Barbara Payton continued page 3 In 1950, Barbara Payton met actor Franchot Tone, ex-husband of Joan Crawford, and an accomplished stage and screen star since the 1930s. Born February 27, 1905, Tone, a true blue blood, excelled in playing the debonair, tuxedo-suited aristocrat in his many film roles, which included an Academy- Award nominated performance in the classic Mutiny on the Bounty. He married actress Jean Wallace in 1941 and survived a rather acrimonious divorce in 1948. It wasn't long before Franchot Tone became hooked on Barbara's obvious charms, and they were seen together everywhere. This was much to the disapproval of Tone's friends and colleagues, for Barbara's name and reputation in Hollywood were already taking a beating. Tone's associates, including ex-wife Joan Crawford, did their best to dissuade the actor from consorting with Payton. He was, however, completely captivated by the vampy, outrageously appealing starlet, and soon announced their engagement at a party held at the Stork Club in New York City. (Barbara's divorce from husband John Payton had been granted in September, 1950.) On October 29, 1950, Barbara Payton was called before a Federal Grand Jury as a defense witness in the perjury trial of a suspected murderer and dope addict named Stanley Adams. Adams was accused of murdering drug dealer Abe Davidian. Adams and 15 others, including Davidian, had been indicted as suspects in a million-dollar, statewide dope ring. Davidian informed Federal investigators of the ring's inside operations, and was found slain in Fresno. Barbara, "nervous to the point of hysteria," provided an alibi for Adams, testifying that he had been with her, in her apartment, at the time of the killing. (Ultimately, Adams was found guilty of perjury.) A mink coat-clad Barbara was accompanied to the Federal building in Los Angeles by Franchot Tone and actor Don Cougar (also known as Don Junior), another defense witness. One can only wonder what the distinguished Tone, who was the epitome of refinement and class, thought of her involvement with Þ 86 such unsavory characters. As a result of her participation in the Stanley Adams trial, Barbara received some damaging publicity, of which WB Studios took careful notice. Barbara had the female lead in her next film, Only the Valiant (1951), starring Gregory Peck. Filmed on location in the New Mexico desert, the film deals with an Apache attack on a cavalry troop led by commanding officer Peck. Gig Young plays Peck's rival for the affections of Payton's character, "Cathy Eversham." Though second-billed, Barbara's scenes were few in this rather undistinguished western, commonly thought of as one of Peck's lesser vehicles. Her performance here seems weak, almost as if her mind were more on her tumultuous personal life, rather than on the lackluster story. (It is possible that Barbara's role in the script had been "trimmed" as she later made the strange claim that her presence in the film had been so disturbing to Mr. Peck that she had often been "barred" from the set!) During the filming, there was an alleged romantic involvement between the two as well (an occurrence which was becoming increasingly commonplace for Barbara). Barbara was keeping busy, professionally and otherwise. Evidently, Franchot Tone was unaware of the wayward habits of his roving fiancée, but he was soon about to be enlightened. Warner Brothers loaned Barbara out to the King Bros., an independent movie movie company, to co-star with James Craig and Guy Madison in the RKO-Radio release, Drums in the Deep South (1951). It was a Gone With the Wind-type saga, though done on a much lesser scale. Barbara plays a pure and noble Southern belle, (something which, at the time, must have generated a collective guffaw in the industry). The Civil War plot, concerning two friends who find themselves fighting for opposite causes, has Payton's character attempting to assist Craig, a Confederate soldier, in holding back the Union lines. The two meet heroic deaths when they're blown off Devil's Mountain by a Yankee brigade led by Madison. Drums in the Deep South was a stylized, rather old-fashioned production directed by William Cameron Menzies, the noted Hollywood art director. The "Supercinecolor" proceedings were greatly enlivened by Dimitri Tiomkin's robust musical score. Despite rather minimal promotion, the motion picture did brisk business at the box office, and was considered to be a moderate success. But as in Only the Valiant, Barbara's performance seems tentative. The distractions of her free-wheeling personal pursuits seem to have gotten between the actress and her ability to deliver a good performance. During the filming of Drums in the Deep South, Barbara and her co-star Guy Madison (then married to troubled ex-Paramount leading lady Gail Russell), had