Chapter 6: The Season Of The Witch Part 2

As I approach unfinished territory with my writing, I will post it as it stands. However, please remember to check back, as I'm nowhere near through and will continue the writing process in this blog. In the meantime, you'll have some good information, and I will do my best to pull all of this together. Going forward, I will write from my point of view, but it will change, and I will insert Aggie into telling the story as I work my way through it.

 The Grand Dame 1963

“Her Grand Dame dressing down was completed. She sat back, and the audience applauded her approval. It was the first time I’d ever seen that happen…the first time I’ve seen an actress take a bow sitting.”

The Vancouver Sun

Les Wedman

June 3, 1963

Curtsy To The Queen

The quote at the top of this page calls Agnes “Grand Dame.” I couldn’t think of any way of describing her differently. Let us see; there are these that might do it: Martriarch, leading lady, distinguished woman, prominent figure, noblewoman, dowager, grande dame (let’s go French, shall we?), lady of stature, venerated woman, socialite, and powerhouse. Aggie is no matriarch, that is for sure. She often claimed she was no leading lady, so that’s out. She was a very distinguished woman, but that doesn’t carry the same heft. Agnes may have had the jewelry of a dowager, but the inference is way off. She might have been a noblewoman in a different century. Without a doubt, Agnes Moorehead was a venerated woman, and this word comes the closest to grand dame. She was a self-made lady of stature, but it’s a weak description in the face of “Grand Dame.” While Aggie was a socialite, at the same time, she wasn’t. She went to parties. She threw parties, which is also true. Agnes was Schroedinger’s Socialite! Last but not least, it was a powerhouse, and no ordinary human could make 32 tour stops in three months. That is insane, but it does make her a powerhouse, and even this is a poor description.

By age 62, Agnes was a pure “Grand Dame.” If she had been English, she would have, by this age, been made Dame Agnes Moorehead. Being a Dame is equivalent to being made a knight in the UK. Agnes Moorehead, public persona, was a proper dame in every sense. Aggie was a woman of station and rank. She was one hundred percent a Knight and an excellent horsewoman. I would not want to meet her in the tiltyard because you’d get your backside handed to you on a lance. So, going forward, let’s assume she is a Grand Dame.

While in New York, Agnes participated in a Gala for the New York Philharmonic, which included a fashion show with Agnes as a model. Agnes wouldn’t have shown it if she had been the least homesick. She was out. Can you imagine Agnes in New York without her going shopping???

After all, Elizabeth Montgomery “found mother” in a department store in New York. Mother, oh mother, will you be on my show? Agnes understood money and that television shows were relatively constant sources of cash. She claimed she was upset when she learned ABC had picked up the show. Still, I’ll bet money that she pocketed the check and then thanked all the powers that she now had a solid show that would support her for the foreseeable future. She didn’t know that the character she created for the pilot would make many more fans of her.

Lord Pengo

It’s in September 1962 that Agnes and Charles Boyer will headline “Lord Pengo.” Headline she did. Agnes was in New York from November 19, 1962, to April 20, 1963. Agnes had toured from February 1962 to the end of May 1962. So she spent five months with Lord Pengo after spending three months with RX: Murder, which left her with four months to squeeze in everything else. Talk about a tight schedule.

Ice skating with Sean

1963, 5 January Agnes takes Sean to Rockefeller Center in New York to practice his skating. They walked up 5th Avenue. Sean had learned to skate while in school in Switzerland. Agnes takes the time to complain about being homesick. If she had once lived in New York and acted in New York, why did being in New York make her homesick? I’m pretty sure she missed the trappings of Hollywood and her home in Beverly Hills.

How Agnes found the time to squeeze into all of her theatre activity is a mystery to me. She managed a motion picture, “Whose Minding the Store, television, “The Diary of Wanda Landowske, a rebirth of her one-woman show, and the pilot for the show that made her a household name, “Bewitched.” When did this woman sleep? It’s a serious question because look at her schedule. Aggie’s schedule is so loaded it’s tighter than a college student on Adderall trying to cram for 15 finals simultaneously!

Agnes put pen to paper to star in Who’s Minding the Store in March 1963. “Lord Pengo” closed in April 1963, and a few days later, after an absence of one year, Agnes returned home to begin filming the Jerry Lewis vehicle. Just a side note: there is a scene in the movie where Agnes is speaking with Ray Walston, who has been chasing his young secretary around the office, instructing him to give an impossible task or four hundred when she tells Walston to “go back to your honeypot.” There sits a card in a box in Wisconsin. It is a birthday card from Kathy Ellis. It comes from the late 1950s and is addressed to “Agnes Honey Pot.” It’s also signed with love and kisses.  Did you know that the Oxford Dictionary offers several definitions of the phrase Honey pot:

1. A lure or decoy

2. A cybersecurity trap

3. A substantial source of money

4. A chamberpot

5. Slang for female external privates.

I am sure the movie and birthday card versions had nothing to do with items 1 through 4. I’ll leave this right here

.

The Diary of Wanda Landowska

In March, Agnes did a television show called “Camera 3.” While looking drop-dead gorgeous during the show, Aggie did readings for the “Diary of Wanda Landowska.” Let me fill in the blanks for those unaware of who Landowska was. Wanda Ladowska was a harpsichordist extraordinaire and a professional pianist. She is best known for her work on the harpsichord. Agnes greatly admired Ms. Landowska, which prompted her to choose the piece. 

Here is a portion of Boze Hadleigh’s interview:

Hadleigh: “A friend of mine who is a musician said she saw you in the 1950s on TV—Camera 3 reading from the diaries of the harpsichordist Wanda Landowska.

Moorehead: ( remembering suddenly delighted) Did she?! And she remembers? That’s nice.

It was “Camera 3.” Yes, television had much more class…it was even blatantly cultural sometimes.”

Hadleigh: “If not realistic. Did you know that the great Landowska was a lesbian?”

Moorehead: “Was she?” (Surprised) She was married…

Hadleigh: “Pardon me, but that means nothing.”

Moorehead: “Nothing?! Marriage is a—”

Hadleigh: “I mean that most famous lesbians have been married some time…”

Moorehead: “ I see. Well, thank you for informing me. I suppose you read this in a book?”

Hadleigh; ‘Yes, a Landowska biography. A complete one–not the sort that omits what is disapproved of…”

You see, Wanda Landowska hung with the likes of Natalie Clifford Barney, also a lesbian. She played for Barney and the other attendees of her Salon in Paris. Landowska fled France when German forces invaded in 1940 with her student and lover, Denise Restout. Wanda and Denise ultimately went to Portugal and left Europe for America. Agnes gravitated towards women who were lesbians as a young woman. What does that mean? No, I do because I did the same thing, and my significant relationships were with women, but guess what? I met a man I fell in love with, and we’ve been together for almost twenty years. So, no, marriage does not equal sexuality, just as love does not equal lust. Agnes understood that, and Boze Hadleigh got straight to the core of who she was with those questions, and her answers all tell me Boze hit the sweet spot.

Here are some of the women who held a fascination for Agnes as a young woman:

La Duse

Let us begin with the actress she idolized as a teenager, Eleonora Duse.  La Duse was one of the greatest actresses of her time.  She played many Shakespearean roles.  She portrayed heroines from nineteenth-century French dramas.  She also introduced the drama of Ibsen and d'Annunzio to the stage.  She was an incredible woman.  She was equally well known for her love affairs with men, but she was infamous for her affairs with women.  In 1909, La Duse began an affair with a feminist named Lina Poletti.  Lina dressed as a man.  The affair was an intense romantic inferno that consumed Duse.  Aside from Lina, Duse was involved with Isadora Duncan and several young actresses she mentored, among them Emma Grammatica and a singer named Yvette Guilbert.  As a young girl, Agnes wrote Eleonora a letter and asked for a signed picture, which she ultimately received.  It became her most treasured possession.  Ultimately, Agnes ended up naming one of her beloved dogs, Duse, in homage to the woman.

Agnes wrote to Duse as a young girl and received a reply she treasured her whole life. She even went so far as to name one of her beloved dogs, Duse.   Eleanora was an actress of great stature.  Like Isadora, she was considered one of the first ladies on the stage and was eccentric, outrageous, and way outside the box.  She was married.  Her husband died.  Eleanora went on to have a series of lovers, male and female.  In 1909, Eleanora began a relationship with a young feminist named Lina Poletti.  Lina dressed as a man in public as well as in private.  La Duse also had the relationship with Isadora I mentioned in a previous blog.  She mentored several young actresses.  One of them was Emma Gramatica, who became devoted to Duse.  Then there was Yvette Gilbert, with whom La Duse maintained a long-lasting, intimate friendship.  Oddly enough, Eleanora held the church in very high regard and often lamented that her life as an actress had subsumed her role as wife and mother.  I see some interesting coincidences here between Agnes and her idol.

Bernhardt

Another actress that Agnes speaks of and portrays herself as Sarah Bernhardt.  Sarah was a very vivid and complex individual.  Her name became synonymous with glamor and drama.  She was often called "the mother of all divas." Sarah was nearly as famous for her sumptuous, flamboyant style as she was for her skillful portrayals on stage.  Sarah was so much more than just a stage personality.  She was an accomplished painter, a sculptress, and an outstanding businesswoman who ran her theaters and acted as producer for her plays.  She wore pants.  She played men on stage in many plays.  She had numerous love affairs not only with men but also with women. She was a template for Agnes, down to the hair color.

Landowska

One of Agnes's favorite musicians was the incredible harpsichordist Wanda Landowska.  Agnes did a reading from a book by Landowska, which was televised.  Many of us have seen it, and it can be found on YouTube.  Landowska herself was a lesbian.  Landowska frequented Natalie Clifford Barney's salon in Paris.  Natalie was an expatriate American who held regular soirees at her salon in Paris, and Landowska often played at these.  The gatherings themselves were organized to promote the works of women writers.  Like many of these women, Landowska, including Agnes, was well known for her exquisite dress and stage decorations.  Her music was sublime as well.  Landowska had a beautiful voice, and it is said that many just wanted to hear her speak, mainly when she spoke French with just a hint of her elegant Polish accent.  It sounds a great deal like our Agnes, doesn't it?  In 1933, Landowska met a woman named Denise Restout.  Restout would be her companion for the rest of her life.

