[00:00:01] Speaker A: Hey, guys, it's Jill.
[00:00:02] Speaker B: Jen and I wanted to give you a heads up about the content on today's episode. It may be triggering for more sensitive audiences.
[00:00:08] Speaker A: Refer to the show notes for more.
[00:00:10] Speaker B: Specifics, and take care while you listen.
[00:00:22] Speaker A: On this episode of Common Mystics, we discuss a colorful and somewhat controversial stage and screen actress from the golden age of entertainment.
I'm Jennifer James.
[00:00:35] Speaker B: I'm Jill Stanley.
[00:00:36] Speaker A: We're psychics.
[00:00:37] Speaker B: We're sisters.
[00:00:39] Speaker A: We are common mystics. We find extraordinary stories in ordinary places. And today's story comes from Huntsville, Alabama.
[00:00:49] Speaker B: God, how much do we love Huntsville?
[00:00:53] Speaker A: I think we were looking for real estate in Huntsville.
[00:00:56] Speaker B: I want listeners from Huntsville. I don't think we have a listener in Huntsville yet. We have outside of Huntsville, but we don't have one in the city.
[00:01:04] Speaker A: So what do we do to get some?
[00:01:06] Speaker B: If you guys know anyone from Huntsville, please share and let them know that we love their city and we want to move there.
[00:01:13] Speaker A: Utterly enchanting.
[00:01:15] Speaker B: True. Now, Jen.
[00:01:17] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:01:17] Speaker B: I'm going to remind our listeners, remember, we're staying in Chattanooga because of our niece's wedding. That's our home base. And we've been driving around going to and from Chattanooga. And today we left Gadsden, and you and I both were like, where are we going?
[00:01:35] Speaker A: Yeah, where are we going to go next? And then one of us said, huntsville. I think it might have been you. And the funny thing was I had Huntsville in my head, like, knocking at my brain the entire day, but I didn't want to say anything.
And so when you said it, I was like, yes, Huntsville has been calling me all day. And you're like, me, too.
[00:01:56] Speaker B: Yeah. So we were excited. So we hurried along because we've already spent a good half the day in the car.
[00:02:01] Speaker A: Right, right, right.
[00:02:03] Speaker B: So we hurried along, and we were headed to Huntsville. Jen, as we were going to Huntsville, what were some of the hits we got in the car?
[00:02:13] Speaker A: We had stopped at a couple small towns, including Gadsden, and old theaters kept coming up, like vintage old theaters.
[00:02:25] Speaker B: That's actually really true. I know, I know. I'm sorry. This is the first time I'm reading this outline, you guys. So I'm just. I'm so surprised. No, that. That happened a lot.
[00:02:35] Speaker A: Yeah. I'm going to just pull you along.
[00:02:37] Speaker B: Yes, yes. And also we were talking about bougie Bama.
[00:02:42] Speaker A: Yes, Bougie lifestyle. And so I was going through the hits, and I looked up what is bougie actually mean?
And this is from Dictionary.com and it is relating to or characteristic of a person who indulges in some of the luxuries and comforts of a fancy lifestyle.
[00:03:01] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:03:02] Speaker A: And that is. That comes up in this story, for sure.
[00:03:05] Speaker B: I want to be Bougie.
[00:03:08] Speaker A: Okay.
You kind of are.
[00:03:12] Speaker B: Not really.
[00:03:13] Speaker A: Well, you. I mean, your lashes, your nails, your pedicures.
[00:03:18] Speaker B: That's bougie. I would say I'm like Dollar General Bougie.
[00:03:23] Speaker A: Your target, Bougie.
[00:03:26] Speaker B: All right. Yeah, that's fair.
[00:03:28] Speaker A: That's fair. Target Bougie. Yeah, Bougie. Yeah. Also, in the notes, I wrote down the word or the name Beulah.
And I know I. No reason why. I just saw a sign and I wrote down the name.
No context to it. Usually when I'm, like, writing down things like where we are, it's for a purpose of, like, you know, navigation reasons. So when I look back, I can follow our route and figure out where we are. I just wrote down the word Beulah. We'll get back to it. It's the name of a road.
[00:04:01] Speaker B: Okay. So, yeah, usually when you write down notes about, he's headed north on da da da da da. Yeah, but I didn't even do that.
[00:04:09] Speaker A: I just wrote down the name.
[00:04:10] Speaker B: Yeah, gotcha, gotcha. And this is my favorite hit.
[00:04:15] Speaker A: Oh, please discuss.
[00:04:16] Speaker B: So I'm Jennifer, and I are having conversations about Stevie Wonder and Ray Charles. And it's my understanding that both of them had used drugs, but they had, like, people had to help them get the drugs. Right. Because they're handicapable. And so we were talking about famous people that. That had a habit, and we were talking about rehabs and people that had drug addictions.
[00:04:44] Speaker A: Yes. Yeah, exactly. Specifically older stars who had a drug addiction of some kind.
[00:04:53] Speaker B: That's right. And then, Jennifer, I asked you to write it down.
[00:05:00] Speaker A: Yes, and I did.
[00:05:03] Speaker B: And you did.
[00:05:04] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:05:04] Speaker B: But you said it was a stupid conversation. Cause we were making jokes about. We were making inappropriate jokes.
[00:05:09] Speaker A: Very inappropriate.
[00:05:10] Speaker B: Very inappropriate jokes.
[00:05:11] Speaker A: We cannot tell you what was discussed.
[00:05:13] Speaker B: Maybe tier four, folks. May. Maybe. Maybe Tier four.
We'll get at you there. But not here. This isn't. This is. This is too broad of an arena.
[00:05:24] Speaker A: Yes.
And so we arrived in Huntsville, and I remember that we were talking about, wow, there's a lot of references to local politicians.
And so I wrote it down in the notes. Governors, senators. It just. And that felt significant.
[00:05:45] Speaker B: We pranced around historic Huntsville with glee and awe and excitement.
[00:05:55] Speaker A: Yep.
And kind of aimlessly. Right. Following spites.
And so it was hot. I remember we needed to rest or something.
[00:06:07] Speaker B: No, that's not what happened.
[00:06:09] Speaker A: Why did we sit down at that bench?
[00:06:11] Speaker B: We were walking, walking, walking along, and we saw a historical marker. And you were like, holy shit.
[00:06:17] Speaker A: Holy shit.
[00:06:18] Speaker B: And I was like, what is it, Jennifer?
[00:06:20] Speaker A: And you're like, this Tallulah Bankhead. Do you know Tallulah Bankhead?
[00:06:24] Speaker B: And you were going all off, and I was like, never heard of her.
Please contain yourself and tell me what is happening. And then you said.
[00:06:33] Speaker A: We happen to be. We sat down on a bench right near the marker, and that bench happened to be right outside the I. Schiffman Building in Huntsville. The building which was originally built in the 1800s and incidentally happened to be the birthplace of the famous and some would say infamous actress Tallulah Bankhead.
[00:07:01] Speaker B: Yes.
So we had a. Calm Jennifer down because I'm.
[00:07:05] Speaker A: I'm a big, like, old Hollywood fan. I love old movies. I love old actors and actresses. I love silent movies. I love it all.
Love.
[00:07:18] Speaker B: She does.
[00:07:18] Speaker A: So I was so excited that we were feet from the actual birthplace, the birth site of Tallulah Bankhead.
So I was very excited to put this outline together.
[00:07:32] Speaker B: I'm so glad you did. Will you please lead me through it?
[00:07:35] Speaker A: Yes. And our listeners, since you haven't read it. Sure. Yeah. It'll be a little mushy because you're not prepared, but that's okay.
[00:07:42] Speaker B: I like mushy.
[00:07:44] Speaker A: So the main source that I used for a lot of the information, not all, but a lot of it, came from a fantastic article from the New Yorker, dated May 8, 2005, which was right around the time that her latest biography came out. And the New Yorker article was called, quote, the Strange Case of Tallulah Bankhead by Robert Gottlieb. So I'll be talking about Robert Gottlieb and his article as we go through this outline, and because he had some things to say about Tallulah, I need.
[00:08:16] Speaker B: You to be honestly, because I only know about as much about Tallulah Bankhead as you told me that day on the bench, sitting outside of her birthplace. Please, who she.
[00:08:28] Speaker A: Okay. Tallulah Bankhead was a renowned actress of the stage. She was a renowned theater actress who passed away in 1968.
She was in some movies, under 20 movies, but. But she was largely unsuccessful in Hollywood. So she's. She's best known for her work on the stage.
[00:08:48] Speaker B: Hollywood's a brutal place.
[00:08:50] Speaker A: It is a brutal place.
Yet to this day. To this day, Tallulah Bankhead remains a prominent figure in the history of Entertainment.
Her 1952 memoir, Tallulah was a bestseller at the time. It reached number five in the nonfiction category when number one was the Bible.
[00:09:11] Speaker B: Oh, my gosh. Congratulations, Tallulah.
[00:09:15] Speaker A: Yeah, she was number five.
And by the way, her memoir went into reprint again in 2004.
[00:09:24] Speaker B: Oh, my gosh.
[00:09:24] Speaker A: Are you going to read it?
Yes, when I have the time, I would love to read it. Okay, now here's the thing. There have been several biographies written about Tallulah Bankhead since her death in 1968. I did a quick search on Amazon and I found 11 different biographies about her life.
