Spencer Tracy_ A Biography - James C. Curtis [557]
3 “It was one o’clock”: Dallas Morning News, 4/13/41.
4 “A few of his performances”: Chester Erskine, “Spencer Tracy: The Face of Integrity,” The Movie (UK), No. 7, 1980.
5 “so violent”: Ardmore, “Tracy,” n.d.
6 “The sixteen”: Herman Shumlin, “Teamwork and ‘The Last Mile,’ ” New York World, 5/20/30.
7 “cooperative and disciplined”: Chester Erskine, Spencer Tracy: A Biographical and Interpretive Symposium, treatment for a TV documentary, circa 1968, p. 15 (SLT).
8 “I cannot remember”: Spencer Tracy, “Long Runs Wear,” New York Telegraph, 4/6/30.
9 “rank melodrama”: Hartford Times, 2/7/30.
10 “Some individuals”: New York Sun, 3/31/30.
11 “No detail”: New York Daily News, 2/14/30.
12 “Nothing this season”: New York American, 2/14/30.
13 “I was supposed to”: Newquist, A Special Kind of Magic, p. 146.
14 “say I was gone”: Howard Teichmann, Smart Alec (New York: Morrow, 1976), p. 149.
15 “A prison play”: New York Evening Post, 2/14/30.
16 “desperation and fury”: New York Telegram, 2/14/30.
17 “taut, searing”: New York Times, 2/14/30.
18 “grimly effective”: New York Sun, 2/14/30.
19 “thrillingly savage”: New York World, 2/14/30.
20 “the final seal”: Commonweal, 4/9/30.
21 practically sold out: Weekly figures for The Last Mile are from Variety, 2/19, 2/26, 3/5, 3/12, 3/26, and 5/28/30.
22 “Mr. Erskine’s direction”: New York Times, 2/17/30.
23 “enthralled by the terrible”: Life, 3/7/30.
24 “Nobody ever said”: Newquist, A Special Kind of Magic, p. 145.
25 “doesn’t photograph well”: McEvoy, “Will They Get Wise to Him?”
26 “What have I done”: The first reel of Taxi Talks is preserved at the Library of Congress, but no audio is known to exist. A dialogue continuity for the film is in the Warner Bros. Archives at the University of Southern California.
27 “It was all strange”: Kanin, Tracy and Hepburn, p. 47.
28 “I liked it”: Philadelphia Inquirer, 9/16/73.
29 “I’d meet Spencer”: John Ford and Katharine Hepburn to Dan Ford, n.d., John Ford Collection, Manuscripts Department, Lilly Library, Indiana University, Bloomington.
30 “ ‘I’d like to have him’ ”: Newquist, A Special Kind of Magic, p. 146.
31 “The producer”: Elisabeth Goldbeck, “Some New Evidence About Spencer Tracy,” Movie Classic, December 1932.
32 “AS SHOW MUST OPEN”: Tracy’s contract for Up the River is in the 20th Century-Fox collection at UCLA.
33 “Sheehan wanted”: Peter Bogdanovich, John Ford (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1968), p. 52. Variety credited the idea of the two men breaking back into the prison to a Fox publicity man named Joe Shea.
34 “I’m in Hollywood”: Frank Tracy to Selden West.
35 “That’s all John needs”: Tracy, The Story of John, p. 65.
36 “[Ford] called us to the studio”: Claire Luce, unpublished autobiography (courtesy of Mrs. Jeanne Selvin) (SW).
37 “It was interesting”: Joan L. Jacobsen to the author, via telephone, 5/1/07.
38 “some base color”: Michael F. Blake to the author, via e-mail, 4/23/07.
39 a new contract: A letter dated August 16, 1930, advised Tracy that the studio intended to exercise a six-month option on his services commencing June 1, 1931, as allowed in his contract.
40 “must get home”: Tracy, The Story of John, p. 66.
CHAPTER 7 QUICK MILLIONS
1 “Poor Tommy”: Swindell, Spencer Tracy, p. 77.
2 “Well acted”: Variety, 9/3/30.
3 “THOUGHT OF DEAR DAD”: ST to Carrie Tracy, 8/31/30 (SLT).
4 “walking down Park”: Charles R. Sligh, Jr., to Selden West (SW).
5 Gardner’s offer: Jack Gardner to Sol M. Wurtzel, 9/1/30 (FOX).
6 “Forwarding you today”: Sol M. Wurtzel to ST, 9/4/30 (FOX).
7 “magnificent and terrifying”: Deschner, The Films of Spencer Tracy, p. 20.
8 “My Dear Mr. Wurtzel”: ST to Sol M. Wurtzel, 9/12/30 (FOX).
9 “a pack of fools”: Tracy, The Story of John, p. 69 (SLT).
10 “Sheehan refused to go”: Bogdanovich, John Ford, p. 52.
11 “Can you imagine”: New York American, 10/13/30.
12 “worst actor