BITS & PIECES OF A MISPLACED LIFE: PEOPLE

GERTRUDE STEIN 

“…motor automatism (IS) comparable to the way a 
water-diving twig seems suddenly to twist in the 
fingers. The young Gertrude Stein, when still a 
student at Radcliffe, researched this condition 
of ‘divided consciousness,’ in which one read 
aloud while resting a hand on a planchette 
(something like the Ouija glass equipped with 
a pencil), which performed ‘automatic ‘ writing.”

Neal Ascherson. “Grand Illusion” in The New York 
 of Books (December 2, 2021)

**

BEATRICE LILLIE 

Very early in World War II, Beatrice Lillie’s 
only son Robert Peele was killed when the Japanese 
bombed his ship when it was anchored in Colombo, 
Ceylon.

“…she sought aid from psychics and mediums by 
attending seances, hoping for some encouraging sign.
  On one occasion, a psychic referred over and over 
again to a ‘platter’ : ‘Your son sent you a platter 
of some kind.’
    Bea left in a rage, tearfully grumbling that 
this could have nothing to do with her son. But 
months later a package arrived from South America. 
In it was a platter Bobbie had sent when his ship 
anchored there.”

Bruce Laffey. Beatrice Lillie: The Funniest Woman in
The World (New York: Wynwood Press, 1989)
**
JUNE HAVOC

“When I was four years old my billing read “Dainty 
Baby June the Darling of Vaudeville,” then in 
smaller letters “Reg. U.S. Pat Off.” I had worked 
hard toward that billing since I was two.”

“Old Vaudevillians, Where Are You Now?” In Horizon 
(July,1959)

**
ELEANOR ABBOT

“The polio epidemic of the 1940s prompted Eleanor 
Abbot to create a game for children to play in 
quarantine. Its name: Candy Land.”

Emily Goodman. “Boredom-Busting Facts About Board 
Games” in Reader’s Digest (Large Print)  
(December 2021 + January 2022)
**
MADELEIN L’ENGLE

In The New Yorker for April 12, 2004, Cynthia
Zarin contributed a long profile of Madelein
L’Engle in which it was noted that “On West
End Avenue, piled of paperback mysteries teeter
by L’Engle’s bed. She’ll read any mystery, unless
she knows that the plot revolves around a dead 
child.”

**

LILLIAN HELLMAN

Is the movie Julia a true story?

“The story of a friendship between two women and 
their anti-Nazi efforts during World War II. 
though purportedly a true story about Lillian 
Hellman, her involvement was proved to be untrue 
by the actual Julia after the film came out.”

Internet..

**

Gladys Maude Winifred Mitchell 

Gladys Maude Winifred Mitchell (21 April 1901 – 
27 July 1983) was an English author best known 
for her creation of Mrs Bradley, the heroine of 
66 detective novels. She also wrote under the 
pseudonyms Stephen Hockaby and Malcolm Torrie. 
Fêted during her life (called "the Great Gladys" 
by Philip Larkin), her work has been largely 
neglected in the decades since her death.

Wikipedia

**


JOAN DIDION (& Andrew Marvell)

“I’m not telling you to make the world better 
because I don’t think that progress is necessarily
 part of the package. I’m just telling you to 
live in it. Not just to endure it, not just to 
suffer it, not just to pass through it, but to 
live in it. To try to get the picture. To live 
recklessly. To take chances. To make your own 
work and take pride in it. To seize the moment. 
And if you ask me why you should bother to do 
that. I could tell you that the grave’s a fine 
and private place, but none I think do there 
embrace. Nor do they sing there, or their children. 
And that’s what there is to do and get it while 
you can and good luck at it.”

Joan Didion, quoted by Parul Sergal in The New
York Times (December 24, 2021)

**

HERBERT STOTHART (September 11, 1885 – February 1, 1949) 


The year 1929 marked the end of the era of silent films. Shortly after completing his latest musical Golden Dawn with Emmerich Kálmán, Oscar Hammerstein, and Otto Harbach, Stothart received an invitation from Louis B. Mayer to move to Hollywood, which he accepted. In 1929, Stothart was signed to a large 
MGM contract.
The next twenty years of his life were spent at 
MGM Studios, where he was part of elite group 
of Hollywood composers. Among the many films that 
he worked on was the famous 1936 version of Rose-Marie, 
starring Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy. He 
conducted and wrote songs and scores for the films 
The Cuban Love Song, The Good Earth, Romeo and Juliet,
 Mutiny on the Bounty, Mrs. Miniver, The Green Years 
and The Picture of Dorian Gray. His output included 
the Marx Brothers' Night at the Opera, the Leo Tolstoy 
romantic drama Anna Karenina, two Charles Dickens 
dramas (A Tale of Two Cities and David Copperfield), 
and Mutiny on the Bounty, which earned him his 
first Academy Award nomination. He won an Oscar 
for his musical score for the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz.


**
RONALD REAGAN

“Ask him what time it is and he’ll tell you 
how the watch
 was made.”
                             Jane Wyman

**

JACK WEBB

Jack Webb --
Reputations of actors ebb
& flow. Reputations of writers flow
& ebb. Please do not ask me how I know.


LJP