Edna St. Vincent Millay

In her one-woman show, Agnes did a piece by one of her favorite writers, Edna St. Vincent Millay, called "The Ballad of the Harp Weaver."  Millay was a free thinker.  She published a book of poetry in 1922 called "A Few Figs from Thistles."  In this book, Millay put forth the idea that a woman has every right to sexual pleasure and no obligation to fidelity.  Millay was very outspoken about her view of sexuality.  In "Great Companions," Max Eastman tells a story about Millay's attitude toward her sexuality.  While at a cocktail party, Millay discussed her recurrent headaches and was asked by a psychologist, "I wonder if it has ever occurred to you that you might perhaps, although you are hardly conscious of it, have an occasional impulse toward a person of your sex?"  Millay responded with, "Oh, you mean I'm homosexual!  Of course, I am heterosexual too, but what's that got to do with my headache?'  It resembles Agnes's statement, "A woman may love a person who is this or that, male or female..."

The point is that, as the saying goes, “Birds of a feather flock together.”  The age that Agnes was when she became fascinated with these women is the age where you begin to have an idea that you might be a bit different from all the girls around you. Do you scream from balconies? Not then did you don’t, and you couldn’t when I was the same age doing the same thing. You had to live an everyday life on the outside and your real life on the inside. Don’t misunderstand. I believe that Agnes loved both her husbands at some point, and we know she was intimate with the man she saw in Soldiers Grove because she says so in the “Post Mortem” letter. 

I AM 1 Are You 1 2

I know, I know, I know. I’m responding to both the delighted and the completely offended with this. WHY DOES IT MATTER IF YOU KNOW FOR SURE? Imagine yelling because I am indeed doing so. This eternal merry-go-round of sexuality is unbelievably complicated when you’re talking to anybody born before 1955, mostly, and you will never be able to change anybody's mind if it is already made up. What I’m trying to say is that if you are a member of the LBGTQ+ community which I am a part of and you are proud of her because she’s one of us, then proof is not required for you, and if you are a member of the “Oh my god she could never be that!” community you’ve already made up your mind. So, I shall approach this with a two-fold plan that I won’t explain because I think it's unnecessary.

She Was A Pious and Open Woman

Just recently, I had the opportunity to listen to the interview between Robert Osborne and Debbie Reynolds regarding Agnes Moorehead.  In the interview, Debbie says some wonderful things about Agnes.  Every statement about her talent is true.  Debbie says she was a great actress and should have been given far more accolades than she was accorded during her lifetime.  I find how Debbie chooses to end the interview irritating, the word I'm looking for, and so unnecessary.  Debbie insists that Agnes was not gay, a fact, I might add, that I have stated repeatedly cannot be technically proved nor disproved because she was so religious, so pious.  I do not doubt that Agnes was religious.  Her father was a pastor, and she was raised in a church.  I do doubt that this idea of religion precludes a sexuality outside the box.  It simply doesn't.

The Book of Ruth talks openly about love between women.  The love of Ruth for her daughter-in-law Naomi.

1:8 And Naomi said unto her two ddaughters-in-law Go, return each to her mother's house: the LORD deal kindly with you, as ye have dealt with the dead, and with me.

1:9 The LORD grant you that ye may find rest, each of you in the house of her husband. Then she kissed them, and they lifted up their voice and wept.

1:10 And they said unto her, Surely we will return with thee unto thy people.

1:11 And Naomi said, Turn again, my daughters: why will ye go with me? Are there yet any more sons in my womb, that they may be your husbands? 1:12 Turn again, my daughters, go your way; for I am too old to have a husband. If I should say, I have hope, if I should have husband also to night, and should also bear sons; 1:13 Would ye tarry for them till they were grown? Would ye stay for them from having husbands? Nay, my daughters; for it grieveth me much for your sakes that the hand of the LORD is gone out against me.

1:14 And they lifted up their voice, and wept again: and Orpah kissed her mother in law; but Ruth clave unto her.

1:15 And she said, Behold, thy sister-in-law is gone back unto her people, and unto her gods: return thou after thy sister-in-law.

1:16 And Ruth said, Intreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee: for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God: 

1:17 Where thou diest, will I die, and there will I be buried: the LORD do so to me, and more also, if ought but death part thee and me.

Is this not simply the most profound love of one person for another?  Where you go, I will go.  Your people will be my people.  Your God, my God.  Where you die, I, too, will die and also be buried.  Only death will part the two of us.  This, dear people, is love in its purest form.  Because her father had her memorize bible passages and because she read the bible herself, it is doubtless that she was unaware of The Book of Ruth.

I believe that her ideology that love had no sex but was a joining of spirits and souls stemmed from these readings.

I don't doubt her piety.  I don't doubt her religious nature.  I also see her natural gravitation to women.  I know she was married to two men.  She says, "I am no paragon of virtue."  I believe that her wisdom in allowing her words to be published only after her death was a "god given" ability to know that we as humans would become so obsessed with understanding her sexuality that we would lose touch with who she wanted us to know.  She was a wise, wise woman.

When Agnes said to Boze Hadleigh, with whom I have spoken, she intimated that women cannot be homosexual because that deals with men, and the word is masculine. Women are sapphic. If you have a furrow in your brow, you aren’t alone. The word sapphic is not a word that Agnes learned reading the bible nor is the phrase “big butch” which Aggie used to describe a pushy woman who wanted her to change her programming for her one-woman show. She didn’t learn them by reading and looking them up; Agnes learned them because she either was in “the family” or had heard people using them. Whatever the reason, she understood them, and let me be frank, as somebody who has been there, if you understand them then you know exactly what each one means and why.

Now, I’m not privy to the direct information from the horse's mouth as it were, but while lying in bed last night, I was startled by something I saw on my phone. It’s a picture of Agnes and Kathy Ellis in Tijuana, Mexico, 1954. It is a sweet picture. They’re sitting in a cart with a gentleman with a sombrero sitting on a burro with a cartoon cactus behind them. Cute right. As I sat there staring at the pictures, I was struck by something: Aggie held Kathy’s hand. Everyone is familiar with the photo of Aggie in the typical director’s chair and Kathy sitting on the arm. Agnes has her arm around Kathy, and Kathy is just gazing at her with a profound look of love and respect. Again, it’s a lovely picture, but you must read between the lines. Finally, this is a picture on set during the filming of “The Tempest” sitting in a director's chair beside her female costar. Guess what? Aggie is holding her hand. 

Now, I’ll take you back to Boze Hadleigh's interview. As he talked to her, he gently asked questions about her sexuality, and guess what she answered him. Agnes thought women are different in terms of love and said we are another species altogether. She iterates that “love does not have a sex” and that women respond differently; “the feelings are emotional, not physical.” How much clearer can it be made? It is called “romantic friendship” and is a throwback to the Victorian era when it was considered practice for marriage. She comes from a time and a place where it was emotional, a smash, as it was called then. Then, slip right over to Francine York, who tells the story of playing Venu in “Bewitched.” Agnes flirted with her and found excuses to touch her. This is the behavior that Agnes referred to in the interview with Boze. She also states that being a lesbian doesn’t mean you act on it physically because sex is a man's domain. Instead, it means you act emotionally. Agnes also says frankly that men drag women down to their level with sex, and that is unacceptable. Finally, the piece de resistance is when he asks her if she has loved women, and she says yes. Does this make her one of us? Yes and no, because I am a yes and no myself. Bisexual is the word you’re looking for, and I firmly believe she was.

Aggie had relationships with men. I believe in her way; she loved Robert Gist and Jack Lee. Jack pushed her away by beating her, but Robert was more nuanced. He cheated on her, and it broke her heart. They fought over it, and Agnes is alleged to have said, “If you can have a mistress, so can I. In Hadleigh’s book, he lists the famous women who are lesbian to Agnes, and she retorts that she is not in their category since they are more beautiful. She doesn’t deny anything. The conversation continues. He offered to go off the record, and she told him to leave the recorder. She told him she didn’t know what had been said to him and that some of it “Might even be true.” Continuing, "I don’t want anyone misinterpreting what was beautiful and even spiritual.” How much more do you need than the woman herself making it plain that she was a loved woman? I know she also loved three men. Continually questioning it is pointless on all sides because, as I have said repeatedly, the only people who know for a fact are dead.

I often ask myself if Agnes believed that love was even possible for her. In a very telling interview, she once said, "I don't know why I shut it out, she confesses, I don't know why. I haven't sought it; it would have to come to me. I can't go out and get involved in some scandalous affair. I owe something to the public that has kept me going. And I'm not really alone. I have many pets: three dogs and three birds. And then there are the two who work for me. One has been with me for 20 years, and the other for 14. They look after me and take good care of me. As for personal love, you can't always depend on a human being, you know. Then again, I seem to need a certain amount of solitude. It renews me. Solitude enriches one's being..... "  When I read this, I read the pain between the lines.  "I don't know why I shut it out," it says volumes with her choice of the words "shut it out."  Yet she remembers her past loves fondly in her interview with Boze Hadleigh, intimating that she would not allow something to be ruined that was "beautiful and even spiritual."  I read into the choice of shutting things out that she was confined by her sexuality and unable to openly express how she felt about any given lover because it could get you blacklisted, institutionalized, and utterly shatter your existence like a brick through a window.

The interviewer who got the whole shutting out phrase out of her also said of Agnes, "She is gracious, professional, sincere, interested, and impersonal. Lacking the terrible hardness of many other long-established celebrities, her flexibility of manner is something like that of a good fencing foil, which can be bent into a circle without breaking yet is made of finely tempered steel. She skates around on the edge of things for a long time for openers."  She was all of these things and more; she was comfortable, flexible, and adaptable.  A chameleon who changed her personality to suit whatever was being thrown at her.  Molly quipped, " I don't know why Agnes twists the truth."  I do.  Would you look at your fundamentalist mother and talk about your personal life, which involved being either bisexual or lesbian...don't think so...nope, I sure don't think so.  You'd learn the pronoun dance, as I like to call it, changing she to him, girlfriend to boyfriend, and you'd learn to cover your tracks any way you had to because the wrath of a fundamentalist is not a pretty picture.  Even though Agnes herself claimed to be a fundamentalist, she was merely, in my opinion, a convenient bible thumper.  I don't question her faith one bit, but she was open and accepting of things that fundamentalists will expound to you that will earn you eternal damnation.

