"When the stage musical came along, I was asked to play Margo [the Bette Davis role in the movie] to replace Betty Bacall, and I first thought it was gimmicky. But I can sing, or rather croak, and I wanted to do Broadway—and it turned out just fine. One matinee day Bette Davis phoned and said she was coming to check me out, and we got a chair placed just behind the curtain so she could watch without the audience watching her. After the curtain came down she said, "Baxter, you can still astonish me." And she left. Just like that. On another occasion, she was in Chicago to receive the real and I popped out to give it to her. Get it? Eve giving Margo the award she'd first won. She looked hesitant when she saw me and then roared with laughter. She got it, she really got it."