I’ve been enjoying a Cary Grant feast.
Born Archie Leach, he had a chequered childhood. His mother
was placed in a mental home for depression (it happened in those days) and he
was expelled from his high school. His career began in vaudeville, where he
learned such skills as stilt walking, acrobatics, juggling and mime.
Cary Grant hit
Hollywood in 1931, and went on to be voted the most popular male film star of
all time. He was incredibly versatile. He played in comedies, dramas, naval
epics, romances, drama and suspense. Even the grumpy Alfred Hitchcock loved
him.
His life apart
from acting had many highs and lows. He married five times, producing only one
child, a daughter who was as infatuated with her father as the rest of the
female population. Cary also attracted men, leading to suggestions he was
bi-sexual.
His interest in
yoga, hypnotism and mysticism suggest that his inner life was a struggle. In
seeking to come to terms with himself, he used LSD, then a legal compound one
of his wives introduced him to. He claimed it was effective.
He was a hard
worker, and suffered the cerebral haemorrhage that caused his death when he was
preparing to go on stage with his one man show in America. He was 82. One
cannot help thinking he was lucky, enduring only a few hours before dying, and
working right to the end of his long life.
Cary Grant left
us a gift in his legacy of films. Old, many in black and white, with none of
the frills and million dollar effects of today, his movies entertain and grip.
He wasn’t using stand-ins when he did his back flips in Holiday, or sang, whistled and danced his way to stardom. At the
same time, a lost era of fashion, hairstyles, décor and transport remind us how
things were back in the 30s and 40s.
Even fashions in
male pin-ups have changed. Today’s sexy male is admired for his pecs, abs and
buns. But for me, the brooding good looks of Cary Grant, fully dressed, take my
vote.
Do you ever
wonder how your books might be viewed by posterity? Our work reflects the norms of this century
and decade. There are no computers or cell phones in Cary’s movies, and the
cars are collectors’ items, if they are still around. In the future, what will
be happening to values, to how we dress and eat, how we get around? What
technology will be available?
I wonder!
