Ann Dvorak: Q&A with Biographer/Collector Christina Rice
The name Ann Dvorak wouldn’t ring even a faint bell for most people around at the beginning of the 21st century. Most people, I said — but definitely not everyone.
A few days ago, author James Robert Parish heard a loud gong when I told him during lunch at a West Hollywood restaurant that I was working on a q&a with collector-turned-biographer Christina Rice, who’s currently writing Ann Dvorak’s life story.
"I love Ann Dvorak! I still remember her in I Was an American Spy, when the Japanese villains stick a hose down her throat. I never forgot that!"
I haven’t watched I Was an American Spy (see q&a below for more info on that little-seen film), but I remember being impressed by Ann Dvorak’s work in Mervyn LeRoy’s hard-hitting 1932 melodrama Three on a Match, in which she plays a beautiful woman whose life is destroyed by ambition, selfishness, rotten friends, and hardcore drug use. (Moral of the story: If you’re going to be ambitious, selfish, have gangster friends, and do heavy-duty drugs, never, ever use the same match to light three cigarettes. Dvorak’s fellow smokers, by the way, were Joan Blondell and a surprisingly bland Bette Davis.)
From MGM chorus girl (she can be easily spotted in The Hollywood Revue of 1929) to Howard Hughes contract player (Scarface) to Warner Bros. star-in-the-making, Dvorak seemed destined to become a major Hollywood name. That never happened. Poor career choices — including a defiant honeymoon trip and a lawsuit against Warners — left the star-in-the-making stuck in leading-lady roles, mostly in programmers and B fare.
During her Warners stint, however, there were a few A (or at least "A-") productions as well, among them Alfred E. Green’s 1934 melo Housewife, in which Dvorak and Bette Davis vie for George Brent (once again, Dvorak has a more interesting role than Davis); the gangster drama Dr. Socrates (1935), in which she was cast opposite Paul Muni; and William Keighley’s G Men (1935), starring James Cagney; while at Twentieth Century Fox she co-starred with Dick Powell in Roy Del Ruth’s wisecracking musical Thanks a Million (1935).
After her Warners contract expired in the mid-1930s, Dvorak freelanced around Hollywood. Though her roles tended to grow smaller, she continued working all the way to the early 1950s. At that time, her acting career came to an abrupt halt.
Christina Rice has kindly agreed to answer a few questions (via e-mail) about Ann Dvorak, whom Rice refers to as "Hollywood’s Forgotten Rebel." See below. (Also, check out Rice’s Ann Dvorak website.)
Photos: Courtesy of Christina Rice Collection
Inevitably, my first question is, Why Ann Dvorak?
I’ve definitely been asked that more than once! I rented Three on a Match around 1995 and was blown away by Ann Dvorak in it. She projected so much nervous raw energy, and even though the film was made during the pre-Code era I was still caught off guard by how edgy her performance was. I subsequently watched Scarface and G Men, not realizing Ann was in either one, and was impressed enough to try to find out more about her.
I soon realized that no writer had really delved deep into her life or career, and that most of her films were not readily available. I also realized that since she was relatively obscure, I could afford to collect vintage posters from her films, even though I was a starving college student at the time. Two phrases that accurately describe my personality are "obsessive researcher" and "compulsive collector," so Ann Dvorak has been a perfect outlet for both these traits. Still, I would have never thought that a dozen or so years after that initial viewing I would find myself running a tribute website, writing a biography, getting married on an estate she built, and amassing a memorabilia collection that includes over 150 vintage posters and close to 900 original photos.
Your Ann Dvorak website is subtitled "Hollywood’s Forgotten Rebel." Why that moniker?
"Hollywood’s Forgotten Rebel" is mainly in reference to her 1936 lawsuit against Warner Bros. when she sought to have her contract terminated for wrongful suspension. Ann actually filed her suit against the studio a couple of months ahead of James Cagney, and she faced off against Warners in a courtroom eight months before Bette Davis. Yet, her efforts are rarely acknowledged.
True, her name is not familiar like Cagney or Davis, but she still battled the studio system very early on and should get credit for her efforts, unsuccessful as they might have been. She also turned her back on Hollywood at a couple of points when her career had momentum, which I think could also be viewed as rebellious (or possibly, just foolish).