It may have been Peter Opp Jr. who gave us the accurate road map to Agnes.  After she passed away, he said, "A pretzel has less twists than our departed friend possessed."  Most of the commonly told stories about Agnes are most likely fiction of some sort.  Most of her life was made up in one way or another.  She lived in her head and did it more successfully than anyone I have ever known. However, it appears that now she has no competition but a companion in the guise of her sister, Peggy. 

“An Earful Of Me.”

1963 was the year Agnes reignited her one-woman show. It came with a brand new name; see the title of this section. Most importantly, she is taking her show out of America. Agnes got on a plane and flew to Israel, and on July 14, 1963, she performed at the Israeli Festival of Arts.” Now, that is impressive, no matter who you are. Getting a chance to be the representative of the United States of America at a foreign festival is a glowing gold star for Agnes. She had great reason to be proud.

In August, she changed the show's name to “Come Closer, and I’ll Give You An Earful.” Appropriately, the show also lent itself to describing the woman herself.

1963 1 November Portland Oregon

1963 5 November Minneapolis, Minnesota

1963 14 November Park Ridge, Illinois

1963 21 November Montreal, Canada

1964 9 January Casper, Wyoming

A Bump In The Road

At some point in the early 1960s, around 63, Agnes once again rocked the world with something utterly unexpected unless you had seen it in the 20s or 30s. You see, Agnes had a propensity for ad-libbing, which usually involved a specific look or action. One of the things she did in college and with Phil Baker was called the “Bump.” It was highly suggestive, if you believe, descriptions from the time and only performed by strippers. But there she was, large as life on stage at a benefit, doing a reading with three “Surf City” actors doing the “pelvic thrust that drives you insane; see Rocky Horror for questions. The daughter of the minister is on stage in front of a huge audience at 62, and she throws in a stripper move. It wasn’t the first time, either. She did it in college and ended up in the Dean’s Office. She did it onstage while working with Phil Baker Bottle and Beetle. I know about the latter because I’ve seen and have copies of the pictures. Aggie was loose as a goose when she wanted to be, and she had a ball with it, even going so far as to make up a name and write a letter to Paul Gregory’s booking agency describing her “flashy” self:

Gregory Booking Office December 3, 1963

Dear Sir:

I am a “Novelty” Exotic dancer with a flashy attraction for nightclubs, supper clubs, banquets, club dates, and conventions. 

Flashy wardrobe, also flashy props (“ small props”), book on set, my act, you can write to me.

I remain, Muriel Shane,

℅ General Del Post-Office

Minneapolis, Minn.

“Also Starring Agnes Moorehead.”

1963, 5 December: Agnes is filming the pilot for “Bewitched” between stops on her tour while waiting for 14-year-old Sean to come home for the holidays. Her life is about to change dramatically. The level of change was massive. Agnes went from radio to stage to movies to television. She was incredible in everything she did, but nothing she had done or would ever do again matched the star-level recognition she was about to achieve via a thirty-minute television show. Agnes created a legend when she filmed the “Bewitched” pilot.

Her name was Endora, and the world fell passionately in love with her.

Educating Sean

Agnes sent Sean to Switzerland for a stint in their educational system. Perhaps she believed it was better, and perhaps not, but send him she did. It seems that Aggie contacted an educator with whom her mother was familiar to help Sean adjust to our educational system. From the letter, it is clear he had some learning deficiencies. This is the Educating Sean letter:

Mrs. Grace F Deleone

2018 Ridgeview Road

Columbus, Oh

Dear Agnes–and–Sean

The books were mailed to you today–it seemed to take a little time to get together the materials I had discussed with you–now on their way.

As basic materials, the two Iroquois Standard Arithmetics are fine. They include rules which students must understand and apply to handle the math operations. The other two are excellent and new and contain many new approaches and terms. These could be used as self-directed materials. Sean should handle all processes more rapidly–so needs much practice. I hope these materials will be useful–also the history (social studies)  and geography texts.

I suppose we should keep in mind he has been in a Swiss school the last two years, and their standards might be different–but if later he plans to attend American schools, the background is important.

I enjoyed both of you so much during my visit to Molly and Grace–Pauline and I love them very much. 

Good luck on your play, and my best wishes and love.

Grace

Grace DeLeon was a divorced educator who lived in Columbus, Ohio. She was two years older than Agnes. Her former husband was William L. Deleone, and her two children were Marilyn and James. Grace appears to have lived in Columbus for a long time, which is likely how she knew Molly. Grace died in Columbus in 1978, and her parents were Italian. There is no date on the letter. Given that he was in Wales in 1965, and we know he was in Switzerland before that, the letter dates from about 1961 to 1963.

The Birth of Endora 1964

“She's ethereal but also has to be believably real. It was difficult to find Endora's character.”

Agnes Moorehead

Cocktail Parties, Premieres, and Balls

Agnes could party with the best of them. She frequented elegant restaurants and bars and attended multiple soirees. Whether she was sipping a cocktail at “The Witchburner,” the actual name of the place, she was flaunting her short hair and elegant clothes. She attended a museum benefit where a reporter described her like this:

“Agnes Moorehead, her coiffure a flame lighting up Givenchy’s pink tangerine gown, stepped into the runway spotlight like a goddess.” Like a goddess. Wow, what a description, but pure Agnes Moorehead.

It was party after party. It was premiere after premiere. Agnes was everywhere. She was an A-list invitee to a ball thrown by Perle Mesta. In December, Agnes attended Jack Klieser’s black-tie dinner in Santa Barbara. She left in the wee hours of the morning to go home and set up for her party at Tony Duquetts the next day. Agnes attended a fete at The Bistro, which had redone its interior to look like the set from “Irma LaDouce.” Agnes was wearing a lavender-colored full-length opera coat. Again, pure Agnes.

How Dreadful…It’s Been Picked Up, and It’s Still Alive

Nobody knew how long this show's effects would last when it premiered on March 7th. They had no idea that sixty years later, a show called Agatha Always is about a witch locked in a spell because she broke the rules. Four things link this show to Bewitched. 

1. While under the spell, the witch believes her name is Agnes.

2. Her home, where she has been locked in the spell, is the home of Samantha and Darrien.

3. After the spell is broken, Agnes remembers she is named Agatha, and her favorite color is purple.

4. In the introduction, they mimic the Samanta on a broom flying past the moon.

This is sixty years later, but the name they chose for her was Agnes, and the house they put her in was Samantha’s. Agnes Moorehead is the first person remembered, and that is significant. Her sway, magic if you will, is just as strong now as it was then. The set is still relevant because it is instantly recognizable. Our current entertainment is based on a sixty-year-old show and a 124-year-old woman. I bet ABC never saw that coming!

The television show “Bewitched” was one of a kind. The likes of it will never be reproduced, and rebooting it would see a dramatic failure; however, if Hollywood waits until all the boomers exit this plane of reality, it just might stand a chance. The problem, or as I see it, the blessing, is that the likes of Elizabeth Montgomery, Agnes Moorehead, Marion Lorne, Dick York, or Maurice Evans can never be reproduced. Bewitched was stamped with the personalities of each actor and their character. Nobody else could carry the roles. When the movie came out, I said the same thing: I love Shirley McClaine, but she’s not Agnes Moorehead. I love Nichole Kidman and Will Ferrell, but she’s not Elizabeth Montgomery, and he is not Dick York. When characters are tied to the actors who originally played them, you simply cannot replace them.

Bewitched was picked up by ABC on March 7th, 1964. It was placed in the 7:30 time slot so all the kids could pile up in front of the television and watch the magic. That's a true story because I was one of the kids.  I was also a huge fan. I and every child I knew loved Samantha and Darrin. Endora was the best thing since sliced bread, and we all wanted an Aunt like Clara. The show wasn’t just about magic. It was magic. As the years went on, at least for us kids, it became more and more about Endora. She was a household and playground name. She was mischievous, and we watched her almost weekly. Agnes was a gigantic hit. Kids from coast to coast wrote to her. I’ve read the letters. Endora was a cult hero to many children then and many grown-ups now. 

Hush, Hush, Sweet Agnes

When Aggie signed to do the film “Hush, Hush Sweet Charlotte,” another piece of film history was born.  The character that Aggie played was a woman named Velma Cruther. Velma is the caretaker to Charlotte Hollis—a woman who is wealthy and deeply disturbed. Charlotte is about to lose her home due to the ongoing push for progress. The house has been in Charlotte’s family for generations. Her father is buried there. Charlotte is determined to go down fighting. Velma tries to gently nudge her into leaving, and then Charlotte’s cousin comes to take care of Charlotte and eliminate the property problem by taking the money and running. The only one to spot the treachery of her cousin Miriam is Velma. Ultimately, Velma is killed trying to protect Charlotte. 

In May 1964, rehearsals began, but the company would undergo a great upheaval in the not-too-distant future. Bette Davis was playing Charlotte. Miriam was supposed to be played by Joan Crawford. Bingo, there’s the problem: the combination of Davis and Crawford was not, I repeat, a good idea. Bette says on Joan’s death: “You should never say bad things about the dead, only good. Joan Crawford is dead. Good.” Joan was utterly intimidated by Bette and could not function. Long story short, Joan was replaced by Olivia de Havilland, whose only complaint was that she didn’t want to hit Agnes with a chair, and her nerves had caused her shoulder to hurt. The sigh of relief could have been heard on Mars. There was one significant thing to overcome Agnes Moorehead’s “Bewitched” shooting schedule. Scenes with Aggie and Joan were filmed, and once Olivia entered the picture, those scenes had to be reshot. 

There is an article describing the debacle. It was 84 degrees outside, and to counter the effects of the vast lights on the set, it was cooled by an army of air conditioning units to 60 degrees.  Outside melting. Inside semi-freezing. On top of that, Agnes had to hustle between shoots and costumes. Aggie did not finish her filming until September. Still, the producers of “Bewitched” used it to their advantage because Agnes was allowed to do publicity for “Bewitched” while finishing her location filming in Baton Rouge. Aggie enjoyed that because she got to go out and spend time around the city folk and indulge in some antique shopping.

A Dramatic Reading of “Surf City.”

