The Bennetts: An Acting Family

Chapter Fourteen. 1941–1943

1941–1943 239 ⟈ Chapter Fourteen 1941–1943 With her retirement from acting and marriage to Morton Downey in 1929, Barbara had chosen her place out of the sun—seemingly, without regret. Her quiet life as a Connecticut housewife and mother had given her a distinction all her own: while Constance and Joan had each had three husbands by the time they turned thirty, the press delighted in pointing to Barbara as the stable member of the family, the exception to the rule of tempestuous Bennetts. The truth was that her marriage to Morton had been in rocky shape for some time. During his peak years on the radio in the 1930s, he had commanded $12,000 a week. His radio fame caused him to be in demand for concert tours, and he spent more and more time performing on the road, taking only occasional time out to check in with his rapidly growing family in Greenwich. At some point in the late 1930s, Barbara began to drink, moderately at first, but more heavily as time went on. By now the Downey brood numbered five—Tony had been born in 1935, Kevin in 1938—and her life in Connecticut, managing the household and waiting for Morton to come home, left her feeling lonely and confined. She began to suffer bouts of severe depression, intensified by her drinking. The emotional instability of her youth, which had seemed a distant dream during the early years of her marriage to Morton, now returned. “She was so warm and friendly,” remembered Morton’s younger brother, Edward Downey. “When she started drinking, I couldn’t understand it.” The Bennetts 240 Diana Anderson remembered a visit to the Downey household in 1937, and being shocked at how despondent her aunt had become: “The children were all very subdued. I remember my Auntie Barbara just sitting in the corner not saying anything. It was kind of scary for a nine-year-old.” In late 1937, Barbara and Morton had arranged for someone to look after their Connecticut home and moved the family to Beverly Hills, into a house adjoining Jack Warner’s property on Angelo Drive. Morton was getting a good deal of work on the West Coast, and the move was intended to be temporary. Shortly after the move, Barbara rekindled her friendship with Louise Brooks. Not long after their days at Denishawn, Louise had gone to Hollywood , where she had played leading roles in several silent films. But she achieved real distinction only when she traveled to Germany in 1928 to make two films for G.W. Pabst, Pandora’s Box and Diary of a Lost Girl. Both the films and her performances in them were destined to become classics, but at the time, they were not well received. When she returned to Hollywood in the early 1930s, she was unable to find roles of comparable quality. She worked as a nightclub dancer and appeared in some worthless “B” films, and by 1937 her movie career had neared its end. At the time she and Barbara had their reunion, Louise had a new man in her life, Addison “Jack” Randall, a dark-haired, goodlooking actor in his early thirties who appeared in cheap cowboy pictures at Monogram Studios. Randall would never attain the success of his brother, Robert Livingston, who starred in Republic’s Three Mesquiteers series, but Louise prized him for other reasons. Tall, with strong, broad shoulders and a good, firm jaw, Randall was an exciting lover—or so Louise told her friends. All too soon, however, she grew bored with his company, and at some point after she defected from Hollywood in 1938, Randall began seeing Barbara on the sly. What began as an on-again, off-again affair picked up momentum over the next two years. Downey was constantly on the road and spent very little time at home, and during one of his prolonged absences Barbara temporarily moved Randall into the house. 1941–1943 241 Barbara’s oldest son, Michael Downey, recalled that Randall was “on his best behavior with us. He was sort of—I don’t know— almost in deference to us. A little overly friendly. You know: ‘Anything you need?’ That sort of thing. Tried to ingratiate himself a bit.” On January 14, 1941, Barbara informed the press that she and Morton were separating. Morton, appearing in a New Orleans hotel, claimed that her announcement had...