This is really unusual, Jill, because, like, have you heard of any other famous stage actress ever from, like, that era?
Yeah. No. I can tell by the look on your face.
[00:09:58] Speaker B: Well, actually, I. I looked down and I do recognize one name.
[00:10:02] Speaker A: Okay, so do you recognize.
[00:10:03] Speaker B: Only because.
Only.
Okay, go.
[00:10:07] Speaker A: So Katherine Cornell, do you know who that was?
[00:10:10] Speaker B: No.
[00:10:10] Speaker A: She was the first lady of theater. How about Helen Hayes?
[00:10:14] Speaker B: Never.
[00:10:14] Speaker A: Okay. Ethel Barrymore?
[00:10:16] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:10:17] Speaker A: Okay. Why?
[00:10:18] Speaker B: Because of Drew Barrymore. She's Drew Barrymore's great aunt.
[00:10:21] Speaker A: That she is Drew Barrymore's great aunt. She was a huge success on stage. But you don't know her because of her stage work. You know her because of Drew Barrymore's relation to her.
[00:10:31] Speaker B: And I also know that from Drew's Instagram and TikTok page, she has pictures of her great aunts and uncles in her house, which is really cute.
[00:10:41] Speaker A: I love that. And I also love, like, you can see the resemblance. She does look like a Barrymore. Like her profile.
[00:10:47] Speaker B: I mean, there's no denying that that is Barrymore.
[00:10:50] Speaker A: Yeah, 100%.
[00:10:51] Speaker B: She had Barrymore.
[00:10:52] Speaker A: So the question is the question posed by Robert Gottlieb in the New Yorker and in the Strange Case of Tallulah Bankhead was why?
Why is Tallulah Bankhead remembered when stories of other actresses of the stage have faded away? Why are there 11 plus biographies about her but, like, a couple of, like, other actresses who are more successful than she was in the early 1900s on stage?
[00:11:21] Speaker B: I think that's a fair question.
[00:11:24] Speaker A: I agree.
Gottlieb states, not many people remember Tallulah's stage performances, and almost nobody has seen her few movies. Yet here she is again, demanding attention. He actually wrote that.
[00:11:40] Speaker B: I love it.
[00:11:41] Speaker A: Yeah, I'm getting goosebumps right now. She is. She is demanding attention still, right? Yeah.
So Tallulah, she was famous for her daughter Darlings.
[00:11:52] Speaker B: Oh, I love that.
[00:11:54] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:11:55] Speaker B: She brought me or Ryan.
[00:11:56] Speaker A: Uh huh. Darling.
[00:11:58] Speaker B: Every time Ryan. I call Ryan. He's like, Hi, darling.
[00:12:03] Speaker A: Right. That was her thing.
She was known for her wild antics and she had an unforgettable deep gurgling voice that might seem like a walking punchline. Like all of that together is like so over the top. You'd think that people would be making fun of her, but no, she. She wasn't made fun of. She was taken seriously and was known to have incredible talents and a larger than life charisma.
[00:12:32] Speaker B: I love her. I just love that Persona, that. That archetype.
[00:12:37] Speaker A: I'm loving that. Exactly what it is, that vamp, sort of. Yes. Over the top, right?
[00:12:45] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:12:47] Speaker A: So to understand the enduring allure of the woman Tallulah Bankhead, one must start at the beginning of her life in Huntsville, Alabama.
[00:12:56] Speaker B: Where we were.
[00:12:57] Speaker A: Where we were.
Would you like to ask me about Tallulah's beginnings?
[00:13:03] Speaker B: Jennifer, how was Tallulah brought into this world where.
[00:13:07] Speaker A: When Tallulah Behn was born on January 31, 1902 in Huntsville, Alabama, in. Into a prominent Southern political family.
[00:13:18] Speaker B: My goodness, I wouldn't have thought that.
[00:13:21] Speaker A: Bankhead was named after her paternal grandmother, who in turn was named after Tallulah Falls, Georgia. Oh, Tallulah. It's a creek word that means leaping water.
[00:13:35] Speaker B: Oh, my goodness.
[00:13:35] Speaker A: How lovely is that? Beautiful.
[00:13:37] Speaker B: That really is.
[00:13:38] Speaker A: It sounds like leaping water. Say it. Tallulah.
[00:13:41] Speaker B: Tallulah. It does sound like.
[00:13:43] Speaker A: Aww, doesn't it?
Yeah. Her father, William B. Bankhead, came from a prominent Bankhead and Brockman political family line.
[00:13:54] Speaker B: You know, now that when you say it in the context of like a political dynasty, it does carry that kind of gravitas.
[00:14:02] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:14:03] Speaker B: Bankhead.
[00:14:05] Speaker A: Her family was deeply involved in the Democratic party, especially in the south and in Alabama. Her father, will, was a U.S. congressman and later speaker of the House.
[00:14:18] Speaker B: Wow.
[00:14:18] Speaker A: Yes. While her grandfather and uncle were both US Senators.
[00:14:23] Speaker B: My goodness. Yes. A dynasty.
[00:14:25] Speaker A: Yes.
Her mother, Adelaide or Ada Sledge, was from Como, Mississippi, and had actually been engaged to somebody else when she met William Bankhead.
[00:14:38] Speaker B: Fair to say I think she made the right choice.
[00:14:40] Speaker A: Do you want me to tell you the story about how they met?
[00:14:42] Speaker B: Yes, please.
[00:14:43] Speaker A: Okay. So little Ada Sledge, she's engaged, she's going to be married, and she goes to Huntsville shopping. She's on a shopping trip to buy her wedding dress.
[00:14:55] Speaker B: Oh, like to say yes to the dress. That's what she's like. People come to New York to buy the wedding dresses. People went to Huntsville to buy. Oh, I love it.
[00:15:02] Speaker A: So she came from Mississippi, she went to Alabama, Bougie bama to buy a wedding dress. In Huntsville. And when she's there, she meets and instantly falls in love with William Bankhead. It is love at first sight.
They ended up getting married on January 31, 1900 in Memphis, Tennessee. So she pretty much met him, broke off her engagement, and then decided to marry him.
Their first daughter, Eugenia Bankhead, was born on January 24, 1901. And their second daughter, Tallulah was born almost exactly one year later on January 31, 1902, which happened to be her parents second wedding anniversary.
[00:15:51] Speaker B: Oh my goodness.
[00:15:52] Speaker A: And she was born on that second floor apartment in what is now known as the Isaac Schiffman building where her father also had his office.
[00:16:02] Speaker B: Now she must had a wonderful childhood. Tell me.
[00:16:07] Speaker A: Actually it was rather tragic from the start.
[00:16:10] Speaker B: Why do you always say the opposite of what I want you to say?
[00:16:14] Speaker A: Her mother, Ada passed away just weeks after Tallulah was born due to complications. Yeah, she died of sepsis.
[00:16:24] Speaker B: Oh, I know, our mama died.
[00:16:27] Speaker A: I know. But Tallulah's mom died as complications of childbirth. So Tallulah carried that with her. That like it was her, she was the reason for her mother's death.
[00:16:39] Speaker B: Oh, that makes me so sad.
[00:16:41] Speaker A: In fact, Tallulah was purportedly baptized at her mother's funeral next to her coffin.
[00:16:48] Speaker B: That is not cool, people. What are you saying?
[00:16:51] Speaker A: The priest is there.
[00:16:53] Speaker B: Jennifer, that is so appropriate.
Next Sunday. You don't do like let me just dip the kid here. No. Oh God.
[00:17:02] Speaker A: Yeah, that, that would stick to you. That would, that would imprint your psyche. Growing up knowing this. You know, the, the thing is, is.
[00:17:12] Speaker B: That even as I said that, I got the psychic impression that they wanted her mother there when she was baptized.
[00:17:18] Speaker A: Now I just got the goosebumps. Yeah, you're absolutely right.
[00:17:22] Speaker B: That makes sense. Sorry.
[00:17:25] Speaker A: So Ada, she said something. Speaking of psychic, I believe Ada was psychic because listen to this.
On her deathbed, she had just given birth.
She died weeks after her newborn Tallulah was born. And yet on her deathbed, she instructed her sister in law to look after Eugenia, her one year old, stating that quote, tallulah will always be able to take care of herself.
[00:17:56] Speaker B: I love it.
[00:17:57] Speaker A: How would she possibly know that her child was less than three weeks old?
[00:18:02] Speaker B: Wow.
[00:18:03] Speaker A: I know, that's remarkable.
[00:18:04] Speaker B: That's crazy.
[00:18:07] Speaker A: Do you think she had some sort of premonition?
[00:18:10] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely.
[00:18:12] Speaker A: Me too.
So poor Ada, Tallulah's mother passes away and her father loses it.
Will.
Will is so devastated. I mean, basically they were still honeymooners. You know what I mean?
[00:18:28] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:18:28] Speaker A: They had only been married two Years.
He was so devastated that his life fell into this pattern of alcoholism, self pity and absenteeism that went on for years.
[00:18:43] Speaker B: Oh, no.
[00:18:45] Speaker A: So basically he was not available to raise his daughters. He was either physically absent because he was in Washington D.C. or emotionally absent because he was an alcoholic.
[00:18:59] Speaker B: Gosh, that's heartbreaking.
[00:19:00] Speaker A: Yeah.
