Tag: Writing

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Movies ‘48

Movies ‘48 #3

Movie News – January 15, 1948

MGM suspended Lana Turner when she refused to play Lady de Winter in The Three Musketeers. The suspension was later lifted when she agreed to feature in the movie.

Movie News – January 16, 1948

Ann Sheridan plays “a fine dramatic role” in The Unfaithful, a movie about infidelity centred on a wife who cheats on her husband when he’s away in the services. While criticising the wife, the movie concludes that there should be more “give and take in such cases”.

Movie News – January 17, 1948

Film-star portraits, only 7d each, post free.

Movie News – January 18, 1948

Cinemas are to charge threepence extra a seat. The price rise will raise £300,000 a week, and no part will be sent back to Hollywood to add to the “dollar drain”.

The remarkable statistic in this report was that 25 million Britons visited the cinema each week, compared to 2.25 million now.

Movie News – January 19, 1948

As 500 cinema goers watched Murder is My Business at the Tottenham Court Road cinema last night, a man went up to the box office, smashed the thick glass with the butt-end of a revolver and told the two female cashiers to hand over the takings. However, the cashiers had other ideas. Mrs Harris screamed and pressed the alarm while Mrs Wilson shouted, “Don’t you dare!”

Three men rushed to the scene and, after a scuffle, overpowered the gunman, who was later detained at Tottenham Court Road police station.

Movie News – January 20, 1948

“Family Man” from Manchester was one of many outraged at the showing of “The Birth of a Baby”. It was beyond his comprehension that the authorities allowed this film to be viewed by “Tom, Dick and Harry”. Tom and Harry were not available for comment. Meanwhile, Dick said it had nothing to do with him…

Movie News – January 21, 1948

The Sketch featured Britain’s #1 money-making movie star, Anna Neagle.

As ever, thank you for your interest and support.

Hannah xxx

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Ancestral Stories

Ancestral Stories #6

Sarah Wildsmith

My 7 x Great Grandmother

Sarah’s Childhood

Sarah Wildsmith, my 7 x great grandmother, was born in London in 1700 to William Wildsmith and his wife Mary. William and Mary were prosperous, so it’s fair to say that the Wildsmiths enjoyed a comfortable lifestyle.

Sarah was brought up in St Botolph, Aldgate. Daniel Defoe was married in the local church, so it’s possible that Sarah knew him. She certainly knew of him.

St Botolph’s (pictured) escaped the Great Fire of London in 1666, and was described at the beginning of the eighteenth century as “an old church, built of Brick, Rubble and Stone, rendered over, and … of the Gothick order”.

Three years old, Sarah Wildsmith my 7 x great grandmother, faced the Great Storm of 1703. During that storm, which occurred on 26 November (7 December on modern calendars) two thousand chimney stacks collapsed in London, Queen Anne sought shelter in the cellar of St James’ Palace, seven hundred ships were battered on the Thames, waves rose to six feet higher than ever recorded before, and five thousand homes were destroyed.

Daniel Defoe wrote about the tragic events in The Storm, published July 1704. He stated: “The tempest that destroyed woods and forests all over England, no pen could describe it, nor tongue express it, nor thought conceive it unless by one in the extremity of it.”

Sarah and her parents were in the extremity of it and, thankfully, survived.

Ships destroyed during the Great Storm of 1703

Sarah Wildsmith, my 7 x great grandmother, survived the Great Storm of 1703 when she was three. Six years later, she faced the Great Frost, an extraordinarily cold winter, the coldest in five hundred years.

William Derham, a contemporary meteorologist, wrote, “I believe the Frost was greater (if not more universal also) than any other within the Memory of Man.”

Poor harvests followed, and they led to famine across Europe and bread riots in Britain. 

Meanwhile, the Wildsmiths welcomed a new arrival into their home, Mary, a sister for Sarah.

