42 thoughts on “Lew Ayres Movies”

1. Hey Bob….thanks for checking out our Lew Ayres page.

   Some box office career stats (adjusted domestic box office)
   Myrna Loy $9,491,300,000
   Barbara Stanwyck $7,484,000,000
   Joan Crawford $6,762,600,000
   Bette Davis $6,351,600,000
   Deanna Durbin $2,679,600,000

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2. HI PHIL

   Thanks for sharing the information about Kate Mulgrew. I never knew that so you are compensating in other ways for the “Fake News” the Work Horse keeps pusing out on this site in his co-star links columns.

   I think Myrna who didn’t age well should have been playing mother roles even in her heyday. She looked too old for the debonair William Powell and probably should have been even grandmother to the Peter Pan of Hollywood Archibald Alec Leach in their films together.

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   1. Hey Bob….glad Phil helped point out the Kate Mulgrew trivia.

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3. Deanna Durbin made 22 films and she was the top billed star in 21 of them and the undisputed lead player in all of those 22 with the possible exception of Christmas Holiday where fellow Legend Eugene Kelly partnered her.

   Whereas Miss Loy was apparently gangster John Dillinger’s fave actress Deanna was worshipped by great statesman and war leader Sir Winston Churchill; and war martyr Anne Frank idolised Durbin as well and there are pictures of Miss Durbin in the Anne Frank tourist exhibition house in Amsterdam.

   Burt Reynolds top-starred in and directed 1978’s The End which cost just 12 million to make in 2020 dollars and the film has an adjusted domestic Cogerson gross of $175 million. Myrna had an 8th billed supporting role in the film; was barely mentioned on the posters; whereas Burt was billed alone above the title; and yet this site credits the entire gross to both of them.

   A definitive split would be difficult but to dogmatically describe her as THE all-time top box office actress on the basis of contributions like Miss Loy’s one in The End seem to me crazy and certainly stretches considerably the bounds of reasonable generosity.

   Bottom Line though: to my mind MGM’s pecking order as described by Melvyn Douglas [see Part One] suggests that for others to proclaim Miss Loy as the greatest commercial actress of all time is a bit like a guy being named family man of the year nationally when his own wife and children think that other husbands have been better role models.

   It doesn’t in the end [no pun intended!] really come down to two people on this site “agreeing to disagree” as the facts appear to speak loudly for themselves: Miss Loy is the only one of the actresses whom I have mentioned in this 2 part post who I am reasonably confident is definitely NOT the Greatest Box Office Actress of All Time because of her very poor stand-alone record at the box office and as she had a comparatively dismal showing in Quigley.

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4. THE BIGGER PICTURE “Well, Freddie Bartholomew had first billing in Captains Courageous and that drove Spencer Tracy mad. I was billed fourth – and couldn’t have cared less. Joan Crawford once explained to me she was over Clark Gable and William Powell [in MGM’s estimation of their greatest stars] but under Norma Shearer. Powell was under Jean Harlow but above Bob Montgomery and Myrna Loy.”

   Quote from Melvyn Douglas copied from Cogerson’s Melvyn page. And that was the assessment of just one studio: Warners had Bette Davis [and later Doris Day]; Fox had Betty Grable and Shirley Temple; and Universal had Deanna Durbin.

   All of those ladies along with Crawford and Greer Garson in the 1940s whilst they did co-star with other Legends could feature ALONE as the STARS of long runs of acclaimed hits and Grable/Day/Garson/Temple in particular at one time or another almost owned the Quigley popularity polls.

   Those 4 ladies were collectively in the Quigley top 11 most popular US stars 32 times- an average of 8 times each and often in the higher positions: Miss Loy was in the Top 11 just twice and in the lower positions – 7th and 10th way back in the late 1930s

   All of the other ladies that I have mentioned have in my opinion a much greater claim to be Box Office Queen than the Miss Loy who had to depend to a great extent on the involvement in her movies of the likes of Gable/Bill Powell/Archibald Alec Leach/Ty Power/Charlton Heston/Paul Newman/Burt Reynolds.

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