Tallulah Bankhead

Speaker 40:00

This is the BBC.

Speaker 10:04

Hello, I'm Kirsty Young and this is a podcast from the Desert Island Discs archive. This is a recording of the programme made as it was broadcast and so there may be some degradation in the sound quality. For rights reasons we've had to shorten the music. The programme was originally broadcast in 1964 and some people may find the language used unacceptable by today's standards.

Presenter0:35

Each week a well-known person is asked the question, if you were to be cast away alone on a desert island, which aid gramophone records would you choose to have with you?

Presenter0:44

As usual, the castaway is introduced by Roy Plumley.

Presenter0:48

How do you do, ladies and gentlemen?

Presenter0:50

Our castaway this week is an American actress who was a star of the London stage at the age of 21, paying one of her rare visits to Britain as Tallulah Bankhead.

Presenter0:59

Now, Miss Bankhead.

Tallulah Bankhead1:00

Yeah.

Tallulah Bankhead1:00

Uh uh We had an agreement prior to going on the air that you would call me Toludo. Otherwise you don't like me. I'm sorry.

Presenter1:08

I do like you and Talula. Thank you.

Tallulah Bankhead1:09

First question.

Presenter1:11

Could you endure loneliness for a long time?

Tallulah Bankhead1:13

Well, uh, if I could have so many more records and so many more books.

Tallulah Bankhead1:20

Food and drink from time to time, you know. I think I could.

Tallulah Bankhead1:26

No, I don't think I could'cause I love bridge and poker. No poker games.

Presenter1:29

No poker games, no

Tallulah Bankhead1:30

No.

Tallulah Bankhead1:32

Then I'd be very numb, they say.

Presenter1:34

There's some slight consolation. What would you be happiest to have got away from? Yeah.

Tallulah Bankhead1:38

I don't really I don't I haven't thought of such a thing. Uh oh, I know mice. Mice.

Presenter1:45

All right. We promise there'll be no mice on this desert island. Okay.

Tallulah Bankhead1:48

Oh shit.

Presenter1:49

Is music important in your life?

Presenter1:51

It's half of my life. Have you studied it? Do you play an instrument?

Tallulah Bankhead1:55

Well, as a child I played the violin and the piano.

Tallulah Bankhead1:59

But the moment I went on the stage I was uh

Tallulah Bankhead2:02

stupid and didn't keep up my practicing, you know.

Presenter2:05

Do you play records a lot?

Tallulah Bankhead2:07

Well, I listen mostly. You see, in America we have T V twenty four hours a day and radio twenty four hours a day and you get all the records there and so I I listen mostly to the records on radio.

Presenter2:14

Hey,

Presenter2:20

Yes. Now you've chosen these eight records to take to this desert island. Did you have any plan in choosing them?

Presenter2:26

No, no pl

Tallulah Bankhead2:26

And you didn't give me time. I I could choose many, many more, but I only got eight.

Presenter2:28

Yeah.

Presenter2:33

Yeah.

Tallulah Bankhead2:33

And I'm not necessarily naming them in order. I love them all the same, but for different reasons.

Presenter2:39

First one you have On the pilot.

Tallulah Bankhead2:40

Well, I think the first one is Louis Armstrong, Satchmo to Us. I've chosen his

Tallulah Bankhead2:47

on the sunny side of the street. Whenever I come into a

Tallulah Bankhead2:52

nightclub, a restaurant, wherever he's playing, he always stops whatever he's playing and starts the song for me.

Presenter3:05

Grab your code.

Presenter3:08

Grab your hat, baby, movie.

Presenter3:12

Leave your worries on the doorstep

Tallulah Bankhead3:18

Just direct your feet.

Tallulah Bankhead3:23

Arms and desire.

Tallulah Bankhead3:30

Uh

Presenter3:30

Can't you have that bit of bad man?

Presenter3:34

The happy tune is your stepmother.

Speaker 43:37

Sure.

Speaker 43:38

Yeah.

Presenter3:39

Uh

Speaker 43:41

Promote my Latin prosperous morning.

Speaker 44:04

Body on the

Speaker 44:05

Ah

Presenter4:39

Carozo singing Vesti la Giobo from Ipagliacci.

