Marion Davies and The Bennett Sisters

Marion Davies and The Bennett Sisters. From left to right, Barbara Bennett, the middle Bennett sister, Joan Bennett, the youngest Bennett sister, Marion Davies, and Constance Bennett, the oldest Bennett sister. Barbara Bennett performed in two Broadway plays, two silent movies, and three Pre-Code movies. She was married to crooner Morton Downey and was the mother of shock-jock Morton Downey, Jr. Joan Bennett appeared in two silent movies, twenty one Pre-Code movies, and many more other movies up until 1977. She is well known as the femme fatale in several Fritz Lang Film Noirs in the 1940’s. She is also well known to Baby Boomers as “Elizabeth Collins Stoddard” on the Gothic Soap Opera ‘Dark Shadows’ (1966-1971). My family lived near her when she was in ‘Dark Shadows’ and a few times we saw her coming to and from the studios where it was filmed. Constance Bennett was the highest paid actress in Hollywood during the Pre-Code era, during which time she appeared in nineteen Pre-Code movies. Before that time she appeared in fourteen silent movies, and after the Pre-Code era, she appeared in many movies up until 1966. She is probably best known for George Cukor’s ‘What Price Hollywood?’ (1932), co-starring Lowell Sherman, and Norman Z. McLeod’s ‘Topper’ (1937), co-starring Cary Grant and Roland Young. Marion Davies was first a Ziegfeld Follies performer, then appeared in thirty four silent films between 1917 and 1928, twelve movies during the Pre-Code era, and then four more movies, retiring from movies in 1937. She was especially known for her comedic skills. Marion Davies is also renowned as the mistress of tycoon William Randolph Hearst, with whom she was involved between 1917 and 1951, the year he passed away, and she is remembered for her spectacular parties, and her philanthropy, and for her humour.