Marion Davies (born January 3, 1897; died September 23, 1961) was a comedic
actress.
Though one of the greatest silent screen comediennes,
Marion Davies is best remembered today for her relationship with newspaper
tycoon William Randolph Hearst. Even during her career, her high-profile social
life often obscured her professional achievements.
Of Greek and Irish heritage, she was born Marion Cecilia Douras in Brooklyn,
New York, the youngest of five children born to Herbert Douras, a lawyer who
moved in New York City political circles, and Rose Reilly, formerly of Jersey
City, New Jersey. Her elder siblings included Rose, Reine, and Ethel. A brother,
Charles, drowned at the age of 15 in 1906. She spoke fluent Greek and liked to
do puzzles.
The Douras family lived near Prospect Park in Brooklyn, but already the
bright lights of Manhattan beckoned to the sisters. The sisters changed their
surname to Davies, which one of them spotted from a realtor's sign in the
neighbourhood. Even at a time when New York was the melting pot for new
immigrants, having a Anglo-Saxon surname greatly helped one's prospects.
The Davies girls all hit the Great White Way, and Marion was signed on as a
chorine in Florenz Ziegfeld's spectacular annual "Ziegfeld Follies" revues.
Massively and expensively staged and brimming with the best comedic and musical
talent, Ziegfeld's productions also showcased some of the most sensationally
attractive young women in the world.
Along with other lovelies starting out in the 1916 "Follies" - like Olive
Thomas and Mae Murray - Marion's beauty, vivacity and talent made her a star,
and she soon outgrew the chorusline. Also like Thomas and Murray, she exchanged
her popularity on stage for success in the movies.
After making her screen debut in late 1916 in a fashion newsreel, modeling
gowns by Lucile (Lucy, Lady Duff-Gordon), she appeared in her first feature film
in 1917's Runaway Romany, for which she also wrote the script. Playing mainly
light comedic roles, she quickly became a major movie personality, making a
small fortune which enabled her to provide financial assistance for her family
and friends.
By the mid-1920s, however, Marion's career was often overshadowed by her
relationship with married media mogul William Randolph Hearst and their fabulous
social life at San Simeon and Ocean House in Santa Monica. Hearst met her soon
after she'd started working in movies, and formed Cosmopolitan Pictures solely
to produce starring vehicles for her. Hearst's relentless efforts to promote her
career instead had a detrimental effect, but he persisted, making Cosmopolitan's
distribution deals first with Paramount, then Goldwyn, and then Metro Goldwyn
Mayer. Marion, herself, in her published memoirs The Times We Had, concluded
that Hearst's over-the-top promotion of her career, in fact, had a negative
result.
Hearst loved seeing her in expensive costume pictures such as When Knighthood
Was in Flower (1922), Little Old New York (1923), Janice Meredith (1924) and
Quality Street (1927), but in retrospect she seems to have fared just as well,
if not better, in contemporary comedies like Tillie the Toiler, The Fair Co-Ed
(both 1927), and especially two directed by King Vidor, The Patsy and the
backstage-in-Hollywood saga Show People (both 1928), where she showed a shining
comedic talent and pantomimic skills. The Patsy contains her wonderful
imitations, that she usually did for friends, of silent stars Lillian Gish, Mae
Murray and Pola Negri.
The coming of sound made Marion nervous, because she had never completely
overcome a childhood stutter. But with her usual persistence she did well, and
made several memorable comedies and musicals during the 1930's, including
Marianne (1929), Not So Dumb (1930), The Florodora Girl (1930), The Bachelor
Father (1931), Five and Ten (1931) with Leslie Howard, Polly of the Circus
(1932) with Clark Gable, Blondie of the Follies (1932), Peg o' My Heart (1933),
Going Hollywood (1933) with Bing Crosby, and Operator 13 (1934) with Gary
Cooper. She was involved with many aspects of her films and was considered an
astute businesswoman. Her career, however, was hampered by Hearst's insistence
that she play distinguished, dramatic parts, as opposed to the comic roles that
were her forte. She also harboured an increasing dependence on alcohol, hiding
bottles of liquor in San Simeon's toilet tanks. However, her body of work has
often been praised by contemporary critics.
