Tag: Hollywood

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Dear Reader

Dear Reader #184

Dear Reader,

Clara Bow’s twenty-third movie was The Primrose Path, produced during the summer of 1925 and released on September 15, 1925. Clara played Marilyn Merrill. For this movie, Clara was on ‘loan-out’, a common occurrence for contract players. 

The Primrose Path was classified as a ‘daily change’ movie, a movie that played in a theatre for one day then moved on to another town. In other words, it wasn’t very good.

At this stage of her career, Clara was overworked – sixteen movies in eighteen months – and underpaid, but she was making progress. In June 1925, she appeared on the cover of Motion Picture Classic, her first cover feature. The accompanying article stated: “The truth is, little Clara Bow shows alarming symptoms of becoming the sensation of the year in Hollywood. There is something vital and compelling in her presence. She is the spirit of youth. She is Young America rampant, the symbol of flapperdom.”

I’m organising the Golden Age of Hollywood Mastodon Mega Movie Poll. Here are the results from Week Three.

Voted for by the movie lovers of Mastodon

The format: 32 movies seeded and selected by the American Film Institute receive a bye to Round Two.

Round One: 64 movies selected by Mastodon movie lovers, matched when possible by era and genre.

The African Queen 90% v 10% I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang

South Pacific 40% v 60% White Christmas

Touch of Evil 54% v 46% 12 Angry Men

A Night at the Opera 28% v 72% Duck Soup

Shane 50% v 50% The Quiet Man

Shane won on AFI tie-break

A Matter of Life and Death 28% v 72% Wuthering Heights

Elmer Gantry 63% v 27% Trapeze

Point Blank 25% v 75% The Manchurian Candidate

Look who just appeared on my family tree, notorious outlaws Jesse and Frank James. Our common ancestor is William John James, 1570 – 1627. This branch of my family goes back to Dirk Jacobsz Van Haastrecht, born c1470 in the Netherlands.

My 5 x great grandfather Samuel Axe was an ‘esquire’, a property developer in late 1700s-early 1800s London. He had a wife, eight children and a mistress who on one occasion was pregnant at the same time as his wife. Yet, Samuel was ‘base born’, his father not acknowledged. How did his mother, Ann, find the resources to help him start his property developing career? I shall endeavour to find out…

My 6 x great grandmother, Ann Axe, was baptised on 1 October 1756 in St Alfege Church, Greenwich, Kent. Her parents were John Axe and Sarah. As a teenager, Ann gave birth to my 5 x great grandfather, Samuel Axe. Samuel’s father was not acknowledged. As watermen and excise officers on the Thames, compared to many, the Axes enjoyed a comfortable lifestyle. And the surviving records suggest that Ann enjoyed her family’s support.

On 7 July 1778, aged twenty-two, my 6 x great grandmother Ann Axe, married Owen Griffiths. The couple married by special license through a ‘Marriage Allegation and Bond’. These licenses allowed for fast, private marriages. The reasons for such marriages were numerous, but on this occasion it would appear that Owen, a mariner, was about to set sail on his ship.

Owen had to pledge £200 should any fault be found in the legality of the marriage, a huge sum in 1778. Supporters sometimes added their names to the pledge. However, on this occasion ‘John Dow’, obviously a fictitious person, supported the pledge. Therefore, Owen was carrying the burden alone. Despite Ann’s status as an unmarried mother, he was very keen to marry her.

In common with most married women in the 1700s, my 6 x great grandmother Ann Axe gave birth approximately every two years – in 1779, 1782, 1784 and 1786 to William, John, James and Mary respectively. I anticipated finding another birth record in 1788, but instead I discovered Ann’s death record. Ann was buried on 15 January 1788. At the age of thirty-one, it’s possible that she died in childbirth.

A sad record, my 6 x great grandmother Ann Axe’s death record. However, in just a few words it confirms several key facts: Ann was married to Owen Griffiths and her father was John Axe, thus linking other records together. And, crucially, this record was recorded in a Non-Conformist register (one of our key family traits is that of non-conformity, in many aspects of life). The research path is now clear: search for other Non-Conformist Axe ancestors.

