Early years in Hollywood (1930–1936)
Bette Davis was born Ruth Davis on April 5, 1908 in Lowell,
Massachusetts. Just before her tenth birthday, Bette's father, Harlow,
left the family. Although she had little money, her mother, Ruthie, sent
Bette and her sister to boarding school. Upon graduating Cushing
Academy, Bette enrolled in John Murray Anderson's Dramatic School. In
1929, she made her Broadway debut in "Broken Dishes." She also landed a
role in "Solid South." In 1930, she moved to Hollywood to screen test
for Universal. Accompanied by her mother, Davis traveled by train to
Hollywood, arriving on December 13, 1930. She later recounted her
surprise that nobody from the studio was there to meet her; 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."
[9] 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
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?"
[10]
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
The Bad Sister (1931), in which she subsequently made her film debut.
[11] 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.
[12] 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 nine months, 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 Brothers 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.
[13]
Warner Bros. signed her to a five-year contract, and she remained with
the studio for the next eighteen years, garnering great acclaim for
herself as well as making a fortune for her employers.
In 1932 she married Harmon "Ham" Nelson, who was scrutinized by the
press; his $100 a week earnings compared unfavorably with Davis's
reported $1,000 a week income. 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.
[14] Davis had several abortions during the marriage.
[15]
As the shrewish Mildred in
Of Human Bondage (1934), Davis was acclaimed for her dramatic performance
After more than 20 film roles, 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, earned Davis her first major critical acclaim. 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, and commented, "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."
[16]
The film was a success, and Davis's confronting characterization won praise from critics, with
Life magazine writing that she gave "probably the best performance ever recorded on the screen by a U.S. actress."
[17]
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.
[18] 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.
[19] Claudette Colbert won the award for
It Happened One Night
but the uproar led to a change in Academy voting procedures the
following year, whereby nominations were determined by votes from all
eligible members of a particular branch, rather than by a smaller
committee,
[20] with results independently tabulated by the accounting firm
Price Waterhouse.
[21]
Davis appeared in
Dangerous (1935) as a troubled actress and received very good reviews. E. Arnot Robertson wrote in
Picture Post,
"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."
[22] She won the
Academy Award for Best Actress for the role, but commented it was belated recognition for
Of Human Bondage, calling the award a "consolation prize."
[23]
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,
[24][25] although her claim has been disputed by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, among others.
In her next film,
The Petrified Forest (1936), Davis co-starred with Leslie Howard and
Humphrey Bogart,
but Bogart, in his first important role, received most of the critics'
praise. Davis appeared in several films over the next two years but most
were poorly received.
