Editing All About Eve (section)

===Development===
The story of ''All About Eve'' originated in an anecdote related to [[Mary Orr]] by actress [[Elisabeth Bergner]]. While performing in ''[[The Two Mrs. Carrolls]]'' during 1943 and 1944, Bergner allowed a young fan to become part of her household and employed her as an assistant, but later regretted her generosity when the woman attempted to undermine her. Referring to her only as "the terrible girl", Bergner related the events to Orr, who used it as the basis for her short story "[[The Wisdom of Eve]]" (1946). In the story, Orr gives the girl an even more ruthless character and allows her to succeed in stealing the older actress's career and the husband of the unnamed female narrator. Bergner later confirmed the basis of the story in her autobiography ''Bewundert viel, und viel gescholten'' (''Greatly Admired and Greatly Scolded'').

In 1949, Joseph Mankiewicz was considering a story about an aging actress and, upon reading "The Wisdom of Eve," felt that the conniving girl would be a useful element. He sent a memo to [[Darryl F. Zanuck]] saying it "fits in with an original idea [of mine] and can be combined. Superb starring role for [[Susan Hayward]]." Mankiewicz presented a [[film treatment]] of the combined stories under the title ''Best Performance.'' He changed the main character's name from Margola Cranston to Margo Channing and retained several of Orr's characters – Eve Harrington, Lloyd and Karen Richards and Miss Casswell – while removing Margo's husband completely and replacing him with a new character, Bill Sampson. The intention was to depict Margo in a new relationship and allow Eve to threaten Margo's professional and personal lives. Mankiewicz also added the characters Addison DeWitt, Birdie Coonan, Max Fabian and Phoebe.

Zanuck was enthusiastic and provided numerous suggestions for improving the screenplay. In some sections, he felt that Mankiewicz's writing lacked subtlety or provided excessive detail. He suggested diluting Birdie Coonan's mistrust of Eve so the audience would not recognize Eve as a villainess until much later in the story. Zanuck reduced the screenplay by about 50 pages and chose the title ''All About Eve'' from the opening scene in which Addison DeWitt says that he will soon tell "more of Eve ... All about Eve, in fact."<ref name="staggs">Staggs, Sam (2001). [https://books.google.com/books?id=xUFplyZZAZsC&pg=PA224 ''All About "All About Eve"'']. St Martin's Press. {{ISBN|978-0312273156}}, {{OCLC|47637783}}</ref>

[[File:AllAboutEvecastpromo.jpg|thumb|350px|left|The principal cast of ''All About Eve.'' (Left to right) [[Gary Merrill]], [[Bette Davis]], [[George Sanders]], [[Anne Baxter]], [[Hugh Marlowe]] and [[Celeste Holm]]]]