So Tallulah and her older sister Eugenia were raised primarily by their paternal grandmother and their aunts.
[00:19:09] Speaker B: Yeah. Because essentially they lost both their parents.
[00:19:12] Speaker A: Exactly.
So despite. Here's the other thing.
You would think that, wow, she's from this political dynasty. Of course they're wealthy.
They weren't.
[00:19:24] Speaker B: They were. Shut up.
[00:19:25] Speaker A: No, they were politically prominent, but they weren't wealthy.
So it's like they were born into this aristocratic family. But it was like, you know how the aristocracy, over the course of the late 1800s and early 1900s, they start losing their money as.
As the underclass starts gaining power. Right.
As you start like identifying, oh, you need to pay workers, do you know what I mean? Like, as workers rights start being a thing, the aristocracy starts losing their way of life. It's a good thing, ultimately. And you see that when you watch shows like Downton Abbey. Like, that's really the story of this aristocratic family in England and how during the course of the 1900s, they lose their prominence, they have to start selling off their land. So, like, they live in this big house, but they don't have a lot of liquid.
So same with Tallulah's family here in the United States. States. She comes from a southern aristocratic family, but they're slowly losing, like, their wealth. So they're politically connected and. But they're not wealthy. And Tallulah and her sister are raised in this weird atmosphere where they're privileged and they have these strict Southern values, but they're not rich.
They're not rich. The worst.
[00:20:46] Speaker B: Yeah, that's. That's really bad. At least if you were raised that way and were rich, I like, that would be something. But to have nothing and still be raised like that.
[00:20:56] Speaker A: Well, I wouldn't say nothing. But you see my point. Like, that is the worst of both worlds.
[00:21:00] Speaker B: No, I see. Exactly.
[00:21:01] Speaker A: Yeah.
You see, so it's like this weird. You are somebody, you need to act this way and there's like discipline. Right. You have to be very, very disciplined. You're a young lady, but you're like, you don't get anything for it. Like, you're not taken care of financially. You know what I mean?
[00:21:20] Speaker B: Yeah, No, I understand. It's like for me, when I was acting out when I was a teen. It's like I come from a single mother's home. You know what I'm saying? It was, like, expected, but for them. Well, we were poor.
[00:21:31] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:21:32] Speaker B: Yeah, right.
[00:21:33] Speaker A: We were nobodies.
[00:21:35] Speaker B: We were poor. We were nobodies. We were going to amount to nothing.
[00:21:38] Speaker A: Right. We lived in the bad house on the block. You know how when you, like, you, you see a block and there's, like, that one house and it's overrun and nothing's taken care of and the kids are dirty and running around like, that was our house.
[00:21:49] Speaker B: That sounds like home.
That does. That sounds like home.
[00:21:52] Speaker A: Exactly. So the bar was low.
[00:21:55] Speaker B: Right. But for her, the bar was really high.
[00:21:58] Speaker A: The bar was really high. Exactly.
[00:22:00] Speaker B: And she didn't have the means. It's almost like she had to fight harder to get to that bar. So is that what she did?
[00:22:08] Speaker A: The expectations were high, but the means were low.
So Tallulah is rebellious and flamboyant, even as a child.
[00:22:22] Speaker B: I love it.
[00:22:22] Speaker A: And she clashes with her aunts and her grandmother's strict discipline and this atmosphere of strict southern values. Like, not a good mix. Not a good mix for Tallulah.
[00:22:36] Speaker B: Not a good mix for Tallulah. But I love her response to it because I can identify with that.
[00:22:42] Speaker A: Okay, I can see that.
The other thing is, remember, she doesn't have parents. She's basically an orphan. And so her dramatic flair comes out as a result of a hunger for attention.
[00:22:56] Speaker B: I can see that. Oh, poor Tallulah.
[00:22:59] Speaker A: She was described as an exhibitionist from a very early age.
[00:23:04] Speaker B: Wow.
[00:23:05] Speaker A: Often performing cartwheels, singing and reciting poetry to captivate anybody around her.
[00:23:11] Speaker B: My goodness, that must have been something for her family, being like, stop doing cartwheels.
[00:23:17] Speaker A: Exactly.
Yeah, exactly. So will her father. When he was home, he would often be out drinking, and then he would come home with his drunk friends. Okay.
And he would put Tallulah up on the dining room table and she would dance and sing. Sing risque songs to entertain the drunk men.
[00:23:45] Speaker B: That seems pretty inappropriate.
[00:23:47] Speaker A: It seems very inappropriate. And it also will color a lot of her relationships with men and the opposite sex in the future.
[00:23:57] Speaker B: Really? I can see it.
[00:23:59] Speaker A: But he was proud. Her father was proud to pick her up and put her on the table. He's the one who instigated it. He's like, sing that body song for the. For the boys.
[00:24:09] Speaker B: That is completely inappropriate and should not have happened. Poor Tallulah.
[00:24:17] Speaker A: Yeah.
The other thing you need to know is Tallulah kind of had a negative self image as a child because she was chubbier than her older sister Eugenia, and she always thought of herself as homely.
[00:24:34] Speaker B: Well, I can identify with both of those.
[00:24:37] Speaker A: And so she was constantly seeking her father's approval. And she taught herself cartwheels, by the way, after going to the circus. So she saw them performing.
She saw them performing acrobatics at the circus and taught herself how to do it and would be frequently cartwheeling around the house to entertain him.
[00:24:57] Speaker B: I don't even know what to say.
[00:24:58] Speaker A: And like, her aunts would be like, you have to stop cartwheeling. Like, that is not what a Southern lady does.
[00:25:04] Speaker B: Part of me, part of me feels like, what a great, determined young lady. Like, I'm gonna do this. I saw someone else doing it. And another part of me feels sad that she's actually having to do tricks to get attention.
[00:25:20] Speaker A: Yes, exactly. You hit the nail on the head.
Another side of her dramatic personality showed in her wild tantrums.
Whenever she didn't get her way, she would throw herself on the floor and scream at the top of her lungs, turning purple with rage. If she didn't get her way, she scared her sister. And Eugenia would, like, go hide in the closet. She'd be like, I do not want any part of this.
[00:25:49] Speaker B: And that's her older sister.
[00:25:50] Speaker A: Yes.
But her grandmother would just take a bucket of cold water and throw it on her like a cat. Uh huh. Like a cat, yes.
So, as you can imagine, there were many attempts by the family to provide Tallulah and her sister Eugenia with a traditional, strict, proper Southern education.
But it didn't take.
[00:26:17] Speaker B: Didn't take.
So.
[00:26:20] Speaker A: And they went to different schools. One of them was a convent school with nuns and.
[00:26:24] Speaker B: Oh, my God.
[00:26:26] Speaker A: Eugenia wasn't into it either. She wasn't as dramatic and flamboyant as Tallulah. But Eugenia actually, like, met a boy her first year of high school and eloped. She's like, yeah, I'm out of here.
[00:26:38] Speaker B: Yeah, peace deuces me gone.
[00:26:41] Speaker A: But Tallulah, from a young age, was always getting in trouble in school. Always. And she was known for how bold she was and the fact that she always broke the rules.
And she had.
[00:26:53] Speaker B: I kind of feel like I'm the incarnated version of Tallulah Bingley, you think?
[00:26:59] Speaker A: She would often entertain her classmates by imitating her teachers.
So she was very adept at picking up on the nuances of caricatures and mimicking people. And she was a big hit with her classmates.
[00:27:15] Speaker B: You know, her teachers Were pissed.
[00:27:17] Speaker A: In fact, one visit home, Tallulah did some of her mimicry as what she called one of her first performances.
She had this kindergarten teacher, and she got really good at mimicking her kindergarten teacher. And her aunt Marie was hosting a party for some kind of local celebrities. You might have heard of them, Orville and Wilbur Wright. The Wright brothers?
[00:27:44] Speaker B: Yeah. Aren't they the first in flight?
[00:27:46] Speaker A: Yes. They invented the plane, the airplane. And so her aunt Marie has the Wright brothers over, and Tallulah is doing a performance for them. And the party it like acting. As her old kindergarten teacher and Bankhead recounted. I won the prize for the top performance with an imitation of my kindergarten teacher. The judges, Orville and Wilbur Wright.
[00:28:11] Speaker B: Wow.
[00:28:13] Speaker A: Can you see that? That's iconic.
[00:28:16] Speaker B: That's iconic. But I love the voice you just did. That was everything I tried.
[00:28:20] Speaker A: I can't do it like Tallulah.
[00:28:21] Speaker B: You really sounded good, though.
[00:28:24] Speaker A: Tallulah also, by the way, this is another similarity you have with her.
She had a photographic memory.
[00:28:32] Speaker B: Oh, nice.
[00:28:34] Speaker A: Yeah. And so one of the things she was able to do is memorize, like, plays and poems and would be able to recite them to entertain others. And she did that a lot, even as a kid.
[00:28:47] Speaker B: Interesting. Do you think that she had a learning disability, too?
[00:28:52] Speaker A: She might have. Let me think.
Actually, I do think she had a learning disability. I think that she was kind of what we would call today dyslexic. I don't think reading was reading occurred to her the way most kids learn to read. She had a photographic memory. Yeah.
[00:29:10] Speaker B: Interesting.
