Bette Davis Escapes to Blackpool

Bette Davis’s first visit to Blackpool was in September 1936 when she stayed at the County Hotel. During her stay, she crossed the Promenade to be photographed and interviewed by the Gazette. She checked into the hotel under her married name as Mrs H.O. Nelson, California. It was the answer to the question newspapers were asking on both sides of the Atlantic: Where is Bette Davis?

She vanished from Hollywood after a row with film magnate Jack Warner, head of the mighty Warner Brothers organisation. Bette, reaching the peak of her career, felt her scripts were declining in quality and, after arguing with Warner, she was told she should take her new role – or else. It was as a female lumberjack in God’s Country and The Woman, and Bette said, ‘I flatly refused to play it. The heroine was an insufferable bore who scowled while everyone kept yelling “timber”.’ She was suspended for three months with no salary and later signed with another studio, ultimately sailing to England to avoid an injunction which would have prohibited her from working. The Nelsons vanished from London and turned up in Blackpool, where the Gazette recorded that ‘she emerged in the hotel lounge, charming and glamorous’. The Gazette took great photo of her waving from Blackpool Promenade in 1936. It can’t be shown here because of copyright restrictions but it’s well worth a look on the Gazette’s website. Read about her 1976 visit to the ABC Theatre in Blackpool.

Bette Davis came on tour to Blackpool’s ABC Theatre with a retrospective look at her career on 10 October 1975. Her show at the ABC began with a 50-minute collection of clips from her films, including 1963’s Whatever Happened to Baby Jane and her Oscar-winning roles in Jezebel and All About Eve. After the screening the grand dame answered pre-arranged questions from the audience and received a standing ovation. In the afternoon prior to that event, she was a guest of the Mayor at the Town Hall where she said, ‘Blackpool was one of my favourite memories of that first trip to England,’ referring to her stay at the County Hotel in 1936.

The featured image was taken just a few years after her Blackpool visit on 23 October 1939.