Ruth Elizabeth "Bette" Davis (; April 5, 1908 – October 6, 1989) was an American actress with a career spanning more than 50 years and 100 acting credits. She was noted for playing unsympathetic, sardonic characters, and was famous for her performances in a range of film genres, from contemporary crime melodramas to historical films, suspense horror, and occasional comedies, although her greater successes were in romantic dramas. A recipient of two Academy Awards, she was the first thespian to accrue ten nominations.

After appearing on stage in New York for a short period, Davis moved to Hollywood in 1930. After some unsuccessful films, she had her critical breakthrough playing a vulgar waitress in Of Human Bondage (1934), although, contentiously, she was not among the three nominees for the Academy Award for Best Actress that year. The next year, Davis received her first Best Actress nomination, and she won for her performance in Dangerous (1935). In 1937, she starred in Marked Woman, a film regarded as one of the most important in her early career. Davis's portrayal of a strong-willed 1850s southern belle in Jezebel (1938) won her a second Academy Award for Best Actress, and was the first of five consecutive years in which she received a Best Actress nomination; the others were for Dark Victory (1939), The Letter (1940), The Little Foxes (1941), and Now, Voyager (1942).

Davis was known for her forceful and intense style of acting. She could be combative and confrontational with studio executives and film directors, as well as with her co-stars. Her forthright manner, idiosyncratic speech, and ubiquitous cigarette contributed to a public persona that has been often imitated.

Davis played a Broadway star in All About Eve (1950), which earned her another Oscar nomination and won her the Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actress. Her last Oscar nomination was for What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962), which also starred Joan Crawford. In the latter stage of her career, her most successful films were Death on the Nile (1978) and The Whales of August (1987). Her career went through several periods of eclipse, but despite a long period of ill health, she continued acting in film and on television until shortly before her death from breast cancer in 1989. She admitted that her success had often been at the expense of her personal relationships. She married four times, divorcing three and widowed once when her second husband died unexpectedly. She raised her children largely as a single parent. Her daughter, B. D. Hyman, wrote a controversial memoir about her childhood, 1985's My Mother's Keeper.

Life and career

1908–1929: Childhood and early acting career

Ruth Elizabeth Davis, known from early childhood as "Betty", was born on April 5, 1908, in Lowell, Massachusetts, the daughter of Harlow Morrell Davis (1885–1938), a law student from Augusta, Maine, and subsequently a patent attorney, and Ruth Augusta (née Favór; 1885–1961), from Tyngsborough, Massachusetts. Davis's younger sister was Barbara Harriet.
In 1915, after Davis's parents separated, Davis and her sister Barbara attended a spartan boarding school named Crestalban in Lanesborough, Massachusetts for three years. In the fall of 1921, her mother, Ruth Davis, moved to New York City, using her children's tuition money to enroll in the Clarence White School of Photography, with an apartment on 144th Street at Broadway. She then worked as a portrait photographer.

The young Bette Davis later changed the spelling of her first name to Bette after Bette Fischer, a character in Honoré de Balzac's La Cousine Bette. During their time in New York, Davis became a Girl Scout where she became a patrol leader.  Her patrol won a competitive dress parade for Lou Hoover at Madison Square Garden.

Davis attended Cushing Academy, a boarding school in Ashburnham, Massachusetts, where she met her future husband, Harmon O. Nelson, known as Ham. In 1926, a then 18-year-old Davis saw a production of Henrik Ibsen's The Wild Duck with Blanche Yurka and Peg Entwistle. Davis later recalled, "The reason I wanted to go into theater was because of an actress named Peg Entwistle." Bette Davis interviewed with Eva Le Gallienne to be a student at her 14th Street theatre. However, she felt Davis was not serious enough to attend her school, and described her attitude as "insincere" and "frivolous".

Davis auditioned for George Cukor's stock theater company in Rochester, New York; although he was not very impressed, he gave Davis her first paid acting assignment – a one-week stint playing the part of a chorus girl in the play Broadway. Ed Sikov sources Davis's first professional role to a 1929 production by the Provincetown Players of Virgil Geddes' play The Earth Between; however, the production was postponed by a year. In 1929, Davis was chosen by Blanche Yurka to play Hedwig, the character she had seen Entwistle play in The Wild Duck. After performing in Philadelphia, Washington, and Boston, she made her Broadway debut in 1929 in Broken Dishes and followed it with Solid South.

1930–1936: Early years in Hollywood

After appearing on Broadway in New York, the 22-year-old Davis moved to Hollywood in 1930 to screen test for Universal Studios. She had been inspired to pursue a career as a film actress after seeing Mary Pickford in Little Lord Fauntleroy. Davis and her mother travelled by train to Hollywood. She later recounted her surprise that nobody from the studio was there to meet her. In fact, a studio employee had waited for her, but left because he saw nobody who "looked like an actress". She failed her first screen test, but was used in several screen tests for other actors. In a 1971 interview with Dick Cavett, she related the experience with the observation, "I was the most Yankee-est, most modest virgin who ever walked the earth. They laid me on a couch, and I tested fifteen men ... They all had to lie on top of me and give me a passionate kiss. Oh, I thought I would die. Just thought I would die." A second test was arranged for Davis, for the 1931 film A House Divided. Hastily dressed in an ill-fitting costume with a low neckline, she was rebuffed by the film director William Wyler, who loudly commented to the assembled crew, "What do you think of these dames who show their chests and think they can get jobs?".

Carl Laemmle, the head of Universal Studios, considered terminating Davis's employment, but cinematographer Karl Freund told him she had "lovely eyes" and would be suitable for Bad Sister (1931), in which she subsequently made her film debut. Her nervousness was compounded when she overheard the chief of production, Carl Laemmle, Jr., comment to another executive that she had "about as much sex appeal as Slim Summerville", one of the film's co-stars. The film was not a success, and her next role in Seed (1931) was too brief to attract attention.

Universal Studios renewed her contract for three months, and she appeared in a small role in Waterloo Bridge (1931), before being lent to Columbia Pictures for The Menace, and to Capital Films for Hell's House (all 1932). After one year, and six unsuccessful films, Laemmle elected not to renew her contract.

Davis was preparing to return to New York when actor George Arliss chose Davis for the lead female role in the Warner Bros. picture The Man Who Played God (1932), and for the rest of her life, Davis credited him with helping her achieve her "break" in Hollywood. The Saturday Evening Post wrote, "She is not only beautiful, but she bubbles with charm", and compared her to Constance Bennett and Olive Borden. Warner Bros. signed her to a five-year contract, and she remained with the studio for the next 18 years.

Davis's first marriage was to Harmon Oscar Nelson on August 18, 1932, in Yuma, Arizona. Their marriage was scrutinized by the press; his $100 a week earnings ($1,885 in 2020 dollars) compared unfavourably with Davis's reported $1,000 a week income ($18,850). Davis addressed the issue in an interview, pointing out that many Hollywood wives earned more than their husbands, but the situation proved difficult for Nelson, who refused to allow Davis to purchase a house until he could afford to pay for it himself. Davis had several abortions during the marriage.

After more than 20 film roles, she had her critical breakthrough playing the role of the vicious and slatternly Mildred Rogers in the RKO Radio production of Of Human Bondage (1934), a film adaptation of W. Somerset Maugham's novel. It earned Davis her first major critical acclaim, although, contentiously, she was not among the three nominees for the Academy Award for Best Actress that year. Many actresses feared playing unsympathetic characters, and several had refused the role, but Davis viewed it as an opportunity to show the range of her acting skills. Her co-star, Leslie Howard, was initially dismissive of her, but as filming progressed, his attitude changed, and he subsequently spoke highly of her abilities. The director John Cromwell allowed her relative freedom: "I let Bette have her head. I trusted her instincts." She insisted that she be portrayed realistically in her death scene, and said: "The last stages of consumption, poverty, and neglect are not pretty, and I intended to be convincing-looking."

The film was a success, and Davis's characterization earned praise from critics, with Life writing that she gave "probably the best performance ever recorded on the screen by a U.S. actress". Davis anticipated that her reception would encourage Warner Bros. to cast her in more important roles, and was disappointed when Jack L. Warner refused to lend her to Columbia Studios to appear in It Happened One Night, and instead cast her in the melodrama Housewife. When Davis was not nominated for an Academy Award for Of Human Bondage, The Hollywood Citizen News questioned the omission, and Norma Shearer, herself a nominee, joined a campaign to have Davis nominated. This prompted an announcement from the Academy president, Howard Estabrook, who said that under the circumstances, "any voter ... may write on the ballot his or her personal choice for the winners", thus allowing, for the only time in the Academy's history, the consideration of a candidate not officially nominated for an award. The uproar led, however, to a change in academy voting procedures the following year, wherein nominations were determined by votes from all eligible members of a particular branch, rather than by a smaller committee, with results independently tabulated by the accounting firm Price Waterhouse. Next year, A Midsummer Night's Dream became the only film to win a write-in Oscar, for Best Cinematography.

The next year, her performance as a down-and-out troubled actress in Dangerous (1935) received very good reviews, and landed Davis her first Best Actress nomination and win. E. Arnot Robertson wrote in Picture Post that, "I think Bette Davis would probably have been burned as a witch if she had lived two or three hundred years ago. She gives the curious feeling of being charged with power which can find no ordinary outlet". The New York Times hailed her as "becoming one of the most interesting of our screen actresses". She won the Academy Award for Best Actress for the role, but commented that it was belated recognition for Of Human Bondage, calling the award a "consolation prize". For the rest of her life, Davis maintained that she gave the statue its familiar name of "Oscar" because its posterior resembled that of her husband, whose middle name was Oscar, although, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences officially makes reference to another story.

In her next film, The Petrified Forest (1936), Davis co-starred with Leslie Howard and Humphrey Bogart.

