Beginning with her childhood, the Golden Globe winner relayed stories of her past, eventually moving from early roles in films such as Alfred Hitchcock’s The Trouble With Harry—where she spoke of dining with the director who she said remained ever professional around her—to current projects.
Past clips of film adaptations of Around the World in 80 Days had her playing ethnic as Princess Aouda while Some Came Running gave her the first Oscar nomination due to a death scene Frank Sinatra suggested. Movies were relived with the push of a button, including The Apartment—which garnered applause from the audience—and a catfight with Anne Bancroft for The Turning Point that it turned out was improvised.
Stories were told of The Children’s Hour being judged harshly for “lesbian stuff” and Bette Davis drinking out of her shoe were treats for the crowd.
Elizabeth Taylor she called her BFF and nicknamed her “Squirrelly.”
MacLaine also showed segments of Postcards from the Edge, Used People and Rumor Has It. A real crowd-pleaser was from her Academy Award-winning film Terms of Endearment, when she stated that Jack Nicholson did not warn her he would grab her breast before shooting the scene.
She then moved on to television, with the miniseries from her own book entitled Out on a Limb to the now current Downton Abbey, where she plays the Countess of Grantham.
She mentioned a new book tentatively titled What If and a new movie with Christopher Plummer called Elsa & Fred before moving into an audience Q&A where one question led her to say that her “androgynous” dog, Terry, is the love of her life. Photos and text by Jerry Nunn