Teresa Wright's Remarkable Contract with Samuel Goldwyn

Teresa Wright was a movie star from the beginning of her film career. It was in 1939 that she began a two-year stint playing Mary Skinner in Life with Father on Broadway. She had been appearing in Life with Father for a year when legendary film producer Samuel Goldwyn attended one of its performances. Impressed by her acting skills, Mr. Goldwyn immediately signed her to play Zannie Giddens, the daughter of lead character Regina Giddens, in the in the 1941 movie adaptation of Lillian Hellman's play The Little Foxes. Samuel Goldwyn also signed Teresa Wright to a five year contract.

Teresa Wright's contract with Samuel Goldwyn would be unusual for an actress in Hollywood in that it contained the following stipulation:

"The aforementioned Teresa Wright shall not be required to pose for photographs in a bathing suit unless she is in the water. Neither may she be photographed running on the beach with her hair flying in the wind. Nor may she pose in any of the following situations: In shorts, playing with a cocker spaniel; digging in a garden; whipping up a meal; attired in firecrackers and holding skyrockets for the Fourth of July; looking insinuatingly at a turkey for Thanksgiving; wearing a bunny cap with long ears for Easter; twinkling on prop snow in a skiing outfit while a fan blows her scarf; assuming an athletic stance while pretending to hit something with a bow and arrow."

To many people today this stipulation might seem unusual, but for classic movie buffs familiar with classic pinups, it is clear Teresa Wright's contract is listing some of the most common tropes found in pinup pictures. Quite simply, in a rather humorous fashion, Teresa Wright is stating that she will not do many types of pinup pictures. It was in this way that Teresa Wright asserted herself as a serious actress. And Teresa Wright would be taken very seriously as an actress. She was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for The Little Foxes (1941). The next year she won the Oscar for  Best Supporting Actress for Mrs. Miniver (1942) and was nominated for the Oscar for Best Actress for The Pride of the Yankees (1942).  She would go on to appear in the classics Shadow of a Doubt (1943) and The Best Years of Our Lives (1946). Even though she was taken seriously as an actress, Teresa Wright did wind up doing some pinup pictures, but they were not as goofy or campy as other pinups of the time. An example can be seen to the left. Of course, notice the look on her face...

Teresa Wright and Samuel Goldwyn would eventually part ways. It was in December 1948 that he cancelled her contract with the claims that she refused to promote the movie Enchantment (1948) and that she was "uncooperative." In response Teresa Wright stated that she never refused to do what was asked of her, but at the time she was in poor health. While Miss Wright would give many more great performances, in the following decades she would not see the success in movies that she had in the Forties.

Below are a few examples of the sort of pinups to which Teresa Wright objected doing....

Possibly the most famous pinup of all time: Betty Grable in a swimsuit, but clearly not in the water.

From the Fifties, but they also did these types of pinups in the Forties: Jayne Mansfield whipping up a meal.

Here's Ann Miller with some really big firecrackers.

And here's Heather Angel dressed in bunny ears for Easter.

While I love the old, campy pinups, I can fully understand why Teresa Wright might have thought she would have been taken less seriously if she did them!