Warner Bros' legal case against Bette Davis

In the spring of 1936, Davis asked Warner Bros. to loan her out to RKO to make Mary of Scotland. Warner Bros. refused, and assigned Davis to two films that were written specifically for her: God's Country and the Woman, and Mountain Justice. However, as God's Country and the Woman was going into production, Davis refused to work, and demanded a salary increase on her contract with Warner Bros. At the time, Davis was earning $1,250 per week. Jack Warner offered Davis an increased salary of $2,250 per week, which Davis refused. Davis's agent, Mike Levee, said: "She's a very stubborn young lady. I asked her how much she wanted, and she said $3,500 a week, plus all radio rights and permission to make outside pictures. I told her, 'Whoa, that's too much!'"

Meanwhile, due to Davis's refusal to continue with God's County and the Woman, Warner Bros. was incurring excessive production costs because the film was being made in technicolor, and the technicolor cameras were on loan-out. In late June, the studio put Davis on suspension for refusal to work, and replaced her in the film with Beverly Roberts.

During negotiations with Warner Bros. regarding her salary and signing Davis for the female lead in "Danton", Davis abruptly traveled to England with her husband, Harmon Nelson, on a "vacation". However, in England, Davis signed a contract with British film production company Toplitz, to make the film "I'll Take the Low Road" in England with Maurice Chevalier for a $50,000 salary.

On September 9, 1936, Warner Brothers filed a legal injunction against Davis in England which forbade her from appearing in film productions without their consent. While on a shopping spree in Paris, Davis publicly declared to the press that she intended to defy Warner Bros' legal injunction and make the film in England. On October 14, 1936, the British court held a hearing regarding the studio's injunction against Davis. Justice Sir George Branson issued his decision on October 19, ruling in favor of Warner Bros. Justice Branson dismissed Davis's representative's claims that she was an "underpaid slave" held under a "life sentence", and ruled that Davis was in breach of her contract to Warner "for no discoverable reason except that she wanted more money".

Davis was ordered to pay Warner Bros. $80,000 in restitution, and was also ordered to pay the studio's legal fees for filing the injunction in England.
The British press offered little support to Davis, calling her overpaid and ungrateful.

In 1943, actress Olivia de Havilland won a lawsuit against Warner Bros. regarding the length of time a studio contract could be legally enforceable, which is seven years. In her later years, Davis would falsely claim in interviews that she set the path for de Havilland's legal victory; however, this is grossly inaccurate. Warners' 1936 injunction against Davis was due to her attempt to unlawfully breach her contract to work for another production company because she and Warners were having a salary disagreement, and bears no resemblance to the de Havilland legal case.

1937–1941: Success with Warner Bros.

The same year, she starred with Humphrey Bogart in Marked Woman (1937), a contemporary gangster drama inspired by the case of Lucky Luciano, a film regarded as one of the most important in her early career. She was awarded the Volpi Cup at the 1937 Venice Film Festival for her performance.

Davis's portrayal of a strong-willed 1850s Southern belle in Jezebel (1938) won her a second Academy Award for Best Actress, and was the first of five consecutive years in which she received the Best Actress nomination. During production, Davis entered a relationship with director William Wyler. She later described him as the "love of my life", and said that making the film with him was "the time in my life of my most perfect happiness". The film was a success, and Davis's performance as a spoiled Southern belle earned her a second Academy Award.

This led to speculation in the press that she would be chosen to play Scarlett O'Hara, a similar character, in Gone with the Wind. Davis expressed her desire to play Scarlett, and while David O. Selznick was conducting a search for the actress to play the role, a radio poll named her as the audience favorite. Warner offered her services to Selznick as part of a deal that also included Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland, but Selznick did not consider Davis as suitable, and rejected the offer, while Davis did not want Flynn cast as Rhett Butler. Newcomer Vivien Leigh was cast as Scarlett O'Hara, de Havilland landed a role as Melanie, and both of them were nominated for the Oscars, with Leigh winning.

Jezebel marked the beginning of the most successful phase of Davis's career, and over the next few years, she was listed in the annual Quigley Poll of the Top Ten Money-Making Stars, which was compiled from the votes of movie exhibitors throughout the U.S. for the stars who had generated the most revenue in their theaters over the previous year.

In contrast to Davis's success, her husband Ham Nelson had failed to establish a career for himself, and their relationship faltered. In 1938, Nelson obtained evidence that Davis was engaged in a sexual relationship with Howard Hughes, and subsequently filed for divorce, citing Davis's "cruel and inhuman manner".

Davis was emotional during the making of her next film, Dark Victory (1939), and considered abandoning it until the producer Hal B. Wallis convinced her to channel her despair into her acting. The film was among the high-grossing films of the year, and the role of Judith Traherne, a spirited heiress suffering from a malignant brain tumor, brought her an Academy Award nomination. In later years, Davis cited this performance as her personal favorite. Dark Victory featured Ronald Reagan and Humphrey Bogart in supporting roles.

She appeared in three other box-office hits in 1939: The Old Maid with Miriam Hopkins, Juarez with Paul Muni, and The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex with Errol Flynn. The last was her first color film, and her only color film made during the height of her career. To play the elderly Elizabeth I of England, Davis shaved her hairline and eyebrows.

During filming, she was visited on the set by the actor Charles Laughton. She commented that she had a "nerve" playing a woman in her 60s, to which Laughton replied: "Never not dare to hang yourself. That's the only way you grow in your profession. You must continually attempt things that you think are beyond you, or you get into a complete rut." Recalling the episode many years later, Davis remarked that Laughton's advice had influenced her throughout her career.

By this time, Davis was Warner Bros.' most profitable star, and she was given the most important of their female leading roles. Her image was considered with more care; although she continued to play character roles, she was often filmed in close-ups that emphasized her distinctive eyes. All This, and Heaven Too (1940) was the most financially successful film of Davis's career to that point.

The Letter (1940) was considered "one of the best pictures of the year" by The Hollywood Reporter, and Davis won admiration for her portrayal of an adulterous killer, a role originated onstage by Katharine Cornell. During this time, she was in a relationship with her former co-star George Brent, who proposed marriage. Davis refused, as she had met Arthur Farnsworth, a New England innkeeper, and Vermont dentist's son. Davis and Farnsworth were married at Home Ranch, in Rimrock, Arizona, in December 1940, her second marriage.

In January 1941, Davis became the first female president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, but antagonized the committee members with her brash manner and radical proposals. Davis rejected the idea of her being just "a figurehead only". Faced with the disapproval and resistance of the committee, Davis resigned, and was succeeded by her predecessor Walter Wanger.

Davis starred in three movies in 1941, the first being The Great Lie, with George Brent. It was a refreshingly different role for Davis as she played a kind, sympathetic character.

William Wyler directed Davis for the third time in Lillian Hellman's The Little Foxes (1941), but they clashed over the character of Regina Giddens, a role originally played on Broadway by Tallulah Bankhead (Davis had portrayed in film a role initiated by Bankhead on the stage once beforein Dark Victory). Wyler encouraged Davis to emulate Bankhead's interpretation of the role, but Davis wanted to make the role her own. She received another Academy Award nomination for her performance, and never worked with Wyler again.

1942–1944: War years

In 1943, Davis told an interviewer that she had molded her film career on her motto, "I love tragedy," and ironically, until Pearl Harbor she had been recognized as the American favorite of Japanese moviegoers—because to them, she "represented the admirable principle of sad self-sacrifice."

In 1942, Davis, along with John Garfield, were among the members of the Hollywood Victory Committee who helped establish the Hollywood Canteen. The Canteen offered food, dancing and entertainment for servicemen and was staffed by members of the entertainment industry. Davis served as Canteen president through the end of the war.
In 1983, Davis received the Distinguished Civilian Service Medal from the Department of Defense for her work with the Hollywood Canteen.

She appeared as herself in the film Hollywood Canteen (1944), which used the canteen as the setting for a fictional story. Warner Bros. donated 40% of proceeds from the film to both the Hollywood Canteen and the Stage Door Canteen in New York.

Davis showed little interest in the film Now, Voyager (1942), until Hal Wallis advised her that female audiences needed romantic dramas to distract them from the reality of their lives. It became one of the better known of her "women's pictures". In one of the film's most imitated scenes, Paul Henreid lights two cigarettes as he stares into Davis's eyes, and passes one to her. Film reviewers complimented Davis on her performance, the National Board of Review commenting that she gave the film "a dignity not fully warranted by the script".During the early 1940s, several of Davis's film choices were influenced by the war, such as Watch on the Rhine (1943), by Lillian Hellman, and Thank Your Lucky Stars (1943), a lighthearted all-star musical cavalcade. Davis performed a novelty song, "They're Either Too Young or Too Old."

Old Acquaintance (1943) reunited her with Miriam Hopkins in a story of two old friends who deal with the tensions created when one of them becomes a successful novelist. Davis felt that Hopkins tried to upstage her throughout the film. Director Vincent Sherman recalled the intense competition and animosity between the two actresses, and Davis often joked that she held back nothing in a scene in which she was required to shake Hopkins in a fit of anger.

Death of Arthur Farnsworth

On August 25, 1943, Davis' second husband, Arthur Farnsworth, died following a series of head injuries that are suspected to be the result of violent fits against him by Davis. In July 1943, Farnsworth hit his head while he and Davis were visiting Farnsworth's family in New Hampshire. At the time, Davis claimed Farnsworth slipped and fell down the stairs. In regard to the first head injury, a family member of Farnsworth stated, "He was a darling guy, but no match for Bette. He should have left her then. If he had, he would have been alive today." Farnsworth suffered a second head injury during his and Davis' train ride back to California. During the train ride, Farnsworth and Davis reportedly argued over her affair with director Vincent Sherman and the state of their marriage. Then, on August 23, Farnsworth fell and hit his head on the pavement on Hollywood Blvd shortly after he and Davis had lunch with her attorney to discuss filing separate tax returns. A disoriented Farnsworth was immediately rushed to the hospital, where Farnsworth ran a high fever and several hemorrhages making him unable to relay to medical staff the events surrounding his fall. He died two days later. An autopsy revealed that Farnsworth's death was the result of a skull fracture. Not telling authorities about Farnsworth's last two head injuries, Davis told detectives that she believed Farnsworth died due to the first head injury he sustained in New Hampshire several months prior, however, police readily dismissed Davis's claims and opened a criminal investigation.

