Photoplay (Jan-Jun 1957)

tioning equipment, explaining to the management that it was interfering with his performance. “He was a calculated eccentric,” says Richard Maney, the noted Broadway publicist. “He could have given lessons to Brando, whom he preceded in the goofy department. That may be why he and Tallulah got along. That is, at least she spoke to Monty, which was more than she did to Brando when they appeared together.” Most of Clift’s eccentricity was not calculated, however. Somewhere along the way he developed a genuine passion to live his own life, alone and undisturbed, something few stars ever have been able to achieve. Part of it may have been due to the restraining influence of his parents in his early years. And part of it may have been due to his belief, developed in childhood, that nobody loved him or cared about him. To compensate for that, he chose to go it alone, as though to prove to the world that it didn’t really matter whether anyone cared for him or not. So he lives today virtually alone. He has a secretary, Marjorie Stengel, who takes care of his appointments and helps protect him from the world. In his New York apartment, a duplex in the East Sixties, a housekeeper comes in and cleans for him; in Hollywood, in the secluded furnished houses he sublets, he employs an Oriental houseboy. He regards tbe New York place as his real home, and when he is in town he will shut himself up in it for days, never answering the telephone, rarely bothering to dress except in a bathrobe, reading and listening to his large collection of records. “Monty may be in town for weeks and you’ll never hear from him,” says one friend, “and then, all of a sudden, you’ll see a good deal of him. That’s Monty; you have to get used to his moods if you want to keep him for a friend.” Clift himself sees nothing unusual about this behavior. He blames everything on the extreme concentration he brings to each role. If he appears in a restaurant without money, as sometimes happens, he shrugs, as though to explain that he was thinking of something else while he was dressing — which, in fact, probably was the case. “I don’t believe he knows bow much money he has,” says Laurence Beilenson, his attorney and business adviser in Hollywood. “He’s not rich, as some stars are, but he’s comfortable. Yet I get the impression that even if he were broke it would not matter much to him.” A good deal of his money goes for travel. Whenever he can get away, he’s off — Europe, Cuba, Mexico. Sometimes he travels with Kevin McCarthy and his wife Augusta Dabney, regarded by other friends as Clift’s “substitute parents.” “He’s still looking for affection, still searching,” one acquaintance has said. “In that sense, the travel is symbolic. And in that sense, he’s never grown up. He’s still a little unloved boy in his own mind, trying to resolve the conflicts developed in childhood, and yet unwilling to grow up and face bimself as Monty Clift, the man.” That may be the most important key to the character of this complex, fascinating personality, a personality which bas developed into one of the finest acting talents of our time, as well as one of the most puzzling eccentrics in a world of oddballs. At this writing, Clift seems to be faced with the choice of growing up or cracking up. The path he chooses is solely up to him. His many fans and friends devoutly hope it will be the former. The End PLAN TO SEE: Montgomery Clift in M-G-M's "Raintree County." The book that tells you everything you want to know about everyone in Hollywood « TH£ STARS »» a, hr • THE STARS im tvie news • TWE STARS vf vt3« t\l'JX • THE STARS 5 f Tlse fofctk y*>t Afcart QwtfWt to It’s a dream! It’s the new 1957 edition of Photoplay Annual. Between the covers of this thrilling annual is the entire Hollywood year in review. Here’s everything about everybody who is anybody in Hollywood. This gorgeous yearbook brings you hundreds of pictures ... all the news and gossip of Hollywood . . . plus exclusive stories about the screen’s outstanding personalities of the year. Here, too, are fullpage portraits in color . . . exciting candid shots . . . thumbnail sketches of the rising young stars, and many extra special treats. Photoplay Annual is enjoyment unlimited. Get yours now. only 504 at all newsstands now! NEWSDEALER SOLD OUT? This is the most wanted Annual published. Therefore, it is only natural that your newsdealer may be sold out when you call to pick up your copy. However, don’t let this worry you! You can still obtain a copy of this exciting Annual by mailing this coupon with 50r — if you act at once. PHOTOPLAY Dept. TS-457 205 E. 42nd St., New York 17, N. Y. Send me PHOTOPLAY ANNUAL 1957. I enclose 50 «t NAME Please Print STREET CITY STATE