[00:29:11] Speaker A: When she was 15 years old, Tallulah's life had. Was significantly changed. There was a huge, huge change. This is where her life takes a traumatic turn.
Okay, so first of all, her dad married a woman. This. This isn't in the notes. I'm just telling you. Her dad married this woman. And Tallulah didn't like her at first because she was like, you know, the. The stepmother and you're not my mother and whatever.
[00:29:40] Speaker B: Yeah. The whole teenage angst. Yeah.
[00:29:42] Speaker A: But her stepmother was a really good person, and she was like, look, Tallulah, you.
You know, your. Your skin is breaking out and you're overweight. You're not taking care of yourself. And I know that you don't feel good about yourself. I. Let me help you. And she helped her learn how to eat right and helped her learn how to take care of herself. And she slimmed down that year. Her skin cleared, and suddenly she was a beauty. Like, overnight.
[00:30:09] Speaker B: My goodness.
[00:30:10] Speaker A: Her diet changed because of the Influence of her aunt and her stepmother, and she was suddenly a beauty. And so she loved Picture Play magazine, and she would read it all the time. And there was a contest, and the contest was, send your picture in. And if you win, if you're one of 12 lucky winners, we will fly you to New York and give you a movie role if you win based on your picture.
[00:30:41] Speaker B: So cool.
[00:30:41] Speaker A: I know.
So Tallulah had pictures taken, and she, like, wrote into Picture Play, and she put it in the mail, and in her excitement, she forgot to include her name and address on it.
So she didn't hear back from Picture Play, and she assumed that she didn't win.
But one day, she's in a local drugstore in Huntsville, and she's looking at Picture Play magazine, and she sees her picture.
She sees her picture.
[00:31:16] Speaker B: Oh, my God, that's awesome.
[00:31:17] Speaker A: And the caption reads, who is she?
The editors didn't know who it was. She had been one of the lucky winners, but they couldn't. They couldn't let her know.
[00:31:28] Speaker B: What's crazy is that I would just be like, next.
I wouldn't have put her picture in the. In the newspaper or the magazine and been like, who is she? If anyone knows her, no kidding.
[00:31:38] Speaker A: The editors felt so strongly that she should win, and they were like, who is she? If you know this mystery girl, let us know.
Well, so. So Tallulah's like, how am I gonna. How am I going to write Picture Play and be like, it's me? So she asked her dad, and her dad was, of course, a congressman. And so he was. He was, you know, reliable. A reliable source. So he wrote in for her, and he's like, no, this is my daughter, Tallulah Bankhead.
And he sent in a duplicate copy of the photo. So she was able to be identified. Yeah. And she was one of the 12 lucky winners.
And of course, this Southern aristocratic family didn't want Tallulah to be in the movies. Right. Like, this is not. Well, this is not. Like, this isn't high class entertainment.
[00:32:30] Speaker B: Right. I got you. I got you. They're probably like, you're gonna be someone's wife. You're gonna be a senator's wife.
[00:32:37] Speaker A: Right.
Not only that, but through. The whole reason for this Picture Play contest was that movies were starting to be a thing with sound.
So you had the silent movies that were a thing, Right?
[00:32:55] Speaker B: Mm.
[00:32:55] Speaker A: Okay. And then the people who were good at the silent movies weren't necessarily good at talking pictures.
[00:33:05] Speaker B: I can see that because the mannerisms are different. They're Using the exaggerated expressions to communicate rather than using their voice and their tone.
[00:33:15] Speaker A: Exactly. So a lot of these famous silent stars, they didn't have good voices.
And they had this. You know, the main thing was their voices. But you're right, there was also. And this is very important in Tallulah's case, they're also doing a different style. Style of acting. It's. It's stage acting. Right. It's the same as a stage. Very dramatic, very flamboyant. And so Hollywood was hungry for young beauties who had good voices. So that's why they're casting these wide nets and doing all of these, like, contests to get young people to take, you know, these. What do they call it?
[00:33:53] Speaker B: Snapshots? Headshots.
[00:33:56] Speaker A: Screen tests.
Screen test. To see how they translate to film and how they do on with talkies. So anyway, Tallulah's family wasn't into it, but she persuaded her grandfather. Her grandfather.
[00:34:14] Speaker B: Oh, that makes me so happy.
[00:34:15] Speaker A: And he's like, okay, Tallulah. The other thing was they didn't have a lot of money. So her grandfather was like, I will pay for you to go to New York and for you to realize this dream of yours to be an actress. If you take your aunt with you as a chaperone, because remember, she's only 15.
[00:34:35] Speaker B: Yeah, that's kind of cool.
[00:34:37] Speaker A: It is very cool. So that was the beginning of Tallulah's career.
[00:34:42] Speaker B: What year was that?
[00:34:43] Speaker A: Around 1917.
[00:34:45] Speaker B: And she's 15 and she moves with her aunt to New York City.
[00:34:50] Speaker A: That's insane. Now, per her contest winnings, Tallulah was paid $75 for three weeks of work on a minor role in the film. Who Loved him best?
That's about $1,800 in today's money for three weeks.
Not a lot, but she made a big splash with the theater crowd in New York City.
[00:35:15] Speaker B: That makes me happy.
[00:35:17] Speaker A: In 1917, she is 15 years old. Tallulah moved to New York City with her Aunt Louise as her chaperone. And accompanied by her aunt, she stayed at the Algonquin Hotel during its glamorous early days.
[00:35:33] Speaker B: When that's still a thing now, is it?
[00:35:35] Speaker A: The Algonquin?
[00:35:36] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:35:37] Speaker A: Well, then it was a hotbed of activity for the artistic and literary elite, and. And she mingled with prominent figures in the theater world, including John Barrymore.
[00:35:50] Speaker B: I know him.
[00:35:51] Speaker A: He is the grandfather of Drew Barrymore.
[00:35:54] Speaker B: Correct.
[00:35:56] Speaker A: He was a big Hollywood actor and stage actor. And he attempted to seduce Tallulah in his dressing room.
[00:36:05] Speaker B: She was 15 by.
[00:36:06] Speaker A: I know. I know, gross, right?
[00:36:09] Speaker B: Yeah, 100%.
[00:36:09] Speaker A: He actually, he actually offered her a. A spot in a movie if she would sleep with him, but she said no. She was 15. She's like, yeah, no, you're old.
[00:36:22] Speaker B: Yeah, Absolutely friggin lutely. Yeah. No, today the Alguan is still known as. Yeah. Famous for the association of literary and theatrical figures that live there.
[00:36:34] Speaker A: Yeah.
Wow, that's really cool. So, and then she met Ethel Barrymore, who was huge on stage. And this is funny. Ethel was like, you, you need to change your name from Tallulah.
Ethel said, change it to Barbara. Barbara is a more respectable name. People will remember it. And Tallulah's like, no way.
And later, Vanity Fair would write that Tallulah is the only actress on both sides of the Atlantic to be recognized by her first name only.
[00:37:05] Speaker B: Oh, damn.
Damn, Ethel. I would not have been throwing stones, yo. Yeah, I don't know how popular Ethel was back then.
[00:37:18] Speaker A: Maybe they're very popular.
[00:37:19] Speaker B: Really? That. Yeah, no, no, the name itself.
[00:37:21] Speaker A: Oh, yeah.
[00:37:24] Speaker B: I don't know because I would have changed it.
[00:37:28] Speaker A: You would have changed Ethyl?
[00:37:29] Speaker B: Yeah, I would have changed Ethyl.
[00:37:31] Speaker A: So here's Barbara.
[00:37:33] Speaker B: Barbara Barrymore.
[00:37:34] Speaker A: Tallulah had no formal training as an actress, and she also didn't have any discipline. She relied on her charm, striking good looks, and unwavering determination. And that's what set her apart.
[00:37:49] Speaker B: I honestly think I'm in love with this woman. She seems so, like, I can totally identify with her.
Not my striking good looks, but like my determination.
[00:38:00] Speaker A: No, you're gorgeous. Shut up.
[00:38:01] Speaker B: Stop.
[00:38:02] Speaker A: You are so pretty all the time. Shut up.
[00:38:04] Speaker B: Every time someone compliments me, they just say how much like Jennifer I'm looking.
[00:38:08] Speaker A: Shut up. Okay. So she actually wrote in her memoir, quote, I was consumed by a fever to be famous. Even infamous.
[00:38:19] Speaker B: I love her.
[00:38:20] Speaker A: So she didn't care if she was famous or infamous.
[00:38:23] Speaker B: She want. She didn't care. She had zero Fs to say it. You know what I mean? Like nowadays it's like kind of like looked down upon to be like, I want to be famous because everyone wants to be famous. But back then, or like who she is, she would say it now. She'd be like, I want to be famous. I want to be infamous.
[00:38:41] Speaker A: Yep.
So in her desire for attention, she got into trouble.
[00:38:47] Speaker B: Always happens.
[00:38:49] Speaker A: She turned to alcohol, marijuana and cocaine.
[00:38:54] Speaker B: Geez, she's ahead of her time, yo.
[00:38:57] Speaker A: And she often relied on shock tactics involving sex to get attention she would have loved.
[00:39:05] Speaker B: In the 1980s, her first affair was.
[00:39:09] Speaker A: Reportedly with an Actress Eva Legalian.
Oh.
While she enjoyed talking openly about her unconventional love life, once declaring to a stranger at a party, I'm a lesbian. What do you do?
