Quotes

I recall playing practical jokes with John Wayne. I once got a whole bunch of keys and had little tags made that said, "If lost, please return to John Wayne, RKO Studios. Reward." And I just dropped them all over town. [He got a lot of] phone calls, people showing up at the studio. He never learned who did it.

[Statement Laraine Day gave to CBS in 1968] I am very much a Republican. I think that Richard Nixon is a great man and that he is very dedicated to what he does. I had the pleasure of meeting him when I attended the Republican National Convention in Miami. You can really tell that he is willing to go out of his way to help the American people. I am proud to support him as president and I wish him all the success in the world and may I also say that it was an honor to endorse him.

I enjoyed working at RKO more than at MGM. At RKO, the parts were better!

A lot of sources said I was born in 1917. That is incorrect. I was born in 1920. 1917 was the year the studios listed as my birth year to make me appear older.

MGM never really gave me a break. They loaned me out for leading roles, but cast me in programme pictures.

Gary (Cooper) turned out to be the surprise of my young life. He was so convincing with his stuttering, stammering awkward little boy manners. When the action called for Dr Wassell to kiss me, I got all set for a bashful boy kiss. Well, it was like holding a hand grenade and not being able to get rid of it! I was left breathless.

Hitchcock was a character. In one particularly scary scene I had to sneak down a dark corridor. When I got to the end there was Mr Hitchcock, sticking out his tongue and flapping his hands in the back of his ears. I didn't dare laugh, because the cameras were turning. But he certainly eliminated any tension I felt.

My character was the greatest challenge I ever had - a destructive young woman who's a kleptomaniac. The form of the film - flashbacks within flashbacks within flashbacks - was criticized by some reviewers of the time as too confusing. Today, though, its style is highly regarded by film historians... Many movie fans seem to remember me best from the Dr Kildare series but, first and foremost, I remember The Locket.

When I was on the Board of the Screen Actors Guild in the early '40s, I remember Gene Kelly at every meeting bringing up the subject of a new medium called television that was going to be important. He was adamant that the Guild should do something about it right then and nobody would pay any attention to him. I have other memories of the Guild that are very glowing, except the decision made to accept a deal that eliminated all the pictures before 1960 from any residuals to the actors who were in them. That was a crushing blow to so many of us. But then there are other things the Guild has accomplished that are all simply marvelous: the working conditions and hours are great and the health plan and pension are absolutely magnificent.

[on Ronald Reagan] Ronald Reagan makes me proud to be an American. His intelligence, capability, and Christian brotherhood are so inspiring and his way of leadership is just superb. I consider myself lucky to have been his leading lady in The Bad Man (1941) and a short subject reel and as a nation all together we are beyond fortunate to have the leadership of such fine people as the Reagan's.

[on John F. Kennedy] His liberal agenda and womanizing lifestyle are no good for America.