According to Davis's third husband, William Sherry, Davis showed him the spot on the pavement where Farnsworth hit his head and confessed that she had, in fact, violently pushed him and caused him to fall. Davis later claimed that Farnsworth was "drunk" and fell, however, law enforcement and the doctor who examined Farnsworth immediately after his fall stated there was "no odor of alcohol on his breath." A bystander at Farnsworth's funeral stated that Davis was icy towards Farnworth's family and only displayed grief when she sensed she was being observed by the press. Following Farnsworth's funeral, his body was held for four days while the police investigated his death to determine if any criminal charges would be filed. Davis testified at an inquest that she knew of no event that might have caused the injury and a finding of accidental death was reached. According to writer Hector Arce, Warners Studio head Jack Warner used his influence to get the inquest settled quickly. Highly distraught, Davis attempted to withdraw from her next film Mr. Skeffington (1944), but Jack Warner, who had halted production following Farnsworth's death, persuaded her to continue.

Although she had gained a reputation for being forthright and demanding, her behavior during filming of Mr. Skeffington was erratic and out of character. She alienated Vincent Sherman by refusing to film certain scenes and insisting that some sets be rebuilt. She improvised dialogue, causing confusion among other actors, and infuriated the writer Julius Epstein, who was called upon to rewrite scenes at her whim. Davis later explained her actions with the observation "When I was most unhappy, I lashed out rather than whined." Some reviewers criticized Davis for the excess of her performance; James Agee wrote that she "demonstrates the horrors of egocentricity on a marathonic scale". Despite all these problems, Mr. Skeffington was another box-office hit and earned Davis another Academy Award nomination.

1945–1949: Career setbacks

In 1945, Davis married artist William Grant Sherry, her third husband, who also worked as a masseur. She had been drawn to him because he claimed he had never heard of her and was, therefore, not intimidated by her. The same year, Davis made The Corn Is Green (1945), based on a play by Emlyn Williams.

In The Corn Is Green Davis played Miss Moffat, an English teacher who saves a young Welsh miner (John Dall) from a life in the coal pits, by offering him education. The part had been played in the theatre by Ethel Barrymore (who was 61 at the play's premiere), but Warner Bros. felt that the film version should depict the character as a younger woman. Davis disagreed, and insisted on playing the part as written, and wore a gray wig and padding under her clothes, to create a dowdy appearance. The critic E. Arnot Robertson observed:  She concluded that "the subtle interpretation she insisted on giving" kept the focus on the teacher's "sheer joy in imparting knowledge". The film was well received by critics, and made a profit of $2.2 million.

Her next film, A Stolen Life (1946), was the only film that Davis made with her own production company, BD Productions. Davis played dual roles as twins. The film received poor reviews, and was described by Bosley Crowther as "a distressingly empty piece"; but, with a profit of $2.5 million, it was one of her biggest box office successes. Her next film was Deception (1946), the first of her films to lose money.
In 1947, at the age of 39, Davis gave birth to daughter Barbara Davis Sherry (known as B.D.), and later wrote in her memoir that she became absorbed in motherhood and considered ending her career. As she continued making films, however, her relationship with her daughter B.D. began to deteriorate, and her popularity with audiences steadily declined.

In 1948, Davis was cast in the melodrama Winter Meeting. Although she initially was enthusiastic, she soon learned that Warner had arranged for "softer" lighting to be used to disguise her age. She recalled that she had seen the same lighting technique "on the sets of Ruth Chatterton and Kay Francis, and I knew what they meant". To add to her disappointment, she was not confident in the abilities of her leading man – James Davis in his first major screen role. She disagreed with changes made to the script because of censorship restrictions, and found that many of the aspects of the role that initially appealed to her had been cut. The film was described by Bosley Crowther as "interminable", and he noted that "of all the miserable dilemmas in which Miss Davis has been involved ... this one is probably the worst". It failed at the box office, and the studio lost nearly $1 million.

While making June Bride (1948), Davis clashed with co-star Robert Montgomery, later describing him as "a male Miriam Hopkins... an excellent actor, but addicted to scene-stealing". The film marked her first comedy in several years, and earned her some positive reviews, but it was not particularly popular with audiences, and returned only a small profit.

Despite the lackluster box-office receipts from her more recent films, in 1949, she negotiated a four-film contract with Warner Bros. that paid $10,285 per week and made her the highest-paid woman in the United States. However, Jack Warner had refused to allow her script approval, and cast her in Beyond the Forest (1949). Davis reportedly loathed the script and begged Warner to recast the role, but he refused. After the film was completed, her request to be released from her contract was honored.

The reviews of the film were scathing. Dorothy Manners, writing for the Los Angeles Examiner, described the film as "an unfortunate finale to her brilliant career". Hedda Hopper wrote: "If Bette had deliberately set out to wreck her career, she could not have picked a more appropriate vehicle." The film contained the line "What a dump!", which became closely associated with Davis after it was referenced in Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, and impersonators began to use it in their acts. Arthur Blake was a famous female impersonator of the post World-War II era who was particularly known for his performances as Bette Davis; notably impersonating her in the 1952 film Diplomatic Courier.

1949–1960: Starting a freelance career

Davis filmed The Story of a Divorce (released by RKO Radio Pictures in 1951 as Payment on Demand).  She played a Broadway star in All About Eve (1950), which earned her another Oscar nomination and won her the Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actress. Davis read the script, described it as the best she had ever read, and accepted the role. Within days, she joined the cast in San Francisco to begin filming. During production, she established what became a lifelong friendship with her co-star Anne Baxter and a romantic relationship with her leading man Gary Merrill, which led to marriage. The film's director Joseph L. Mankiewicz later remarked: "Bette was letter perfect. She was syllable-perfect. The director's dream: the prepared actress."

Critics responded positively to Davis's performance, and several of her lines became well-known, particularly "Fasten your seat belts, it's going to be a bumpy night". She was again nominated for an Academy Award, and critics such as Gene Ringgold described her Margo as her "all-time best performance". Pauline Kael wrote that much of Mankiewicz's vision of "the theater" was "nonsense", but commended Davis, writing "[the film is] saved by one performance that is the real thing: Bette Davis is at her most instinctive and assured. Her actress – vain, scared, a woman who goes too far in her reactions and emotions – makes the whole thing come alive." Davis won a Best Actress award from the Cannes Film Festival, and the New York Film Critics Circle Award. She also received the San Francisco Film Critics Circle Award as Best Actress, having been named by them as the Worst Actress of 1949 for Beyond the Forest. During this time, she was invited to leave her hand prints in the forecourt of Grauman's Chinese Theatre.

On July 3, 1950, Davis's divorce from William Sherry was finalized, and on July 28, she married Gary Merrill, her fourth and final husband. With Sherry's consent, Merrill adopted B.D., Davis's daughter with Sherry. In January 1951, Davis and Merrill adopted a five-day-old baby girl they named Margot Mosher Merrill (born January 6, 1951 - died May 5, 2022), after the character Margo Channing. In 1952, they adopted a baby boy, Michael (born February 5, 1952).  Davis and Merrill lived with their three children on an estate on the coast of Cape Elizabeth, Maine. (Davis and Merrill also stayed at Homewood Inn in Yarmouth, Maine, for six months.) After semi-retirement in the mid-1950s, Davis again starred in several movies during her time in Maine, including The Virgin Queen (1955), in which she played Queen Elizabeth I.

The family traveled to England, where Davis and Merrill starred in the murder-mystery film Another Man's Poison (1951). When it received lukewarm reviews and failed at the box office, Hollywood columnists wrote that Davis's comeback had petered out, and an Academy Award nomination for The Star (1952) did not halt her decline at the box office.

In 1952, Davis appeared in the Broadway revue Two's Company, directed by Jules Dassin. She was uncomfortable working outside of her area of expertise; she never had been a musical performer, and her limited theater experience had been more than 20 years earlier. She was also severely ill, and was operated on for osteomyelitis of the jaw. Margot was diagnosed as severely brain-damaged due to an injury sustained during or shortly after her birth, and was placed in an institution around the age of 3. Davis and Merrill began arguing frequently, and B.D. later recalled episodes of alcohol abuse and domestic violence.

Few of Davis's films of the 1950s were successful, and many of her performances were condemned by critics. The Hollywood Reporter wrote of mannerisms "that you'd expect to find in a nightclub impersonation of [Davis]", while the London critic Richard Winninger wrote

Her films of this period included Storm Center (1956) and The Catered Affair (1956). As her career declined, her marriage continued to deteriorate until she filed for divorce in 1960. The following year, her mother died. During the same time, she tried television, appearing in three episodes of the popular NBC Western Wagon Train as three different characters in 1959 and 1961; her first appearance on TV had been February 25, 1956, on General Electric Theatre.

In 1960, Davis, a registered Democrat, appeared at the 1960 Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles, where she met future President John F. Kennedy, whom she greatly admired. Outside of acting and politics, Davis was an active and practicing Episcopalian.

1961–1970: Renewed success

In 1961, Davis opened in the Broadway production The Night of the Iguana to mostly mediocre reviews, and left the production after four months due to "chronic illness". She then joined Glenn Ford and Hope Lange for the Frank Capra film Pocketful of Miracles (1961), a remake of Capra's 1933 film, Lady for a Day, based on a story by Damon Runyon. Exhibitors protested her star billing as they considered it would negatively impact the box office performance and, despite the appearance of Ford, the film failed at the box office.

Her last Oscar nomination was for the Grand Guignol horror film What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962), which also starred Joan Crawford.  Joan Crawford showed interest in the script and considered Davis for the part of Jane. Davis believed it could appeal to the same audience that had recently made Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho (1960) a success. She negotiated a deal that would pay her 10 percent of the worldwide gross profits in addition to her salary. The film became one of the year's big successes.

