Constance Bennett looking amazing in an interview not long before she dropped dead

Gilbert was also linked to Ramon Navarro. This was back in the silent movie days, allegedly.

Constance was the most glamorous and sophisticated of the Bennett sisters. But I think that Joan had the edge looks wise.

I was friends years ago with someone who was friends with James Coco. He told me the story of Jimmy touring with Constance Bennett in the early sixties. He talked about her getting asked to do the movie of Madame X, playing Lana Turner's mother-in-law. So of course, Connie ran out and got a face lift and ended up looking younger than Lana!

It was a stretch for Lana to portray a twenty something bride at forty-six. And she was only sixteen years younger than Constance. But she was looking rough in that movie. And I thought that it was one of her better performances.

Louise Brooks wrote about the Bennett sisters . She was friends with them when they were still teenagers in NY. It was very interesting. I read it so many years ago . I think it was called Lulu in Hollywood. If you are interested in old Hollywood it’s a fascinating read.

She had a full face lift before making MADAME X.

R2 R5 The Sue Mengers bio (Sue was Bennett’s agent at the end of Bennett’s life) has a great anecdote about Bennett being cast in Ross Hunter’s Madame X.

R6 That is hilarious!

R4 I re-read it not so long ago, Brooks was friends with Barbara and wrote about Constance being both impeccably dressed and an uber-bitch even as a teenager

AM I SPOTTING SOME BLACKHEADS THERE, CONNIE?

R7 Right? The wit. It delights me and is such a rare commodity.

She had one of my favorite movie lines in The Unsuspected, which went something like.

"You must be Miss Smith."

"I am, but must I be?

Actually her best moment ever was in TWO-FACED WOMAN, when she enters the powder room with a smile on her face, stands in front of the mirror and suddenly screams. It's hilarious.

And above all, it doesn't grow fuzz

Barbara Stanwyck allegedly said that she studied Constance for her role in The Lady Eve - if she was in real life anything like her persona from her screwball comedies, I can see the similarities...

Miss Bennett seems in cognitive decline in OP's clip. She can't find words and can't finish sentences.

Nah, she was just loose as a goose from a couple of martoonis!

R16 Funny ! Thanks for the translation :)

Or she could have been experiencing her first symptoms of her stroke.

Judging by this photo, something didn't quite work in combining Bennett's And Roland's genes together.

I find it fascinating when attractive parents produce ugly children.

"I still weigh in at 98 pounds," Connie informed me. She was 5 feet 4. "I've always been too thin. You can hang a hat and coat on my vertebrae. I love to eat." She was tucking in the lunch at a fast rate and trying to catch Cary Grant's eye at the same time. "I love food too much to diet, so it is a good thing, I suppose, that it is absolutely impossible for me to gain weight. I have three children, but I love my dogs best," she said with a wink. She had two dogs with her, right at the table.

(taken from a 60's interview with Sheilah Graham)

She loved her dog more than her children-a good sort she is…

She made some movie co-starring Erich von Stroheim in the early 30's and hated the guy. After a kissing scene she shouted across the set for her maid to bring her mouthwash at once.

A Topper reunion

Constance Bennett died of a stroke. People done age suddenly and have a stroke, that's why she looked good in the video facelifts and all.

I'm a millennial who doesn't know the difference between a Constance Bennett and a Joan Bennett.

Can you teach me the difference in 3 easy sentences?

Joan Bennett is the one who was still alive when Constance keeled over.

She then played a coven head in Suspiria

Then she died too.

Read David Niven’s account of working with Bennett in his autobiography “The Moon’s a Balloon.” She shimmered, he wrote, even after playing poker all night (and winning) with Goldwyn, Zanuck, and Selznick.

I didn’t know she was a Republican but she doesn’t seem to be a fan of FDR — many in Hollywood were not.

[quote] the difference between a Constance Bennett and a Joan Bennett

One had a mildly square-shaped head, the other had a VERY square-shaped head.

But which is which?

R20 I wouldn’t be surprised if she popped diet pills like candy.

It was common back then. They even gave them to kids.

In 1936, Constance Bennett purchased a used, but spectacular Rolls Royce Phantom II at the New York Auto Show. She paid $17,000 for the car, shipped it to California, and rented it out to the studios for an amazing $250/day. The joke was that her car made more money than an actor of the day! Smart lady…

Was it George Cukor who said Constance came from the wrong side of the tracks and used her smooth tongue and sassy chassis to get into the best beds in LA?