During a benefit for the NAACP, Agnes, Edmund O’Brien, Ed Begley, and Edward G. Robinson concocted a “First Drama Quartet” reading of the Jan and Dean song “Surf City.” There is no film of it, but it must have been hysterical. How four people can deadpan their way through that song in a nearly Shakespearean way without falling off their stools laughing shows outrageous restraint. I can’t even begin to imagine this quartet. I’ve heard “Don Juan In Hell,” which was magnificent. People do the weirdest things, don’t they? We shall never forget the “Bump.”

Short On Bookings Long On Talent

As you can see, the 1964 dates for Aggie’s one-woman show are very short. Her bookings are a victim of “Bewitched.” Television is notoriously tedious, as are theatre shows once you’ve heard them for the hundredth time, but TV is doubly so. For an industry that relied on speed to turn out weekly programs, their shooting schedules were pure insanity.  Since Aggie’s one-woman show schedules were also insane, one had to be a priority, and the other had to be on a back burner to stir when able. Aggie thought doing “Bewitched” would allow her time to do her one-woman show as often as she wanted when the show was on hiatus. Nope, not so much.

The first performance of her one-woman show was on January 9, 1964, in Casper, Wyoming. Aggie was riding the road again. 

1964 25 January Hillsdale, Michigan

1964 4 February Pocatello, Idaho

1964 3 Marcy Spokane, Washington

1964 2 April Tacoma, Washington

1964 9 April Eastern Kentucky State College, Kentucky

1964 10 July Hollywood Bowl, Shakespeare, Los Angeles

1964 14 October Holly, Michigan

1964 10 December Palo Alto, California

1965 13 March Detroit, Michigan

A Chic Witch

I don’t care who you are. In this universe, you cannot argue that Agnes Moorehead wasn’t a “Chic Witch.” I mean, do you have eyes? Have you seen her??? Aggie was a clothes horse. Remember the three walk-in closets stuffed to the gills?  What you see her wearing as Endora in “Bewitched” outside of the famous lavender and green (Agnes and Debbie), those other glamorous pieces of clothing are hers. 

Agnes Moorehead was the actress who created the character. In her 1929 letter to Peggy, Agnes wrote that she feared everything, while her sister feared nothing. One of the quickest ways to make a character is to put on a costume. Costumes are magic, and Aggie loved magic. 

Agnes Moorehead had been a fashion icon for more than thirty years at this point. She had always been able to pull off even the most challenging designs. Agnes was built for that. From the burlap bag outfit of “The Invaders” to the screamingly elegant ensembles of Endora, she looked good in them. It has been said more than once by more than one author that Agnes was always on. What is left is a mass of people who think that is who you are. It is not that you are what you eat, but that you are more like what you wear. Agnes could take any combination of things from any or all of her three walk-in closets, put it on, and look like a billion bucks. Dior, Chanel, Schiaparelli, Balenciaga, Givenchy, Balmain, and Fath plastered the railings of her closets. So, Endora gave her a reason to wear many of them. Aggie was one seriously chic witch.

Moorehead Stadium

I’m just going to warn you that I will insinuate a bunch here. On August 1st, 1964, an article called “Tin Types” appeared in the “Los Angeles Evening Citizen News. It’s an article about Agnes, and they talk about the usual fare. Types of clothing she loves, how her home is decorated, and the king-size bed that she has named “The Moorehead Stadium.” She only wears beautiful nightgowns or negligees in bed, “frilly, feminine, and revealing” negligees. She would not have been sleeping if she wore them to bed. Take it from a woman: negligees were not made for sleeping because they either signaled sex or, if you tried to sleep in them, strangulation. Nightgowns will strangle you, too, believe me.  She loves dressing up to go to bed or, rather, to her stadium. This was followed by the statement that Agnes is no “Goody Two Shoes.” Stadiums are for games. Beds are for games. Her bed was for games and filing. She kept scripts, letters, newspapers, and magazines. So, while a bed can be intimate, it also works well as a filing cabinet, provided it is one the size of “The Moorehead Stadium.”

The article begins with the notation, “Agnes Moorehead is a person you see often on the screen and know very little, or anything about–except that she’s an excellent actress.” It is not wrong.

Agnes was an entertainer, and she said to the author Boze Hadleigh, ‘I never really cared to share anything with the public, or very many people, besides my work.” Do you still think the woman we “know” as Agnes Moorehead is Agnes Moorehead? No, she isn’t, not one little bit. The woman you’re looking for is buried in three closets full of designer clothes and negligees behind the plain skirts, pants, and sweaters that belong to Aggie Moorehead.

“Hardly a day goes by that somebody gets the urge to burn Agnes at a stake.”

Enterprise-Record

Chico California

1964 14 November 

 “Nothing personal, mind you, but Agnes is a first-class witch,” and “Hardly a day goes by that somebody gets the urge to burn Agnes at a stake.” I thought it was cute when I read this, and of course, I took the time to think about it. You rarely hear someone saying a negative word about Agnes, even in jest. Yet, here is an article about the show “Bewitched.” The article is a Hollywood UPI, so I don’t know the author, but a confrontation with a director begins with this sentence: “Do you ever think before you say a line, hatchet face?” The director in question was Sidney Lansfield, and this is how Charles Tranberg’s book tells it:

“(Jane) Greer would recall that one day after shooting a scene, Lansfield told Agnes, Do you ever think before you say a line, hatchet face?” Without responding, Agnes simply walked off the set. She phoned Dore Schary, the RKO Executive Vice President in charge of production at the time, and got another director to supervise her scenes from then on.” Now, that non-confrontational and firm behavior was Aggie Moorehead, and her father trained her to turn the other cheek but not be a doormat.

Hiding From Endora

1964 is the year that the change sparked by her role in “Bewitched” is just starting. Agnes did take on a few extra projects. She did game shows and was involved in a salute to Eleanor Roosevelt. Agnes spoke on Israel in January and worked for the United Jewish Welfare Fund at their big kickoff event. Her narration of Mendholsen’s incidental music for “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” drew great praise, as did Agnes's performance at the Hollywood Bowl with Mario Castelnovo-Tedesco’s overture “As You Like It” and “The Sleepwalking Scene” from the Scottish Play. So, you know, there isn’t a theatre person alive who would be willing to say or write the name of “The Scottish Play.” Hint: It begins with M and has a B and an H at the end. It was clear that “Bewitched took up more of her time, and she spent far less than the year before attending premieres and parties.

Two Lives One Woman

Quint Benedetti stated that Agnes lived a double life.  Even Agnes hints at that very thing during an interview: "What the actor has to sell is fantasy, a magic ingredient that should not be analyzed.  I'm sure that Endora, my alter ego on "Bewitched," would agree.  She's quite an actress, sometimes, and better versed in magic than most of us."  Wow, that's quite a statement when you "analyze" it!  I know that Agnes feared being dissected, analyzed, and set in front of the world naked.  She says so repeatedly.  But I think the lady doth protest too much, or maybe she protested just the right amount.  It depends on which person you choose to view.  If your choice is Agnes, who was in command of her career, then you'd say she protested just enough to keep people interested.  If your choice is the human Agnes, who was inept at living, you'd say she protested too much.  I believe they are just the same person in control of the same body at different times, and she protests too much. 

The definition of an alter ego is:

An alter ego is a second self, a personality within a person often oblivious to the persona's actions. The term was coined in the early nineteenth century when psychologists first described dissociative identity disorder. A person with an alter ego is said to lead a double life.

Emotional Detachment 

When I started looking at Aggie through purely forensic eyes, the first thing that leaped out at me was that she was, by her admission, emotionally detached. She called it aloofness, but really, it's the same thing.

That led me down the first path of research, and I came up with Emotional Detachment Disorder. It was a bizarre ride down this rabbit hole, believe me! Psychology is a fascinating subject, but like many other discussions about the human mind, the one-size-fits manner of psychiatry. Each person's mind is their own, and generalizing behavior is dangerous. My interpretation of Agnes’ personality is that she was emotionally detached in publically in certain situations. Aggie would switch to autopilot, and it is usually when she does an interview that interviewers notice it and then include it in their articles.

To be fair, emotional Detachedness can mean two things. The first is an inability to connect emotionally with other people. The second is an emotional anesthetic that can be used to deal with anxiety in situations that would typically trigger it. It is also considered a way to maintain personal boundaries and cope with the emotional demands of others. Agnes used it both ways.

 It is apparent to me that her detachment didn't paralyze her.  She continued to perform and excelled at it.  But she constantly insisted that a performer should not be available to the public at will and should have buffers between themselves and their public.  She reasoned that an actor could be hurt by unfair criticism or become too accessible and more human than fantasy, which would be fatal for the career.  Yet, she insisted she did not read criticism and cared nothing for it.  She would say that she always did her best; therefore, criticism was irrelevant.  Why, then, was she so afraid of it?  Answer: She wasn't.  This was part of that multilayer defense system referenced by Bernice Mason in her interview.  Sort of like the sign in the forest leading to the witch's castle in the Wizard of Oz."  It reads, "I'd turn back if I were you."  Most of the time, it worked.  People backed off, but then you get an interviewer like Bernice Mason, who is smart enough to see past the forest.

What do you do then?  Well, today, most celebrities would stand up and walk out.  They would make little effort to hide their disgust at a question and their profound refusal to answer it.  What did Agnes do?  She answered the question.  Why?  Because it was direct and unexpected.  It took Bernice Mason little time to realize that the way to get at Agnes Moorehead was simply by asking the question she wasn't expecting you to ask.  She answered every single one of them.  Blankly, unemotionally, she answered them.  She thought fast enough to throw out the untruth about Jack Lee being dead, or maybe that's how she saw him.  He was dead to her.  Nobody can say for sure.  But she exposed herself a great deal more than she was prepared to.

The next street I turned down was named Depersonalization Disorder.  Right now, I have as fine a grasp of the human psyche as any well-trained psychologist, and I don't like it.  You learn much about yourself in the process, but I digress.

Depersonalization disorder is thought to be primarily caused by severe traumatic lifetime events, including childhood sexual, physical, and emotional abuse, accidents, war, and torture. Agnes survived the trauma of listening to her sister die. She also survived the trauma of verbal and emotional abuse by her mother. Aggie was crushed when her father’s parents died two years apart and devastated when her paternal grandfather and sister were lost over a roughly three-month period. She was savaged several times by Jack, and I believe that one or more of those attacks has got a rape somewhere in it. Robert ripped her reputation to shreds and repeatedly threw it back in her face. Does she have a depersonalization disorder? Probably, but she has, first and foremost, traumatic stress disorder. You don’t have to go to war to have it. I won’t list the ways you can tell if a person has PTSD because I don’t need to. I have it and have had it for seventeen years in March. I know the behavior and symptoms like the back of my hand, and she has them, too.