Presenter4:43

Hank, you were born in the South, were you not?

Tallulah Bankhead4:45

Yes, I was.

Presenter4:46

Whereabout

Tallulah Bankhead4:47

I was born in Huntsville, Alabama.

Presenter4:49

Your father was a congressman who became Speaker in the House of Representatives. That's right. What's the origin, Tallulah, of your unusual and and very beautiful Christian name?

Tallulah Bankhead4:58

Well, thank you. My great-grandfather went from Greenville, South Carolina to Alabama to look over this property he'd acquired.

Tallulah Bankhead5:06

And he passed through Georgia where Talluna Falls is, which is 80 feet taller than Niagara Falls.

Presenter5:09

Well

Tallulah Bankhead5:11

And he wrote back to my great-grandmother and said, if I have first child as a girl, I want to be called Lula after these beautiful falls. And my Aunt Maureen, she's a great authority on Indian folklore, and she told me that Tula meant Love Maidens.

Tallulah Bankhead5:28

Then I went to a luncheon at the Women's Club in Atlanta and only the first time a lot of a man has ever been present. He said, we all know that tallula means terrible.

Tallulah Bankhead5:38

Well, that was an awful shock after Love Maiden. But she's terribly attractive and terrible this and all those bromides, you know.

Speaker 15:39

That was an awful shock. I'll have to love me.

Tallulah Bankhead5:46

And she was the goddess of vengeance. Once a year a prince of the tribe was sacrificed over the falls for the good of the crops and the rain.

Tallulah Bankhead5:55

And then this came out in the papers and I got this letter from this Irish port saying that Tallulah was first inhabited by an Irish contingent.

Tallulah Bankhead6:04

And at Tallulah in the sixth century was an Irish saint. When I going from Love Maiden terrible insane, then I met these two divine people from Israeli and they told me that Tallulah means rock of precipice, which was the only place that when the people of the Jewish faith

Tallulah Bankhead6:23

Well being

Tallulah Bankhead6:25

Put a pile. It's the one place they could go to that no one could reach them. So they're the fourth story now. Take my choice.

Presenter6:30

So there you go.

Presenter6:32

Yeah.

Tallulah Bankhead6:33

You can take your choice. Right.

Presenter6:34

Alright.

Tallulah Bankhead6:35

What inspired you to become an actress?

Tallulah Bankhead6:37

Well, inspired is hardly the word, because I'm so lazy.

Tallulah Bankhead6:42

I should have never gone on the stage, but I can't make a living any other way.

Presenter6:47

Did you see a lot of theatre when you were a child?

Tallulah Bankhead6:49

No, because I live in a small town, but I sent my picture to a beauty contest.

Tallulah Bankhead6:55

It was run by Picture Play magazine. And you were a winner.

Tallulah Bankhead6:58

So that's how it all began. That took you to New York? That took me to New York, yes. What was your first professional engagement?

Tallulah Bankhead7:05

Well my first professional engagement was just nothing, a walk-on saying not a word. And I left after three days'cause I was so humiliated. Then the next part was the leading part and Feder 90s.

Tallulah Bankhead7:17

Well I played understudy but was first played and was to play the f month of August when the star took a

Tallulah Bankhead7:25

vacation and then I was to tour the national tour.

Presenter7:28

Yeah.

Tallulah Bankhead7:29

And then I got to pendicitis.

Presenter7:31

Yeah.

Tallulah Bankhead7:31

Yeah.

Presenter7:31

So you will ask the bird.

Tallulah Bankhead7:33

Well, I didn't. I said, I can't. I said, I couldn't do the dance. I had to dance any.

Presenter7:34

And

Presenter7:35

I hear

Presenter7:38

Quite soon after this you came to London. What brought you here?

Tallulah Bankhead7:40

Well, Charles Cochrane

Tallulah Bankhead7:43

came to a party and they often do imitations. I used to I got to these parties because I sang for my supper, you know. And so I did these and

Tallulah Bankhead7:53

and he said I should go to England and he sent back a photograph of me.

Tallulah Bankhead7:59

uh to Sir Gerald Maurya, and they said, Come over.

