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Design Your Own Wedding Dress For Girls Biography

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Tallulah Brockman Bankhead was born on January 31, 1902 in Huntsville, Alabama to William Brockman and Adelaide Eugenia Bankhead. She was named after her paternal grandmother, who, in turn, was named after the town of Tallulah Falls in Georgia.  The Bankheads were a prominent Alabama political family. Tallulah's grandfather, John Hollis Bankhead, was a Confederate veteran and a U.S. senator. Tallulah's uncle John was also a Senator and her father would serve as a U.S. Representative and Speaker of the House.

Tallulah's mother, Adelaide (or "Ada" as she was called) was a native of Como, Mississippi and was already engaged to another man when she met William Bankhead on a trip to Huntsville, Alabama to shop for her wedding dress. Will and Ada fell in love at first sight and, following a whirlwind romance, were married on January 31, 1900 in Memphis, Tennessee.
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Tallulah's birthplace
They returned to Huntsville and lived in an apartment in the Schiffman Building (see photo at right). Their first child, daughter Ada Eugenia, was born on January 24, 1901. The following year, Tallulah was born on their anniversary. Ada died tragically of blood poisoning just three weeks following Tallulah's birth. On her deathbed, she told her sister-in-law to "take care of Eugenia, Tallulah will always be able to take care of herself".


William Bankhead was devastated over his young wife's death. He remained in Huntsville and worked in a law office but sent his daughters to live at Sunset, his parent's home in Jasper, Alabama. The girls would divide their time between Sunset and their aunt Marie Owen's home in Montgomery, Alabama.

As a child, Tallulah was pudgy and fair and her older sister Eugenia was slim and prettier. Tallulah did everything she could think of for attention. She ran around the house doing cartwheels or singing and reciting literature that she had memorized. She was rarely still and her boisterous behavior rankled everyone's nerves, especially her grandmother. She was prone to throw tantrums, rolling around on the floor and holding her breath until she was blue in the face. Tallulah's grandmother would threaten to throw a bucket of water on her to calm her down and she frequently did. Today, Tallulah would be probably be diagnosed with Attention Deficit Disorder.

Tallulah discovered at an early age that theatrics were a viable outlet for gaining the attention she craved. She had a gift for mimicry and entertained her classmates by imitating the school teachers. She could memorize poems and plays and recite them dramatically. Tallulah was happiest when all eyes were upon her. One of her fondest memories was when her father put her on a table top and allowed her to sing and dance for a group of his friends.

Tallulah and Eugenia's grandmother and aunt were determined to make proper Southern ladies of out both of them, but it soon became obvious that the girls were becoming a handful. William proposed enrolling them in a convent school to tame them. His mother, a stout Episcopalian, at first refused but then changed her mind when she learned that it was the only type of boarding school that would admit girls as young as ten. In 1912, both girls were promptly enrolled in the Convent of the Sacred Heart in Manhattanville, New York.

Tallulah hated the convent school, but her grandmother and father were impressed by her new manners. As William's political career took him to Washington, the girls were enrolled in a series of different schools, each one closer to Washington. In 1913, they were enrolled at the Mary Baldwin Seminary in Staunton, Virginia. The following years found them at the Convent of the Visitation in Washington, the Holy Cross at Dunbar and the Fairmont Seminary.

Who Is She?

Tallulah was fifteen when she suddenly matured into a beautiful young woman. Eugenia, at sixteen, was getting married. Tallulah had more on her mind than boys and her life was about to take a dramatic turn. An avid reader of fan magazines, she had submitted her photo to Picture Play, which was conducting a contest and awarding a trip to New York plus a part in a movie to twelve lucky individuals solely based on their photographs. Tallulah learned that she was one of the winners while browsing through the magazine at a local drug store.

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However, there was a slight problem. In her haste to enter the contest, Tallulah had failed to give her name or address. Her photo was captioned "Who Is She?" and asked that the mystery lady contact them at once. Picture Play was satisfied when they received a letter from Congressman William Bankhead along with a duplicate copy of Tallulah's photo.

Tallulah was ecstatic, but both her father and grandmother had qualms about her going to New York. William Bankhead soon realized, however, that there would be no peace for anyone until he gave Tallulah his consent. A consensus was finally reached when Tallulah's grandfather agreed to finance her stay in New York and Aunt Louise would act as chaperone.

