Eavesdropping: Loretta Young Talks about her Movie Years

This book is composed of Loretta Young's 1990 conversations with me (Edward Funk) about her movie years.In the concurrent new book, "Behind the Door: the Real Life of Loretta Young", I delve into a select few of Loretta Young's ninety-eight films; enough to know she was a major movie star and her battles to get there and remain for the next twenty-five years. Yet, Loretta and I had discussed ninety-one of her films and that left so much material behind. Since 1990, voices able to recall a career from the silent era, through the golden years of film, have been extinguished. Loretta's isn't just any voice; she tells us from an Academy Award winning star's perspective. She discusses the actors, the directors, the producers, the clothes (and more clothes!), what she learned about acting, her innumerable "crushes" on her leading men, her reputation as being "difficult", the roles she wanted, the roles she didn't. It's eighty thousand words of memories, a discussion of which, hopefully, classic film buffs will enjoy eavesdropping. Excerpts: When the camera rolled, he (jimmy Cagney) was in character; there was no getting around it. And I think for a woman to have a man, who is violent that way, but she's the only one he's sensitive with and sweet and soft with, it's doubly important to her then. Even playing a character in a picture, you felt a part of that. Acting, I think, is a wonderful bit of therapy for anyone because you can do, really, anything that you might be tempted to, and you really aren't doing it, because you're only acting. Because there's a lot of attraction, I find, in evil. Usually, it's so covered up with beauty that you don't see the evil.Nothing turns me off quicker than somebody who's not infatuated or thinks I'm divine.If you are a star, you don't have to act like a star. You are a star. You know that by how much money you get; you know that by where your name appears....You can only make love for three minutes as long as the camera is rolling, and passionate love if you want, and the minute the camera is over, no responsibility whatsoever. You call that just a job? Well, it's not quite "just a job," is it? I know I want things my way. I know in the studio, everyone used to say and they still do, that I'm not the easiest person in the world to work with...producers and writers...... I know I'm not.....I was given the #1 dressing room at the studio for MAN'S CASTLE. I didn't know at that time that at the back of the closet of that dressing room there was a door that led right into Harry Cohn's private office. I think Alan (Ladd) was very conscious of his looks. He would not look beyond a certain point in the camera because he didn't think he looked good. What difference does it make what a man looks like so long as he looks like a man? With a woman, it's very important. These are women's tricks. It's a model's walk. It allows you to swing your body without swinging your hips because the whole body goes with it. I know it's showing off. Otherwise it would not please me most when the camera is going because everybody is going to look at me big, blown-up.You'd be surprised how important a movie star feels at times. Reigning kings and queens don't mean very much unless they come into your life in the way this did. But just to meet a king or queen, I don't know, I'd never go out of my way to do it. Now, I loved love scenes, all the touching and petting because I liked men. I liked them then, and I still like them.(Speaking to director Jules Dassin): I can't continue. I don't think you're any happier with me than I am with you. One of us is going to go, and I think, unfortunately for you, at this point, I'm a bigger star than you're a director. It isn't easy for a beautiful woman to be a faithful wife. If she's happily married, yes. Very easy for her to be. But if she's unhappily married and she's attractive, it's very difficult. Very.