Tallulah Bankhead

[quote] Was she famous for being famous?

No, she was famous for being an actress (originally, anyway). She was hugely popular with young women when she was a young actress--you know, this was before radio singing stars, and rock stars. Actors and actresses and sports figures were the idols.

Later she had a 90-minute radio comedy-variety show, The Big Show. You can hear it online.

She was avocal supporter of Harry Truman.

I first heard of her from seeing her as a kid on The Merv Griffin Show, and seeing Lifeboat on TV.

* a vocal supporter

Her father was William B. Bankhead, Speaker of the US House of Representatives for 4 or 5 years. He and she were from Alabama.

she was a well-known and respected stage actress for many years before she made films. Margo Channing in All About Eve is surely based on Tallulah,

Jodie Foster famously played her in a biopic.

[quote] Her father was William B. Bankhead, Speaker of the US House of Representatives for 4 or 5 years. He and she were from Alabama.

I went to Huntsville and they have a plaque up where she lived.

Bette [Davis] and I are good friends. There's nothing I wouldn't say to her face - both of them.

R3 Don't forget it was originally cast with Claudette Colbert.

She was funny on Lucy.

Although her BRILLIANT Lucy and Desi comedy hour appearance is not in wide syndication, Lucy did her at least twice on ILL. Like Bette Davis, she had such a distinct set of camp mannerisms that drag queens were able to easily mimic her.

Her biography is a hoot and also so sad at the same time. On Broadway she had tons of lesbian fans who would line up to meet her and one another.

unrepentant size queen.

Rumors that she had a lesbian relationship with Hattie McDaniel

The name, silly.

I read one of her biographies years ago and recall being entertained but remember few details except for one.

Apparently she had a habit of parading around in the nude, as they used to say. Her good friend, the fabulous Estelle Winwood, admonished her by saying, "But Tallulah, you have such lovely frocks."

Coming down that staircase to tumultuous applause could never happen to you! I want to tell you something, dear. It's strictly a matter of bone structure. You may have the talent, but not the bone structure, darlin!

Tallulah LIVES because she is a gay icon!

Never understood the fascination with her. Pug-faced and leaning toward flabby-fat; a few cogent one-liners. That's about it.

Tallulah Brockman Bankhead (January 31, 1902 -- December 12, 1968) was an American actress, talk-show host, and bon vivant.

In her autobiography, Bankhead claimed that her "first performance" was witnessed by none other than the Wright brothers, Orville and Wilbur. Her Aunt Marie gave the famous brothers a party at her home near Montgomery, Alabama, in which the guests were asked to entertain. "I won the prize for the top performance, with an imitation of my kindergarten teacher," Bankhead wrote. "The judges? Orville and Wilbur Wright."

At 15, Bankhead won a movie-magazine beauty contest and persuaded her family to let her move to New York. She quickly won bit parts, first appearing in a non-speaking role in The Squab Farm. During these early New York years, she became a peripheral member of the Algonquin Round Table and was known as a hard-partying girl-about-town. During this time she began to use cocaine and marijuana, going as far as saying "Cocaine isn't habit forming. I should know -- I've been using it for years." However, she did not consume alcohol to any great degree. She became known for her wit, although as screenwriter Anita Loos, a minor fellow Roundtable member, said: "She was so pretty that we thought she must be stupid."

Once, at a party, one of her friends brought along a young man who boldly told Bankhead that he wanted to make love to her that night. She didn't bat an eye and said, "And so you shall, you wonderful, old-fashioned boy." Another version of the story holds that Bankhead met Chico Marx at a party before her reputation had overturned the presumption that William B. Bankhead's daughter would be disgusted by Marx's typically crude (yet generally effective) approach. According to Dick Cavett, after Marx had been cautioned to be on his best behavior with Bankhead, the two first spoke at the punch bowl.

"Miss Bankhead." "Mr. Marx." And, as everyone breathed a sigh of relief, Chico told her, "You know, I really want to fuck you.". She replied, "And so you shall, you old-fashioned boy."

In 1918 she made her stage debut at the Bijou Theatre in New York. In 1923, she made her debut on the London stage at Wyndham's Theatre. In London she was to appear in over a dozen plays in the next eight years, most famously, The Dancers. Her fame as an actress was ensured in 1924 when she played Amy in Sidney Howard's They Knew What They Wanted. The show won the 1925 Pulitzer Prize. She was famous not only as an actress but also for her many affairs, infectious personality and witticisms like "There is less to this than meets the eye" and "I'm as pure as the driven slush." By the end of the decade, she was one of the West End's — and England's — best-known and most notorious celebrities.

