Twitch Upon a Star by Herbie J. Pilato Read Free Book Online Page B

special bond (and who eventually introduced her to the potentially lighter side of life, like horse racing and gambling.)
    Becca moved with her daughters Elizabeth Allen and Martha-Bryan to New York City in the early 1920s where Martha-Bryan had a role in the Broadway play, He Who Gets Slapped , which played at the Garrick Theater. In all, Martha-Bryan, mother to Lizzie’s first cousin, Amanda (a.k.a. “Panda,” a childhood playmate), was in two dozen plays at one point before she met her husband-to-be Arthur Cushman.
    Into this mix, Elizabeth Allen also performed in several live stage productions until she married Robert Montgomery on April 14, 1928. She received superb reviews for many of these plays, such as with Revolt , of which The New York Times said, “The lovely Miss Allen is poised for leading lady status anytime soon. She always brings freshness to her roles.”
    Allen and Robert were married at the Episcopal Church of the Transfiguration also known as “The Little Church Around the Corner” on 29th Street between Fifth Avenue and Madison Avenue. The church was also the home of the Episcopal Actors’ Guild, of which she and Robert were members.
    She retired almost immediately at Robert’s request for her to concentrate only on being his wife. Lizzie chatted about Elizabeth Allen to Modern Screen in May 1965:
    Mother is a marvelous person. Just great. It’s her attitude toward people that’s so marvelous. She’s a very warm, outgoing, generous human being. She’d acted on Broadway (that’s where she met Dad); so did her sister, Martha-Bryan Allen. Both of them got reviews that are so extraordinarily good, they make you sort of proud. Mother did light comedy; she co-starred with Lee Tracy and Elizabeth Patterson. But she gave up her career when she married Dad and I don’t believe ever regretted it for a moment. She loves her house and she and Dad gave my brother and me a wonderful childhood. It just couldn’t have been happier, healthier or more fun.
    When Lizzie was a stage-struck teen, Robert tried to sway her decision from acting by using his wife a prime example. According to the August 1967 edition of Screen Stars magazine, Robert told Lizzie that her mother was wise to forfeit her career to marry him and raise a family. He went on to tout his wife as the toast of Broadway, but that she knew her career would be detrimental to raising children. “It’s difficult to know who your real friends are,” Robert added. “Worst of all, acting requires the constant rejection of your real self. Sometimes you don’t even know who you are anymore. Imagine what that does to a family!”
    Lizzie wouldn’t have to wonder about the consequences; she’d experience them first hand.

Two

Grim
    â€œThere’s a little bit of a displaced person in everybody, and it’s nothing to be ashamed of.”
    â€”Elizabeth to Ronald Haver, 1991
    Elizabeth’s young life was divided between her parents’ massive estate in Patterson, New York, and their elegant home in Beverly Hills. It was there they hosted various dinner parties and Sunday brunches that were attended by the conservative likes of James Cagney, Bette Davis, Rosalind Russell, Irene Dunne, Frank Morgan, and George Arliss. Her parents moved in A-list circles, and were considered Hollywood royalty. They were well-groomed, poised, and intelligent leaders of the community. They were quiet, private, and peaceful in their everyday lives and, like many of their friends (and later, Lizzie), rejected exhibitionism and screwball conduct.
    On October 13, 1930, Robert Montgomery and Elizabeth Allen gave birth to the little girl they named after Allen’s sister Martha-Bryan, the infant-child whose subsequent tragic death in December 1931 at only fourteen months (due to spinal meningitis) would forever change the Montgomery family dynamic.
    Elizabeth’s parents resided in a