Miss Information

I  have done an exorbitant amount of reading about the life of my cousin.  I have read every book written about her, every article, every magazine piece, every quip, dot, comma, noun, verb and yet it never ceases to amaze me the amount of information out there that bears so little resemblance to reality.  It is hard to say exactly where some of the blatant misinformation began.  Some of it has just been repeated so many times that it has become accepted as fact.  Some of it is deliberate.  Some of it is a failure of people to accurately research their work.  All of it irritates me because it is an acceptance of an illusion that portrays this strong, passionate, sensitive, beautiful soul as a typical "Hollywood" star.  Nothing could be further from the truth.

What has lead me to this rant, surgery, yes, that's right, surgery.  When you are forced to be relatively still after having a huge portion of your interior removed you read and when you read things that you've read many times you notice the inaccuracies.  I do understand that work, a great deal of work, went into these books yet I'm stunned by the fact that each author seemed to stop just short of the truth.

Charles Tranberg wrote his book " I Love the Illusion" after interviewing some of Agnes' intimates and extensively reviewing her papers at the University of Wisconsin.  His book is filled with more inaccurate information than any of the others.  He put a lot of work into this vehicle but his information is seriously flawed.  His information garnered first hand from the likes of Paul Gregory is brilliant and an invaluable insight into the character of this magnificent woman but his willingness to pepper it with bad information does it a great disservice.   So, in the spirit of unmisinformation, I admit I just made that word up, I am going to dissect and attempt to illuminate the truth of the statements below.

1. Massachusetts Birth of Margaret
The section that alludes to Agnes' family life starts by providing us with information that both girls being born in Massachusetts, " It was shortly after Margaret was born that John was assigned to a new parish in Hamilton, Ohio."  Nothing could be further from the truth.  Agnes was born in Clinton Massachusetts and when her family moved to Hamilton, Ohio she was an only child.  Margaret was born in Hamilton on the 12th of April 1906.  I have the birth record so there's no arguing this point.

2. Home Life
The next information provided was that the Moorehead home was the loving home that we all long for and that the two girls lived a somewhat idyllic life.  First of all we know that Molly could be cold and uncaring.  That statement comes from someone who actually knew Molly Moorehead.  The gentleman who made the statement chalked that part of her personality up to being a fundamentalist Presbyterian.  He also added the her life was lived for the glory of god.  I think it's going out on a limb when you make sweeping statements life the one below because your information is only as accurate as the people who give it to you and one thing I've learned about Agnes is that she was a chameleon.  She could adapt and cover herself no matter what it took.
I'm sure that they were loved but not in the way they should have been.  In the end the lack of understanding and love cost Margaret her life.  So you can take away from this whatever you desire but you have to be willing to read between the lines and apply basic psychology principals to the interpretation of these statements such as, "While they were brought up in a home full of love, music, books, and religion, Agnes and Margaret, like all children got into mischief."

3. Their Personalities
"Agnes developed a headstrong, lively personality and a sharp wit which reminded many people of Mollie, and, in fact, Agnes and Mollie would be remembered for being very similar in attitudes and behavior.  Margaret was more like her father, low key and shy."  From my own personal experience I know what it's like to be similar to your mother.  It usually adds up to arguments, disagreements and a lot of down time in your room reading.  Certainly Agnes was outgoing to a point but she hid her real self to protect it so in truth how much was she like her mother?  If you are out going, headstrong and lively you don't manufacture facades to keep the world at bay.  Similarly low key, mellow, shy people rarely go off the deep end and commit suicide.  I think that the surface of these two complex personalities has only been scratched at best.

4. Hiding in make believe
Agnes hid herself away in her make believe world.  In fantasy she was safe from the trials and tribulations of the outside world.  Again, I must labor on the point that someone with an Ozzy and Harriet up bringing doesn't need to hide from anything.  Nearly every person who speaks about her mentions her ability to detach and enter into a blatantly untrue story then act as though it were fact, for her it was, and yet nobody wants to understand that this type of escape is pursued by someone who has dealt at great length with trauma in their lives.  They say, "Unlike many other children she didn't get frightened when she read Grimm Fairy Tales.  She got caught up in the adventures without the side effects of nightmares. Agnes lost herself in the stories and could spend hours sitting alone reading and then, afterward would spend hours acting out what she read.  She would be in a fantasy world of her own and her best friend was her imagination."


