Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
An actress best known for starring opposite Ernest Borgnine in the Oscar-winning film Marty.
On the island
Eight records
There's a Boat Dat's Leavin' Soon for New YorkFavourite
Porgy and Bess was such a thrilling thing to even hear, and it was one of the things that we sang around the piano. We had a wonderful time just singing for hours every little bit of Porgy and Bess, and this is the one I chose.
Let's Face the Music and Dance
So the next song I wanted was Fred Estea because as a child in New Jersey ... my dream, my serious dream was: I'm going to grow up and dance with Fredastea. So I had to include him.
So Frank Sinatra is singing the song that Gian sang in Pal Joey, which was his starring role on Broadway, which and from that he went to Hollywood, which is when he took me with him and we got married.
Lena Horne was one of the people that came to our house with Lenny Hayton on the Saturday nights. She was a good friend. And the song was written by Hugh Martin and R Ralph Blaine, who also were regulars. And it just means Hollywood in those days where Lena was struggling.
Adolph Green and Betty Comden were extremely important to us and wrote many, many wonderful songs, and this is a version of one.
Among among the friends were Yves Montan and Silon Signore, my closest French friends, and so I we had to have a song by Yves.
We had to have a record by Gene, and I think I Got Rhythm is about it.
So I have to I have to have a sort of a s bit of music that goes with everybody and happiness and love. The girl for me, Panema. For Carol. And Jean loved it. I mean, everybody loves it, so it's it goes with the whole life.
In conversation
Presenter asks
1:29Was [Hollywood in its heyday] as glamorous as we tend to think it was?
I think probably it was as glamorous. I just didn't see it that way because I had nothing to compare it with. But having all those people ... it just seemed perfectly natural.
Presenter asks
8:40How long before you realized you were in love with [Gene Kelly]?
I think I realized ... quite soon, in about six weeks. Uh but I also thought it was hopeless.
Presenter asks
12:28Where you differed, it seems to me, was politically. He was a Democrat and a pretty left-wing one, but you were radical. You embraced Marxism. Now, why? What would have informed you?
I don't know. I think it was the thrill of being asked to attend a Marxist class, to be treated as a grown up by one of Jean's friends. And part of it is that it is extremely attractive to a young idealistic person. You know, I I don't deny that it turned out to be ... mistaken that we turned out to be blinded by our own feelings of doing good, but it certainly gave purpose to life and seemed to explain a way of living that would be better.
The keepsakes
The book
Robert Kimball and Steve Nelson
I would like to take reading lyrics, which has American songs from 1900 to 1975 of all the great Coleporter, Gershwin, Rogerson Hawaii.
Presenter asks
18:23How come that offer came [for you to play opposite Ernest Borgnine in Marty]?
Well, because I'd met Patty Tchaevsky, who wrote it, in the very first movie I was in, Double Life. So anyway, I got the call to go for the audition.
Presenter asks
29:54When was the last time you saw [Gene Kelly] then?
I saw him, I guess it was a year before he died, when I went to the house. ... It was very sad because I didn't know it was the last time I'd ever see him. I knew he'd had a stroke. He was in a wheelchair. And that's why I went to see him. And uh we talked and he was charming and we talked about the olden days and we made jokes and and then I kissed him goodbye on the cheek
“I felt different. I felt that I was doing this, living this wonderful life, but I know that there was part of me that knew that this wasn't my whole life. And I didn't want the Hollywood things, but that was my left wing.”
“I'm just at the age where I'm too young to be anybody's mother. I'm too old to be any young leading lady. I can't play English parts in England. I could in New York. I think I should be quiet for a while. I shouldn't act.”
“it was a a classic tragic. story, in my opinion, of the man who Probably, strangely enough, even that realistic man might get to be a vain old man who believed a young woman loved him. And it's not unheard of. It's in all literature. It's happened in Hollywood many times. But it is sad. I found it very sad because he gave so much joy to the world that he shouldn't have had a sad ending.”