Event Program | Centennial Tribute to Bette Davis

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in association with
the Film Department of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art presents

A CENTENNIAL TRIBUTE TO BETTE DAVIS

Thursday, May 1, 2008 at 8 p.m. at the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater

Hosted by Robert Osborne

Opening Film Clip

Program Cover

All About Eve (1950) Cast Bette Davis, Anne Baxter, George Sanders, Celeste Holm, Gary Merrill, Hugh Marlowe, Thelma Ritter. Directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz. Produced by Darryl F. Zanuck. Screenplay Mankiewicz. Based on the short story “The Wisdom of Eve” by Mary Orr. Cinematography Milton R. Krasner. Film Editing Barbara McLean. Art Direction Lyle Wheeler, George W. Davis. Set DecorationThomas Little, Walter M. Scott. Music Alfred Newman. Costume Design Edith Head, Charles Le Maire. 20th Century-Fox.

Academy Award® winner:Actor in a Supporting Role (Sanders), Black-and-White Costume Design (Head, Le Maire), Directing (Mankiewicz), Best Motion Picture (20th Century-Fox), Sound Recording (20th Century-Fox Studio Sound Department, Thomas T. Moulton, sound director), Writing – Screenplay (Mankiewicz)
Academy Award nominee: Actress (Baxter), Actress (Davis), Actress in a Supporting Role (Holm), Actress in a Supporting Role (Ritter), Black-and-White Art Direction (Wheeler, Davis; Set Decoration: Little, Scott), Black-and-White Cinematography (Krasner), Film Editing (McLean), Music Score of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture (Newman)

Introductory remarks by Robert Osborne

The Cabin in the Cotton (1932) Cast Richard Barthelmess, Dorothy Jordan, Bette Davis, Hardie Albright, Henry B. Walthall. Directed by Michael Curtiz. Screenplay Paul Green. Based on the novel by Harry Harrison Kroll. Cinematography Barney McGill. Film Editing George Amy. Art Direction Esdras Hartley. Vitaphone Orchestra Conductor Leo F. Forbstein. First National.

Ex-Lady (1933) Cast Bette Davis, Gene Raymond, Frank McHugh, Monroe Owsley, Claire Dodd, Kay Strozzi. Directed by Robert Florey. Produced by Darryl F. Zanuck. Screenplay David Boehm. Story Edith Fitzgerald, Robert Riskin. Cinematography Tony Gaudio. Film Editing Harold McLernon. Art Direction Jack Okey. Vitaphone Orchestra Conductor Leo F. Forbstein. Warner Bros.

Of Human Bondage (1934) Cast Leslie Howard, Bette Davis, Frances Dee, Kay Johnson, Reginald Denny, Alan Hale. Directed by John Cromwell. Produced by Pandro S. Berman. Screenplay Lester Cohen. Based on the novel by W. Somerset Maugham. Cinematography Henry W. Gerrard. Film Editing William Morgan. Art Direction Van Nest Polglase, Carroll Clark. Music Max Steiner. RKO Radio.

Commentary by Robert Osborne

The Girl from 10th Avenue (1935) Cast Bette Davis, Ian Hunter, Colin Clive, Alison Skipworth, John Eldredge, Phillip Reed, Katharine Alexander. Directed by Alfred E. Green. Screenplay Charles Kenyon. Based on the play Outcast by Hubert Henry Davies. Cinematography James Van Trees. Film Editing Owen Marks. Art Direction John Hughes. First National.

Dangerous (1935) Cast Bette Davis, Franchot Tone, Margaret Lindsay, Alison Skipworth, John Eldredge. Directed by Alfred E. Green. Story and Screenplay Laird Doyle. Cinematography Ernest Haller. Film Editing Thomas Richards. Art Direction Hugh Reticker. Music Director Leo F. Forbstein. Warner Bros.

Academy Award winner: Actress (Davis)

Commentary by Robert Osborne

Jezebel (1938) Cast Bette Davis, Henry Fonda, George Brent, Margaret Lindsay, Donald Crisp, Fay Bainter, Richard Cromwell. Directed by William Wyler. Screenplay Clements Ripley, Abem Finkel, John Huston. Based on the play by Owen Davis, Sr. Cinematography Ernest Haller. Film Editing Warren Low. Art Direction Robert Haas. Music Max Steiner. Warner Bros.