5. Time in Hamilton
The Moorehead family lived in Hamilton until 1913 when John took a pastorate in Saint Louis.  They had been in Hamilton since about 1903.  If you do the math that's longer than seven years as is referenced in Tranberg's book.  It is more like 10 years and 9 for Agnes.  In addition Agnes lived with an Uncle and Aunt in Denver.  It was one of John's brothers that she stayed with.
"The Moorehead's spent seven years living in Hamilton, six for Agnes since she developed whooping cough and the family doctor advised John and Mollie to send Agnes to a dry climate.  She ended up spending a year with an Aunt in Denver."  "In 1912 John relocated to the First Presbyterian Church in St. Louis.  To move from the security of friends and family in Ohio to the big city of St. Louis was not an easy one for Agnes.  She later recalled crying herself the first two weeks after the family arrived."

 6. Death of Teddy McCauley
Agnes was no doubt close to her maternal grandfather.  But the idea that she was small child when he died is truly misinformation.  Teddy McCauley along with his wife Margaret moved to Canton Ohio to be close to Molly and her girls.  Teddy died after 1913.  This makes Agnes a teenager when she discovered her grandfather had died in his sleep.  I'm positive that it scarred her for life but she wasn't a small child as some biographers hint.
Agnes was also close to her maternal grandfather.  He was a religious man and used to speak to Agnes about God and the gospel.  One Sunday afternoon it appeared he was asleep in the big comfortable easy chair he often sat in when telling Agnes stories from the bible.  Agnes went up, as she sometimes did when he fell asleep in his chair, and tapped him on the shoulder.  However, this time he didn't wake up. Agnes would recall that she cried for days."


7.  The Real Municipal Opera story
There are so many huge holes in this story.  First of all Agnes was in high school which puts her age at least at 14.  By her own admission she had not gone there to audition herself.  She went to support a girlfriend of hers and got sucked into it.  She didn't try to look older than she was.  She always wore her hair up and had planned to feign fainting to get out of the mess but before she could do it she was selected.  She cut class to go with her friend to do this and now she had to go home to explain it to her father.  "The summer after her arrival, when she was twelve, Agnes tried out for the St. Louis Municipal Ballet. With her long legs and her red hair tied tightly in a bun, Agnes tried to make it appear that she was older than she actually was, already assuming a role she would often essay on screen.  She was chosen to perform in the ballet and, due to her fine soprano voice, in the choir.  But she needed her father's permission..."

Agnes was never one to give people what they might need to figure out what made her tick.  She guarded herself so closely that any information which came via her to a friend or acquaintance has to be considered suspect.  She didn't talk about her personal life.  She took that information with her when she passed away.  What she left us to unravel was a larger than life electric persona but as often is the case the person who goes to that much trouble to conceal themselves does so because they are fragile underneath the bravado.  They do it to protect their human hearts and souls from being compromised.  Still the strength it took her to master herself is a monument to the woman we have all come to sort of know but definitely love.

Comments

I have enabled comments again on my posts. 

Damages

Just recently I had an email conversation about Peggy's suicide and Agnes' issues.  One of the exchanges contained a question about what could have possibly damaged these two sisters so very much.  I decided to look through some of the the notes I've made and articles I've read to see if I could provide any insight into the situation.  I found that there is more illusion to Agnes' childhood than there is reality.

It starts with this fallacy:
"Mollie met John Moorehead while she was studying voice at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music in 1898.  He was a seminary student in Xenia.  Much to Mollie's parent's consternation the two fell in love and made plans to marry.  Mollie's parents didn't think that John Moorehead was a good and able man, who could provide a good home for their daughter.  He was nearly twice her age.  They married on August 30, 1899, five days after Mollie's 16th birthday."

