My mother and grandmother, Elvera Sanchez
Mom and Marilyn Monroe, as houseguests of Frank Sinatra. Mom was pregnant with me at the time.
Although Mom and Eddie found a nice house in which to live way up in the Canyon, Mom’s relationship with the young Gregson was not destined to rise much higher. The two parted for the first time when she returned to Sweden alone and he was off on a movie assignment. In June 1958, Mom returned to the States, followed by my aunt Margot. Mom and Eddie reunited in a new house in Palo Alto. Gregson left the film business, with dreams of returning to Stanford to study law. By late October, Mom was sent to New York City to do publicity for The Hunters. There she took photography courses, while Eddie went to San Antonio, Texas, to serve with the Air National Guard for two months.
Mom became an overnight sensation on film posters and magazine covers galore after she won the part in The Blue Angel. The film was a remake of the 1930 classic of the same name that had made Marlene Dietrich a star. The part had previously been slated for no less a star than Marilyn Monroe. Mom said there was never any tension between her and Marilyn. She said, “Years later we were houseguests at Sinatra’s place. Marilyn, like me, was shy. Neither of us were the life of the party. I was pregnant with you at the time, and Marilyn and I had our picture taken together. Later it became quite a famous shot.”
My mom all in white, Dad all in black. Pop courted controversy while courting my mother, but they didn’t care—they were in love!
In the summer of 1959, Mom planned a trip to Sweden to visit her parents with her husband. Eddie announced his plans to take summer classes at Stanford. Tension mounted. Mom asked her husband not to visit the set when she was singing for The Blue Angel. Mom and Eddie soon announced their separation. With her marriage unraveling, Mom turned down a role in the film The Seven Thieves, a part that went to Joan Collins instead.
Mom had become quite well known. Her marriage was on the rocks and the press was on it. Mom was feisty when it came to the press. In March 1960, she told columnist Earl Carroll at the Sherry-Netherland Hotel in New York City: “My name is My! I hate to be called May!” Columnist Dorothy Kilgallen reported in August 1959: “May Britt’s split with her husband, Ed Gregson, wasn’t much of a surprise to local cafe-goers . . .” By September 8, 1959, Mom and Eddie separated for good. Mom filed for divorce two days later in Santa Monica, ending her nineteen-month marriage. By the end of September, Mom had an interlocutory divorce decree from Gregson. But the divorce was yet to be finalized.
Mom next filmed Murder, Inc. at Filmways Studio in New York City. She was expected to return to Hollywood and then on to Hawaii to board and surf at Waikiki. But instead my dad entered the picture and changed her life forever.
My mother attended one of Pop’s shows at the Mocambo nightclub, which opened in 1941 at the site of the old Club Versailles on the Sunset Strip in Los Angeles. “Your father was in a car with a female friend. He saw me walk across the street, and told his friend he wanted to meet me,” Mom still recalled about fifty years later. “He called me, told me after the show a group of people would be going up to his house on Evanview Drive above the Sunset Plaza to watch a movie, would I care to join?”
“I did join, but what I thought was so endearing, so kind, was that your father drove me all the way home to Malibu after the party. He invited me and my mom in town from Sweden to his show at the Sands. I thought that was so nice and thoughtful,” Mom explained, smitten.
“I always adored Frank, too,” Mom would say. “I remember one time when I was planning on heading to Vegas for one of your father’s shows. I had a horrible cold, and told your father I didn’t want to come up and get the whole Rat Pack sick. Your father told Frank, ‘May’s not coming up. She has a cold, doesn’t want to make us sick,’ and Frank said, ‘What a classy broad.’”
Pop had been involved with a twenty-one-year-old Canadian singer named Joan Stewart. He quickly broke things off and began his pursuit of my mom. He even asked his Mama (his grandmother) what she thought about him marrying my mom. Dad had a talk with her. “I’m going to marry May, Mama.” Mama liked my mother, but looked at him with the concerned eyes of a wise old woman from Harlem, “I won’t say, do you know what’s ahead of you, Sammy?”
In April 1960 in New York City, Mom declined to confirm or deny reports to the press that she and Sammy Davis, Jr. were planning to get married—since she was still not officially divorced from Eddie Gregson. Eddie had already moved on and was being seen around town with actress Cara Williams. The Hollywood wedding was scheduled for October 16, 1960, but had to be postponed until November 13 due to technicalities involving my mom’s divorce. Finally, on September 28, 1960, Mom’s divorce from Gregson became final.