I Love the Illusion: The Life and Career of Agnes Moorehead (3 page)

Agnes Moorehead had a happy childhood. She never felt unloved or
unwanted. She was never brought up to believe that children were to be
“seen and not heard.” She was blessed with two parents she adored, and, in
the case of her father, idolized.

Agnes Robertson Moorehead was born on December 6, 1900. This is
one detail she never alluded to. Like many actors of her era (and still true
today) she “fudged” on her age. Agnes’ friend and publicist, Peter Opp, Jr.,
was told Agnes’ real age by her mother. “Mrs. John once told me A’s correct
age at a birthday party Madame held in Cheviot Hills. ‘I don’t know
why
Agnes twists the truth,’ she said. Aye, pretzel has less twists than our departed
friend possessed.” She told the Academy of Dramatic Arts on her application
that she was born in 1903. For many years her “official” birth year was
1906. When she died in 1974, every obituary listed her age as 67, rather
than the 73 years she actually was.

Her father, John Henderson Moorehead, of Scottish descent, was born
in December 1870, in Rich Hill Township, a part of Muskingum County
in Southern Ohio where the Moorehead family farmed. Agnes’ paternal
grandparents were Hannah Maria Humphrey, born in 1841, and Robert H.
Moorehead, born in 1839. Her Grandmother Hannah would live in Rich
Hill Township all of her long life (she would die in 1927 at the age of
86 — well over the life expectancy of that time), and Agnes became
especially close to her.

Her mother, Mary Mildred McCauley, born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
in 1883, and of Irish stock, was a vivacious girl who had a strong interest
in music and dreamed of becoming an opera singer. She was talented
enough to tour on the Chautauqua circuit. Her friends and family called
her by her nickname, Mollie, which she went by all of her life. It was while
Mollie was studying voice at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music in 1898
that she met John H. Moorehead, then a seminary student in nearby Xenia.
Much to Mollie’s parent’s consternation, the two fell in love and made plans
to marry. It wasn’t that Mollie’s parents didn’t think that John Moorehead
was a good and able man, who could provide a good home for their daughter,
but they hesitated because he was nearly twice her age — 28 to her 15.
After some prodding her parents gave in and John and Mollie were married
on August 30, 1899, five days after Mollie’s sixteenth birthday.

The couple soon left Ohio for Clinton, Massachusetts, some twenty
miles to the west of Boston, where John was assigned his first parish. The
choice to pursue the ministry was not a surprising one for John Moorehead
to make, but early on he was conflicted between the ministry and an
interest in archaeology. In the Moorehead family were two illustrious
uncles, one a famous Bible scholar and the other a leading archaeologist.
John’s great-uncle, William Gallogly Moorehead, was a noted Bible scholar
and prominent Presbyterian minister. Dr. W.G. Moorehead had been an
editor of the
Scofield Reference Bible
. He was well-respected for the many
papers he published on bible study including, “Outlines in Studies in the
Old Testament,” “Studies in the Mosaic Institutions,” and “Studies in the
Four Gospels.” He also served as Professor of New Testament Language and
Literature at Xenia Theological Seminary, as well as serving as president of
the faculty.

No less impressive was another uncle, Warren King Moorehead, a noted
archaeologist, who became known as the “Dean of American Archaeology.”
Warren Moorehead had spent three years studying under Dr. Thomas
Wilson, the curator of prehistoric anthropology at the Smithsonian
Institute. He was a member of the field staff at the Chicago World’s Fair of
1883. He served as the first curator of the Ohio Historical Society and
director of the Robert S. Peabody Museum of Archaeology at Philips
Academy in Andover. He would later gain great acclaim for his excavations
in and around Cahokia. The Cahokia Mounds Historical Site is the largest
prehistoric mound center in North America covering fourteen square
kilometers in Illinois. Young John Moorehead was always fascinated by the
stories his Uncle Warren told and as a young boy dreamed of accompanying
him on some excavation in a far off place.

