"It was beauty killed the beast." The last line of dialogue in the famous cinematic masterpiece King Kong helped to cement Fay Wray's name into the minds of millions of people around the world.
Years later the brunette beauty confessed she was sick of her reputation as a screamer and a shrieking blonde pursued by an ape.
Fay Wray was born Sept. 15, 1907, in Alberta, Canada, where her father Joseph was a rancher. She was one of six children. Looking for a better life, her family moved to Arizona when Fay was three, then to Utah where she spent most of her childhood. The family landed in California when Fay was 14. Her parents separated, and hard times ensued. Fay was often in ill health as the result of the influenza epidemic during W.W. I, which killed one of her beloved sisters.
During a summer vacation, 16-year-old Fay found work in movies as an extra, and soon carved a small career in Hal Roach comedy shorts and leading roles in westerns. Three years later, the famous director Erich Von Stroheim chose the still-unknown Fay for a major leading role in his excellent The Wedding March (1926). Stroheim said of her, "As soon as I saw Fay Wray and spoken with her for a few minutes, I knew I had the right girl. I didn't even take a test of her ... . Fay has spirituality ... but she also has that very real sex appeal that takes hold of the hearts of men." Fay soon became a star in silent films. When sound came to the screen, Fay felt it was destroying an art form. Yet she adapted to the new medium easily, and appeared in Josef Von Sternberg's first talkie, Thunderbolt ( 1929).
Miss Wray screamed in Dr. X ( 1932 ), The Mystery of the Wax Museum (1932 ), The Most Dangerous Game (1932), and The Vampire Bat (1933). Then came the film that changed her life forever, King Kong (1933).
Unforgettable and sometimes half naked, she raced the pulses of the men she traveled with on a ship, the natives she encountered, and the great Kong. The image of her dressed in white, her blonde hair glowing against a pitch-black night on a distant island while she is sadistically tied to giant pillars, screaming and frantically trying to escape the incredulous horror she sees when Kong approaches is indelibly burned into any mind who sees it. Fay Wray made movie history. When she is pulled from her bed and held high above Manhattan in the paw of Kong, long hair blowing, still wearing her evening gown ... well ... no one ever forgets the scene that has become a movie icon.
In 1928, Fay married screenwriter John Monk Saunders, and they both became a staple of Hollywood society, living in a gorgeous Spanish-style home and throwing lavish parties. They divorced in 1938, and John committed suicide a little over a year later. In 1942, Fay married another screenwriter, Robert Riskin. In the 1950s, Riskin became ill, and for financial reasons Fay was forced to return to acting after a decade of retirement, and appeared in various films and television shows. Their happy marriage lasted until his death in 1955. Fay next married Riskin's neurosurgeon, Dr. Sandy Rothenberg. Faye began writing stories and plays, and in 1989 published her autobiography, On The Other Hand.
Some of Wray's movies include Viva Villa (1934), The Affairs of Cellini (1934), Richest Girl in the World (1934), It Happened in Hollywood (1937), Adam Had Four Sons (1941), Small Town Girl (1953), The Cobweb (1955), Queen Bee. Crime of Passion (1957), and Tammy and the Bachelor (1957).
Today, there is a theatre in Africa which shows only two films alternating daily. One day they show The Mark of Zorro, the next day they show King Kong, and on Sunday they show both films. Wray lives in Hollywood, and is still active at 95.
Fay Wray stated, "I would have loved to have had more roles of more unusual character and depth, and I often thought that was too bad. However, it's a strange thing. I think I have at least one film that people have cared enough about to make them feel good. I think it's a strange, strange kind of magic that King Kong has. People who see it--their lives have changed because of it and they have so told me."
Sources: They Had Faces Then by John Springer and Jack D. Hamilton, New York Times Directory of the Film. Fay Wray Web sites.
Steve Starr is the author of Picture Perfect: Art Deco Photo Frames 1926-1946, published by Rizzoli International Publications. A designer and an artist, he is the owner of Steve Starr Studios, specializing in original Art Deco photos frames, furnishings, and jewelry, and celebrating its 35th anniversary in 2002. Visit the glamorous studio at 2779 N. Lincoln Avenue in Chicago where adorning the walls is Steve Starr's personal collection of over 950 gorgeous frames filled with photos of Hollywood's most elegant stars.
