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    The Golden Age of Hollywood Movies 1931-1943 Vol X: Fay Wray
    The Golden Age of Hollywood Movies 1931-1943 Vol X: Fay Wray
    The Golden Age of Hollywood Movies 1931-1943 Vol X: Fay Wray
    Ebook71 pages1 hour

    The Golden Age of Hollywood Movies 1931-1943 Vol X: Fay Wray

    By James R Ashley

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    About this ebook

    Although Fay Wray made 80 movies in her career, she is largely remembered for only one, King Kong (1933), where her leading man was a gigantic ape. Her role consisted largely of looking frightened and screaming her head off. Nevertheless, that role catapulted her into film immortality.

    Fay did not lead the life of the typical Hollywood starlet at the time. She was not flashy; did not actively seek publicity; and did not act like a diva, throwing temper tantrums on the set. She led a quiet and quite normal personal life and on the set did what she was told to. When her director told her to scream, she let loose for all she was worth. And so convincing and sensual were Fay's screams, that they were frequently used for other movies she did not even appear in.

    Although Fay was a pretty woman and had an engaging screen presence, she never made it as a star and stayed a contract player throughout her film career. She was not a particularly sensual actress, and as a result seemed to have developed little sexual chemistry with her leading actors. And since for female actresses at the time the road to stardom was overt sexuality, Fay was simply bypassed for the breakout parts.

    Fay was a lot like another famous actor of the era, Buster Crabbe (Flash Gordon), who led an equally quiet life. As a result, little was written about either of them. It is for this reason that I write this book about Fay, so that the public should know about the life of one of the truly decent actresses in the Golden Age of Hollywood moviemaking.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherJames R Ashley
    Release dateNov 18, 2015
    The Golden Age of Hollywood Movies 1931-1943 Vol X: Fay Wray

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      Book preview

      The Golden Age of Hollywood Movies 1931-1943 Vol X - James R Ashley

      The Golden Age of Hollywood Movies, 1931-1943

      Vol X: Fay Wray

      James R Ashley

      Copyright 2015

      Smashwords edition

      Table of Contents

      Introduction

      Early Years

      Love Life

      Movie Career

      Films

      Later Years

      Death

      Bibliography

      Introduction

      Although Fay Wray made 80 movies in her career, she is largely remembered for only one, King Kong (1933), where her leading man was a gigantic ape. Her role consisted largely of looking frightened and screaming her head off. Nevertheless, that role catapulted her into film immortality.

      Fay did not lead the life of the typical Hollywood starlet at the time. She was not flashy; did not actively seek publicity; and did not act like a diva, throwing temper tantrums on the set. She led a quiet and quite normal personal life and on the set did what she was told to. When her director told her to scream, she let loose for all she was worth. And so convincing and sensual were Fay's screams, that they were frequently used for other movies she did not even appear in.

      Although Fay was a pretty woman and had an engaging screen presence, she never made it as a star and stayed a contract player throughout her film career. She was not a particularly sensual actress, and as a result seemed to have developed little sexual chemistry with her leading actors. And since for female actresses at the time the road to stardom was overt sexuality, Fay was simply bypassed for the breakout parts.

      Fay was a lot like another famous actor of the era, Buster Crabbe (Flash Gordon), who led an equally quiet life. As a result, little was written about either of them. It is for this reason that I write this book about Fay, so that the public should know about the life of one of the truly decent actresses in the Golden Age of Hollywood moviemaking.

      Early Years

      Vina Fay Wray was born on September 15, 1907, on a ranch in Alberta, Canada. Her father, Joseph Wray (who was a rancher from England), and mother, Elvina Jones (who was from Salt Lake City) were both Mormons. Elvina, was married earlier at age 17, to a man who was unable to consummate their marriage. After a marriage of 6 years, Elvina ran off to marry Joseph Wray.

      While in Canada, Elvina apparently suffered a nervous breakdown and her 4 children had to stay with various relatives. In 1912 the Wray's departed Canada for EIvina’s city of birth in the United States, Salt Lake City, Utah, where Joseph got a job as a night watchman. Two years later (in 1914), the family moved to Lark, Utah, then back to Salt Lake City, in 1919.

      Fay’s sister (Willow) worked at a photographic studio there, where she dated a fellow worker named William Mortensen. One day when Morrison announced that he was going to seek his fortune in Los Angeles, Willow decided to accompany him, and the 14-year-old Fay decided to take along. She left her job stuffing envelopes for a Salt Lake City newspaper and lived with friends she made in Los Angeles. At the age of 15 Fay attended Hollywood High School.

      Love Life

      Fay was 5’3" tall, with brown hair and blue eyes. Early pictures of Fay show her to be a knockout.

      John Monk Sanders (1928 - 1939) Fay met John Monk Sanders, a screenwriter, in 1928 on the set of Paramount’s Legion of the Condemned. A year after they met they were married and had a daughter. As Sanders became more and more addicted to alcohol and drugs, the marriage slowly unraveled, and after being together for 11 years, a divorced ensued in 1939. Shortly after their divorce, the now mentally unstable Sanders committed suicide. Fay then had brief flings with Clifford Odets and Howard Hughes, before settling down with Robert Riskin.

      Robert Riskin (1942 - 1955) Robert Riskin was director Frank Capra’s screenwriter at Columbia. After marrying Riskin in 1942, Fay retired from films to raise the 2 children that she had by him. Unfortunately, Riskin had a major stroke in 1950 that left him partly paralyzed, and in 1953 Fay was forced to return to work in the film industry to pay his medical bills. Now being middle-aged, the only work Fay could get was work in B-movies. Riskin died in 1955.

      Dr Sanford F Rothenberg (1971 - 1991) It was to be 16 years after the death of Riskin, in 1971, that Fay remarried, at age 43, this time to Dr Sanford Rothenberg, the doctor who had treated her last husband, Robert Riskin. They stayed married until Fay’s death in 1991. During her time with Rothenberg, Fay made only occasional public appearances.

      Movie Career

      Hal Roach Fay made the acquaintance of F. Richard Jones, who was the head of Hal Roach Studio at the time. She was 16 in 1923, when she made an appointment with Jones and told him of her desire to work in films at the studio. She was given a 6-month contract and appeared in a number of bit parts in comedy shorts. Her 1st starring role was in a silent film named The Coast Patrol (1925). Her salary was $60 a week.

      After her contract expired, Fay went on to Universal.

      Universal At Universal Fay was paid $75 a week to appear in a dozen low budget Westerns, mostly in Buck Jones films. In one film, Man in the Saddle (1926), Fay was Hoot Gibson's leading lady. Fay performed most of her stunts on horseback herself.

      Paramount Pictures In 1927 Fay signed a contract with Paramount Pictures for $500 a week. In 1928 she was cast as the female lead in Eric von Stoheim’s The Wedding March, a silent film. Although the film was flop, it gave Fay her first starring role.

      Fay did another silent for Paramount (Thunderbolt-1929), then made the transition to talkies

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