My favorite era of Cary Grant, handsome & middle-aged.
Cary Grant was born Archibald Leach in Bristol, England. He remains the embodiment of “movie star”. He has always been a favorite, if not THE favorite, of the Husband & mine.
"In my earlier career I patterned myself on a combination of Englishmen—Rex Harrison, Noel Coward, & Jack Buchanan, who impressed me as a character actor. He always looked so natural. I tried to copy men I thought were sophisticated & well dressed like Douglas Fairbanks or Cole Porter.”
"I cultivated raising one eyebrow & tried to imitate those who put their hands in their pockets with a certain amount of ease & nonchalance. But at times, when I put my hand in my trouser pocket with what I imagined was great elegance, I couldn't get the blinking thing out again because it dripped from nervous perspiration!"
"I guess to a certain extent I did eventually become the characters I was playing. I played at someone I wanted be until I became that person. Or he became me."
These are fascinating statements. He was box office gold for decades, & the Cary Grant persona was a consciously created phenomenon. He did it. The studios didn't do it, the marketing people didn't do it, Grant didn't even have an agent! The fact that he seemed so easy & commanding onscreen is just one of the many miracles of Cary Grant. It is even more startling to see him be awkward & sport a Cockney accent when in his early roles, before he hit the right spot with The Awful Truth. Later in life, he expressed mild annoyance when Mae West would give herself the credit for "discovering" him. She had, indeed, pulled him out of the crowd to be the eye-candy in She Done Him Wrong, & then in I'm No Angel.
Grant was allegedly involved with costume designer Orry-Kelly when he first moved to Manhattan, & he lived with Randolph Scott for more than 12 years. Grant & Scott seemed to have been deeply, madly in love, & alleged eyewitness accounts of their physical affection have been published many times. Arthur Laurents: " Grant told me he threw pebbles at my window one night but was luckless. I was out for the night". Alexander D'Arcy, who appeared with Grant in The Awful Truth: "Grant & Scott lived together as a gay couple. I think Cary knew that people were saying things about him. I don't think he tried to hide it." The 2 men were frequently each other's dates to parties & premieres.
The Husband & I had the photograph above of Cary Grant & Randolph Scott, on their pool’s diving board, in a frame for a long time. Their relationship fascinated us. Ironically Cary Grant & Randolph Scott began their relationship while filming the movie Hot Saturday in 1932 & moved in together shortly after. Press reports during the first 2 years described the actors’ shared celebrity home & domestic life using phrases like: “Hollywood’s twosome” & “the happy couple.” The innuendos provided details about the actors’ personal lives which thrilled fans, making the actors appear to be a couple of men sharing more than a home. They named their house- Bachelor Hall.
The pair continued their domestic relationship even after Grant’s marriage to Virginia Cherrill in early 1934. Reporters noted, “The Grants & Randolph Scott have moved, all 3, but not apart.” Indeed, this choice for living arrangements appeared pre-planned. An item from 2 weeks prior to Grant’s marriage observed that Scott would not seek any permanent quarters until he heard from Grant. Innuendos continued later that year. Shortly after Grant’s divorce from Cherrill, an article proclaimed that Randolph Scott had moved back in with Grant. This article was titled- A Woman Is Only a Woman, suggested that the 2 men forged a home life with each another & that they probably had no room for a woman. These press items associated the actors’ home with a forbidden sexuality, turning the place into an exotic experience.
The Paramount publicity department shot over 30 photographs of Grant & Scott within different rooms of their Santa Monica beach house. The studio focus of these pictures was on the stars’ personalities, bachelorhoods, & use of the house. The caption stamped on the back of each photograph highlighted that the actors were 2 of Hollywood’s most eligible bachelors who shared quarters, but lived independent lives.
The actors’ living arrangement lasted until early 1942 when they moved apart for the remainder of their lives. Grant married 5 times. He died, on stage, at 82 in Davenport, Iowa while rehearsing his one-man show.
Is it telling that among Cary Grants films, we find these titles: I'm No Angel, Born To Be Bad, Kiss & Make Up, The Awful Truth, In Name Only, Suspicion, The Talk Of The Town, People Will Talk?
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