Le lagon gelé en 1709, by Gabriele Bella, part of a lagoon which froze over in Venice, Italy

While my ancestor Sarah Wildsmith was growing up in early eighteenth century London, the world was developing around her. 

In 1705, Thomas Newcomen patented his steam engine. His invention went into effect in 1712, pumping water out of coal and tin mines.

In 1714, Jethro Tull perfected his seed drill (pictured). Two hundred and sixty years later, he fronted a successful folk-rock band and wrote many memorable songs (historical joke).

In 1718, the first factory opened in Derby producing silk, and for millions of people a way of life would never be the same.

In early 1719, my ancestor Sarah Wildsmith announced her engagement to Philip Spooner, a gentleman and businessman. With marriage to a respectable man on the horizon, a sunny future for Sarah seemed assured. However, in keeping with her formative years, storm clouds were gathering, and this time Sarah would face the full impact of that storm…

Weymouth Bay with Approaching Storm, John Constable 

As ever, thank you for your interest and support.

Hannah xxx

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Movies ‘48

Movies ‘48 #2

Movie News – January 8, 1948

Deanna Durbin, twenty-five-year-old film star, parted company with Felix Jackson, her forty-five-year-old film-producer second husband. The couple divorced in 1949.

After the divorce, Deanna Durbin was inundated with film and stage offers including a Broadway role as Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady. However, she rejected them all, packed her bags and set off for France where, in 1950, she married producer-director Charles Henri David. The couple moved to a farmhouse near Paris and remained together for forty-nine years.

Movie News – January 9, 1948

Showing in British cinemas, Hedy Lamarr and John Loder in Dishonoured Lady, aka Sins of Madeleine, a noir drama. Lamarr and Loder were married when they made the film, but they divorced later in the year.

Movie News – January 10, 1948

Hollywood Ten Plead Not Guilty

Ten Hollywood writers and producers (not named in this report), accused of refusing to tell the House Committee on un-American activities whether they were members of the Communist Party, pleaded not guilty and were ordered to stand trial separately beginning on February 9th.

Members of the Hollywood Ten and their families in 1950, protesting the impending incarceration of the ten

Movie News – January 11, 1948

Secrets in Their Contracts

Ingrid Bergman uses an onion to produce tears in weepie scenes.

Bing Crosby wears a wig.

Peter Lawford agreed not to marry within the next three years.

The studios provide Greer Garson, Bette Davis and Joan Crawford with a maid, and a “first class drawing room” whenever they film on location.

Hedy Lamarr has a clause that states that “she must wear her own underwear, unless such underwear is to be filmed, then it will be provided by the producer.” She must also return all the dresses she wears in her films to the studio.

Movie News – January 12, 1948

Bangs are back in fashion. In unrelated news, Margaret Lockwood was mobbed in Glasgow. A large crowd gathered at Glasgow Central Station to cheer and present her with flowers on day one of her three-day visit. The crowd was so large that Miss Lockwood required a police escort and took ten minutes to travel the short distance from the railway station to the Central Station Hotel.

Movie News – January 13, 1948

Recommended by June Allyson and nine out of ten movie stars, the Lux massage technique “brings quick new loveliness”.

Movie News – January 14, 1948

Gene Autry receives more fan mail than any other star in Hollywood, over 100,000 letters a month. Most stars average “only” 30,000 letters a month. Autry has a private post office in Hollywood where five clerks handle his mail. He can expect more letters due to the release of his latest film, The Last Roundup.

Book News

Ten years after publication, I’m delighted to say that Sam’s Song is once again #1 on the Amazon Private Investigator charts.

As ever, thank you for your interest and support.

Hannah xxx

For Authors

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Ancestral Stories

Ancestral Stories #5


Annie Wheeler

My 3 x Great Grandmother

Annie’s Forties

In the spring of 1897, my 3 x great grandmother Annie Wheeler faced another major challenge in her life – on 4 May her second husband, fifty-one-year-old Frederick Thomas Canty, was admitted to the Bow Road Infirmary (pictured, Wikipedia).