John Moorehead’s own father, Robert, was a farmer who worked the land
on the family farm which had been deeded to the Moorehead family by two
presidents: James Monroe and John Tyler. There was no man John
Moorehead admired more than his own father and his father believed that
his son had the makings of a pastor. That decided the issue. John
Moorehead attended Xenia Seminary at the time his Uncle William was a
professor and president of the faculty. He felt overshadowed, but was
remembered by his contemporaries as a serious young man and excellent
student. John Moorehead, like his father and great-uncle, believed that the
Bible should be taken literally. He became, in every way, a Scottish
Presbyterian fundamentalist clergyman.

By the time he and Mollie arrived in Clinton, Massachusetts to begin
work at his first parsonage, John Moorehead felt prepared both by
education and life experience for his duties. John and Mollie impressed the
community with their commitment and teamwork. John preached and
offered spiritual guidance. Mollie, in addition to her role as choir director,
also served as Sunday school teacher. “She was a tremendous teacher and
youth leader,” Gordon Emery would recall of Mollie, who also served in
that capacity years later when she moved to Reedsburg, Wisconsin following
the sudden death of her husband. Parishioners must have been struck by
the contrast in their personalities. John was studious, reserved and low-key
except when at the pulpit. At the pulpit John Moorehead was a spellbinder
who could hold the congregation in the palm of his hand. Agnes would
recall her father as a “great man with a magnificent voice and very
handsome . . . he could quote great swatches from the Bible — and
Shakespeare . . . he was quite a showman.”

Dr. Moorehead always put his sermons on one 3x5 file card. He felt that
if he wrote out the sermon from start to finish that he would “drive
himself nuts” trying to stay on message. The only thing he might write out
was a quotation, but otherwise he would only write cue words. The bottom
line for John was that he had better know what he was talking about or else
the parishioners would lose confidence in him.

Mollie was louder, opinionated and had a flair for dramatics. Tom
Groeneweg, who later got to know the widowed and elderly Mollie,
described her as “an imposing lady of strong opinions and very outspoken.
In many respects, I had great admiration for her and held her in high
esteem. However, like many fundamentalists . . . she on occasion (could)
demonstrate a lack of sensitivity and love for others . . . despite some deep
flaws . . . her life for the most part was lived for the glory of God.”

Both John and Mollie were gracious and good-humored and became
very popular in the community. Mollie’s musical abilities were so admired
that she was invited to give concerts away from church. Shortly after
settling into the parsonage Mollie discovered she was pregnant. Mollie’s
pregnancy didn’t stop her from carrying out her duties and when the blueeyed, red-haired Agnes was born the baby was always with her mother in
church, choir practices and Sunday school classrooms. Within a couple of
years another baby girl, Margaret, named after John’s paternal grandmother,
blessed the Moorehead home.

It was shortly after Margaret was born that John was assigned to a new
parish in Hamilton, Ohio. While John and Mollie would miss the many
friends they made in Clinton, both were excited to be closer to family. It
was while living in Hamilton that young Agnes made her first public
appearance as a performer. She sang the hymn “The Lord is My Shepherd”
as a soloist in church with her proud mother accompanying her on the
organ. The congregation was captivated by the young girl and many would
ask little Agnes, “Well, what will you sing for us today?” when they came
into contact with her. For Agnes this was an introduction to a love of the
limelight and the recognition which came with it. For such a intensely
private person, she greatly enjoyed being recognized. Another love which
lasted a lifetime was her love for the state of Ohio, in particular the
southeastern portion of the state. She and Margaret spent summers at the
Moorehead farm in the Muskingum Valley, a farm and life Agnes grew to
love and appreciate.

The Muskingum Valley is a picturesque portion of southeastern Ohio.
Nearly everything in the area at that time was dominated by the
Muskingum River. This part of Ohio was always among the most
economically depressed in the state, the major reason being the annual
flooding which took place before the dams and locks were built. The
flooding left population levels down and businesses out, but it also helped
to bind the people in the region together. They could depend on one
another for refuge and friendship. This sense of community deeply affected
Agnes. Throughout her life Agnes would return to the Muskingum Valley
and keep the family farm and build onto it. She would continually
decline lucrative offers from strip-mining operators who wanted to buy
the land — at a considerable profit to Agnes. Even after her death she
would make sure the family farm, and the land surrounding it, remained
safe from developers.