While in London, Bankhead also bought herself a Bentley, which she loved to drive. She wasn't very competent with directions, however, and constantly found herself lost in the London streets. She would telephone a taxi-cab and pay the driver to drive to her destination while she followed behind in her car.

During her eight years on the London stage, Bankhead earned a reputation for making the most out of inferior material. For example, in her autobiography, Bankhead described the opening night of a play called Conchita:

"In the second act...I came on carrying a monkey...On opening night the monkey went berserk...(he) snatched my black wig from my head, leaped from my arms and scampered down to the footlights. There he paused, peered out at the audience, then waved my wig over his head...The audience had been giggling at the absurd plot even before this simian had at me. Now it became hysterical. What did Tallulah do in this crisis? I turned a cartwheel! The audience roared...After the monkey business I was afraid they might boo me. Instead I received an ovation."

Didn't she used to show of her husband's or BF's or someones cock when he was passed out drunk?

[quote]Didn't she used to show of her husband's or BF's or someones cock when he was passed out drunk?

It was her own cock she showed off.

And she kept nagging me that Blanche DuBois should have been played by a Southern woman until finally I agreed to her doing the role.

[quote]Later she had a 90-minute radio comedy-variety show, The Big Show. You can hear it online.

And I believe that show was tremendously popular.

[quote]Although her BRILLIANT Lucy and Desi comedy hour appearance is not in wide syndication, Lucy did her at least twice on ILL.

Lucy would do *anything* to get back at Desi. So she had an affair of her own.

Tallulah Bankhead was a larger than life personality, whose magnetic presence and skill at deadpanning and turning a phrase was electrifying in live theater and social gatherings. But, in motion pictures, where stage actors have to tone it down and act with nuance, lest they be accused of being overwrought and hammy, Tallulah felt stifled and utterly bored by the movie-making process. She needed an audience to play to, but on a closed set, it was just her and a small film crew.

It also didn't help that her studio, Paramount Pictures, saddled her with weak scripts and Marlene's rejects. She made six pictures for Paramount from 1930-32, all of them flops. Her one hit, Faithless (1932), was done on loan out to MGM, but she was pretty much done with movies and wouldn't return until Lifeboat in 1944.

Was she ever in the legitimate theater?

[quote]Margo Channing in All About Eve is surely based on Tallulah

She isn't, r3.

A favorite Tallulah story--and I don't know if it's factual or imagined--had Taullah doing her guest appearance on the Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour, in which Bankhead replaced Bette Davis for a change. During rehearsals, Lucille Ball mentioned to Bankhead, "Taullah, I just love that sweater." Tallulah responded, "Well, here--have it, Darling" and proceeded to shock everyone by ripping it off and sitting there, topless. Vivian Vance, not missing a beat and the only person not speechless, said, "I love your pants!"

She was funnier than Bette in this radio broadcast of All About Eve. You listen to this and hear the comedy that was intended which didn't come across in the film.

I’ve had sufficient.

R27, I haven't yet listened to the Bankhead ALL ABOUT EVE, but I think Bette does a fine job with the comedy in the film.

[quote]but I think Bette does a fine job with the comedy in the film

Indeed she does, r30. Also remember that Tallulah was doing a truncated version on radio, so it's a purely audio performance.

30 posts and no mention of DIE! DIE! MY DARLING?

You bitches are slipping.

Bette was great as Margo, but Tallu was bettah.

And in an ironic twist...

Here's one clip of the Lucy episode - very funny

I’ve always loved the line to the clergyman with his censer, “The dress is divine but your purse is on fire.”

Bankhead had everything you need to be a part of any group you like: Beauty to get in the door backed up with powerful connections and money to set her apart from all the poor, anonymous arm candy. The one-two pinch was the beauty made people think she must be a silly, stupid girl and then she surprised them with a mischievous wit and cultured intellect up to anyone’s standards. It also helps that she wasn’t a big drinker so, no maudlin scenes or sloppy accidents.

The writers and media folks of the Round Table wouldn’t have kept her around if she was just a joke-cracking actress.

SO DO YOU!

Bea Arthur said Tallulah was a cunt to her when they met.

r28 If you're going to quote our goddess, at least get it right.

[quote]Actors and actresses and sports figures were the idols.

Did all the high schools have Tallulah Bankhead Fan Clubs?

TALLULAH WAS FUNNY. Have you fools not heard of her radio program called, The Big Show?

Even when young, she was a blunt-faced borderline pudge. A drunk, too.

She was cute

[quote]It also helps that she wasn’t a big drinker so, no maudlin scenes or sloppy accidents.

Are you kidding? She was a huge drinker.