What sort of approach are you going for in your book? Are you focusing mostly on Ann Dvorak’s film work or on her private life — or both? Have you found many people who actually knew Dvorak?
I am focusing on both Ann’s professional work and her private life. Even though her career as a whole was not extremely notable, it lasted more than two decades and she appeared in over fifty films, not counting her work as an MGM chorus girl. She also made three films as a child, one of which was the 1916 version of Ramona, directed by Donald Crisp — so her body of work spans a period of over thirty-five years.
No matter how mediocre some of her movies may have been, she almost always gave strong performances that I think are worth discussing. Off screen, she pursued a lot of unexpected interests such as horticulture and bacteriology, was multilingual, collected rare manuscripts, composed songs, and wrote poetry. Her time spent in Great Britain during WWII is also fascinating. She endured the London Blitz just to be in closer proximity to her husband, Leslie Fenton, who had enlisted in the Royal Navy. As I got more involved in researching her personal life, I discovered a very interesting person, which I hope will be adequately reflected in my book.
[Photo: Ann Dvorak, Lee Bowman in Stronger Than Desire, MGM, 1939. Directed by Leslie Fenton.]
To say that finding people who knew Dvorak has been challenging would be a gross understatement! Her last film was made in 1951, so most actors she worked with are no longer around. Between Laura Wagner (Classic Images book reviewer, who included a great chapter on Dvorak in her book Killer Tomatoes) and myself, we have attempted to contact anyone we could think of who appeared in a movie with Ann, but have had little luck. She tended to have smaller roles at the end of her career and the people I have been fortunate enough to speak with simply did not spend enough time with her, on screen or off, to have any strong recollections.
Ann did not have any children or siblings, so there is no family to speak to. I tried placing ads in newspapers in Honolulu and Los Angeles, looking for people who knew her, but that mainly resulted in a lot of collect calls from inmates at the county jail. I did find two gentlemen in Hawaii who knew Dvorak later on and they both have been a tremendous help. One of them even gave me a snapshot of Ann with his mother that was taken in the 1970s! I am saving that treasure for the book, so it is not currently posted on my website. I also interviewed a fellow who took Ann and her mother out to dinner in 1969, which is a fantastic story.
Basically, if anyone reading this so much as walked past Ann Dvorak on the street, please contact me. I want to speak with you! At the same time, after ten years of research, I honestly feel I have acquired enough information to give a well-rounded account of her life — but personal recollections are always a plus in biographies.
I had no idea that Ann Dvorak was silent-film actress Anna Lehr’s daughter — until I saw that info on your website. What was their relationship like?
I get the impression that like a lot of mother/daughter relationships, Ann and her mom tended to drive each other nuts, but were still very close. Anna Lehr strikes me as kind of melodramatic — she was a silent-film actress after all — and a bit overbearing, which may at least partially explain why a 20-year-old Ann married a man she barely knew and got the heck out of her mother’s house. Later on, Dvorak supported Lehr financially until they became estranged when Ann’s third husband came into the picture. Ultimately, they were still very reliant on each other.
I was fortunate enough to acquire two separate collections of correspondence from the 1960s. One set is written by Lehr to a cousin, the other by Dvorak to a friend. They both talk about each other quite a bit and these letters paint a vivid picture of what their relationship was like, which I will be able to explore in greater detail in the biography. Anna Lehr has turned out to be such an interesting character that I also want to devote some space in the book to her vaudeville and silent-film career.
Of the Ann Dvorak films I’ve seen, the one in which she most impressed me was Three on a Match. Could you tell us a little about that film, and about Dvorak’s relationship with director Mervyn LeRoy, and fellow players Joan Blondell and Bette Davis?
Three on a Match is a compact and gritty pre-Code gem. At sixty-three minutes running time, I cannot think of another feature that packs so much into such little time. Bette Davis always dismissed the movie, though she probably would have felt different if she had been cast in Dvorak’s role as the drug-addicted negligent mother, rather than the thankless secretary she portrayed. Davis later said that she was always impressed with Ann’s work and thought she was a "smashingly nice person."