While growing up Agnes and Margaret would be teased by other kids
because they were PK (preacher’s kids). They spent a lot of time in church
attending services and prayer meetings and helping their parents out.
Agnes, who had an active imagination, began to mimic the congregation.
“My sister and I used to come to the Sunday table filled with deviltry,”
Agnes recalled years later. “We loved to give impressions of peculiar people
we’d picked on in church. It was a kind of silent game we played with
father. I’d settle fussily into my chair and with a simpering look ask sister
to pass the potatoes. She’d pass them, with much ado and self-consciousness.
We’d keep it up — always with one eye on father. He’d know darn well that
we were imitating the lady who led the choir with the young man who
handed out the hymn books, but he’d sit there with a perfectly solemn
face as if nothing unusual were going on at all. We’d get all the applause
we needed from the look of amused recognition he couldn’t keep out of
his eyes, but pretty soon after that we’d also get a look that said act was
over — and it always was.”

While they were brought up in a home full of love, music, books and
religion, Agnes and Margaret, like all children, got into mischief. When it
came to discipline, her father’s favorite method would be to sit the girls up
on a shelf of books and give them a psalm to memorize which they would
later have to recite back to him by memory. Agnes would later consider this
the primary reason why she was a quick study at memorizing scripts and
other material she would eventually use in her one-woman shows. To
memorize a psalm Agnes would write it out in longhand and then read it
over and over until it stuck. She would later learn her lines in a similar
fashion — writing them out in longhand and studying them. When it came
to discipline, however, her mother was less imaginative. Agnes would recall
that Mollie’s “tiny hand could smart.”

Agnes developed a headstrong, lively personality and a sharp wit which
reminded many people of Mollie, and, in fact, Agnes and Mollie would be
remembered for being very similar in attitudes and behavior. Margaret was
more like her father, low-key and shy. Agnes loved her mother, but idolized
her father. He was the most important man in her life, probably the only
one she really truly loved. She later had great affection for Orson Welles,
Charles Laughton and Paul Gregory, but when it came to a deep and
abiding love, John Henderson Moorehead had no rival — not even from
the two men Agnes eventually married. In interview after interview
throughout her life, Agnes would describe her father as: “great,” “brilliant,”
“amazing,” “spellbinding,” “inspirational,” and so on. In later years when
asked about her childhood Agnes would always describe it as “very happy”
and then invariably relate some anecdote related to her “wonderful and
supportive” father.

Agnes was a voracious reader as a child and would continue to be
throughout her life. As a youngster she was brought up on fairy tales. She
enjoyed Mother Goose, but loved Grimm. Unlike many other children she
didn’t get frightened when she read Grimm Fairy Tales. She got caught up in
the adventures without the side effects of nightmares. Agnes lost herself in
the stories and could spend hours sitting alone reading and then, afterward,
would spend hours acting out what she read. She would be in a fantasy
world of her own and her best friend was her imagination. Her great joys
as an adult were the same as a child — reading a good story and then acting
it out — except as an adult she would be on a far larger stage than the one
in her bedroom. The Mooreheads had a set of china with designs inspired
from Charles Dickens stories and were used only on special occasions such
as birthdays or holidays. But when they were used, “each person at the table
was always required to weave a story about his or her plate.”

Mollie once found Agnes huddled in a corner of her bedroom crying and
shivering with a sweater on, despite it being a warm day.
“What’s the matter?” a concerned Mollie asked.
“Nothing!” responded the still crying and shivering Agnes.
“Are you cold?”
“No”
“Unhappy?”
“No,” Agnes replied through the tears streaming down her cheeks.
What Mollie found out later was that Agnes had just read
The Poor Little
Match Girl
and was pretending that she too was alone, cold and hungry.
Agnes continued to let her imagination rule her life. She would pretend to
be a character out of a book, mimic a member of her father’s congregation,
or would just study the way a person walked and copy it. These things
became such a common occurrence that Mollie began to ask Agnes, with an
understanding smile on her face, “Who are you today, Agnes?”