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In "The Squab Farm" (1918)
Tallulah's contest win may have been fleeting - she was paid $75 for three weeks work on Who Loved Him Best and had only a minor part - but she quickly found her niche in New York. Tallulah and her aunt Louise lived on West 45th Street for a few months and eventually settled into the Algonquin Hotel in February of 1918. The Algonquin was New York's hub for actors, artists and the cultural elite. Tallulah was in hog heaven. She spent most of her time lounging in the lobby watching the comings and goings of such notables as Ethel Barrymore, Anita Loos and Douglas Fairbanks, Sr.


William Bankhead used his influence and connections to help secure Tallulah's first stage role. Although The Squab Farm only lasted three weeks, it was enough experience for Tallulah to know that her heart lay in the theater. Two minor film roles did little to subdue her desire to perform on the stage.

In the meantime, she was a hit on the social scene. Her extraordinary beauty and vivacious personality captivated the tenants and employees of the Algonguin and pretty soon she was on first-name basis with the hotel manager as well as the hotel's illustrious guests. One of her friendships was with Estelle Winwood, an English actress who would become Tallulah's closest female friend. She also left impressions upon playwrights, like Zoe Akins and Rachel Crothers, who would be instrumental in her early career. Crothers would write a play expressly for Tallulah (Everyday) and Akins patterned the character of Eva Lovelace in her play Morning Glory after Tallulah. The role would later win Katharine Hepburn her first Academy Award.

Tallulah wanted to experience everything - and she did! When she was not working and could escape from Aunt Louise, she partied. Louise finally threw up her hands when Tallulah turned eighteen and she left for Paris and volunteered for the Red Cross. Tallulah was elated and glad to be out from under Louise's stifling control, which she had more or less ignored. She moved into an apartment with actress Bijou Martin, whose wild parties introduced Tallulah to cocaine and marijuana. Tallulah did abstain from drinking, only because she had promised her father that she would stay away from alcohol.

In addition to her wild personality, Tallulah was becoming known for her wit. Some compared her to Dorothy Parker, who was not amused to hear that she had competition. Of course, one friend noted that Tallulah never kept her mouth shut, so she was bound to say something witty occasionally. Tallulah indeed was always talking and was never at a loss for something to say, even if it was an untruth. During one party, someone brought up the subject of rape and Tallulah quiped, "I was raped in our driveway when I was eleven. You know, dahling, it was a terrible experience because we had all that gravel."

Tallulah had been in New York for five years, but had yet to score a significant hit. Exasperated, she visited an astrologer and asked her when she would become famous. The astrologer told her, "Your future lies across the water. Go if you have to swim". Miraculously, a cable arrived a few days later from Charles Cochran, a London theater director, who told her that he was recommending her to Gerald Du Maurier for a substantial part in the play The Dancers.

All signs were pointing to England. Another inviting incentive was Napier George Henry Sturt Alington, "Naps" for short. Tallulah had met Napier while he was in New York to study the American banking system. Tallulah was madly in love with him and he had just returned to England. She immediately booked passage on the Majestic and sailed to England.

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Photographed by George Hoyningen-Huene in London, 1929.
Tallulah's eight-year London success in various plays was a triumph and she finally achieved the fame that she so desperately wanted. London embraced Tallulah the minute she stepped on the stage in The Dancers. Wearing a buckskin dress, a feathered headdress and her thick golden hair falling to her knees, Tallulah was an exotic vision like they had never seen before. Tallulah's most fervent fans were young working class women. To them, Tallulah was the embodiment of their fantasies - a fashionable, beautiful girl living a glamorous life. The fans became somewhat of a cult, copying and emulating Tallulah's dress, hair and personality. They waited outside the theater forty-eight hours in advance of a new Tallulah opening. They attended her plays several times a week and never missed a premiere or a closing. They would become ecstatic when Tallulah appeared on stage, cheering wilding and chanting "Tallulah, Tallulah" or "Tallulah Hallelujah". The press wrote about them frequently and even gave them a name - "gallery girls".

Tallulah herself was an "accessible" icon. She reveled in her fans' idolatry and always acknowledged them, on-stage or off. She would blow them kisses from the stage and utter "thank you, dahlings", which would result in even more cheering. After a performance, Tallulah would greet her fans, sign autographs, chat with them and inquire about their family and loved ones. Sometimes, she would even invite them to her dressing room or to her home for a visit. One of the devoted gallery girls, Edie Smith, became a Tallulah employee and was with her for over thirty years.

