What was Lora Meredith's greatest triumph as an actress?

"No Greater Glory" gave Lora a meaty role that she could really sink her teeth into and shushed the critics who'd dismissed her as clotheshorse.

Also, it severed that creepy Svengali/Trilby relationship she had with that despicable Allen Loomis, leaving her more time to bond with Suzy.

The flea powder commercial.

Plugging Monty.

Acting like she cared about Suzy!

WHO??????

OP, how could you leave out "No Man of My Own" and the holiday classic "Christmas in Cancun"?

Well, I think I more than held my own against the St. Bernard dog, WOOF!

Summer Madness: with performances like that, we'd have to be CRAZY!

1965's Love Has Many Facelifts

My laptop hissed at me when I opened this thread.

Weekend At The Wyndham (starring me and every man I ever worked with, including the stagehands!)

Peyton Place. And if you disagree, you're just a Harper Valley Hypocrite!

Fellucci agreed to her TERMS!

The play where she gave the lines to Amy - and became a STAR!!!!!

R4 nailed it. Bet she never knew about Stave and Suzy and all that " horseback riding " they did. Steve was a real nice ride, too. Taught me everything I needed to know.

(R15)Oh SaraJANE! Is he a coloured boy?

Oh Momma, stop ACTING! Stop trying to shift people around as if they were pawns on a stage!

Steve: Your bones...

Lora Meredith: What about my bones?

Now, just a moment, young lady! It's only because of my ambition that you've had the best of everything. And that's a solid achievement that any mother can be proud of!

(R19) But what about a mothers LOVE???

LOVE? But you've always had that!

Yes, by telephone, by postcard, by magazine interviews... you've given me everything... everything but Steve's huge, meaty cock!

I thought she was amazing in the Polident commercial. She made me run right out and get it at the Piggly Wiggly.

Despite the "coloured angle", I had no problem working with Harry Belafonte in "No Greater Glory"...after all, he was practically white!

Have I ever denied you anything? Anything money could buy I've given you! Wait, you're not Veda...where the hell am I? Why is everything in color?

Sarah Jane: "I don't want the black one!" Annie: "I do, I do!"

What a stupid question, OP - are you not aware that Rena in No More Laughter is only the best part since Scarlett O'Hara??

That lesbo stag loop she did with Bea Pullman, hunties!

Annie: "Oh Miss Lora, you need showbiz as much as it needs you!"

Lora: "Um...that house in Connecticut isn't dusting itself, Annie."

Convincing us that Lana Turner had the stuff to make it on the stage.

(10)My laptop hissed at me when I opened this thread.

I'll make your laptop hiss, Signor Fellucci!t

Did she ever get to play Raina in that Fellucci pic-chah?

Ah dun fixeded y'all a mess o' crawdaddies Miz Lora, fo' you an' yo' friends!

(33) That's quite a TRICK, Sarah Jane, wherever did you learn it?

Bitch,you can always put that award where your heart ought to be. Regards, Margo Channing

Lora was très jolie in "White Widow", OP darling!

Bitch wasn't even believable taking her bows at the premiere of Summer Madness!

Who the fuck is this ho?

[quote] What was Lora Meredith's greatest triumph as an actress?

Staying almost completely anonymous and unknown to the public at large?

Once when she really ran low on dough, she did a porno quickie called "Mama And Her Cubs", a sort of threesome with some college boys. We were able to buy up all the copies and destroy them.

(38&39) Lora Meredith was the First Lady of the American Theater from 1948 onward. She recently came out of retirement to play Carlotta in a revival of Follies.

It's called "google". I'd advise you to acquaint yourselves with it.

"'First Lady of the American Stage', my ass! I'M the First Lady of the American Stage!"

Lora: "Why Annie, it never occurred to me that you had any friends..." Annie: "Miss Lora, you never asked." Lora: "Um...you CAN talk and still rub my feet, you know."

"Sarah Jane is--YOUR CHILD???

The audio commentary on Imitation of Life is hilarious. Basically Lana Turner was tricked, or maybe just encouraged, to be her regular Lana Turner-y self, which the director knew would make the audience dislike the character in a way that Turner herself would never anticipate.

Turner thought she was giving a sympathetic performance with a sympathetic character. Sirk knew otherwise, and that's exactly what he wanted.

That Lora Meredith is a fake, just like me!

