Quotes

[on John Farrow] He was absolutely wonderful to me. He could be nice, but he could also be rough if he didn't like you.

[on working with Alfred Hitchcock and Carole Lombard in Mr. & Mrs. Smith (1941)] She [Lombard] was great, but I didn't get to know her. She was with Hitchcock all the time. In fact, Hitchcock never said a word to me, but I was so thrilled, the idea of working with Hitchcock. I didn't have that much to do in it. During the scene, I think he was talking to Carole most of the time. He may have said "come in the door" or something, and "say this", but as for learning a lot? No.

I don't think [MGM] were worried about Clark Gable getting too uppity . . . he was bringing in an awful lot of money.

I love Republic. And everybody out there was wonderful. Seemed like a small town.

[on Utah Trail (1938), her first western] It was terrible! I never saw it and never wanted to.

[on changing her name from "Adele Pearce" to "Pamela Blake"] We had read for a couple of days when Alan [Alan Ladd] got the part in This Gun for Hire (1942). I was anxious to get the part of Annie, which I finally got. They thought if I changed my name maybe my luck would change, which it did. My dad wasn't very happy about it, although he didn't say anything. At the time it seemed like a good idea. I was sorry I did it afterwards. I liked the name Pearce, I didn't like Adele very much.

[on the death of ex-husband Malcolm 'Bud' McTaggart] When I was working the RKO pictures, Bud and I were married at that time. Bud died in a swimming accident in 1949. It was terrible. We had been divorced; in fact, he was remarried. I had talked to him a couple of weeks before. The pool was built out, there was cement on both sides of the diving board. Jack Buetel was there at the time. In fact, he went down to rescue Bud. I wasn't there . . . but apparently Bud had said, "Watch this dive". He was always kidding around. As he dove, he hit the side of the pool.