George Raft

Discussion of the actors, directors and film-makers who 'made it all happen'
feaito

Re: George Raft

Post by feaito »

Stone, since Norma Shearer has come up I wonder if you could shed some light on this.

Notwithstanding her shortcomings in terms of acting, I have always admired Norma both as a professional and as woman, thus I was surprised to read today on James Robert Parrish's 2003 book "Hollywood Divas", since he's a well-known and respected author, which should account for the information he gives and his sources, the following paragraph:

"Once she had maximized her physical potential, Norma -a tireless perfectionist and a great controller of situations- did not stop there. She understood that a true movie star must radiate both great presence and self-confidence to have high-voltage charisma. Thus, Shearer developed a range of calculated emotional responses that were emphasized by crafted vocal inflections (especially that lilting, mocking laugh) and practiced body gestures. With constant practice, she appeared to be a captivating sophisticate, a glamorous and daring cinema free spirit ready to embrace the world and enjoy all that it offered. The persona became her stock-in-trade, as exemplified in her Oscar-winning role in "the Divorcee" (1930). She also used such calculated artifices away from the soundstage, and those in frequent contact with her were soon alienated by the unceasing pretense."

The last part of the quoted paragraph is what surprised me, since I have read Gavin Lambert's and Quirk's Bios on Norma and Thalberg's Bios by Bob Thomas and Mark Vieira and I haven't read anything of sorts that I can recall, about Norma being a phony and pretentious. I have read about her determination to achieve stardom and to become a good actress, even trying to emulate performances by Fontanne or Lawrence, which could result sometimes in artificial and calculated performances (i.e.: "Strange Interlude" in some sequences), but never of her being like that in real life. I have always thought of her as a true, hardworking, no-nonsense professional.... Do you have any insight on this?
feaito

Re: George Raft

Post by feaito »

By the way, on the aforementioned book Parrish's also states Re. Norma & George:

"Then Shearer began seriously dating ex-hoofer-turned-movie star George Raft. Other lesser powers at the lot were amused by this odd match of regal Norma and the former thug (who still had many gangster pals), but Mayer was not. While pretending to go along with this whim -even to allowing a projected costarring vehicle to be announced for the duo, he counted on the fact that the Catholic Raft would never divorce his wife, who was demanding a huge divorce settlement. Eventually, Shearer and her tough guy beau went their separate ways."
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Jezebel38
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Re: George Raft

Post by Jezebel38 »

Sorry about the interuption of Fernando's inquiry about Norma, but I just stumbled across this strange interlude in Raft's screen career:

[youtube][/youtube]
Western Guy
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Re: George Raft

Post by Western Guy »

Hey Jezebel: Mucho thanks! Now I can put aside an hour of my writing to watch this Raft flick that I researched for my book but never saw. Bless you!

Fernando, my amigo, don't know much about Norma Shearer outside of her very brief romance with George. Must confess that I've only seen one or two of her pictures. :oops: One thing that I always admired about that screen toughie during this period (and it also happened during Raft's previous high-powered romance with Virginia Pine) was his incredible fondness for children -- and this was also verified by my wonderful, dear friend Sybil Jason, who, along with the Our Gang kids, was invited to George's Coldwater Canyon estate for a fabulous backyard party. Sybil told me that that backyard affair remained one of the highlights of her extraordinary childhood.

With Norma's two kids, George played a father figure. He'd build sand castles with Norma's young daughter Katherine and he enjoyed taking Irving Jr. out to ball games (George's passion) and even bought the boy a complete Indian outfit that was cherished by the lad.

T'is true that Mayer did not look favorably upon the Raft/Shearer romance. He was quoted as saying: "A nice Jewish (?) girl like Norma should not be seen going around with a roughneck like that (Raft)." Two projects announced to feature the couple were a remake of A FREE SOUL and a remake of ONE WAY PASSAGE, which, of course, was remade as 'TIL WE MEET AGAIN with Merle Oberon and George Brent. Both, I believe, would have been excellent vehicles for George. But, as producer David Lewis said in reference to the aborted casting of the latter film: "There had been a good deal of gossip about Norma and Raft, not too favorable, and I thought too much of Norma to allow it."

Fernando, take Parrish's comments regarding Norma with a grain of salt. He also co-authored The George Raft File, which George himself disowned, saying the book was full of misinformation. In fact, Lew Yablonski told me that George was so offended by the book that he refused to autograph copies.
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charliechaplinfan
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Re: George Raft

Post by charliechaplinfan »

I don't think Mayer understood that nice girls sometimes want to have fun and Norma had been pursuing screen stardom and had been a faithful wife and loving mother. I can't remember any of her other affairs, certainly no one like George, I like Norma, I doubt the pretentiousness is true. I like the idea that she would have had a happy time before settling down to another marriage with a guy like George, who was good to her and her children. Everytime you mention how he was with children Stone my heart goes out to him, a man who liked children, a film star who liked children enough to have them running all over his back garden. What a guy.


Perhaps after Betty, George just gave up asking for that divorce, she'd refused him, possibly 3 times? Was he Catholic, we know he was religious but I didn't think it was to any particular church. Was it his catholice credentials that stopped the divorce? That's one I can't buy, I can buy the fact he couldn't afford the price or over he didn't try too hard but I don't believe what mayer believed.

Thank you for that youtube. I'm going to watch it in the next couple of days.
Failure is unimportant. It takes courage to make a fool of yourself - Charlie Chaplin
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charliechaplinfan
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Re: George Raft

Post by charliechaplinfan »

Can't believe I haven't got time to watch that George movie now, kids to bring home, ironing to do, tea to make etc, I wish life had a pause button, I'd use it now before anyone can take the movie down.
Failure is unimportant. It takes courage to make a fool of yourself - Charlie Chaplin
Western Guy
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Re: George Raft

Post by Western Guy »

I don't believe George followed any particular religion (though he was Catholic), yet according to Mack Gray's nephew he seemed to have a belief in God. Whenever he would refer to someone who had passed, he would add: "God rest his/her soul in peace."

