Scott Eyman - Cary Grant: A Brilliant Disguise

ALSO BY SCOTT EYMAN

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WITH LOUIS GIANNETTI

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Eyman, Scott, 1951 author.

Title: Cary Grant : a brilliant disguise / Scott Eyman.

Description: First Simon & Schuster hardcover edition. | New York : Simon & Schuster, 2021. | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2020001234 | ISBN 9781501192111 (hardcover) | ISBN 9781501191398 (trade paperback) | ISBN 9781501192128 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: Grant, Cary, 19041986. | Motion picture actors and actressesUnited StatesBiography.

Classification: LCC PN2287.G675 E94 2021 | DDC 791.4302/8092 [B]dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020001234

ISBN 978-1-5011-9211-1

ISBN 978-1-5011-9212-8 (ebook)

This book is for Edward Sykes Comstock, better known as Ned, the patron saint of film research at the University of Southern California, who has bailed innumerable authors out of impossible difficulties of their own making, including this one. Thanks, pal.

Everyone tells me Ive had such an interesting life, but sometimes I think its been nothing but stomach disturbances and self-concern.

Cary Grant

Style. If youve got it, you dont need much else. If you havent got it, well it doesnt matter what youve got.

William Saroyan

F ate rarely writes the perfect ending.

Eleanora Duse died in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

John Huston died in Middletown, Rhode Island.

And Cary Grant died in Davenport, Iowa.

He had been doing A Conversation with Cary Grant for several years, playing second- and third-tier towns, avoiding New York, Chicago, or Los Angeles in favor of Fort Lauderdale, Joliet, and Schenectady. As Grant explained to Douglas Fairbanks Jr., a good friend since they costarred in Gunga Din, he did the show for jam money. Fairbanks found this amusing since, as he would confide, Carys still got the first dollar he ever earned.

A Conversation with Cary Grant began with eight minutes of film clips, ending with a shot of Grant walking out to accept his honorary Academy Award in 1970. As the screen showed Grant in 1970, a spotlight would hit him striding onto the stage, invariably meeting with thunderous applause. He had maintained the trim figure of his movie star prime; his only apparent concessions to age were a full head of white hair and glasses with heavy black rims. They were identical to the glasses worn by Lew Wasserman, the head of MCA-Universal, who had made Grant extremely wealthy. Grant told Doug Fairbanks that he chose the large rims because he didnt want to go to the trouble of plastic surgery, and the rims covered the bags under his eyes.

Grant would take his place on a stool, and after a brief introduction, take questions, generally from women in various stages of emotional distress at being in the same geographic space as Cary Grant.

You look gorgeouswhats your secret?

Who was your favorite leading lady?

What was it like to kiss Grace Kelly?

The answers were, in order, think thin, Grace Kelly, and divine. His least favorite leading lady was Mae West, whose choice of a youthful Grant as her leading man in She Done Him Wrong and Im No Angel gave him a large career boost. Nevertheless, he was not grateful. She was all contrivance, all artifice, he said. I dont like artifice in a woman.

Occasionally, there were uncomfortable moments. In Stamford, he was asked about both Sophia Loren and Randolph Scott. And in February 1984, while speaking at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, things teetered uncomfortably. Before Grant was introduced, the audience was told there would be no photographs and no autographs, the latter a pet peeve since he became a star a half-century before.

That night in Baltimore, the first question came from a man in the rear of the audience. In a put-upon voice, the man begged for an autograph. I dont give autographs, said Grant, who attempted to be light and casual about it. But the man would not let go, claiming the autograph was for a crippled child who was counting the hours until he had Cary Grants autograph.

Yes, yes, said Grant, whose patience was obviously wearing thin. Youre obviously the same man who previously requested an autograph at the stage door. Id sent word to you then that Id sign one for you before leaving. But its the only one Ill sign tonight, Ill tell you that!

A young man named Greg Mank was in the audience and thought it was possible that Grant might storm off and end the evening prematurely. Grant went on at some length, fretfully talking about how autograph hounds harass celebrities and make it impossible for them to go out in public. But he gradually sensed that the audience was on his side and began to relax. The show continued. He told the audience that, while he wouldnt sign autographs after the show, they were welcome to come to the front of the stage and shake his hand.

That night in Baltimore, and in all the other cities, he was cumulatively charming, funny, and demonstrated excellent recall. He talked about a simple thing like mixing a drink in a scene. You had to mix the drink correctly or someone in the audience would be sure to notice and complain, but at the same time you also had to make sure to hit your marks and remember the dialogue. If you dropped ice cubes in the glass you had to do it gently, so the sound of the ice hitting the glass wouldnt make a distracting sound. He made it sound like a six-ball juggle, a technical and creative burden that was accompanied by a load of tension no matter the level of feigned nonchalance camouflaging a very real professional expertise.