In a foreign country and far away from the prying eyes of her family, Tallulah's outrageous antics grew even wilder. She continued to visit Napier, even though their romantic relationship had waned. Napier introduced Tallulah to Olga Lynn, a former Opera singer and now voice coach, and Lynn offered Tallulah her home to live in for a while. Tallulah luxuriated in Lynn's posh surroundings, complete with an army of servants. Lynn was a frequent entertainer and her home was always filled with famous personalities and dignitaries. Tallulah charmed them all.

Tallulah eventually bought her own house in the Mayfair section of London. Just like Lynn, Tallulah insisted on a menagerie of "servants". In Tallulah's house, however, they were less formal and were paid to be on hand to do any and everything for Tallulah, the most important requirement function being a companion and an ear to Tallulah's mouth, which never stopped.

Tallulah also bought herself a Bentley, which she loved to drive. She wasn't that good with directions, however, and constantly found herself lost in the London streets. She would telephone a taxi-cab and pay the driver to drive to her destination while she followed behind in her car. The press loved it.

Promiscuity came naturally to Tallulah and she went to bed with anyone who was interested. She professed to having a ravenous appetite for sex, but not for a particular type. "I've tried several varieties of sex. The conventional position makes me claustrophobic. And the others give me either stiff neck or lockjaw", she said. Once, at a party, one of her friends brought along a young man who boldly told Tallulah that he wanted to make love to her that night. She didn't bat an eye and said, "And so you shall, you wonderful old-fashioned boy."

She did conduct affairs with several men, but none of them were lengthy. The most serious was with Anthony de Bosdari, an Italian businessman she met while on tour with Her Cardboard Lover. They even became engaged, but this was soon called off when Tallulah caught her fiancé in several lies and correctly deduced that she was being used.

On the professional front, Tallulah triumphed. She appeared in twenty-four plays while in London, and there was not a season that she wasn't in a production. Although most of her plays were critically lambasted, they remained open due to Tallulah's tremendous popularity. When she did perform in highbrow fare, like Sidney Howard's They Knew What They Wanted, she succeeded, winning accolades from the critics if not from the gallery girls.

There was one role that Tallulah desperately wanted, but didn't get - Sadie Thompson in Rain. She campaigned heavily for the role and even flew back to the United States to audition for Somerset Maugham, the play's author. She was devastated when she heard that she had lost the role. She retreated to her room, closed the shutters, put on her Sadie Thompson costume and a jazz record, and took a handful of aspirin. Before lying down, she wrote a note - "It ain't going to rain no moh". She awoke the next morning feeling better than she had in months. (Tallulah would eventually get to play Sadie in the United States).

Tallulah had certainly made her mark on the London stage by the end of the decade. In a magazine poll, she was chosen as one of the most remarkable women in England, right up there with Lady Astor and the Queen. In 1929, her portrait was painted by the famed Augustus John and it was acclaimed as one of his best works.

Her star had certainly not dimmed since she had made her debut in 1923, but her finances had. She had never fully grasped the pound-to-dollar ratio and she spent her money freely. She also found herself in deep debt to the government for back taxes. In the Fall of 1930, Tallulah received a lucrative offer from Parmount Studios in Hollywood. It was too good to pass up. She gave a huge party and reluctantly said her farewells to her English friends and sailed for New York in January of 1931.

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"The Cheat" (1932)
The advent of sound in Hollywood films brought about many changes to the industry and actors were among those most affected. To be a successful actor in films, you needed more than an attractive face -- you had to have a distinctive voice.

The Hollywood studios were clamoring for exciting personalities to grace their productions. Foreign and exotic actresses were very popular at the time. Greta Garbo was the most popular actress at MGM and Paramount Studios had just imported Marlene Dietrich to rival her. Dietrich has indeed proved to be a goldmine for Paramount and her first three films made the studios big money. Paramount reasoned that acquiring another actress of her stature could only increase their profits. Enter Tallulah.

Although Tallulah was not a foreign actress, she had lived in London for the past eight years and she was virtually unknown to American audiences. She possessed a beauty similar to Garbo and Dietrich and better yet, a strong husky voice. The Paramount publicity department went into high gear to promote their new discovery.

Tallulah herself was not very interested in making films. The opportunity to make $50,000 per film, however, was too good to pass up. She later said, "The only reason I went to Hollywood was to fuck that divine Gary Cooper."

