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by: Michael Sheridan
Screenland/TVLand
September 1953
Elizabeth Montgomery knows that it takes more than a famous father to get ahead.
Guiding light behind "Robert Montgomery Presents" (NBC-TV, Mondays, 9:30--10:30 PM. EDT.) and one of the most competent of players, Mr. Montgomery voiced the above statement in relation to two subjects very close to his heart ... acting in general ... and acting as the logical career for a lovely young girl bent on following in her father's footsteps.
The girl is blonde, blue-eyed (sic), 20-year-old Elizabeth Montgomery, who has already carved for herself---on her own grounds and without any undue parental support- a comfortable little niche in the rising medium that is television.
Not so long ago, if you remember, she was, the bright young co-star of NBC-TV's "Top Secret," playing the daughter of her distinguished father, and through the Summer of 1953 she will be part of the Summer stock version of his regular successful television show.
"You say you're going to call this story, 'You're On Your Own, Elizabeth! remarked Bob Montgomery, with more pride than humor. "Well, let me tell you, that will come as no news to Elizabeth. She already knows she's on her own, and I think it would almost be redundant for me to repeat publicly what I've said to her privately."
Inspired portrayer of the psychiatric (sic) killer in movies' unforgettable "Night Must Fall," and the tragic alcoholic of TV's still talked-about "Appointment In Samarra," Mr. Montgomery has no false illusions about acting as a career especially where it concerns his own flesh and blood.
"I think that Elizabeth has a sane, sober view of the pitfalls and problems of her vocation," he says. "There's a theory, for instance, that failure in the profession is a pretty tragic thing. It's pretty well founded, too, because failure in anything to which someone is personally dedicated is sad.
"But equally sad, I think, is the lack of ability on the part of most people to accept success gracefully, or to recognize what actually IS success," he goes on. "In other words, there's always confusion between notoriety and fame, and stardom as we know it today is an eminent position which, to my own knowledge, has so far been attained by five horses and four dogs (at least as far as motion pictures are concerned.) So mere stardom wouldn't be what you might call success."
In Robert Montgomery's opinion, stardom really has to do with personal development which, it seems, Elizabeth is accomplishing admirably on her own and a certain amount of ego, which Elizabeth perhaps has yet to recognize.
Guardedly he says, "Nobody worth his salt in this business lacks ego, and I assume that anybody who's in any form of activity must have a certain amount of ego about what he does, no matter how simple or complicated his job. What Elizabeth will have to understand is that it's a question of not letting the ego grow out of proportion to the actual accomplishment."
At this point of the interview, we asked Mr. Montgomery, "What have you done so far in showing Elizabeth the ropes?"
"That's a good phrase," he acknowledged, "because I haven't handed the ropes to her, nor have I attempted to pull them."
For example, in setting up Elizabeth Montgomery's NBC-TV debut in "Top Secret," her father only went so far as to fulfill a promise he had made her when she was 12. The promise was that when she made her first public appearance, Robert Montgomery would make it with her.
"Elizabeth asked for that, I didn't demand it," he says. "I had promised that when the time came, I'd be there. Maybe only as a stage manager, but I'd be there."
When Neptune Productions, which Mr. Montgomery owns, got the script, it called for a father-daughter relationship, and Elizabeth was tremendously excited about doing it with him. He told her she could, if she'd go to Norman Felton, the director, and read for him.
"I told Elizabeth that if Mr. Felton was satisfied with her reading, I was sure he'd let me know," recalls Robert Montgomery. "On the other hand, if he was dissatisfied, I was equally sure he would let me know."
But the director liked the young actress' reading. And she went through the regular routine that any player has to go through in order to get the job. But even then, Robert Montgomery proud father and important NBC-TV executive didn't kid himself.
"Perhaps during the reading, Elizabeth didn't do as well now and again as she should, and perhaps they thought, 'Well, she's Mr. M's daughter maybe we'd better do something about it' but I don't think they thought that way," he says. "Their instructions from me were that Elizabeth was coming up to read, and that I knew she would have competitors so, if her reading wasn't right, I would understand perfectly."
Truth of the matter is that Elizabeth went at it very professionally, worked very hard at her first professional assignment, and in the opinion of her father did an acceptable job. Good press notices, and the recognition of NBC production bigwigs that here was a new and promising young actress, earned her the coveted contract for the Summer Stock appearances and no one could have been happier than Mr. Montgomery himself.
"Stage fathers," he will tell you truthfully, "can find that if the help they provide is real help, it can't boomerang. But if the father, in trying to help his child, is also trying to help himself that can be very bad, indeed.
"A desire on the part of the father to direct the progress of the child's career would do irreparable harm," he continues. "The child should have the right to make his own mistakes that's a right he shouldn't be deprived of. My hope, of course, is that Elizabeth will be able to profit by her successes and learn from her failures. While she may always feel that her father is there to discuss things if she wants to it should always be on an adult basis. That way, we'll both feel more comfortable."