None of this could be further than the truth.  I cannot find any record of Mollie ever attending the Cincinnati  Conservatory of Music at the age of 15 or younger.  Neither could I find any record of John still being in the seminary in Xenia in 1898.  What I did find is that Mollie was living at home outside of Scottdale Pennsylvania in 1898.   I also found that John H. Moorehead was pastor of the United Presbyterian Church at the corner of Mulberry and Grant Streets in Scottdale Pennsylvania from January of 1896 to November of 1898.  They did not meet in Cincinnati or Xenia they met in Scottdale while John was pastor of the Presbyterian Church there.  When they first met Mollie was just five months past turning 15 and John was 27 going on 28 years old.  I'm sure Mollie sang in the choir.  I know she played the cello and the piano.  But the Ohio version given in Charles Tranberg's biography is pure fiction.  Mollie was quite probably the center of a controversy that involved a 15 year old girl having a romantic relationship with a 27 year old church pastor.  It may have been that John was transferred to Massachusetts as a result of this indiscretion.  But it is well documented that he was pastor of the Scottdale church for two years before he went to Boston.  He was 30 when he married Mollie she was just 5 days past 18 and only 19 when Agnes was born.  Any disapproval on her parent's part would have been moot because she was of age when she married John.  I have no doubt that her parent's opinion of John not being "a good and able man" probably had more to do with the fact that he was a pastor preaching righteous behavior while he was wooing their underage daughter.

Mollie was herself a highly complex woman. Mollie was choir director and Sunday school teacher but apparently thought little about how she twisted the truth herself  She was loud, opinionated and had a flair for the dramatic. It was often said that Mollie was the only person who could upstage Agnes.  She was described by a gentleman who knew her in Reedsburg as "an imposing lady of strong opinions and very outspoken.  In many respects I had great admiration for her and held her in high esteem.  However, like many fundamentalists she could demonstrate a lack of sensitivity and love for others.  Despite some deep flaws her life, for the most part, was lived for the glory of god."  Deep flaws that reflected themselves in the emotional damage done to both of her daughters.  John Moorehead was often described as shy and retiring unless he was in the pulpit.  Mollie was his polar opposite.  He punished Agnes by making her read and Mollie punished Agnes by smacking her.  Agnes would recall that Mollie's "tiny hand could smart."  Mollie seems to have been adept at punishing by using words as weapons having once told Agnes that "the wrong daughter died."  In addition I've found that both children were routinely shipped off for extended periods of time.  The girls spent the entire summer with their paternal grandparents.  Margaret was shipped off at the age of 8 to spend the summer with a family not even related to the Moorehead's in Hamilton Ohio.  Agnes lived for an entire year with a brother of her father and his wife in Denver supposedly due to whooping cough.  Margaret remained in St. Louis when her parents went to Reedsburg and when she did finally live with them full time she ended up killing herself after a mere 9 months of life with them.

It appears that most of Agnes' life was made up in one way or another.  She acted out fantasy scenarios in part, I think, because her life was not the rosy wonderful upbringing she wanted all of us to believe it was.  Much of her life was fabricated.  We are all familiar with her adopting the birth year of her sister and the fact she said many times John Lee was dead when he was very much alive.  What we aren't familiar with were her mother's acts of outright sabotage.  During a birthday party given by Agnes at her Cheviot Hills home Mollie went right up to Agnes' friend and publicist Peter Opp Jr. and told him how old Agnes really was. Opp said, "Mrs. John once told me A's correct age at a birthday party Madame held in Cheviot Hills."  I was utterly dumbstruck at the next sentence Opp recounted.  He states Mollie said,"  I don't know why Agnes twists the truth."  Opp also said after Agnes' passing that "A pretzel has less twists than our departed friend possessed."
She was such a complex woman in ways that defy logic.

