Bette Davis starred as Mrs. Laura Trent, owner of San Francisco's St. Gregory Hotel. She fell ill and was hospitalized early into the show's first season. Anne Baxter (Davis' nemesis Eve Harrington in All About Eve (1950)) took over the hotel as Victoria Cabot, Mrs. Trent's sister-in-law. After Davis recovered, the show's producers asked her to resume her role but she wasn't happy with the scripts she was sent so she turned them down. (Source: Bette Davis' autobiography 'This'n That.')