Tallulah did not leave for Hollywood immediately. At the time, Paramount maintained studios in New York, and Tallulah's first three films would be made there. Tallulah settled into the Elysee Hotel and proceeded to drive the staff crazy with her numerous requests. The following week, she reported to work for her first film, Tarnished Lady.

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"Tarnished Lady" (1931)
George Cukor was the director and he and Tallulah became fast friends. Tallulah behaved herself on the set and filming went smoothly, but she found film-making to be very boring and didn't have the patience for it. She didn't like Hollywood either. When she met producer Irving Thalberg, she asked him, "How do you get laid in this dreadful place?"

A lush and star-studded premiere was held for Tarnished Lady at the Rivoli in New York City. Critics were not impressed with the film and audiences left the theater wondering what all the hullabaloo over Tallualah was about.

Two more films (My Sin, The Cheat) were made in New York with the same lackluster results before Paramount decided to move Tallulah out to Hollywood. Riding with her on the train was Joan Crawford and her husband, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. Tallulah told her, "Dahling, you're divine. I've had an affair with your husband. You'll be next."

In Hollywood, Tallulah rented William Haines' former house, hired three black servants, and prepared for her fourth Paramount film, Thunder Below. It fared worse than any of her previous films.

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with Gary Cooper in "Devil and the Deep" (1932)
Tallulah may have been miserable in her professional life, but she didn't let that affect her private life. She indeed met Gary Cooper and even made a film with him, Devil and the Deep, following Thunder Below. Gary Cooper wasn't the only person Tallulah was interested in - she desperately wanted to meet the elusive Greta Garbo.

Her chance came when writer Salka Viertel, a mutual friend of Garbo and Tallulah, invited Tallulah to her home. Salka informed Tallulah that Greta would be there. Tallulah and several friends were so excited that they couldn't stop talking about Garbo. They made a vow that no one would mention Garbo's name and if they did, they would have to pay $1 to every person in the group. On the way to Viertel's house in Tallulah's car, everyone was quiet and tense. Tallulah finally said, "You are all so damned unnerved that you would think we were on our way to meet Greta Garbo!" She paid everyone $1.

Tallulah met Garbo that evening and the first thing she did was walk up to her and pull her eyelash. Garbo said "Ouch!" and Tallulah told her that she just wanted to see if they were real. By most accounts, the two hit it off, although they were apparently just friends. They often played tennis together on Sundays. Tallulah also met the notorious writer Mercedes de Acosta who had been romantically involved with both Garbo and Marlene Dietrich. Tallulah didn't care for her and told friends that she looked like a mouse in a topcoat.

One of Tallulah's most notorious events was an interview that she gave to Motion Picture magazine in 1932. She was obviously letting off steam from her frustrated attempt at a movie career and she ranted wildly about the state of her life and her views on love, marriage and children. The part that got the studio heads standing on their heads was this quote:

"I'm serious about love. I'm damned serious about it now...I haven't had an affair for six months. Six months! Too long...If there's anything the matter with me now, it's not Hollywood or Hollywood's state of mind...the matter with me is, I WANT A MAN!... six months is a long, long while. I WANT A MAN!"

Hollywood was becoming increasingly conservative partly as a result from past scandals with their stars and because Will Hays had formed the infamous Production Code. The Code dictated not only what the studios could show in their films, but how their actors must conduct themselves off the screen. As predicted, the interview created quite a commotion. Will Hays was furious, Time magazine ran a story about it, and, back home, Tallulah's father and family were fit to be tied. Tallulah immediately telegrammed her father vowing to never speak with a magazine reporter again.

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"Faithless" (1932)
She trudged through her next film, Faithless, and decided it was time to call it quits. Paramount actually wanted to renew her contract (they were considering her for a role in Red Dust, which eventually went to Jean Harlow), but Tallulah wasn't interested. She wanted to return to New York or even London, where she could get back on the stage.

Tallulah's film career had failed, but it wasn't entirely her fault. She took some of the blame saying that she wasn't able to judge a good film script, but she also blamed the studios for having too many people involved in production. George Cukor later said that Tallulah was just not right for the camera and she didn't photograph well. Most blamed Paramount because they simply didn't know how to use Tallulah.

Tallulah would return to Hollywood ten years later and make good but, for now, it was on to greater things...

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"The Little Foxes" (1939)
Tallulah had already selected a property for her return to the New York stage. Forsaking All Others, about a young bride jilted at the altar, was written by Frank Morgan Cavett, one of Tallulah's former cameramen at Paramount. The comedy opened on March 1, 1933 to respectable reviews, but the timing was not good. The country was in the midst of the Great Depression and audiences began to dwindle. Unlike in London, there wasn't a multitude of gallery girls to keep the play open.

