Regarding John Barrymore As is known Mr. Barrymore liked young women. He had seen a photo of Astor and asked for her to star with him in Beau Brummel a big expensive 20s silent production. He first met Astor on the set for (I think) costume tests and immediately began his seduction with "You ar...

Regarding Astor in Malibu. Astor bought a house in Malibu in the late 1950s when she was writing My Story and lived there until the late 1960s when she moved to Mexico. She sold the house to Buddy Hackett. It should be understood that during these years Astor had become highly reclusive and saw very...

Regarding Japan In 1970 Mary Astor had several small heart attacks and developed COPD and was so sick that she had to move from Mexico where she was living and writing. She stayed with her son in California until she was well enough to live on her own but close enough for her son and his wife to loo...

Regarding her Alcoholism. As I wrote in the book she began drinking socially in the late 1920s. By the early 40s she had become a heavy drinker--using it to cope and to ease the pain she often felt because of her lack of a sense of her real self worth. In fact Bogart had commented that the woman cou...

I asked Marylyn about the Japan trip (which I never heard about) and this is what she wrote. " Mom never went to Japan with ANYONE - only to Europe - alone. Mom never talked with me about Agnes. They may have been 'working' friends - but not necessarily personal. I never met the lady. " I ...

Thanks much about the website. I had done so much research and collected so many photographs and documents that I had to do something with it all and that's how the idea for the website came about. Also Marylyn, and other members of Mary Astor's family were generous enough to let me use a great deal...

The questions and answers below didn't carry over from the previous thread. I'm reposting them here so I won't have to answer the questions twice. Question-I haven’t read your book yet, but I was under the impression the original diary was destroyed. Were all the purported excerpts just made up by t...

Omitted.

Oh yes for the person who asked about Agnes Moorehead, this is what Astor's Daughter had to say. "Mom did mention her and to me, seemed that she liked her and respected her as a great actress." And regarding Astor's work on Hush Hush, she worked five days on location and was before the cam...

It's a completely different book. This is excerpted from a post I will post to my blog next week. "Edward Sorel, the award winning caricaturist has written a satirical look at the 1936 Mary Astor Custody Battle—Mary Astor’s Purple Diary. But, it should be understood that Mr. Sorel has not writt...

To tell you the truth I don't know anything about it. I do know about Astor working with A.M. during the early 50s when she was doing plays and live television and of course on Hush Hush. (It should be noted that Astor only did a days work on it when the film was on location and Crawford was still w...

If anyone wants to ask questions ahead of time that's fine. I'll keep this page open on my computer and check it over the course of the day.

I will have to answer that question in several parts. 1-The original diary which was sealed by the court in 1936 was burned a few months after Marylyn turned 21. It was sealed in case the custody case was re-opened. Thorpe wanted to make sure that he could use it. Astor wanted to make sure that it c...

Sure And Please call me Joe. (My kids call me far worse.)

Thanks for your interest and I am open to any and all questions.