Arabella & CO

On September 11th, 2001, hatred took hideous form and savaged the very heart of America. But her spirit remains untouched and her people stand strong and resolute. Arabella & Company ask all who pass this way to join us in prayer for those who have lost so much.

....the natural beauty and rare talent of Ingrid Bergman

August 29th, 1915 August 29, 1982

Ingrid Bergman arrived on the Hollywood scene in May, 1939, already an accomplished actress with over 10 movies in her portfolio and a well-scrubbed radiant look that would make her filmdom’s first “natural beauty”. Her mentor, David O. Selznick promised the statuesque (5’11”) Swede that nothing about her appearance would be altered and even her make-up man later admitted he applied nothing to her face except a little lip gloss.

By 1948, Ingrid had become Hollywood’s biggest draw at the box office, in the lead for over three years. A 75-foot image of her as Joan of Arc towered over Times Square. She made fifteen movies in ten years and the showbiz gag of the day became “Last night I actually saw a movie without Ingrid Bergman!”

Then suddenly it all ended. Ingrid left her husband and child and went to Italy with Roberto Rossellini to make a picture. When they found out she was pregnant with the Italian director’s child, the country and the press threw a fit.

How could their Joan of Arc do anything so wrong? She was denounced on the floor of the U.S. Senate and America, then and there, turned its back on Hollywood’s brightest star. Forgotten was the Biblical adage “those without sin may throw the first stone” and the biggest stones were hurled by the most guilty. Ingrid never really returned to the States again (except for one short visit in 1957) until 1967 when she played in Eugene O’Neill’s “More Stately Mansions” at the Ahmanson Theater in Los Angeles. Her 1956 Academy Award for “Anastasia” (made in England and the first of her films to be shown widely in the USA since 1950) was accepted by Cary Grant. Oh, what we missed.

But let’s go back to her beginning:

Ingrid was born in Stockholm, the only child of Justus and Frieda Adler Bergman. But her German-born mother died wheh she was only two and her artist-photographer father when she was thirteen. But the years between were joyous ones as her lovable papa encouraged her play-acting and even helped her find funny hats and costumes to dress up in while he photographed her. But the losses in her life continued when Papa died and Greta, the girl they both loved was driven off by the family. She was sent to live with her Aunt Ellen who was dead six months later and then to an older uncle who decried her wish to be an actress. But Ingrid was already firmly decided on a career and at 18 was accepted into the Royal Dramatic Theater School.

She met Dr. Petter Lindstrom when she was 18 and he was 27. By the time they married in 1937, she had already left school and completed six highly successful movies. By the time her daughter Pia was born in 1938, she had completed two more and David O. Selznick was knocking at the gate with a contract to make films in America. Petter stayed behind in Sweden to finish his medical studies and Ingrid returned there in late 1939 only to flee back to New Yorkat the outbreak of hostilities. Petter rejoined his wife and child there and took up his studies again but the long absences and conflicting priorities never gave the marriage much of a chance. They lived separate lives together.

Then in 1949, Ingrid decided to do a film with the famous Italian director, Roberto Rossellini. She later admitted she fell in love with him before she even met him while watching one of his films. The locale of the picture was a desolate volcanic island off the coast of Italy called Stromboli (also the name of the film). It was the beginning of a scandal that would rock the industry.Even though Ingrid and Roberto would later marry, both careers suffered. After a son and two beautiful twin daughters, they separated and later divorced. One of the twins, Isabella, has made a name in her own right as a lovely actress-model with much of her mother’s beauty and talent.

Ingrid’s third husband was Lars Schmidt who she married in 1958 but that marriage, so happy for the time it lasted, also ended. The burden of Ingrid’s work was too much to bear.

Ingrid Bergman died on her birthday in 1982 of the cancer that had haunted her for over seven years. They were all there... the children, Lars and the Rossellinis (Roberto had died in 1977),friends from the industry and fans as well. Ingrid, the actress, who loved all her leading men and Ingrid, the woman, who loved deeply if not wisely, were both gone. But she has left us with so much that the name Ingrid Bergman will not be easily forgotten.