Tallulah Bankhead8:04

And uh of course I was so thrilled I could hardly bear it, you know. So I got the labor permit and I opened the gerald and everything's under control.

Presenter8:12

Yes, well the kind of impact you made in London in the 20s was roughly akin to the impact the Beatles made last year. You you had the the gallery girls queuing up to mob you outside the theatre.

Tallulah Bankhead8:19

You had the

Presenter8:23

And you really did hit London.

Tallulah Bankhead8:25

Yes, and they were darling, but I think they annoyed people because they would scream and yell to Lula, you're wonderful before I done anything.

Presenter8:33

You were in London for eight years. How many plays did you do here in that time?

Tallulah Bankhead8:36

Oh, darling, I did the green hat.

Presenter8:39

Am I gonna come?

Tallulah Bankhead8:39

I did a carbon labor and Howard and then uh

Tallulah Bankhead8:43

Let us begin another play by Rachel Crothers, who wrote the first play I was in.

Presenter8:47

Yeah. Nope.

Tallulah Bankhead8:48

Okay.

Presenter8:48

Work cards for

Tallulah Bankhead8:48

Financials.

Presenter8:50

Uh

Tallulah Bankhead8:51

Yeah.

Presenter8:51

The Gold Diggers

Tallulah Bankhead8:51

You you know these, why ask me? I don't remember the things I've done, I've done so many relative chameleas.

Presenter8:54

Yeah.

Presenter8:57

It's everything

Presenter8:58

Yes.

Tallulah Bankhead8:59

was written uh 1840.

Tallulah Bankhead9:04

The most exquisite costumes I had. And they had to have nurses in the theater because people fainted and cried when I died was very complimentary.

Presenter9:14

It said that you and Steve Donahue were the two most consistently newsworthy people of the twenties in London. Everything you did was headlined news.

Presenter9:21

You were also rumoured to be one of the wild ones or or also the pig.

Tallulah Bankhead9:24

One of the wild ones?

Presenter9:25

Yes. Well, I wouldn't contradict if anyone said

Tallulah Bankhead9:28

That

Presenter9:29

Let's have record your third record now, Tolura. What are you having next?

Tallulah Bankhead9:33

My third record is Frank Sinatra's My Finny Valentine because I think it it's one of the most divine records.

Tallulah Bankhead9:42

When you

Speaker 49:44

How many to speak?

Speaker 49:47

Are you smart?

Speaker 49:53

But don't change your hair for me.

Speaker 49:58

Not if you care for

Speaker 410:02

Stay little Valentine, stay.

Speaker 410:11

Each day is Valentine's Day.

Presenter10:14

Uh

Presenter10:16

Frank Sinatra singing My Funny Valentine.

Presenter10:19

Now after your eight years in London,

Presenter10:22

In the London Theatre, you went to Hollywood and made about, what, half a dozen pictures.

Tallulah Bankhead10:27

Hmm.

Presenter10:27

Perhaps the best remembered, I think, The Devil and the Deep with Charles Lawton and Gary Cooper.

Tallulah Bankhead10:31

Also Carrie Grant played a small part in that.

Presenter10:33

Uh City.

Tallulah Bankhead10:34

He played one of the uh naval officers, you know.

Presenter10:37

Mm-hmm.

Presenter10:38

Um, how long did you stay in Hollywood?

Tallulah Bankhead10:40

I stayed there a year because the first two pictures I made in New York.

Presenter10:44

Yes. Did you enjoy it? No. You didn't like movie?

Tallulah Bankhead10:47

Well

Presenter10:48

No.

Tallulah Bankhead10:48

I cannot stand semi-tropical weather. I cannot stand it.

Presenter10:51

So you said goodbye to Hollywood and went and tackled the Broadway theatre after having made this big success in London. How did you do?

Tallulah Bankhead10:52

Yeah.

Tallulah Bankhead10:57

Success in London.

Tallulah Bankhead10:59

Well, I didn't make out so well until I did my first real great hit.

Tallulah Bankhead11:06

I was there, the little fox.

Presenter11:08

Lillian Herrmann.

