The LuLac Edition #4,723, April 19th, 2022

 

MAYBE I’M AMAZED

Our “Maybe I’m Amazed” logo

Lizabeth Scott Edition

MAYBE I’M AMAZED…..that very little is said about Lizbeth Scott who was an actress in the 40s and 50s in Hollywood. Scott was from Scranton.

MAYBE I’M AMAZED…that Scott’s real name was Emma Matzo (Ema Macová in Slovak). the oldest of six children born to Mary Penya] and John Matzo (Ján Maco in Slovak). Several conflicting accounts have been given as to her parents' ethnic origins,with most mentioning English, Rusyn, Russian, and Ukrainian. Both her parents practiced the Jewish Faith.

MAYBE I’M AMAZED…that the family had a homestead in the Pinebrook section of the city and her father, a lifelong Republican owned  Matzo Market.

MAYBE I’M AMAZED…that Scott attended Marywood Seminary, a local Catholic girls' school. She transferred to Scranton's Central High School, where she performed in several plays. After graduating, she spent the summer working with the Mae Desmond Players at a stock theater in the nearby community of Newfoundland.

MAYBE I’M AMAZED…..that after  moving to New York with her father’s help In late 1940, an 18-year-old Scott auditioned for the national tour of Hellzapoppin. From several hundred women, she was chosen by John "Ole" Olsen and Harold "Chic" Johnson, stars of the original Broadway production. She was assigned to one of three road companies, Scott's being led by Billy House and Eddie Garr. Landing her first professional job, she was billed as "Elizabeth Scott". The tour opened November 3, 1940, at the Shubert Theatre in New Haven, Connecticut. She did blackouts and other types of sketch comedy during her 18-month tour of 63 cities across the US.

MAYBE I’M AMAZED…..that Scott got her  big break in an experimental production of Thornton Wilder's new play “The Skin of Our Teeth” starring Tallulah Bankhead from New Haven to the Plymouth Theatre. Impressed by Scott's Sadie Thompson, he hired her as the understudy for Bankhead, despite Bankhead's protests. Bankhead had signed a contract forbidding an understudy for the Sabina role, which Michael Myerberg the producer breached by hiring Scott. Previously, Bankhead had controlled the production by not showing up for rehearsal. Now, Myerberg could simply put Scott in Bankhead's place.

MAYBE I’M AMAZED……that the rivalry between Bankhead and Scott was said to be the inspiration for the movie “All About Eve”.

MAYBE I’M AMAZED….that Scott moved to Hollywood and was in a series of movies that gave her the reputation of a sultry, deep voiced femme fa-tale. Lauren Bacall would be a similar star but with better breaks, co stars and movie parts. 

MAYBE I’M AMAZED…..that Scott starred in "The Strange Love of Martha Ivers" where she sparred with Barbara Stanwyck. IN “Dead Reckoning” Columbia originally intended Rita Hayworth for the role,but she was busy with "The Lady from Shanghai".  As a result, Scott was borrowed from Hal B. Wallis.  She also was in “I Walk Alone” as well as “Pitfall”: playing off of Burt Lancaster and Dick Powell.

MAYBE I’M AMAZED….at the age of 24 she was a sought after star.  Scott's billing and portrait were equal to Humphrey Bogart's on the film's lobby posters and in advertisements. Most often portrayed in publicity stills was the Jean Louis gown-and-glove outfit she wore in the nightclub scenes. In September 1946, a Motion Picture Herald poll voted her the seventh-most promising "star of tomorrow."

MAYBE I’M AMAZED…..that in the in the 1960s, Scott continued to guest-star on television, including an episode of "Adventures in Paradise" , "The Amazon" (1960), with Gardner McKay. Scott played the titular character, derived from a boyfriend's dialog: "She is a sleek, well-groomed tigress, a man-eating shark—an Amazon! She chews men up and spits them out."In a Burke's Law episode, "Who Killed Cable Roberts?" (1963), she camped it up as the grief free widow of a celebrity big-game hunter. Much of her private time, though, was dedicated to classes at the University of Southern California.

MAYBE I’M AMAZED…..that after her marriages She continued to date within a close circle of old Hollywood insiders. One of her best friends was the singer Michael Jackson, who  on very rare occasions, she could be spotted on his arm. Nor did she forget Hal Wallis. She appeared on stage at an American Film Institute tribute to Wallis in 1987 and fondly recalled her time with him. In 2003, film historian Bernard F. Dick interviewed Scott for his biography of Wallis. The result was an entire chapter titled "Morning Star", in which the author observed Scott was still able to recite her opening monologue from "The Skin of Our Teeth", which she had learned six decades earlier. Scott died of congestive heart failure at the age of 93 on January 31, 2015. Lizabeth Scott has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1624 Vine Street in Hollywood.(wikipedia, American Film Institute, LuLac archives).