(My Travels with) Agnes Moorehead – The Lavender Lady (13 page)

CHAPTER TEN

TRAVELIN’

With several successful one-woman show tours under my belt, it didn’t take Agnes long to discover so-called other hidden talents of mine and I loved it. I made all her hotel, press, publicity, hair dresser appointments, looking after her mother when she was traveling with us, etc. So she then introduced me to other types of engagements that she was always busying herself with. Conventions in Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Santa Barbara and all over the East. At these conventions, she would be scheduled to give lectures on acting, show business, or whatever the convention was.

The man who was responsible for these was a man named Jay Lurye and Impact International. He was a real go getter and I could see Agnes’ fascination with him and why she liked him. He would always con her into doing these conventions and slipping her money under the table, so that she wouldn’t have to pay taxes. She was charmed with any kind of con. As I was a P.R. man, she got me involved with Jay and I worked with and for him while working with Agnes, until the pace was so fast I gave up.

Agnes thought she was doing me a favor, but actually, it was another way she wouldn’t have to pay me for all the extras I was beginning to do for her.

Other travelling included another type of performance where she would do excerpts from Shakespeare between the symphonic concerts. This was done in Springfield, Ohio with the Springfield Symphony. It was unusual and impressive to me and it showed me another facet to this remarkable woman. She was into everything that seemed to be in demand in various areas, all while doing “Bewitched” on TV. She would arrange these engagements to fall on Saturdays (always with a thirty day clause so that she could back out if she got a better offer), so it wouldn’t conflict with the TV series.

We would usually leave on a Friday night and return early Monday or late Sunday, as we had to fly which she wasn’t too fond of.

The other type of travelling was to Washington, D.C. to receive an award with the famous and late heart surgeon, Paul Dudley White, from her home State of Massachusetts (both of them were from there).

She was good at speaking and she could make a speech sound like it was all adlib and spontaneous, but she had spent hours preparing it. Sort of like a master politician.

Sometimes she would really get into trouble with reporters who would really blast her, because she would say whatever came to mind. She inevitability got on the subject of the slovenliness of youth, or religion, or some other subject she was comfortable with and in the process would show her real righteous self. That ended with a bad review.

Other trips with Agnes included taking her dear mother, Mollie, to Reedsburg, Wisconsin. We always spent time there for a few days. It was a lovely, beautiful, calm hamlet to rest in en route to an engagement or back to Los Angeles. Her house, a frame house all gussied up, very bright and cheery, like Mollie Moorehead, her mother, that Agnes protestation of her success was a result of her father. This lovely lady was the strength that I recognized in Agnes so much, with the exception that her mother was much warmer, loving and outgoing and a caring person. There was no trace of superficiality in Agnes’ mother.

As I began being more around the two of them, I realized that outwardly though Agnes was extremely good and showed the utmost respect for Mollie Moorehead, there was a friction—an almost envy—on Agnes’ part (at times, when people would bypass Agnes to chat or experience Mollie). I’ve never seen any actor or person upstage Agnes on any occasion, except her mother.

She called her mother “Mama” and sometimes it seemed as though Agnes would act like a little girl with her mother. On one occasion, especially when we were driving along the freeway, and Agnes was having a disagreement with her mother, her mother said sharply, “Hush, Agnes!’ and Agnes would hush.

Other travelling included her poetry hour, where she would appear before women’s clubs at a lectern with just a spotlight and read poetry from her one-woman show and discuss women talk with the women. It was another facet that made this woman a great lady of the theatre. Her versatility was really being exposed to me more and more.

At one of the women’s clubs, in either Phoenix or Charleston, I can’t recall which; one of the women was a bit overbearing and pushy. Agnes didn’t like some of the things the woman was saying about her program and staging requirements. Agnes really let her know in no uncertain terms that her “program was planned the way it was planned and no one, but no one would change it. Later, she called the girl a “big butch” and I was surprised to hear Agnes use an expression like that. It amused me and made her all the more real to me.