[quote] I was raped in a driveway when I was eleven. … It was a terrible experience because we had all that gravel.

R44, I think the jury is undecided on that. I don’t know where the biography at R18 came from but it says:

[quote] During these early New York years, she became a peripheral member of the Algonquin Round Table and was known as a hard-partying girl-about-town. During this time she began to use cocaine and marijuana, going as far as saying "Cocaine isn't habit forming. I should know -- I've been using it for years." However, she did not consume alcohol to any great degree.

r47 it's well known that she was a big drinker.

Tallu was a VERY CLOSE friend of Billie Holiday's, and I always assumed drinking and cocaine were a large part of the relationship.

R47, it's always been said that Tallulah Bankhead was never seen without a cigarette in one hand and a bourbon in the other.

She lived in a fabulous townhouse at 230 E. 62nd St.

I heard she does the Hula from Waikiki

Do I contact wardrobe, makeup or hairdressing?

CO-STAR

With Marlene...

I knew someone who was good friends with her personal secretary, Ted Hook. I was fortunate to spend a couple of afternoons being told so many Bankhead stories in the early 90s. Hook lived in the same building as Myrna Loy, another good friend.

R41 The Big Show was mentioned in several posts before yours. But you probably won't read this post, either.

The Tallulah episode was one of the few, if not the only, hour long Lucy episode that was actually funny.

The role of Margot Channing may not have orginated with TB, but Bette Davis (and all her styling), were definitely channeling her. It is not surprising that Bette Davis was better at being an exaggerated version of Tallulah, that is what acting and great acting does.

Davis herself become campier as she grew older but was never the effortlessly camp persona that Tallulah was. This persona naturally affected her acting .

[quote]It is not surprising that Bette Davis was better at being an exaggerated version of Tallulah, that is what acting and great acting does.

She was hardly an exaggerated Tallulah, r59. Nor was she an exaggerated Tallulah in Little Foxes. Tallulah was an exaggerated Tallulah.

Tallulah was supposed to have been great in The Little Foxes, though, and to have played it for charm, which is how Bette also wanted to play it, but director Wm. Wyler wanted her to be colder and more rigid.

I love Bette (my favorite actress) but I think it's too bad Tallulah didn't do The Little Foxes on film.

Yes, r61, Regina was her signature role and her performance considered classic. A warmer Regina would make Horace's demise all the more chilling, I would think.

R63 I never cared for Bette much in the role. She does a great job, but it seems like a job. Tallulah was the charming Southerner that Bette only acted, sometimes. And Bette has that strange white rice makeup she insisted on wearing.

Bette said that she based her Regina on Tallu's.

R32 Saw Valerie Harper playing Tallulah in Looped on Broadway. She was tremendous. Based on a real event when it took an inebriated Bankhead 8 hours to redub or 'loop' one line of dialogue for her last movie Die! Die! My Darling !(1965) 90 minutes of non stop hilarity ensues. The last scene has Harper playing Bankhead playing Blanche DuBois. Incredible!

[quote]She had a prolific Broadway career, but that was over by the early 1960s.

Tallulah's entire career was pretty much over by the early 1960s. Age and alcohol had taken their toll.

Well dear, I don’t know if Tallulah was a faggot or not. She never sucked my dick.

Her final credit is for playing Black Widow on 2 episodes of Batman 1967

r68 stupid

I can tell you from personal experience that she did not have a cock. It was just an extra-large clit.

R70 Your wit is only exceeded by the incredible work ethic behind that response.

Tallulah LIVES! Yes, darlin... I am here! FOREVAH!

"The Girl Hollywood Fears"

Picture Play Magazine

LIFE Magazine

Here's Tallu with Marlene Dietrich, Lucille Ball, and, I want to say Rosemary Clooney, but I'm not so sure. I don't know who the gal with the pooch is.

I wonder if Marlene and Tallulah ate at the Y together.

Would Tallulah be considered a vamp?

I'd call her a party girl, r79.

More camp than vamp.

She was a scamp, a camp and a bit of a tramp, she was a V-A-M-P, vamp.

She died in 1968 of the Hong Kong flu epidemic/pandemic. That combined with all of her other illnesses like emphysema. Age 66.

One of my fave pics: Tallulah entertaining Marlene, Monty, Lucy, and Desi.

[quote]Tallulah entertaining

How can she be entertaining anyone? She's standing up.

Tallulah @18:40 around the time Die! Die! My Darling! opened in theaters

Clooney was on an episode of The Big Show with Marlene, I believe. I think that's how they met.

Lena Horne's offering Tallulah's dog a biscuit, but she may get something unexpected in return...

Bette Davis' encounter with a drunk Tallu.