Bette Davis: First Lady of the American Screen

Snarky Oracle!

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Happy 117th birthday, Bette!

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Angela Channing

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The title of this thread is curious. Why is Bette Davis the "First Lady of the American Screen? If it refers to chronological time, then Florence Lawrence or Mary Pickford would be the first. If it refers to most decorated then Katherine Hepburn would be first. If its based on highest box office achieved in the golden age of Hollywood, then Betty Grable would be bigger than Bette Davis. What exactly qualifies Bette Davis as being the first lady of the American Screen?
 
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Angela Channing said:
The title of this thread is curious. Why is Bette Davis the "First Lady of the American Screen? If it refers to chronological time, then Florence Lawrence or Mary Pickford would be the first. If it refers to most decorated then Katharine Hepburn would be first. If its based on highest box office achieved in the golden age of Hollywood, then Betty Grable would be bigger than Bette Davis. What exactly qualifies Bette Davis as being the first lady of the American Screen?
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Not "first" in terms of the first to arrive, but in terms of prominence, stature and perceived importance during the golden age. (The term was bestowed upon Bette even by the '40s).

Katharine Hepburn was cited as No. 1 on the AFI list a few years ago, and some people carped that Davis should have been in the top spot -- but even though Davis was the bigger box office draw in the '30s and '40s, in their later decades Hepburn's aliveness and "class" seemed to upstage Bette's embittered crumbling. (Davis had no LION IN WINTERs nor ON GOLDEN PONDs during her sunset years).

While making THE DUCKS OF DECEMBER (or whatever it was, with Lillian Gish) someone in the press referred to Helen Hayes as "the first lady of the American stage" and cranky Bette snapped that she herself had that title and wouldn't have the title usurped. (Gish said Bette was a royal pain on that set).
 
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Sparkly Ornaments! said:
While making THE DUCKS OF DECEMBER (or whatever it was, with Lillian Gish) someone in the press referred to Helen Hayes as "the first lady of the American stage" and cranky Bette snapped that she herself had that title and wouldn't have the title usurped. (Gish said Bette was a royal pain on that set).
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I recall watching THE WHALES OF AUGUST once, maybe twice, several years back and liking it alright. I've seen interviews of Ann Sothern (who received her only Oscar nod for this particularly movie) where she spoke on how Bette was very rude and harsh with Lillian Gish.
 
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“She talked to me. She said she trusted me. I was a ‘real’ actress, but I didn’t fight enough. I would never ‘make it.’ She liked my book [‘The Bright Lights’] and said it was a true book about acting, but it made her sad because I was so small. I could have been bigger. When you see me, she said, you don’t just see talent, you see the rage, the quest, the fight. People applaud my talent, she said, but they also applaud that I am standing, unbowed.”—Marian Seldes on Bette Davis

Bette Davis by Eliot Elisofon off-set of Now Voyager (1942 Warner Bros.)
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With thanks to Follies of God for this one
 
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