Davis and Crawford played two aging sisters, one a former child star (Davis) and the other an accomplished film actress (Crawford) who are now forced by circumstance to share a decaying Hollywood mansion. The director, Robert Aldrich, explained that Davis and Crawford were each aware of how important the film was to their respective careers.
Regardless of their personal feelings toward one another, Davis and Crawford spoke highly of each other's acting talent. Crawford said Davis was a "fascinating actress" but they never become friends as they only worked on that one film together and had few opportunities outside that association. Davis also said Crawford was a good, professional actress.
Despite the alleged "feud," Crawford heavily promoted Davis's performance. Crawford told reporter Wayne Allen, "I'll predict here and now that Miss Davis will win an Oscar for it."
Their alleged feud was eventually turned into the 2017 limited series Feud by Ryan Murphy, which took enormous creative liberties with the facts.

Davis also received her only BAFTA nomination for this performance. Daughter Barbara (credited as B.D. Merrill) played a small role in the film, and when she and Davis visited the Cannes Film Festival to promote it, Barbara met Jeremy Hyman, an executive for Seven Arts Productions. After a short courtship, she married Hyman at the age of 16, with Davis's permission.

In October 1962, it was announced that four episodes of the CBS-TV series Perry Mason would feature special guest stars who would cover for Raymond Burr during his convalescence from surgery. A Perry Mason fan, Davis was the first of the guest stars. "The Case of Constant Doyle" began filming on December 12, 1962, and aired January 31, 1963.

In 1962, Davis appeared as Celia Miller on the TV western The Virginian in the episode titled "The Accomplice."

In September 1962, Davis placed an advertisement in Variety under the heading of "Situations wanted – women artists", which read: "Mother of three – 10, 11, & 15 – divorcee. American. Thirty years experience as an actress in Motion Pictures. Mobile still, and more affable than rumor would have it. Wants steady employment in Hollywood. (Has had Broadway.)" Davis said that she intended it as a joke, and she sustained her comeback over the course of several years.

Dead Ringer (1964) was a crime drama in which she played twin sisters. The film was an American adaptation of the Mexican film La Otra, starring Dolores del Río. Where Love Has Gone (1964) was a romantic drama based on a Harold Robbins novel. Davis played the mother of Susan Hayward, but filming was hampered by heated arguments between Davis and Hayward.

Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964) was Robert Aldrich's follow-up to What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?. Aldrich planned to reunite Davis and Crawford, but the latter withdrew allegedly due to illness soon after filming began. She was replaced by Olivia de Havilland. The film was a considerable success, and brought renewed attention to its veteran cast, which included Joseph Cotten, Mary Astor, Agnes Moorehead, and Cecil Kellaway.

The following year, Davis was cast as the lead in an Aaron Spelling sitcom, The Decorator. A pilot episode was filmed, but was not shown, and the project was terminated. By the end of the decade, Davis had appeared in the British films The Nanny (1965), The Anniversary (1968), and Connecting Rooms (1970), none of which were reviewed well, and her career again stalled.

1971–1983: Later career
In the early 1970s, Davis was invited to appear in New York City in a stage presentation titled Great Ladies of the American Cinema. Over five successive nights, a different female star discussed her career, and answered questions from the audience; Myrna Loy, Rosalind Russell, Lana Turner, Sylvia Sidney, and Joan Crawford were the other participants. Davis was well-received, and was invited to tour Australia with the similarly themed Bette Davis in Person and on Film; its success allowed her to take the production to the United Kingdom.

In 1972, Davis played the lead role in two television films that were each intended as pilots for upcoming series for ABC and NBC, Madame Sin, with Robert Wagner, and The Judge and Jake Wyler, with Doug McClure and Joan Van Ark, but in each case, the network decided against producing a series.

She appeared in the stage production Miss Moffat, a musical adaptation of her film The Corn Is Green, but after the show was panned by the Philadelphia critics during its pre-Broadway run, she cited a back injury, and abandoned the show, which closed immediately.

She played supporting roles in Luigi Comencini's Lo Scopone scientifico (1972) with Joseph Cotten and Italian actors Alberto Sordi and Silvana Mangano, Burnt Offerings (1976), a Dan Curtis film, for which she won the award for Best Supporting Actress at the Saturn Awards, and The Disappearance of Aimee (1976), but she clashed with Karen Black and Faye Dunaway, the stars of the two latter respective productions, because she felt that neither extended her an appropriate degree of respect and that their behavior on the film sets was unprofessional.

In 1977, Davis became the first woman to receive the American Film Institute's Lifetime Achievement Award. The televised event included comments from several of Davis's colleagues, including William Wyler, who joked that given the chance, Davis would still like to re-film a scene from The Letter to which Davis nodded. Jane Fonda, Henry Fonda, Natalie Wood, and Olivia de Havilland were among the performers who paid tribute, with de Havilland commenting that Davis "got the roles I always wanted".

Following the telecast, she found herself in demand again, often having to choose between several offers. She accepted roles in the television miniseries The Dark Secret of Harvest Home (1978) and the theatrical film Death on the Nile (1978), an Agatha Christie murder mystery. The bulk of her remaining work was for television. She won an Emmy Award for Strangers: The Story of a Mother and Daughter (1979) with Gena Rowlands, and was nominated for her performances in White Mama (1980) and Little Gloria... Happy at Last (1982). She also played supporting roles in the Disney films Return from Witch Mountain (1978) and The Watcher in the Woods (1980).

Davis's name became well known to a younger audience when Kim Carnes's song "Bette Davis Eyes" (written by Donna Weiss and Jackie DeShannon) became a worldwide hit and the best-selling record of 1981 in the U.S., where it stayed at number one on the music charts for more than two months. Davis's grandson was impressed that she was the subject of a hit song and Davis considered it a compliment, writing to both Carnes and the songwriters, and accepting the gift of gold and platinum records from Carnes, and hanging them on her wall.

She continued acting for television, appearing in Family Reunion (1981) with her grandson J. Ashley Hyman, A Piano for Mrs. Cimino (1982), for which she won the Best Actress Award at The Monte Carlo Television Festival, and Right of Way (1983) with James Stewart. In 1983, she was awarded the Women in Film Crystal Award.

1983–1989: Illness, awards, and final works
Her career went through several periods of eclipse, but despite a long period of ill health she continued acting in film and on television until shortly before her death from breast cancer in 1989. She admitted that her success had often been at the expense of her personal relationships. She was married four times, divorcing three  and widowed once. She raised her children largely as a single parent.
In 1983, after filming the pilot episode for the television series Hotel, Davis was diagnosed with breast cancer and underwent a mastectomy. Within two weeks of her surgery, she had four strokes which caused paralysis in the left side of her face and in her left arm, and left her with slurred speech. She commenced a lengthy period of physical therapy, and aided by her personal assistant Kathryn Sermak gained partial recovery from the paralysis. Even late in life, Davis smoked 100 cigarettes per day.

During this time, her relationship with her daughter B.D. Hyman deteriorated when Hyman became a born-again Christian and attempted to persuade Davis to follow suit. With her health stable, she traveled to England to film the Agatha Christie mystery Murder with Mirrors (1985). Upon her return, she learned that Hyman had published My Mother's Keeper, in which she chronicled a difficult mother-daughter relationship and depicted scenes of Davis's overbearing and drunken behavior.

Several of Davis's friends commented that Hyman's depiction of events was not accurate; one said "So much of the book is out of context". Mike Wallace re-broadcast a 60 Minutes interview he had filmed with Hyman a few years earlier in which she commended Davis on her skills as a mother, and said that she had adopted many of Davis's principles in raising her own children.

Critics of Hyman noted that Davis financially supported the Hyman family for several years and had recently saved them from losing their house. Despite the acrimony of their divorce years earlier, Gary Merrill also defended Davis. Interviewed by CNN, Merrill said that Hyman was motivated by "cruelty and greed". Davis's adopted son Michael Merrill ended contact with Hyman, and refused to speak to her again, as did Davis, who disinherited her.

In her second memoir This 'n That (1987), Davis wrote: "I am still recovering from the fact that a child of mine would write about me behind my back, to say nothing about the kind of book it is. I will never recover as completely from B.D.'s book as I have from the stroke. Both were shattering experiences." Her memoir concluded with a letter to her daughter, in which she addressed her several times as Hyman, and described her actions as "a glaring lack of loyalty and thanks for the very privileged life I feel you have been given". She concluded with a reference to the title of Hyman's book, "If it refers to money, if my memory serves me right, I've been your keeper all these many years. I am continuing to do so, as my name has made your book about me a success."

Davis appeared in the television film As Summers Die (1986), and in Lindsay Anderson's film The Whales of August (1987), in which she played the blind sister of Lillian Gish. Though in poor health at the time, Davis memorized her own and everyone else's lines as she always had. The film earned good reviews, with one critic writing: "Bette crawls across the screen like a testy old hornet on a windowpane, snarling, staggering, twitching – a symphony of misfired synapses." Davis became an honouree of the Kennedy Center Honors for her contribution to films in 1987.

Her last performance was the title role in Larry Cohen's Wicked Stepmother (1989). By this time, her health was failing, and after disagreements with Cohen, she walked off the set. The script was rewritten to place more emphasis on Barbara Carrera's character, and the reworked version was released after Davis's death.

After abandoning Wicked Stepmother, and with no further film offers (though she was keen to play the centenarian in Craig Calman's The Turn of the Century, and worked with him on adapting the stage play to a feature-length screenplay), Davis appeared on several talk shows, and was interviewed by Johnny Carson, Joan Rivers, Larry King, and David Letterman, discussing her career, but refusing to discuss her daughter. Her appearances were popular; Lindsay Anderson observed that the public enjoyed seeing her behaving "so bitchy": "I always disliked that because she was encouraged to behave badly. And I'd always hear her described by that awful word, feisty."

During 1988 and 1989, Davis was honored for her career achievements, receiving the Legion of Honor from France, the Campione d'Italia from Italy, and the Film Society of Lincoln Center Lifetime Achievement Award. She appeared on British television in a special broadcast from the South Bank Centre, discussing film and her career, the other guest being the renowned Russian director Andrei Tarkovsky.