One way her complexity demonstrated itself was her willingness to take physical, emotional and mental abuse from her first husband Jack Lee.  The following is part of a trial transcript from their divorce proceedings in 1951:


April 3 1949 Struck her at their Monte Mar Terrace home.
April 27 1949 Threatened her with bodily injury
May 5 1949 Threw a table at her
May 17 1949 Told her he no longer loved her and threatened to get a divorce.
June 14 1949 He struck her.

We are also advised that the following was typical behavior:
Since 1945
Lee forced Agnes to sleep in his room despite her fear and did so at gun point.
Lee fired pistols from his firearms collection.
Lee was drunk practically all the time and had been heard to "browbeat" Agnes.
His drinking got so bad he hid his bottles in bushes and a grandfather clock.
Agnes also testified that Jack struck her at "other times."
All in all very odd behavior for a woman so outwardly strong.  Her self esteem must have been so low to allow anyone to do this to her for 19 years.  She states that Lee began drinking heavily around 1933.  Which means she endured a mean, battering drunk for 16 of their 19 years of marriage.  I think, from Agnes' own admittance that she was not pretty, that she was told she wasn't the pretty one and she would have to deal with whatever she had to because she wasn't the "pretty one."

Another indication of the damage done to Agnes was highlighted in her relationship with Sean.  From Charles Tranberg's book I've copied the following pleading notes to Agnes from Sean when he was a child:
 Letters from Sean
Dear Mother,
I miss you.  I love you.  I will give you some of my toys.  Come home.  I am a good boy and I have my lesson every day.  I want to send you a kiss.

Dear Mother,
I miss you very much.  I love you and want you to come home.


Dear Mother,
I am very happy about all the gifts you gave me.  Thank you very much.  I am sure I will have a lot of fun with my bicycle.  I like my gun and punching bag and all the presents you gave me.  I love you very much.  Your son Sean.

Paul Gregory observed that " What Sean needed and wanted was a loving mother and I think Agnes failed him on that count, not that she didn't love him in her own way, but she didn't demonstrate it, poor Sean, she acted like she was a general in the army and he was some little grunt."  She did not know how to demonstrate love and was so afraid to open herself up.  She had once with her sister and then she was unable to save her sister from killing herself.  Unfortunately she really did the same thing with Sean except she did not express her love to him.  Sean, just like Peggy, left her permanently without ever reaching out for the help or love he needed.  Twice in her life people she loved either died or became dead to her.

Agnes was lively, loud, witty with a flair for the dramatic.  Margaret shy and retiring.  Both were victims of their upbringing and only one survived it.  Again and again as I pick this mystery apart I reminded of how much pure internal strength Agnes had.  She survived and went on to become one of the most well known and beloved performers in entertainment history.

One Secret Unraveled and Another One Begun

Yes I'm still reading newspapers.  Yes I'm still finding things and finally it has paid off in a huge way, well at least for me it has.  It has also left me scratching me head with regard to a completely different topic and possibly having to eat crow over an assumption.  We'll see what happens with that.

August 18, 1928
Evening Gazette

Dr. Moorehead Has Dayton Pastorate
The Rev. John H. Moorehead, new pastor of Patterson Memorial Church, Dayton has arrived in that city, accompanied by Mrs. Moorehead from their former home in St. Louis, Missouri.
Dr. Moorehead graduated from the Xenia Theological Sanctuary of which his uncle Rev. W.G. Moorehead was president.  He will take charge of his Dayton pastorate September 2nd after four years charge of the Carondelet Presbyterian Church in St. Louis.
They have two daughters, Agnes Robertson, who will be graduated from the American Academy of Dramatic Arts next spring and Margaret Ann, nurse at the Jewish Hospital St. Louis.

Okay folks this means Margaret was a nurse, however, she was a nurse at the Jewish Hospital.  I'm sure this made for many a boisterous exchange about religious beliefs in the Moorehead household.  The other thing it may mean is that Margaret graduated from The Jewish Hospital School of Nursing.  So perchance a record of her matriculation may be found there. 

