When did I first become fascinated with Miss Agnes Moorehead?
Well, it has to be when she swooped into my consciousness - a red-headed vision in lavender and lime-green – as the magnificent Endora in what was my favourite TV show back in the 1960s and remains a recurrent DVD delight – Bewitched.
Only later did I discover her as one of Orson Welles' Mercury Theatre Company and a member of the stellar casts of Citizen Kane and The Magnificent Ambersons.
Then I found her unforgettable vocal tour de force in the American radio broadcast, Sorry, Wrong Number, and her compelling silent performance in The Twilight Zone episode 'The Invaders'. Her talents were always diverse, always compelling...
Some years ago I acquired this autographed photograph of Miss Moorehead which shows what a striking-looking woman she was...
And I recently discovered this vintage TV clip from the ABC variety show, The Hollywood Palace(Season 4, Episode 13) televised on 17
Going back to Bewitched, again (sorry!), I want to say a few words in praise of Miss Agnes Moorehead who played that witch of a mother-in-law, Endora. She was one of the chief reasons I watched Bewitched and, since she was always on the opening credits, I was inevitably disappointed if she didn't put in an appearance.
Whilst I probably didn't acknowledge the fact at the time, Endora became a kind of covert camp icon - although maybe 'covert' isn't quite the word when one remembers the outrageous hairstyles and make-up and those sensational lime and lavender gowns!
Frankly, it's a wonder any lads who watched the series ever grew up straight!
But there was much more to Agnes Moorehead's career and talent as an actress than Bewitched. Having fallen under her spellin the sit-com, I began noticing her in her many powerful movie performances beginning with her debut as Charles Foster Kane's mother in Orson Welles' Citizen Kane...
Left to right: Harry Shannon (Father), George Coulouris (Thatcher), Buddy Swan as the eight year old CFK and Moorehead
Whatever the movie - good, bad or mediocre - Agnes added a touch of magic to roles as diverse as Parthy Ann, Cap'n Andy's nagging wife in Showboat and Ruth Benton, the firm but humane prison governess responsible for Eleanor Parker and a gaggle of ne'er-do-wells in Caged...
She played the grumpy hypochondriac, Mrs Snow, who is subjected to Hayley Mills' 'glad game' in Pollyanna and (in one of several Oscar-nominated roles) she was Bette Davis' slatternly maid in Hush, Hush, Sweet Charlotte...
Never a 'beauty', but always 'striking' Agnes played an extraordinary range of characters and was as convincing playing shrivelled-up spinsters and sharp-tongued shrews as enigmatic women of mystery.
Here she is giving a telling cameo as a theatrical costumier with Spencer Tracey in Fred Zinneman's 1944 anti-fascist film, The Seventh Cross...
The details of the story-so-far don't matter much other than the important fact that Vincent Parry (Bogart's character) has escaped from San Quentin where he was incarcerated for a murder he didn't comit and has been given a new face by a plastic surgeon - which is why Madge Rapf (Moorehead) doesn't recognise him. Of course, one would have thought the voice would have been a dead giveaway! Still...
The spoof twist at the end is, of course, not in the original movie but a YouTuber's tribute to Agnes' Endora in Bewitched...
Anyway, that aside, it's a great gloves-off acting contest with Bogart...
Agnes was also a veteran radio performer and had a particular triumph with her performance of Lucille Fletcher's 1943 melodrama, Sorry, Wrong Number as part of the legendary Suspense series.
One of the most famous radio plays ever - it's very nearly a solo performance - Agnes Moorehead played Mrs Stevenson, the neurotic, bed-ridden invalid who gets a crossed line and overhears a murder being planned. She reprised the performance for seven more radio productions and included it in her one-woman stage show.
When the radio play was made into a film, Agnes was passed over in favour of Barbara Stanwyck who received an Oscar nomination (but not the Award itself) and a number of reviews that compared her performance less than favourably with Agnes' original portrayal which is a tour de force of mounting neurosis and hysteria.
The version of the play I am about to invite you listen to was broadcast live on November 18, 1948 --- just eleven weeks after Ms Stanwyck's movie opened in movie theatres!
