50 Fun Facts About All About Eve

Which future superstar has a small early role as aspiring actress Miss Casswell in All About Eve?

Marilyn Monroe appears in only two scenes, and turned up an hour late for her first day on the party sequence. One short lobby exchange reportedly took 25 takes.

Which 1990s blockbuster matched the record 14 Oscar nominations that All About Eve had held alone for decades?

Titanic equalled the tally in 1998 and then won eleven of its fourteen races, where the older film had converted six.

Which screen legend played ageing stage star Margo Channing in All About Eve after the actress first cast was injured?

Bette Davis was given just ten days to get ready, and at first took the studio chief's phone call offering her the part for a prank.

In All About Eve, which theatre job does Eve Harrington obtain behind Margo Channing's back, with Karen's help?

Understudy is the post Eve secures without Margo knowing; when Margo is tricked into missing a show, Eve goes on in her place and triumphs.

All About Eve earned 14 Oscar nominations, breaking a record of 13 set by which 1939 epic?

Gone with the Wind had held the nominations record for eleven years, and it still took home more statuettes: eight competitive Oscars to the newer film's six.

Which granddaughter of architect Frank Lloyd Wright played scheming fan Eve Harrington in All About Eve?

Anne Baxter was picked partly because she resembled the actress first cast as Margo, the idea being that Eve would slowly come to mirror her idol.

At the end of All About Eve, newly crowned stage star Eve Harrington is about to leave New York for where?

Hollywood is Eve's next rung, a sly joke in a story whose theatre people spend two hours sneering at the picture business.

In All About Eve, Eve Harrington wins Margo Channing's sympathy by falsely claiming to be what?

A war widow is the part Eve invents, saying her husband died in the South Pacific; the truth, exposed late on, is that she never married at all.

Which Spanish director titled his Oscar-winning 1999 drama as a homage to All About Eve?

Pedro Almodóvar named it All About My Mother, and it went on to win the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.

Which other 1950 classic about a fading actress lost the Best Picture Oscar to All About Eve?

Sunset Boulevard arrived with eleven nominations, including one in every acting category, yet none of its four nominated performers won.

Which acid-tongued critic narrates the opening of All About Eve and later exposes Eve Harrington's invented past?

Addison DeWitt digs up Eve's true name and history, then uses the secret to stop her marrying a married man and to bind her to himself.

Which suave British actor won the only acting Oscar awarded to All About Eve, as a venomous newspaper columnist?

George Sanders took Best Supporting Actor while all four of the film's nominated actresses left empty-handed. A later generation knows his purr as Shere Khan in Disney's The Jungle Book.

Who both wrote and directed All About Eve, collecting two Oscars for it a year after winning the same pair?

Joseph Mankiewicz had taken the same two prizes twelve months earlier for A Letter to Three Wives, which made four statuettes in two years.

Which major studio made All About Eve, with a score by the composer of its own famous logo fanfare?

20th Century-Fox employed the fanfare's composer as its music chief for two decades, and his work here earned one of the film's fourteen nominations.

Which stage prize, invented for All About Eve, inspired a real Chicago society to start presenting it in 1952?

The Sarah Siddons Award existed only in the script until Chicago theatregoers, among them Nancy Reagan's mother, founded a society to hand out a real one.

Which Born Yesterday star won the Best Actress Oscar over both leading ladies of All About Eve?

Judy Holliday beat a field that held two nominees from one film, which is still the only picture to earn four acting nominations for women.

Which star was cast as Margo Channing in All About Eve but withdrew after injuring her back on another film?

Claudette Colbert hurt her back shooting Three Came Home, and with a location already leased for two weeks the producers could not wait for her to heal.

Which character actress earned the first of her six Oscar nominations as Margo Channing's maid in All About Eve?

Thelma Ritter never won on any of those six Best Supporting Actress nominations, all of them earned within twelve years.

In All About Eve, Eve Harrington says she first saw Margo Channing act in which city, far from New York?

San Francisco is part of the lie, since Eve had never been there, though the real city lent the production its Curran Theatre for the playhouse scenes.

Which 1970 Broadway musical based on All About Eve won the Tony Award for Best Musical?

Applause ran for 896 performances at the Palace Theatre, and its second Margo was the very actress who had played Eve on screen twenty years before.

Which powerful studio chief personally produced All About Eve and sent nine pages of notes on its script?

Darryl F. Zanuck urged that the maid's early distrust be toned down, so audiences would not spot Eve as the schemer until much later.

Which writer's 1946 magazine short story inspired All About Eve, though she received no screen credit?

Mary Orr sold the film rights for $5,000 and went unnamed in the titles, yet she played Karen herself when the tale was dramatised for radio.

Which magazine published "The Wisdom of Eve", the 1946 short story that became All About Eve?

Cosmopolitan ran the story in May 1946 and came back for more, printing a sequel called More About Eve five years later.

Which stage star's real-life anecdote about a scheming young secretary inspired the story behind All About Eve?

Elisabeth Bergner took in a young fan who had stood outside the Booth Theatre for days, gave her a job, then watched her try to take over.

Which costume designer, the most honoured woman in Oscar history, shared a win for All About Eve?

