Don’t remember the name of the gentleman who brought Ms. Lupino, but this photo was taken before Ida had too many drinks. During the meal, the gentleman pulled me aside and revealed something Ida had just told him. He related that she knew herself some details about the Jeanette/Nelson romance, and she also knew about the shock Jeanette had on their honeymoon travel at sea to Hawaii. I asked him why/how Ida knew about Jeanette’s honeymoon and he said, “She just told me she had the same thing happen herself. She came home one day and found her hubby, Howard Duff, in bed with a guy, and that was it for her.” (Note that Ida and Howard had separated in 1966 but did not divorce until 1983.) By the way, this information became public knowledge many years ago from other sources, otherwise I would not repeat it here.
I asked whether Ida was willing to speak to the group and he said yes. Being that she was quite inebriated by this time, she chose to stand up at her seat rather than walk to the podium. And did she let out an earful!
In particular, she discussed Jeanette’s trials with Louie B. Mayer, dealing with his #MeToo issues and his resentment that Jeanette was in love with Nelson, which was why he tried to backstab Nelson on a personal level even while not willing to lose Nelson’s tremendous box office draw. Ida called Mayer a “f*****g bastard” and some other names, and related exactly what female MGM stars had to endure to remain at MGM and be a star. I did wonder how she knew this, because she herself was not under contract to MGM. She advised that Mayer was the worst in town, with Harry Cohn (President at Columbia Pictures) as the second worst.
Rem
ember, this was 1981 and since then much has been revealed by other female stars. Anyway, Ida Lupino had such an impressive multi-faceted career, not only as an actress but as an early woman director and producer, so it was sad to see her voice such public anger. I would have hoped her last years were happier…
For the MacDonald/Eddy fans reading this, note that Ida’s cousin Lupino Lane (pictured here, real name Henry Lupino) co-starred with Lillian Roth in the romantic subplot of Jeanette’s very first movie, The Love Parade. Which is why we invited her to join us for our luncheon! The Lupinos were a very famous British theater family; Ida got rid of her accent when she came to Hollywood.
