Ellis Amburn - Olivia de Havilland and the Golden Age of Hollywood

E llis Amburn graduated from Texas Christian University in 1954, moved to New York City, and studied literature at Columbia University with Mark Van Doren, Lionel Trilling, F.W. Dupee, Gilbert Highet, and Eric Bentley. After the Army and a stint at Newsweek, he worked at G.P. Putnams Sons in 1960 as first reader for Lois Dwight Cole, the editor who discovered Gone With the Wind. Eventually he became vice president and executive editor of the Putnam imprint, Coward-McCann. In 1970 he moved to the Delacorte Press as its editor in chief, then to William Morrow in 1978, and was called back to Putnam in 1980 to become the companys editorial director.

His authors included Jack Kerouac, William Golding, Dame Muriel Spark, John le Carre, Allison Lurie, Jean Cocteau, Rex Reed, Rona Jaffe, John Braine, Elizabeth Goudge, David Storey, Gail Sheehy, Brooks Atkinson, Frank G. Slaughter, Joyce Haber, Frances Parkinson Keyes, Belva Plain, Paul Gallico, Howard Taubman, Marisa Berenson, Neil Sedaka, Dr. Carl Rogers, Sir Francis Chichester, Rogers Hornsby, Jean Anouilh, Edgar Cayce, Ruth Montgomery, Milton Berle, Shelley Winters, Sammy Davis Jr., Ann Todd, Stewart Granger, June Allyson, and Priscilla Presley.

Leaving his career as an editor in 1986, he collaborated on their autobiographies with such stars as Kim Novak, Shelley Winters, Peggy Lee, and Zsa Zsa Gabor. Michael Korda of Simon & Schuster engaged him to co-author volume two of Shelleys memoir.

His first biography, Dark Star: The Roy Orbison Story, appeared in 1990, followed by biographies of Janis Joplin, Buddy Holly, Kerouac, Elizabeth Taylor, Warren Beatty, and Jack Nicholson.

Amburn lives in Gainesville, a town in North Central Florida near the Suwannee River.

T o Dame Olivia de Havilland, who cordially consented to talk and dine with me in Paris in 1973.

To attorney Suzelle M. Smith: My deepest gratitude for helping me steer a true course, and for the gift of your expertise, time, and energy, graciously and generously given. And for the words that have inspired me: Ellis, we all appreciate your intention to honor Olivia as she richly deserves.

To my friend Paul N. Bibler. Two people are better off than one, for they can help each other succeed. If one person falls, the other can reach out and help ... A person standing alone can be attacked and defeated, but two can stand back-to-back and conquer.Ecclesiastes 4:91

To Jeff Schmidt for placing my manuscript.

To Rick Rinehart, my brave editor and publisher at Globe Pequot/Rowman and Littlefield.

To attorney Thomas L. Edwards, for hours of brilliant advice and good fellowship.

To the journalists, many of whom spoke with Olivia and reported her words: William Stadiem, Dotson Rader, John Lichfield, Bob Thomas, John S. Truesdell, Hedda Hopper, Robert M. Klein, Sheilah Graham, Radie Harris, Earl Wilson, Anita Gates, Lara Gabrielle Fowler, Vivian Brown, Lynne Bell, George Shaffer, Linda Lane, Harrison Carroll, Erskine Johnson, Howard Heffernan, Lucie Newville, Alice L. Tildesley, Peter Haldeman, Rosalind Shaffer, Louis Berg, Sidney Skolsky, Emily Andrews, Dan Thomas, Dee Lowrance, Glenn Kenny, Rick du Brow, Angela Taylor, Thomas Adamson, Missy Schwartz, Sara Day, Julia Felsenthal, Adrian Gamble, Ida Jean Kain, Andre Sennwald, Robin Coons, Henry McLemore, Wood Soanes, Hubbard Keavy, Louella O. Parsons, Dick Kleiner, Paul Harrison, Clarke Wales, Alice Pardoe West, Thomas Wiseman, Jimmie Fidler, Scott Feinberg, Myles Standish, Ronald Reagan, Michael Thornton, Olga Curtis, Peter Mikelbank, Joan Crosby, Nancy Tartaglione, Judy Flander, Irene Thirer, Leonard Lyons, Walter Winchell, Rosemary Hite, Emily Belser, Nick Thomas, George W. Cornell, Amy Fine Collins, Read Kendall, May Mann, Julia Hilder, Nardine Saad, Inga Arvad, Robert Van Gelder, Robert K. Hutchens, J. Maurice Ruddy, John Chapman, Donald Kirkley, Jack Gaver, Virginia Vale, Aline Bosley, Patricia Clary, Robin Adams Sloan, Vernon Scott, Allen B. Dodd, Sean M. Wright, Patricia Wells, Aline Mosby, Harold V. Cohen, Stephen E. Rubin, Roderick Mann, Marilyn Beck, Mary Campbell, Mary Vespa, Tom Leyde, Dr. Marty Nemko, David Kaufman, Kristin McMurran, Rajeen Syal, Victoria Miller, Nancy Conant Richards, Angela Danovi, and Dorothy Kilgallen.

