I Love the Illusion: The Life and Career of Agnes Moorehead (53 page)

After the Thanksgiving holidays in 1968, the
Bewitched
company had
returned to film an episode titled “Daddy Does His Thing,” with guest star
Maurice Evans appearing as Samantha’s father Maurice. York had a prominent
role in the original script of this episode. He was not feeling well and for
the first time he didn’t even look well on camera — in the existing footage
he looks thin, drawn and tired. There was a reason for this — he was sick.
He had not been able to sleep, he was suffering from chills and his chronic
back pain was acting up. In the morning he shot a couple of scenes with
Montgomery and Evans, feeling “confused and disoriented.”

At lunch he went to his doctor, who gave him a shot of Vitamin B12 to
help get him through the day. He returned to the set without eating. The
next shot would be a scene with Evans on a scaffold (as if Maurice and
Darrin were levitating above a room). Dick climbed up the scaffold and sat
there with Evans as the scene was being lit — fifteen feet up in the air. As
the time went on, and the procedure continued with a tiny light flickering
in front of his eyes, York began to feel increasingly ill. He is trying to go
over his lines with Evans but finally it began to be too much for him and
he asked a member of the crew to help him down. As he was being helped
down, York apparently suffered a seizure and the next thing he would
remember was waking up lying on the floor with his friend David White,
“my dearest friend . . . on the set,” looking panic-stricken over him. York
was rushed to the hospital. He would never return to the set.

York’s wife, Joey, was contacted and William Asher, who picked her up,
drove her to the hospital. Mrs. York says that she was the one who forced
the issue of Dick leaving
Bewitched
with Asher prior to his visiting Dick in
his room. Joey asked him not to let Dick continue with the show — it was
killing him. Asher went into his room and asked him, “Do you want to
quit?” Dick replied, “If it’s all right with you, Billy.” Asher told him, “OK,
kid, I’ll tell ’em.” Then, for the first and last time, Dick and Asher hugged.

It wasn’t as easy as that. ABC and the sponsors didn’t want him to leave.
He was the lead male actor in one of the biggest hits on television.
According to Mrs. York, Screen Gems executives came to the York home
several times to persuade him to stay — but Dick decided to put his health
first. No announcement was immediately made. In all that time, from the
period when Dick suffered his seizure until the official announcement that
he was leaving the show, neither Elizabeth Montgomery nor Agnes called
him. Mrs. York is philosophical about this. She says it is “status quo” in
show business. You work with someone then it ends and people “just move
on.” Still, over the years she has heard that Dick was fired from
Bewitched,
and sensational rumors were made which depicted her husband as a “pill
popper” — to which Mrs. York responds, “If he were (a pill popper), how
could he have given such consistently fine performances?”

Agnes wrote to Georgia Johnstone on February 2, 1969. “Have been
going at breakneck speed and today I have just stayed in bed all day. Dick
York has
resigned
— back and mental ailments — and we, Elizabeth and I
are on the treadmill — they cancelled Monaco (Agnes was to appear as a
judge at a film festival in Monaco at the request of her old friend, Princess
Grace)which was a disappointment to me — but we are shooting back to
back and I have to be here for work. The new fellow won’t go on until fall
— Dick Sargent — I don’t know him but Bill thinks he is very good. By
the way, I got all I asked for in the contract — so here we go for another
6th year.” Publicly, Agnes acknowledged that she was “sad” to see York go
but, “it happens all the time in the theatre,” adding, “of course it is a big
adjustment for us.” A family friend, Gordon Emery, recalls that Agnes was
“concerned about the first Darrin” and that when he left the show, it “created
quite a crisis — Agnes was very loyal to him and concerned about him and
if the change would mesh. I got the impression she was very close to the
original Darrin.” But for whatever reason, either because she didn’t want to
disturb him at a time when he was recuperating or because she decided it
might embarrass him or herself to do so, she never spoke to York again.

But, clearly, Agnes
did not take the decision
well. For a woman
known for her graciousness and professionalism,
her initial meeting
with York’s replacement,
Dick Sargent, did not
go well. According to
Herbie J Pilato, the
Bewitched
biographer,
David White told him
what transpired on
Sargent’s first day on the
set for a script reading.
In front of the entire
cast, including Sargent,
“Agnes very slowly,
though firmly stated, ‘I
don’t like change.’”
Pilato also states, “Agnes
Moorehead had a very
strong working relationship with Dick York for
five years. And then, he
wasn’t there anymore. It was like losing her left arm. And she could do
nothing about it. She wasn’t in a position of power to have the final casting
say over the series and, in essences, she wasn’t really Endora, Agnes
Moorehead’s power, in this regard, was limited.”