My article about Mary Pickford is featured in this month’s issue of Connections Magazine.

Clara Bow Quotes: Clara’s sisters both died within hours of their birth. Did these tragedies influence her ‘live for the moment attitude? She said this at the height of her fame: “I don’t want to look into the future. I don’t care. I distrust the future. If someone would lift the veil for me, I wouldn’t let them. It is better not to look ahead and not to look back. I will not look back. I must not. And I dare not look ahead. I am afraid.”

As ever, thank you for your interest and support.

Hannah xxx

For Authors

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A special offer from my publisher and the Fussy Librarian. https://authors.thefussylibrarian.com/?ref=goylake

Don’t forget to use the code goylake20 to claim your discount 🙂

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Dear Reader

Dear Reader #183

Dear Reader,

Clara Bow’s twenty-second movie was Parisian Love, another cut-price B.P. Schulberg production filmed in early 1925 and released on August 1, 1925. Clara played Marie, an Apache. The plot of this romantic crime drama starts out well enough, but then becomes complex in the extreme. 

Clara was displaying talent, but the production company she was tied to lacked class. She needed a break. She also needed to sort out her love life, which was more complex than the plot of Parisian Love.

My 9 x great-grandmother Barbara Aubrey was born c1637 in Pencoed, Glamorgan. She married John Bevan in 1665 and from 1683 to 1704 she lived with her family in Pennsylvania. Barbara Aubrey is a ‘gateway’ ancestor, connecting my family with the noble houses of Europe.

Barbara’s parents, my 10 x great grandparents – William Aubrey c1610 – c1660 and Elizabeth Thomas.

William Aubrey’s parents, my 11 x great grandparents – William Aubrey c1573 – 1647 and Jane Mathew.

Jane Mathew’s parents, my 12 x great grandparents – Humphrey Mathew c1567 – c1651 and Mary Lewis.

Humphrey Mathew’s parents, my 13 x great grandparents – Miles Mathew b1538 and Catherine Mathew b1545.

Miles Mathew’s parents, my 14 x great grandparents – William Mathew 1516 – 1551 and Alice Ragland b1520.

Alice Ragland’s parents, my 15 x great grandparents – John Ragland 1505 – bef 1538 and Anne Dennis b1507.

Anne Dennis’ parents, my 16 x great grandparents – Sir William Dennis c1470 – 22 Jun 1533 and Anne Berkeley b1474. They had six sons and seven daughters.

The branches then lead to the noble houses of Europe, including my 20 x great grandmother Isabella of Castile, pictured.

I’m organising the Golden Age of Hollywood Mastodon Mega Movie Poll. Here are the results from Week One.

Voted for by the movie lovers of Mastodon.

The format: 32 movies seeded and selected by the American Film Institute receive a bye to Round Two.

Round One: 64 movies selected by Mastodon movie lovers, matched when possible by era and genre.

My latest article for the Seaside News, about Myrna Loy, appears on page 35 of the magazine.

To understand Clara Bow, you need to understand her formative years.

“Clara’s birth was not a source of joy to her mother and father. They lived in a tiny flat with two rooms. All her life, Clara has been trying to blot out memories of her early years. Her childhood was not particularly happy.” – Dora Albert, 1933.

As ever, thank you for your interest and support.

Hannah xxx

For Authors

#1 for value with 565,000 readers, The Fussy Librarian has helped my books to reach #1 on 36 occasions.

A special offer from my publisher and the Fussy Librarian. https://authors.thefussylibrarian.com/?ref=goylake

Don’t forget to use the code goylake20 to claim your discount 🙂

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Dear Reader

Dear Reader #182

Dear Reader,

Clara Bow’s twenty-first movie was Kiss Me Again, a silent romantic comedy direct by Ernst Lubitsch and released on 1 August, 1925. Clara played Grizette, a sexy Parisian secretary who bewitches her married boss. 

Lubitsch had the knack of sneaking material past the Hays Office censors. He used an audience’s imagination to make his suggestive point. 

In Kiss Me Again, Clara finally had a decent part in a decent movie. And she shone. Variety stated: “Clara Bow absolutely triumphs in the role of a lawyer’s steno.”