Academy Award winner:Actress (Davis), Actress in a Supporting Role (Bainter)
Academy Award nominee: Cinematography (Haller), Music – Scoring (Steiner), Outstanding Production (Warner Bros.)

Dark Victory (1939) Cast Bette Davis, George Brent, Humphrey Bogart, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Ronald Reagan, Henry Travers, Cora Witherspoon. Directed by Edmund Goulding. Screenplay Casey Robinson. Based on the play by George Emerson Brewer, Jr., Bertram Bloch. Cinematography Ernest Haller. Film Editing William Holmes. Art Direction Robert Haas. Music Max Steiner. Warner Bros.-First National.

Academy Award nominee: Actress (Davis), Music – Original Score (Steiner), Outstanding Production (Warner Bros.-First National)

Commentary by Robert Osborne

The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex (1939) Cast Bette Davis, Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, Donald Crisp, Alan Hale, Vincent Price, Henry Daniell. Directed by Michael Curtiz. Screenplay Norman Reilly Raine, Aeneas MacKenzie. Based on the play Elizabeth the Queen by Maxwell. Cinematography Sol Polito, W. Howard Greene. Film Editing Owen Marks. Art Direction Anton Grot. Music Erich Wolfgang Korngold. Warner Bros.

Academy Award nominee: Art Direction (Grot), Color Cinematography (Polito, Greene), Music – Scoring (Korngold), Sound Recording (Warner Bros. Studio Sound Department, Nathan Levinson, sound director), Special Effects (Byron Haskin, Levinson)

The Little Foxes (1941) Cast Bette Davis, Herbert Marshall, Teresa Wright, Richard Carlson, Dan Duryea, Patricia Collinge. Directed by William Wyler. Produced by Samuel Goldwyn. Screenplay Lillian Hellman. Based on the play by Hellman. Cinematography Gregg Toland. Film Editing Daniel Mandell. Art Direction Stephen Goosson. Set Decoration Howard Bristol. Music Meredith Willson. Samuel Goldwyn Productions; RKO Radio.

Academy Award nominee: Actress (Davis), Actress in a Supporting Role (Collinge), Actress in a Supporting Role (Wright), Black-and-White Art Direction (Goosson; Interior Decoration: Bristol), Directing (Wyler), Film Editing (Mandell), Music Score of a Dramatic Picture (Willson), Outstanding Motion Picture (Samuel Goldwyn Productions), Writing – Screenplay (Hellman)

Now, Voyager (1942) Cast Bette Davis, Paul Henreid, Claude Rains, Gladys Cooper, Bonita Granville, John Loder. Directed by Irving Rapper. Screenplay Casey Robinson. Based on the novel by Olive Higgins Prouty. Cinematography Sol Polito. Film Editing Warren Low. Art Direction Robert Haas. Set Decoration Fred M. MacLean. Music Max Steiner. Warner Bros.

Academy Award winner: Music Score of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture (Steiner)
Academy Award nominee: Actress (Davis), Actress in a Supporting Role (Cooper)

Onstage conversation with Gena Rowlands

Commentary by Robert Osborne

Mr. Skeffington (1944) Cast Bette Davis, Claude Rains, Walter Abel, George Coulouris, Richard Waring, Marjorie Riordan, Robert Shayne, John Alexander. Directed by Vincent Sherman. Produced and written by Julius J. Epstein, Philip G. Epstein. Based on the novel by Elizabeth von Arnim (Mary Annette Beauchamp). Cinematography Ernest Haller. Film Editing Ralph Dawson. Art Direction Robert Haas. Music Franz Waxman. Warner Bros.