Agnes, inevitably, became friendly with people that she had performed before—often talking to them before and afterwards. She did a capsule version of her one woman show in the Biltmore in Santa Barbara. It was for the AID, Western Regional Meeting, and much affluence and wealth were behind the group which Agnes liked to be around whenever possible. We went to one of the member’s homes, which was quite a mansion, and en route Agnes and I were in the back seat of a Rolls Royce. The driver and his companion were discussing Judith Anderson, who lives in Santa Barbara. Agnes was telling them that she knew Judith quite well (while in pantomime to me, with her fists clenched and her thumb to her mouth that Judith had a drinking problem. I was amused with this.)

Another travel time was while we were in New York, we stopped in Trenton, New Jersey en route and stayed at the town house of Mary Roebling, President of the Trenton Trust. She was also a very wealthy woman and invited many wealthy people to her home in honor of Agnes. They had a beautiful cocktail party and everyone in attendance was a millionaire, according to Agnes. She was really in her cups being around all that affluence.

We later were transported to the Trenton Country Club for a lovely banquet and then back to the town house. I stayed in the guest quarters, which were very nice while Agnes stayed in the main house.

In the morning, Mary got up in her nightgown and saw me off. Agnes was dressed very much like a Midwestern housewife and I can remember looking at her and saying, “Darling, she’s a regular person just like the rest of us.”

One time in her travels, Agnes’s car broke down and she was hitchhiking in the wee hours of the morning from the airport in San Francisco to the downtown Hilton. Agnes told me she chided the truck driver when he started to let her off about a half a block from the hotel. Scolding him, she said, “Are you going to let me off here at this ungodly hour of the morning?” The driver graciously proceeded to drive her to the hotel. That was Agnes.

Regarding Agnes and lighting, perhaps a letter I sent to the Springfield Symphony Orchestra might clear up her preferences. I wrote: “In Miss Moorehead’s one woman show I usually arrive several hours ahead of her performance to do special lighting and staging for her show. Since this is not a stage vehicle with lots of movement, her regular lighting requirements will not be necessary. However, will you instruct your light man from Wittenburg University that only lavender and/or hot pink gels are to be used in lighting Miss Moorehead. No ambers, blues or greens, please.”

Was Miss Moorehead dedicated to the theatre? In an interview once, she said, “If it would help a part, I’d have my teeth pulled or my ears cut off.” And she meant it!

How much did she receive for her usual appearances? Somewhere between fifteen hundred and three thousand dollars.

When I think of my years with Agnes Moorehead and look through all the reminders of those years, I’m appalled by the amount of travelling we did. Remember, this was an important, respected Hollywood star with a huge television hit series and some of the best movies ever made to her credit. And yet the travelling we did was unbelievable, especially in the United States.

For example, I find a letter from the Chairman of the Cultural Committee in Treadway, Pennsylvania, of the Eastern Baptist College. She writes: “In talking with Miss Stella Rogers today, I discovered that she had changed the time on the contract from 11:20 to 11:00 for Miss Moorehead’s program at our school. This was a misunderstanding and the original time was correct.” This was for a poetry reading and so it went.

There’s a letter from me to Performing Arts in Casko, Washington. It is a letter of confirmation saying she will appear for a lecture.

There’s a brochure from the Chamber of Commerce of Massachusetts.

A welcome to Agnes Moorehead from the Vice President of Thom McAnn Shoe Company.

A letter the Chamber of Commerce in Washington, D.C. saying that we would be arriving and would go to the Hotel Washington and thanking them for their accommodations.

This also included a Massachusetts Congressional Reception and dinner.

The awards for Miss Moorehead popped up from time to time and she’d be off to accept them.

There was also a letter for a tour of her one woman show from Columbus, Ohio, to Zanesville, Ohio, to Springfield to Washington D.C., to St. David, Pennsylvania, to Philadelphia.

She never got tired. She accepted every invitation with a great deal of enthusiasm and zest. She would perform for nothing, if she could-and that’s why actresses have managers like me.