I cannot speak to abusive situations in the childhood of Agnes other than to suspect her mother was at least verbally abusive.  Verbal abuse will cause emotional abuse; the two go hand in hand.  We know that Agnes suffered several severe traumatic events during her lifetime.  She found her maternal grandfather dead.  Her sister committed suicide.  Her father was struck down suddenly by a heart attack in his church.  Many of these deaths occurred very near to each other, including the passing of her paternal grandfather and the suicide of her sister, as well as the passing of her father and her Aunt Cam.  Her paternal grandmother died in 1927.  She was forced to repress grief for the death of her sister because of the stigma of suicide.  Her first husband was physically abusive and potentially sexually abusive; she locked him out of her bedroom, according to divorce proceedings.  She suffered an accident of some sort that caused the scarring on her face, but that could have been a result of Jack beating her.  There is also a record in the divorce proceedings of Jack forcing his way into her room and making her sleep in the same bed with him, using a gun to threaten her.  I think that qualifies as torture.  War seems to be the only thing left out.  I won't even list the litany of potential damage done by Robert Gist.

The only reason this might not be diagnosed in her case is its inability to interfere with her social and occupational functions. You can function with DPD or PTSD. Good lord, it runs in the family!  I suffer from post-traumatic stress Disorder; I witnessed a suicide and shootings. My doctor has been puzzled by my ability to maintain social and occupational function.  Now I can tell him it's genetic. 

 If we could speak with Agnes and get her to openly discuss her feelings, we’d be miracle workers because she was not the one to discuss feelings. Despite her troubling episodes of losing touch with reality, e.g., Joseph Cotten and his wife, Agnes was fully aware of what was real and what wasn't, so this fits much better than I thought it would. 

I think that we have successfully determined that Agnes may have suffered from:

1. A disorder related to an overbearing mother.

2. Depression as a result of her overbearing mother and the suicide of her sister.

3. Emotional Detachment Disorder is again associated with the mother.

4. Depersonalization Disorder is a result of traumatic events occurring throughout her life.

5. PTSD as a result of repeated emotional and physical trauma

What is certain is that we have only scratched the surface of this highly complex woman.  We are in the first layers of the multi-layered defense system.  She has so many more to go.  But I must again emphasize the incredible amount of strength this woman had. Ordinary people would not have been able to bear some of the things she went through.  Every layer we peel back only emphasizes her humanity, but it magnifies her strength.  As Bernice Mason said, "Lacking the terrible hardness of many other long-established celebrities, her flexibility of manner is something like that of a good fencing foil, which can be bent into a circle without breaking yet is made of finely tempered steel."

August 1, 1964, Los Angeles Evening Citizen News

Tintypes: Agnes Moorehead

Sidney Solsky

Agnes Moorehead is a person you see often on the screen and know very little, if anything, about her–except she is an excellent actress. She is never bad, although she often plays bad women. ( “The genuine actress goes to the play, not the play to the actress.”) She is a character actress and wants you to know she is proud of it. She doesn’t want to be a movie star! She plays characters from the seedy to the sublime…

She is another character in her private life (“I’m myself”), which has, oddly enough, managed to stay private.

Well Groomed

She is, for openers, always stunningly dressed with an eye for striking colors. She is impeccably groomed, poised, and forthright. When she enters a room, you notice her. She is 5 feet 6 inches tall, weighs 115 pounds, and has vivid blue eyes fiery red hair. She comes on without even trying. She looks for humor, imagination, and sincerity in people. She has the gift of stimulating gab.

She has a temper. (“Why not I have red hair?) She admires people with drive and ambition. She has learned you can’t win them all. She is seeking overall inner peace. She has several large closets clustered with high-style clothing, Givenchy, Dior, Fontana, and Balenciaga. She wouldn’t think of wearing her Chinese slacks in the street. (“ These women who do are usually the hair in curlers type who haven’t the figure or the posterior for slacks .") She paints and plays the piano, and her chosen form of exercise is sweeping. She sweeps the house clean and the garden paths. She is both a bath and a shower advocate. (“ When I’m worn out and exhausted, I soak for an hour in a perfumed bath .") She sleeps in a king-sized bed. For reasons of its mammoth size, she dubbed her bed “Moorehead Stadium.” She wears beautiful nightgowns and negligees, frilly, feminine, and revealing. She especially dresses up when she goes to bed.

She has unanswered letters, unread newspapers, magazines, scripts piled on a section of her bed. This sector of the bed becomes a sort of office filing cabinet.  She says, “I live in a mass of clean clutter.”

Dear Beauty,

This town is just like a set, and the whole life here is pure theatre. I won’t go into the cast, but suffice it to say it’s international plus and V amusing. Loved that evening with you. Hope we can have more. But thanks again for writing Carol Channing about the “Hello Dolly” tickets. See you in 3 wks. 

Affectionately Brad

This is a postcard from Austria. The cancellation on the stamp is unreadable, but Carol Channing originated the role of Dolly Levi in Hello Dolly. Tickets were tough to come by for several years, so this is what Brad is referring to. Channing didn’t reprise the role until 1978, and Agnes wasn’t here.

14 January, 1964

Dearest Aggie

The long letter I wrote in the middle of last summer has just turned up after a hectic career in some of the leading post offices in Europe. The letter was all about DeLaurentis Bible movie and detailed my efforts to persuade that idiotic Italian that the only possible Sarah was Agnes Moorehead. Since then, the Abraham story has been shelved and finally canceled out entirely altogether with several other well-known sections of the Good Book. Bresant, Fellini, and myself have been excommunicated, and only John Huston and the Creation Of The World remain! The cost of all this to me was the total loss of a year’s work and a good deal of consequent demoralization. I am now preparing some other films and hoping…

What are you up to? I miss you tremendously.

All my love,

 always

Orson

Avenina Miraflores 17

Puerto de Hierro

Madrid

Lucky Me 1965 

“Everything in life is luck.”

Agnes Moorehead

Take reality, and you color it.

"It's interesting, life, colors, brilliance.  Do something brilliant, think!"  If you want to do something, you color the reality."  "Watch life, watch theatre, be skeptical, analyze successes, failures, analyze it all."  

Take reality, and you color it.  It is an exciting premise that aligns with her failure to live in this world fully and her desire to make reality conform to what she thought it should be. Whether it was her school, her family, or her career, she had specific tints she applied to them to make them bearable.  She rarely moved beyond the fantasy that she surrounded herself with as protection.  She remained in the woods and was whatever she wanted to be whenever she wanted to be. 

Aggie’s bandaid, so to speak, was glitter. She used the sparkle of that glitter to cover her damaged spots. It covered the natural person, the real Agnes Robertson Moorehead underneath. We all have self-created buffer zones around us for emotional protection in some cases and, occasionally, physical security.  It should be no surprise that Agnes had one of the “crumple zones'' around her. It was solid and carefully constructed to protect her from disturbances, either emotional, physical, or mental. Yes, the sole purpose of this entire book is to lift that glitter and understand the woman who lived behind it. She’s intense, and she is fragile, but she’s real. One hundred percent human. That glitter encasement enabled her to be the woman we see externally. Shells are hard to maintain. Just ask any sea turtle.

Using Words Like Hammers

Agnes, it has been said, "used words like hammers."  She emphasized them, repeated them, and pounded them into the minds of those who listened to her.  Quint Benedetti says, "She hit them like a batter with loaded bases.  She did the same thing with sentences.  She would question fiercely and then quietly, then intensively answer her questions.  She would make an important statement augustly and then repeat it softly, reflectively, more strongly than the first time.  Or intensely, searching, as if inexorably prying out its true meaning.  But her repetition was always an echo that we would continue inside ourselves." Her echo would continue inside us, and so it does in many ways.  I doubt that the depth of her mark on this world was apparent to her.

Lost Like A Child

She was very moody, and everything depended on her moods or, better yet, whims.  She could be undisciplined in many ways and jump from one thing to another without completing something before moving on.  At least, that is how her personal life seemed to be lived.  Yet with all that, she ran her home like clockwork. She was an enigma, a walking contradiction. Her intensity was an inner fire that flowed through her incredible animation. Agnes Moorehead was a complicated woman.  She had complete confidence in herself in front of an audience, in front of a camera, in front of a microphone, but take that away, and she was lost like a child.  She could perform as Agnes Moorehead, but it was just that, a performance. 

Women were drawn to her as an actress, in particular, because she oozed a sense of strength. Something they felt was solid and comfortable.  Something they can lean on for support in times of need.  We've all heard the rumors, but what does that matter? Any human being with a soul would fall in love with her.  She had a soul like a beacon in the dark, attracting those who craved that erudite light to bathe in.  Her intensity was like a flame, like internal combustion that she translated into action.

Ad-libbing Hush

By January, Agnes was announced as a contender for the Oscar for her performance of Velma Carruthers. With every day closer, she would experience the highest of highs and the lowest of lows. It has often been said that the Oscar winners were just winners of a publicity contest. Agnes should have won the Oscar for this performance, especially considering that much of her performance was ad-libbed. Velma was a pure product of the actress who portrayed her. How often does that happen?

Agnes was that kind of actress. She could read the script, understand the requirements for a screen, and have her part of the script written on the fly while they were filming. She should have won the Academy Award simply for that. Nobody knew then that Velma was a pure creation of Agnes’s mind and that the unseemly costuming she found embarrassing was just her set dressing. I’m paraphrasing, but James Earl Jones once said Agnes didn’t need anybody to play off of. She would just open her mouth, and the words would flow. Every director of any worth who worked with her knew that and loved it!

March 19, 1965

Evening Vanguard

Venice California

Friday

“Agnes Moorehead Theater Titian.”

Her studio biography explicitly says that Agnes Moorehead’s hair is Titian, and it certainly is. 

It is what you first notice about her. After that, you are taken with her voice, which is compelling and, distinctive and richly rolling theatrical. And you are aware at once of her regal presence, her awesome towering presence.

