Superstitions of the Stars

Superstitions of the Stars

Rita Hayworth

Rita Hayworth would slip a shiny new dime under the garter of her left leg for luck before stepping on a movie set.

Mae West

Mae West made everyone who whistled in her dressing room stand in the corner and spit three times

Bette Davis

Bette Davis thinks whistling in a dressing room is bad luck too, and pushed Jack Warner from her dressing room he whistled Hallelujah

Edwin Booth as Hamlet

Rumor has it that the superstition about whistling in a dressing room originated from the urban legend that actor Edwin Booth was whistling Dixie in his dressing room when his brother, John Wilkes Booth assassinated Abraham Lincoln.




[Source:  Point; August 1954]

Bea Lillie on Television

Bea Lillie:  "Television has grown up to be just summer stock in an iron lung."




[Source:  Point;  August 1954]






Ouch!  Beatrice Lillie (May 29, 1894 – January 20, 1989) is known as being an amazing talent.  She shined on stage. She is an amazing woman and entertained the troops during WWII - even on the day she found out that her only son had perished in action.  Best known for her Tony Award winning 1953 revue An Evening with Beatrice Lillie.  She retired from the stage due to Alzheimer's.

Anita Loos Remains a Brunette

Anita Loos, author of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, when asked why she remained a brunette:  "Personally, I don't prefer gentlemen."




[Source:  Point;  August 1954]

Anita Loos and Jean Harlow

Anita Loos was the author or contributor to some of my favorite films such as Red-Headed Woman, Another Thin Man, The Women, Susan and God, and When Ladies Meet.  

John Emerson and Anita Loos

Loos had two troublesome marriage:  First, to Frank Palma, Jr (from 1915-1919); and secondly to actor, writer, director John Emerson (married from 1919 to his death in 1956).  Emerson and Loos never officially divorced, but their marriage consisted of economic strife and Emerson's mental illness.  

Elaine Stewart on Bachelors

Elaine Stewart:  "A bachelor I know decided to reform.  The first day he cut out cigarettes.  The second day he cut out liquor.  The third day he cut out women.  The fourth day he cut out paper dolls."




[Source:  Point;  August 1954]

Groucho on Skywriting

Groucho Marx, to a skywriter contestant on his TV show:  "When you're up there writing do you ever get the impression that someone is looking over your shoulder?"




[Source;  August 1954]

Jack Benny and Groucho Marx doing a 'You Bet Your Life' skit on 'The Jack Benny Show'

What Bob Hope thinks of Bridegrooms

Bob Hope's definition of a bridegroom:  "A wolf who paid too much for his whistle."




[Source:  Point;  August 1954]

Eva Gabor Loves Women

Eva Gabor:  "I'm glad I'm a woman.  As Grandpa used to say, 'Always be satisfied with your own sex, or you'll never be satisfied with anyone else's"




[Source: Point;  August 1954]