“I went to visit Mother’s grave to see how everything looked, and as I was driving out of the Jewish cemetery, I saw a chapel with a huge Nazi flag on it. I thought I was dreaming, and suddenly I felt a little scared, because the cemetery was completely deserted,” recalls Barbara Warner Howard, the beautiful and stylish daughter of Warner Bros.’ Ann and Jack Warner. “So I drove around this chapel, and on the other side there were picnic tables and a film crew.
“They were shooting a movie, and they had just rented the building. I went back to the main office, and I don’t believe I’ve ever been so angry in my life. I said, ‘I don’t care how much money they’re giving you, you don’t let them desecrate a Jewish cemetery by hanging a Nazi flag!’ At the same time, it was hilarious. It was better than a Mel Brooks movie.”
We are assuming that the cemetery is the Mount Sinai section at Forest Lawn.
Barbara’s is among hers and other remembrances in the Warner Bros. chapter in Jean Stein’s just-published oral histories, West Of Eden, An American Place. The Random House imprint is a triumph. And as we noted in our column last weekend, “West Of Eden is a gem. Predictably a classic.” Exploring the lives of five California families through the mesmerizing remembrances of relatives, friends and observers. The Warners; the oil-rich Dohenys; the bewildering Jane Garland; Jennifer Jones who wed actor Robert Walker, David O. Selznick and Norton Simon; the Emperor and Empress of Hollywood, Doris and Jules Stein, who we devoted our column to this last week.
And, oh, what interesting characters we meet, and know much more about many others that we know.
“Jack Warner was a great character, like all of them. They were remarkable guys, but they were monsters,” David Geffen tells Jean Stein. “The movie business is a hard business, and you had to be a monster to create this industry.”
Ten days after Barbara’s mother died, David Geffen bought the Warner plantation-style mansionette in Beverly Hills, and invited his interior designer, Rose Tarlow, to tour it. “I showed her all the original furnishings. I said, ‘See this floor? This floor was a gift from Napoleon to his sister.’ My designer said, ‘Really? You think people give floors as presents to their family?’ We walked into the dining room, and I said, ‘This wallpaper was from the imperial palace in China.’ She said, ‘This is French wallpaper from 1870 or 1880.’ I pointed to another piece and said, ‘This is Chippendale.’ She said, ‘You’re not going to scream at me, are you?’ I said, ‘What do you mean scream at you?’ She said, ‘The original is a Chippendale and is in the Victoria and Albert Museum. This was made at Warner Bros.’”
This from the Jennifer Jones chapter: “I met Jennifer Jones when I was twenty-six or twenty-seven,” says Tomoyuki “Yuki” Takei, her makeup artist and hairstylist. “I traveled everywhere with her. I spent more time with her than anyone, even Norton … It would take four hours … it was all for Norton. ‘Norton deserves for me to be beautiful.’ I did her hair and makeup every day, an incredible cost. For the cost of a whole year, you could buy a house in the Valley.
“And I did it for more than thirty years, every day, sometimes morning and night. And she didn’t take off her makeup at night. She’d leave it on until I arrived. When she went to bed, she was all made up. Do you know why? This was not for Norton, this was for herself. She said it was ‘in case I get sick at night and have to go to the hospital. Somebody’s going to take a picture of me, and I don’t want to be without makeup.’ She did this every night.”
The five chapters in West Of Eden simmer with Hollywood gossip, along with a plethora of true-blue recollections from the Who and the Who. Fascinating, and not to be missed.