Actually, Elizabeth Montgomery has much to be thankful for in her own right. Born on April 15, 1933, in Los Angeles, her life and her schooling has been a well-planned, well-rounded one. She attended the Westlake School for Girls for 11 years, the serenity of her life interrupted only by an exciting trip to London and Paris with her father, when she was six.
In Elizabeth's junior year of high school, she moved to New York to attend the famous Spence School, from which she was graduated in June, 1951. A devotee of drama, English literature and history, Elizabeth also swings a mean hockey stick, has acquired a number of ribbons for her superb horsemanship, but bows her head in defeat to her tennis-minded father on the tennis courts. Graduation, after two years of hard work at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York City, finds her facing the acting world as an appetizing oyster.
When you meet Elizabeth for the first time, there is a refreshing breeziness, a buoyancy about her that in some people could be exhausting, but in Elizabeth, on the contrary, is strangely relaxing. Her voice is full and rich, her words swift, and to the point all of it accompanied by movement. Her eyes are as alive as her hands, and on the stage she is not unlike Elisabeth Bergner, insofar as her whole figure (lithe and articulate) talks!
On or off-stage, she spells enthusiasm.
And, like all young and aspiring actresses who know, deep down, that they have a certain talent (although Elizabeth won't always admit it), she would like to play "Peter Pan." "I would also like to do Tracy Lord in "Philadelphia Story,"' again, knowing that I would do it better this time."
She has found Helen Hayes, Laurence Olivier ("and my father, of course") inspiring players to watch. She likes Chinese foods, dancing, swimming and riding, but the stage is her only serious love. She speaks French, and "I also sing after a fashion." She wears little make-up, likes tailored suits of blue and green for daywear, and the ultimate in frothy, feminine evening clothes.
Her beaux are many neatly divided between Yale and Harvard graduates.
The anecdote that Robert Montgomery remembers best in connection with her flair for the theatre occurred some years ago. That was when Walt Disney's "'Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs" came out, and Elizabeth was very much impressed with it - which was certainly true of several million other children.
"Elizabeth was in her room with her brother, Skipper, aged about four, doing the 'Wishing Song,' recalls her father. "She'd fixed herself up as her concept of Snow White and was singing the "Wishing Song" into a scrap basket. She'd sing a phrase, and wait, and from off in the corner would come this awful little grunting voice of her brother. What Elizabeth had obviously figured out carefully was that she couldn't do her own echo, and somebody else had better do it for her."
What worries Robert Montgomery somewhat is that the opportunities for training for a young person in the theatre today are limited.
"Twenty to twenty-five years ago," he recalls, "there were a number of stock companies to which young people could go who had preliminary, or no, experience at all. The training had to do with facing an audience, knowing what audience reaction was, and that when a gesture or tone of voice was used, what response the audience would have to that gesture or tone."
Today, Robert Montgomery recognizes that the mechanical media motion pictures, television, radio do not give the essential opportunities for training, because the player is not really facing an audience. So Elizabeth was told to choose a school where she could get basic training, and go on from there.
"Elizabeth went on from there with intelligence," concedes her father. "She joined young Phil Barry's Easthampton stock company, where she was plunged into problems not only of acting but of production. She had the opportunity of playing small parts, watching some very good experienced people at work, and she had the glorious chance of painting a considerable amount of scenery."
Wonderful experience for the charming Elizabeth Montgomery was playing a small part in "Brigadoon,"" and opposite Luise Rainer enacting the ingιnue in "Biography."" "The rest of the time," says her father, in undisguised satisfaction, "Elizabeth did everything, including selling soda pop in front of the theatre. It was a good move because it meant that she served her apprenticeship before her senior year at the Academy."
Just how far Robert Montgomery will go in helping his daughter along the hard, rocky road to potential stage fame, is worth recounting.
"I like to think I'm a wise father (although I'm sure Im not)," he philosophizes. "My attitude toward Elizabeth's decisions is that they are hers and hers alone. While I'm always available for discussion of her problems, the decisions as to whether she will follow my advice or her own ideas are entirely up to her."
Robert Montgomery recognizes, and is grateful, that Elizabeth is an adult human being in many respects, and capable of making her own decisions in regard to her career. "It would be perfectly ridiculous for me to set myself up as an oracle. I wouldn't be helping her; I'd simply be hurting her."
Most of all, he hopes that Elizabeth will evaluate correctly the meaning of applause its stimulation, its excitement, and also its unreality. "While it may be wise for anyone in the acting profession to enjoy it, it may also be healthy if one would never quite believe it. I hope that Elizabeth will never see applause as the beginning or end of the picture of success."
And in conclusion Robert Montgomery sums up his relationship to Elizabeth Montgomery as far as a stage career is concerned. "I think my daughter considers me merely as part of the audience while she's on stage. I think she would like to hear me say I liked her performance, but I don't think she'd be heartbroken if the audience liked her and I didn't!"