Tallulah didn't waste any time jumping into a new project. After beginning rehearsals for Jezebel in August of 1933, she suddenly experienced excruciating abdominal pains and was rushed to a hospital. Her condition worsened and nine weeks later, after considerable bed rest and the halting of Jezebel, she was diagnosed with a life-threatening case of gonorrhea. An emergency hysterectomy had to be performed to save her life. It has been widely speculated that Tallulah got gonorrhea from Gary Cooper. However, she had so many sexual partners at the time that it is impossible to know the truth.

Following her surgery, Tallulah began a slow recuperation. She spent the Christmas holidays in Jasper, Alabama with her family. She pondered her ill-fated luck in New York and decided to resume her career in London once her health improved. Tallulah, never one to stay idle, began to take more pills and drink.


In March of 1934, Tallulah returned to England. She caught up with her old friends and began to look for a suitable play. She had not been there long when her friend Jock Whitney telephoned from New York. He had a wonderful play for her - Dark Victory. Tallulah accepted and returned to New York, but Dark Victory proved to be a major flop (it did, however, make a strong vehicle for Bette Davis on the screen in 1939).

Tallulah continued to appear in a string of mostly unmemorable plays. She did get the chance to do Rain, but it wasn't a hit and even she said that no one could forget Jeanne Eagles in the role a decade earlier.
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Screen test for "Gone With The Wind"
Tallulah thought that she would never want to work in Hollywood again, but in late 1936 she read that David Selznick would film Gone With The Wind and he was looking for an actress to play Scarlett O'Hara. Tallulah knew that "she could play the pants off Scarlett" and began a full-fledged campaign to win the role. She enlisted the help of her family in Alabama, who sent letters and telegrams to David Selznick's office trying to convince him that Tallulah was the only actress who could play Scarlett.

Selznick agreed to test Tallulah and on December 21, 1936, she made three photographic screen tests in Hollywood. Tallulah was heartbroken when, nearly two years later, Vivien Leigh won the role. She wrote in her autobiography, "I'll go to my grave convinced that I could have drawn the cheers of Longstreet and Beauregard and Robert E. Lee had I been permitted to wrestle with Rhett Butler".

Tallulah's next antic shocked everyone - she announced that she was getting married. She had been mesmerized by actor John Emery when she saw him on stage in Busman's Holiday in Westport, Connecticut. Tallulah met him after the play and invited him to spend the weekend with her. He moved in with her shortly afterward.

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with John Emery
It was soon obvious that Tallulah's desire to marry was mostly done to placate her father, who had just been elected Speaker of the House. Tallulah and John were married on August 31, 1937 in Jasper, Alabama. When a reporter asked Tallulah why she married, she quipped, "I married for love, darling. Isn't that ridiculous?" She later confessed that she never actually loved him. She thought that the two of them might make a dynamic acting team, but after the disastrous Antony and Cleopatra, that notion looked bleak. In reality, Tallulah was never interested in "settling down" with any man and, after a rocky four years together, the couple divorced in 1941.

Tallulah finally achieved an American stage triumph with The Little Foxes in 1939. The Lillian Hellman classic told the story of the Hubbard family, whose lives are controlled by hatred and greed. Tallulah played Regina Giddens, a cold and self-centered social climber who stops at nothing to gain a foothold in Chicago society, even if it means destroying her family.

Tallulah received tremendous praise for her performance and she won the Variety Award for Best Actress of the Season. The play enjoyed a long run (408 performances), followed by a year- long road tour. Tallulah also made a small fortune from the play as she demanded her usual ten percent of the grosses.

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As Regina Giddens in The Little Foxes
Tallulah got along well with the cast of The Little Foxes, especially Eugenia Rawls, who played her daughter in the play. They would become lifelong friends. She did clash, however, with her director, Herman Shumlin and playwright Lillian Hellman. Their differences were a result of their politics. Tallulah was a devout Democrat, anti-Communist and liberal. When Stalin invaded the tiny country of Finland, Tallulah wanted the proceeds from a special performance to go to the Finish Relief Fund. Hellman and Shumlin refused and Tallulah was incensed. She didn't speak to Hellman for twenty-five years and wrote letters to Time magazine criticizing her.