For much more on the fascinating life of Ingrid Bergman, you will find these books at your local library.... “Ingrid Bergman: My Story”..by Ingrid Bergman and Alan Burgess “The Films of Ingrid Bergman”....by Lawrence J. Quirk

For more on Ingrid’s life on and off the set , see Arabella’s Notes

In Sweden.....

Landskamp (1932)
Munkbrogreven [Count of the Old Monk’s Bridge] (1935)
Branningar [The Surf] (1935
Swedenhielms [The Swedenhielms Family] (1935)
Valborgsmassoafton [Walpurgis Night] (1935)
Pa solsidan [On the Sunny Side] (1936)
Intermezzo (1936)
Dollar (1938)
Die Vier Gesellen [The Four Companions] (1938)
En Kvinnas Ansikte [A Woman’s Face] (1939)
En Enda Natt [Only One Night] (1939)
Juninatten [June Night] (1940)

International Films

Intermezzo: A Love Story (1939)
Adam Had Four Sons (1941)
Rage in Heaven (1941)
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1941)
Casablanca (1942)
Swedes in America (1943)
For Whom The Bell Tolls (1943)
Gaslight (1944)
The Bells of St. Mary’s (1945)
Spellbound (1945)
Saratoga Trunk (1945)
Notorious (1946)
Arch of Triumph (1948)
Joan of Arc (1948)
Under Capricorn (1949)

The Rossellini Years

Stromboli (1950)
Europa ‘51 (1951)
We, the Women (1953)
Journey to Italy (1954)
Joan at the Stake (1954)
Fear (1955)

From 1956 to 1982

Elena et les hommes [Paris Does Strange Things] (1956)
Anastasia (1956)
Indiscreet (1958)
The Inn of the Sixth Happiness (1958)
Goodbye Again (1961)
Auguste [Kolka, My Friend] (1961)
The Visit (1964)
The Yellow Rolls-Royce (1965)
The Love Goddesses (1965)
Stimulantia (1967)
The Cactus Flower (1969)
Walk in the Spring Rain (1970)
From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler (1973)
Murder on the Orient Express (1974)
A Matter of Time (1976)
Hostonaten [Autumn Sonata] (1978)

Ingrid in the Theater....

Liliom {opened at the 44th Street Theatre, New York 3/25/40}
Anna Christie {opened at the Lobero Theater, Santa Barbara 7/30/41}
Joan of Lorraine {opened at the Alvin Theater, New York 1946}
Joan of Arc at the Stake {an oratorio, opened at the Teatro San Carlo, Naples
1953}

Tea and Sympathy {opened at the Theatre de Paris, 12/2/56}
Hedda Gabler {opened at the Theatre Montparnasse, Paris 12/10/62}
A Month in the Country {opened at the Yvonne Arnaud Memorial Theater,
Guilford, England June, 1965}
More Stately Mansions {opened at the Ahmanson Theater, Los Angeles 9/1967
and at the Broadhurst Theater in New
York, 10/1967}
Captain Brassbound’s Conversion {played in England and the USA in 1971-1972}
The Constant Wife { London and Shubert Theater, New York, 1975)
Waters of the Moon {played at the Chichester Theatre’s summer season and at
the Haymarket Theatre, London in 1979}

Ingrid’s Television Credits.....

The Turn of the Screw (NBC-TV, 1959)
Twenty-Four Hours in a Woman’s Life (CBS-TV, 1961)
Hedda Gabler (CBS-TV, 1963)
The Human Voice (ABC-TV, 1967)
A Woman Called Golda (Paramount Television, 1982)

....Errol Flynn was the author’s choice to play John Barrymore in Diana Barrymore’s best selling biography of her father,“Too Much, Too Soon”. Diana saw in Errol much of the same tendencies to excess that both she and her father shared and felt he would understand the character much better. Diana died in 1960, a suicide, at the age of 35. John Barrymore, 60, died broke in 1942 of pneumonia and cirrhosis of the liver.. Errol Flynn, the dashing swashbuckler star of his era, died in 1959 at the age of 50. He was the victim of a heart attack but an autopsy revealed that he had the organs of a very unhealthy 75-year-old man!