What's with the hoity toity accent? Was it learned at the studio?

As R6's link showed, Bennett died of a stroke, not cancer. She didn't have cancer. Her death was sudden and unexpected.

Roland died of cancer, though.

Barbara Bennett committed suicide at 52

[quote]On August 8, 1958, five days before her 52nd birthday, Bennett died after what the media described as an unidentified "long illness" in Montreal.[2][3] Over the course of her life, Bennett attempted suicide four times. As the circumstances surrounding herself were vague and Bennett's sister Joan refused to discuss the details of her death, rumors arose that Bennett had finally succeeded in ending her life.

[quote]She paid $17,000 for the car, shipped it to California, and rented it out to the studios for an amazing $250/day.

Now, why didn’t I think of that?

Max?

MAX?!!

Is that F. Lee Bailey interviewing her? I've seen him interviewing Zsa Zsa on another video posted here.

Connie and Joan didn't come from the wrong side of the tracks. The were theatre royalty, being the daughters of Stage Star Richard Bennett.

R25 Connie looked like the blonde version of Betty Boop. Joan had a permanent expression on her face, like someone just farted and she’s not too happy about it.

She was good at concealing parts of her private life from the likes of Hedda Hopper - her son and first daughter were both born of out wedlock - quite scandalous for the time. She claimed her son was adopted in Europe or something to avoid a custody battle with the father, a husband that she divorced before the kid was born (later on, when his father died, she changed her stance and proclaimed her son to be her own. Took it to court in order to win him a share of his father's estate, which she won and subsequently spent it all without her son knowing).

Her daughter was born to her and Gilbert Roland before they were married, like 2 years before, only her second daughter with Roland was "legitimate".

James Agee reviewing "Paris Underground":

"Good performance by Constance Bennett except in any attempt to portray actions requiring a heart."

Barbara and her husband Morton Downey (Sr) were typical Irish drunks of the period. Barbara’s drinking prevented her from any level of stardom close to her sisters, her heyday was a handful of silent films and some stage that few remember. I believe at one point she was living in a 5th floor walk-up on east 59th street, convenient to the Irish bars on 2nd avenue. Morton (Jr) hated his two aunts because he felt they could have helped his mother more during her really bad periods.

[quote] Gilbert Roland was a wonderful husband. In one room of the house.

What does that mean?

R42 Probably the boudoir, darling

[quote] Actually her best moment ever was in TWO-FACED WOMAN, when she enters the powder room with a smile on her face, stands in front of the mirror and suddenly screams. It's hilarious.

Yes, it's quintessentially camp. A nice George Cukor touch.

And sassy little Connie is a counterpoint to the long, sullen Garbo.

Is Barbara Bennett, THE BARBARA BENNETT from Redbook?

Joan looked better with dark hair. Connie didn't,

Constance needed that big hair shown in the OP's video to soften her little boxy face.

The worst thing Barbara did was give birth to the vile Morton Downey, Jr., the wingnut who made rage TV an acceptable format.

To their credit, his aunts considered Morton and his Chiclet teeth persona non grata.

Is Robert Downey Jr. related to them?

They are not related R49. Robert Downey Sr.’s surname was Elias. Downey was his stepfather’s name.

R47 She found her match in her equally squared faced last husband

Which sister was buried with her General husband at Arlington National Cemetery?

Constance R52

Never mind!! I discovered it, was Constance Bennett. Brig General husband.

Well it sure wasn't me!

Thanks R53

The Bennett Sisters went through 11 husbands. Picky gals.

11 husbands that they married, that is.

I'm your Auntie Mame!

Look at that magnificent bitch face

The Bennett girls

This is from Joan's autobio The Bennett Playbill, writing about Constance:

"She'd commissioned artist Willie Pogany to do her portrait, but when she saw herself in oils, she declared, "That woman is an Amazon! I look like a sack of Portland cement with a rope tied in the middle!" She refused to pay the artist's fee, Mr. Pogany refused to compromise his artistic conscience and they saw each other next in court. The judge ruled in favor of the artist and, for the benefit of reporters, Constance showed her views of the matter by kicking a hole in the canvas".

