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Chapter 5. “Sex-Loaded”: At Twentieth Century-Fox (1941)
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64 CHAPTER 5 Louella Parsons tells us that Carole’s Fox contract, which she learned about on Christmas Day 1940, was no sooner signed than Carole had to rush to the hospital to visit her mother, who had been involved in an automobile accident . The contract began on the first of the year, with an opening salary of $400 per week, to increase in steps through $550, $750, $1,000, $1,350, and $1,750, ending at $2,000 in six years. (Carole went through the steps each year through 1945, when leaves of absence delayed her last increase, so that her final Fox salary in 1946 was at the fifth step of $1,350.) In consideration of Carole’s relationship with Roach Studios, an understanding was included that permitted her to make two pictures per year for Roach. But since Fox was undertaking “at some considerable expense, to build Miss Landis into an important box office name,” their legal department wanted to be sure that Roach’s interest in Carole was subordinate to theirs. Contract negotiations “Sex-Loaded”: At Twentieth Century-Fox ( 1941) “SEX-LOADED”: AT TWENTIETH CENTURY-FOX (1941) 65 between the two studios dragged on over Carole’s head through August 1942, when Roach finally suggested a “lending or participation agreement” instead of “a separate employment agreement” with Carole, with “a minimum of one and a maximum of two films a year.” All this, however, was so much legal hairsplitting for its own sake; Carole never made another film for Roach, nor does it appear that Roach ever so much as broached the subject. In January 1941, Carole moved with her mother to a rented home at 12424 Sunset Boulevard in Brentwood. The five-bedroom house, built in 1933, was owned by Edna May Oliver, a New England character actress best known for her spinsterly roles in such films as David Copperfield (1935) and A Tale of Two Cities (1935); one of her last appearances was as Lady de Bourgh in Pride and Prejudice (1940). Oliver’s house was a metaphor of her film persona; Carole pointed out to movie writers surprised at the bars on the windows that they had not been her idea. When Carole gave offense, it was most often through the excess of her affections. In defiance of local zoning regulations, Carole, who loved dogs and “usually [had] an assortment of pooches which keep getting lost,” insisted on keeping four that annoyed her neighbors with their barking. Carole was often photographed with dogs, most prominently, Donna or Donner, a Great Dane that had originally been a gift from Gene Markey to ex-wife Hedy Lamarr. On Donner’s death, Carole published what was presented as an extract from her personal diary; still in mourning, she described finding a new puppy in a pet shop window: “So you see, I’ve done it again. I’ve given my heart once more ‘to a dog, to tear.’ ” Unfortunately, Carole’s wont to let her heart be torn was not confined to dogs. By Carole’s own account, Darryl Zanuck became interested in her not by seeing her films but by observing her social whirl. Zanuck told her, “I figured any girl who is so popular with men, whom so many men want to date, must have something we can use and need in our pictures.” A third-party article tells the story a bit differently: Lew Schreiber, the Fox casting director, saw Carole in One Million B.C. and recommended her to Zanuck with [44.222.113.28] Project MUSE (2024-03-29 13:03 GMT) the words, “she’s got something.” To sum it up, “Twentieth sure is going in for sex in a big way, what with Alice Faye, Betty Grable, Carmen Miranda, and now, Carole Landis”—“sex” in 1940 quaintly meaning “sex appeal.” A more specific reason for hiring Carole was no doubt that Betty Grable, who had been brought on in 1940 to do backup for Alice Faye, had proved herself a solid box-office success requiring an understudy of her own. It suited Zanuck’s formulaic production approach to keep his stars in line by having them always looking over their shoulders. “Teaming blondes is getting to be a habit at 20th Century-Fox. First, Betty Grable and Alice Faye battled for oomph honors in Tin Pan Alley, and now Betty’s getting Carole Landis as her chief competition in Miami.” Whereas Carole’s...