Mildred Shay

Mildred Shay was born in Syracuse in September of 1911 to globe trotting parents.  Although she isn’t well known out of Hollywood, she is a very familiar name there with tales of casting couches and unrequited advances.

She worked with, and got along wonderfully with Joan Crawford despite the fact that she stole every scene as Helene, the French maid (her specialty) in George Cukor’s The Women 1939, something Miss Crawford didn’t much tolerate.

She dated many eligible bachelors in Hollywood and married three of them. Rumor has it that Errol Flynn, naked but for his shirt and sock garters, held her captive in his apartment before she succumbed to his advances. Cecil B DeMille also wined and dined her at his Paradise Ranch, feeding her oysters, complete with pearls still attached. Mildred's father had taken up work acting on behalf of the Hollywood powerbrokers at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, United Artists and Fox.

 Within weeks Mildred was making her first screen test for MGM.  Her first assignment was dubbing for Greta Garbo in Grand Hotel (1932). Later she played in The Women (1939) as well as Balalaika (1939) with Nelson Eddy, and All Women Have Secrets (1939).

The following year Mildred headed East to New York where she appeared on Broadway. In New York she met and then eloped with Winthrop Gardner Jr., one of Americas wealthiest bachelors.  She had a torrid affair with Victor Mature and Roy Rogers.  Mildred gave up her career for motherhood, only to return in 1974 with a starring role in The Great Gatsby and then Ken Russell’s Valentino (1976).

At 91, she was photographed alongside Kevin Spacey, Catherine Zeta Jones, Shirley Temple and Kirk Douglas for an exhibition of film actors held in London and Beverly Hills over Oscar week 2004.

Editorial

The Ben Hur story centers around Judah Ben-Hur who lives as a rich Jewish prince and merchant in Jerusalem at the beginning of the 1st Century. His life changes when his old friend  Messala arrives as commander of the Roman Legions. 

Ironic as it may seem today, a young MGM didn’t want Ben-Hur, it inherited the production from a new partner, Metro, when the company was founded in 1924. One reason was that it was over budget and out of control, at $3.9 million on its way to becoming the most expensive silent movie ever made. MGM spared no expense in its pursuit of authenticity, and it showed. MGM wound up making a bundle saving the company from possible bankruptcy.

The film was not easy to make as the producers continually demanded realism. Did you know that a record (for a single scene) of 48 cameras were used to film the 1925 sea battle?

Proving lightening can strike twice, William Wyler, one of sixty assistant directors in 1925, went on to direct the 1959 remake. They consulted with historians who seldom gave usable answers. One case involved the design of the 1959 stadium, a major issue on both films. Asking an archaeologist what the stadium in Jerusalem looked like, he replied, "Roman."  A second archaeologist replied "It was in a Phoenician style." A third said: "Stadium? I was not aware that Jerusalem had one!" MGM engineers eventually sat down and carefully studied the 1925 version, and based their design on that.

Would you believe that Leslie Nielsen made a screen test for the part of Messala, and that Kirk Douglas, Burt Lancaster, Rock Hudson and Paul Newman  were also offered the role of Ben Hur?  Newman did not think he had the legs for a tunic!