Presenter11:09

Yeah.

Tallulah Bankhead11:09

Leaning the helmet yet.

Presenter11:11

Yes, this was a big situation.

Tallulah Bankhead11:12

He's a great writer.

Presenter11:14

And then you followed that with a very difficult part in Thornton Wilder's Skin of Our Teeth.

Tallulah Bankhead11:19

Oh, well that the author, most divine man, Thornton Wilde, is third political prize. He got it for the Bridge of San Juare, of our town, of that, and I got the

Speaker 111:27

Yeah.

Presenter11:27

Then I

Tallulah Bankhead11:28

Critics award and that as I did in Lifeboat. Lifeboat followed that to be

Presenter11:32

Oh yeah.

Tallulah Bankhead11:32

Is that fun of that?

Presenter11:32

That was the Hitchcock picture you went back to Hollywood. Yes, yes. That must have been rather a miserable film to make sitting in that lifeboat day on the back.

Tallulah Bankhead11:39

Not at all. It was divine,'cause his cock is so divine. They gave me a senior dog and every Saturday night, you know, I dined with him and his wife Alma and Patricia's daughter. They were darling.

Tallulah Bankhead11:52

And uh no, I was very happy with that.

Presenter11:54

It was out.

Presenter11:55

Then back to Broadway for The Eagle Has Two Heads. That was another

Tallulah Bankhead11:59

No, but then after that I did with Lubitz the royal scandal. Here it was called the Tsarina.

Presenter11:59

Yeah.

Presenter12:04

Ah yes, I'd forgotten that one. And then back to Broadway. The eagle has two heads and a very successful.

Tallulah Bankhead12:09

So

Presenter12:09

And you might

Tallulah Bankhead12:10

Thank you very much.

Tallulah Bankhead12:11

Yeah.

Presenter12:12

Yeah.

Tallulah Bankhead12:12

League has two heads, yeah.

Presenter12:14

and private lives.

Tallulah Bankhead12:15

Yes, four years with that.

Presenter12:18

You're doing a lot of radio at this time, and you brought your radio show over here for one sensation. Yes, the big show. We had an hour and a half every Sunday.

Tallulah Bankhead12:22

Yeah.

Presenter12:26

And you were over again in nineteen fifty seven to appear in Cabary.

Tallulah Bankhead12:29

Yeah.

Presenter12:30

Have you done a lot of Cabry?

Tallulah Bankhead12:31

Well, I I uh I I did Las Vegas.

Presenter12:35

Mm. And what's the purpose of this visit to Lulu? What if you come over for this time?

Tallulah Bankhead12:39

Well, here I've come over to a little film called Fanatic.

Presenter12:42

Yeah, is it?

Tallulah Bankhead12:42

And that's

Presenter12:42

I again

Tallulah Bankhead12:42

I'd rather you play the title role in the- Oh, Nassau, you would yeah. But in this case you're wrong because I play a religious fanatic and though I have every regard and

Tallulah Bankhead12:53

admiration and respect for anyone's faith and creed. I can hardly call myself a religious fanatic.

Presenter13:01

What's your next record, number four?

Tallulah Bankhead13:03

Walter Houston September song. And what was so touching about this record, which got just raves of all time, is because he was a rather old man and he's not a great singer. But the feeling and the knowledge of him singing it, it was one of the tops of all time.

Presenter13:23

Uh

Tallulah Bankhead13:23

And the days to

Presenter13:25

Turn to bone.

Presenter13:27

Has taken off you

Presenter13:30

September

Presenter13:33

Now remember

Presenter13:37

And these few golden days I'd share with you

Presenter13:45

These golden days I'd share Yeah.

Presenter13:54

Walter Houston singing September song.

Presenter13:57

Tallulah, in your autobiography you wrote that you hated acting. Is this really true?

Tallulah Bankhead14:02

Well, I shouldn't say that. I like I don't like crowds, but I love them in the theater, you know. No, I'm lazy, darling. You know, I don't like doing anything. I'm the type that

Tallulah Bankhead14:14

I never stand up if I can sit down, I never sit down if I can lie down, you know.