This was the second and, unfortunately, last time Ann made a movie with Joan Blondell. They had done The Crowd Roars a couple of months before this one was shot and had great on-screen chemistry. Out of the three actresses, it was Blondell who Mervyn LeRoy figured would be the breakout star and that Dvorak had potential, but he thought little of Davis. I agree that this is one of Ann’s more impressive performances and her other picture with LeRoy, Heat Lightning, is also one of Dvorak’s better films and roles.
Ann Dvorak (above, with Rudy Vallee in Sweet Music) was a leading lady that almost became a major star. Considering her capable leading-lady work in Warner Bros. films of the early 1930s, why did her career stall by mid-decade?
Ann Dvorak’s career stalled mainly because she walked out on her contract in July of 1932 to honeymoon in Europe, and did not return until the following March. Most mini-bios state that her departure was in protest to her weekly salary being the same as Buster Phelps’, the child actor in Three on a Match, but it’s more complicated than that.
In less than a year, she had made eight movies, had gone from unknown chorus girl to "Hollywood’s New Cinderella," as the press liked to call her, and had gotten married to a man she had only known for a couple of months. When her husband, actor Leslie Fenton, got the opportunity to film a movie in Germany, he decided it was a perfect chance to show his exhausted and overwhelmed bride the world, despite her contractual obligations.
Two weeks before the Fentons took off, the deal between Warner Bros. and Howard Hughes for the purchase of Dvorak’s contract was finalized, and Ann’s agent saw her departure as a way to gain leverage in negotiating her new Warner deal. The agent encouraged Ann to skip town and probably advised her to go to the press with her salary woes, which were not very effective in the midst of the Depression, resulting in a mild media backlash. When she finally returned to Los Angeles eight months later, her new contract included a raise in pay, but Warner Bros. ceased promoting a "star" career for her and were just trying to make some kind of return on their $40,000 investment, which is what they paid Howard Hughes.
She made fifteen more films for Warner Bros. before her contract was terminated, but they tended to be unimpressive leading-lady roles or inconsequential supporting parts. After she left the Burbank studio at the end of 1936, she always freelanced at various places, but never landed that great role to put her over the top as an A-list star.
The romantic in me empathizes with Ann’s decision to take off with her husband and see the world, which turned out to be a fantastically memorable adventure for her. On the other hand, I can’t help but wonder what kind of career she would have had if she had just hung tight for a couple of years and played nice with Warner Bros. Then again, if she had done that, then I probably would not be writing about her now.
Ann Dvorak’s best-remembered film is probably the 1932 Scarface, starring Paul Muni, directed by Howard Hawks, produced by Howard Hughes, and released by United Artists. What was that experience like for her?
Making Scarface must have been a very exciting experience for Ann. I don’t think a lot of people realize this was Ann’s first real acting role and that she had just turned twenty when she made it. At the time she was signed to play Cesca Camonte, Ann had been working at MGM for over two years in the chorus and as an assistant choreographer to Sammy Lee. Despite being championed by Joan Crawford for more substantial parts, MGM did nothing more with Ann than give her extra work. It must have been a thrill for her to land a challenging role in such a significant film. Based on the strength of her performance, she was given prominent billing alongside Paul Muni, and Howard Hawks subsequently took her over to Warner Bros. for The Crowd Roars.
Ann Dvorak played opposite most big names at Warner Bros. in the 1930s. In addition to the aforementioned Joan Blondell and Bette Davis, there were Warren William, Paul Muni (above, in Dr. Socrates), Douglas Fairbanks Jr., James Cagney, Dick Powell, Pat O’Brien, and Richard Barthelmess, among others. How did she get along with her leading men? Was she easy to work with?
As far as I can tell, Ann was very easy to work with. I got the chance to speak with both Jane Wyatt and Hugh O’Brian, who made movies with Ann, and while neither one had much to say, the phrase they both used to describe her was "very professional." According to Warners’ production logs, she was always on time and for the most part did not miss work. Despite the headaches she caused the execs at the Burbank studio, she was extremely reliable once the cameras started rolling.
What about her relationship with Warner Bros. boss Jack Warner?
