Bette Davis Eyes

The Hollywood of today holds no appeal for me. I mean, if you cruise the streets, you may see a famous movie actor or actress shopping or eating in a café, but there is little of the glamour that USED to be Tinsel Town.

I’d love to go back to the glory days of Hollywood—the 30’s and 40’s, when the stars were truly glamorous—and the movies actually were filmed in Hollywood. Sure, the deals are still done there, but on-location shooting and computer-generated special effects have rendered Hollywood almost irrelevant when it comes to actually being the SITE for filmmaking.

Back in the day, actors and actresses signed multi-movie deals with studios—and the grand soundstages where classic films were made were surreal places where the early directors created magic!

It was on this date in 1930—nearly 80 years ago—that Bette Davis signed with Universal after years of work as a struggling actress. Born Ruth Elizabeth Davis in Massachusetts, she decided in high school to become a star. After some mediocre roles on Broadway, she was rejected by Goldwyn Studios following her first screen test.

Davis’ film debut was in “Bad Sister” in 1931. She played relatively unremarkable roles into the mid 30’s. Even after winning the Best Actress Oscar for her role in “Dangerous” (1935), she was still not offered the starring roles she coveted. Aiming for more respect, she moved to Warner Studios, but had the same luck there. Refusing roles that she felt inferior to her talent, Davis tried to work in England. Warner eventually won a court battle enforcing her contract to work exclusively for them. After the victory, Warner started to treat the actress with the respect she craved.

Here is a video clip of Bette Davis’ more memorable moments on the silver screen:



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ea5__uUuxoU
Imagine being on the set of ANY of those films! Now, that’s the Hollywood that appeals to me.

Davis won Best Actress nominations for five consecutive years, including “Jezebel” (1938), “Dark Victory” (1939), “The Letter” (1940),”The Little Foxes” (1941) and “Now, Voyager” (1942) A stunning performance as actress Margo Channing in “All About Eve” in 1950 won huge critical acclaim.

Her career taped off in the 50’s, but was revived by her role in the 1962 movie “Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?”---perhaps her creepiest performance, if you ask me!
In 1977, she became the first woman to receive the American Film Institute’s Life Achievement Award—and her filmography includes more than 80 movies.

Bette Davis died of cancer in 1989—but will live on forever in the movies that helped to define the Golden Age of Hollywood.

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