To authors Judith M. Kass, Robert Matzen, Gail Kinn, Jim Piazza, Joan Fontaine, Ingrid Bergman, Bette Davis, Lillian Gish, J. Randy Taraborrelli, Ginger Rogers, Gavin Lambert, David Thomson, William Frye, Lee Grant, Audrey Wood, Michael Shagow, Errol Flynn, Evelyn Keyes, Tony Thomas, David Niven, Barbara Walters, Angelica Huston, Ray Stricklyn, Mason Wiley, Damien Bono, Gary Fishgall, Jean-Pierre Aumont, Jeffrey Meyers, John Huston, Burgess Meredith, Richard Burton, Brian Aherne, Terry Moore, Florence Aadland, Christopher Andersen, Rudy Behlmer, Katharine Hepburn, Yvonne De Carlo, Victoria Wilson, Kate Summerscale, Michael Caine, Anne Edwards, Sam Staggs, Joe Morella, Edward J. Epstein, Gerald Clarke, Alexander Walker, Paul McDonald, Philip Van Rensselaer, Irene Mayer Selznick, Patrick McGilligan, Gloria Swanson, Beverly Linet, Robert LaGuardia, Patricia Bosworth, Michael Munn, Michelangelo Capua, Jhan Robbins, Ed Sikov, Marc Eliot, Donald L. Bartlett, James B. Steele, Pierre Galante, Jonathan Coe, Kathleen Brady, James Spada, Donald Spoto, Charles Brackett, Howard Teichmann, Edward Sorel, John Henry Steele, Laurence Leamer, and David King Dunaway.

To my family: Lu Bradbury and Bill and Joyce Amburn, and to the memory of my mother and father, E.D. and Belma Amburn.

To my friends: Gwynn G. Rakeker, Suzanne Ray, Shannon Miller, Ken Houpt, Mike Horton, Billy OConnor, Wanda Kay Lee, Alissa Old Crow, Zack Zeder, Nimai Larson, Mike Vedder, Tyler Flanagan, Pat Bern, Jason Hodges, Jennifer Donskyand the late Vanessa Van McCarver and Marshall G. Streib.

To Wendy Tucker for sage counsel.

To Ross Claiborne, publisher of James Jones and Irwin Shaw, for invaluable editorial guidance.

To Cathy Griffin for superb research.

To Pat Loud, Richard Ridge, and Leonida Karpik for interviews and photos, and to all who were instrumental over the years in the making of this writer and his booksDavid O. Selznick, George Cukor, Joshua Logan, Jimmy Stewart, Kim Novak, Shelley Winters, June Allyson, Radie Harris, Sheilah Graham, Rex Reed, Sammy Davis Jr., Richard Howard, Robert Weil, Al Lowman, Patricia Soliman, John J. Geoghegan, Lena Wickman, Joseph McCrindle, Ernie Quick, Sherry Arden, and Diane Reverand.

To Mitch Douglas for steadfast friendship.

To Lynn Zelem for shepherding my manuscript through production, and to Jan Fehler for copyediting.

To Ron Bernstein, vice president of International Creative Management, and to George and Peggy DiCaprio for kind help whenever Im in Los Angeles.

To Margaret Fries, Linda Thomas, Tom Mosley, Annina Jest, Merna Wimsatt, Andrew Tate, Pam and David Lee, Adelaide Kiszka, Dot ONeil, Jane McKenna, Tom and Annie Otto, Peggy Jellema, Fred Beard, Gene Smith, Dorothy Deluca, James Green, and all my neighbors at The Atrium who keep the home fires burning.

To my teachers: Lorraine Sherley, Paul Dinkins, Warren K. Agee, and Karl Snyder at TCU, Lewis Leary at Columbia, and Patricia Edwards, Hattie Frey, and Elsie Cathey at Poly High.

To Frank Vriale for encouraging this enterprise, and to lifelong friend Ronny Dieb for supporting me in all my endeavors.

To my medical team at Shands: Drs. Bill Mendenhall, Ying Lu Nagoshi, Matthew McKillop, Joshua Billingsley, Maithili Shenoy, Brian Charles Weiner, and Alexandra Lucas.

And to my pastor, J. Mark Johns, who said, When we attempt bold things for God, we can expect bold things from God.