[00:39:25] Speaker B: Oh, my God. That is the best quote I've ever heard. And I want my lesbian friends to wear it, especially during Pride.
But it's over now, so.
[00:39:39] Speaker A: Bankhead's father had warned her to avoid alcohol and men when she got to New York. But Bankhead would later quip, he didn't say anything about women and cocaine.
[00:39:51] Speaker B: That is hysterically funny and it shouldn't be, but I.
It is.
It is. It's just really funny.
[00:39:59] Speaker A: What a. What a badass. Do you see what she does here? Like, she's super clever and witty and she's, she's serious, but she's kind of poking fun at herself in a way that people are like, who is this? Who says that?
[00:40:14] Speaker B: I love it.
[00:40:16] Speaker A: Overall, though, she, she did lean towards men in terms of her preference.
And she developed a notable connection with a man named Napier. George Henry Stewart Anglington.
[00:40:31] Speaker B: Can we give him. Can we call him like N G, H, S A.
[00:40:35] Speaker A: We'll call him Naps because that's what she called him. His name was Napier, so she called him Naps. And he was a third baron.
[00:40:42] Speaker B: Jeez, Naps.
I'll say all those names who are third Baron.
[00:40:49] Speaker A: One biographer described him as a soft spoken blonde man with tuberculosis.
[00:40:56] Speaker B: Oh, no.
[00:40:58] Speaker A: Well educated, bisexual, possessing sensuous full lips, a distant and whimsical charm, a history of unexplained disappearances and. And a streak of cruelty.
[00:41:11] Speaker B: Oh, no, that's not good.
[00:41:13] Speaker A: No, it's not. She was obsessed with this man and he did not treat her right. He would just leave her and, like, just be off the radar. This is before cell phones, when you could like, track the person that you're stalking.
[00:41:24] Speaker B: Yeah. You know what? I can see that mixture of what they described him as to be a toxic, codependent situation.
[00:41:34] Speaker A: Yeah. And that's hot.
[00:41:37] Speaker B: Charming, but also cruel. And especially with her abandonment issues.
[00:41:42] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:41:42] Speaker B: Oh, man.
[00:41:43] Speaker A: Unpredictable, unstable. And that streak of cruelty extended into the bedroom in a way that she did not appreciate.
[00:41:52] Speaker B: That's not cool. And that's very gross.
[00:41:55] Speaker A: Agreed.
[00:41:56] Speaker B: I'm sorry she had to go through that. I'm sorry, Tallulah.
[00:41:59] Speaker A: So after five years in New York, Tallulah had acted in three silent films and had slowly progressed from small roles to leading parts in lesser known plays. But she still didn't have her big break. It still didn't come and she was getting frustrated, anxious and she was losing money, you know, because it was. It was costing her money to live here in New York and her family isn't rich. And it was five years. And I'm just gonna say that I could kind of relate to her attitude because we've been doing this podcast for five years. You know what I mean?
[00:42:36] Speaker B: I understand.
[00:42:38] Speaker A: So this kind of spoke to me in a way.
So she actually, she actually went to an astrologer. She actually went to a psychic.
And the astrology told her that her future was across the ocean, across the Atlantic.
And so when an opportunity arose to perform in a play in London called the Dancers, she jumped at the chance, basically because of this, what this psychic told her. And she went to London for this play. And I'll also say that the play, the. The part that she wanted was the lead, and it had already been cast, and she knew that, but she went anyway, determined to steal the part away from the young lady who had already been given the lead.
[00:43:32] Speaker B: Did she get it?
[00:43:33] Speaker A: She got it. She was successful.
[00:43:34] Speaker B: Oh, my God.
[00:43:36] Speaker A: But the other. The rest of the cast hated her. Well, sure, yeah. So she's this young American with basically no chops, coming over and stealing the lead. Yeah.
[00:43:49] Speaker B: Stealing UK jobs.
[00:43:52] Speaker A: Yeah.
So in the play, Tallulah portrayed a character named Maxine. Maxine was a saloon dancer who marries Tony, a bartender, who we later discover is actually an earl.
That's kind of the premise of the story.
Now, Tallulah had strikingly beautiful hair, a distinction, distinct voice, the low kind of voice, this accent and this bold dancing and of course, cartwheeling.
[00:44:24] Speaker B: Oh, I love it.
[00:44:26] Speaker A: She captivated London audiences and actually a group of groupies, young women groupies, would gather in the gallery every night and show their admiration for Tallulah by screaming, stomping, and throwing flowers at her.
[00:44:45] Speaker B: I love it.
[00:44:46] Speaker A: Tallulah played in 16 plays in London and gained one of the most loyal and passionate followings of the West End.
[00:44:54] Speaker B: Oh, that's so cool. Good for her.
[00:44:57] Speaker A: And to her followers, her name became a verb.
To Tallulah meant to romp around singing and dancing.
[00:45:09] Speaker B: I love it.
I absolutely love it. This. This is hashtag goals right here.
[00:45:15] Speaker A: Yeah. For you.
[00:45:17] Speaker B: Yeah, you can prance around too. Until Lula.
[00:45:20] Speaker A: We'll see.
So here in London, just like in New York, Tallulah had a reputation for her off stage antics and eccentricity. Is that how you say it?
[00:45:32] Speaker B: You're sent to me.
[00:45:34] Speaker A: She was eccentric.
Tallulah bought herself a Bentley, okay. And she loved to drive it, but she was not good with Directions. Unlike you, she had a photographic memory, but she was not good with directions, and so she would get lost all the time. So you know what she did?
[00:45:50] Speaker B: That is. I can't even imagine what that. Like, how do you. I can't imagine what did she.
[00:45:55] Speaker A: Okay, so here's what she did. She hired a taxi, and she paid the taxi driver to drive to a location, and then she followed the taxi behind in her Bentley because she just loved to drive the Bentley.
[00:46:07] Speaker B: That is, she could get a map.
[00:46:09] Speaker A: Hysterical.
[00:46:10] Speaker B: Were there no maps?
[00:46:12] Speaker A: I'm sure there were maps. But when you're driving and you have a big foldy map and you're on the other side of the road, like, that would be not easy to do.
[00:46:24] Speaker B: True, true. And she probably does have a learning disability. That's like when you have a learning disability and you can't. Like there are things that you compensate for. She obviously compensated here.
[00:46:34] Speaker A: We obviously can't diagnose Tallulah Bankhead with a learning disability. Like, we're not qualified. We. I haven't tested her, so just gonna put that out there.
[00:46:45] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:46:46] Speaker A: The funny thing is, I'm actually qualified to diagnose someone with a learning disability in the educational setting, but I have not tested Tallulah, so I cannot say that. She certainly has. I'm just saying that I.
[00:46:57] Speaker B: Well, I think our. Wait, hold on. Let me check.
Yes, our lawyers are satisfied.
Thank you.
[00:47:04] Speaker A: Disclaimer.
[00:47:05] Speaker B: Yeah, so I, we're getting the nod to continue.
[00:47:07] Speaker A: Okay, great. Thank you.
Her love life was also the talk of London town.
She dated a tennis champion, Jean Borotra, and also a Lord, Lord Birkenhead. That sounds like a, a, a, a joke name, Lord.
[00:47:28] Speaker B: It really does. I, I, I would have changed that name too.
[00:47:32] Speaker A: And she almost married an Italian aristocrat who turned out to be a fraud. So good on you, Tallulah.
Don't that happen back then? Yes. She did not marry the fraud. And then there was Naps, who was often by her side, and she purportedly had a fling with a prime minister's daughter. Ooh. Yes. Very active love life.
[00:47:55] Speaker B: Where did she find the time? My goodness.
[00:47:58] Speaker A: So then it turns 1931, and it's, it's, she decides it's time to go home. It's time to go back to the States. She was, she felt like she was getting older. She was almost 30 years old.
[00:48:09] Speaker B: That's what I was doing the math on. She's 29 years old. She's like, you know what? I had my fun.
[00:48:13] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:48:14] Speaker B: Almost been doing this a Decade.
[00:48:16] Speaker A: And she's running out of money because, you know, she spends it as fast as she makes it.
[00:48:21] Speaker B: If she's hiring taxis to go somewhere and following them, oh, my.
[00:48:25] Speaker A: And she bought a Bentley.
[00:48:28] Speaker B: That is a cute dog name.
[00:48:30] Speaker A: Jill. A Bentley is a very, very expensive car.
[00:48:34] Speaker B: I know, but it's a cute dog name.
[00:48:36] Speaker A: It is a cute dog name.
So Paramount, Paramount Pictures made her an incredible offer starting at $5,000 a week. Now that's over $105,000 a week in today's money.
[00:48:50] Speaker B: Oh, my God. Paramount. I am here. My name is Jill Stanley. I have a sister. I would like that deal. I will take that deal. Paramount.
[00:48:59] Speaker A: Okay. And so here we have it. In 1931, this is actually the stage when Hollywood is eager to recruit stage stars who have good voices. And Tallulah has this exotic charm, this husky voice, by the way, that she got because of chest infections as a child.
[00:49:17] Speaker B: Oh, no.
[00:49:18] Speaker A: Yeah, so she has this husky voice. She is a very strong candidate, in their opinion, to be maybe the next Greta Garbo, the next Marlena Dietrich, the next big exotic Hollywood star.
