Classic Hollywood was a pinnacle time for some of the most infamous on-screen duos, such as John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara, Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland, and Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy.

Ruth Elizabeth Davis (she got the "Bette" from the Balzac novel "Cousin Bette") of Lowell, Massachusetts, arrived in Hollywood in 1930 to instant non-acclaim. She became known for the series of tense, ...