Edith Head won twice that night, sharing the monochrome prize for this film and the colour prize for Samson and Delilah.

Which character in All About Eve is Margo Channing's sharp-tongued maid, who shows an early mistrust of Eve?

Birdie does not exist in the original short story: the part was written specially for a character actress the writer-director had just worked with.

In the final shot of All About Eve, what is young intruder Phoebe holding as she bows to a mirror?

Eve's award had been left in a taxi and returned to the flat; Phoebe keeps hold of it, slips on Eve's cloak and bows, the next schemer in line.

Which film star won a Tony Award playing Margo Channing in the 1970 stage musical of All About Eve?

Lauren Bacall won Best Actress in a Musical, then took the show out on tour when her contract ended in 1971.

Which screen star played Margo Channing opposite Lily James in the 2019 London stage version of All About Eve?

Gillian Anderson led the production at the Noël Coward Theatre for director Ivo van Hove, nearly seventy years after the film opened.

Which animated series spoofed All About Eve in a 2008 episode about a young assistant who steals her boss's show?

The Simpsons called the episode All About Lisa: Lisa goes to work for Krusty the Clown, takes over his programme and collects an entertainer award.

Which actor, cast as Margo Channing's lover in All About Eve, went on to marry the actress playing Margo?

Gary Merrill and his co-star later adopted a baby girl and named her Margot, after the character who had brought them together.

Which Oscar winner for Gentleman's Agreement played Margo Channing's loyal friend Karen in All About Eve?

Celeste Holm picked up another nomination as Karen, then decided she preferred live theatre and took only a few film parts over the next decade.

The brother of All About Eve's writer-director co-wrote which famous film with Orson Welles?

Citizen Kane was co-written by Herman, the sibling who had talked the future director into quitting Paris for a studio writing job in California.

Which composer wrote Liebesträume, the piano piece heard in the party scene of All About Eve?

Franz Liszt's melody survived because the writer-director refused one candidate's demand that Margo sing a torch song at the party instead.

Which actress was the producer's first choice for Eve Harrington in All About Eve until she became pregnant?

Jeanne Crain had starred in the director's previous hit, but he argued that she lacked the sharp edge the part demanded.

Which screen star was approached to play Margo Channing in All About Eve but refused to leave Italy?

Ingrid Bergman was the producer's pick to replace his hospitalised star, but she would not travel for the shoot, so the search went on.

Which flamboyant stage star believed Margo Channing in All About Eve was modelled on her, and played Margo on radio?

Tallulah Bankhead had created the leads in Dark Victory and The Little Foxes on Broadway, then watched the film's leading lady play both on screen.

At which European film festival did All About Eve win a Special Jury Prize and its star the Best Actress award?

Cannes handed the film both prizes in 1951, although the festival's top award, the Grand Prix, went to other entries.

The American Film Institute placed Eve Harrington of All About Eve 23rd in its ranking of cinema's greatest what?

Villains is the list Eve made, and the same institute placed one of Margo's lines ninth among the greatest film quotes.

Which future Golden Girl played Sue Ann Nivens in a 1974 Mary Tyler Moore Show episode modelled on All About Eve?

Betty White's cooking-show hostess hires an eager young fan who then tries to replace her, but unlike Margo she sees the newcomer off.

In All About Eve, what is the profession of Lloyd Richards, whose wife Karen introduces Eve to Margo Channing?

Playwright Lloyd supplies Margo's hits, which is why Eve later works on him to hand her the lead in his next script.

In All About Eve, why does Margo Channing finally turn down the stage role of Cora that everyone expected her to play?

She feels too old to play an ingénue, and with her wedding ahead Margo decides the stage no longer has to be her entire life.

In All About Eve, Eve secretly books a midnight phone call from Margo to Bill to mark what occasion?

His birthday is the occasion, and the stunt is meant to make Bill think Margo forgot it, while Eve slips in a greeting of her own.

In All About Eve, where does Eve corner Karen with an ultimatum about the coveted role of Cora?

A ladies' room at a restaurant is the setting, moments after Margo and Bill have announced their engagement at a nearby table.

What is the real first name of Eve Harrington, revealed when her invented past unravels in All About Eve?

Gertrude is the name she left behind along with a scandal: she had been paid to leave town after an affair with her married boss.

What working title did All About Eve carry when its writer-director drafted an 82-page treatment in 1949?

Best Performance grew from that outline into a full first draft during six weeks at the San Ysidro Ranch in California.

Which composer, winner of nine Oscars, earned another nomination for scoring All About Eve?

Alfred Newman collected 45 Oscar nominations in all, a record for a composer until John Williams overtook him decades later.

What did Random House publish from All About Eve as a hardcover book in 1951?

Its screenplay appeared as a book with a punning dedication to Rosa, and a writers' guild later ranked the script the fifth greatest ever written.

Which actor, that year's Best Actor Oscar winner, was the producer's first choice for the critic in All About Eve?

José Ferrer won his statuette for Cyrano de Bergerac on the very night the man who replaced him took the supporting prize.

Which actress was the writer-director's original pick for Margo Channing in All About Eve but judged too young at 32?

Susan Hayward was named in the memo that first urged the studio to buy the story, which called Margo a superb starring part for her.