Nonetheless, the blue eyes have an errant touch of humor, a glint of controlled mischief and you almost venture to call her “Aggie” as her friends do. But you don’t.

“I am an actress,” said Miss Moorehead, dipping into her luncheon salad at The Beverly Hills Hotel. Therefore, I have to face an awful lot in my time. I’ve faced hostile audiences. I’ve faced hostile critics. I faced conditions that tear your skin off.”

“To be an actor, you must have the hide of an alligator, the strength of an Amazon, and the courage of a soldier. After all my years in this business, nothing can frighten me one whit, and nothing does.”

As everybody knows, Miss Moorehead is one of the stars of ABC’s substantial hit comedy series “Bewitched,” playing the witch mother to the witch daughter, Liz Montgomery, and she has been nominated for an Academy Award for “Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte,” her fifth such honor.

She says she rarely watched “Bewitched” and never sees the unedited film shot each day known as “rushes” or “dailies.” She said, “I don’t want to look at what I’ve already done and see how I could’ve improved. I never go to any of my films, either. You can’t improve on your work if it’s already on film. The time to improve is at the time of creating.”

“It’s nice, you know, being in a hit series. But it does get extremely tedious. There’s no time to relax on the set, and I maintain that the relaxed actor is a great actor. But you get immunized.”

Actually, I put in the following: one doesn’t expect Agnes Moorehead to be in a television series in the first place.

“Well, no, I didn’t expect Agnes Moorehead to be in a television series either,” she said, exhibiting a quick smile. “So what am I doing in a series? Of course, I could do a play, but we’re not by any means living in a golden age of dramatic literature today. They write plays expressly for people such as Lunt and Fontaine but for nobody else. This is not, for that matter, a great age of dedication–I’ve been dedicated all my life, which makes some people think I must be rather old.”

“Now, you see, if I had to do only junk, I’d get out of the business. But I don’t think “Bewitched” is junk at all.  And besides, think of Ethel Barrymore and how she would go out and play vaudeville when no plays she liked would come her way. I’ve seen many of the great troupes on the vaudeville circuit. 

“No, you must work. An inactive actor is a dead actor. And god help the actor without a sense of humor. And pity the actor who finds himself being psychoanalyzed, which is the worst thing an actor can do and for a most basic reason–actors, the great ones, must have a strange madness.”

“Charles Laughton had it. Orson Welles has it. So does Paul Gregory–and all three men played vital roles in my career. Ah, but if a psychiatrist digs in and analyzes that strange madness, those odd quirks, him his magic difference.”

We ordered coffee, and Miss Moorehead turned to “Bewitched” and told us about her role.

“From my one-woman shows that take me all the faraway spots in the country, which are miles from Madison Avenue, I think I know as much as Mr. Nielsen about what public taste is all about,” she said tartly. “But when I first read the script for “Bewitched,” I can’t say I immediately recognized the fantasy. As for my part, it certainly isn’t challenging–and who is going to tell you about playing the witch mother of a witch daughter who is married to a nic,e normal human being.”

“So I play my witch off-key. You either play comedy with surprise or it’s distortion. Comedy is all mathematical anyway–in how it builds and progresses step by step. We have something else in “Bewitched”-- a certain romance, a tenderness, and no ugliness and complexities. Also, we have good morals, and even a witch mother can have a pleasant philosophy on life.”

“What I do is I try to approach each script as fresh and new, and my character is as though I were playing her for the first time. Actors do have a responsibility to the audience and fellow actors. We are, after all, servants of the public. Some actors forget that fact. Others never learn it.

Dear Maurice

 January 10, 1965

The Modesto Bee

Sunday

Shakespearean actor Maurice Evans was so presold on “Bewitched” that he flew to the West Coast without having seen a script to make his TV comedy series debut. 

He is the powerful warlock father of Samantha and Endora’s husband.

“I had just signed with an agent for the first time and was in Hollywood when a producer friend said that it’s not like the old days when they sometimes used to take months to cast roles–they cast fast now.” After I had returned to New York, the agent read this “Bewitched” script and phoned me that it was a good role, so I accepted,” said Evans, adding, “During that same trip to the West Coast, I ran into Agnes Moorehead at a party. She told me about the series, so I was somewhat presold before I was invited to play her husband, Maurice.”

“I wanted to work with Aggie. I think highly of her talents, and I like her. Although we had never worked together before.”

Evans mentions that he owns the rights to “Man and Superman,” including “Don Juan In Hell.  It never crossed his mind to do it the way Charles Laughton did. He says, “I wanted to work with Aggie,” and that’s why he did Bewitched. Thank heavens. Maurice got an agent because he’s the only man I can see who is comfortable playing Aggie’s husband.

“Women who are conscious of their beauty are a bore.”

June 27, 1965

The Duluth News

Lydia Lane

Agnes Moorehead believes that charm and good manners are inseparable. 

“Charm depends on a genuine interest in and enjoyment of other people. When you make them aware of their own identity and value, they find you charming. Many people block their charm with egotism. A beauty who over-displays a high opinion of herself is boring,” Agnes revealed.

If you want to be charming, she feels you have to know yourself. You have to work to achieve security and assurance. These qualities lie behind serenity, which others are quick to enjoy and associate with your charm.”

“I am thinking of a girl now,” she said as we chatted in her dressing room on the “Bewitched” set, “who would never qualify as a beauty contestant. But she has gracious manners, warmth, and humor that draw people to her. She receives more attention than a beauty who neglects her manners.”

“Miss Moorehead has a good word for charm schools. “I am for anything that will give you a lift and confidence. I think instruction in posture and advice on what to do with your hands and feet, as well as how to sit and move gracefully, is constructive.”

“Grace is an integral part of Charm. Everyone, whether she aspires to be a dancer or not, can profit by taking ballet. It teaches balance and poise, and when you walk into a room holding your head high, you command attention and respect.”

“A good speaking voice, a knowledge of how to dress, and how to meet and greet strangers offer enough to make a shy person assured.”

If you read between the lines, you will see that Agnes has surrendered a bit of herself in the article. You might even understand that she is talking, in a way, about herself and what she learned as a child. Aggie is telling you that beauty is irrelevant if you can’t back it with personality, and she would know because she was the ugly duckling in the family. The girl who was no beauty overcame her lack of physical perfection with charm, her voice, grace, and fashion sense. Is it just me, or does this remind you of anyone? Agnes, Aggie, Agatha, perhaps.

Sean hoofs it in Wales.

In May 1965, Sean jumped ship at Llandovery College in Wales. There was a three-day national search for him. Three days later, he walks into a Swansea police station. Did Agnes jump on a plane in a panic because he was missing? No mention of her doing it is in any newspaper. In addition, there’s no mention of him returning to the United States either. Logical behavior should be bringing your child home or catching the first plane out because having a school he doesn’t care for discipline him is a waste of time and money. To this day, there is no indication of why he left the school. There was no information on where he was for three days or what happened, leaving everyone wondering what prompted his escape.

In All Her Glory

In January 1965, Agnes began making limited appearances for her one-woman show. One of her first stops was in Odessa, Texas. What an exciting year for Aggie! She’s in contention for an Academy Award for “Hush.” The one-woman show is rolling out again. Bewitched is a success beyond her wildest dreams. Aggie even has a gig every Friday until the last of May at the Comedia Theatre. Life is good! 

It seems excellent right up to May, when Sean goes walkabout. Agnes even designed her gown for the Oscars this year. In April, Aggie goes on a three-week junket with her one-woman show. Traveling to colleges and universities like Harvard and Chapman College. The central part of that junket will happen in Pittsburgh, New York, Washington, D.C., and St. Paul. The part in St. Paul seems a little off-course from the rest of the tour. His touring time has gone from months to weeks inside of two years.  Her idea that “Bewitched” would grant funding for her tours was falling apart. But the Queen didn’t break a sweat. She just kept moving forward. Always forward.

School to School to School

At the beginning of the 1965 school year, Sean attended Le Lycee Francais in Los Angeles. Agnes was driven to educate Sean whether he wanted it or not. He attended St. Joseph’s Military Academy, an unnamed Swiss school, a private school in Wales from which he ran away, Le Lycee Francais, and finally Santa Monica High School. I can’t understand her determination to shove an education down his throat. I changed schools a great deal, but I only had one school that was a one-year stay. Sean had five or more.  It is mind-boggling.

After Sean was enrolled, Agnes made a point to involve herself with the school and get Sean’s name in the newspaper. Fabulous. Look at it from Sean’s point of view. You’ve been shipped out to schools because you're not wanted or because your foster mother will be out of the town or country for an extended period. This put her in the middle of Le Lycee and got Sean publicity to make him a guaranteed target. Whether the school is for the wealthy or a regular school, bullies will bully. I’m pretty sure Sean’s nature was not a lay down and take it nature but a stand up to fight the bully nature. No matter how you look at it, Sean has no chance. He wasn’t being educated with a curriculum that played to his strengths but instead to Agnes’s. 

As the year went on, Agnes peddled faster than ever on “Bewitched,” she had no idea this show would make her a household name. There was no concept of how much time the show might require before she accepted the pilot. Aggie was practically nailed down to Hollywood. There was no time for her one-woman show. She managed parties with no problem. Aggie worked it all, except for her show. Time was her enemy. Premieres and parties were right there in Hollywood. The show required travel, and Agnes could not jump on a plane to do a one-nighter fly back and go to work the following day. She was 64 years old, and time takes its toll. Trust me, I know. Age gives us the wisdom to know how to do a thing wonderfully but not the unlimited energy it requires to do that thing. Agnes was stuck in that boat.

The Red Queen 1966

Agnes In Wonderland

In July, Agnes replaced an injured Bette Davis as “The Red Queen” in “Alice In Wonderland.” When I watched it as a young kid, I had no idea that ‘Endora” was so much like “The Red Queen.” At least, that’s what I thought. Today, I can’t imagine the part with Bette in it, just as I can’t imagine Endora without Agnes. It was a miracle of modern television that Endora was The Red Queen! It made Alice’s tale so much more enjoyable. Like it or not, it is still hard to separate Endora from the Red Queen.