Meet My Ancestors

Sir William Denys aka Dennis, c1470 – 1533, of Dyrham, Gloucestershire, my 16 x great grandfather.

Sir William was a courtier of Henry VIII and High Sheriff of Gloucestershire in 1518 and 1526. In 1511, he was appointed an Esquire for the Body – a personal attendant – of Henry VIII. At this time, the king granted Sir William the honour to empark 500 acres of Dyrham, with exclusive hunting rights. Pictured, (Wikipedia), the charter.

In June 1520, Sir William was one of seven knights of the Gloucestershire contingent selected to accompany Henry VIII at the Field of the Cloth of Gold when Henry met King Francis I of France.

Sir William married a noblewoman, Anne Berkeley. The couple had six sons and seven daughters.

Anniversaries

Married on 22 February 1868 at Ruhama Chapel, Bridgend, Glamorgan, my 3 x great grandparents Thomas Jones and Hannah Morgan. They had five children. 

Thomas started his working life as a “cow boy”. He then became a coal miner. The family moved around the Glamorgan coalfields, working at the various mines. Hannah disappeared from the historical record in the 1880s, while Thomas disappeared in the 1890s. With so much transience, their records appear to have been lost.

📸 Aberbaiden Colliery, one of Thomas’ places of work.

I’m organising the Golden Age of Hollywood Mastodon Mega Movie Poll. Here are the results from Week One.

Voted for by the movie lovers of Mastodon.

The format: 32 movies seeded and selected by the American Film Institute receive a bye to Round Two.

Round One: 64 movies selected by Mastodon movie lovers, matched when possible by era and genre.

“The real Clara Bow is not the madcap personality created by press and public. As a matter of fact, Hollywood’s hotcha baby would rather croon a lullaby than a torch song. It all goes back to the somewhat drab days of Clara’s youth – to a hungering, poignant desire for mother love that was never quite wholly satisfied. And that same childish hunger, long repressed, has developed in the mature Clara’s material instincts that will not be denied.” – Dora Albert, 1933.

As ever, thank you for your interest and support.

Hannah xxx

For Authors

#1 for value with 565,000 readers, The Fussy Librarian has helped my books to reach #1 on 36 occasions.

A special offer from my publisher and the Fussy Librarian. https://authors.thefussylibrarian.com/?ref=goylake

Don’t forget to use the code goylake20 to claim your discount 🙂

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Dear Reader

Dear Reader #181

Dear Reader,

In early September 2022, I started Tula, my novel set in the Golden Age of Hollywood. Today, 420 pages and 77,000 words later, I completed the story. Four months of editing to go before publication on July 1, 2023. If you are interested, here are the details

Clara Bow’s twentieth movie was The Scarlet West, an ambitious silent film about the Battle of the Little Bighorn. The movie was produced in the spring of 1925, with location shooting in Colorado, and released on July 26, 1925. Clara played Miriam. Sadly, no copies of the film survive.

A transcribed page from my 9 x great grandfather John Bevan’s journal. In 1704, after twenty-one years in Pennsylvania, along with his wife Barbara and their youngest daughter Barbara, he returned to his estate in Wales. Sadly, daughter Barbara died. John wrote of her: “Her innocence and sweet behaviour preached truth wherever she came.”

A life-long love.

A transcribed page from my 9 x great grandfather John Bevan’s journal, c1720. Here, he writes of his wife Barbara Aubrey’s passing. 

She was very careful and open-hearted to help the poor and the weak both amongst us and others. In her last sickness, she was sensible she was not likely to recover out of it and she was satisfied and contented therein to submit to the Lord’s will. Speaking to me, she said, “I take it as a great mercy that I am to go before thee, we are upward of 45 years married, and our love is rather more now towards each other than at the beginning.”

Anniversaries

Died on this day, 19 February 1894, aged 41 my ancestor Hopkin Howe. Hopkin died due to an infection of his spinal cord.

In 1871, Hopkin left the family home in Glamorgan to live with a Welsh family in Stockton, Durham. There, he plied his trade as a blacksmith, serving the burgeoning railway industry.