Hearst reportedly had tried to push MGM executives to hire Marion for the
role of Marie Antoinette in Marie Antoinette (1938). Louis B. Mayer had other
ideas and hired producer Irving Thalberg's wife Norma Shearer for the part
instead. Hearst reacted by pulling his newspaper support for MGM, and moved
Cosmopolitan Pictures to Warner Bros.'s studios, but stayed only a few years.
Davies' films there, including Page Miss Glory (1935), Hearts Divided, Cain and
Mabel (both 1936), and Ever Since Eve (1937), her last film. Cosmopolitan
Pictures folded, so Marion left the screen and retreated to San Simeon.
William R. Hearst and Marion Davies were reportedly never a fully committed
couple, as Hearst never divorced his wife (though at one point he reportedly
came close to marrying Davies, but decided his wife's settlement demands were
too high) and Davies was supposedly infatuated with actor Dick Powell in the
mid-1930s. In the mid-1920s, she was allegedly involved with Charlie Chaplin.
The latter relationship became the stuff of legend in 1924 when Hearst, Davies
and Chaplin were on Hearst's yacht with film producer Thomas Ince. Ince took ill
and died, and in spite of no supporting evidence, rumours have circulated since
that Hearst mistook Ince for Chaplin and shot him in a jealous rage. The rumours
were dramatised in the play The Cat's Meow, which was later made into a 2001
film starring Edward Herrmann as Hearst, Kirsten Dunst as Davies, Eddie Izzard
as Chaplin and Cary Elwes as Ince.
By the early 1940s, Hearst's empire crumbled, and he was beginning to lose
everything. Over Hearst's objections, Davies sold many of the gifts he had given
her over the years (supposedly worth millions of American dollars) to raise
money to bail him out; Davies commented that the "gold digger had fallen in
love." When Hearst died, his family had every trace of Davies' presence in his
home removed, and when discussing his life and legacy, made no reference to
her.
Ten weeks after Hearst's death, Davies married for the first time, on October
31, 1951, at the age of fifty-four. Her husband was former sea captain,
policeman and sometime actor, Horace G. Brown. It was not a happy marriage (he
allegedly encouraged her drinking): Davies filed for divorce twice, but neither
was finalised. Marion's friends, and the media, noticed a remarkable physical
similarity between Brown and the young William Randolph Hearst.
In her last years, the generous Marion Davies was involved with charity work:
in 1952 she donated $1.9 million to establish a children's clinic at UCLA, which
still bears her name. She also fought childhood diseases through the Marion
Davies Foundation.
Davies died of cancer in 1961, in Hollywood. Her funeral was attended by many
old-time Hollywood legends and President Herbert Hoover. She is buried in the
Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Hollywood.
After the death of Davies' niece, Patricia Lake (née Van Cleeve), Lake's
family announced that she was in fact the daughter of Marion Davies and William
Randolph Hearst; prior to the announcement, it had been said that Lake was the
daughter of Rose Davies (Marion's sister) and her first husband, George Van
Cleeve. Although the claim does not appear to have been verified independently,
Lake and her husband-Arthur Lake, who played Dagwood in numerous films-were
buried beside Davies.
Davies was rumoured to be the inspiration for the shrill, talentless Susan
Alexander character portrayed in Orson Welles' Citizen Kane, which was based
loosely on Hearst's life. This portrayal has led to various portrayals of her as
a loose, drunken woman, the most recent of which was Melanie Griffith's in HBO's
RKO 281. Welles himself deeply regretted that so many assumed Susan Alexander
was a carbon copy of Davies- he felt that the real Davies was a great actress
and a wonderful woman. Davies was also portrayed by Virginia Madsen in the
telefilm The Hearst and Davies Affair (1985) (with Robert Mitchum as Hearst) and
Heather Macnair in Chaplin (1992). Madsen later became a Davies fan and said
that she felt she had inadvertently portrayed her as a stereotype, rather than
as a real person. Many film historians and fans resent the negative reputation
Kane garnered her, and have worked to restore her image in the public eye. Their
efforts included a 2001 documentary which featured appearances by friends and
costars who tearfully remembered Davies, even four decades after her death.
Though one of the greatest silent screen comediennes,
Marion Davies is best remembered today for her relationship with newspaper
tycoon William Randolph Hearst. Even during her career, her high-profile social
life often obscured her professional achievements.