Death

Davis collapsed during the American Cinema Awards in 1989, and later discovered that her cancer had returned. She recovered sufficiently to travel to Spain, where she was honored at the San Sebastián International Film Festival, but during her visit, her health rapidly deteriorated. Too weak to make the long journey back to the U.S., she traveled to France, where she died on October 6, 1989, at the American Hospital in Neuilly-sur-Seine. Davis was 81 years old. A memorial tribute was held by invitation only at Burbank Studio's stage 18 where a work light was turned on signaling the end of production.

She was entombed in Forest Lawn-Hollywood Hills Cemetery in Los Angeles, alongside her mother Ruthie and sister Bobby, with her name in larger letters. On her tombstone is written: "She did it the hard way", an epitaph that she mentioned in her memoir Mother Goddam as having been suggested to her by Joseph L. Mankiewicz shortly after they had filmed All About Eve.

Reception and legacy
As early as 1936, Graham Greene summarized Davis:

In 1964, Jack Warner spoke of the "magic quality that transformed this sometimes bland and not beautiful little girl into a great artist", and in a 1988 interview, Davis remarked that, unlike many of her contemporaries, she had forged a career without the benefit of beauty. She admitted she was terrified during the making of her early films, and that she became tough by necessity. "Until you're known in my profession as a monster, you are not a star", she said, "[but] I've never fought for anything in a treacherous way. I've never fought for anything but the good of the film." During the making of All About Eve (1950), Joseph L. Mankiewicz told her of the perception in Hollywood that she was difficult, and she explained that when the audience saw her on screen, they did not consider that her appearance was the result of numerous people working behind the scenes. If she was presented as "a horse's ass ... forty feet wide, and thirty feet high", that is all the audience "would see or care about".

While lauded for her achievements, Davis and her films were sometimes derided; Pauline Kael described Now, Voyager (1942) as a "shlock classic", and by the mid-1940s, her sometimes mannered and histrionic performances had become the subject of caricature. Edwin Schallert, for the Los Angeles Times, praised Davis's performance in Mr. Skeffington (1944), while observing, "The mimics will have more fun than a box of monkeys imitating Miss Davis"; and Dorothy Manners, at the Los Angeles Examiner, said of her performance in the poorly received Beyond the Forest (1949): "No night club caricaturist has ever turned in such a cruel imitation of the Davis mannerisms as Bette turns on herself in this one." Time magazine noted that Davis was compulsively watchable, even while criticizing her acting technique, summarizing her performance in Dead Ringer (1964) with the observation, "Her acting, as always, isn't really acting: It's shameless showing off. But just try to look away!"

Davis attracted a following in the gay subculture, and was frequently imitated by female impersonators such as Tracey Lee, Craig Russell, Jim Bailey, and Charles Pierce. Attempting to explain her popularity with gay audiences, the journalist Jim Emerson wrote: "Was she just a camp figurehead because her brittle, melodramatic style of acting hadn't aged well? Or was it that she was 'Larger Than Life', a tough broad who had survived? Probably some of both."

Her film choices were often unconventional: Davis sought roles as manipulators and killers in an era when actresses usually preferred to play sympathetic characters, and she excelled in them. She favored authenticity over glamour, and was willing to change her own appearance if it suited the character.

As she entered old age, Davis was acknowledged for her achievements. John Springer, who had arranged her speaking tours of the early 1970s, wrote that despite the accomplishments of many of her contemporaries, Davis was "the star of the thirties and into the forties", achieving notability for the variety of her characterizations and her ability to assert herself, even when her material was mediocre. Individual performances continued to receive praise; in 1987, Bill Collins analyzed The Letter (1940), and described her performance as "a brilliant, subtle achievement", and wrote: "Bette Davis makes Leslie Crosbie one of the most extraordinary females in movies." In a 2000 review for All About Eve (1950), Roger Ebert noted: "Davis was a character, an icon with a grand style; so, even her excesses are realistic." In House of Wax (2005), in her attempt to blend in with the other wax figures in the local movie house, the lead female character has to sit through a scene from Whatever Happened to Baby Jane . In 2006, Premiere magazine ranked her portrayal of Margo Channing in the film as fifth on their list of 100 Greatest Performances of All Time, commenting: "There is something deliciously audacious about her gleeful willingness to play such unattractive emotions as jealousy, bitterness, and neediness." While reviewing What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962) in 2008, Ebert asserted that, "No one who has seen the film will ever forget her."

In 1981 the song "Bette Davis Eyes" won two Grammy Awards (Song of the Year and Record of the Year) and spent a total of nine weeks at the top of the Billboard Top 100.

A few months before her death in 1989, Davis was one of several actors featured on the cover of Life magazine. In a film retrospective that celebrated the films and stars of 1939, Life concluded that Davis was the most significant actress of her era, and highlighted Dark Victory (1939) as one of the more important films of the year. Her death made front-page news throughout the world as the "close of yet another chapter of the Golden Age of Hollywood". Angela Lansbury summarized the feeling of those of the Hollywood community who attended her memorial service, commenting, after a sample from Davis's films was screened, that they had witnessed "an extraordinary legacy of acting in the twentieth century by a real master of the craft" that should provide "encouragement and illustration to future generations of aspiring actors".

In 1977, Davis became the first woman to be honored with the AFI Life Achievement Award. In 1999, the American Film Institute published its list of the "AFI's 100 Years...100 Stars", which was the result of a film-industry poll to determine the "50 Greatest American Screen Legends" in order to raise public awareness and appreciation of classic film. Of the 25 actresses listed, Davis was ranked at number two, behind Katharine Hepburn.

The United States Postal Service honored Davis with a commemorative postage stamp in 2008, marking the 100th anniversary of her birth. The stamp features an image of her in the role of Margo Channing in All About Eve. The First Day of Issue celebration took place September 18, 2008, at Boston University, which houses an extensive Davis archive. Featured speakers included her son Michael Merrill and Lauren Bacall. In 1997, the executors of her estate, Merrill and Kathryn Sermak, her former assistant, established The Bette Davis Foundation, which awards college scholarships to promising actors and actresses.

Journalist Jeanine Basinger of The New York Times wrote:

In 2017, Sermak published the memoir Miss D & Me: Life With the Invincible Bette Davis, a book Davis had requested Sermak write, detailing their years spent together.

Academy Awards

Davis established several Oscar milestones. Among them, she became the first person to earn five consecutive Academy Award nominations for acting, all in the Best Actress category (1938–1942). Her record has only been matched by one other performer, Greer Garson, who also earned five consecutive nominations in the Best Actress category (1941–1945), including three years when both these actresses were nominated.

In 1962, Bette Davis became the first person to secure 10 Academy Award nominations for acting (though one could argue her 10th nomination was in 1952, and her 11th in 1962, as her write-in nomination for "Of Human Bondage" remains a source of contention (she came in 3rd in the voting, ahead of official nominee Grace Moore). Since then only three people have surpassed this figure, Meryl Streep (with 21 nominations and three wins), Katharine Hepburn (12 nominations and 4 wins), and Jack Nicholson (12 nominations and 3 wins) with Laurence Olivier matching the number (10 nominations and 1 win).

Steven Spielberg purchased Davis's Oscars for Dangerous (1935) and Jezebel (1938), when they were offered for auction for $207,500 and $578,000, respectively, and returned them to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Selected filmography

See also
 List of awards and nominations received by Bette Davis
 Motion Picture Production Code (Hays Code)
 Classical Hollywood cinema

References

Bibliography

External links

  - operated by the Estate of Bette Davis

 Portraits from "The Little Foxes", 1941  by Ned Scott
 Kathryn Sermak recounts living with Bette Davis, interview October, 2017, News-Sentinel, accessed October 25, 2017.

1908 births
1989 deaths
20th-century American actresses
20th-century American memoirists
20th-century American women writers
Actors from Lowell, Massachusetts
Actresses from Massachusetts
American Episcopalians
American film actresses
American radio actresses
American stage actresses
American television actresses
American women memoirists
Best Actress Academy Award winners
Burials at Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Hollywood Hills)
California Democrats
AFI Life Achievement Award recipients
Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actress winners
Cecil B. DeMille Award Golden Globe winners
César Honorary Award recipients
Deaths from breast cancer
Deaths from cancer in France
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Outstanding Performance by a Lead Actress in a Miniseries or Movie Primetime Emmy Award winners
People from Dennis, Massachusetts
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Bette Davis


Kinlochbervie Camanachd Club is a shinty club from Kinlochbervie, Sutherland, Scotland.

History

Shinty was traditionally played throughout the Highlands of Scotland until the early 20th century when it died off in many areas and there was a tradition of play in North West Sutherland.

In 2007, as part of Highland 2007, the pupils of Kinlochbervie High School took a vote and decided to spend more time playing shinty.  This led to Kinlochbervie being a founder member of the Far North Shinty League in 2007.  The club also supplied some players to Naver Athletic, the first team from Sutherland to compete in national shinty.

In their first season in 2007–2008, Kinlochbervie came second in the Far North League to Farr. They finished just behind Farr again in the same position for the 2008–2009 season. This season they finished in 1st place ahead of their rivals Farr Camanachd.

In 2011, the club entered the Development League run by the Camanachd Association and also took a trip to Ireland to play Shinty/Hurling. The club defeated Strathspey in their final match 6–5.

External links
KLB Camanachd
KLB in Far North league
Kinlochbervie Website

Shinty teams
Sports clubs and teams established in 2007
Sport in Sutherland

Kinlochbervie Camanachd Club


The Family That Preys is a 2008 American comedy-drama film, written, produced, and directed by Tyler Perry. The screenplay focuses on two families, one wealthy and the other working class, whose lives are intertwined in both love and business.

Plot
In the prologue, socialite Charlotte Cartwright hosts the wedding of Andrea—the daughter of Charlotte's best friend, Alice Evans—and Chris Bennett, a construction worker. The couple is congratulated by Charlotte's son, William, and his wife, Jillian, who had eloped instead of letting Charlotte plan an elaborate reception for them. William suggests that the newlyweds contact him for employment with the Cartwrights's successful Atlanta construction company after their honeymoon.

