Featured Player: An Oral Autobiography of Mae Clarke

Mae Clarke

Jan 1996 · Scarecrow Press

About this ebook

When Mae Clarke arrived in Los Angeles in 1929, she was a headliner in vaudeville who preferred the New York stage to acting in movies. She went to work for Fox and planned to stay just long enough to fulfill her contract. Her stay lasted 63 years. After distinguishing herself as Molly Malloy in Howard Hughes' production of The Front Page, Mae Clarke took a two-day job at Warner Bros. that changed her life. In an unbilled bit, she allowed James Cagney to grind a grapefruit in her face and, at the age of 20, achieved a kind of fame that would haunt her for the rest of her life. This isn't the story of a star, but rather a featured player - a talented actress who supported herself in movies and television for almost 40 years. Though hampered by failed marriages, bad luck, and bouts of mental illness, Mae Clarke managed to appear in 90 feature films, including such classics as Waterloo Bridge, Frankenstein, Lady Killer, Singin' in the Rain, Pat and Mike, and Thoroughly Modern Millie.

About the author

James Curtis is the author of Between Flops, an acclaimed biography of Preston Sturges and A World of Gods and Monsters, the forthcoming biography of James Whale.