Aside from the obvious woohoo we now know Margaret was a nurse this tidbit in the Evening Gazette throws another curve ball at the whole where does this information come from thing.  It clearly states that the Moorehead's moved from St. Louis to Dayton.  Every piece of documentation I have read to date says they moved from Reedsburg, Wisconsin to Dayton.  I think that perhaps this misinformation was given in order to cover the fact that Margaret did not reside with her family and hadn't for many years.  We know she went to Dayton in the fall of 1928.  My guess is late September or early October.  We also know she was in St. Louis until that time.  By July she was dead and this information makes that death even more horrendous.  She really was a nurse.  She definitely knew the effect that taking Bi Chloride of Mercury would have on her.  She most assuredly knew it would be fatal despite her reassurance to her mother that she had taken care of a girl who recovered.  You don't recover from this.  It isn't even a remote possibility unless you are literally at the front door of the hospital when you take it.  There is a mere 10 minute span of time during which it is potentially possible to save a person who has taken Bi Chloride of Mercury.  Margaret was down somewhere either at home or at "Franks" for quite awhile.  This is a young woman who wanted to die.

I wonder now after reading of her being shipped to Ohio to spend a summer with a family not related to the Moorehead's at the tender age of eight exactly what kind of family this was.  One thing is certain it produced one child who successfully terminated their own life and one child who hid herself from the world behind a persona that was larger than life.  Terrified, as it were, that someone would come to know the real Agnes.  I truly believe, especially the more I read, that this family was dysfunctional on a level we can only begin to imagine and that the two sisters were likely far closer than anyone would assume.  I do believe Agnes was a mother figure to Margaret and the absence of Agnes from her parents home thrust Margaret into a position of having to cope daily with Mollie.  It turned out to be fatal.  I think Agnes carried the pain of her sisters death to the grave with her and felt completely responsible for it because she wasn't there to run interference.

Republican News Hamilton Ohio June 29, 1914

"Little Miss Margaret Moorehead of St. Louis, daughter of the Reverend and Mrs. John Moorehead, has come to spend the summer months with Mr. and Mrs. J.L. Blair, of North Seventh Street."
It seems the habit of shipping Margaret off to one place or another started when she was very young.  At the point she was shipped off for the summer in Hamilton, Ohio she was 8 years old.  It makes me wonder what the issue was and why you would send your child to unrelated individuals for an entire summer.  I know I spent a couple of weeks each summer with my grandparents but this just seems odd.