[00:49:33] Speaker B: Isn't it interesting that in the 30s, the come up in Seamus sometime was so such a thing. Yeah, it was such a thing. But in the 60s, if you think of Jacqueline Kennedy and Marilyn Monroe and Audrey Hepburn and.
[00:49:48] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:49:48] Speaker B: And how their voices were so high pitched.
[00:49:51] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:49:52] Speaker B: And soft.
[00:49:53] Speaker A: Yeah, you're right.
[00:49:54] Speaker B: Isn't that strange?
Anyway, go on. I digress.
[00:49:58] Speaker A: Okay, so Tallulah went to Hollywood and she made six feature films and she made a lot of money, but none of the films really worked. And. And her talents didn't translate well to the subtle acting methods of the silver screen. Just like you were saying, Jill Tallulah was big.
She was over the top. She was exaggerated from the very beginning. Like what they were looking for was like those close ups on the subtleties. Yeah, the subtle, you know, the teardrop, the quiver, the emotional facial features, like all of the emote. That. That wasn't her. That was not her style at all.
[00:50:41] Speaker B: From the beginning, yo, like from birth.
[00:50:43] Speaker A: But Tallulah enjoyed Hollywood to the fullest.
Driving her Rolls Royce around. She got her Rolls and hosting non stop parties.
Non stop parties.
[00:50:57] Speaker B: I hope it wasn't like a Diddy party because that's not right.
[00:51:00] Speaker A: Well, she was known for her exhibitionism.
Apparently she was always taking off her clothes, so maybe it was a Diddy like party.
[00:51:08] Speaker B: Wow. Well, I hope she didn't coerce other people into doing it because today Tallulah, you go down like, diddy don't go down like Diddy.
[00:51:17] Speaker A: She would intentionally leave the bathroom door open.
And she always worked without wearing underwear.
[00:51:25] Speaker B: I. I don't see anything wrong with these two things.
[00:51:29] Speaker A: While performing in a play called the Skin of Our Teeth, the audience noticed a lot that she was not wearing underpants.
[00:51:38] Speaker B: Now, that is a problem.
[00:51:39] Speaker A: And the audience was making complaints about it. And so the actors union had to require and put in a rule that she had to wear underpants on stage.
[00:51:51] Speaker B: I don't know what to say.
[00:51:53] Speaker A: That's a little embarrassing, but I just.
[00:51:56] Speaker B: Didn'T understand how, like, that's the.
[00:51:58] Speaker A: That got her attention.
My God, I bet that brought her positive and negative attention, you know what I'm saying?
[00:52:07] Speaker B: I don't know. Any positive attention from, like, men would.
[00:52:10] Speaker A: Be like, hey, you gotta go see Tallulah. Like, I think that. That she would think would be positive.
Do you know what I mean? And then the women were like, oh, that's a disgrace.
You got to see Tallulah again. Her sexual escapades were a talk of Hollywood. And there were notable encounters with Hollywood personalities and stars, including one encounter with a man named Johnny Weissmuller, who played Tarzan in the Tarzan films, after which Tallulah reportedly described herself as, quote, a very satisfied Jane.
[00:52:48] Speaker B: My word.
[00:52:49] Speaker A: Ick.
I mean, I'm.
[00:52:54] Speaker B: I don't think so.
[00:52:55] Speaker A: Apparently, they had sex in a pool. It was like this whole, like, outdoor water area.
[00:53:00] Speaker B: Oh, I like it. I like it.
[00:53:03] Speaker A: Oh, God. I don't need you talking like that.
[00:53:05] Speaker B: Well, I'm just saying, like, there's nothing wrong with it. I'm not gonna ick her. Yummy.
[00:53:11] Speaker A: However, controversy followed when Tallulah made a bold comment during an interview. She said, I haven't had an affair for six months.
Six months too long. I want a man.
[00:53:29] Speaker B: I mean, to each their own. I'm like.
You know what I'm saying?
[00:53:34] Speaker A: Well, the. The part.
[00:53:35] Speaker B: The.
[00:53:35] Speaker A: The. The problematic part of that statement was it was in an interview and it was published. And those kind of statements were not the kind of publicity that the studios or the Hayes office found acceptable. Do you remember when Hollywood had this, like, moral decency code?
[00:53:53] Speaker B: I. I know. I've never.
[00:53:55] Speaker A: Yeah, it was through the Hayes office. And they would.
They would severely edit and censor a lot of what was happening in Hollywood. And so she basically got in trouble because of that.
[00:54:07] Speaker B: Well, you know, it is an inside thought.
[00:54:11] Speaker A: It is an inside thought, yes.
Did you know that she knew Joan Crawford?
[00:54:16] Speaker B: I did not.
[00:54:17] Speaker A: Joan Crawford actually talked about Tallulah. She reminisced about Tallulah's time in Hollywood, stating, now, I can't do a Joan Crawford voice.
[00:54:27] Speaker B: Can you let me even think?
I think so. I think I can.
[00:54:32] Speaker A: Okay, go ahead. Do you see where we are?
[00:54:34] Speaker B: We all adore her.
We are fascinated by her. We were scared to death of her, too.
She was such the authority as it.
[00:54:44] Speaker A: Ruled the earth as if she ruled.
[00:54:47] Speaker B: As if she ruled the earth, as if she was the first woman on the moon.
[00:54:52] Speaker A: So it sounds like Tallulah intimidated Joan Crawford a little bit because she was afraid of her.
[00:54:58] Speaker B: Yeah, I can see that. I think anyone with that kind of confidence and that kind of zero fox could intimidate people.
[00:55:06] Speaker A: But this is Joan Crawford. Joan effing Crawford. If Joan Effing Crawford is afraid of you, like I just had the worst thought that saying something, you know, after.
[00:55:17] Speaker B: Every encounter with Tallulah, she went home and beat up Christina.
[00:55:21] Speaker A: Jill, take that back.
[00:55:25] Speaker B: It's in the book. Nonfiction.
[00:55:28] Speaker A: In the end, substance abuse, sex scandals, and her refusal to follow studio rules doomed her film career. In 1933, only two years after arriving in Hollywood, Tallulah packed her bags and went back to Broadway. In New York, she then had a series of professional failures.
Every play that she acted in seemed to be a flop and her personal life was on fire as well.
She casually married this guy, a second rate actor named John Emery, who bore a resemblance to John Barrymore in more ways than one.
[00:56:06] Speaker B: Oh, no.
[00:56:08] Speaker A: From the Strange Case of Tallulah Bankhead by Robert Gottlieb and the New Yorker. He says years earlier, when Barrymore revealed himself to her in his dressing room. Remember I told you about that? Yeah. Tallulah had sworn to herself and anyone within earshot never to sleep with any man who wasn't, quote, hung like Barrymore and went on to claim that she had stuck to her word. In other words, she saw Barrymore, Barrymore's member, and was telling everybody how big it was and that she wouldn't sleep with anybody else unless they were, quote, hung like Barrymore.
[00:56:45] Speaker B: Jennifer. Yeah, there was no need.
There is absolutely no need for you to.
To translate that for me there. I don't think so.
[00:56:58] Speaker A: You were picking up what I was laying down?
[00:57:00] Speaker B: Yeah. No one in. In the sound of your voice needed that explained to them.
We did not.
[00:57:08] Speaker A: All right, but thank you.
[00:57:09] Speaker B: We appreciate it, but thank you.
Thank you very much.
Okay.
Brian, can you put the trigger warning in this, please? Thank you.
[00:57:21] Speaker A: We don't usually have trigger warnings like this.
[00:57:24] Speaker B: I know. This is a new one.
[00:57:26] Speaker A: Thanks. Tallulah yeah, Tallulah's the first.
[00:57:31] Speaker B: Tallulah's the first.
[00:57:33] Speaker A: She also claimed to have had slept with 500 or more people.
[00:57:41] Speaker B: I just wanna say how disturbing it is, and I don't wanna be a Debbie Downer, but how disturbing is it that that trauma of having a grown man expose himself to her in her 15 year old dressing room is not only so common that she can make a joke out of it, but something that informed her love life moving forward?
[00:58:06] Speaker A: Well, not only that, but she used it, she took that and used it as kind of this provocative way to get attention, like to shock people.
And, and, and case in point.
So she would, she would comment that her new husband, her new husband, this guy John Emery, was quote, hung like Barrymore. And so at parties. At parties.
[00:58:37] Speaker B: What does that mean?
[00:58:38] Speaker A: Jennifer, shut up.
At parties, she would escort guests to the master bedroom, fling back the covers from the bed in which her husband was sleeping and say, we need a trigger warning here.
[00:58:54] Speaker B: Trigger warning?
[00:58:56] Speaker A: Did you ever see a prick as big as that before?
And I bring this up because it goes to show the person that Tallulah was. She would do literally anything to keep people talking about her. Nothing, nothing was off limits.
But the spark with her husband soon faded away. And soon she was telling people, well, darling, the weapon may be of admirable proportions, but the shot is indescribably weak.
[00:59:33] Speaker B: Yeah, that's a burn.
[00:59:35] Speaker A: Within a few years, the marriage, such as it was, was over.
[00:59:40] Speaker B: That was an unnecessary burn.
[00:59:42] Speaker A: Yes, it was. But Tallulah's health was beginning to suffer from her habits and actions.
