I kind of dig Bette Davis. When you look at her body of work, you notice that she rarely took the safe roles. Her performances were more nuanced than other actresses or her time. Grittier. She went out on a limb every time she stepped in front of the camera, and I dig that about her. But what I dig most about her is that she knew enough about the reality of the world she lived in to do away with the usual sugar-coating many of us sometimes feel pressured to use as a courtesy filter. Like it or not, there’s something refreshing about being around someone who has the huevos to tell it to you like it is, and not feel that they have apologize for… basically just being honest with you.
And though yeah, it would have been a lot more glamorous to be seen having drinks with Lana Turner or Rita Hayworth, an evening of drinking martinis with Bette would have probably been a lot more fun.
Originally, I was going to quote Bette Davis in regards to something she said about choosing your enemies wisely and their importance to your career (something we don’t talk about enough in these so-called “transparent” conversations, we’re having) but in looking at the rest of the brilliant stuff she was quoted saying, I couldn’t resist taking this post in a completely different direction. So without further ado, here are 11 things Bette Davis had to say about the Social Media world, way back in the day… kinduv:
1. “Today everyone is a star. In my day, we earned that recognition.”
2. “In this business, until you’re known as a monster you’re not a star.”
3. “The weak are the most treacherous of us all. They come to the strong and drain them. They are bottomless. They are insatiable. They are always parched and always bitter. They are everyone’s concern and like vampires they suck our life’s blood.”
4. “Psychoanalysis. Almost went three times – almost. Then I decided what was peculiar about me was probably what made me successful.”
5. “There are new words now that excuse everybody. Give me the good old days of heroes and villains, the people you can bravo or hiss. There was a truth to them that all the slick credulity of today cannot touch.”
6. “To fulfill a dream, to be allowed to sweat over lonely labor, to be given a chance to create, is the meat and potatoes of life. The money is the gravy.”
7. “I am doomed to an eternity of compulsive work. No set goal achieved satisfies. Success only breeds a new goal. The golden apple devoured has seeds. It is endless.”
8. “I survived because I was tougher than anybody else.”
9. “The key to life is accepting challenges. Once someone stops doing this, he’s dead.”
10. “My passions were all gathered together like fingers that made a fist. Drive is considered aggression today; I knew it then as purpose.”
11. “In this rat-race everybody’s guilty till proved innocent!”
Let those sink in a bit. That whole enemy thing, we’ll get to it some other time.
