I am, of course, a fan of Bette Davis: what sentient human being isn’t? Well, Faye Dunaway probably isn’t, but that’s a different story.
And it so happened that the free library in my local train station had a copy of This ’n That, a 1987 book attributed to Bette Davis and Michael Herskowitz, a second volume of autobiography that’s a sort of update and recap. (You can find the Faye Dunaway story in there.) So, of course I snaffled it up, not least because it contains this picture, which is very probably my favourite ever photograph of martini drinkers:
The book also contains a description of what, in other circumstances, I might have thought of as a perfect mother and daughter relationship. Bette says, ‘I would come home from the studio when B.D. (that’s the daughter, Barbara) was growing up, and from the minute I came through the door, no one spoke. B.D. had a drink prepared for me. I would sit down, finish the drink, and that would relax me just enough to be ready for a conversation.’
Sounds fine to me, though B.D. did write a couple of unflattering tell-all books about her mother, and now, as Barbara Davis Hyman, is a pastor in Charlottesville, Virginia. Go pick the bones out of that one.
This ’n That also contains another very impressive martini picture of Bette drinking with Kim Carnes, of 'Bette Davis Eyes' fame. Oh boy!
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