Photo of Steve Starr, July 25, 2002, by Albert Aquilar. You may e-mail Steve at SSSChicago@ameritech.net
9th Chicago Flower & Garden Show
The 9th Chicago Flower & Garden Show presented by Ace Hardware sets the stage for spring with this year's theme, "Theatre in the Garden." In the spotlight are 25 themed gardens, 200 garden product and educational booths, and ongoing lectures and demonstrations. The curtain rises Saturday, March 8 and takes its final bow on Sunday, March 16.
In full bloom on Chicago's Navy Pier, 600 E. Grand Ave. in Festival Hall, the show is open from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Mondays- Saturdays and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Sundays. Adult admission is $10 weekdays and $12 weekends; $4 weekdays and $5 weekends for children (ages 4-12). For information visit www.chicagoflower.com or call (312) 321-0077.
In partnership with Chelsea Flower Show's award-winning designers, Tim Redwood of Redwood Stone in Wells, England, and Andrew McIndoe of Hillier Garden Centres in Romsey, England, John Cullen of Celtic Garden Imports in Ann Arbor, Mich., returns for a third year at the Chicago Flower & Garden Show with a recreation of the Abbot's private garden at the Medieval Glastonbury Abbey.
John Cullen of Celtic Garden Imports will reconstruct the ecclesiastical ruins based on Redwood's folly design, which features classical medieval English architectural elements such as gothic arches, tracery windows, gargoyles and a baptismal font. Cullen will then landscape the garden with nearly 1,500 plants selected in partnership with Chelsea's Gold Medal-winning garden designer McIndoe. Intended to capture an understated English melancholy with vegetation indigenous to England's rainy climate, McIndoe's selections are taken from the same extensive plant list Hillier will use in creating their 2003 Chelsea display.
Celtic Garden Imports are period gardeners who use architectural artifacts and materials from Ireland, England and Scotland to capture the splendor of the old country.
Premiering this year at the Chicago Flower & Garden Show, Gnomenculture presents "A Midsummer Night's Dream," a garden filled with delightful surprises including a miniature fairy village with dwarf plantings and structures. Headquartered in Wayzata, Minn., Gnomenculture designs and manufactures a line of original garden miniatures, including fairy houses, figures and sculptures. These pieces feature architectural detail based on mystical, fairy-like characters and surroundings. Visitors enter "A Midsummer Night's Dream" garden through a Medieval arched doorway and follow the winding forest path to a clearing where an enchanting fairy garden awaits discovery. Anchored with an undersized medieval stone castle, the tiny fairy village is entirely surrounded with miniature herb topiaries, bonsai trees, Alpine plants, saxifrages and small-scale greenery in miniscule pots and urns.
Winner of last year's best-in-show Bronze Award, Rich's Foxwillow Pines Nursery of Woodstock, Ill., returns for a ninth year with "Harmony and High Drama in the Garden." Creating stunning contrast and texture with blue and yellow plant materials of varying heights, this garden takes viewers on a dramatic international flare in the shape of a yin and yang symbol. With golden stars and blue conifers showcased in a presidium-style garden, supporting roles are played by a colorful cast of perennials, bulbs and annuals in blue and yellow shades. Rich's Foxwillow Pines Nursery specializes in dwarf and rare specimen trees.
Garden Design magazine debuts at the 2003 Chicago Flower & Garden Show with "The Outdoor Kitchen Garden," a tapestry of texture and colors. Celebrating gracious living, the garden presents an abundance of fresh herbs and vegetables perfect for entertaining both indoors and out.
The University of Illinois Extension, winner of last year's best-in-show Silver Award, is an educational outreach arm of the University of Illinois in Matteson, Ill., and has been participating in the Chicago Flower & Garden Show for six years. In 2003, the Extension presents a peak performance with "Extreme Gardening." Designed to show the variety of plant life that can survive and thrive in extreme growing locations, the garden spotlights plants suitable for shady, moist, cool environments as well as plants suitable for sunny, hot and dry climates.
Vaulkner Nursery of Sheridan, Ill., makes a debut at the Chicago Flower & Garden Show with its family-friendly railroad garden. Specializing in Alpine plants, water garden supplies and garden railways, Vaulkner Nursery presents "Garden Railroad," featuring five garden-scale trains in a multi-level setting of dwarf conifers and trees, Alpine perennials, and a pond with miniature buildings, people and animals.
The award-winning "Arthritis Foundation's Enabling Garden" returns. Landscaped by James Martin Associates of Vernon Hills, Ill., in partnership with the Arthritis Foundation, the garden provides tips on how to make gardening more accessible and enjoyable for those with arthritis and other physical limitations.