Academy Award nominee: Actress (Davis), Actor in a Supporting Role (Rains)

Hollywood Canteen (1944) Cast Andrews Sisters, Jack Benny, Joe E. Brown, Eddie Cantor, Kitty Carlisle, Jack Carson, Dane Clark, Joan Crawford, Helmut Dantine, Bette Davis, Faye Emerson, Victor Francen, John Garfield, Sydney Greenstreet, Alan Hale, Paul Henreid, Robert Hutton, Andrea King, Joan Leslie, Peter Lorre, Ida Lupino, Irene Manning, Nora Martin, Joan McCracken, Dolores Moran, Dennis Morgan, Janis Paige, Eleanor Parker, William Prince, Joyce Reynolds, John Ridgely, Roy Rogers, Trigger, S.Z. Sakall, Zachary Scott, Alexis Smith, Barbara Stanwyck, Craig Stevens, Joseph Szigeti, Donald Woods, Jane Wyman, Jimmy Dorsey, Carmen Cavallaro, Golden Gate Quartet, Rosario and Antonio, Sons of the Pioneers, Betty Brodel, Barbara Brown, Jonathan Hale, Dorothy Malone, Chef Joseph Milani. Directed by Delmer Daves. Produced by Alex Gottlieb. Screenplay Daves. Cinematography Bert Glennon. Film Editing Christian Nyby. Art Direction Leo Kuter. Set Decoration Casey Roberts. Music Ray Heindorf. Warner Bros.

Academy Award nominee: Music – Scoring of a Musical Picture (Heindorf), Music – Song (“Sweet Dreams Sweetheart,” Music by M.K. Jerome; Lyrics by Ted Koehler), Sound Recording (Warner Bros. Studio Sound Department, Nathan Levinson, sound director)

Onstage conversation with Joan Leslie

Commentary by Robert Osborne

The Star (1952) Cast Bette Davis, Sterling Hayden, Natalie Wood, Warner Anderson, Minor Watson, June Travis, Paul Frees, Robert Warrick, Barbara Lawrence. Directed by Stuart Heisler. Produced by Bert E. Friedlob. Screenplay Dale Eunson, Katherine Albert. Cinematography Ernest Laszlo. Film Editing Otto Ludwig. Art Direction Boris Leven. Set Decoration Edward Boyle. Music Victor Young. Bert E. Friedlob Productions; 20th Century-Fox.

Academy Award nominee: Actress (Davis)

The Catered Affair (1956) Cast Bette Davis, Ernest Borgnine, Debbie Reynolds, Barry Fitzgerald, Rod Taylor, Robert Simon, Madge Kennedy. Directed by Richard Brooks. Produced by Sam Zimbalist. Screenplay Gore Vidal. Based on the teleplay by Paddy Chayefsky. Cinematography John Alton. Film Editing Gene Ruggiero, Frank Santillo. Art Direction Cedric Gibbons, Paul Groesse. Set Decoration Hugh Hunt. Music André Previn. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

Onstage conversation with Michael Merrill and Kathryn Sermak

Commentary by Robert Osborne

What Ever Happened To Baby Jane? (1962) Cast Bette Davis, Joan Crawford, Victor Buono, Anna Lee, Maidie Norman, Marjorie Bennett. Directed and produced byRobert Aldrich. Screenplay Lukas Heller. Based on the novel by Henry Farrell. Cinematography Ernest Haller. Film Editing Michael Luciano. Art Direction William Glasgow. Set Decoration George Sawley. Music Frank De Vol. Costume DesignNorma Koch. Seven Arts-Associates & Aldrich Company; Warner Bros.

Academy Award winner:Black-and-White Costume Design (Koch)
Academy Award nominee: Actor in a Supporting Role (Buono), Actress (Davis), Black-and-White Cinematography (Haller), Sound (Glen Glenn Sound Department, Joseph Kelly, sound director)

Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964) Cast Bette Davis, Olivia de Havilland, Joseph Cotten, Agnes Moorehead, Cecil Kellaway, Victor Buono, Mary Astor, William Campbell, Wesley Addy, Bruce Dern. Directed and produced by Robert Aldrich. Screenplay Henry Farrell, Lukas Heller. Based on the short story “Hush Now, Sweet Charlotte” by Farrell. Cinematography Joseph Biroc. Film Editing Michael Luciano. Art Direction William Glasgow. Set Decoration Raphael Bretton Music Frank De Vol. Costume Design Norma Koch. Associates & Aldrich Company; 20th Century-Fox.