Agnes did feel she was on a “treadmill” because Elizabeth was pregnant yet
again and, rather than taking the traditional spring hiatus, the
Bewitched
company was kept in production to film several episodes for the series’ sixth
season before she would take her maternity leave. That Agnes also received
a big boost in her salary wasn’t unexpected either. With York gone, it was
imperative that they keep Agnes and keep her happy. To have lost both York
and
Agnes would have been fatal to the show. It is also likely that Elizabeth
probably would not have continued with the show had “Mother” not
continued on.

In August 1969, Agnes’ home in Beverly Hills was robbed while she was
away. In a letter to Agnes, Johnstone expressed her concerns. “I’m in a state
of despair about my country. Life in N.Y. City is rapidly becoming a hell.
When one considers moving out the question arises as to where one can feel
peace and safety? I have no answer.” She goes on to state, “What is the story
of the Tate business (The Sharon Tate murders at the hands of Charles
Manson and his disciples)? Can’t believe a word I read the papers these
days. What about the Kennedy mess? (Edward Kennedy’s accident at
Chappaquiddick).”

Agnes convinced her mother to
join her in California for the
Christmas holidays. “Christmas
has come and gone for another
hectic year!” she wrote to Georgia
Johnstone. “What a time I had
getting Mother out of her nest and
bask here for the winter.” She was
apparently working on her book.
“I have written some — but with
all the work, I’ve just got bogged
down. But it will all be straightened out one of these days — 3
more years of
Bewitched
without
options! Can you believe it? Well
one can’t be choosy these days —
so many are out of work — I’m
very lucky!” In a subsequent letter
written to Johnstone two weeks later, she wrote, “Mother seems to be
contented but looking forward to this country house. What a time to build!
— but then it could be worse. I think we are in for a recession — What
does Bill (Georgia’s husband) think of the stock market?”

The house which Agnes is referring to was being built on her farm in
Ohio. It was Agnes’ plan to go into semi-retirement at the new house by the
mid-70’s with her mother living with her. But she, as Quint Benedetti
noted, was spending a fortune on it. In April 1970, Agnes refers to the
problems she is having in a letter to Johnstone: “Now the farm is coming
along. But the contractor has made so many mistakes — I can’t tell you. He
burned a little house down, that was in need of a great deal of repair, but I
was going to fix it up for a studio. And without my permission, burned it
down. The roof and outside were not finished and no heat, we nearly froze,
but the handy man started making fires in the fireplace and with the help
of electric heaters we managed to survive. I didn’t want Mother to go
through all this turmoil but she thinks it a great adventure and won’t stir
from the place. I fired the contractor who swore at me and threatened to
spread my name all over the papers — I don’t know what for — but some
detrimental reason. I have paid him $85,000 in cash which he says is just
‘spit’ — and furnished myself — the heating, dry walls, plumbing
accessories — freezers, washers, stoves, etc. — and still the outside of the
house isn’t finished. I have now had permission to tap the main gas line and
I hope they will have it on when I get back! What a mess.” She summed
it up, “I can’t tell you the many things that have to be done. It’s quite
disheartening. I fired the contractor — they have never seen a ‘witch’ at
work — and I use the term loosely.”

That spring Agnes got yet another invitation to do a prominent stage
production, to replace Katharine Hepburn in the stage musical
Coco
, the
story of fashion designer Coco Chanel, a part Agnes would have been ideal
in. But, as with most of her offers during the
Bewitched
years, she had to
decline. “I couldn’t with my show going back to filming in Salem in the
first week in June.”

The cast went to Salem, Massachusetts to film several episodes of
Bewitched
in the early summer of 1970. They were mobbed and huge
crowds gathered below their windows at their hotel and called out for
Elizabeth or Agnes. Agnes would sum up the experience, “Salem was frightening. The crowds tore our clothes off and our hair out. Real Witchery.”

complaining about contemporary morals. “The
enclosed clipping reminded
me of our conversation
some time ago. You said
that ‘before long some
group would try to go to
the bathroom onstage.’
Well that is old hat by
now, having been done
often and then it was
followed by masturbation,
the sexual act between
male and female, then
between males and I
thought, well now they’ve
reached the limit, there is
nothing more to do and
they’ll get back to clean,
talented writing and acting.
Well how wrong can I be?

Judging from the enclosed they’ve only scratched the surface. Did you ever
read anything more disgusting in your life? It makes me want to secede
from the human race.” Agnes responded, “Honestly it’s getting to be frightful,
this stage text — it’s evil. We are living in precarious times. I really think
it’s the last days, but of course, one is subject to mockery and laughter, but
too many things are falling into place. Imagine trying to make points by
this means, it will be reaped in time.” I’m not sure what clipping Georgia
sent to Agnes, but to cause Agnes to proclaim her belief that we were in the
“last days” it must have truly offended her senses.