 | September 18, 2023 12:12 AM |
R12 for sure!
by Anonymous | reply 13 | September 18, 2023 11:41 PM |
At 21, she has already snorted at least a shoebox full of cocaine. Which she knows isn’t habit forming because she’s been doing it for years.
by Anonymous | reply 14 | September 18, 2023 11:44 PM |
Her former personal secretary Ted Hook regaled me and a friend with Bankhead stories for an entire afternoon in circa 1991 Manhattan.
by Anonymous | reply 15 | September 19, 2023 1:02 AM |
R15 Can you share any?
by Anonymous | reply 16 | September 19, 2023 1:19 AM |
When I was her understudy on Broadway she mentored me in many ways.
by Anonymous | reply 17 | September 19, 2023 3:54 AM |
She was fabulous in the Lucy Desi Comedy hour. Matchless
by Anonymous | reply 18 | September 19, 2023 3:56 AM |
[quote] She called Billie Holiday a "great negro singer"
I don't think she meant that as an insult. Today that would be an insult. But that's what Black people were called back then. Besides, she and Billie were lovers at one time.
Bankhead was staunchly progressive.
by Anonymous | reply 19 | September 19, 2023 3:58 AM |
That's rich coming from Bea when she was the biggest cunt on the seat of The Golden Girls.
by Anonymous | reply 22 | September 19, 2023 4:03 AM |
*set
by Anonymous | reply 23 | September 19, 2023 4:04 AM |
Was it wardrobe, make-up or hairdressing?
by Anonymous | reply 25 | September 19, 2023 4:28 AM |
Too bad she didn't get the film version of THE LITTLE FOXES.
by Anonymous | reply 26 | September 19, 2023 4:35 AM |
No doubt she would've won the Oscar for Best Actress had she got the chance to do the film version of The Little Foxes.
Pauline Kael (a major fan of Bette Davis) saw Bankhead play Regina on stage and said she was electrifying, and Davis was too stonefaced in her performance.
by Anonymous | reply 27 | September 19, 2023 4:48 AM |
I only know the one famous anecdote about her wandering into St. Patrick's Cathedral at a Christmas Eve Midnight mass. She dropped into a pew just as the priest just as he came down the aisle waving his incense censer. She leaned over, plucked at his vestments and said, "Love the dress, but do you realize your clutch is on fire?"
by Anonymous | reply 29 | September 19, 2023 10:10 AM |
[quote] I only know the one famous anecdote about her wandering into St. Patrick's Cathedral at a Christmas Eve Midnight mass.
Is there more than one famous anecdote about her wandering into St. Patrick's Cathedral...?
by Anonymous | reply 30 | September 19, 2023 11:25 AM |
The one I remember most is R16, is One night, Ted came home from the bars and checked in on Tallu to say good night. She had a habit of smoking while reading. Usually wearing a sweater with small holes burned into it by her constant flicking of cig ashes rather than using an ashtray. Bankhead had a dog, Dolores, named after the actress Dolores del Rio that slept at the head of Tallulah's bed on her own pillow.
Well, Hook comes in and as he gets closer to the bed, he sees smoke rising from either Dolores. He immediately tries to awaken the sleeping actress, shaking her and loudly calling "Miss B.!" "Miss B!" "Dolores is on fire." He does this several times, at which point the perturbed actress, half-awake asks "What did you say?"
"Miss B., Dolores IS ON FIRE"
Bankhead immediately replied, "Well, for Christ'sake, PUT HER OUT!" And promptly went back to sleep.
Turns out it was the pillow, not the dog.
by Anonymous | reply 31 | September 19, 2023 1:35 PM |
[quote] She was based on another DL fav: Cruella De Vil
R4, you have that backwards.
by Anonymous | reply 32 | September 19, 2023 1:45 PM |
R32 you know what I mean
by Anonymous | reply 33 | September 19, 2023 2:18 PM |
R8, thanks for posting those links to her radio performances. Something to listen to on the drive home tonight.
by Anonymous | reply 35 | September 19, 2023 3:42 PM |
She's the one who said: "My father made me promise never to touch men or liquor... too bad he never told me about women or cocaine!".
Her father was Speaker of the House.
by Anonymous | reply 38 | September 19, 2023 5:16 PM |
Mentored?
Dahling, men had nothing to do with it.
by Anonymous | reply 39 | September 19, 2023 5:20 PM |
Being blanked by a former lover who had his new girlfriend in tow: (loudly) 'What's the matter, dahling? Don't you recognise me with my clothes on?'
by Anonymous | reply 40 | September 19, 2023 5:52 PM |
Tullulah’s last coherent words:
“Codeine . . . Bourbon . . ."
by Anonymous | reply 43 | September 20, 2023 1:16 AM |
Women
by Anonymous | reply 44 | September 20, 2023 1:49 AM |