She caught a terrible case of gonorrhea that it nearly killed her.
[00:59:56] Speaker B: Oh, poor darling.
[00:59:57] Speaker A: And she had to undergo a radical hysterectomy. Now, she told the press, and the press reported that she had a tumor. But it wasn't a tumor. It. It was gonorrhea. Afterward, she announced to her doctor, don't think this has taught me a lesson.
[01:00:14] Speaker B: Holy God, Tallulah.
Like I understand a party, but come on.
[01:00:20] Speaker A: Tallulah's luck finally changed in the late 1930s with her role in the play the Little Foxes. In it, she captivated Broadway audiences playing a song. Southern matron who watches on with cold indifference as her husband dies.
And In March of 1939, she was on the COVID of Life magazine for her performance.
[01:00:44] Speaker B: Wow. Very cool.
[01:00:45] Speaker A: It was such a hit that Hollywood made it into a movie and she was considered for the part.
[01:00:52] Speaker B: Why just considered?
[01:00:53] Speaker A: Well, because the part was given to another actress, someone you might have heard of.
Bette Davis.
Mm.
[01:01:03] Speaker B: I know her.
[01:01:04] Speaker A: She's Bette Davis, by the way. Who clearly had benefited from studying Tallulah's speech patterns and her vocal mannerisms in the movie.
[01:01:14] Speaker B: But that shit ain't right.
[01:01:16] Speaker A: So she studied Tallulah on stage and emulated her for the part in the film.
[01:01:21] Speaker B: I'm gonna have to see that movie now.
[01:01:23] Speaker A: Oh, it's really good.
[01:01:24] Speaker B: The Little Foxes.
[01:01:25] Speaker A: Mm.
[01:01:26] Speaker B: Okay, I'll watch it tonight then.
[01:01:28] Speaker A: In late 1942, Tallulah achieved her second Broadway triumph in the Skin of Our Teeth. That one where she wasn't wearing underpants and she got into trouble.
It was a challenging role that showcased both her sharp wit and captivating charm.
[01:01:44] Speaker B: And her vagina.
[01:01:46] Speaker A: True. Shortly after, she starred in Alfred Hitchcock's wartime film Lifeboat, portraying a renowned journalist. A. For once, her on screen performance earned widespread acclaim, and she was honored as the best actress of 1944 by the New York Film Critics Circle. That is an excellent movie.
[01:02:06] Speaker B: Excellent. Really?
[01:02:07] Speaker A: Yes. Saw it, loved it. And the funny thing was that Alfred Hitchcock thought he was being ironic by casting Tallulah Bankhead, because the whole.
The whole movie takes place in a lifeboat in the ocean. That's it. And he equipped.
Is there any place in the world that you would be less likely to see Tallulah Bankhead? Like, because her personality was so big, how could it possibly be contained on a lifeboat in the middle of the ocean? And yet she's fantastic in it. It's a great movie. You should watch that one too. Put that on your list.
[01:02:42] Speaker B: Little Foxes and Lifeboat.
[01:02:44] Speaker A: Yes.
During her Broadway success, Tallulah developed a strong interest in politics and global affairs. You'll like this.
[01:02:52] Speaker B: I do like that.
[01:02:53] Speaker A: She pledged her own sobriety until the ally forces returned to Paris during World War II and actively supported Democratic campaigns. So she was like, I'm not going to have another drink.
Until the Allies returned to Paris.
[01:03:10] Speaker B: Jennifer.
[01:03:10] Speaker A: Yeah.
[01:03:11] Speaker B: I'm not gonna. Just kidding.
[01:03:14] Speaker A: I would love it if you did that.
[01:03:15] Speaker B: The Allies are in Paris. The Allies are Paris now.
[01:03:20] Speaker A: She also helped Eleanor Roosevelt.
I should say Roosevelt. Sorry. On the south side of Chicago. That's how we say it.
[01:03:28] Speaker B: It's Roosevelt.
[01:03:30] Speaker A: Roosevelt is how people are gonna make fun of us.
Why?
[01:03:36] Speaker B: Because I don't understand what your issue is like, honestly.
[01:03:39] Speaker A: Because naturally you and I say Roosevelt, and people outside of Southside Chicago say Roosevelt. So I'm going to say that again. She helped Eleanor Roosevelt establish the Washington Stage Door Canteen, which was a club for servicemen in New York's Broadway theater district during World War II.
[01:03:56] Speaker B: I love, Eleanor.
[01:03:58] Speaker A: And here's another thing. Tallulah was an anti communist, but she.
She openly criticized Senator McCarthy during his rise because even though she agreed with his politics, she thought that he was a disgrace to the nation for what he was doing.
[01:04:19] Speaker B: Good for her.
[01:04:20] Speaker A: Creating this witch hunt situation.
[01:04:22] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. McCarthyism, it's a thing.
[01:04:25] Speaker A: Tallulah was surveilled by the FBI due to her liberal politics, bisexuality, and, quote, Communist sympathies.
She once said to J. Edgar Hoover, if you're going to watch me, darling, at least enjoy the show.
[01:04:43] Speaker B: Love it.
What a badass bitch. That is J. Edgar Hoover.
[01:04:49] Speaker A: Right? That is J. Edgar Hoover, who is looking into her activities so that he can pin something on her. And she's like, well, you might as well enjoy it.
[01:05:00] Speaker B: The first and probably arguably the most notable FBI head of the FBI. Yeah. Unreal.
[01:05:11] Speaker A: Okay, so let's talk about Tallulah's late career. It's not pretty.
[01:05:15] Speaker B: It's kind of sad, really.
[01:05:17] Speaker A: Yeah. In the last 18 years of her life, because she passed away at only the age of 66.
That she.
[01:05:24] Speaker B: How old mom was.
[01:05:25] Speaker A: I know. Tallulah had only two successes in the last 18 years of her life, and both came in the early 1950s, and neither was on stage nor on the screen.
In 1950, Tallulah hosted a weekly hour and a half radio extravaganza entitled the Big Show. And to everyone's surprise, it was an instant hit and it was hailed by critics as radio's potential savior.
[01:05:51] Speaker B: Love it.
[01:05:52] Speaker A: Because. Savior. Because television was starting and radio was dying. And they're like, Tallulah could save radio. Well, she didn't. And radio did lose out to television.
And then her other success was in 1952. It was her best selling book, Tallulah My Autobiography.
When it hit the bookshelves, it was an instant sensation, and of course, it was about her.
[01:06:16] Speaker B: Yeah, everything about her is sensational. So. Yes. Mm.
[01:06:19] Speaker A: Even as Tallulah's career slowed in the middle 1950s, she remained in the public eye despite criticism that her scandalous personal life overshadowed her acting talent.
She was a heavy smoker, a heavy drinker, and she was a drug user.
And she continued performing on Broadway, radio, television, and film into the 1960s.
[01:06:45] Speaker B: Even with all that going on.
[01:06:47] Speaker A: Drugs, drinking, smoking, how could she function? It was harder and harder for her to function, and she couldn't rely on her photographic memory anymore.
She started to lose her sharpness, and her performances did suffer.
Tallulah had battled addiction for years, and things only got worse when she started Mixing dangerous drugs to help her sleep. So on top of all, like the recreational stuff that turned into addictions, now she was desperate for sleep and started taking sleeping pills in irresponsible ways.
And Gottlieb from his New Yorker article explains she had always been a heavy drinker. Now she was consuming a quart of bourbon a day together with a dangerous mix of two and all.
Benzedrine, Dexedrine, Dexamil and morphine.
[01:07:43] Speaker B: Holy hell, was she trying to die? Like, that's. Wow.
[01:07:48] Speaker A: It got so bad that her maid had to tape her arms down to stop her from taking pills when she would wake up in the middle of the night.
In her later years, she went through some serious accidents and psychotic episodes, mostly due to her sleep deprivation and overusing sleeping pills. On top of it all, she also struggled with depression.
And people like Orson Welles would look at Tallulah later in life and make comments about the dramatic decline from her early beauty to what was left of her later.
[01:08:32] Speaker B: Orson, can we just have you try to make a follow up to Citizen Kane that was worth anything?
How about we focus on that instead of punching down at Tallulah? How about that?
[01:08:44] Speaker A: Famously, Tallulah was recognized by someone, a fan, someone in the public later, during her later life. And the person said to her, are you Tallulah Bankhead? And she replied, well, I'm what's left of her.
[01:09:01] Speaker B: Oh, Tallulah.
[01:09:04] Speaker A: Tallulah passed away in 1968 from a case of double pneumonia and her last words were codeine, bourbon.
[01:09:15] Speaker B: Wow, that's unnecessary.
[01:09:18] Speaker A: What?
[01:09:19] Speaker B: For him to say that in his article.
Like, he didn't have to put that in there.
But I will say, not a bad way to go out. Just relaxing your way into the. The hereafter.
[01:09:32] Speaker A: So, Jill, do you think Tallulah is our voiceless?
[01:09:34] Speaker B: I do.
[01:09:35] Speaker A: Tell me why.
You know what she. Jill, I know that she might not be like Bette Davis level famous, but she has been written about again and again far more than most other stage actresses of her time. And she's already remembered in so many ways. So why do you think she needs a voice?
Or why do you think she wants a voice?