Presenter14:17

No. Now you've been working hard on the film here in London. Have you had a chance to see some old friends?

Tallulah Bankhead14:22

I've only seen a few because I get up at 5.30.

Presenter14:26

Yes.

Tallulah Bankhead14:27

We break it ten to six at a time I've changed and

Tallulah Bankhead14:31

You know, um, everything.

Presenter14:33

So you haven't had a chance to see any theatre while you've been here.

Tallulah Bankhead14:35

Yeah.

Presenter14:35

Yeah.

Tallulah Bankhead14:35

No

Presenter14:36

How about coming back to do a play?

Tallulah Bankhead14:38

Well, darling, and I don't want to be vulgar or sordid, but I couldn't afford to do a play here with my upkeep in American

Presenter14:44

Yeah.

Tallulah Bankhead14:45

Everything here, you know, I'd be losing money.

Presenter14:48

Mm-hmm. Have you any one big ambition professionally, any any part you want to play?

Tallulah Bankhead14:51

No, no.

Tallulah Bankhead14:54

Just to retire.

Presenter14:56

I can't believe that. Let's hand record number five. What next?

Tallulah Bankhead14:59

Number five, darling, is one of the greatest of all time. It's Billy Holiday.

Tallulah Bankhead15:05

Who everyone calls Lady Day?

Tallulah Bankhead15:07

The Great Negro singer.

Tallulah Bankhead15:10

And uh Strange Fruit is taken from a famous book by a um

Tallulah Bankhead15:15

Masalana and strange fruit came from the trees. It's about a lynching really, which is pretty frightening. But I think it's most moving.

Speaker 415:27

Uh then cheese

Tallulah Bankhead15:29

Yeah.

Speaker 415:29

Uh

Speaker 415:30

Bears string. Uh

Speaker 415:33

Ruot.

Speaker 415:37

Blood only.

Tallulah Bankhead15:37

Let's

Tallulah Bankhead15:39

Layers

Speaker 415:41

And blood at the room.

Speaker 415:47

Black body swinging

Speaker 415:51

In the South and Bree

Presenter15:57

Billy Holiday singing Strange Fruit

Presenter16:00

What's your next choice to Lula?

Tallulah Bankhead16:01

Well, I put them together'cause they're the top

Tallulah Bankhead16:05

They're wonderful, quite different.

Tallulah Bankhead16:07

Ella Fitzgerald, Love for Sale by Cole Porter. I think anything that Ella Fitzgerald does is okay with me, but you will see the difference in Billy Hardy and Ella Fitzgerald.

Speaker 416:18

For save you

Speaker 416:24

Advertising young love for slave

Tallulah Bankhead16:34

If you want to buy my wares, follow me.

Speaker 416:41

We can climb the stairs.

Presenter16:51

Ella Fitzgerald singing Love for Sale.

Presenter16:54

Telola, how good a Robinson Crusoe would you be? Could you look after yourself on a desert island?

Tallulah Bankhead16:58

I couldn't I can't even put a key in a door darling. I can't do a thing for myself.

Presenter17:04

Now if you found yourself in possession of some kind of craft, if a raft was washed up or something of the sort, would you try to escape, or would you sit it out on the island?

Tallulah Bankhead17:11

Oh, I'd sit anything out and escape.

Presenter17:15

You'd rather sit it out.

Tallulah Bankhead17:16

Well, I can float sitting up practically, but I I had a swimming pool, like an Olympic pool, but I don't think I ever got to the end of it. I'm too lazy to try and swim. You would have a rough.

Presenter17:16

Well, I can skull up.

Tallulah Bankhead17:27

Oh, I'd have a rod, but I wouldn't know how to work it.

Presenter17:31

You just let it drift.

Tallulah Bankhead17:32

I can't even raw a boat or punter something. I can float away.

Presenter17:38

Mm. I think we'd better stick to music. What's what's the next choice?

Tallulah Bankhead17:41

Well, the next choice of the greatest of all time is Flagstad in Wagner's Tristan and Rosalda.

Presenter17:52

Ready, Bristol.

Presenter17:53

Why do you choose this?

Tallulah Bankhead17:55

I had the honor of knowing her.