Academy Award nominee: Actress in a Supporting Role (Moorehead), Black-and-White Art Direction (Glasgow; Set Decoration: Bretton), Black-and-White Cinematography (Biroc), Black-and-White Costume Design (Koch), Film Editing (Luciano), Music Score – Substantially Original (De Vol), Music – Song (“Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte,” Music by Frank DeVol; Lyrics by Mack David)

Commentary by Robert Osborne

Death on the Nile (1978) Cast Peter Ustinov, Jane Birkin, Lois Chiles, Bette Davis, Mia Farrow, Jon Finch, Olivia Hussey, George Kennedy, Angela Lansbury, Simon MacCorkindale, David Niven, Maggie Smith. Directed by John Guillermin. Produced by John Brabourne, Richard Goodwin. Screenplay Anthony Shaffer. Based on the novel by Agatha Christie. Cinematography Jack Cardiff. Film Editing Malcolm Cooke. Production Design Peter Murton. Set Decoration Hugh Scaife. Music Nino Rota. Costume Design Anthony Powell. John Brabourne-Richard Goodwin; Paramount.

Academy Award winner: Costume Design (Powell)

The Whales of August (1987) Cast Bette Davis, Lillian Gish, Vincent Price, Ann Sothern, Harry Carey, Jr. Directed by Lindsay Anderson. Produced by Carolyn Pfeiffer, Mike Kaplan. Screenplay David Berry. Based on the play by Berry. Cinematography Mike Fash. Film Editing Nicolas Gaster. Production Design Jocelyn Herbert. Set Decoration Sosie Hublitz. Music Alan Price. Alive Films with Circle Associates; Alive Films.

Academy Award nominee: Actress in a Supporting Role (Sothern)

Closing remarks by Robert Osborne

Closing Film Clip

Now, Voyager

BETTE DAVIS

“Fasten your seat belts. It’s going to be a bumpy night.” These memorable lines from All About Eve evoke not only a great character in a great film, but also – and perhaps especially – the extraordinary screen presence of Bette Davis herself.

While she was well known for her expressive eyes and instantly recognizable voice, Davis distinguished herself by excelling at untraditional, often unsympathetic characters in a range of genres, earning in the process the considerable respect of her peers. Her ten Best Actress nominations include an unprecedented five consecutive nominations between 1938 and 1942; she took home Oscars® for her performances in Dangerous in 1935 and Jezebel in 1938.

Davis was an equally strong presence off the screen. She was elected the Academy’s first female president in 1941, although her tenure was brief and contentious. A staunch supporter of the war effort, Davis was one of the founders of the Hollywood Canteen and an active fund-raiser on the home front. “A Centennial Tribute to Bette Davis” honors the legendary actress with an evening featuring clips of her indelible screen performances as well as onstage discussions with family, colleagues and friends.

PROGRAM HOST

ROBERT OSBORNE first became addicted to the movies during childhood visits to his small-town Rose Theatre in Colfax, Washington. After graduating from the University of Washington’s School of Journalism and performing in plays in the Seattle area, he headed south to Hollywood. As an actor, he found himself under contract to Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz. Ball encouraged Osborne to pursue his writing and remained a mentor until her death in 1989. Focusing his talents on film criticism and scholarship, Osborne pursued a career in print and broadcast journalism. He joined the staff of The Hollywood Reporter in 1977 and since 1983 has been writing the paper’s lead column, “Rambling Reporter.” Osborne is also the author of 11 books and is known as “Oscar’s official biographer” because of the series of books he has written on the Academy Awards. The latest in the series, 80 Years of the Oscar®, will be published this fall. Perhaps best known as the face of Turner Classic Movies, Osborne has been the prime-time host and anchor of the classic-film channel since it debuted in April 1994. In addition to hosting the channel, he has done several specials for TCM, including a “Private Screenings” series featuring one-on-one interviews with a number of Hollywood legends.