[01:09:56] Speaker B: Okay, number one, I think it's in her character to want a voice. And she keeps wanting people to be intrigued by her story.
And so that's number one. Number two, a lot of famous people copied and mimicked her and became famous and legendary in their own right when the basis of their Persona was based on Tallulah. So that's messed up. And I, for sure, I Am not going to name any names. Are you going to name any names?
[01:10:28] Speaker A: Betty Davis. Betty Davis. Completely, 100%.
[01:10:32] Speaker B: Bet you heard it.
[01:10:33] Speaker A: Mm.
Yeah, I agree. It was her nature her whole life. She wanted to be famous, and she lived out loud constantly to get attention. But here's the thing, Jill. Here's the thing. I don't think it was a coincidence that I happened upon this New Yorker article by this guy Gottlieb.
I don't think that was a coincidence for me to point out this.
[01:10:55] Speaker B: I do not like the way he used her last words in the article. I think that was overdone and it was kind of gross.
[01:11:01] Speaker A: Well, if you read it, you can tell he is not a fan of Tallulah Bankhead, even though he's writing this article about her. And again, part of the reason he's writing about her in 2005 is because she just had a new biography. Right. Written about her. So this is a quote from the article.
This is Gottlieb talking.
Tallulah substituted personality for technique and eccentricity for effort, wasting her abundant talent, the predictable result of ignored guidelines and indulged sense of privilege. And since she was intelligent, she must have been aware of the waste. No wonder she despaired.
Yeah, this is what this guy said. And then he ends his article basically saying, let's just stop talking about this woman already. He says, this is a quote.
So what is left to us of this Humphrey Bogart in silk panties? A faint memory of a rowdy life and a purring drawl of a voice. Surely now it's time to let her rest.
Yes.
[01:12:12] Speaker B: Wow.
[01:12:13] Speaker A: Yes.
[01:12:14] Speaker B: Wow.
[01:12:14] Speaker A: Yes.
[01:12:15] Speaker B: Wow.
First of all, in 2005, he brings up her panties.
Okay. I think he should know better, number one. Number two, Tallulah disagrees. And here we are again.
[01:12:27] Speaker A: Yes.
[01:12:28] Speaker B: Yes. Here we are again.
[01:12:29] Speaker A: I feel like Tallulah is replying.
Yeah, you will not like. She. She continues to be a thing. She wants us to continue to talk about her. I feel like she's coming out. In direct response to this sentiment.
[01:12:46] Speaker B: I agree 100%.
[01:12:47] Speaker A: I love it. Don't you love her how she's coming out? I love this. It's so Tallulah.
[01:12:53] Speaker B: I love it. I love it so much. It's so Tallulah. But I think, like, the reality is, is that we.
She created an archetype herself. Yes. And we recognize that archetype today as.
As camp. Camp.
[01:13:10] Speaker A: Yes, yes.
[01:13:11] Speaker B: And describe camp for the people.
[01:13:14] Speaker A: Oh, gosh, I don't know that I can. I might need to look it up. But camp is over the top. Yes. It is dramatic.
[01:13:21] Speaker B: It is informative. It is dramatic. It is the definition of Faye Dunaway's performance in Mommy Dears. It is the definition of the 60s sitcoms like Batman and Robin. Who. Actually, there's a great quote. Tell the people. Tell the people about Batman and Robin. You don't know.
[01:13:40] Speaker A: She was in Batman and Robin. She played the Catwoman, didn't she?
[01:13:44] Speaker B: Yeah. And the director said, remember, give me camp. And she goes, darlin, I invented camp.
[01:13:49] Speaker A: Yes.
[01:13:50] Speaker B: And she did.
[01:13:51] Speaker A: She did.
[01:13:52] Speaker B: She did.
[01:13:52] Speaker A: She invented camp. And we love camp.
[01:13:55] Speaker B: Yeah. That's our jive.
[01:13:59] Speaker A: Love, love, love.
Yeah. So revisiting our hits really fast. The fact that we were both called to Huntsville independently of each other. Tallulah was calling us to Huntsville.
[01:14:10] Speaker B: Yes.
[01:14:12] Speaker A: The historic theaters. Tallulah was famous for her stage performances.
[01:14:16] Speaker B: Yes.
[01:14:16] Speaker A: The bougie lifestyle relating to indulging in the luxuries and comforts of a fancy lifestyle. The. This is Tallulah to a T. Yep. Also famous drug addicts. She was.
She was clearly a famous person who was a drug addict until her death. And local politicians.
Tallulah came from a family of politicians, local and nationwide.
[01:14:45] Speaker B: And Balula, you're the road. That's Tallulah with a B.
I believe so.
[01:14:55] Speaker A: I think I was picking up on her name, and that's why I wrote that name down. It almost rhymes.
Beulah. Tallulah.
[01:15:02] Speaker B: That's what I'm saying. It's Tallulah with a B.
[01:15:05] Speaker A: Incredible, incredible story.
I love it.
[01:15:09] Speaker B: Good job, John. I love this.
[01:15:11] Speaker A: I love it. I. I love Tallulah. I do. I. She makes me sad, though, because through her constant desire, this is like, literally.
[01:15:21] Speaker B: You had this conversation with me this morning about me. I love you. I love you. But you make me sad, though.
[01:15:28] Speaker A: Yes. Oh, my God. It's true.
[01:15:30] Speaker B: We just literally like the same words out of your mouth. Okay, go on.
[01:15:35] Speaker A: No, but. Because the way she lived her life, yes, it was over the top, but it came from a place of sadness and insecurity and trauma. Yes.
[01:15:48] Speaker B: And. And coping. These are all coping mechanisms.
[01:15:53] Speaker A: Yes. But I love that she comes through. And this guy Gottlieb, by the way, he passed away, so we can't even reach out to him about it. But, hey, you know what? Maybe they're meeting on the other side. Hopefully she reaches out. Hopefully she can have some words.
[01:16:09] Speaker B: I don't think she's. I think his sentiment is. Is what she's rejecting and responding to. I think that, like, she wouldn't waste her energy on him specifically.
He probably would want her to, but she ain't.
All right.
[01:16:29] Speaker A: Any special announcements for our listening public?
[01:16:33] Speaker B: Just remember, Tier 4, we are going to be with on July 27, 7pm Deb Bowen teaching us about animal energy and how to recognize it and use it in your life. Tier four, that's our meetup for July. Jennifer.
[01:16:49] Speaker A: July 27th, 7:00pm Eastern time. Join Patreon slash Commonmystics to sign up for tier four.25amonth. You get all of the extra content and monthly meetups with us on Zoom. Thank you very much.
[01:17:11] Speaker B: Please reach out to jennifer@common mysticsmail.com so she can set up a spectacular individualized learning experience for you.
[01:17:22] Speaker A: Yes, she is.
[01:17:23] Speaker B: Crafting classes, people.
[01:17:26] Speaker A: Yes, yes, yes. I love teaching psychic development. You know, Jill, personally, I do feel like I'm called to teach other people to use their own Spideys as opposed to giving readings for people. Because whenever I'm sitting in front of somebody giving readings, I'm always feeling like, you could be doing this yourself. You could be using your own Claire's, your own psychic senses to inform your own life. And that's really what I love to do. So if you and any friends want to contact
[email protected] if you are interested in in a class, I can work with you to set up a virtual Zoom class specifically for psychic development and it can be tailored to you and your needs and then we can open it up to other people if you wish. So pricing is flexible depending on what you're looking for, the number of classes, the content, et cetera. But I am happy to do that. It really does feed my soul.
[01:18:26] Speaker B: And feeding my soul comes from me giving you guys readings. So please reach out to
[email protected] so so that I can give you folks a reading. And you know what? I think we're underpriced.
Before we change our prices on our readings, I think we need to change them soon because I think we're underpriced.
[01:18:44] Speaker A: You think so?
[01:18:45] Speaker B: I know so. Oh, so, yeah. So come.
[01:18:48] Speaker A: So get us now.
[01:18:49] Speaker B: Hit me up. Get us now. I don't know when it's gonna change, which is probably gonna change.
[01:18:53] Speaker A: Well, we should give them a deadline. September 1.
[01:18:56] Speaker B: September 1.
[01:18:56] Speaker A: September 1. We will be changing our prices September 1.
[01:18:59] Speaker B: So, yes.
[01:19:01] Speaker A: So feed your psychics. Feed.
Yes, please.
[01:19:06] Speaker B: Loving Common Mystics. We got more for you. Learn about our mystical
[email protected] and Patreon.
Common Mystics. Connect with us. To schedule a reading or just say
[email protected] follow us on all the Socials, Common Mystics pod or for exclusive content. Don't forget that Patreon people. And thank you so much for our wonderful listeners.
You guys mean the world to us. Please continue liking downloading, subscribing, and leaving us comments because it literally keeps us going. Sometimes we just feel like we're talking to each other and yelling. Edit to Brian Jill yes, you said.
[01:19:48] Speaker A: Backsplash instead of backslash.
I mean, we have really smart listeners. I'm sure they'll figure it out. But I kind of like backsplash.
[01:19:58] Speaker B: I like backsplash.
Thank you so much. I love you guys.
[01:20:02] Speaker A: Love you. Bye.
[01:20:04] Speaker B: This has been a Common Mystics Media Production Editing done by Yokai Audio, Kalamazoo, Michigan.