As someone said, noting the George/Norma affiar: "Norma had fun with George, like a kid playing hooky from school." Obviously the fat ol' hypocrite Mayer wanted to keep her prim and pure and an association with the screen's number one tough guy would work against that image. Yet in any case, the romance truly was doomed to be short-lived. As with Virginia Pine and Betty Grable, both of whom wanted the security of marriage, Raft's hands were tied thanks to the vengeful Grayce and after three-strikes-and-you're-out, Raft's romances, such as they were, were limited to call girls.

Yet again -- there has always been that speculation that George himself never pressed Grayce too hard for a divorce since remaining legally married kept him out of succumbing to a long-term relationship.

Who knows for certainÉ
feaito

Re: George Raft

Post by feaito »

Stone, thanks for your invaluable insight.
Western Guy
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Re: George Raft

Post by Western Guy »

I`m humbled by your flattery, Fernando.
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charliechaplinfan
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Re: George Raft

Post by charliechaplinfan »

I think Grayce is the biggest mystery in his life, never mind all those rumours about his friends, it's Grayce who is the big mystery. No photos of her, is there a birth date? I think she was older than him and she'd been cheating on him. I don't know, it's at odds at how I imagine George in New York, he was street wise, you wouldn't have thought he'd be easy to cuckold, yet he was by all accounts. He sticks by her but it's crumbled even before it's started. Did he ever live with her Stone? I can't remember you mentioning it. Part of me too struggles to ever see George as a husband, a lover yes and quite frequently by all accounts. I can see him being eternally faithful to one woman, although I do believe him capable of loving one woman quite deeply, I just don't see him as a homebody at all, I can't imagine him staying home with a wife any night of the week, let alone signing on for life. Marriages don't have to be conventional especially in Hollywood, suppose he'd married Betty, do you see domesticity Stone or do you see night after night in nightclubs, eateries, racetracks? Back to Grayce, he'd be in his 20s, perhaps all his buddies had settled down, she's a social worker, perhaps she has a caring, nurturing side, perhaps she's gorgeous, we don't know, we don't know how she got our perennial batchelor down the aisle. One things for sure, she wasn't letting him go, were not sure how big a Catholic George was but Grayce claimed to be one. And there may have been a marriage before Grayce although no one knows anything about this but it turns up on the imdb from time to time, along with a child, heaven only knows were they appeared from.
Failure is unimportant. It takes courage to make a fool of yourself - Charlie Chaplin
feaito

Re: George Raft

Post by feaito »

Western Guy wrote:I`m humbled by your flattery, Fernando.
I am just being honest and fair Stone. Yo made detailed research to write Raft's Bio and that's very valuable.

Re. James Robert Parrish, I wonder if in these last decades he's become perhaps less trustworthy than before, because at least his earlier books from the 1970s like "The RKO Gals", "Paramount Pretties" and "The Fox Girls" are quite good sources of cinematic knowledge, more focused on professional aspects and careers of the actresses profiled, rather than on their private lives. I did realize a different approach between the aforementioned books and "Hollywood Divas", published in 2003.

The book you mention he wrote on George Raft seems to be closer to being a sort of Biography and I have never read a proper full-fledged Biography written by him.
Western Guy
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Re: George Raft

Post by Western Guy »

Well, I thank you again, Fernando, for your kind words.

Re: Parrish. He also co-wrote a book called `Dillinger: Dead or Alive`in which he offers the theory that it was not John Dillinger who was killed outside the Biograph Theater that July night in 1934. He does present a pretty convincing case. I am inclined to agree with what he says and in my own book `Dustbowl Desperados: Gangsters of the Dirty 30s`come to the same conclusion in my Dillinger chapter -- and have received some reader flack as a result. Well, cèst la vie.

As for his Raft book, all I can really go on is George`s own dismissal of it. It does present a sad, rather unflattering portrait of George - especially in that period covering George`s later years where Parrish writes that George was so lonely his only friend was the TV and would have possibly been suicidal without it. Actually George remained very popular socially, if not professionally, during those final years. If he was not quite as visible a figure it had more to do with his failing health than lack of friendship.

One thing in favor of the Parrish book is the fairly detailed filmography -- even if there are exclusions that also appear in the more valuable Yablonski book.
feaito

Re: George Raft

Post by feaito »

Stone, Thank you again for responding my post so thoroughly.
Western Guy
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Re: George Raft

Post by Western Guy »

George did enjoy the nightlife, Alison, but he also enjoyed quiet evenings at home. Hard to say how domesticated he might have become had he been able to marry Betty Grable. I think had he married Virginia Pine he may have been more prone to becoming a homebody since he was immensely fond of Virginia`s young daughter, Joanie.

There is a photo of Grayce in the Robert Parrish bio. I gotta say: She ain`t no honey.

According to Lew Yablonsky, who knew George as well as anyone, Raft never spoke of an earlier marriage or having a child. Of course those might not have been areas George would want to reveal . . . but Lew said he was scrupulously honest when it came to speaking about most areas of his life.
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charliechaplinfan
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Re: George Raft

Post by charliechaplinfan »

What happened to Virginia Pine and Joanie? Did she remarry have other children, they seemed very suited but she didn't stay faithful to him (that was a brave guy considering George's temper).

I'm going to treat myself to the youtube movie, be back later :D
Failure is unimportant. It takes courage to make a fool of yourself - Charlie Chaplin
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