R37 But I thought "theatre people" were considered the other side of the tracks then, then, hence the creation of the Upper West Side (because the UUE would not have them).

r3 Lana's early years in Imitation of Life were a real stretch, too. Just something about how her looks hardened and plasticized as soon as the 1950s came along.

Connie and her husband, Joan Crawford, arriving at the wedding of her niece, Stephanie.

A waifish girl with a large head

R65 that joan crawford was one butch dyke

That Joan Crawford in that pic r65. Looks nothing like her

r68 I believe r65 meant john coulter, Constance's fifth and final husband

I think John Coulter's nickname was Joan Crawford. Isn't that what you meant, r65?

Yes, I was referring to the husband, dunno about any nicknames but he sure he sure went Crawford with those eyebrows

Before there was A Star is Born...

R62 I had to look it up and found the complete story in some random blog - it reads like something out of a screwball comedy:

"Constance was popular with audiences but famously temperamental and perpetually litigious. Constance Bennett was in court countless times in her life as either a defendant or a plaintiff. I'm not sure what her total win-loss record was.

While researching this story, I did have to laugh at an account of 63-year-old Judge Charles S. Burnell's telling Constance, then the plaintiff in a February 1938 breach of contract lawsuit against Gaumont-British Picture Corp, that she was "no picture star to him, just another garden variety witness" with whom he was losing patience and instructed her to "just sit there and look beautiful."

Constance apparently "flushed delicately under her veil, looked demurely at the judge" and promised to try.

The court found in favor of the plaintiff and Constance was awarded $35,000.

When a reporter mentioned to Constance that her multiple lawsuits (a record five lawsuits in 1938) had her spending quite a lot of time at the courthouse, she countered with "Yes, I'm even thinking of building me a little penthouse on the roof, so I'll be handy."

There's a oft-repeated story about Constance being sued by a Hollywood taxi driver after she refused to pay a $4.00 fare. "He took the long way around," she said. "It's a point of honor." n."

According to a March 1935 Vanity Fair article, "The most cordially disliked woman in Hollywood is undoubtedly Constance Bennett."

With this in mind, it's safe to say there's a good chance that when Constance hired renowned artist Willy Pogany in 1935 to paint a life-sized portrait of her, he expected she'd give him a hard time but he never imagined she'd refuse to pay for the final product.

Constance Bennett was a busy lady and Willy Pogany understood that. Pogany told her that she'd only have to pose a couple of times if she would provide him with a photograph of herself and the dress she wanted to be seen wearing in the portrait. Constance chose a blue satin dress, gave him a photograph and even showed him the spot on her wall wear the painting would hang. A few days later she went to the studio and posed for 90 minutes.

According to Constance, when she showed up at his studio for the first sitting, the portrait was nearly done; all that was missing was her face. She took exception to the way her body was painted and told him so. Pogany agreed to make alterations to the waist and thighs, both were too thick for her liking. And she didn't like the way she shown sitting in the chair.

According to Pogany, "At first she had her legs crossed in the picture. She said it made her thighs look too big. I changed that. Then she had me lengthen the hands and legs. If she'd stand up, in the picture, she'd be over six feet tall. But that was all right. Her objections on that score were perfectly justified." Connie's actual height was 5'4."

The only complaint that fell on deaf ears was Constance Bennett asking that her fingernails be painted a bright ruby red. "One spot of red," Pogany said, "would unbalance the entire color harmony and make the painting look fantastic on that greenish-white background."

The next and final sitting wouldn't happen for another 6 months.

When his subject wasn't available to pose in person, Pogany used a total of five models, including his favorite model, Elaine Cox Pogany, who was also his second wife. According to the artist, these women had posed for over 200 hours. Constance Bennett spent less than 4 hours posing for her portrait.

When Pogany considered himself done, he sent the painting to Constance but she sent it right back and refused payment.

Constance was adamantly refusing to pay for a painting that she felt looked nothing like her and she had certainly never agreed to pay more than $500.00. By November 1937, Willy Pogany felt he had no choice but to take his client to court. It wasn't just the fact that he'd expected to be paid but Constance was highly critical of his work and not especially quiet about it. Miss Bennett's lawyers were worried Pogany would sue for libel.