"Marjorie? Oh, Marjorie!"

(shocked) "Colonel, what are YOU doing in there?"

(flinging open imaginary door) "And Mr. Obermeyer, why aren't you in Duluth?"

(despairingly) "Oh, Herbert, YOU TOO?"

"Nothing in it for me, honey but they're casting the new Tennessee Williams play, so put on your roller skates!"

Clearly Lora Meredith was Tenn's first choice to play Blanche DuBois.

Annie: "Uh-uh. That money goes into our kitty."

Lora: "Our"?

Steve: Oh, stop acting.

Lora: I'm not acting!

Is it time for my next wardrobe change yet?

Annie: "How do you explain to your child that she was born to be hurt?"

Lora: "Are we STILL talking about this?"

Like Tallulah Bankhead and Helen Hayes and Ethel Merman, her talents did not easily travel off the stage. But she was larger than life. Only Amerigo Felluci saw how beautiful that could translate onto the screen if she were given proper direction.

(53) "But she was larger than life. Only Amerigo Felluci saw how beautiful that could translate onto the screen if she were given proper direction."

Indeed! I recently caught 'No More Laughter' at the local revival house and (I swear this is true)I turned to my companion and said: "Is this film in 3-D? Because I am IN this movie, I AM Reina!"

Teacher: "But I don't have any little colored girls in my class!"

Annie: "But they said 3-B, this is 3-B, isn't it?"

Teacher: "We didn't know! We didn't know!"

Lora: "I'm sorry, Mr. Edwards. But I'm an actress, and a good one."

The only hit that comes out of a Lora Meredith show is Lora Meredith, and that's ME, baby, remember?

"Well, don't be so calm, they want me for Rena!"

Annie: "Miss Lora, we been spending an awful lot of money up here. Do you think we can really afford it?"

Lora: "What's this 'we' shit?"

Susie: "Oh, Mama, look! A falling star!"

Lora: "I can only hope it's Lynn Fontanne..."

The loneliest word I've heard of is empty. Anything empty is sad. An empty purse can make a good girl bad...

Annie: "I've plenty to send Sarah Jane to college, something set aside for her, and enough for my funeral."

Lora: "Oh, Annie, that funeral again!"

Definately Catwoman in the big screen treatment of the '60s hit. She can always proudly proclaim that she was the first Catwoman on the silver screen.

1952's The Bland and the Beautiful.

"Like Tallulah Bankhead and Helen Hayes and Ethel Merman, her talents did not easily travel off the stage"

re: Hayes, it's quite odd that a woman whose talents didn't travel well off the stage ended up with two oscars.

Her greatest triumph was being so awful that even Norma Shearer bested her when she got the movie roles.

Simmer down (65), no one's saying H Hayes didn't deserve her Oscars, we're just saying she wasn't as beautiful or talented as Lora Meredith.

Oh please (66) Lora Meredith was a stage actress, Shearer was in film; two completely different mediums. That said, Lora's relatively few excursions in cinema are all well-regarded classics (there's even a course at UCLA devoted to 'No More Laughter').

(66) You aren't being 'colored'. You're being childish!

I'm probably in the minority here, but I thought her best performance was in that little play she did off Broadway, WAY off!

Now Venus, you know, was loaded with charm, and look at what happened to her: Waitin' around she's minus two arms. Could happen to me? No, sir!

Sarah Jane: "Oh, 'tain't no trick ta' totin', Miss Lora! I learned it from my mammy, an' she learned it from ol' massa, 'fo' she belonged to you..."

"She's talented, she's REALLY got it! I knew that when I kicked her outta my show."

Nothing can destroy Lora's talent...but she'll destroy herself.

Lora's gone through life on a pass 'cause of her damn classy looks!

SUMMER MADNESS!

I have to say, the first time I saw that pivotal scene in "Born to Laugh" I nearly passed out. She was transcendent. Even thinking of it now makes me a little weak. And that cameo in the second hour by Helen Lawson? God.

Indeed, [r77] I needed a cigarette after that pivotal scene!

Happy 91st birthday to Juanita Moore!

[quote]Acting like she cared about Suzy!

This remark made me spit coffee over my keyboard.

I'd like it that way... forever!

Ya'll remember that made-for-TV version of Summer Madness done in '84 with Kirstie Alley in the main role? For TV it wasn't too bad, but I thought setting it in the Victorian era was a bad call...