....Anne Shirley (born Dawn Evelyeen Paris) and Gig Young (Byron Elsworth Barr) took their screen names from roles they played in films. Michael Harrison became “Sunset Carson” because Republic Studios wanted is name to match the fictional character he played onscreen.

....Louise Beavers, who played the maid-housekeeper in the 1934 version of “Imitation of Life” and also starred in the 1950-53 hit television series “Beulah”, began as the real-life maid of actress Leatrice Joy!

Star-Crossed Lovers....
....the stuff movies are made of...

Some of our most memorable movies are the ones that feature two people deeply in love but, by death or circumstance, are destined never to be together..at least in this lifetime. Shakespeare gave us ‘Romeo and Juliet”
and down through film history there have been scores more. Here are just a few .....

Norma Shearer and Leslie Howard as “Romeo and Juliet” (1936)

Nelson Eddy as Paul and Jeanette MacDonald as Marcia in “Maytime” (1939)

Vivien Leigh as Myra and Robert Taylor as Roy in “Waterloo Bridge” (1940)

Bette Davis as Charlotte and Paul Henreid as Jerry in “Now, Voyager” (1942)

Humphrey Bogart as Rick and Ingrid Bergman as Ilsa in “Casablanca” (1942)

Gregory Peck as Paul and Greer Garson as Mary in “The Valley of Decison” (1945)

Audrey Hepburn as Anya aka Princess Ann and Gregory Peck as Joe in “Roman Holiday” (1953)

Why not e-mail me with some of your favorites? I will include them in a later edition.

Email me!

Ask questions! Make comments! Talk to me!
Use email link above or post a question to my guestbook

From MariAnn Jones...

Here is a question nobody has ever been able, or willing to address. The time frame for the movie “Maytime” allegedly begins in about 1906, goes back about 56 to 60 years to about 1842 to 1846, forward 7 years to about 1849 to 1853, at which
time Paul and Marcia appear in an opera together. Correct me if I have all this wrong.

Here is the problem: in the opera “Czaritza” there is a monk who is unmistakably Rasputin. The opera, according to the story line, was written by the
fictitious Trintini, sometime between 1842 and 1843, during the years before Marcia returned to the USA. But Rasputin wasn’t even born until Jan. 10, 1869. So doesn’t this constitute a monumental goof on the part of MGM? Perhaps I have the years wrong,but historically speaking, Rasputin didn’t get involved with the Romanovs, Russia’s royal family, until sometime after 1904

Dear MariAnn,

Never let it be said that Arabella declined a challenge!While Marcia was singing pretty for Louis Napoleon (he was on the throne fron 1850 to 1870 when he was deposed), Alexander II held sway in Russia (until he was assassinated in 1881) Trinitini's creation of the opera came in either 1852 or 1853. But Rasputin, that unbathed scalawag wasn’t even a twinkle in his papa’s eye. MGM covered themselves with “poetic license”, that strange rule that lets them move history and its people around like chessmen on a greased board. And on the credit list, that Rasputin look-alike (played so effectively without words by Alex Kandiba) is listed only as “the black priest”!

Arabella

From Connie in Orlando,Florida,

Maybe you can tell me the difference between a “ photo double” and a “stand-in”? The son of a friend of mine was a photo double for D.B.Sweeney in “ Roommates” several years ago. I always thought a star had a permanent stand-in who was usually around throughout their career.

Dear Connie

Oh, well, times change. Now we have specialists for everything. Let me try and define some of the job descriptions they use today. First, we still have “stand-ins”. They substitute for the star during tiresome procedures like setting up camera angles, blocking scenes or adjusting lighting. They are also used in long shots. Stand-ins are chosen for their physical resemblance to the star in coloring, size and features (as are photo doubles) and usually stay with that star for long periods of time. Then there are “photo doubles” often selected from the “extra pool” on location to facilitate second-camera crews who are setting up several scenes in tandem or for long-shots. A “stunt double”, highly trained, takes over in scenes that require actions that are potentially dangerous or require skills the star may lack. Then, of course, there are “body doubles” which should be self-explanatory!

Arabella