Endurance

I was just reading the reply that was sent to me about the potentiality of Jack Lee having committed marital rape so I decided to repost this bit of my blog about the initial public explosion of Agnes’ first marriage.  I’ve been thinking about this all day and how horrendous it must have been living in a powderkeg like that.  We know from the posting below that according to Jack’s divorce petition Agnes had barred him from her bedroom “for snoring too loudly.”  What I want everyone to understand is this man was not a gentle drunk who passed out harmlessly snoring being the only annoyance he was guilty of.  In my research I have read several assertions during the divorce proceedings that Jack was capable of gross violence. 
Now I will be the first to admit I wasn’t there and as I have said many times the only people who actually know for sure are dead.  Agnes asserted at the proceedings that Jack, drunk at the time, held a gun to her head and forced his way into her bed.  He held the gun to her head, she iterated, and made her sleep in the same bed with him.  She did not say he raped her but I think it can be assumed that he forced himself on her sexually.  Her life was a nightmare, a waking nightmare that she had no control of.  I believe that is why it took her four years and an affair with a younger man she thought she could safely manage to file for divorce.  It couldn’t have been an easy thing to do because she had to have know that her whole life would essentially be laid out before a judge.  Her legal team managed to control the media to an extent.  She did receive some bad press at the hands of Lee’s legal eagles but nothing that did roll right back on him.
In the book written by Charles Tranberg it is stated that Lee was basically a nice guy who got in way over his head when he married Agnes and took to drinking because he was emasculated.  I also recall that it was stated Lee told Agnes point blank she was nothing but a meal ticket for him, yeah, nice guy.  I believe that Jack Lee used Agnes as much if not more than Robert Gist ever thought about using her.  She supported him for twenty years.  The amount he worked would barely have kept him off welfare if he had attempted to survive on his own.  I don’t know what happened to him and I’m inclined not to give a damn, however, my idea of telling the whole story keeps my searching for him to determine his final outcome. 
I realize that Agnes had a strong personality and perhaps her idea of marrying because it was expected of her lead her down a path whose end result was twenty years of enduring a brutal drunk who beat and most likely raped her.  I don’t care how strong your personality is or how capable a person you are living like that will break you down very quickly.  The fact that she managed to keep herself together, in a manner of speaking, speaks to the pure strength of spirit she had.  She slipped.  She made the Gist mistake.  She may have made other missteps we will never know about.  Allegedly in an argument with, “one of her husbands,” Agnes screamed at him, “If you can have a mistress, so can I.”  A glimpse of the real woman beneath?  Who knows.  All I know is the more I find out about her the more I love her and the prouder I am to claim her as family.
The Volcano Goes Off.
Agnes went out of her way to achieve good press. She ate it up by accepting honorary degrees from her Alma mater or by donating time to help support the troops. She created visions of a perfect life. Her perfect life was horribly, horribly flawed though because she could not control the man she had married. A would be actor whose career, unlike her own, went absolutely no place. They had started out on even footing but John Griffith Lee could not keep pace with his wife no matter how hard he seemed to try. You see, Jack, as he was called, was quite docile and happy as long as he was permitted to be the man of the family but once his wife stepped into those shoes he became a belligerent drunk with a very bad temper.
For the first four years or so life was quiet on Monte Mar Terrace in the Lee household but then August 25th 1945 happened. The illusion was shattered and the newspapers noticed.
Hollywood August 25 (UP)
Actress’ Husband Barred From Home
Fearing bodily harm actress Agnes Moorehead today had her husband, Jack G. Lee, barred from their home and filed a suit for separate maintenance.
In her suit, filed in the Santa Monica Branch of Superior Court, Miss Moorehead expressed fear that her husband of 15 years might attempt to destroy their home. Superior Court Judge Clarence M. Hanson issued a temporary order barring him from the home.
She asked maintenance of only $1.00 per year, saying she is able to support herself.
It would not be until October 7, 1946 that they would reconcile for the first documented time.

Over the next 3 years Agnes maintained control of the media output surrounding herself and her husband. There would be a visit to the family farm complete with happy shining pictures. There would be articles about her flying to New York to spend Christmas with him while he was appearing in a show. There would articles about her home showing photo’s of her cooking for him. It appeared as though everything was just right. The key word is appeared. Under the surface tension was rising like a volcano. In 1949 the volcano blew and the results were down right horrendous.

May 8, 1949
Nevada State Journal
Reconciled
Agnes Moorehead and her husband Jack Lee have reconciled after a 4-day trial separation.
June 9, 1949
Nevada State Journal
Hollywood
The Agnes Moorehead-Jack Lee marriage is coming apart at the seams.
June 15, 1949 Agnes filed for separation from Jack again but this time he remained in their Monte Mar Terrace home and she was residing at the beach. The majority of what follows are blurbs about movies. One is even tempted to forget about the problems until May 16, 1950. Then the door to her private life is kicked open with tremendous force and everyone settles in for what promises to be a long drawn out fight.
May 16, 1950
Married 19 Years Files for Divorce
Los Angeles May 16 (AP)
Actress Agnes Moorehead, suing to divorce actor Jack G. Lee her husband of 19 years, says she does not want alimony. She charged cruelty in her suit filed yesterday and said they separated last June.
June 1, 1950
Portsmouth Herald
Portsmouth New Hampshire
Actor Jack Lee is blocking the path for a Reno divorce by his estranged wife, Agnes Moorhead. The community property fight may be a bitter one.
August 15, 1950
Actor Does About Face, Sues Ex-Wife
Los Angeles August 15 (UP)
Actress Agnes Moorhead’s husband demands $200,000 in community property in a counter divorce suit.
Radio-television actor Jack G. Lee charged the actress with extreme cruelty and asked that he be given all the property including securities, three automobiles, two Ohio farms and a home here.
Miss Moorhead in her divorce action last May said all the property was acquired by her earnings and should be considered hers alone. Both she and Lee are 47. They married in 1930.


