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Saturday, Nov 21, 2009
Anna Kashfi Brando, actor and wife of Marlon Brando
"Marilyn Bongo"
"I saw Marlon Brando for the first time in October 1955 while lunching in the Paramount Studio commissary. The meeting was not notable for stirring a sudden emotional surge. No bells rang. No glances were transfixed across a crowded room ... "
"... This man, I became aware, was staring at me -- staring, that is, when he was not alternatively occupied with kissing and nibbling at the nape of a blonde (subsequently identified to me as Eva Marie Saint) seated beside him. Ripples of attention were expanding from the source of the staring and nibbling.
"...A.C. Lyles left our table ... was introduced ... to the starer. Evidently the man expressed a desire to meet me, for he then followed A.C. back to our table.
"'This,' I understood A.C. to say, 'is Marilyn Bongo.' Through the commissary noises and in the exotic environment, it sounded reasonable.
"'Hi,' the man said. Somehow I had expected a statement more profound. The voice sounded like a caterpillar squiggling through a soda straw. The face, with incipient heaviness about the jawline, reflected a wistfulness, an open sensuality, and an ineffable indifference. The bluish-gray eyes lay in ambush behind a ciliary curtain, promising power in reserve, an inexhaustible force. He had the features of a man whose inner turmoil was preparing an organized escape." (Hollywood)
[from "Brando for Breakfast," by Anna Kashfi Brando and E.P. Stein (Crown Publishers, 1979)]
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Joan Collins, actor"His [George Englund's] best friend at the time was Marlon Brando, who was almost as great an admirer of George as I was ..."
"Marlon adored him, he emulated his vocabulary and mannerisms, his prowess at storytelling, his slightly superior attitude toward others not on his wavelength. Sometimes I found it hard to tell the difference between the two voices on the telephone ...
"...
"Marlon had an insatiable curiosity about people. What made them tick? What did they think about the world and other people, what were their feelings, observations, needs? At any gathering Marlon would usually gravitate to the quietest, and what to the unpracticed eye appeared the dullest, person in the room, and engage that person in animated and spirited conversation for hours. He was a master at making the shrinking violet bloom and the wallflower leave the wall. His interest was genuine. He really was interested in that pimpled, bespectacled young woman whose manner bespoke the library rather than the boudoir. He would draw her out slowly, painstakingly, with questions asked with intelligence and such obvious concern that the girl would flower before our eyes ..." (Hollywood, late 1950s)
[from "Past Imperfect," by Joan Collins (Simon and Schuster, 1978)]
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Zsa Zsa Gabor, actor
"What men can do with me"
"I appeared on the [Tonight] show with Marlon Brando. The show was still live in those days. I wore a low-cut pink Oscar de la Renta evening gown rather like a powder puff, and, of course, my diamond earrings and diamond necklace ... We started bantering about this and that. Then Marlon leaned forward and leered, 'I don't know why Zsa Zsa has to talk so much. With those boobs she really doesn't have to say anything.
"Marlon's first comment was fairly acceptable to the American TV audience. His next comment, though, definitely was not ... Marlon announced, 'Do you know what I want to do with that girl, Johnny [Carson]? I want to fuck her.' Then, turning his attention to me, Brando went on, 'Zsa Zsa, a man can only do one thing with you: throw you down and fuck you!'" (New York, early 1960s)
[from "One Lifetime Is Not Enough," by Zsa Zsa Gabor with Wendy Leigh (Delacorte, 1991)]
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Debbie Reynolds, actor and singer
"Napoleonic"
"I walked into the small trailer, very basic, with a sofa, a makeup table and mirror, and a padded, backless stool. Marlon was sitting there, his legs apart in a very relaxed, Napoleonic, sexual manner. He never rose, never stood up. I sat down on the little stool across from him ...
"'Are you Tammy?' he asked, in his slow, mumbled accent.
"'No, I'm Debbie.'
"'No, you're Tammy,' he said." [Reynolds had acted and sang the title song in "Tammy and the Bachelor."]
"He sat there all askew while I sat there very primly, legs together and back straight. He was putting me on; and I knew it. But I was so busy trying to figure out how to match wits with him -- and get over my discomfort -- that I had to go along." (Tahiti, 1962)
[from "Debbie: My Life," by Debbie Reynolds, with David Patrick (William Morrow, 1988)]
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