On his return to Wales, Hopkin became a Methodist minister. In 1884, he married Elizabeth Jones. This event brought great joy and tragedy. Elizabeth gave birth to a daughter, Elizabeth May Gwendoline Howe, on 27 November 1885, but died in childbirth. Deprived of her mother, baby Elizabeth died in infancy. One can only imagine how these events tested Hopkin’s faith.

In December 1890. Hopkin married Sarah Ann Jones. When he died in 1894 he left Sarah Ann £119, the equivalent of a year’s wages. He left his Bible to his brother, my 2 x great grandfather, William Howe, a Methodist deacon. The Bible, with Welsh text and lavish illustrations captioned in English, is now in my possession. It’s a huge tome, and a treasured heirloom.

“As the ‘Brooklyn Bonfire’ Clara Bow blasted her way to fame. As the ‘It’ girl her name became synonymous with sex appeal the world over. Clara’s screen career became a succession of labels – all of them descriptive and not a few of them libellous.” – Dora Albert, c1933.

As ever, thank you for your interest and support.

Hannah xxx

For Authors

#1 for value with 565,000 readers, The Fussy Librarian has helped my books to reach #1 on 36 occasions.

A special offer from my publisher and the Fussy Librarian. https://authors.thefussylibrarian.com/?ref=goylake

Don’t forget to use the code goylake20 to claim your discount 🙂

Categories
Dear Reader

Dear Reader #180

Dear Reader,

Some book news. Operation Zigzag, book one in my Eve’s War Heroines of SOE series, is currently number one on the Amazon genre charts.

Clara Bow’s nineteenth movie was Lawful Cheater aka The Lawful Cheaters, a silent crime drama. Clara played Molly Burns, a young woman jailed for “indiscreet behaviour”. Produced during the spring of 1925, the movie was released on July 17, 1925. 

The critics were not impressed with this offbeat crime drama, calling it “slight and trite” and “cheaply produced”. The “sole redeeming factor” was Clara Bow. At one point, Molly Burns appeared in male drag, which was “fun to watch”. However, The British Board of Film Censors did not have a sense of humour – they banned the film.

A transcribed page from my 9 x great grandfather John Bevan’s journal. He talks of his friend, William Penn, and the prospect of emigrating to Pennsylvania in 1683. John thought it would take some time for the settlement to establish itself. However, his wife Barbara Aubrey persuaded him because she thought it would be a good environment to bring up their children “amongst sober people”.

A transcribed page from my 9 x great grandfather John Bevan’s journal. He and his family have settled in Pennsylvania. Four of his children have married and had children of their own. However, in 1704, twenty-one years after settling in Pennsylvania, John had the urge to return to Wales. His wife, Barbara Aubrey, “could not be easy to stay behind me.” So, John, Barbara and their daughter Barbara returned to Wales.

In this entry from my 9 x great grandfather John Bevan’s journal he talks about his journey from Pennsylvania to his estate in Wales. The weather was stormy and pirates looted a number of vessels. He was going to transfer to a vessel bound for Bristol, but a storm prevented the transfer. Later, that vessel “was taken” so John, his wife and daughter had a lucky escape.

Anniversaries

My 4 x great grandfather Daniel Hopkin died on 11 February 1864, in South Cornelly, Glamorgan. An agricultural labour, Daniel was baptised on 4 March 1781 in the Church of St Tydfil, Llysworney, Glamorgan. He married Annie Lewis on 10 May 1812 in St James’ Church, Pyle (pictured). The couple had four children, including my 3 x great grandmother Mary Hopkin. Daniel died three months after his wife Anne died. Maybe after fifty-one years of marriage her passing was too much for him to bear. 

Clara Bow Quotes: “At times, Hollywood had been like a godmother, giving me joy and happiness. At other times it had turned like a vicious old hag, threatening to claw me apart, body and soul.”

As ever, thank you for your interest and support.

Hannah xxx

For Authors

#1 for value with 565,000 readers, The Fussy Librarian has helped my books to reach #1 on 36 occasions.

A special offer from my publisher and the Fussy Librarian. https://authors.thefussylibrarian.com/?ref=goylake

Don’t forget to use the code goylake20 to claim your discount 🙂