There’s a contract from Richard Fulton in New York City stating that the attraction is Agnes Moorehead and she is to be booked into Bristol, Virginia to the Virginia Intermont College. The fee—nineteen hundred dollars, plus transportation and accommodations.

In the Springfield Orchestra program, there appears “Under tonight’s soloists”: “Agnes Moorehead with a rare combination of talent and dedication has achieved stardom in television, radio, motion pictures and the legitimate stage. She has been an Academy Award nominee five times. She received her early schooling in St. Louis, Missouri and, starting at the age of ten, spent her summers performing in the theatre with the St. Louis Municipal Opera Company for four years. Miss Moorehead graduated from Muskingum College and received a Master’s decree in English and public speaking at the University of Wisconsin. She then went to New York and the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and soon began appearing in Broadway and radio roles. She has three Doctor’s degrees. Miss Moorehead is currently appearing in the fifth successful season of ‘Bewitched’ on ABC, as the witch mother-in law, Endora.”

I can’t begin to tell you the amount of fan letters and cards I accumulated over the years. We kept everything. She had fans that followed her from place to place and she had fans who wrote daily. They wanted nothing more than to be close to her or receive pictures or letters. Their dedication was superb. Actually, Agnes handled it all like a grand lady with a wave of her hand.

Because Agnes Moorehead didn’t like my first name of Quint, she constantly called me Joe or Joseph, It completely confused her fans. I would constantly get letters from them asking if I, Quint, was the same man they were introduced to when they were backstage with Joe, or was I a brother.

I came across a letter to Don Mason Turnbull in Leawood, Kansas, who asked for Miss Moorehead’s appearance in Duluth, Minnesota. I wrote that Miss Moorehead was out of town and when I got to her I would try to work it out. Thank God for the U.S. mails and telephones.

In the correspondence there was constant confusion which, of course, happens in this involved way of life. I had a letter from the Keedick Lecture Bureau. It says, “For a number of years now we have been submitting lecture offers to Miss Moorehead via Paul Gregory. While we never consummated any of these, we’ve never had any indication from either Miss Moorehead or Mr. Gregory that she did not welcome these offers.” I do not know what eventually happened, but it is a fact that lecture bureaus all over the world were always contacting Agnes.

There’s a letter to Lola Wilson, who served as her lecture booker for a while. I wrote her: “The following are travel plans for Miss Moorehead and me for the following areas—Phoenix, I will be driving Miss Moorehead’s car to Phoenix, leaving Los Angeles) early A.M. of Wednesday. Miss Moorehead will leave Los Angeles on American Airlines on Wednesday evening, arriving Phoenix 10:40 P.M. where I will meet her at the airport. We will need two single rooms for lodging. Immediately following the ten-thirty performance, we shall both drive back to Los Angeles.

“Dayton, Ohio—Miss Moorehead will be leaving Los Angeles on Sunday via American Airlines, arriving Dayton 4:23 P.M. Miss Moorehead will need lodging for the entire week. And so forth and so on.”

A letter to Mr. Richard Palmer, Performing Arts Area, Washington University, and St. Louis, Missouri: “Your letter of May 27th, together with a letter of Miss Brockhoff, dated May 14th, has been directed to my attention for reply. Miss Moorehead includes two types of performances in her travels around the country. Her one woman show is a fully lighted and staged presentation that requires adequate facilities for the proper effect. A copy of those requirements with a diagram is enclosed for your perusal. Miss Moorehead also presents what she calls a poetic hour, which can be done from a lectern with a minimum amount of lighting on a small stage or platform. In this type of presentation, there is little movement and is designed as a lecture primarily for literature and theatre students. If, after looking over the stage requirements for the one-woman show and re-evaluating your present facilities, perhaps you will be in a better position to decide which presentation you would want to have. Other universities, which have lacked the necessary facilities, have rented local theatres, Masonic Lodges or local high school auditoriums for her one-woman show.”