Four years later, Andrea's sister, Pam, is married to Ben and looks after Andrea's three-year-old son for extra income while working at their mother's diner. To Pam's chagrin, Andrea doesn't help their mother more financially, though Andrea has designer clothes and a new Mercedes. Andrea is actually enjoying the perks of being in an extramarital affair with William.

Chris dreams of opening a construction firm with Ben, but Andrea ridicules Chris's aspirations. At the bank, Chris is rejected for a loan application, but discovers his wife has deposited nearly $300,000 in a secret account. Andrea catches Chris going through her hidden financial records one night. She tells him that the money is bonuses she received from William and that she has the right to some privacy from her spouse. She refuses to finance his business.

William is determined to take the family business from his mother, believing the $500-million deal he recently closed will prove his capabilities. Charlotte hires Abigail "Abby" Dexter as COO and determines the company will have to front $25 million to make William's deal viable. The only way to raise the money is for Charlotte to sell 10% of her shares, leaving her with a minority vote. William tells Abby that Charlotte's vote and his vote combined will give the Cartwrights continued control; Abby advises Charlotte to sell her shares.

Charlotte asks Alice to go on a road trip in the vintage turquoise Cadillac convertible Charlotte has bought. Alice eventually agrees, and they head west without a set route or schedule. Charlotte introduces Alice to honky-tonks and male strip clubs; Alice reciprocates by taking Charlotte to a communal baptism. One night, Charlotte becomes stressed out over her camera and reveals she has early-onset Alzheimer's disease. She has been told nothing can slow her mental decline.

At the company gala, both Jillian and Abby discover Andrea and William's affair. William later fires both Chris and Ben after Chris asks him for money to start a construction business of their own. Abby warns Andrea of the repercussions of the affair that will likely result in her termination from the company, only for Andrea to rebuff this as she fervently believes William will protect her. Convinced that they were marital assets, Chris takes the money from the hidden account and pays deposits to start a construction firm with Ben.

Charlotte and Alice return to Atlanta. Andrea confronts Chris for taking her $300,000. She says he and Ben will never be like William. Ben states that nobody cares about William and that Andrea can't see that because of the affair. Andrea admits to Chris that the money was from William, her lover. Angry and disgusted, Chris slaps her, sending her flying over the counter. Andrea, further incensed, tells him to keep the money and move out. As Chris brings up their son, Andrea says William is the father.

Alice tries to persuade Andrea to end her affair with William and reconcile with Chris, explaining to her that their affair will not last and William will never marry her, begging her to stop before her life is destroyed.  Andrea refuses to believe her, and says if that happens, she will enjoy the ride on the way down.

William is plotting to take over the family firm. Although they had never been close, Jillian goes to Charlotte for advice. Charlotte offers little consolation, but reminds her that she is a woman scorned without a prenuptial agreement, and as such can divorce or reconcile and be okay either way. Jillian warns Charlotte of William's plan to have the board vote her out.

Chris confronts William on a job site and punches him. Jillian then confronts Andrea in the hotel room where trysts with William were held each Wednesday, and warns her to stay away from her family and that William won't be seeing her again.

Charlotte calls a board meeting and fires William with the support of the Calvary Company, a silent investor revealed to be Alice. Alice has been receiving financial guidance for years from Nicholas "Nick" Blanchett, a homeless man she frequently fed at her diner. Earlier, it is explained that Nick had been a regular customer who left large tips until he lost his job, wife, and custody of his children. Nick still visits the diner regularly and pays Alice with solid investment advice. Later, it is revealed that Nick had been working for William as a powerful stockbroker until William fired him without cause.

In the parking lot, Andrea approaches William unaware of the recent events and expecting him to leave Jillian for her. Instead, he washes his hands of Andrea, and drives away, ignoring her claim that he is her son's father. Charlotte takes a deadly combination of pills. Alice received a call that Charlotte has died. Despondently, Alice gives the eulogy at Charlotte's funeral.

The movie ends with Chris and Andrea parting, with the paternity of their son left unclear. Chris is now wealthier after opening a firm with Ben. Andrea on  the other hand is now sad, guilt-ridden, lonely, heartbroken and now unemployed. She is forced to live in a low-rent apartment and rely on child support from Chris to survive, with her worst fears realized. Nick is wealthy and buys a house (he has always been wealthy, but after his wife died and lost his kids he just kept on moving around). William & Jillian reconcile, slowly salvaging their marriage. Alice decides to sell the diner, driving off in the car that Charlotte left her (with a photo of her and Charlotte taped to the dashboard) to start life anew on the road.

Cast
 Alfre Woodard as Alice Reynolds-Evans
 Sanaa Lathan as Andrea Evans-Bennett
 KaDee Strickland as Jillian Cartwright
 Cole Hauser as William Cartwright
 Rockmond Dunbar as Chris Bennett
 Taraji P. Henson as Pam Evans
 Robin Givens as Abigail "Abby" Dexter
 Tyler Perry as Ben
 Kathy Bates as Charlotte Cartwright
 Sebastian Siegel as Nicholas "Nick" Blanchett

Reception

Box office
The film opened in 2,070 theaters in North America on September 12, 2008 and grossed $17.4 million in its opening weekend, ranking #2 at the box office behind Burn After Reading. It eventually earned $37.1 million domestically, making it the second-least successful of Tyler Perry's films ahead of Daddy's Little Girls.

Critical response
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 53% based on 43 reviews, with an average rating of 5.90/10. The website's critics consensus reads: "Tyler Perry's The Family That Preys treads the filmmaker's established terrain of family loyalty and moral uprightness, though the occasionally predictable plot slides forward, aided by an excess of soapy melodrama." Metacritic assigned the film a weighted average score of 49 out of 100, based on 14 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale.

Stephen Holden of The New York Times said, "The suds that cascade through [the film] more than equal the cubic footage from nighttime soaps like Dallas, Dynasty and their offspring. As the movie proceeds, the flow quickens into a surging flood tide of recriminations and reversals in which blows are exchanged, claws bared and tears shed . . . The Family That Preys doesn't worry about how it gets from A to Z. There is no problem that a miraculous (and preposterous) plot development can't resolve in two minutes."

The New York Daily News rated the film three out of five stars and commented, "Perry's notoriously overstuffed plots have sometimes been top-heavy, but this movie, like Woody Allen's Hannah and Her Sisters, hangs on an elegant structure that doesn't feel forced. Perry's skills as a director have improved as his casts have gotten better, and he gives the lovely Woodard one of her most satisfying roles . . . By melding the pleasures of 1950s-style melodrama . . . with equal-gender, African-American-aimed plots, Perry has found success in a niche only he now occupies. And by adding Christian tenets and modern issues . . . Perry shows he knows what his audience wants. First and foremost, that's a smart, satisfying movie experience, which Family is."

Claudia Puig of USA Today said the best thing about the film "is the opportunity it affords to watch a pair of veteran actresses still at the top of their game. Alfre Woodard and Kathy Bates play best pals in this soap opera-style story, and the moments each are on-screen are undeniably the movie's best. One senses a rapport and chemistry between the women that transcends the formulaic plot."

Stephen Farber of The Hollywood Reporter observed, "Although this interracial Dynasty isn't always believable - it's a stretch to accept the lifelong friendship of the two matriarchs as well as the last-minute business coup that they engineer - there's plenty of action to keep us engrossed. Perry wears his religious faith lightly . . . and is shrewd enough to balance piety with raucous humor and lots of sinful shenanigans. Perry's filmmaking skills have improved to the level of competence, and he has assembled a dream cast."

Roger Moore of the Orlando Sentinel rated the film two out of five stars and called it Tyler Perry's "most cinematically polished production to date" but also "yet another example of how the mini-mogul from Atlanta is his own worst enemy, raiding his cupboard of his popular but pandering stage plays and not bothering to script doctor them for the screen. As sophisticated as the filmmaking becomes, Perry's scripts are still painfully unsophisticated grab-bags of melodramatic cliches, tired jokes and sermonizing."

Peter Debruge of Variety said the film "recycles familiar ingredients according to his own unique formula, serving up a lip-smacking, finger-snapping sudser" and added, "Perry has a tendency to overload his features, and The Family That Preys is no exception, reflecting the helmer's view that the emotional roller-coaster of life can whip its passengers from outrage to exhilaration, from belly laughs to tears in an instant, making for an exhausting yet cathartic overall experience. The result seems ideal for [audiences] who don't see too many movies, cramming enough into one film to satisfy them until the next Perry pic comes out."

Monika Fabian of Time Out New York said, "As with Perry's other films, his Christian moralistic storytelling can be slightly off-putting — but the solid acting and genuinely entertaining story are sure to satisfy fans, and maybe even bring in some converts."

Ken Fox of TV Guide rated the film three out of four stars and said, "Thanks to some first-rate acting from its stars, it ranks among Perry's best."

Tom Becker of DVD Verdict said, "The Family That Preys has that Love Boat kind of watchability and simplicity. Everything runs in a straight line, all endings are inevitable, and emotions and morals are no more complex than a well-timed platitude. The characters are amalgams of recognizable types plunked down in sitcom settings that elicit near-Pavlovian responses of cheers, jeers, and tears. Here and there, Perry throws us a curve ball—an act of physical violence presented as deserved comeuppance or a character's grim and dubiously appropriate endgame—but even these are not jarring enough to derail it. This is film as comfort food, and not the gourmet kind."

Brian Orndorf of DVD Talk said, "Preys" is a soap opera in the most unashamed sense, and while this aesthetic has made Perry heaps of coin, his personal screen touch remains some of the worst overall filmmaking around. The new feature is perhaps even more melodramatic than anything that's come before, taking the Andrea/William affair and using it as the inspiration for the cast to arch their eyebrows to assured cramp, flare nostrils in unintentional comedic fury, and bounce impassioned lines of dialogue off each other with medicine ball grace. It's equal parts hilarious and aggravating, with Perry showing little shame as he works the characters into pants-wetting hysteria."