Tallulah Bankhead17:58

I was in Chicago and she came back and gave this benefit.

Tallulah Bankhead18:02

for some charity after the war.

Tallulah Bankhead18:05

And uh I happened to be there.

Tallulah Bankhead18:08

She got one thousand cutting calls.

Tallulah Bankhead18:12

She had the greatest frost of that type in the world.

Presenter19:11

Kirsten Flagstar singing The Lieberstad from Wagner's Tristan and Isolde.

Presenter19:17

What's your last choice, Tallulia?

Tallulah Bankhead19:18

Well, it seems kind of obvious, but uh I love it dearly. I heard it for years. It was played every night.

Tallulah Bankhead19:26

uh on a certain programme and played four hours, seven nights a week, called um the Happiness Exchange. It was to get money for all kinds of people who needed it. It ended up always Perry Como singing with the choir the Lord's Prayer.

Tallulah Bankhead19:42

I think it's very beautiful.

Speaker 419:59

Well

Speaker 420:07

Which art in heaven

Speaker 420:15

Hollowidge

Speaker 420:21

Thy name

Presenter20:28

Peri Como and the male voices of the Robert Shaw Chorale singing The Lord's Prayer.

Presenter20:33

Thirty or eight records, Delula. If you could only have one of them, which would it be?

Tallulah Bankhead20:37

I would take all eight and a thousand or more, and that's all you're gonna get out of me about that.

Presenter20:44

Ha ha ha.

Tallulah Bankhead20:44

How can I pick out these divine people my favorite? I had a gardener.

Presenter20:44

Um

Tallulah Bankhead20:49

Once and I had the most beautiful flowers and I said, What what is your favorite flower, Louis?

Tallulah Bankhead20:54

He said, I don't have any favorites. If I had a favorite, the others wouldn't come up for me, you see? So I don't want to miss any of these. And one.

Presenter21:03

Object to take with you. Of no practical use, one inanimate object.

Tallulah Bankhead21:07

And the first uh

Tallulah Bankhead21:09

real possession I ever had.

Tallulah Bankhead21:11

was a painting of me by the greatest portrait painter, I think, in the world, Augustus John, painted me.

Tallulah Bankhead21:21

And uh I would take that, not because it was of me, I was just a model, it was his great art.

Tallulah Bankhead21:27

And I remember a great friend of mine and a very fine producer, he he said to Lula, I always knew you had a soul, but it took Augustus John to let the world know it, you know.

Presenter21:39

and one book to take with you apart from the Bible and Shakespeare.

Tallulah Bankhead21:43

Well, I would take a book which was given me by the most

Tallulah Bankhead21:47

Wonderful man, great actor, great author, got two surprises.

Tallulah Bankhead21:53

Great director of his own plays, I have had the honour of being in one called Reflected Glory.

Tallulah Bankhead21:58

It's called the human situation.

Tallulah Bankhead22:01

By W. McNeill Dixon.

Tallulah Bankhead22:05

And I don't know quite how to describe it, except that one can pick it up and put it down, pick it up again in a month, a week, or two weeks, or read it over again.

Tallulah Bankhead22:16

and I'd have it in front of me here.

Presenter22:18

A Book of Philosophy

Tallulah Bankhead22:19

And theosophy in a way.

Presenter22:21

Yeah.

Presenter22:22

Right.

Presenter22:23

Well, thank you to Lula Bankhead for letting us hear your choice of Desert Island Disc.

Tallulah Bankhead22:27

Thank you to Lura, you should say. Thank you, Laura, darling, and bless you all, dear heart.

Tallulah Bankhead22:34

Yeah.

Presenter22:34

Goodbye everyone.

Presenter22:51

The guest in today's recorded program, first broadcast last Monday, was Tallula Banks.

Presenter22:57

The interviewer was Roy Plumley and the producer Monica Chappelle.

Presenter23:00

Next Monday at 1.10, the castaway will be Lavinia Young, matron of the Westminster Hospital.

Speaker 123:22

You've been listening to a podcast from the Desert Island Discs Archive. For more podcasts, please visit bbc.co.uk slash radio four.

Speaker 423:32

This is the B B C.