{"id":18329,"date":"2017-09-13T16:08:29","date_gmt":"2017-09-13T20:08:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=18329"},"modified":"2017-09-13T16:08:29","modified_gmt":"2017-09-13T20:08:29","slug":"in-this-our-lives-keeping-a-promise-to-bette-davis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/in-this-our-lives-keeping-a-promise-to-bette-davis\/","title":{"rendered":"In This Our Lives: Keeping a promise to Bette Davis"},"content":{"rendered":"

Photo courtesy of Kathryn Sermak<\/em><\/p>\n

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n

She never went anywhere without leaving an impression.<\/p>\n

Whether she was on the silver screen blazing an iconic trail with indelible performances as Margo Channing or Baby Jane Hudson, simply being herself, telling it like it was in her distinct clipped voice between puffs on her ever-present cigarette, or inspiring music with the mere batting of her eyelashes, she remains an icon to generations of film fans nearly 25 years after her death.<\/p>\n

Her legacy is one which was introduced to generations of new generations this year, brought back to life through Susan Sarandon\u2019s Emmy-award nominated performance on the FX series \u201cFeud.\u201d<\/p>\n

She was one of those rare people who became a legend in her own lifetime, but she was much more than that to Kathryn Sermak.
\nBette Davis was her teacher, mentor and, in the end, her best friend. <\/p>\n

The unlikely, deep connection between the personification of the hardy \u201cYankee\u201d and the freewheeling, cosmopolitan California girl beats at the heart of Sermak\u2019s long-awaited memoir \u201cMiss D & Me: Life With the Invincible Bette Davis.\u201d<\/p>\n

Released earlier this week by Hachette Books, it covers the enduring bond between the two women over the last decade of Davis\u2019 life as she forges ahead into the twilight of her career battling for the good scripts that had become a hallmark of her legend, battling through the lingering impacts of a devastating stroke that threatened to derail it, and battling through a devastating personal betrayal which threatened the most important bonds of her life. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt has been a labour of love,\u201d says Ms. Sermak. \u201cIt has taken forever, but now I can look in the mirror and say, \u2018Okay, Miss D. It\u2019s done.\u2019\u201d
\nThis universal story of a bond between two women separated by generations and geography has an added box office appeal in Bette Davis, what Kathryn calls \u201cthe icing on the cake.\u201d<\/p>\n

Just 22 when her world collided with that of the 71-year-old screen legend in 1979, Davis hired the recent college graduate on what she later described as a \u201chunch.\u201d
\nSermak only had the vaguest idea of who Davis was, but was enticed at the prospect of a trip to England to assist the star as she worked on Disney\u2019s \u201cWatcher in the Woods.\u201d A friend, however, convinced her it was a singular opportunity to learn directly from a master and left a copy of Davis\u2019 memoir, The Lonely Life out for her as something of a crash course on her potential future employer.<\/p>\n

\u201cI took the book and stayed up all night reading it,\u201d Sermak recalls. \u201cI was amazed and loved that she was so direct. Call it a premonition, but I woke up the next morning and just knew I had the job. She asked me just two questions: \u2018What is your birth sign?\u2019 and \u2018Can you cook a three-minute egg?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

As it happens, Sermak only thought she knew how to cook a three-minute egg, but Davis was a tough task master. It turned out to be a test which, in turn, gave way to a learning opportunity, setting the pattern of their early relationship. <\/p>\n

\u201cMiss Davis didn\u2019t teach by talking, she taught by action,\u201d she says. <\/p>\n

It was the same way Davis learned as a young actress, cutting her teeth on early small roles at Warner Brothers before working her way up to being their top star. It wasn\u2019t a walk in the park. She learned the rules of the game early on; which rules to respect, and which rules to rail against in the fight for better scripts, better roles, and artistic integrity.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe taught me the same way they taught her,\u201d says Kathryn, describing their first five years as \u201cboot camp.\u201d<\/p>\n

As they forged ahead together, one thing that was not on the curriculum were Bette Davis\u2019 past glories.<\/p>\n

That came later, towards the end of her life, once they had formed a bond that had shifted far beyond employee-employer to best friends, when Davis decided they should collaborate on a documentary. <\/p>\n

It was only then that Kathryn had an opportunity to dive fully into the Bette Davis canon from the very first picture at Warner\u2019s. As Kathryn watched Miss D evolve on the screen, she had the same feeling when it came to their relationship. <\/p>\n

\u201cAll of a sudden I started seeing her differently. I started seeing what other people, the fans, were seeing. I always saw her more like my mother, my grandmother, my friend, but something was changing. When I told Miss D, she wanted to talk about it and I told her I was admiring her work now but I was coming to a fine line \u2013 and if you cross that fine line you are just like everybody else and you lose that other relationship.\u201d<\/p>\n

That relationship was altogether too important to lose. It had weathered many storms and had become increasingly valuable over the previous decade, particularly as the indomitable Davis fought back from the bring of death after a mastectomy which was immediately followed by a devastating stroke, and fought to overcome the heartbreak of a memoir written by her elder daughter, B.D. Hyman, when it seemed Miss Davis was losing the fight for her life.<\/p>\n

\u201cMiss Davis was always predictable about being unpredictable,\u201d says Ms. Sermak, theorising that Hyman wrote her book expecting her mother not to be around to defend herself. \u201cDoctors gave her weeks to live and it wasn\u2019t looking good at all. I always wanted to take the high road and Miss D would never hang out any dirty laundry, but Miss Davis told me, \u2018You can always set the record straight.\u2019 For much of [what is written about in Hyman\u2019s book] I was never around, but I can say when I was there and that is my truth, I was there, and this is the side you didn\u2019t see, this is what your mother went through.\u201d<\/p>\n

While \u201cMiss D & Me\u201d goes a long way in addressing some of the misconceptions that have been fostered by various individuals since Davis\u2019 death in 1989, in the end, Sermak says this book is a gift; a gift not only to \u201cMiss D\u201d herself, but to her fans as well. <\/p>\n

That fighting spirit was instilled by Davis in Sermak as she battled to tell her story her way, going through several publishers, proposals and iterations before all the pieces fell into place. <\/p>\n

\u201cI needed time to heal and the timing had to be right,\u201d she explains, noting she was galvanized by her own mother\u2019s passing to finish the book. \u201cAny earlier and I don\u2019t think I would have had the maturity I needed for the book I wrote today. It hit me that life is so short and I still had this on my plate as I promised Miss D I would do it. You have to be raw, open and honest to go real deep and that is what Miss D. did in The Lonely Life.\\<\/p>\n

\u201cThis book was written out of love, Miss D passing the torch of lessons learned, and I pass it on to you, the reader.\u201d<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

She never went anywhere without leaving an impression.<\/p>\n

Whether she was on the silver screen blazing an iconic trail with indelible performances as…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":18297,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27,4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18329","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-and-culture","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/2017-09-14-05.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-4LD","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-23 15:08:32","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18329","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18329"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18329\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18297"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18329"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18329"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18329"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}