Television brought them to us with the same actor in both. We, as kids, combined the two effortlessly. Why? Because of Agnes. We saw her in our living rooms weekly. She was like a neighbor who came to visit weekly. Everybody knew who Endora was, everybody. Suddenly, an actor who could have walked down a street four years earlier and been recognized by some folks couldn’t do that now if she wanted to. Agnes was instantly recognizable by children and adults. Agnes had begun cementing her place in television history while staring at a show with a massive following sixty years later. Ask yourself who in the history of television would insist that it had one of the most significant impacts on the industry, and the answer will be Agnes Moorehead.

Others have come and gone. They had their moments and moved on to other things, but “Bewitched” was an institution for seven years, through changes that would have killed a less show on the spot. They negotiated pregnancies, the death of two cast members in Alice Pearce and Marion Lorne, the recasting of Darren, Kleenex clauses, and the birth of a new decade. What they didn’t know was that Agnes was beginning a fight that would last a further eight years before it finally claimed her. Like the professional that she was, Agnes had her first surgery in 1966. This nature is undisclosed, but Baron Polon offers a clue in his letter to Agnes when he talks about remembering poor Alice Pearce and what she died from. This was the first cancer surgery Agnes would have.

Mystery Illness One

1966 9, June Agnes returns to Hollywood after a check-up at the Mayo Clinic. Given Baron Polan’s letter a month before, Agnes must have gone there for surgery.

1966, 6 December Agnes receives a letter from Baron Polan regarding her operation. It must have been at the Mayo Clinic. Agnes went home to her mother’s for several weeks to recover. He said, “I guess poor Alice Pearce must be a lesson for all of us, for I was told she was warned but did not take time to see.” Alice Pearce died from ovarian cancer and was diagnosed with it before filming for “Bewitched” began.

Paris

December 4, 1966 

Agnes Dearest,

First and foremost, I hope this letter arrives in time and that my happy, happy, happy birthday isn’t late! December 6th came creeping up on me, but if this should arrive after the day, please forgive me and know it doesn’t take one iota away from the fact that I wish you all the happiness in the world in your year to come and send you a very, very tender kiss for the occasion. 

I was thrilled to receive your letter and your news, though I must say I was a little shocked by learning that you had had surgery; it was nothing too “grave”- I hope, mind you, knowing that you were going off in nine directions at the same time was most reassuring, but, I do hope you’re not overdoing it! The school does sound marvelous, and though it takes up so much time and energy, as you say, it is worth it, especially for those youngsters who take acting seriously and know they need training to do this work. There are so few places where a young would-be actor can receive sound guidance and hope to grow.  Do you have a young man named Bruce Baker in the school? His father, Jack, is an old friend of mine and had mentioned in his last letter that Bruce was hoping to be able to join your school and get some serious work done.

As you can see, I am back in Paris after having put on a great deal of mileage in the course of the year! All told, I’ve spent seven months out of the year away on location, and that adds up to a lot of hotel rooms, restaurant food, and flying about in planes. So, by now, I am thoroughly enjoying playing the “Hausfrau” just for a change of pace. 

No sooner had I finished work on the “25th Hour,” I was off to Rome to supervise the English dubbing of a Carlo Ponti film, and as the Romans don’t believe in working too hard, I had plenty of time to meander about the glorious city and drink in its beauty. I remained there for two weeks, enjoyed it tremendously, then made a quick trip to Munich and back in order to redo two shots from the “25th Hour” with Tony Quinn and Verna Lisi, during which time Tony talked me into joining him on Elba for two weeks where he was due to begin a film under the direction of Terrence Young and in which he played a Frenchman and wanted to take on a French flavor in his speech without sounding like Maurice Chevalier!..so it was off to Elba, and everything was going along well until the rains came!...then began the problem of my trying to get back to Rome in order to get a plane to Paris where I was due to start work on another film. The trip back to the airport across flooded Tuscany was quite an adventure, but I made it on time somehow and then reported to work coaching Senta Berger, a charming young actress, with Louis Jourdan making the film Old Home Week.

Now, once again unemployed, and for the meantime thankful to be so, I can take some rest, attend to my friends and my home, and am having a marvelous time with the novelty of being lazy without a conscience!!

Only one page exists.

The above-referenced letter deals with an unknown surgery that took place in 1966 and was written by Barron Polan.

“Men Listen to Women’s Instincts.”

Whether or not Agnes realized it, she was a feminist. The majority of her world is female-centered. It always had been and always would be. You can’t blame a woman whom men have dealt with as Agnes had been for being a feminist. Look at what you have to compare. My point is that Agnes would not have described herself as a feminist. In her view, she was “just a woman.” Agnes had a poor grasp of how the public viewed her at large.

1966 27 February

The Press-Telegram

Long Beach, California

Sunday

Page 97

Bert Resnik

If Agnes Moorehead was really a witch, she’d probably use her powers to enlighten men about women.

Enlighten and accept but not necessarily understand…

“An actor has a great responsibility to an audience–to touch their hearts.”

She wishes she could touch the minds of men and impart to them the wisdom of accepting an element common to most women–instinct.

“Women have much more instinct than men,” she said. There’s no analyzing it. You can’t give a reason for it. And it’s baffling to men.”

“A woman, after offering an opinion, will be asked by a man why she thinks so. “Because,” replies the femme.”

“The man wants to know the logical reasons behind her opinion. The woman answers, “I just feel it.”

It is Miss Moorehead’s opinion that the man will eventually find out the woman was right instinctively.

Hopefully, for the males, however, she adds:

“Men should rule.”

“I’m not saying women can’t do it, but men have a greater balance.

A man is not nearly as ruthless as a woman when she wants something.

Furthermore, women are basically homemakers and mothers. They are also here to bring out the gentle side of men. It’s just that their instinct and prowess are underrated by men.

A wise man will take a woman’s advice even if he doesn’t understand it”, Miss Moorehead said.

A wise woman will not say, “I told you so.” She’ll say, “You did it.”

“Applying the woman instinct to her own profession. Miss Moorehead would like to see the teaming of men and women directors. A man-woman directing team could impart two points of view to a production, and “the audience would be the benefactor.”

If this isn’t several paragraphs stating one thing and then defining it as the opposite. The dilution is “Women are smart, but men have to feel smarter.” Feminism? Yes and no. What you read above in Aggie’s comments are the words of a Victorian woman where the world was centered around men but knows she is more potent than any man and who knows how to say it, poke the bear, so to speak, and walk away allowing somebody else t think they have one. 

I discern that from this article alone, and I will add to it the statement Agnes makes in the interview:

“A man is not nearly as a woman when she wants something.”

You do know Agnes is relaying her own experience here. Who was the ruthless one in the bunch when Aggie wanted out of her marriage to John? Aggie. Who was the one who wanted a child, chose a boy, and then handed him to her staff to raise? Aggie. Why? Her career.  Who was the one who beat Robert Gist at his own game by tying up their divorce for years? Aggie. Why? He pissed her off. 

So you see, all the tradwife bull that Agnes slings here is not remotely close to how she lived her life, except for one thing. She allowed Jack to beat her repeatedly. That submission to him was pure and simple, but she learned from it. Agnes immediately cut the rope with Robert once she knew what was happening. She waited to divorce him, and it appeared to be purely monetary, but she cut bait and walked away. By this point in her life, in the 1960s, Agnes had a strangely modern but Victorian view of the world, which was uniquely hers. 

All the pretty parties

Agnes was always out and about! 1966 was a whirlwind of events for her. Just look at this list!

• January 14th: She kicked off the year at a party in Tom Mix's old house, escorted by Cesar Romero.

• January 25th: Another party, this time at George Roosevelt's place.

• February 8th: Agnes enjoyed a performance by Sergio Franchi at the Cocoanut Grove.

• February 10th: She attended the premiere of Madame X."

• February 13th: Agnes graced the screen on "Mr. Blackwell Presents."

• March 23rd: Dinner at Por Favor with Maureen O'Hara and Vince Edwards. How fun!

• June 23rd: Premiere of "Khartoum."

• June 25th: Celebrated at the Petri wedding.

• June 29th: Arthur Cameron's party with Cesar Romero. She declared Cesar should be on the best-dressed list!

• July 7th: An "Early California Barbecue" at 20th Century Fox.

• July 13th: The premiere of "How to Steal a Million."

• July 18th: Milton Berle's birthday party at Chasen's.

• July 28th: A party at Polly Bergen's house.

• August 5th: Dinner with Paul Gregory and his wife at LaRue.

• September 6th: She saw "War and Peace" at the Greek Theatre and loved it.

• September 16th: Co-chair of the Thalians.

• September 16th: Dinner at The Round Table with Ben Gazzara and Cesar Romero.

• September 18th: Agnes and Cesar were seen dining out together every night!

• October 5th: Working with Kurt Kasner, Ricardo Montalban, and Sam Jaffe on a satire.

• October 5th: Attended the premiere of The Bible.

• October 7th: Sara Hamilton's party, where Agnes wore a yellow suit with green accessories.

• October 11th: More outings with Cesar!

• October 17th: Agnes presided over the San Francisco International Film Festival opening.

• December 18th: A Christmas event for underprivileged children.

With all these events, you know Agnes was always dressed to impress. Can you even imagine the clothes? She had three walk-in closets packed with designer gowns! I'm lucky enough to have a peach gown that was hers, a tiny piece of her fabulous wardrobe. I used to have her Persian lamb, mink coat, and a Christmas cape she knitted, but those are now with the AADA. She always looked incredible and had the budget to support her glamorous lifestyle. She once said she put on "war paint" to go out, but it was more than just makeup; she had a closet full of "war clothes" ready for any occasion!

Runaway Sean

On May 11, 1965, Sean left Llandovery College in Wales. A nationwide search was launched for him, and three days later, he walked into a police station in Swansea.  On November 11, 1966, Sean was picked up in Roseville, California, after running away from home. He gave his address as Malibu and was taken to juvenile detention. Two successful runs in a little over a year apart. Sean was in a world of hurt.

Children often run away from home due to significant issues at home, such as family conflict, abuse (physical, emotional, or sexual), neglect, parental separation or divorce, strict disciplinary measures, feelings of being unwanted, academic pressure, peer pressure, mental health concerns, or a desire to escape a difficult situation at home; essentially, running away can be a way for a child to cope when they feel unsafe or unheard.

• Family dynamics:
  Children often run away due to problems within the family unit, such as arguments, a lack of communication, or a feeling of not belonging. 

• Abuse:
  Physical, emotional, or sexual abuse at home is a significant reason why children might run away to seek safety. 

