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Because of the highly publicized shooting incident, Joan was
professionally ostracized in Hollywood. "I became a professional outcast," she later recalled. "Everybody sort
of thought I was taboo. Can you imagine such a thing happening today? I'd be in great demand!" She turned
to the stage, replacing Rosalind Russell in the national tour of Bell, Book, and Candle. Her leading man was
first Dennis Price and then later Zachary Scott. After a year on tour through March 13,1953, she and Wanger resumed
living under the same roof, but "from then on, our lives were separate, and we preserved the amenities only for the sake of
the girls [Stephanie and Shelley]."
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| The Man Who Came to Dinner, 1954 |
Humphrey Bogart, close friend of Joan's, was outraged at the
shabby way Hollywood producers were treating her. When he was offered the script to We're No Angels (1955),
he said he'd only accept it if she were given the supporting role, of Amelie Ducotel, charming wife of addled Leo G. Carroll.
Later in 1956, Joan began an 11-month tour of the play, Janus,
with Donald Cook. Joan later stated that their friendship was "one of the most important relationships in my life."
In 1958 she and Cook appeared on Broadway in Love Me Little. It lasted only 8 performances despite the
stars getting good reviews. She and Cook also starred in a TV series called "Too Young to Go Steady" which lasted for
6 weeks in 1959. Then they toured in The Pleasure of His Company, after which she did a role in a forgettable
film, Desire in the Dust (1960).
In 1963, while appearing in Never Too Late in London, Joan cut her run short
when she learned Emery was dying of cancer: "I accepted no offer of work in order to go about the priveleged duties
of meeting his daily needs." Most of Emery's savings were spent on medical expenses, but his estate, valued at $5,000
to $10,000 went to Joan.
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| From the playbill for Bell, Book and Candle, 1952 |
A third-rate whodunit, Highway Dragnet (1954), in
which she appeared was followed by her appearance on TV in The Man Who Came to Dinner (CBS, 10/13/54) with Monty
Woolley, Merle Oberon, ZaSu Pitts, Buster Keaton, and Bert Lahr.
Wanger was back on his feet by 1956, having produced several
low-budget films for Allied Artists. He cast his wife opposite Gary Merrill in Navy Wife; also in 1956, Joan
appeared in There's Always Tomorrow, a Douglas Sirk soaper starring Barbara Stanwyck and Fred MacMurray.
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| Janus with Donald Cook, 1956 |
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| Love Me Little with Donald Cook, 1958 |
Cook's death from a heart attack in 1961 left Joan "in a
a state of shock." She hesitatingly accepted an offer to appear with John Emery, a close friend of Cook's in The
Reluctant Debutante, at Chicago's Drury Lane Theatre. Emery became a very good friend.
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| Cover of playbill for The Reluctant Debutante, 1962 |
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Joan Bennett, Diana Anderson, Diana Markey, Melinda Markey, Melinda
Beno, Stephanie Wanger, Stephanie Guest, Shelley Wanger, Shelley Mortimer, John Marion Fox, Gene Markey, Walter Wanger, Richard
Bennett, Constance Bennett, Barbara Bennett, Barbara Downey, Adrienne Morrison, Adrienne Bennett, Mabel Bennett, Mabel Morrison,
Adrienne Ralston Fox, www.joanbennett.net
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