A former workhouse, Bow Road became an infirmary in 1874. Sparing no cost, architect Richard Tress incorporated into the building central heating, a dining hall measuring 100 feet by 50 feet, Siberian marble pillars, and a chapel with stained glass windows and an organ.

Frederick Thomas Canty was suffering from “delusional insanity” and an “unsound mind”. The doctors recommended that he should be transferred to an asylum.

Except for her son, Samuel, Annie’s children with James Noulton were in their teens, or older. However, Elizabeth, her daughter with Frederick Thomas Canty, was only two years old. With her family’s support, Annie soldiered on.

Stone House Lunatic Asylum (pictured below) was constructed between 1862 and 1866 at the behest of the London Commissioners in Lunacy to provide for destitute mentally ill patients from the London area.

On 8 May 1897, Frederick Thomas Canty entered Stone House Lunatic Asylum. He died there on 20 June 1897. For the second time, my 3 x great grandmother Annie Wheeler faced life as a widow.

At the turn of the century, my 3 x great grandmother Annie Wheeler, forty-four, was living at 39 Neville Street, Lambeth, and working as a charwoman. Her step-son, John Canty was a gas stoker while her youngest daughter, Elizabeth, was at school. 

Three of Annie’s children with James Noulton, all young adults, also lived at the house. Charlotte ironed clothes, George laid parquet flooring while Samuel was an apprentice at the pottery. Compared to her days as a young mother in Salamanca Street, Annie’s living conditions had improved. Through hard work and determination, she’d lead the family forward.

A war veteran also lived with Annie, sixty-four-year-old George Melvin. A carpenter by trade, George served in the Coldstream Guards. From that regiment, he received nine pence allowance a day. A pittance. Impoverished, in his sixties, George was a frequent visitor to the workhouse.

Lambeth c1890

Ill-health affected my 3 x great grandmother Annie Wheeler during the early months of 1904. In late July, she collapsed, and on 27 July 1904 she died, aged forty-seven. 

An inquest and post mortem concluded that Annie had suffered from kidney and liver disease. What provoked that disease – excessive drinking or exposure to unsanitary living conditions? The coroner did not say.

When researching ancestors, it’s tempting to look at their lives through rose-tinted spectacles and think the best of them. So, I will try to be objective about Annie.

Annie was dealt a bad hand at birth, surrounded by poverty, the daughter of a ne’er-do-well father. The men she married, James Noulton and Frederick Thomas Canty, had some good qualities, but they were certainly not knights in shining armour.

Despite this background, Annie raised seven children, dragged them out of poverty. Remarkably, given the high child mortality rate in Victorian times, all her children survived. Three of her sons, Henry, George and Samuel served in the First World War with distinction (George lost his life) while her daughter Elizabeth lived to be ninety-six.

I don’t think a chronic alcoholic would have succeeded as Annie succeeded. Therefore, I’m inclined to believe that her unsanitary living conditions were responsible for her death, just as they were responsible for the death of her first husband, James Noulton. For all the successes of the Victorian era, their great failure was neglect and poverty. Profit overrode the basic needs of people.

I have a living relative who used to stay with Annie’s daughter, Annie, when she visited London. My relative speaks highly of daughter Annie. I believe this reflects well on my 3 x great grandmother Annie. 

I’m proud of Annie Wheeler’s achievements, and proud that she’s my ancestor.

As ever, thank you for your interest and support.

Hannah xxx

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The Ninety Three

The Ninety Three

Book News

The Ninety Three is now available for pre-order.

A novel set in 1918.

Accused of murder, socialite, suffragette and sociologist Dr Anna Richards goes on the run. While in hiding, she meets Great War hero, Captain Aubrey Howell, who is also on the run. Although he fought with distinction, Captain Howell is wanted for desertion – he refused to send his men on a suicide mission, was court-martialled and sentenced to death.

Anna and Aubrey team-up, to save their own skins, and to solve the mystery of The Ninety Three.

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