Gregory Kirschling from Entertainment Weekly stated, "Tyler Perry's melodramas have a tendency to skid not only off the counter but out the kitchen and down the hall, too. The Family That Preys, his first film in six months, is all over the place: It's a boardroom/family/couples/road-trip story. Kathy Bates plays the head of an Atlanta construction company where Sanaa Lathan is a snooty exec and her husband (Rockmond Dunbar), for maximum class/race sizzle, is a worker grunt. As usual, the villains, like Lathan, are very bad, and the good guys, like Dunbar, are very noble — until they get mad and clock their wives."

Awards
At the Black Reel Awards, both Alfre Woodard and Sanaa Lathan were nominated for Best Actress. Also Tyler Perry was nominated for Best Screenplay, Original or Adapted.

Taraji P. Henson won Best Actress at the BET Awards for her role in the film combined with two other performances in Not Easily Broken, and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.

Home media
The film was released on Blu-ray Disc and DVD on January 13, 2009. It is in anamorphic widescreen format, with audio tracks and subtitles in English and Spanish. Bonus features include deleted scenes, Two Families, Two Legends, which spotlights stars Alfre Woodard and Kathy Bates; Preying in the Big Easy, about filming in New Orleans; Casting the Family, with interviews with the director and cast, and Delving into the Diner, in which production designer Ina Mayhew discusses her concept for the set.

References

External links

2008 films
2008 comedy-drama films
American comedy-drama films
African-American films
Films about dysfunctional families
Films about interracial romance
Films about the upper class
Films directed by Tyler Perry
Films scored by Aaron Zigman
Films set in Georgia (U.S. state)
Films shot in Georgia (U.S. state)
Films shot in New Orleans
Films with screenplays by Tyler Perry
Lionsgate films
2000s English-language films
2000s American films

The Family That Preys


The Licence Raj or Permit Raj (rāj, meaning "rule" in Hindi) is a pejorative for the system of strict government control and regulation of the Indian economy that was in place from the 1950s to the early 1990s. Under this system, businesses in India were required to obtain licenses from the government in order to operate, and these licenses were often difficult to obtain.

The License Raj was intended to protect Indian industry, promote self-reliance and ensure regional equality. Up to 80 government agencies had to be satisfied before private companies could produce something and, if granted, the government would regulate production.

The term "Licence Raj" is a play on the "British Raj" which refers to the period of British rule in India. It was coined by Indian independence activist and statesman Chakravarti Rajagopalachari, who was strongly opposed to the system of strict government control and regulation of the economy that it represented. Rajagopalachari believed that the Licence Raj had the potential for political corruption and economic stagnation, and founded the Swatantra Party to oppose these practices.

Reforms started in 1991 have significantly reduced regulation, However, Indian labor laws continue to protect workers in the formal sector from being laid off by employers and place significant restrictions on the ability of businesses to reduce their workforce without incurring significant costs and burdens.This is viewed by some as a barrier to economic growth and development as it may create a disincentive for businesses to hire workers and can make it difficult for them to respond to changing market conditions or economic challenges. It is also to be noted that majority of Indian workers are employed in the informal sector where much of the labour protections do not apply.

History

Following the Russian Revolution, socialist thinkers in India began drawing parallels between the pre-revolution Russian proletariat and the Indian masses under colonial rule, seeing socialism as a way to empower poor Indian farmers. Following Indian independence these socialist factions, most importantly Jawaharlal Nehru's conception of democratic socialism, influenced the policies of the License Raj.

Nehru studied at Trinity College, Cambridge and was exposed to socialist ideas during his time there. He also visited the Soviet Union in 1927, and this experience may have further influenced his views on socialism. However, Nehru's own political views and the policies he implemented as Prime Minister were often more pragmatic and centrist than strictly socialist. He believed in the need for a strong, centralized government and a planned economy, but he also recognized the importance of private enterprise and the market in driving economic growth and development. Nehru also believed that protecting domestic industries would help to promote industrialization and economic development in India, and he implemented a number of protectionist policies during his time in office.

He saw such government intervention as a way to modernize the Indian economy which had been left impoverished by decades of colonial rule. However, Nehru did not seek to eliminate the private sector entirely, as was the case in the Soviet Union. Rather, he pursued a policy of creating a mixed economy in India, with strategic industries under state control and public sector corporations guiding investment, while also allowing for a significant role for the private sector and market forces.

The economic centralization and controls required for the war effort during World War II helped create the bureaucratic and manufacturing infrastructure necessary to institute Nehru's plans, and so following independence and his election as prime minister, he had the opportunity to put his ideas into action. In his speech to the Constituent Assembly of India, he declared, "The service of India means the service of the millions who suffer. It means the ending of poverty and ignorance and disease and inequality of opportunity."

By the late 1950s, the Swatantra Party, the country's first market-friendly political party, had formed in opposition to Nehru's policies. This party, which was made up of ex-landlords, businessmen, and rich peasants, argued that Nehru's centralized economic policies were incompatible with democracy. In a memorandum to party officials, they claimed that "the best guarantee of speed in progress is a maximum of individual freedom and a minimum of governmental interference." They argued that Nehru's policies were stifling individual initiative and freedom and slowing economic progress.

Chakravarti Rajagopalachari, a founder of the Swatantra Party, coined the term "Permit-License Raj" to encapsulate the party's frustrations with Nehru's policies, writing in his right-wing magazine Swarajya:

Characteristics
A key characteristic of the Licence Raj was a Planning Commission that centrally administered the economy of the country. Like a command economy, India had Five-Year Plans on the lines of the five-year plans in the Soviet Union. However, unlike Soviet Union, private sector also played a significant role. The Planning Commission was set up in 1950 to survey the available resources in the country and formulate plans to raise the standard of living.

Planning Commission enacted the First Five Year Plan in 1951, aimed at developing the agricultural sector amid severe food shortages and an influx of refugees from the Partition, and that plan led to a 4% increase in GDP, higher than the projected 2%. Nehru's government hoped to build on the success of the First Five Year Plan with their more ambitious Second Five Year Plan aimed at continuing agricultural and infrastructure investment while developing heavy industry and increasing employment. But this plan failed to reach its goal of 5% growth and the heavy spending in the plan depleted the country's foreign currency reserves as the country did not have sufficient domestic resources to fund these projects and therefore had to rely on imported capital and technology.

Another main characteristic of the License Raj was heavy regulation on industry. Legislation to regulate industry started with the Industrial Development Regulation Act of 1951, which laid out licensing restrictions on industries it designated as Schedule I which included industrial machinery, telecommunications, and chemical manufacturing. Next, the Industrial Policy Resolution of 1956 extended these restrictions by designating certain industries known as Schedule A to be exclusively under state control, and certain other industries under Schedule B to be majority state-owned. Industries in Schedule A included defense production, metallurgy, mining, and transportation.

During the 1960s, the Indian banking sector came under criticism for being controlled by a few big industrialists in large cities, and thus failing to meet the needs of rural Indians and small-scale industry. In response, the government of Indira Gandhi began pursuing "social control" of banking institutions, with Deputy Prime Minister Morarji Desai spearheading the Banking Laws (Amendment) Bill in 1968 to regulate the commercial banks' leadership. The bill stipulated that at least 51% of the directors should not be directly connected monopolies and big business, that industrialist chairmen had to be replaced by professional bankers, and that banks could not form relationships with companies tied to their own directors. Additionally, Desai forged the National Credit Council (NCC) to regulate credit allocations in order to bring more credit to rural areas and small industry. However, many of these changes were rendered moot when Indira Gandhi decided to fully nationalize 14 major banks in 1969, with 6 additional banks coming under state control in 1980.

Indian capital controls started as wartime restrictions imposed by the British on cross-border transactions during World War II, eventually growing into a complex framework of restrictions on the current account and capital account. After independence the Indian government introduced restrictions on the flow of foreign exchange reserves, and following a balance of payments crisis from 1956 to 1957, the government became more concerned with carefully allocating foreign exchange between different sectors of the economy. After a failed attempt at liberalization in 1966, the Foreign Investments Board was established in 1968 to scrutinize companies investing in India with more than 40% foreign equity participation. Foreign investment that did not involve technology transfers was severely restricted, and foreign collaboration with local companies was conditioned on export quotas. This tight control over foreign investment became a core part of a broader policy of import substitution industrialisation, the belief that countries like India needed to rely on internal markets for development, not international trade. To achieve this goal, the Indian government erected strict import restrictions and a complex system of tariffs that featured high rates which varied by industry.

One consequence of the License Raj was that it benefited large corporations at the expense of smaller businesses. Because large corporations were often better able to navigate the complex bureaucracy of the License Raj and secure the necessary licenses, they were able to dominate many sectors of the economy. This made it difficult for small businesses to compete, and contributed to a concentration of economic power in the hands of a few large corporations.

Another criticism of the licensing system in India was that it was prone to corruption, as businesses and individuals had to navigate a complex bureaucracy in order to obtain licenses and permissions, and may have had to pay bribes or engage in other forms of corruption in order to obtain the necessary approvals.This corruption was fueled by a broader environment of corruption in India, which was characterized by a lack of transparency and accountability in the government, a weak legal system, and a culture of corruption that had been allowed to persist for many years.

Fall of the Licence Raj

The Licence Raj system was in place for four decades. Many members of the Congress, including Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao and Finance Minister Manmohan Singh, were strong supporters of liberalisation and played key roles in implementing these changes. In 1991, Prime Minister Narasimha Rao, who was also the Minister of Industries, initiated a policy of liberalisation in India. This policy aimed to reduce government intervention in the economy and promote market-based solutions to economic problems.

The Licence Raj was believed by some to be hindering economic growth and preventing the Indian economy from reaching its full potential. This belief was based on the idea that the government's heavy intervention in the market was stifling economic activity and hampering the ability of the economy to grow and develop.

