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by Jackie Thomas
Movie TV Secrets
May, 1965
And Elizabeth Montgomery is just about as "people" as a person can get...as you will see when you read this, her full life story.
At that time everything seemed to be going wrong for the talented daughter of Robert Montgomery. Her second marriage to screen star Gig Young had ended in a quickie Mexican divorce and her own career in the movies seemed to be coming to an unauspicious end.
All that is over now for good, Liz sincerely hopes.
Liz, as the suburban sorceress of TV, has audiences from coast to coast under her spell. She is happily married to William Asher, who incidentally happens to be the director of Bewitched. And, best of all, she is the proud mother of a brand new baby boy-her first child-who, if the indications of his lungs can be believed, is destined to carry on the family theatrical tradition on the opera stage.
Looking back on her troubled past, Liz freely admits her mistakes. "I suppose I was too sure of myself about a great many things. Being the daughter of a star I suppose had its affect on me. Not that dad went out of his way to make things easier for me. He didn't. In fact, he sometimes bent over backwards to go in the opposite direction. Maybe that was the problem . . . he gave me the best of everything-clothes, education, things like that-but he demanded a lot too. Dad is a very complex man; I don't think I've ever been able to come up to Martha in his eyes."
Liz was referring to her sister Martha, Robert Montgomery's first child, who died suddenly while still an infant. Her death left the famous actor-director-producer in a state of severe depression that immobilized him for months.
A friend who knew the Montgomerys then once described his condition. "I don't think I've ever seen anyone as shaken as Bob. All his life seemed to be invested in that child; when she died something in him died with her. I don't think he has ever really recovered. Something inside him was twisted and destroyed by Martha's death."
Another part of the story of Liz’ relations with her father lies in Robert Montgomery's own family and professional background.
The son of a prominent executive, Bob Montgomery also had the best of everything as a child, only to discover as a teenager, that the life he had been living was based on an illusion. When his father died, eighteen-year-old Bob was rudely awakened to the facts of life.
Instead of a substantial inheritance and the prospects of a bright career in business, he found himself the heir to a portfolio of debts and dwindling investments. Circumstances forced him to go to work as a laborer for the railroad to support his family. This led to a stretch of odd jobs, including a period as a merchant seaman, before he turned to the theater.
After a brief, but successful, stint on Broadway, the fledgling actor succumbed to the lure of Hollywood. In 1929, a few short months after the nation had plunged into the depression, he and his new wife, former actress Elizabeth Allen, became permanent members of the flourishing movie colony.
On the surface, the Montgomerys appeared to be one of the most tranquil couples in Hollywood during the frenzied days of the '30s and early '40s. Living apart from the glitter and glamour, they enjoyed the company of the cream of screenland’s talent. Irene Dunne, George Arliss, Lew Ayres and Greer Garson were regular visitors at the Montgomery home.
So peaceful seemed the Montgomerys’ life that the comic W. C. Fields once quipped, "I'll never go to that rascal's house again. The man is a coward. A dirty low life. He put pineapple juice in my pineapple juice." The reference was to Fields' habit of carrying martinis around in a jug deceptively marked "Pineapple Juice."
According to Liz everything was not all sweetness and light at home, however. Her father was always torn between his real love of acting and his hatred of the trappings of a star. The way she describes it, he would often come home and closet himself in the library brooding.
Bob's desire to instill independence in his children also seems to have done Liz more harm than good as it turns out.
"I remember how he decided I should learn how to swim. I was about four at the time. He came in the house, picked me up, carried me, out to the pool, and tossed me in, clothes and all. I don't think I've ever been so scared in my life. I learned how to swim, of course, but to this day I don't like the water and have a fear of it."
Liz described her father as closely resembling in personality a character he played in the movies, Phillip Marlow, the hard-boiled detective hero of The Lady in the Lake. Like him, Robert Montgomery seems to have been an intellectual who had grown tough and cynical from the nature of his work.