In the fall of 1940, Tallulah lost two people who were very close to her. Her father died on September 15. One month later, she learned that Napier Alington had been killed in action during the Battle of Britain. Tallulah became even more politically active and donated her time and money to anti-Communist causes. She even vowed to stop drinking until Hitler's reign had ended (a vow that she was unable to keep!).

Tallulah scored another stage triumph in November of 1942 when she debuted in Thornton Wilder's The Skin of Our Teeth. The play enjoyed a long run and critical success even though it baffled most audiences. Turmoil reigned backstage as Tallulah's temperament grew more hostile. She clashed with most of the actors in the play and many of them would not show up for performances until the very last minute to avoid her tantrums.

Despite Tallulah's increasing working demands and extreme temperament, she enjoyed great professional success during the 1940s. Following The Skin of Our Teeth, Alfred Hitchcock summoned her to Hollywood to appear in his film Lifeboat. It would be her greatest film success, earning her a New York Film Critics Award for Best Actress (she was sadly over-looked for an Academy Award nomination). Many fans today know Tallulah solely from Lifeboat.

She made another impressive stage run with Private Lives in 1948 and later took the play on an equally successful road tour.

Perhaps Tallulah's most self-rewarding experience during this time was her acquisition of a Tudor-style country house in Bedford Village, New York. She named it "Windows" (it had 75 of them!) and spent a fortune decorating, re-modeling, landscaping and installing a huge swimming pool. Life was a constant party at Windows and Tallulah was able to run around in the nude as she liked. She adopted a menagerie of pets and people to share the house with her.

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With Jeff Chandler on "The Big Show" (1952)
By 1950, Tallulah was a household name who was frequently mentioned in the press, whether it was to report on her latest political involvement or simply to relate another humorous anecdote (of course, many of these were often unprintable!). The name "Tallulah" was so analogous with her that she took legal action when Prell shampoo used a jingle with her name in it for an advertisement (see the ad here). Tallulah was victorious and the company stopped using the ad.

Tallulah had starred on both stage and screen but she was about to tackle a new medium - radio. In November of 1950, NBC radio introduced The Big Show, a 90-minute extravaganza which would feature big name actors, singers and comedians. Tallulah was asked to be "Mistress of Ceremonies" or in simpler language, the host. She was given a four-week trial-run after which she could quit if she wanted. Tallulah was nervous and highly excited about the project, but she wasn't sure exactly what her role was. She fretted for weeks, losing sleep and questioning every line of the script. When the show debuted on November 5, 1950, it was an outstanding success. Tallulah was elated and agreed to keep working after the four-week trial.

Much of The Big Show's success was attributed to Tallulah's trademark wit. Although the show was scripted, Tallulah was known to ad-lib. Much of the banter consisted of playful put-downs between Tallulah and her guests. A sampling:

Marlene Dietrich: Tallulah, that's a beautiful gown you are wearing, what color is it?
Tallulah: It's called battleship grey, dahling.
Marlene: Battleship grey, how lovely. But don't you think it's a little tight around the boiler-room?

Tallulah (to Ethel Merman): I must say, dahling, that you don't look a day over 60!

Tallulah: Dahling, I've decided to grow old gracefully.
George Sanders: And so you have, darling!

Earl Wilson: Are you ever mistaken for a man on the telephone?
Tallulah: No dahling, are you?

The Big Show aired every Sunday night from 6-7:30 and ran for two years. It introduced millions of new fans to Tallulah and she was named radio's "Woman of the Year" for 1951.

Tallulah was once again in a legal predicament in late 1951 when it was discovered that her personal secretary, Evyleen Cronin, was stealing money from her. Cronin took care of Tallulah's bills and household expenses and in the process, she inflated the amounts of the checks and kept the extra cash for herself. It was estimated that she had stolen at least $10,000 from Tallulah since she first started working for her in 1949. Tallulah fired Cronin in April of 1950, but did not intend to press charges. However, when columnist Walter Winchell publicly congratulated Tallulah for being a "good sport" about the incident, District Attorney Frank Hogan contacted Tallulah's lawyers insisting that she must press charges or compound the crime.