Her greatest triumph was "I'll Cut You, Bitch!" a film she made in the 1970s opposite Helen Lawson.

I don't even know why we needed a poll.

NO GREATER GLORY!

Bump for Mother's Day!

r27, the part of Rena ("Only the greatest part since Scarlett O'Hara!") is actually in NO MORE LAUGHTER (directed by the great Amerigo Fellucci), not NO GREATER GLORY.

Some of these posts are great, vintage DL, from the time of the original Helen Lawson thread.

Here's a question, what happened AFTER Annie's funeral?

Did SaraJane learn to love herself again and not live a lifetime of guilt (because she really did kill her mother. Annie dies of a BROKEN HEART)? Or did the ungrateful bitch milk some cash out of Lora then head off into the sunset where she found local fame performing torch songs in Phoenix?

And Suzy... do we think she seduced Steve after he married Lora? I hope so, and that his horse cock delivered the seed of Suzy's only child that Lora loved as her only grandchild... If not, perhaps she went off to college and years later became famous writing amusing novels from A Summer Place about all of the famous theater folk she'd met as a child (her story of Alan Loomis in the coat room with the ingenue is a classic!)?

What of Lora? Did her Broadway career continue or did she have to hit the summer circuit performing under the Melody Tent? Is there any videotape of Lora's appearance on one of Helen Lawson's Christmas Specials in the swinging 60s?

It was late in her career, but I thought "Lora Meredith Does Disco" was a very brave choice and a surprising strong Disco album that holds up really well.

Seriously, give it a listen.

(How the fuck was Lora supposed to know it would be so hard to find domestic help that would work for just Room and Board like Annie did all those years? JHC, they expect me to PAY them - I"m Lora Meredith!)

What do mean black people don't want to work for me for free?

I'm willing to give them the little room off the kitchen!

Is this some kind of joke, because it's not funny!

Look, you can finish addressing all these envelopes for me and I'll give you half...I mean, a third of the pay.

That's my final offer!

Well, of course, your duties include raising my daughter Suzy!

You think I'm going to let you get away with just cooking and cleaning and washing and ironing?

That's outrageous!

It's not just the Black now - it's the Mexicans too - where do they get this sense of ENTITLEMENT?

Well, certainly, you have to do my laundry!

Do you think these white outfits just wash themselves?

Annie...oh, for God's sake, I don't CARE what your name is. I'm just going to call you Annie!

I have lines to learn for my Felluci film. Do you think I can memorize the name of every Colored women who comes to work for me?

Steve, this Colored woman is being impossible, please come and handle THIS!

In addition to cleaning and maintaining my large Connecticut estate all by yourself, you'll be responsible for all my wardrobe, my correspondence and my social engagements, and oh yes, the happiness of my daughter...um, Swoosie, I mean, Suzy. Yes, I'm sure she's called Suzy now that I think of it.

You also be responsible for ensuring that my Suzy remains a virgin while I'm on location in Italy making the Felucci film. She can date and tease as many older men as she likes, but her virginity is to remain intact. Understood?

The last person who did this job? Well, she left me....for...um, an extended vacation. Yes, a vacation that's it. You see, she had...family problems that kept her from devoting herself completely to me and to her work here. That's why you won't be allowed to have any contact with your friends or family while you're working for me.

This will be your room. Why NO! No one has DIED in this room! This is a perfectly good servant's room! Why on earth would you ask such a revolting question?

Lora Meredith's greatest triumph as an actress?

Having the balls to pass herself as a twenty-something mother in the early part of the movie when she was pushing fifty.

Helen at R95 you're just jealous that Sirk didn't cast you in the film... he remembered your previous behavior at his Christmas parties and was having none of your shenanigans on his set.

I thought her greatest triumph was her overacting as Annie lay on her deathbed.

Lora was no worse than Sarajane who had to be pulled out of the hearse as she was trying to climb onto her mother's casket...I suspect Lora pulled that little bitch's arm out of the socket in that shot.

As my old friend Helen Lawson taught me, the only hit that comes out of Lora Meredith film is a Lora Meredith hit.

I have to admit that I've sometimes fantasized about having a full Black Choir at my funeral with Mahalia Jackson as the featured soloist...it was one kick-ass funeral.

Don't tell me Mahalia Jackson is dead - just offer her more money - it's my funeral!

