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FROM THE BOOK:
Hearst
had long coveted for Marion Davies a number of the roles Thalberg had
assigned to his wife. At that time Davies was a descending MGM luminary,
and Hearst stoutly maintained that the re-creation of Marie Antoinette's
short reign on film would restore his "little lady" to full star
status. When Thalberg gave the part to Shearer, Hearst, unaccustomed
to losing anything he wanted, moved his production company, his beloved
star, and her fourteen-room dressing "bungalow" from MGM to the
Warner Brothers Pasadena complex. Marion, however, who had always
been a close friend of Norma's and who had pursued a career as a movie
actress primarily to flatter Hearst's vanity, continued to see the
Thalbergs socially, much to the displeasure of "W. R." She made
a point of always including them on the guest list for the annual
fancy-dress birthday party she gave for Hearst at the Beach House, a
110-room pseudo-Georgian villa he had built for her beside the ocean in
Santa Monica.
In
1938, to commemorate Hearst's seventy-fifth birthday, Marion invited more
than four hundred friends to a costume ball with an American-history
theme. The Thalbergs telephoned their acceptance to Marion and said they
would arrive in the company of Adrian and his wife, Janet Gaynor; the
newly arrived Viennese actress Hedy Lamarr; Mr. and Mrs. Charles Boyer;
and the Rathbones. Then Norma telephoned the members of her party to tell
them she had arranged with Adrian to have her group select and be fitted
in his yet unseen Marie Antoinette costumes. "Norma's reasoning, that
since Lafayette had contributed so much to the cause of the American
revolution made wearing Louis XVI dress appropriate, seemed logical to all
of us at the time," Ouida Rathbone would later recall; "but
after the ball we were marched off to the tumbrels!"
The
day of the gala, Norma sent studio hairdressers and costume dressers to
her friends' houses to adjust the women's wigs and help them get into the
immense skirts. To accommodate Ouida's gown and tall court wig, the seat
of the Rathbones' Rolls was removed, and she sat on blankets. Basil rode
up front with the chauffeur as they drove to the Thalbergs', where the
party ate a light supper, standing up in their unwieldy apparel.
"We could hardly fit into Norma's dining room wearing those huge
dresses," Ouida remembered, "and they weighed a ton!" Then,
their limousines forming a caravan, the group drove off to Beach House.
Arriving
at the height of the festivities, radiant in her organdy gown, decorated
and festooned with exquisite silk flowers, her head crowned with a towering
white wig enhanced with flowers and jewels, Norma swept across the lighted
terrace on her husband's arm. With a gorgeous entourage following
them, the Thalbergs created a sensation sufficient to stop the proceedings
dead. In the ensuing embarrassed silence, Hearst, who with Marion (dressed
as a Pilgrim maid), was receiving guests, stared, turned pale with rage,
and strode into the house. Ouida, who had worn the black velvet gown
trimmed with gold lace and jeweled embroidery designed for Gladys George
as Mme Du Barry, has recalled that "it was ghastly! Hearst
spoke to none of us and ordered we be seated at a table in the farthermost
corner for supper. Everyone ignored us. Marion glanced over at me
sympathetically but indicated she didn't dare to speak. Then, Hedda Hopper
pounced on me! She was dressed up as Pocahontas and was carrying a little
hatchet which she shook at me and whispered: 'It's the end of all of you!'
Poor little Hedy Lamarr couldn't stop crying, and by the time we left I
was close to weeping, too."
It
took several years and the intercession of numerous friends before Hearst
forgave the Rathbones for being innocent accomplices to the Thalbergs'
deliberate slap, but he never forgave Norma or Irving. Of course, there
were many in Hollywood who were secretly delighted to see the often
arrogant Hearst get a comeuppance. After Heast's death, even his
"little lady" Marion sometimes retold the story with obvious
delight to close friends.
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