The war years were an exceptionally lonely period for Liz.
Robert Montgomery was one of the first stars to go into the service, even though as a married man with two children he wouldn't have been drafted. First, he was attached to the French Army as an ambulance driver and later, after Dunkirk, as an officer in the U.S. Navy.
Altogether he spent three years in combat. During the Pacific campaign, he rose to the rank of Lt. Commander in charge of a squadron of P.T. boats. Incidentally, at this time he was very friendly with a young junior officer who was later to become President of the United States - John Fitzgerald Kennedy.
Liz and her brother were sent to live with their grandmother, Rebecca Allen, during the war years.
"Becca is a fine and beautiful person and she really tried hard to keep us from missing mom and dad. But somehow It wasn't enough; I used to wake up in the middle of the night crying sometimes, I was so lonely," Liz says.
After the war, life seemed to be settling into its former pattern for the Montgomerys. Bob was at the peak of his career as a director and star. Then he decided that he wanted to take a crack at the new and challenging medium of television.
The family was moved to New York. Liz was enrolled in the exclusive Spence School for Young Ladies. And the period of adjustment to East Coast life began.
But trouble was just around the corner. After 22 years of marriage, her parents split up. Seventeen-year-old Liz was heartbroken and disillusioned.
Custody of the Montgomery children was awarded to Liz' mother and her father soon remarried.
"I was completely at sea," Liz told us. "You can't imagine how lost I felt. It was as if everything I cherished was suddenly destroyed in a minute."
In 1961 Liz made her debut at New York's fashionable Debutante Cotillion and Christmas Ball. She was one of the hits of the social season. Soon after, she got her first experience as an actress- playing opposite her father.
"I really had to put the pressure on to get him to consent to my playing the part. He had always tried to shield us from publicity, and my acting opposite him seemed to break all the rules. It was a small part in a TV play called Top Secret, an espionage drama on his weekly series. To this day I don't know what finally made him relent; I suspect he may have done it just to shut me up. "
The role on her father's show was followed by a series of other successes on the stage and daytime television. Then love entered the picture.
She met Frederic Gallatin Cammann, a twenty-five-year-old Harvard graduate, at a party. After a courtship that set a new Jet Set record for speed, the pair were married at St. James Church in March of 1954. Marital bliss didn't last for long, though.
Sixteen months after the trip to the altar, Liz was walking out of a Las Vegas divorce court on her way to Hollywood. Warner Bros. immediately signed her for a part with Gary Cooper in The Court-Martial of Billy Mitchell. On the set she met actor Gig Young. They began to date, and, on December 28, 1956, they tied the knot in Las Vegas.
Liz still seemed to be unlucky in love, however. Gig, who usually plays sophisticated types with a roving eye, began to take his own publicity seriously. On March 25, 1963 rumors were confirmed; Liz boarded a plane for Juarez, Mexico, and obtained a quickie divorce.
To make matters worse, Liz' own career in the movies was coming to a stand-still. She continued to do well on TV, being nominated for an Emmy for her performance in an episode of The Untouchables, but movies did not seem to be her forte or good fortune.
Then Lady Luck began to smile.
Liz had met Bill Asher while she was working in the movie, Johnny Cool. At first they were just friends. However, friendship soon blossomed into something more important for both of them. They married in the fall of 1963. Little William Allen Asher was born on July 24, 1964, to start their family album.
When Bill was selected to direct Bewitched, Liz was overcome with happiness. “It made everything so perfect. With the baby coming, it meant that I could be close to Bill even when I was still working.”
We asked Bill what it felt like being married to a witch. "I like it just fine," he told us. But, if you really want to see her working wonders, you should catch her mixing one of her special potions in our kitchen sometime."
As for Liz' relations with her father, they are better than ever since the birth of Bill. "You should see him with the baby," Liz said. "I've never seen him so relaxed and happy."
And if that isn’t a bit of witchcraft for you - what is?
Thanks to Allison for this article.