Willy Pogany was offended and perhaps worried that negative publicity would impact his professional career since Pogany was also employed by the movie studios as a set designer and art director. Depositions were given by both sides in January 1938 for a trial that would take place May/June 1938. Constance Bennett was quoted as saying "I won't pay a cent. I wouldn't take it as a gift."

Constance testified that the woman in the painting was "an Amazon" and while Constance claimed to be "embarrassed to death at making a comment on Mrs. Pogany's size," she described Elaine as "a large woman" and readily let the court know that Elaine Pogany weighed 135 while her own weight was no more than 100 pounds. Constance believed Pogany had made her look like "a sack of Portland cement with a rope tied around the middle" and that her expression, as painted, was one that she'd be ashamed of on a dark and cloudy night.

I was unable to find an actual photo of Elaine Pogany but here's what she looked like to her husband - Pogany spent 2 hours on the witness stand defending his work and explaining the process. "Anyone who says the picture does not look like Miss Bennett is reflecting on my ability as an artist. It is a good picture, a very good one."

Pogany conceded that the portrait, "may not be a pretty picture, in the Hollywood sense, but it is a good picture and one that does look like Miss Bennett.

"The portrait of Miss Bennett is a serious study. So many persons aren't used to serious works and don't know how to appreciate them. They want enlarged photographs. My picture isn't a photograph. It is an artist's conception of the subject - a stylized portrait."

Constance maintained her position by testifying, "My idea was to have a portrait of myself; not what Mr. Pogany thought I looked like. It doesn't look a bit like me."

A number of life-sized photographs of Connie's thighs were placed around the courtroom for the jury to study. Reporters and spectators alike were disappointed that Connie's actual thighs were not much on display throughout the proceedings.

Constance took the stand and said Pogany's portrait "looks like a cheap chromo they used to hang in barrooms."

"Is that so?" exclaimed Pogany. "How would she know?"

Pogany's attorney asked Constance whether she had ever studied art.

"No," she replied, "but when I was 15, I studied dress designing, but I really don't know the difference between decorative and realistic art."

Next up were two art experts, Earl Stendahl and Ralph Holmes, both of whom asserted that Pogany's portrait was worth as much as $5,000.

Well, whatever Constance was expecting when she commissioned the work, Pogany's portrait was not what she had in mind.

"I told him that my thigh was too thick, that the arm was out of proportion, the shoulders too round, I didn't like the hairline and also that the face was too thin," she testified. Constance disliked the little curlicues around her mouth and furthermore, she thought Pogany had made her look "pop-eyed." Plus, her hair was the wrong shade; it was too red. Miss Bennett's lawyer, Barry Brennan, had her remove her hat so the jury could see her blonde hair.

"Is your hair the same color now that it was then?" Brennan asked.

"Oh, yes indeed," she replied.

Just to show she wasn't unwilling to pay for good art, Constance referenced a previous portrait purchase.

[She didn't say how much she'd paid but the cost was $2,000.]

Constance reportedly beamed as Tino Costa's painting of herself and her adopted son Peter was carried into the courtroom so that the jurors and experts could see for themselves what she was expecting Pogany to deliver.

"That goes to show you that when you go to the right artist, you get your money's worth."

[Costa himself thought Constance Bennett was his "most temperamental" subject to paint. In contrast, he labeled Constance's sister Joan Bennett as "the best" and said Shirley Temple "the worst - because she wiggled so much."]

Earl Standahl was asked to compare the two portraits of Miss Bennett and give his opinion.

"To my mind," Standahl said, "Costa's work might be considered as more realistic or photographic, but an art critic would consider it as a mere copy. It is not idealistic and doesn't show the imagination Pogany's picture does. The white background of Pogany's is very intricate and complicated.

"It is more intriguing. It has a vibrating quality. It is alive. It has fervent fire.

"There are two ways to paint a picture. One way is to make it look like a photograph; the other is to give it some artistic life. I should call the Costa picture one with photographic quality."

Standahl valued the Costa painting for only $3,000 to $4,000, much less than the $5,000 price tag he had placed on Pogany's portrait.

Connie didn't really care what the experts thought of the portrait; her mind was made up. She didn't like it.

In fact, as court was recessed for the weekend and attorneys suggested Exhibit 1, the Pogany portrait, be placed in a secure location, Bennett quipped, "I don't think anyone will steal it."