August 25, 1950
Berkshire Evening Eagle
Pittsfield Mass
Table Missile Held Divorce Grounds
Los Angeles August 25 (AP)
Among other things, says actress Agnes Moorhead, her estranged husband threw a table at her.
She wants a divorce. So does Lee, a radio actor. Both want all the community property estimated at $200, 000. Each charges the other with cruelty, Miss Moorhead didn’t throw any tables however.
They were married in 1930. Miss Moorhead originally filed for divorce. Lee filed a cross complaint last week. Yesterday Miss Moorhead amended her suit and mentioned the table-tossing episode.
October 4, 1950
Syracuse Herald Journal
Syracuse
Los Angeles October 4 (AP)
Miss Moorhead Cruel, Says Hubby
Actor Jack G. Lee says, his wife, actress Agnes Moorehead, berated him because of his dress, speech, posture and manner of eating. The assertions were contained in a cross complaint filed yesterday.
Lee also alleged that she humiliated him by instructing that the servants in their home answer the telephone with the phrase: “Miss Moorehead’s residence.”
On one occasion, he added, she banned him from her bedroom on grounds that he snored too loudly.
He charged that she hired a publicity man “whose purpose was to break up the marriage.” And that she then began keeping company with “a strange man.”
The actor cited these instances as cruelty in asking a divorce and all of their $200, 000 worth of community property.

The Documentation of a Beating?

While I was working on this picture I noticed something that I’m sure nobody outside of those who were there and edited the picture were ever aware of, stitches.  On the colorized version you can’t we them as clearly.

On the black and white version you can clearly see them.  I thought the picture looked very unusual anyway.  Her eyes are swollen.  She’s wearing next to no make up.  Her right eye is swollen to the point of looking smaller, substantially smaller, than the left.  At the end of her left eyebrow right at the edge of her nose sit 3 maybe 4 small white stitches.  The photo was taken May 24, 1945 almost exactly 3 months to the day she filed for her first separation and divorce from Jack Lee.  She had a restraining order issued against him because she was in fear of her life and that he might try to burn down their home.  3 months before this event she shows up for a photo shoot with stitches in her face.  So they did what they always do in Hollywood, they made it work.  They threw all the light from the left side and had her turn her head to the left, a position she was almost never photographed in, to hide the damage.  From a photographic standpoint it almost works until you look into the eyes…I know that look…..I have had that look and it’s fear, pain, anguish, panic…..seems that Quint Benedetti had some very accurate information about Jack beating Agnes….pity…to see such sadness in such beautiful eyes.

PS: You may be wondering why they threw all the light at the side where she has the stitches. In stage or film or photo lighting if you are dealing with an injury you don't want people to see, like a bruise or stitches, you throw lots of light at it to wash it out. You can't cover stitches with make up because of the risk of infection. This explains the lack of normal make up in the picture. If you allow a bruise or cut to sit in the shadows they look twice as bad since they are already dark they look darker than the normal skin tone around them. When looking at the picture above remember she has a ton of light coming right at the left side of her face, no nose shadow indicates that, from the front and from the side. Yet her left eye and the area where the stitches appear is much darker than the surrounding skin. Hence she had a bruised eye, a cut that required stitches and what may be a slight area of bruising above the center of the left brow. Whatever happened to Aggie she took a beating from something or someone. Her physician deliberately used white silk to stitch the cut so he'd been around Hollywood for awhile since they used white silk on the face so as to hide facial cuts during filming or photographing. I think her willingness to go on with her scheduled event trusting in the people around her to conceal the damage speaks volumes about the intense strength she had.