The dreaded trial began on Dec. 11, 1951 and Tallulah was greatly humiliated by it. "Thank God my blessed daddy is not alive to see this!", she said. Cronin's lawyers alleged that Cronin's job included "paying for marijuana, cigarettes, cocaine, booze and sex." Cronin also testified that Tallulah taught her to roll marijuana cigarettes and would beat her if she ever asked for money. Tallulah seethed in her seat and couldn't keep quiet. Her huffs and guffaws finally persuaded the judge to exclude her from any proceedings except for her own testimony. Many of Cronin's statements were proven false and she was found guilty of stealing from her employer. She was given a suspended sentence due to her age (59) and a strong plea of clemency from Tallulah.

Tallulah hated public incidents like the Cronin trial and did not like persecuting anyone, even if that person had done her wrong. This may have conflicted with Tallulah's public image as a ballsy, outspoken dame, but, in truth, she had a soft heart. Since the mid-1940s, Tallulah had adopted foster children from abroad. She regularly corresponded with them and sent them money as well as generous gifts. She wrote about one of her foster children, Barbara Nicoli, in an article for Cosmopolitan magazine.

In the meantime, Tallulah was paid $30,000 to pen her memoirs. The book would actually be ghost-written by Richard Maney. Tallulah would pace restlessy in the early morning hours at Windows, shouting into a tape recorder while chain smoking and drinking bottles of bourbon. The book - ostentatious and chock full of metaphors, and sounding very much like Tallulah - spent twenty-six weeks on the New York Times Bestseller List and was serialized in newspapers and magazines in the U.S. and England.

Tallulah continued to perform in various venues. The Sands Hotel in Las Vegas paid her a generous $20,000 per week to perform in a one-woman show which included monologues, songs and poem readings. Tallulah employed actress friend and now house-mate Patsy Kelly to attend to her personal needs. She also made new acquaintances with the young Las Vegas chorus boys and employees who idolized her. She would regale them all night with her stories.

During this time, Tallulah had a mammoplasty and couldn't resist showing off her new silicone breasts. Although she was getting older and her body was beginning to show it, she still loved to parade around in the nude. At Windows, she would perform for her guests on top of her piano, wearing only a string of pearls.

Tallulah had been absent from the stage for over four years when she returned in September of 1954 to appear in Dear Charles. By this time, Tallulah's body was beginning to slow down, but she was not. She smoked and drank non-stop and took an arsenal of drugs to keep her functioning.

On stage, she always played herself, no matter what the role, and her fans loved it. She appeared in a revival of A Streetcar Named Desire with an audience comprised mainly of gay men. Williams later said, "The worst Blanche DuBois was poor Tallulah, although I must say she was amusing. I'm sure the attack on Blanche being a drag queen started with Tallulah."

One medium that Tallulah had eschewed in previous years but finally give in to was television. She made her first appearance in 1952 on "All Star Revue" and made several guest appearances on variety shows, as well as acting in one-hour dramatic programs.

Tallulah's most popular television appearance and the one that is still seen widely today was her December 3, 1957 appearance on the "Lucille Ball-Desi Arnaz Hour". Tallulah played herself in the episode titled "The Celebrity Next Door". The part was originally slated for Bette Davis, but she had to bow out after cracking her verterbra.

Lucille Ball was a big fan of Tallulah's and did a good impression of her. By the time the episode was filmed, however, both Ball and Arnaz were at their wit's end over Tallulah's behavior during rehearsals. Tallulah refused to listen to the director and she did not like to rehearse. It took her three hours to "wake up" once she arrived on the set and everyone thought she was drunk most of the time. Lucy and Desi apparently didn't know about Tallulah's antipathy toward rehearsing or her incredible ability to memorize a script. The actual taping of the episode went off without a hitch and Tallulah impressed everyone with her line readings and professionalism.

Tallulah had now successfully performed in every entertainment medium and had achieved memorable performances in each. Her true love was still the stage, but her failing health was beginning to limit her ability to do strenuous work. For the first time in her life, she started to slow down.

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At Truman Capote's Masked Ball (1964)
Tallulah had now reached a point in her career where she was becoming a caricature of herself. Her fans expected outrageous behavior from her and she seldom displeased them. She had successfully performed in every entertainment medium and had achieved memorable performances in each. She now had the money and fame that she so wanted in her early life, but the years of heavy smoking and drinking had taken a toll on her body. Furthermore, stories of her volatile behavior and work ethics were rapidly reducing job offers.

