That *is *pretty goddam cool–what did he say?
No, I do *not *want to hear about Amway…!!!
Very cool.
Heh. During my honeymoon, I was permitted to take the wheel of our windjammer cruise ship for about two minutes. My idyll ended abruptly when a stray schooner failed to acknowledge right-of-way and the captain, with strained politeness, asked me to yield the helm. But for weeks afterward I labored to work the story into mundane conversations.
“Oh, your Excel table didn’t align correctly? That sort of thing never happened back when I was steering the S/V Flying Cloud through the Caribbean.”
I’m impressed. I would have started a thread about just having heard that O dH was in the same town as me…but this!
She could dictate them. Get her a Gooch! Then you edit (but no bleak childhoods, please).
paris is indeed a magical city. i’m so glad you were able to chat up ms de havilland. so very wonderful.
I’ll squeal and jump up and down with you and I’m some stranger on the internet. She’d be pretty high on my list of golden age film stars still living to have tea with. Course, there aren’t many left.
So-had you met her before or did she hear through the grapevine that you were in Paris and just call you up out of the blue?
Well, as awesome as THIS story is, I’m still waiting for your tale of your tryst with a charming French rake names Yves…
OK, Lillian Gish gave me Olivia de Havilland’s address when I was writing my Jean Harlow book, and she was sweet enough to ask Irene Mayer Selznick to call me for an interview. Irene was a *terrifying *woman (and I am not easily terrified), but I kept in close touch with Lillian Gish till she died, and Livvie and I exchange cards and letters from time to time, so I mentioned I would be in Paris, and she e-mailed me (Olivia de Havilland uses e-mail!!) that she would love to have me drop by.
(She *has *a Gooch, by the way, a lovely young lady named Megan)
I still think once you are done with your current book you should see if she would work with you on her biography.
Nah, I don’t want to bug her. She knows I’m a writer, and I’m sure she knows *lots *of much better writers, and if she is interested, she’ll ask me.
By the way, I found out it’s true, 50 million Frenchmen can’t be wrong–but I was disappointed to learn that all the girls in France do *not *do the hoochie-coochie dance. Maybe, oh, 27 or 28 of them.
And if there is a place in France where the ladies wear no pants, it was not on my itinerary.
Eve, I would have done almost anything to meet Lillian Gish, more, actually, than Olivia de Havilland. I’ve got some serious envy going here.
One thing not mentioned enough, I think, is that both Lillian Gish and Olivia de Havilland are (well, Lillian not so much anymore) really funny, witty women.
I would totally post something light-hearted and witty here, but I am swooning from the awesome coolness of all this.
I’ll just sit here in the corner until the palpitations settle down.
Eve, you have made my day. What was your book about Jean Harlow?
I have been reading that book “1000 Movies You Must See Before You Die” and looking at Lillian Gish for the first few pages. You sound like you knew her quite well- did you do a book on her as well?
Yes, me too. I had family from Massillon, where she and Dorothy are still much revered.
My Harlow book (pub. 1991) is called Platinum Girl (I *hate *that title, but it was my first book, and not my place to argue). Miss Lillian wrote her own memoirs, and there have been other books about her as well, so no need for me to chime in.
Whatever. I was once within 15 feet of Jimmie Freakin’ Walker (you know, Dy-No-MIte!), and you don’t see me running to the laptop and starting a gosh-dang thread about it.
mmm