Saving Davies -- And The Beach House -- From Sex

In Reviving a Faded Movie Star and Her Pool Martha Groves writes that "Marion Davies and her beach house embodied Hollywood's Golden Age. Decades later, the actress and the site are back in the limelight."

Living with married William Randolph Hearst at Hearst Castle (officially the beach house known as San Simeon), Davies endured denigration of being the mistress even as she played hostess to lavish Hollywood parties attended by the creme de la creme of society & power brokers of the world.

(Photo of a circus themed birthday party for W.R. Hearst at Davies' beach house attended by (left to right) Irene Dunne, William Randolph Hearst, Bette Davis, Louella Parsons and Mary Brian.)

Many never forgave her her sins; she was the notorious mistress.

And in 1941 Orson Welles'"Citizen Kane" (said to be loosely based on Hearst's life) convinced the public that Davies was shrill -- and talentless. Her sins confirmed, she screwed her way into films.

Later Welles would deny that the mistress in Kane was not Davies, and others would hail her one of the best comediennes in film. Others, like co-star William Haines would comment on her classy and kind nature.

Time may not have been entirely kind to the mansion Davies and Hearst lived in, but in retrospect Davies comes out both lovely and talented decades later. A cynic might say that the sex stains just needed to be removed in order to muster interest in cleaning up the joint, but I prefer to believe that Davies, maligned and misunderstood at the time, is now seen more clearly.