If you've never heard this classic, then you are in for a treat. Fix yourselves a strong drink, settle back and dim the lights and let this wonderful actress take you on a journey into sheer terror...
Writing, recently, about Ronald Searle at 90 reminded me that there's connection between this great cartoonist and illustrator and one the favourite TV shows from Sibley's '60s teenage years.
Bewitched, as you may recall (or have been told by elderly maiden aunts), was a popular American sit-com about the everyday life of a witch married to a mortal who is desperately trying not to use her magical powers in middle-class suburbia.
In June 1966, Ronald Searle provided a cover for the television-listing magazine, TV Guide, featuring two of the stars of the series: Elizabeth Montgomery who played Samantha Stephens, the 'witch' in 'bewitched', and Agnes Moorehead who (after years of serious thesping with the likes of Orson Welles and his Mercury Theater Company) won international celebrity as Sam's flamboyant and idiosyncratic mother: the unstoppable, un-top-able, Endora...
The caricature of Ms Moorehead is fantastic, although I can't help feeling that Baby Tabitha looks not unlike an infant version of Searle's 'skoolboy', Nigel Molesworth, and the portrait of Ms Montgomery is, I think it's fair to say, a tad less flattering than the way she appeared on the series' animated title sequence...
In addition to the cover, Searle additionally provided a number of illustrations for the interior of this issue of TV Guide, including a likeness of Montgomery's first co-star, Dick York, as Sam's long suffering and perpetually perplexed husband, Darrin Stephens.
Despite playing the straight man in this high-camp comedy, York showed himself to be the master of comic timing in his reactions to Sam's nose-twitching bewitchery and Endora's magical machinations and Searle certainly caught York's almost permanent condition of wincing, brow-furrowing anxiety.
The other cartoons show Searle's inventiveness in getting behind-the-scenes and into the show's premise.
Here he is imagining the team of technical advisors...
Here we get a peek into the secrets of the make-up room: the idea of some Macbethian hag being made-up to look like Ms Montgomery is pure genius...
And a glimpse of Sam performing on-set, off-screen magic on director William Asher (at the time Mr Montgomery), the hapless Dick York and an unidentified 'chippie'...
According to one of my favourite bloggers, Kevin Kidney (who first posted Searle's cartoons back in 2008), Searle was not exactly bewitched by the programme itself, observing: "I know that the canned laughter underscoring those mournful lines in Bewitched is the laughter of lost souls. Who else would applaud so hysterically the words: 'What's for breakfast, Sam?'"
Whether it's out of sentimental nostalgia for my lost youth, I don't know, but I still laugh at Bewitched...
You'll find more of Ronald Searle's art for TV Guidehere (the cover on the right shows Robert Vaughn and David McCallum, the stars of The Man from U.N.C.L.E.) on Matt Jones' endlessly diverting Perpetua: Ronald Searle Tribute, where you will also discover a great deal more about the world according to Searle.
Don't forget to visit the excellent exhibition, Ronald Searle - Graphic Masterwhich remains on show until 4 July at The Cartoon Museum, 35 Little Russell Street, London, WC1A 2HH. Opening hours: Tuesday-Saturday, 10:30-17:30; Sunday, 12:00-17:30, Closed Monday.
And may I mention that The Cartoon Museum is hosting a series of talks about the life and work of Ronald Searle that you might enjoy.
Here are details of the first three talks:
Tuesday 30 March: Titles Designed by Ronald Searle by (the aforementioned) artist and animator, Matt Jones
Wednesday 21 April: Ronald Searle at 90
Exhibition curator Anita O’Brien talks about meeting Searle and reveals more background to the exhibition
Wednesday 28 April: Collaborative Visions - The Illustrations of Ronald Searle by - er - well, by Me, actually!
All three talks are at 6:30-7:30 pm
Tickets: £5 (Adults); £4 (Concessions); £3.50 (Friends of the Museum)
To reserve your tickets - telephone: 0207 580 8155 or e-mail: info@cartoonmuseum.org.
Oh, yes! And, finally: you can find out pretty much anything you've ever wanted to know about Bewitched (and much that you haven't!) at Bewitched @ Harpies Bizarre.