I think Jack Warner was fond of Ann and had a great deal of faith in her abilities as a dramatic actress. After Howard Hawks brought her to Warner Bros. for The Crowd Roars, the studio immediately negotiated a deal with Howard Hughes to borrow her exclusively for six months. As part of the deal, Hughes had script approval for any movie Ann was to make, which Warners agreed to, even though their lawyers advised them against it. Giving Dvorak the title role in The Strange Love of Molly Louvain, and choosing her for the heaviest part in Three on a Match over two of their own contract players demonstrates how confident they were in her ability to carry a movie, even though she did not have a lot of experience.
While researching her career in the 1930s, I came across a great memo Jack Warner sent to staff after Ann returned from her extended honeymoon. The memo instructed them to treat Ann as if nothing had happened, but concluded with "however, if she wants to talk to you on the status of contract, refer her to me personally immediately." I think this shows how Warner wanted Ann at the studio, but that he also meant business. Despite her troubles with Warner Bros. in the 1930s, Ann corresponded with Jack Warner when she was in England during the war and even made This Was Paris at their Teddington Studios.
I think it’s really interesting that when Warner’s autobiography was published in 1965, he failed to acknowledge the existence of [Warners' producer] Hal Wallis or his own son, but discussed Ann Dvorak for a couple of paragraphs. In looking back, he seemed a little disappointed that events played as they did, and that Ann’s relationship with the studio was so strained. Ann’s natural talent to give intense but convincing performances, along with her unconventional but striking looks were a perfect fit for the types of films Warner Bros. was making in the early 1930s. So, it really is too bad they did not get along better.
After Ann Dvorak’s film (and by then TV) career petered out in the early 1950s, what did she do?
Dvorak was finished with movies in 1951 and her television/radio career was over the following year. Ann and her third husband, Nicholas Wade, started their own production company with the hopes of creating TV shows and documentaries. When that venture failed, they relocated to Hawaii in 1959 and ran a chemical company for a while. In the 1960s, she continued traveling, and undertook a massive writing project, which I will talk about in my book.
While her marriage to Wade lasted almost twenty-five years, until his death in 1975, it does not appear to have been a particularly happy relationship and she tried to leave him on at least two occasions. After Ann’s death in 1979, the National Enquirer printed a horrible article that depicted Ann as living in complete squalor and practically out of her mind. While I think much of the piece was exaggerated, it is true that Wade squandered Ann’s money and she did have a drinking problem. Her final years were far from ideal, but I do not think her situation was quite as extreme as portrayed in the Enquirer. Still, it was a rather sad ending to a fascinating life.
Now, Ann Dvorak doesn’t sound "American" — I mean, unlike most easily pronounceable, Anglo-sounding star names of the studio era (e.g., Emmanuel Goldenberg became Edward G. Robinson, Margarita Cansino became Rita Hayworth, Melvyn Hesselberg became Melvyn Douglas, and so on). Where does that name come from (Ann Dvorak was born Anna McKim) — and how come she managed to keep it?
Ann supposedly got the name Dvorak from her mother’s side of the family. Some sources over the years have said that it was her mother’s maiden name, but Lehr was indeed Anna’s surname, though it was originally spelled Lajer. The name Dvorak is of Czech origin and the Lehr family did immigrate from that area, so it could exist somewhere on the family tree.
When Ann was hired by MGM in 1929, she actually worked under her mom’s name. As her days at Metro were winding down, she started going by "Ann Dvorak," although the snipe on the back of a publicity photo in my collection spells it "Devorak." When she signed with Howard Hughes’ Caddo Company, she signed the agreement "D’Vorak," so she was still playing around with the spelling. I have some early clippings stating that Howard Hughes was going to change it to something less complicated, but he ultimately decided that she could keep it. The correct pronunciation is supposed to be vor-shak, but it has always been commonly pronounced da-vor-ak, in reference to Ann. She was always irritated by the mispronunciation.
And finally, do you have a favorite Ann Dvorak film and/or performance? Did Dvorak herself have a favorite?
As I already mentioned, Three on a Match is a personal favorite, as well as Heat Lightning. Scarface is required Dvorak viewing, and I honestly believe her performance in A Life of Her Own was worthy of a supporting actress Academy Award nomination. Ann was a naturally talented actress, but these films demonstrate that when she worked with really capable directors like Mervyn LeRoy, Howard Hawks, and George Cukor, she could really shine.