I'd say, her greatest triumph as an actress was convincing John Gavin that she didn't have tumbleweeds blowing out of her dry old vage...

And as for Doug Sirk's Christmas Party - if he can't take a little goosing by a strap-on dildo, he should sit at the Kiddie Table - it was all in good fun - and to show everyone that Helen Lawson is still on TOP!

Doug Sirk was a tight-ass faggot anyway.

Lora Meredith...what a drip. She can't even get the fags to care enough to want to kill her!

I love this roiling of the eldergay collective unconscious

Rumor has it that Lora Meredith went to Italy to get an abortion - and I'm not talking about that horrendous Felucci film either.

Of course that rumor was started by the post-menopausal Lora Meredith herself and repeated by her own publicist ad nauseum. I met her once at a luncheon at Helen Lawson house in Beverly Hills. She looked fine from a distance but up close, she was a big ol' ashtray full of ego.

Her daughter Susie was a big hot mess too. But what do you expect when you leave your child to be raised by a Colored woman and her Mulatto daughter (who I heard became a Stripper).

She should have gotten that nice Jeanne Crain from "Pinky" to raise her daughter. I always told George how nice looking she was for a High Yellow Gal.

Oh dear, the Coloreds require a lot of supervising - which is why George I use mostly Mexicans and few underage Russian girls these days.

[quote]Ya'll remember that made-for-TV version of Summer Madness done in '84 with Kirstie Alley in the main role? For TV it wasn't too bad, but I thought setting it in the Victorian era was a bad call...

Aaron Spelling and Douglas Cramer toyed with making a miniseries of it in the '70s, complete with doll addictions and social diseases. Lou Antonio stole the idea and turned it into this.

QUE ?

I thought Lora Meredith did a pretty good job with the St. Bernard actually.

It's carpets, it's madness, Carpet Madness! Carpet Madness now! Just carpets! It's madness, madness now! Sale starts Friday

I love R87's idea of "what ever happened to" for a sequel and more for Lora and Suzy and SaraJane and Steve and Lomax and more!

Think, DL, think! Did Suzy birth her love child with Steve? Did Lora ever discovery the truth of the child's parentage? Or did Steve go for it with SaraJane?

Is Lomax gay and he made a move on Steve?

After Felucci (and what did Lora do with him those months in Italy?) could Lora return to the stage or did she start doing TV? Maybe a daytime soap?

BUMP

Felucci got Lora hooked on drugs and she ended up making 16mm stag films for the rest of her miserable life...

And the saddest part is that after Lora worked Annie to death, no one even missed Lora or bothered to look for her...

I bought Miss Meredith's large Connecticut estate when she fell on financial troubles and I started getting all her roles on Broadway. Of course this was before I married the preacher.

Well, Miss Courtney, watch out for those scallywag children that live in the woods behind that place and their rotten dog.

And remember, you can't get good help anymore since you worked that Annie to death. I'll take my severance package, my daughter, and my TV and I'll be leaving now...shut up, Ava!

Story of my life--I gave an unknown a break and and they become a star. But no one ever thanks me, including that little bitch, Lora Meredith.

Steve Archer is NOT a fag - and I'm the dame who can prove it! Ditto for Alan Loomis.

I have ants in my shower......

Showgirl who also played the scared girl in 'War of the Worlds.'

Since it's clear Amerigo Fellucci is supposed to be Federico Fellini, I always wondered if "No More Laughter" is like "Nights of Cabiria," and Lora played a dirty little prostitute living on the outskirts of Rome.

As Lypsinka once pointed out, faced with the choice between playing Rena, the greatest role since Scarlett O'Hara, in "No More Laughter" as directed by the great Fellucci and attending Suzy's graduation, there simply IS no choice. RENA ALL THE WAY!!!

Fellucci was the wrong director for "No More Laughter" - they should have let Visconti direct it.....then we might have gotten Burt Lancaster as the brother in law instead of Farley Granger.

Lora Meredith is a fictional character

This thread is disingenuous

She is NOT a fictional character to ME R120. She is what I aspired to be.....

r120, do *THESE* look fictional?

R122 Yes, badly so

R121 Ross Hunter is dead.

Again, disingenuous.

Douglas Sirk was Edward D. Wood, Jr. with more money. His movies are all laughably tone-deaf.

"I'm going up, Up and UP!"