I can only think that our own resident Eve is too distrait with grief to post.
So it is with some sadness I point out the passing of the beautiful, talented, durable Eve Arden.
There must have been some films where she actually got the hero in the end, but mostly she was some cute thing’s best friend, casting a cold eye on the proceedings around her and cracking wise.
She served as a model for many young women on how to prevail when you’re not the ingenue, and created an affection for herself that has lasted a long time.
In an early film at RKO, Stage Door, she got into the habit of playing with the studio cat during the breaks, draping it around her neck like a small fur stole. The director (Ratoff, I think) promptly put it in the movie, and there she is to this day, raising an eyebrow, sharing a flippant insight as she breezes through the room, while the cat just lies there enjoying itself, travelling in style.
And how. Fadeout, iris in…
Redboss
PS Perhaps somebody else could post a link? I saw it in today’s Melbourne paper but my Internet connection is Really Slow today. Thanks.
I have no room to point and jeer. I only recently was saddened to learn of the death of one of my favorite character actors, Denhom Elliot… in 1992. Explains his low visibility during the last decade.
I had an opposite experience. I read Mercedes McCambridge’s autobiography a few years ago. Noting it was written in 1981 and with this being the mid- to late 90s, I assumed she must be dead. Imagine my surprise when she turned up at the next Oscar telecast in the “panorama of past winners” display (the first, good one, not the one they did a couple of years ago). I was so happy that I wrote her a fan letter. She never answered it though; maybe I shouldn’t have included the phrase “I assumed you were dead”…
Baldwin, I was just trying to think of Denholm Elliot’s name a couple of days ago for another post. He had the lead in my favorite Christmas film – A Child’s Christmas in Wales. I didn’t know he was gone either.
It would take more than one regular death to kill Eve Arden. Spunky, wasn’t she? I’m old enough to have listened to Our Miss Brooks on the radio before the TV show. Richard Crenna played a teenager.
Anytime is an appropriate time to mourn the death of Eve Arden.
Favorite moments: in one of the Hollywood episodes of I Love Lucy, Lucy’s at the Brown Derby trying to identify one of the movie-star photographs on the wall. She and Ethel debate through several wrong guesses, when Eve Arden pokes her head over the booth and says “It’s Eve Arden.”
She’s such a doll in Mildred Pierce. “Now I know why mothers sometimes eat their young.” Getting up to answer the phone after a drink or two – quite offhandledly – “Hmm, I’m slightly drunk.”
Well I suppose I read the obituary too carelessly.
I could have sworn it was reported as news. However, a moment’s thought reveals that no other news source mentioned it, so maybe I should have twigged.
Really just a metaphor for how out-of-touch and confused and missing the point my life has become. It is not easy being a middle-aged failure, you know.
Thanks to you all for not being too nasty about it.
)
