"Merry Madcap "? Sullavan Fa
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
impulsively fly off to Nevada and get from not knowing how to demonstrate married. love and caring. Bridget died, too, at the age of 21. So, if anything, this is a cau- In "Haywire," the extremes are more tionary piece -about the not-so -good subtly expressed. Leland Hayward old days" lies his own plane -"a little blue Twin Notwithstanding, there was enough Beech" But didn't everyone in those of both pain and glamour in sister days -James Stewart, Robert Taylor, Brooke's book to sell hundreds of thou- Danny Kaye? It was the thing to do. sands of copies in hard cover and paper- Hayward and Miss Sullavan tango on back -and to impel Warner Bros. to buy their front lawn in full evening dress for it as a film property. Originally destined the benefit of a passing busload of to be a theatrical feature, the project tourists. Why not? Didn't everyone in later was switched to television but still the old Hollywood find it amusing to act managed to capture a mighty array of tal- the "merry madcap "? ent: Emmy -winning writer James Costi- The family has a beach -colony sum- gan; Oscar -winner Jason Robards to mer home; a Hayward children's party play Leland Hayward; Lee Remick as features hired armed guards, a clown, a Margaret Sullavan (a close enough re- magician, an organ grinder and monkey, semblance, though a head taller); Deb- a pony, a jungle gym. Didn't everyone? orah Raff in as Brooke Hayward; Dianne Leland Hayward had four wives, Mar- Hull as Bridget Hayward; Hart Bochner garet Sullavan four husbands. Again, as Bill Hayward; a brilliant young British that's the way it was. director, Michael Tuchner; a remarkable Only two members of the Hayward - group of child actors who had to repre- With 1940s' pageb. .uT/o, Lee Remick Sullavan family group have survived sent the real Hayward children at three (left) is a startling look -alike for the late those so- called happy days. They are different age levels -all nine of whom Margaret Sullavan. In earlier, happier days, eldest daughter Brooke (now 43), who incredibly look and act very much like the ill- starred Hayward -Sullavan family wrote the book; and youngest child Bill their adult counterparts. cavorts in the Pacific (top, left) outside its Hayward, 39, who emerged from con- And typical movie -star beach -colony home. then, of course, there was the finement in mental Deborah Raffin (top, right) plays the two institutions to real Bill Hayward as producer. In addition teen -age and grown -up Brooke Hayward, become a successful film producer to keeping the film true to his sister's who wrote the best seller that spawned the ( "Easy Rider ") and is the producer of the book, he performed some production TV- movie. There was so much pain in TV -movie version of "Haywire." miracles of his own -such as finding al- remembrance for the real Brooke (above) He says: "People did seem to have a most exact replicas of his colonial -style that she could spend only one hour on the lot of fun then -but it was all on the sur- childhood homes in Connecticut, in such set with brother Bill, the film's producer face. It's the counterpoint to the fun that unlikely places as Bradbury, Cal. Brooke and I both are concerned with. And, most important of all, who After all, our mother committed suicide, knows more than Bill Hayward about the our father died a lingering and painful fun and the misery of the old Hollywood. death, our sister Bridget went to pieces which ensnared and destroyed three over the fact that the family fell apart fifths of his extraordinary family ?. PANORAMA 69 .