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‘Extra’
remembers Anatomy experience
by Pam Christensen
Marquette County will be celebrating the fiftieth anniversary
of the filming of Anatomy of a Murder beginning May 7 and 8 with
activities at Mt. Shasta in Michigamme. Activities in Ishpeming,
Marquette and Big Bay will follow. Many area residents have fond
memories of the filming of the movie, seeing big name actors,
getting autographs, playing extras or working for Carlyle Productions.
One of those residents with a ringside seat to all of the movie-related
activities was Ishpeming native Joan Hansen. “Joanie,”
as she was known to John D. Voelker, author of the bestseller
Anatomy of a Murder, recounts the making of the movie in her book
Anatomy of “Anatomy,”” The Making of a Movie.
The book started as an article and grew into an insider’s
glimpse of how the film changed Marquette County for the two months
it was being filmed in Big Bay, Michigamme, Marquette and Ishpeming
during 1959. The book was published in 1997 by Globe Printing
of Ishpeming. Globe Printing is located in the former Roosevelt
Night Club, where many of the cast and crew spent time away from
the filming and the prying eyes of Marquette County residents.
Night club owner Anthony ‘Gigs’ Gagliardi, one of Voelker’s
closest friends, provided sanctuary for the “film people.”
As a parting gift to Gigs, the cast and crew autographed a wall
in the basement of the club. The autograph wall graces the front
and back cover of Anatomy of “Anatomy.”
Hansen was born in Escanaba in 1932. Her mother died of tuberculosis
when she was five years old and she moved to Ishpeming to live
with her two “Irish Spinster” aunts, Florence and Etta
McCarthy on Barnum Street.
“It was not unusual for Irish spinsters to raise the children
of members of their family. In fact, my aunts were also raising
two of my cousins Margaret and Mary Lou,” Hansen said. “My
aunts were wonderful people.”
The youngest of the aunts, Etta—or “Auntie”—was
known in Ishpeming for her classic beauty. She worked as a telephone
operator for Michigan Bell. Voelker told Hansen many times that
he and his friends would hide in the bushes of the Voelker home
to watch Autie walk by when she finished her evening shift at
the telephone company. She was nine years his senior, but John
always had a soft spot in his heart for her.
It may have been the boyhood crush that resulted in the drunken
sidekick of attorney Paul Biegler to be named Parnell McCarthy.
At first, the aunts were scandalized that their name was used
for a character who was “subject to drink,” but as the
book—and later the film—became a national success, the
aunts eased up on Johnny Voelker.
Although the aunts did not appear in the film, their beat-up old
stove-top coffeepot plays a starring role. Viewers will recall
the coffee pot was central to several office scenes with Jimmy
Stewart and Eve Arden. Joan has no idea what became of that coffeepot.
Hansen’s bird’s-eye view of the filming of Anatomy was
the result of numerous instances of being in the right place at
the right time. Not only had she been a long-time friend of Voelker’s
oldest daughter Elizabeth, nicknamed “Honey Bee” by
her father, she also was an Ishpeming girl and had the enviable
job of hostess at the Mather Inn, the stage for many behind-the-scenes
activities involving the Anatomy cast.
The lead actors stayed at the Mather Inn, owned by Cleveland Cliffs,
while lesser cast members and crew stayed in Marquette at the
Northland Hotel (now Landmark Inn). The Inn was open to the public
during the time the cast was in residence.
“We had two seatings for dinner each night, and they were
always filled,” Hansen said. “Everyone wanted to get
a glimpse of the actors and be included in the movie excitement.”
Hansen had been working as a hostess at the Mather Inn to supplement
the income of her family—husband Bill Lehmann and their two
sons Karl and Kurt. Joanie said her monthly wage of $150 before
taxes helped the family, especially when Bill was laid off from
the mines and when he returned to Northern Michigan University
to earn his teaching degree. Despite the fact she had a stable
income, the tips received from the actors, crew and Carlyle Productions,
a division of Columbia Pictures, really helped the young family.
The money was good, but the job also led to developing a personal
relationship with many members of the cast and crew. The vignettes
about cast members and crew in her book make for fascinating reading.
Hansen is complimentary of all cast and crew. She never saw the
volatile side of director Otto Preminger.
“He did lose his temper once when a grip dropped a light
fixture during what would have been a final take,” Hansen
said.
She recounts that he sent Kathryn Grant Crosby back to the hotel
to work on her lines, but didn’t lose his cool or respond
in the way those familiar with his reputation expected.
“I spent a great deal of time on the set and never saw a
mean side to him,” she said. “He could be stern, but
he was never nasty or disrespectful.”
Preminger was in control of almost every aspect of the filming.
