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Bette Davis's Lowell Connection By Andrea Shea  Listen to story (Real Audio)
Cinemas around the country are remembering the witty actress, including the Brattle Theater in Cambridge. The city of Lowell is also marking the centennial WBUR's Andrea Shea explains why. Audio for this story will be available on WBUR's web site later today. TEXT OF STORY: Sound of cans being opened + Ned Hinkle saying, "That's the final reel of "All About Eve." ANDREA SHEA: "All About Eve" is one of 13 films in the Brattle's "All About Bette" centennial tribute. As he inspects the print Ned Hinkle, the theater's Creative Director, says he knew little of Davis's biography before researching this series. NED HINKLE: And then I found out which I'd never known before out she was born in Lowell I had no idea. ANDREA SHEA: Lowell, a former mill town, is best-known as the home of beat writer Jack Kerouac. While Bette Davis's gritty roots surprised Hinkle at first, he says he now sees a certain Yankee spirit in her characters, especially actress Margo Channing in "All About Eve." NED HINKLE: I mean the sort of New Englander character is a strangely undefinable personality but I think that kind of dignity married with a certain amount of cynicism, a certain amount of jadedness a lot of the time. FILM CLIP: Davis in "All About Eve" - "I'll admit I may have seen better days but I'm still not to be had for the price of a cocktail, like a salted peanut." ANDREA SHEA: Off-camera Davis had similar moxie according to Nancye Tuttle, reporter for the Lowell Sun newspaper and film studies teacher at Middlesex Community College. NANCYE TUTTLE: She was very straight forward, she wouldn't take any funny business from anyone and I believe this is all probably from her roots here in Lowell. Sound of lawn mower ANDREA SHEA: Bette Davis's first house, a pink, two-family, is in a modest residential neighborhood a few miles from Lowell center, on Chester Street. NANCYE TUTTLE: 22 Chester Street, which is where Bette was born on April 5th. ANDREA SHEA: 1908. Tuttle says a local Bette Davis Fan convinced the city to install a plaque on the home's exterior after the actress passed away in 1989. NANCYE TUTTLE: Kerouac was born here, the great artist James McNeil Whistler was born here, Ed McMahon is from Lowell, and they all have been recognized, but nothing had been done to recognize Bette. ANDREA SHEA: Now Tuttle says the city is recognizing Bette Davis in a bigger way, as part of Lowell's marketing campaign. Bernie Lynch is the City Manager for Lowell. BERNIE LYNCH: It does bring glamour to the city I mean her movies and her time, in American history sort of reflects that, and it gives us an opportunity to admittedly take advantage of Bette Davis. ANDREA SHEA: Lynch has been spotlighting Davis with lectures, films series and tours because he says culture has replaced manufacturing as an economic driver in Lowell. Icons such as Kerouac, Whistler and now Davis are selling points, drawing people to visit, or even move here. Although there are distinctions between the three stars: Whistler didn't like to admit he was from Lowell. Kerouac, on the other hand, was inspired by his many years in the city. But Davis left Lowell when she was just a baby. That doesn't bother Bernie Lynch. BERNIE LYNCH: She didn't contribute greatly to the city in her one to two years here and she spoke of Lowell after she moved out but people can connect with famous people who you could say, well, I didn't know that he or she was born in Lowell and it puts Lowell a little bit more on the map. ANDREA SHEA Michael Merrill gives Lowell credit for celebrating the actress's birthplace. He's both the executor of Bette Davis's estate and her adopted son. His father, actor Gary Merrill, played Davis's boyfriend in "All About Eve." He was the actress's fourth husband. MICHAEL MERRILL: She always liked to say, "Don't blame me for all of them, one of them passed away!" (he laughs) ANDREA SHEA: Davis herself was a child of divorce. After her parents broke up when she was an infant Davis moved with her mother and sister around Massachusetts, including to Newton, then eventually down to New York. There, with her mother's support, Bette Davis broke into the theater. As an adult Davis summered in Maine while maintaining her home in Hollywood. But Merrill says his mother always identified herself as a "New England Girl" in interviews. Here she is in the 1980s on the David Letterman Show talking about having to bare her legs for a screen test when she was young. TV CLIP: "Well I was a very embarrassed Yankee girl, and I stood there in front of the camera inch by inch pulling it up just a little so he got a little peek." (laughter) ANDREA SHEA: For Merrill, though, Bette Davis's head-strong dedication made her a true Yankee. MICHAEL MERRILL: She worked very hard, there's a famous story about her you know being willing to "punch the time clock" she said you gotta be willing to be a hard worker to be successful. FILM CLIP: From "All About Eve" - "You're in beehive pal, didn't you know? We're all busy little bees, full of stings, making honey, day and night. Aren't we honey? Margo really!" ANDREA SHEA: The image of Davis playing Margo Channing in "All About Eve" is on an up-coming stamp. Executor Michael Merrill orchestrated its release in Boston this coming September to commemorate her centennial. Actually Lowell officials lobbied hard to have the stamp unveiled in their city. Instead it will debut at Boston University which houses the official Bette Davis Collection. For WBUR I'm Andrea Shea. BACK TAG: Lowell hopes to build on its Bette Davis connections in the future, with an annual movie series and tours of her birthplace. The "All About Bette" centennial tribute continues at the Brattle Theater through the month of August. To see pictures of Bette Davis's house in Lowell and her youth in New England visit our website: wbur.org
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