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MY TWO HUSBANDS ARE EXPECTING!
by Jane Ardmore
Silver Screen
September 1965
"The call came on a Thursday," Elizabeth tells me, as we meet on the set the first day of the new series. "Bill (her husband, Bill Asher, director of "Bewitched") and I had wanted another baby as soon as possible. And it always seems that when you have your heart set on somehting it seems to take forever to happen. But we were hoping so hard and when the phone rang I just knew it had to be the results of the test. I rushed to my dressing room phone, Bill rushed to the phone just outside the dressing room, and Dr. MacDonald, our family physician, came on saying, "Congratulations, Liz, you and Bill have done it again!"
Well, there was no keeping that a secret, the minute Liz stuck her head out of the dressing room...the look on her face and the look on Bill's face and the kiss he gave her--within two minutes everyone knew, within five minutes word had reached the front office, before the day was over, producer, writers, and Bill were in conference trying to decide what to do with the show. The baby's due the last of Ocotober. By the time you read this, Liz will be wearing maternity clothes.
There really wasn't too much question in anybody's mind--there was certainly none in director Bill Asher's mind. Elizabeth is having a baby, she'll simply have a baby on the show too and play it for all the comedy, suspense and emotional involvement possible. It's a fun idea, for Samantha being a witch and Darrin a mortal, will this child turn out to be mortal, witch or warlock?
So here we are on the first day of the new series and there's a sense of genuine excitement on the set. This morning they shot the scene in which mother-in-law Endora had turned Darrin into a chimp and Aunt Clara is trying desperately to turn him back into a human being but hasn't made it.
Now they whistle for Samantha, and Liz, looking very beautiful, her eyes shining, puts on a cashmere coat and runs lightly across to her own "front door." The set is noisy, everyone seems to be talking at once, everyone seems to be moving about, restless, anticipatory. Then Bill Asher, in that dynamic way of his, calls, "All right...SAM!"
Instant silence. On stage, instant action. Samantha runs into the house calling Darrin and encounters Aunt Clara, played by tiny, funny little Marion Lorne wearing a marvelous hat and carrying a huge book of spells.
Samantha: Where is Darrin? I don't know where to begin to look! I've got to find him, Aunt Clara.
Aunt Clara: Now don't you worry, I've brought my book of spells and sooner or later we're bound to find the words...that made a monkey out of Darrin.
Samantha: Yes, but will we find the words to find Darrin?
Aunt Clara: Just be patient, dear. Of course, we'll find him. He'll come swinging in here any minute.
Samantha: (urgently) Aunt Clara, I've got to find him. I have something very important to tell him.
Aunt Clara: You have?
Samantha: (earnestly) I just got back from the doctor's. Aunt Clara...(eyes sparkling, voice sparkling) we're going to have a baby!
Aunt Clara: (missing the message completely) We are?
Samantha: Darrin and I. We're going to have a baby!
Aunt Clara: (beginning to get it) Oh! Well! Congratulations, dear. (Her voice shrill now with excitement.) Oh, isn't that lovely, dear! (She leans forward and kisses Samantha.) Just think, I'm going to be a great aunt!
Samantha: (heartily) Oh, Aunt Clara, you've always been a great aunt.
Aunt Clara: Thanks, dear. Oh...and Endora will be a granny. Oh, my! I can't wait to see her face when we tell her. She'll be hysterical.
Samantha: (gravely) I know. That's why I think I'd better be the one to break the news to Mother. I want to be sure it's just the right time and the right place. You understand, Aunt Clara. But first I must tell Darrin. (Apprehensively) Aunt Clara, are you sure we'll find the words in that book?
Aunt Clara: Oh, certainly dear, certainly we will. (She searches desperately through the book, and then, voice quavering, cries) Darrin! Darrin! Come home this minute so your wife can tell you...you're going to be a father!
There. Everyone laughs and there's a spatter of applause. That's the scene. And that's the story. This year's Bewitched has set its theme and Elizabeth comes off the set, her face glowing with the joy of it. What makes her Samantha so bewitching to start with is that the character derives from Liz a warmth and spontaneity, and this season's series should be a natural.
As for Dick York he has five youngsters of his own, he's had training in how an expectant father reacts. As Darrin, he's going to react so sympathetically that at one point he'll develop a craving for pickles and go through the rigors of morning naseau.
The fact is, everyone ont he set is involved with this baby because the crew and the cast, the grips, props and electricians are all devoted to Liz and Bill Asher. Their happiness and teamwork are contagious, rare in this business. They'll keep shooting the series up until a few weeks before the baby is due, then hold up for a few weeks, and when they start shooting again, as soon as Elizabeth is able, there'll be a baby, an actor baby, waiting on the set.