Liberalisation resulted in substantial growth in the Indian economy, which continues today. The Licence Raj is considered to have been significantly reduced in 1991 when India had only two weeks of foreign reserves left. In return for an IMF bailout, India transferred gold bullion to London as collateral, devalued the rupee and accepted economic reforms. The federal government, with Manmohan Singh as finance minister, reduced licensing regulations; lowered tariffs, duties and taxes and opened up to international trade and investment.

The reform policies introduced after 1991 removed many economic restrictions. Industrial licensing was abolished for almost all product categories, except for alcohol, tobacco, hazardous chemicals, industrial explosives, electronics, aerospace and pharmaceuticals.

Arguing that the Planning Commission had outlived its utility, the Modi government disbanded it in 2014. On 6 August 2014, the Indian Parliament raised the limit on foreign direct investment in the defence sector to 49% and removed the limit for certain classes of infrastructure projects: high speed railways, including construction, operation and maintenance of high-speed train projects; suburban corridor projects through PPP; dedicated freight lines; rolling stock including train sets; locomotives manufacturing and maintenance facilities; railway electrification and signalling systems; freight and passenger terminals; infrastructure in industrial parks pertaining to railway lines and mass rapid transport systems.

Consequences of the fall of License Raj
The fall of the License Raj and the implementation of economic liberalization policies have contributed to increased regional inequality in India. Some experts argue that these policies benefited certain regions of the country, such as the major cities and industrial centers, at the expense of others, leading to a widening gap between rural and urban areas.

It has contributed to mass migration from rural areas to cities, as people sought to take advantage of new economic opportunities and improved living standards in urban areas. This mass migration can place a burden on cities, as they may struggle to accommodate the influx of new residents and provide them with adequate housing, education, and other basic services. Slums in India are a common sight in many cities and are often found in areas that are vulnerable to flooding or other natural disasters. They are often home to marginalized communities, including migrant workers, informal sector workers, and other groups that may be excluded from mainstream society.

The scaling back of public sector enterprises may also have led to a reduction in the ability of the government to direct investment and resources towards priority areas and to protect the interests of workers, minorities and other stakeholders.

See also
 Economic history of India
 Mafia Raj
 Planned economy
 Socialism in India
 Swadeshi movement

References

Political corruption in India
Economic history of India (1947–present)
Legal history of India
Licenses
Political history of India
Bureaucratic organization
1990 in Indian economy
Planned economies
Socialism in India
History of socialism
Mixed economies

Licence Raj


Hasna Begum (February 24, 1935 – December 1, 2020) was a Bangladeshi philosopher and feminist. She was a professor of philosophy at the University of Dhaka until her retirement in December 2000. Begum was born in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Begum was chair of the Department of Philosophy at the University of Dhaka from 1991 to 1994 and was appointed to the University Grants Commission (UGC) of Bangladesh's Rokeya Chair in 2010.

She was a board member of the International Association of Bioethics (IAB) from 1997 to 2005. She was a member of the editorial board of Bioethics.

Begum died at a Dhaka hospital on December 1, 2020 from COVID-19 at the age of 85.

References

1935 births
2020 deaths
Deaths from the COVID-19 pandemic in Bangladesh
Bangladeshi writers
Philosophers
Editors
Feminist writers
Academics of the University of Dhaka

Hasna Begum


Solomon's Stone is a fantasy novel by American writer  L. Sprague de Camp. It was first published in the magazine Unknown Worlds in June 1942. It was reprinted in the Summer 1949 issue of the British edition of Unknown, and then published in book form by Avalon Books in 1957.

After an unintentionally successful demon-summoning, accountant Prosper Nash finds himself on the astral plane, inhabiting the body of Jean-Prospere, Chevalier de Néche—the swashbuckling cavalier he likes to imagine himself as—and in a New York filled with characters from similar wish-fulfillment daydreams of other mundane souls. The demon is possessing his body on a mundane plane, and he attempts to find his way back. This involves the Shamir, the Solomon's Stone of the title, and plentiful swashbuckling adventure, and a plot in which Prosper Nash's accounting abilities prove as useful as Chevalier de Néche's athletic ones.

Plot summary

When Montague Allen Stark, with the assistance of friends, attempts to summon a devil, he quite unexpectedly succeeds:  Bechard possesses Prosper Nash's body and sends his soul to the astral plane.  Nash awakes in a cavalier's body, with no memory, but with the old reflexes.  This gets him shortly involved in a fight, and he meets up with Arizona Bill Averoff, who does not remember him, but is the image of his friend Bill Averoff, an avid Western reader.  He also learns that the society is in the throes of a war with the Wotanists—or Voties, as they are commonly called (in the original 1940s magazine version, these characters are referred to as "Arries" or "Aryans", and appear to be the astral products of daydreaming German émigrés in the New York of the time).

Spending the night reveals his name, as he signs it from habit, and more importantly, the existence of the Shamir.  After a failed attempt to steal it, a fellow cavalier drags him back a club, which contains letters that reveal more of his past to him.  In particular, he knows Alicia Dido Woodson, the double of Alice Woodson, present when the demon was summoned, but tracking her down reveals that she was kidnapped.

An unremembered feud with Athos de Lilly catches up with him, and he ends up in jail, where he hears of a wizard, Merlin Apollonius Stark—the equivalent of Montague Stark—and resolves to get his assistance in obtaining the Shamir.

In court the next day, he is offered an enlistment in the army.  He receives orders to carry a message but also news from a private detective named Reginald Vance Kramer (apparently the astral self of a daydreaming would-be Philo Vance) that Alicia was kidnapped by Sultan Arslan Bey.  Passing off the message to Arizona Bill Averoff, he bluffs his way into the sultan's castle by posing as a representative of the city's Comptroller.  He finds that the sultan is Bob Lanby, in reality a bachelor and clerk at the YMCA.  When the Romans and Voties attack, he convinces the sultan to send him to convey the harem and treasure to safety.

Having gotten the girls to safety (in their opinion, not the sultan's) and taken a share of the treasure, he convinces Merlin Apollonius Stark to help him.  He learns that the message was woefully misdelivered, and after an abortive anarchist uprising, New York City is in the middle of a battle in which the Voties have gained the upper hand.  With help from Alicia, he does gain the Shamir, but when they are cornered by Voties, he has Alicia use it to escape to the mundane world.

Execution the next morning is stopped by an invasion of creatures dreamed up by Montague Stark.  Alicia's attempt to contact him was successful.

Tukiphat, the owner of the Shamir, demands it of him, and Prosper explains the circumstances.  Tukiphat summons Bechard to the astral plane, and sends Prosper back to deal with Bechard's connection there.

The Shamir, which could return him, is still on the mundane plane, but so is Alicia, and Prosper has her use it to return herself to the astral plane.  He goes to visit Montague Stark, and finds him throwing away his magical books.  Prosper takes them:  he may never be reunited with Alicia, but he intends to try.

Setting
The setting possesses occasional "soul-less ones":  people dreamed up to fill the minor roles in other people's daydreams.  However, there are not enough to fill up the gaps.  As a consequence:

  A sultan with a fantasy harem of 365 women is invariably trolling for more women
  The army is full of generals, who form the lowest ranks, and is commanded by the sole private.
  A hotel is unable to hire any help because no one daydreams of working in a hotel.
  The Interplanetary Patrolmen have no Interplanetary Patrol for lack of space traffic, and an attempt to build a spaceship founders on their inability to agree on who would be in charge.
  Automatic weapons are unavailable, because they are too difficult to make by hand, and no one would build the machinery to manufacture them.

Reception
Critically, the novel has been rated as rather minor de Camp. Anthony Boucher called it "[s]lighter and sketchier than de Camp's LEST DARKNESS FALL or THE WHEELS OF IF, [but] still a lively and entertaining adventure-cum-satire." P. Schuyler Miller concurred, assessing it as "slight, but fun," not quite in the same league as the fantasies the author had written in collaboration; "I wish I knew what Fletcher Pratt brought to the incomparable Harold Shea 'Incomplete Enchanter' yarns, because this isn't quite the same." Frederik Pohl called the book "[f]ast, entertaining, rather slight."

Galaxy reviewer Floyd C. Gale panned the novel; describing himself as a de Camp follower, he noted that the book, "[w]hile not quite making me an official deserter from his ranks, [did] succeed in removing some of the gilt from an idol." He felt that "de Camp has done better in the past with less."

More recently, Brian M. Stableford called it "perhaps the best" of the solo fantasies de Camp wrote during the period of his collaboration with Pratt. Don D'Ammassa, however, dismissed these as "comparatively minor," and called Solomon's Stone "barely readable."

References

1957 American novels
American fantasy novels
Novels by L. Sprague de Camp
Works originally published in Unknown (magazine)
Avalon Books books

Solomon's Stone


Capital punishment in Austria was abolished in 1787, although restored in 1795. Unlike other countries with a minimum age of 18, the Habsburg Law enacted in 1919 set the minimum age for execution in Austria to 20.

The method of execution in Austria was hanging until the annexation by Nazi Germany (1938-1945) when it was replaced by the guillotine. After World War II, hanging was re-introduced by the British. The last person to be executed in Austria was Johann Trnka. He was hanged on 24 March 1950 for the crime of murder. Capital punishment was abolished for murder on 30 June 1950. However, executions continued into the 1950s under Allied military law in the Soviet occupation zone, with the last executions taking place no later than 1955, when the occupation ended. Capital punishment was abolished completely in February 1968. Austria is a state party to the Second Optional Protocol to ICCPR (ratified 1993), Protocol No. 6 to ECHR (1984), and Protocol No. 13 to ECHR (2004).

References
 Second Optional Protocol to ICCPR; Protocol No. 6 and Protocol No. 13 to ECHR - text of the treaties, dates of signature and ratification
 Abolitionist and retentionist countries - report by Amnesty International

Legal history of Austria
Austriaa
Death in Austria
Human rights abuses in Austria
1968 disestablishments in Austria
1787 disestablishments in the Habsburg monarchy
1787 disestablishments in the Holy Roman Empire
18th-century disestablishments in Austria
1795 establishments in the Habsburg monarchy
1795 establishments in the Holy Roman Empire
18th-century establishments in Austria

Capital punishment in Austria