In 1956, Tallulah sold Windows and moved into a four-story townhouse at 230 E. 62nd Street in New York City. By now, Edie Smith, Dola Cavendish, Patsy Kelly and others who had long served her, left to fulfill other obligations. Tallulah now preferred the company of young gay men to look after her. In addition to general goffer duties, they were required to read scripts and offer their opinions about them, supervise cooks and chauffeurs in Tallulah's employ, act as escorts on rare nights out on the town, and hold her hand when she went to sleep. Ted Hook, just one in a long series of "caddies", would work for Tallulah for over five years.

During the long intervals between her professional duties, Tallulah became a homebody. She remained a night owl and didn't arise until 4pm. She would then settle down to watch her favorite soap operas, which she had been addicted to since they first appeared on the tv horizon. During this time, Tallulah refused all visitors and telephone calls. Anyone who dared visit her while she was watching a soap opera would be instructed to sit in silence until her shows ended.

She ate very little, but consumed gin and bourbon constantly and was never without a cigarette. During the evening hours, Tallulah would receive guests and would expect them to stay until it was time for her to go to bed early the next morning. Usually the evenings with guests were spent playing bridge. Tallulah adored bridge and played the game seriously. Whether or not one could play bridge was always a question she would ask a job applicant. If you couldn't play, chances were good that you would be instructed to sit in silence until her shows ended.

She ate very little, but consumed gin and bourbon constantly and was never without a cigarette. During the evening hours, Tallulah would receive guests and would expect them to stay until it was time for her to go to bed early the next morning. Usually the evenings with guests were spent playing bridge. Tallulah adored bridge and played the game seriously. Whether or not one could play bridge was always a question she would ask a job applicant. If you couldn't play, chances were good that you would not be hired as her cook, chauffeur, housekeeper, bookkeeper or whatever.

After complaining of having difficulty breathing, Tallulah learned from her doctors that she had emphysema. She tried unsuccessfully to quit smoking and continued to look for her next big hit, hoping for a great comeback. In 1964, while visiting her friend Dola Cavendish in Canada, she received the script for a film called Fanatic. Dola urged her to take it.

Made in England, Fanatic was yet another in a series of campy horror films that featured famous aging actresses in the lead roles. Tallulah conserved her energy and curtailed her bad habits to appear as professional as possible. She was mortified during her initial arrival at the hotel when she fell after catching her heel on a rubber mat. A photographer documented the act and the photo ran in newspapers and magazines around the world.

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Die, Die, My Darling (1965)
Tallulah was paid $50,000 for Fanatic, which was re-titled Die, Die, My Darling for the United States market. Tallulah hated the title and protested, but she couldn't do anything about it. Although critics praised her performance, the film quickly disappeared from theaters. Tallulah retreated to her New York apartment. She did make another rare public appearance in 1966 when she attended Truman Capote's famous Black and White Ball. Tallulah prepared for the event weeks in advance. She was unable to dance at the party, so she just sat back and received a long line of former friends and admirers. She even spoke to Lillian Hellmann and forgave her for the Little Foxes incident twenty-five years earlier. Tallulah invited several friends back to her apartment that night including Jesse Levy, a forty-five-year-old playboy who would become Tallulah's next and last "caddy".

In early 1967, television producer Bill Dozier asked Tallulah to appear on his program, Batman. She would be paid $20,000 to appear in a two-part episode portraying the villainous "Black Widow". When Dozier explained to Tallulah that the part would be need to be campy, she retorted, "Don't talk to me about camp, dahling, I invented it!" Tallulah appeared to be having terrific fun in the episode, effectively hiding the fact that she was suffering from physical ailments.

Tallulah would appear on the Smothers Brothers Show, the Merv Griffin Show and The Tonight Show during the coming months. The Tonight Show appearance on May 14, 1968, in which she chatted with Paul McCartney and John Lennon about baseball and music, would be her last TV appearance.

She spent the summer of 1968 with her sister at Eugenia's home in Rock Hall, Maryland. Eugenia was still healthy, but Tallulah was frail and weighed less than 100 pounds. Over the years, the two sisters had not gotten along that well, and Eugenia still irritated Tallulah most of the time. Tallulah stayed in a tiny cottage on Eugenia's property and resumed her daily habits, watching soap operas in the afternoon and playing bridge at night. Tallulah confessed to Eugenia that she didn't care about anything anymore and prayed every night that she wouldn't wake up in the morning.

Tallulah returned to her New York apartment and, in December, she contracted the Asian flu. She didn't respond to antibiotics and was placed in the hospital. After developing pneumonia and falling into a coma, she was placed in intensive care where she died on December 12, 1968. Her last discernible words were "codeine, bourbon".v

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