Girl or boy? "I have no idea," laughs Elizabeth as she joins me in her dressing room. "soemone may know, but if they do they're keeping it a secret from me. As for our own baby, we really don't care whether it's a boy or girl although since Willie is a boy, it might be nice to have a girl. If she is, her name will be Rebecca Dare Asher. Rebecca for my grandmother whom I adored, she had such a love for life, and Dare for the girl I played in Johnny Cool, that was the picture on which I met Bill. I don't usually go for that kind of thing but Dare is a name I've always loved and so does Bill. An early American name, Rebecca Dare sounds just lovley, doesn't it? If he's a boy, he'll probably be Jonathan Montgomery Asher, which seems somehow to match Willie, who is really William Allen Asher, the Allen being my mother's maiden name."
First thing the Ashers have to do is find themselves another house. They've been renting a very pleasant place in Beverly Hills but it won't be large enough. "We really need a larger house, for the baby and for Brian and Liane, Bill's children, who come for weekends. They are darlings, these two, 11 and 13, and you can imagine their excitement about the baby. Brian of course was satisfied with Willie, now it's Liane's turn and she wants a sister. But boy or girl, we are so delighted to have the two close together. For our own delight and for the children's. Willie is just ten months so they'll be very close."
Then she had to tell me about Willie's trip to New York. They had a five-week break on Bewitched before starting next season's shooting. Bill spent three weeks directing How To Stuff a Wild Bikini, then they took the baby and his nurse, Bricey, and flew off to New York to see all of Elizabeth's family. Her dad, Bob Montgomery, had never met Bill, although they've become friends via the telephone, and Bob had never met Willie. It was love at first sight. As a matter of fact, Willie liked everything he saw in New York. They stayed at the Regency. On the plane, he'd been the beau of the ball. He kept leaning out of his seat, waving at the passengers and laughing uproariously. Now he waved to all the people in the hotel lobby. Each day Bricey would take him to Central Park in his stroller to visit the zoo.
"And after all that, what do you think he liked best? The pigeons. And we have those right here at home!"
For the weekend, they all went out to Elizabeth's mother's house in the country, the place Liz has always loved so, the place where she spent every summer along with her brother and their cousins, the place where the whole family congregated. They gave Bricey the weekend off and took Willie with them. The whole family decided that Willie looks just like Liz's brother, Skip, and like his father, Bill. One thing the baby will never forget from that family visit...
"There was a little bronze horse's head over his crib at Mother's and the baby was so cute. He'd wake up from his nap and go ohohhhhhhh and he'd put his little hand up and touch the horse. I knew just how he felt, the horse was mine when I was a child and when we came home, we brought it back with us and hung it in his room. Now when you ask, 'Where's your horsey?' he point to it, and when he wakens, he pats the bronze head."
Loving Bill, having his child, have been the most wonderful things that ever happened to Elizabeth. And having another child has been her dearest hope. Which may give you some idea that this is a star to whom a personal life comes first, is more important that anything else. Having a top series, most actresses are totally concered with that series. I've known stars, many of them, sitting right at the very top with furrowed brow and they've said honestly, "It's a difficult place to be, Janie. The only place to go from here is down." But Elizabeth simply doesn't think that way. The only place to go from here is to life. "When I'm here, I work, and I work hard," she says. "The work and the series and our involvement with it is important and you want to be as good as possible. But there's much more to life than this. God help you if there isn't. If when success is gone you feels yo've lost something, it could only be because the vital living part of your life isn't right--is missing. What could be more important than being in love and having a family?"
As for working while she's pregnant, why in the world not? She's feeling fine. She tires a little more easily, but then working on a seires like this, you get tired anyhow. It's a 15-hour day every day. Up at five, in for make-up, on the set at eight. Lunch time? She and Bill watch rushes at lunch time and nibble a sandwich on the run. This is their show, their baby, and it has a special meaning right now because of this other baby, this new life.
Bewiched is probably the only series that has ever been paced to a very personal production schedule. The first year started with Elizabeth waiting to have Willie. On the set, they shot around her, shot everything they possibly could and every day the production department would phone and ask how she was. Everyone was marvelous, so was Elizabeth. "Just fine!" she'd say and there'd be a disappointed "oh" on the other end of the wire.
"How soon after the baby am I going to be able to start working? Liz asked the doctor.
"Six weeks."
"How about five?" she said
"Well, if you really have to," he said reluctantly.
"How about four?" she said.
"You're crazy."
"Three."
"No!" he said. "Absolutely no."
But it was really like this. Willie was born July 24 and Samantha was in front of the cameras August 15.
This year there'll be no waiting for Samantha. She'll be right there shooting and as soon as she has the baby, there'll be a baby in the script. And who knows...Bill and Elizabeth have both told me that they want a big family. They're crazy about children...next year there may just be another little warlock or witch in the making.