I also like Ann in Bright Lights, which was directed by Busby Berkeley. It’s not a great film, but Ann and Joe E. Brown play off each other nicely. Stronger Than Desire is an interesting role, because Ann was directed by her husband, Leslie Fenton. She is especially beautiful in this film, which I think has a lot to do with it being produced by MGM. No studio did Hollywood glamour like they did.
Ann’s personal favorite was I Was an American Spy, which was her second-to-last film. It was based on the true World War II story of a gal named Claire Phillips who, while posing as a nightclub singer in the Philippines, is captured and tortured by the Japanese when they discover she is a spy for the Allies. Ann prepared for the role by forging a personal relationship with Claire Phillips and was very proud of the end result. Unfortunately, this is a Dvorak film I have never seen, and in the six years I have been running www.anndvorak.com, dozens of people have contacted me looking for a copy. It was an Allied Artists production, so Time Warner now owns both the rights and a print, so hopefully they will make it available sometime in the near future.
François Ozon in the LONDON TIMES
Douglas Sirk: American Vs. Japanese Audiences
Tibor Szakaly: Shooting Miniatures for STARSHIP TROOPERS 3
Woody Allen Interview in the LA WEEKLY
North Carolina Gay & Lesbian Film Festival
Wayne Wang at the Aero Theatre
Ernest Borgnine Tribute at the Aero
Gene Allen Tribute: HELLER IN PINK TIGHTS Screening at the Aero
Silent Film Actress Anita Page Turns 98
Richard Quine at Columbia at LACMA
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8 Responses to “Ann Dvorak: Q&A with Biographer/Collector Christina Rice”
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What a fascinating read! I’ve just finished watching “Three on a Match” and “Scarface”, and it’s great to read on Ms. Dvorak’s life, career and endeavors. I’ve found her mesmerising in “Scarface”, her eyes totally dominated the screen in every scene (and found her weaker on “Three on a Match”, but perhaps I was too enthralled by an early performance of Ms. Bette Davis to be fair).
I am surprised to learn than Ann was championed by Joan Crawford, not because Crawford wasn’t generous (as a professional) but Ann was so much more natural than Joan and could have easily inherited many of her roles. I was thinking about THE WOMEN because of the impending release of the remake and couldn’t help but think after reading this and knowing Ann’s work that she would have made a superb “Crystal.”
I just loved that article. I have loved Ann
since I first saw “Three on a Match” as well
but I saw it about 40 years ago (when TV played
those films all the time!!!) The article was quite
a revelation – it is criminal how unknown she is.
I always thought she was so much better in
“Housewife” than Bette Davis but whenever you
read about the film it is always as a “Bette Davis movie – no mention of Ann at all. Unless it is something like “the housewife was played by Ann
Dvorak” – that gets me mad!!!I always thought as well that Bette Davis with her drive and ambition took the roles that maybe were due to Ann but reading your article it sounds like Ann was too fiesty for the Warner Brothers bigwigs!!!
I very much want to buy Sweet Music.
Is it on a dvd?
Joe
Dear Christina:
In the late sixties, I was an aspiring actor living in Hollywood–in the same building as Ann. We became friends and lovers. One night I saved her life from a drug and alcohol overdose when I broke her door in and discovered her body on the floor. I revived her and she said that she wanted to die. She was taking medication for anxiety and mixing cocain and alcohol. She told me about her affairs with H.Hughes and other Hollywood stars like Earl Flynn. There is a great story of how she and I drove along Hollywood blvd. one afternoon in my Rolls Royce. She sat in the back and reminiced about her glory days. Back then, she was the older woman and I was the young stud. What memories! Call me anytime to discuss…..John
Dear Christina:
I am the one who wrote about having an affair with Ann back in the mid sixties in Hollywood. At that time, she was living incognito in an adjoing apartment. We shared some dramatic moments together. If you want to discuss this, please call me John G.
Your info has been sent to Christina.
i saw ann in abelene town with randolph scott as dad watched his westerns .i thought she was fantastic in it .i will keep an eye out for some other movies of hers .