Cary and Irene (THE AWFUL TRUTH)

Saturday, April 3, 2010

Preston Sturges: facts and trivia


Interred at Ferncliff Cemetery, Hartsdale, New York, USA.
Appears as a character in John Kessel's story "The Miracle of Ivar Avenue".
He was working on his memoirs when he died. Incredibly, the working title of the book was "The Events Leading Up To My Death."
When he was at his peak at Paramount in the mid-1940s, he was not only the highest paid screenwriter but he was one of the highest paid people in America.
He once owned a nightclub on the Sunset Strip called The Players. He met and later married his fourth wife, Sandy Sturges (born Sandy Nagle) in the place. She did not know he was the owner when they met, thinking he was just another employee.
Great-grandfather of Jack Enzo Kelly, born September 6 2001, to 'Shannon Sturges' and Michael Kelley.
Grandfather of actress Shannon Sturges.
He was a womanizer who struggled in most of his serious sexual relationships. Part of his unwillingness for monogamy was that his mother often held several affairs with several different men and women at one time while she was raising him.
Was voted the 28th Greatest Director of all time by Entertainment Weekly. With only 13 films to his credit, he directed even fewer movies than did Stanley Kubrick.
Biography in: John Wakeman, editor. "World Film Directors, Volume One, 1890-1945". Pages 1085-1090. New York: The H.W. Wilson Company, 1987.
Son Solomon Sturges IV born June, 1941. Son Preston Sturges Jr. born in 1953. Son Thomas Preston Sturges born June 22, 1956.
In the talkies movie era he was the first great writer to became a director.
Sold Paramount the rights to The Great McGinty (1940) for one dollar with the agreement that he direct the film.
His mother, Mary Desti, was for a time the lover of the notorious Aleister Crowley, whose dislike for the young Sturges was heartily reciprocated, and they each came in for harsh criticism in the other's memoirs.

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