SPECIAL GUESTS

JOAN LESLIE began touring the country while still a toddler, in a song-and-dance act with her two sisters as The Three Brodels. Leslie’s first film role was alongside Greta Garbo in Camille (1937). She continued playing child roles for various studios through 1940 under the name Joan Brodel. Contracted by Warner Bros., Leslie rose to stardom by supporting the Oscar-winning performances of Gary Cooper in Sergeant York (1941) and James Cagney in Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942). She was memorable in High Sierra (1941) with Humphrey Bogart; The Hard Way (1943); The Sky’s the Limit (1943), in which she danced with Fred Astaire; and Rhapsody in Blue (1945). She was featured in Thank Your Lucky Stars (1943) and Hollywood Canteen (1944), both Warner Bros. wartime musical extravaganzas showcasing their stable of stars, which included Bette Davis. Since the ’50s, Leslie has maintained an active career with guest performances on television series and starring roles in television movies including The Keegans (1976) and Fire in the Dark (1991).

MICHAEL MERRILL is the only son of Bette Davis and Gary Merrill, and the youngest of Davis’s three children. He grew up in Bel Air, Beverly Hills, the coast of Maine and New York City. Merrill attended the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, graduating with a degree in political science; he later received his J.D. from Boston University School of Law. Merrill is a partner in the law firm of Merrill & McGeary in Boston, Massachusetts. He lives in Brookline, Massachusetts with his wife Chou Chou, and has two sons, Matthew and Cameron. In addition to practicing law and being involved in local politics, Merrill, with Kathryn Sermak, oversees the Bette Davis Foundation, which provides scholarships to aspiring actors and actresses at Boston University School for the Arts.

GENA ROWLANDS made her film debut in The High Cost of Loving (1958) opposite José Ferrer. Teaming with her husband, writer and director John Cassavetes, whom she married in 1954, Rowlands starred in A Child Is Waiting (1963), Faces (1968), Minnie and Moskowitz (1971), A Woman Under the Influence (1974), for which she was nominated for an Academy Award, Opening Night (1977), Gloria (1980), for which she received her second Academy Award nomination, Tempest (1982) and Love Streams (1984). She played Bette Davis’s estranged daughter in the television movie Strangers: The Story of a Mother and Daughter (1979); Davis won an Emmy® for her performance. Rowlands has been seen in Another Woman (1988), Night on Earth (1991), The Neon Bible (1995), Hope Floats (1998), Paulie (1998), Taking Lives (2004) and The Skeleton Key (2005). She was directed by her son Nick Cassavetes in Unhook the Stars (1996), She’s So Lovely (1997) and The Notebook (2004). Most recently, Rowlands appeared in Paris, Je T’Aime (2006), opposite Gérard Depardieu and Ben Gazzara, and in Broken English (2007), written and directed by her daughter Zoe Cassavetes.

Educated at the University of Southern California, the University of Madrid and the Institute Catholique de Paris, KATHRYN SERMAK became personal assistant to H.H. Princess Shams Pahlavi, Isabelle Adjani, Pierre Salinger and, most significantly, Miss Bette Davis. Davis appointed Sermak as her “Girl Friday” in 1979, a position that ended when Davis passed away ten years later. Their time working together is documented in Davis’s memoir This ’n That, and the updated version of her autobiography The Lonely Life. Along with Davis’s son, Michael Merrill, Sermak is co-executor of the Bette Davis Estate, and since Davis’s death she has continued to preserve the memory of her friend and mentor. In 1997 Sermakco-founded the Bette Davis Foundation, which in 1998 presented the first Bette Davis Lifetime Achievement Award to Meryl Streep. In recent years, Sermak has served as executive personal assistant to Martin Handford, the creator of Where’s Waldo?; has worked for the executives at King World Productions; and most recently served as assistant to Dr. Buzz Aldrin.

PRINTS COURTESY OF

Turner Entertainment Co. and Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.
Academy Film Archive
Mike Kaplan
MGM
Paramount Pictures
20th Century Fox
UCLA Film & Television Archive

SPECIAL THANKS

Lisa Hoogenhuizen
Ian Birnie
Kathryn Sermak

This evening is dedicated to the memory of
Carl Belfor
Academy Chief Projectionist 1999 - 2008
and Academy Projectionist since 1991

Program produced for the Academy by Ellen M. Harrington.
Film clips prepared by D.J. Ziegler.
Tonight’s lead projectionist: Marshall Gitlitz.