Before the case was to be turned over to the jury of nine women and three men, a letter written by Pogany to Rex Cole, Miss Bennett's business manager, was read out in court. This letter showed how the price had increased by Pogany from the originally agreed upon cost of $500 to $3,500.

"In a spirit of friendliness I made a few changes in the picture," Pogany wrote. "You ask me how I arrive at a charge of "$3,500 and I will tell you this - that Miss Bennett gave me a commission to paint such a portrait of her.

"I have been engaged in the work for nearly two years and have employed models which have cost me hundreds of dollars since she would not pose for me and as a matter of fact the price should be $5,000, instead of $3,500, considering all the work I have done."

Pogany claimed that Miss Bennett had originally asked for one of his quicker portraits, the going rate for such a likeness was $500. When Constance didn't care for it, he agreed to create a more detailed, artistic and complex portrait but let her know that the price could not remain at the agreed upon $500.00. Unfortunately for Pogany, there was no documentation to back this up.

On Friday, June 3, 1938, once the jury was excused for the weekend, the defense filed a motion asking for Judge Jess E. Stephens to render a directed verdict as the prosecution had failed to prove their case.

The judge agreed and ruled in favor of the defense...much to the disappointment of the jury.

Judge Stephens determined that Pogany could not prove Miss Bennett had agreed to pay more than $500 for the portrait nor did Pogany deliver a portrait that met the expectations of his client, as he had promised he would. Superior Court Judge Stephens suggested the case would have been better suited for Municipal Court.

Jurors made a point of letting Pogany know that had they been given the opportunity, they would have ruled in his favor and awarded an even bigger amount. Juror W. B. George, Jr. said it was "a beautiful painting. We would have returned a judgement for $5,000, if he had sued for that much."

Pogany issued a statement saying "Miss Bennett cast cheap sneers at my work" and "when her mud-throwing mis-fired, she fell back on the defense that she was not supposed to know the value of my work, since she knew nothing about art.

"As to her ignorance about art, I must admit she presented the most convincing proof."

Constance smiled in triumph as the judge's verdict was read and, according to Joan Bennett's 1970 autobiography "The Bennettt Playbill, "for the benefit of reporters, Constance showed her views of the matter by kicking a hole in the canvas."

This can not possibly be true but it makes for a good story.

Besides, Constance Bennett was too busy to gloat. She had to get ready for her upcoming $250,000 "defamation of character" and "libel lawsuit" against radio host Jimmie Fidler and his sponsors.

Following Judge Stephens's ruling, Pogany indicated he was considering an appeal of the verdict. As such, the portrait remained in the custody of the court.

On June 21, 1938, the court ordered the portrait to be sold for $108.00 to cover the court costs of the trial.

In 1939, when Willy Pogany was doing interviews to promote his latest endeavor, a full color cartoon for Walter Lantz Productions, written by his wife Elaine and animated by him, called "Scrambled Eggs," Pogany revealed that the much-debated portrait of Constance Bennett was now in his possession and on display in his living room.

"I have had several offers for it, but I have refused them all. I think it is a beautiful picture; I just try to forget that it is a portrait of that woman."

the Pogany...

The Costa painting...

I think it's a nice painting, except for the fact that she does look too tall in it. She was probably tiny in real life like most women of the time.

slummin' it

Is that a Baby Jane doll??

r82, no.

All this talk of the glorious Gilbert Roland and no one can bother to link a few photos?

Here, r84...

The Bennett sisters are allegedly of partially black ancestry, via their grandfather who was born in Jamaica. He was an actor called Lewis Morrison.

Not grandfather, but father…sorry

R85. H + H !

was it considered "miscegenation" for a ~white woman~ to be romantically involved with an Hispanic man at the time?

Was she rivals with Sylvia Sidney?

Yes, she was rivals with Sylvia Sidney in having a box-shaped head.

Sidney was under contract at Paramount, in a more versatile way (everything from gangster's daughters, socialites, to Madame Butterfly). CB was Pathe's and RKO's lead actress.

Allegedly, she considered another square-faced blonde as a possible rival, Carole Lombard, that is - and during her short reign at RKO, made the studio cancel Lombard's contract before she reached any real prominence. Well she reached it anyway.

Her father Richard Bennett’s most memorable film role was as Major Amberson in Orson Welles’ memorable, if flawed, second directorial effort, “The Magnificent Ambersons.”