Mummy Dearest: A Horror Tradition Unearthed Page #3

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As she told me in her richly theatrical

way, "I had more respect

for the whores on 42nd Street

than I did for the stars in Hollywood."

When I met her in 1979,

at her pre-Revolutionary War house

by the Hudson River,

she was still drama incarnate.

She gave the interview

by sitting on a chaise lounge

and adjusting her lighting

before she began to talk.

And we weren't filming anything.

That was just her.

Zita Johann was a remarkable actress,

and when I first got to know her

it was rather guarded that she told me

about her interest in the occult.

But the more we got into the making

of The Mummy and the more she relaxed,

she actually began to discuss

her interest in the occult sciences.

I am Anck-es-en-Amon, but I...

I'm somebody else too.

I want to live,

even in a strange new world.

She was a devout believer

in reincarnation.

She told me that at one point in the 1920s

she had gone on a spiritual retreat

in the Adirondacks and had levitated.

Then she added

"Coming down was rotten."

So she was really a perfect choice

for Princess Anck-es-en-Amon.

She was absolutely

in spiritual key with the character.

- Look and wonder.

- A fgure of myself.

It is my coffn,

made by my father against my death.

What mummy has usurped

my eternal resting place?

It is thy dead shell.

I tried then to raise this body.

I could raise it now, but it would be

a mere thing that moved at my will,

without a soul.

Now, when I got to know her and visited

her in this wonderful old spooky house,

she had diagrams on the table

of cabbalistic symbols,

and she did yoga, and she would

teach acting courses as well.

But she incorporated all of this spirituality

and mysticism into her acting.

She'd say "All right,

if you're going to play Medea,

let's call upon Medea

to come into the circle."

She was a very headstrong woman

in the Katharine Hepburn mould.

And the irony of that

is that Katharine Hepburn,

had she not left for the East Coast

when she did,

would have screen-tested

for The Mummy.

Zita had a very headstrong,

determined kind of spirit,

and in 1932

that must have been a disaster,

because she was butting heads

with everyone.

She told me she walked

into Irving Thalberg's office

and said "Irving,

why do you make such rubbish?"

Even men didn't talk

to Irving Thalberg that way.

But he actually said "For the money,

Zita, for the money."

And she behaved in a way

that suited her character.

She was a stage actress,

and she was a very fine stage actress.

She had talent, breeding, looks,

and I think that she felt

that she was too good for Hollywood.

But the money was phenomenal.

And in 1931 and '32,

to make $7500 a week was something

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