Biographies: Gladys Newman, 1977, Winn Parish, LA. Submitted by Greggory E. Davies, 120 Ted Price Lane, Winnfield, LA 71483 ********************************************** Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ********************************************** From: January 19, 1977 Winn Parish Enterprise News-American Neighbors by Tony Shelton She was cast as George Kennedy's wife in "Hurry Sundown". With a two-inch thick script for the movie, she had trouble finding her lines; uh, make that line. It was: "Weren't anybody I know". But Gladys Newman, 403 Washington, found her line and practiced it again and again. "I'd go up to Jane Fonda and George Kennedy (TV's Blue Knight) and say 'How does this sound'." "They'd always say 'Too Southern!'" In the final version of the film, her line was cut. "They cut the other local actors' lines, too, because we sounded so Southern, we showed up the stars." But Gladys Newman appears in several crowd and party scenes in the film. "Hurry Sundown" was shot in the late 1960s outside Baton Rouge, where Gladys Newman had been a participant in the Little Theater. For eight days' work on the movie she got $800. "Because I had a speaking part, I rode out to the location in a limousine with Michael Caine. All my friends who were extras went out on a Greyhound bus." Miss Newman appeared as an extra (non-speaking) part in other movies shot around Baton Rouge, including "Desire", "In The Dust", "Alvarez Kelly", and "Hush, Hush, Sweet Charlotte", with Bettie Davis and Olivia deHaviland. "Joan Crawford was in the movie at first and while she was there we had to drink Pepsi, because Joan Crawford is an officer of the Pepsi Cola Company. I hate Pepsi, so I'd buy Cokes and put them in Pepsi bottles. "But Joan and Bette Davis couldn't get along, so Olivia deHaviland took Joan's part later." Even though she was only an extra, Miss Newman got a little star treatment in this movie, too. "When I had my first leading role in the Little Theater, my friends bought me a director's chair with my name on it. "I brought it along with me to the 'Charlotte' location. Somebody saw my chair over to the side, brought it over and put it down by Bette Davis' chair. People started thinking I was important and asking for my autograph." Miss Newman came to know a bit actor in the movie, Ellen Corby, TV's Grandma Walton. "I stole something from her," Miss Newman said, "the way she made her lower lip quiver." In 1958, a group from the Baton Rouge Little Theater had gone to New York "to crash the big time." One of those who made it was Dottie Bourgeois, better known as Donna Douglas, Ellie Mae Clampett of "The Beverly Hillbillies". "Dot and I were in a play together in Baton Rouge. A friend and I used to try to teach her to act, which was impossible. "She was a great person, though, and she could whistle louder than anybody else in America. We always had her call cabs for us." In New York, Donna Douglas worked as a model for the William Morris Agency. "She did a couple of commercials, mostly still pictures and they suggested she dye her hair and go out to the coast." She dyed it blonde and went. "Since Hillbillies, Donna Douglas has been selling real estate in Los Angeles," Miss Newman said. "She's making more money now than she ever did on TV." Along with actress Elizabeth Ashley, another of the Little Theater crew who made it was Rex Reed, respected movie critic and one-time actor, in the movie "Myra Breckenridge". A tip from Reed led Miss Newman to her first job in New York. "Rex told us Martin and Schneider Productions, which did children's musicals, was without a stage manager." With 41 consecutive Little Theater shows behind her, Gladys Newman got the job. It was the first of about 15 shows she was to work on in New York including four off-Broadway shows she directed. "Then my health got bad and I had to come home." She worked for the state Motor Vehicle Registration Bureau in Baton Rouge for the last 15 years before coming to the Winnfield office three months ago. Now she is writing a play, is having a book of her poetry edited, and is interested in directing a little theater group in Winnfield. "There's good talent anywhere you go," Miss Newman said. "The only difference between an amateur and a professional is that a professional gets paid." She said she believes Little Theaters are preserving the best of American drama almost singlehandedly. "There are still a lot of delightful plays being done in Little Theaters. There's nothing but trash on Broadway now. It's just like the movies, terribly disappointing. They're not concerned with acting, just with who can get the barest. "That's not theater to me."