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Adele Mailer Interview: Glimpses of Monty

interviewed by American Legends

Adele married Norman Mailer whose first novel, The Naked and the Dead, had skyrocketed him to fame in 1948.Their stormy marriage was partly fictionalized in The Deer Park, Mailer's 1955 novel which he later adapted as a play. During the marriage, Adele and Norman met and entertained many of the writers and actors who were part of the intellectual life of the city. Adele deals with some of these friendships in her own memoir of that period, The Last Party. Here, in an exclusive interview with American Legends, conducted via telephone from her home in New York, Adele Mailer recalls a glimpse of a friend named Montgomery Clift.


AL:
How did you first meet Monty Clift?

AM:
It was a party at Libby Holman's brownstone in New York. She had been a nightclub singer in the thirties. Libby was ambitious and very beautiful. Truman Capote brought us there. Clift and Holman were going together. She and Monty seemed close. Most people thought they were lovers. He picked these mother figures.

AL:
What was the young Monty Clift like?

AM:
He was shy, soft spoken, almost halting. Very much like he was on the screen. I thought he was very sweet.

AL:
Clift later visited you and Norman in Provincetown.
AM:
Monty came up for a weekend. He was with Mira Rostova--his acting coach. She was Russian. They spent a lot of time together. Monty was then a big star. He drew these huge crowds everywhere he went. It was wild. People would come up to the table while we were eating lobster. Monty wasn't annoyed. He was nice about it. He had class.

AL:
Did you see Monty after Provincetown?

AM:
He was usually on the coast. But when Norman was casting The Deer Park, Monty read for one of the parts. I think it was for Charles Eitel, the blacklisted director. He gave a good reading. This was at our apartment on Perry Street, in the Village. I hadn't seen Monty since the terrible car accident he had had in Hollywood. When I opened the door, I didn't recognize him. I was shocked. It was a different face. You see it in the film, Raintree County, his face was all patched together. But the accident was something you didn't talk about. You didn't bring it up, and he didn't bring it up.

AL:
Monty wasn't cast in The Deer Park.

AM:
Mailer liked Clift a lot. But I don't know what happened. I don't know whether he couldn't do it, or he wasn't interested. He always had a movie.

AL:
You and Norman once gave a party that both Monty and Marlon Brando attended. How did they get along?

AM:
I was busy hostessing, so I just caught a glimpse of Monty. He and Marlon seemed wary of each other. In fact, they ignored each other. Brando was competitive with Monty, I heard. Didn't that make sense? They were the two comers.

AL:
So much has been written about Montgomery Clift's self-destruction and his ambivalence about women.

AM:
At parties, most of the time he was drunk. Most of us were too. He was a good kisser--I can tell you that. Certainly, he was interested in women. He may have been bi.

AL:
How would you describe Monty Clift at a glimpse?

AM:
God, he was tortured. He was driven. You felt an underlying sadness. Even without knowing anything about him. Some people you know without knowing anything about them.


So interesting what she said about Monty and Brando....I've read so much about them being friends.