• 
  

• Mental health issues:
  Depression, anxiety, or other mental health struggles can contribute to a child's decision to run away. 

• Substance abuse:
  Sometimes, children might run away due to involvement with drugs or alcohol. 

• School problems:
  Bullying, academic pressure, or poor performance at school can also lead to running away. 

• Lack of support:
  Feeling like they don't have anyone to talk to or rely on at home can push children to run away. 

• Running away is not always a cry for attention. While it can sometimes be a manipulative tactic, it’s essential to understand that it is usually a desperate attempt to deal with a serious problem.

•  Open communication:
  Creating a safe space for open communication within the family can help prevent children from wanting to run away.

The Queen of Quite A Lot

February 19, 1966

Los Angeles Citizen Evening News

Los Angeles, CA

Sydney Skolsky

Agnes Moorehead has the gift of stimulating gab. She is sexier off the screen than you’d imagine.

Agnes was, in every sense of the word, a Queen. She was the “First Lady of Suspense” and The Mercury Theatre On The Air member. When Agnes walked into a room, people looked; she took command of the entire room as they looked. Agnes didn’t do it with what she had on. She did it with who she was. Shen entered every room like a Queen. Aggie walked the backlots like a monarch surveying her kingdom. When “That Fabulous Redhead” hit the stage, Agnes walked on like a Queen. When Endora “pops in,” she arrives like a Queen. Even Velma Caruthers had a gravity about her that was way above her station in life. Agnes Robertson Moorehead was a Queen, a legend, and something to aspire to.

Like any monarch who never stops to think about money, Agnes was a wee bit given to spontaneous purchases of expensive things. She once spent $400.00 on an oil painting of Sarah Bernhardt. We all know she had always had a penchant for expensive costume jewelry. Her home was enormous, and she lived in it alone. She furnished the said home exotically. She drove, until she stopped moving, a 1957 Thunderbird that was painted mauve. Suffice it to say she had no choice but to accept engagements to enable her to pay for all the beautiful things she loved so much and to put her foster son through whatever private school she had installed him in that year. Wait, what?  She maintained that schedule while she had custody of Sean, and he rarely saw her.

The delivery of Sean and other outlandish stories

She had also begun rewriting her history.  A more accurate statement would be that she did not seek to correct flattering errors.  She hadn't been in show business since she was three years old.  She had sung publicly at her father's church around three.  She didn't have a doctorate in Speech from Columbia University.  She had an honorary doctorate in speech from Columbia University.  Agnes was guilty of stretching the truth.  She had been doing it, by her own admittance, since childhood.  She often spun long tales about some fantastic occurrence, but her parents did not see that as an issue.  They saw it as a child; according to Agnes, they did.   However, it was a habit she did not outgrow.  She was known to make up fantastic tales and tell them to people who knew they were not true.  Joseph Cotten and his wife witnessed one such event during their stint with Agnes in "Prescription Murder."  Agnes spun a great long yarn about being in labor and the delivery of her son Sean.  Once she finished, she simply stood up and left the room.  Nobody called her out on it, just as nobody had called her out on it as a child.  They simply accepted it as a personality trait they could do nothing about.  Paul Gregory allegedly said in an interview for a biography many years later that it was a part of her personality that he found troubling. 

 A writer named Bernice Mason wrote an article about Agnes. It was titled “You May Come Close But Not Too Close.”  It’s one of the most insightful pieces I’ve read, and this paragraph sums it up nicely. “So much mention has been made of her stellar career, but details of her personal life are unknown.  Some things have set people to wondering.  Signs....trail signs.  Signs that aren't actually there, but you read them anyway, like Private Property, No Trespassing, Stranger, and Keep Out.  There also seems to be a general impression that she lives within a created impenetrable fortress composed of layer on layer of self-protecting covering, perhaps to guarantee the safety of a hypersensitive spirit against the knife thrust of living...a fortress to which nobody would probably lay ruthless siege but which evokes the wonder if this fine, beautiful granite strength would crumble at too cruel a jest, too sweet a song, a too knowing surgeon's probe.”

Step Into My Parlor

Agnes was a talker; nothing thrilled her more than telling a story. Whether it was funny, sad, comfortable, happy, or a tale about love, it didn’t matter; she was a natural storyteller. She could feel whatever story she had written, and you could see that in her when she spoke. Agnes wanted you to come to her parlor and let her read you a few stories. Nobody did this better until Garrison Keiler and his Prarie Home Companion. Agnes would have loved that show. 

In 1966, she performed seven performances of her one-woman show, participated in the Arthritis Foundation Benefit, and performed her traditional “The Littlest Angel” at the Opera Guild’s Christmas affair. 

Appearing in a series hampered her ability to travel to give performances. She had perceived it as allowing her to go across the country and deliver performances. The show did the opposite. It demanded more and more time as it grew ever more popular in a country desperate for distraction from the brutal realities of everyday life.  The better the pay became, the more demands there were. Add to that, 1966 was the year Dick York began to have back pain from an old injury that would start to interfere with his ability to perform. That left slack. Aggie picked up some of it, making a demanding show even more so. The remainder fell on Liz Montgomery and Marion Lorne. But this incredible trio of women just kept moving forward! Consider these two trio of women who would be seen as senior citizens today. Agnes was 65 going on 66. Marion Lorne was 82 going on 83. Yes, they wrote about Dick York, but they did it with actors who were 27 to 45 years older than York. If you throw Maurice Evans into the mix, he picked up some slack also; he was 26 years older than Dick York. I look at all this and wonder how this woman stayed on her feet. But what I find most intriguing is what happens when Dick Sargent finally replaces Dick York.

One-Woman Show et al. Dates

1966, 13 and 14 January “Come Closer and I’ll Give You an Earful at Claremont University for two nights.

1966, 29 January Agnes performs at Rice Auditorium in Lawndale, California

1966, 24 February: Agnes will be part of a series of performers at Palomar College.

1966 5 March Agnes participates in the Arthritis Foundation Benefit until March 6th.

1966, 12 March Agnes will perform at CalTech on Sunday evening, March 12. 

1966, 7 April Agnes will perform at the Brentwood-Bel Air Women’s Club Luncheon. “Come Closer, I’ll Give You An Earful.

1966, 22 April Agnes performs for the San Bernardino Assistance League.

1966 6 December Agnes will do a reading for The Opera Guild of SoCal

School

Jingle Bells Folks

On December 11, 1966, an annual Christmas party at Aggie’s home kicked off the holiday season. Aggie was in love with Christmas. Trees, poinsettias, boughs of evergreen, holiday ribbons, wreaths, flowers, multiple tables set with Christmas decor, presents, singers, valets, bartenders, and a partridge in each “Magic Pear Tree.”

The thank you cards for this premier event are like a list of who is who in the world. There are cards from The White House. There was nobody of note who was not invited to the season opener of the holidays. Agnes gussied up the house, and she gussied up herself.  From the land of the three walk-in closets, Chanel, Dior, and Balenciaga adorned Agnes every year. Jewelry sparkled all over her like she was a chandelier. During this fete, Aggie was the ultimate gorgeous hostess. She flitted from table to table like a mother hen. This was her roost, and these were her chicks!

Schaedenfreude Dear Robert

Ah, yes. “The Malaria Kid was having a rough year, and if you don’t think Agnes was laughing up her sleeve, you’d be wrong. Agnes wasn’t a stalker, but I know her well enough now to know that even if she wasn’t saving it in her scrapbook, she was interested in reading about dear Robert Gist’s crappy everything in 1966! In July, the heiress that Robert left Agnes divorced Robert. The reason is that another woman named Irene Tsu intervened in his marriage to Jacqueline Mickles Gist. He tried running to Florida but to no avail. The man never learned that you cannot have your cake and eat it, too.

But the biggest issue in Gist’s life would be a film called “American Dream” directed by Gist. Flop. Epic flop. It's a super substantial, epic flop. After the faceplant of this film, Robert begins to have trouble getting jobs. He returned to television, his bread and butter outside the theatre. So Agnes had a hit, and Robert had an epic fail. Ain’t life grand!

I am sure Agnes read articles and dished the gossip about her exes. Hollywood then, and notably Beverly Hills. They had small-town know-your-business and everyone else’s level of dishing gossip. No love was lost between Gist Agnes and the fact that she hung on to things Jack Lee sent her, but you can’t find a single note or card from Robert. That speaks volumes about how bitter the end of their relationship was.

She Is A Perfectionist

“The actor who stops working and studying is dead.” The article also says: “Busier today than ever, celebrated in all four walks of entertainment – screen, stage, radio, and television—She is a perfectionist.” Can you imagine? Who would have noticed that Agnes was a perfectionist? Nobody, aside from every person who worked with her. Agnes was a self-perfectionist. Failings in others could be explained away, but failing herself was unacceptable to Agnes.

Because she was a perfectionist, Agnes never ceased trying to keep as many balls in the air as possible. Aggie is on the series “Bewitched,” the occasional movie, and still finds time to perform for profit or to volunteer time as a donation to a cause. Seriously, look below. I am sure I couldn’t manage the equivalent of two full-time and six part-time jobs all in 12 months! It’s massive,  and to demand personal perfection in every one of them is the exclamation point at the end!

When Does She Find The Time

Agnes took on gigs while she was doing “Bewitched.” She took on quite a fey. Aggie never sat still. She was not a languid layabout at all. Firstly, she needed, not wanted, the money when the gig paid. Secondly, she wanted the publicity of donating the time of working on a committee afforded you. It showed you had a certain standing in the community.  Agnes loved the idea of being a citizen in high standing. It is the only thing she ever wanted out of all of it. Her position in the community was of supreme importance to her, just as it had been for her father and mother. They taught her that your standing in your community indicates your moral nature. That, of course, is pure horse crap.

In April, Agnes hosted “Sundays at Four” at the Pasadena Playhouse, and the theme was “You, the Audience, Speak.” In Ma,y Aggie narrated the history of “The Children’s Home Society,” which is being played for members. She donated her time to “The International Days Benefit for St. Martha’s School.” Aggie is listed as part of Bing Crosby’s group that manages the San Francisco International Film Festival. In August, Agnes was named to the “Hollywood Advisory Committee.  Her school and private tutoring sessions were still ongoing. Mel Grubb credits his success to Agnes teaching him acting.