For Sale sign in his yard when he died
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whosit — 18 years ago(September 21, 2007 01:05 PM)
Jim, seeing as how you're the "go to" guy regarding our (and Krypton's) favorite son, I hesitate to take issue with your statement regarding having to sell the house because "he could no longer afford it"but my understanding is that George had some $10,000 in the bank and at least half that much again in traveler's checks in the house. Granted, that doesn't sound like much money in today's terms, but back then it would keep the wolves from the door for quite a while.
He also had just purchased a new 1959 Olds convertible, so how hard up could he actually had been at the time?
Please understand, I'm not attacking you in any shape or form, I just seek clarification. Am looking forward to your book! Thanks -
Paul-308 — 12 years ago(September 08, 2013 10:33 AM)
I believe he wanted a different house,one that Toni Mannix hadnt helped buy.Also,he was consuming around $200 a week (along with miss Lemmon) of alcohol.He probably wanted to downsize,much to miss Lemmons discontent I would imagine.
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hobnob53 — 12 years ago(March 01, 2014 10:54 PM)
In 1959 $200 worth ofb68 liquor a week would have equaled about 40 bottles or more. That's a hell of a lot, even for two drinkers with a lot of guests dropping by.
I wonder whether Leonore Lemmon would have preferred to keep the house despite the fact that Toni Mannix had paid for it (at least in part), or wanted George to get rid of it because of that same fact.
Either way, Reeves left the house to Toni in his willanother fact I believe Leonore wasn't at all happy about. -
whosit — 11 years ago(July 17, 2014 11:14 PM)
Other than a full bottle of hooch and a bucket of crystallized water, cold cash or ice on her finger I don't think much could or would make frosty Leonore happy.
Whether by accident or design I can't help but think that she contributed to George's death. -
hobnob53 — 11 years ago(July 18, 2014 07:42 AM)
I agree. She was a selfish, self-absorbed, bored, heavy-drinking whore, a so-called socialite already on the skids. She hooked up with "Superman" (which is what she first called him to others, boastfully) mostly for kicks. I can't for the life of me understand what George saw in her. She wasn't even that good-looking and was certainly a wise-ass drunken bitch by all accounts. He did tell people she made him feel like a kid again but was he really that dense?
Many of his friends didn't understand the attraction either, though Jack Larson, who always seems the least uncritical of Reeves, thinks they were happy. But the limited evidence indicates he may have been having second thoughts as their wedding day approached (three days after his death). Had nothing happened on 6/16/59 I assume he'd have gone ahead with the ceremony but I wouldn't have given the marriage more than a year, and probably only a few months.
George Reeves was a nice guy and a generous friend who sadly had a lot of bad luck plague him throughout his career. But he did make a mess of his personal life over the years with too much boozing and poorly-chosen female relationships, and Lenore Lemmon was the bottom of the barrel on all counts. God knows what it would have cost him to get rid of her when the marriage finally did collapse. Just amazing he was so obtusely smitten with this worthless piece of human trash.
The fact that she died (on New Year's Day 1990) a broke, broken-down, delirious alcoholic still trying to prostitute herself to men for a drink tells you all you need to know about her character. How much better if George had never met this slob. -
js5905 — 9 years ago(May 06, 2016 10:30 PM)
Reeves had a lot of good luck. there were many over the hill B list actors that would have given anything for the Superman series; and a steady paycheck. He simply was not Montgomery Clift. He had nothing to cry about, as far as being miscast, had it not been for the show; he was quite limited as an actor. even if he never served in the war, he was no van Johnson or Robert walker, and I don't think good film roles were forthcoming.
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hobnob53 — 9 years ago(May 08, 2016 11:00 PM)
Reeves had a lot of good luck.
I can't see how anyone with any knowledge about Reeves's career could possibly say he had "a lot of good luck". After
Gone With the Wind
he was signed to a studio (Warner Bros.) that did nothing to promote his career; after leaving them he had one great role (
So Proudly We Hail
) then had to go into the service; that film's director, Mark Sandrich, who intended to promote his career after Reeves got back to Hollywood, died suddenly in 1945 at age 45; Reeves was unable to get any film work, and little elsewhere, for three years after he war, something few actors, even minor ones, experienced; when work finally came it was in B movies and eventually modest supporting roles in major pictures. He took
Superman
because he needed the work. He hated the role. When the series unexpectedly took off, he found his slowly reemerging film career abruptly ended due to typecasting. When he got the raise he demanded (doubling his weekly salary from $2500 to $5000) the producers promptly cut production by half, leaving him with the same income. And when the show ended, he could get no work at all, not even as a director. He was forced to agree to another season of
AOS
only because he had no other options. Meanwhile his personal life slowly descended out of control, as he drank more, wound up in a relationship with a worthless slut, and found his earlier relationships, personal and professional, fraying.
If this is "good luck" I'd like to see bad.
Sure, he was no Clift (who was?) and many actors might have wished for the steady paycheck of a successful series, but few had so many bad breaks, even in their successes. Aside from his personal life, for which he was obviously responsible, Reeves was at the mercy of others. He had little real luck, and what he had backfired on him, through no fault of his own.
I don't think good film roles were forthcoming.
Right; so where was his "luck"?