Hansen recalls that he and George C. Scott disagreed about how
Scott should play the big city lawyer brought to town to assist
with the prosecution of Air Force Lieutenant Manion. Scott was
primarily a stage actor prior to the film, but gave a memorable
Academy Award nominated performance playing the role. “Preminger
was firm about how George should play the role, and he was right,”
Hansen said.
Things in 1959 were difficult for the Ishpeming area. The mines
were idle due to reduced demand for the iron ore they produced
during the war. People were struggling and the jobs brought to
the area by the filming helped raise the spirits and ease economic
hardship for many. Hansen remembers hearing Harvey Weinberger
tell Preminger that people in Marquette would be willing to accept
much lower payments than the Californians who worked in the film
industry. Preminger replied they would pay the Marquette people
involved in the filming the same as they would if they were in
California—no more and no less.
Hansen and Preminger developed a friendship during production
of the film. In fact, Preminger wrote her into a bar scene. She
was to play a waitress, and Hansen said she even had a couple
of lines. Unfortunately, the scene is one of the later ones in
the film, and by that time, the film was running more than four
and a half hours. Hansen does appear in the film, in a booth with
a male extra—sans lines. For that appearance she received
$90 per day and was scheduled for three days’ work. The $270
she was paid was almost twice her monthly salary at the Mather
Inn.
Hansen’s favorite memory of the Anatomy experience is one
she shared with Jimmy Stewart prior to her waitress scene. She
and Stewart were walking down the street in Big Bay. Stewart was
teasing her to practice her lines, lines she hadn’t even
been told yet, when three young girls ran up and asked for their
autographs. Hansen told the girls she wasn’t an actress,
and they didn’t want her autograph to which Stewart drawled,
“Oh, come on, Joanie, sign, your name—you’re the
star of the picture.”
She did sign the autographs and still wonders whether the girls
ever figured out who she was.
She also is proud of the fact that she danced with Stewart twice
during an impromptu party held in honor of Vou Lee Giokaris, a
costume staff member. Giokaris was leaving early, as her services
were no longer needed. The cast and crew ended up at a farewell
party at the Northland Hotel. “It was one of the only parties
Stewart attended, and he danced with me twice,” Hansen said.
She vividly recalls hearing about Stewart’s death. She and
her second husband Walter Hansen were on Mackinac Island when
they saw an article about his death in a newspaper. Hansen said
she couldn’t help it—she cried when she read the news.
Hansen’s admiration for the actors and actresses in Anatomy
has grown as a result of her own stage experience. She enjoyed
acting and directing in Marquette Community Theater productions.
She also taught music for twenty-plus years at Phelps Middle School
in Ishpeming.
“I don’t know how they manage to shoot scenes time after
time,” she said. “Another thing that makes film acting
so difficult is the fact that scenes are often shot out of sequence.”
Hansen never saw jealousy or competition between the Anatomy cast
members; in fact, they seemed to get along extremely well, despite
the fact that they were separated from their homes and family
members for two months.
Another of Joan’s favorites from the film was Duke Ellington.
His score to the film was finalized on the grand piano in the
Mather Inn’s main dining room.
“There in that dining room, at that piano, was captured the
essence of Ishpeming, which became the award-winning score of
Anatomy of a Murder,” Hansen wrote in her book.
“Midnight Indigo” captures the tones of the handsome
clock atop the Gossard factory. “Grace Valse” was written
in tribute to Voelker’s wife Grace. Her quiet gentleness
flows with the notes. Ellington told Hansen he wrote “Flirtbird”
after watching her odd walk.
“Flirtbird is your walk,” he told her. “It will
be played on the saxophone.”
Hansen said whenever Ellington would play the song, she was unable
not to walk to its notes.
She and Bill traveled to Chicago as Ellington’s guests in
August, 1959. They took the train and stayed at his favorite hotel,
the Sherman. They went to see him play at the Blue Note, one of
the great jazz clubs of the day. From that time on, and until
his death, Hansen received an elaborate Christmas card from Ellington
each year.
Hansen has seen a lot change in her hometown during her seventy-plus
years. Thanks to her background in journalism, studied at Marquette
University and later NMU, she has shared glimpses of a colorful
past with those of us eager to hear about how Otto Preminger and
his cast of characters transformed Marquette County for a few
short months in 1959. As we get ready to celebrate the fiftieth
anniversary of the filming of Anatomy of a Murder, books such
as Anatomy of “Anatomy” The Making of a Movie, the Anatomy
of a Murder Scrapbook, the film and soundtrack transport us back
to those thrilling days when movie stars were common sights on
the streets of Ishpeming, Marquette, Big Bay and Michigamme.
—Pam Christensen
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