taken to stopping off at Santa Monica Blvd.'s Formosa Cafe after work, for cocktails. One evening, the two headed back to Miss Payton's apartment after several rounds of drinks at the cafe. Hollywood is a small town and Franchot Tone had heard the scuttlebutt about Barbara for some time. His obsession for her had grown to the point where he was now spying on her activities. At the time, Barbara was living at 7456 Hollywood Boulevard, in a second-floor apartment that was being watched by a private detective Tone had hired. On this particular night, though, Franchot Tone himself was doing the spying from a sign atop a church that was directly across from her residence. Tone watched his fiancée and her latest fling enter her apartment and he intuitively knew something was amiss. He waited until the time was right, barged in, and found the couple in bed. An angry Franchot Tone confront-ed Madison with a terse, "I'm engaged to this girl and I'm going to marry her. Are you?" A scarlet-faced Guy Madison replied, "No, I can't. I'm already married." Barbara's reaction to the havoc she had stirred up was one of unbridled glee: she burst out laughing. An unhealthy streak of sadism had found its way into Barbara's personality, and it was not only cruel, but unattractive. The incident made it into Confidential magazine and brought the openly-promiscuous blonde actress some more bad press. With one embarrassing faux pas after another, Barbara Payton was dismantling her career, and her future, step by step. Warner Bros., angry with Barbara for the adverse publicity she was getting due to her rowdy lifestyle, handed her over to indepen-dent producer Jack Broder for the enjoyable and campy Bride of the Gorilla (1951). Top-billed Barbara looks luscious in this jungle melodrama cum-horror story that co-stars Raymond Burr, Lon Chaney, Jr., and Tom Conway. The Curt Siodmak-helmed feature has adulterous lovers Payton and Burr facing unforeseen complications when a voodoo curse placed on Burr has him believing he has the ability to turn into a gorilla! Barbara delivers a good performance in the back lot thriller, despite its less than stellar script, and her assorted diversions. Franchot Tone had gone to New York on business when Barbara attended a Hollywood pool party, where she met B-Movie actor Tom Neal. According to an Exposed Magazine article, she had spotted the muscular and handsome Neal in the pool, "displaying his masculinity via a brief pair of bathing panties. Babs (took) one lip-drying look," and later uttered a statement that has become somewhat legendary: "It was love at first sight. I saw him in a swimming pool. He looked so wonderful in his trunks that I knew he was the only man in my life." Exposed went on to say: "The memory of whatever Tone resembled in his undies was blurred by strutting Tom's conspicuous bulges." The passionate duo quickly started an affair. Tom Neal, born January 28, 1914, was an MGM contract player in the late 1930s before descending the career ladder to become a staple in low-budget, "Poverty Row" programmers. He was certainly a prolific actor, appearing in nearly 60 features between 1938 and 1953. Neal is best known, perhaps, for his lead role in the cult film Detour (1945), directed by Edgar G. Ulmer and considered a film noir classic. In author Tom Weaver's Attack of the Movie Monster Makers, Bride of the Gorilla's assistant producer (famed genre icon, Herman Cohen) recounts his memories of the production: "During the making of Bride of the Gorilla was the big menage a trois with Franchot Tone and Barbara Payton and Tom Neal. Barbara and I became good friends, and-well, what can I say? Even in those days, Barbara Payton, who was a gorgeous gal, was one step away from working Sunset Boulevard...I remember the gate calling one day to say that Tom Neal was there. And Franchot Tone was in Barbara's dressing room! So I had to keep the two of them from meeting!" It has also been inferred, in a few sources, that Barbara had a physical relationship with her aging co-star Tom Conway. The depressed and alcoholic brother of George Sanders, Conway was often seen exiting Barbara's dressing-room in a "much lighter mood." Evidently, Barbara Payton had come to believe her main value as a human being was as a dispenser of sexual favors, apparently an 'asset' when one is trying to make friends in a place like Hollywood. As veteran Hollywood interviewer Skip E. Lowe told me, "She was known as the best in town." Barbara was trading in her self-respect for momentary pleasures and the opportunity to step out-of-the-pack in a town deluged by a never-ending stream of beautiful young women seeking fame. Although it never occurred to her at the time, she was sowing the seeds of her own downfall.... [Previous Page] [1 - 2 - 3] [Back to Archives] -CONTINUED NEXT ISSUE-