Oh, David! You know you are cute, too!
Conversation with Jane Withers-PART III
During the
Vanity Fair party on Thursday evening, April 25, I had so much fun chatting with Jane Withers and learning about her experiences in Hollywood with some of the most famous and the most endearing personalities.
Final Visit...
Withers discussed with Ben Mankiewicz during her introduction of
Giant at the Turner Classic Movie Festival 2013 how she would wash James Dean's favorite pink shirt because when he would send out his laundry, his shirts would "disappear." So she volunteered to wash his favorite pink shirt every night, and the last evening before he left on hiatus, he stopped by to leave her the shirt, but he never returned, and Withers has kept it ever since, as well as her lovely memories of the young man she befriended in Marfa, Texas, in 1955.
One of my favorite movies is
The Major and The Minor with Ginger Rogers and Ray Milland, and one of the most enjoyable actresses in the film was Diana Lynn, who played the younger sister of Pamela Hill, fiancé of Milland's character, Phillip Kirby. Lynn's worldly-wise teenager, Lucy Hill, lets Susan Applegate in on the score concerning her deceitful older sister, portrayed by Rita Johnson.
Diana Lynn was a concert pianist at the age of 10 and a member of the L.A. Junior Symphony at the age of 11. She signed a 7-year contract with Paramount in 1941, and appeared in
The Miracle of Morgan's Creek, My Friend Irma, and many other films and television programs before her death from a stroke in 1971. Withers discussed how Diana Lynn was a close friend(Jane was her matron of honor at her first wedding).Lynn eventually married Mort Hall, president of a radio station in LA, and had four children.
June Haver,Mrs. Fred MacMurray, had had a heartbreaking romance with a man who died tragically, and it left her depressed and unhappy. Withers claimed that before Haver married MacMurray, she decided to become a nun, and became very religious.
But just before Haver was preparing to take her final vows, she told Withers that she could not make the final commitment, and left the convent. "She didn't know what to do," so she came to stay with Withers for about three years during the time before Withers married Kenneth Errair, a member of the vocal group "The Four Freshmen."
Withers had a hand in the discovery of another Hollywood heartthrob, a young lady by the name of Rita Cansino. While Withers was on one set filming
Paddy O'Day, she went to another adjacent set and saw a young dancer who fascinated her, and she talked about how wonderful the dancer had been that she had seen on another set. Withers was impressed, and told her director and others how this young lady had "it" and she needed to have her own films because she was going to be a star. So at eight years of age, she recognized the luminous qualities and talents that helped Rita Hayworth become a world-wide film queen, and remained ever in awe of that talent she discovered, finally delivering the eulogy at Hayworth's funeral in 1987.
As one of several high-profile Presbyterians, Jane ( and she asked me to call her Jane!) was also happy to remember how every Wednesday evening, fellow Hollywood Presbyterians would come over for a prayer meeting. Jimmy and Gloria Stewart, June Haver and Fred MacMurray, and several others often arrived on a Wednesday, and Jane said that Jimmy Stewart, whose father was also Presbyterian, would usually say the prayer. Jane stated several times during the course of our hour-long conversation that her faith has sustained her in times of deep trouble, and she felt that all the opportunities she had and all the "luck" that came her way existed because of her religious faith.
Spending time with Jane Withers is energizing and exciting, and I only hope I have that much energy when I am 87! She claims that she and her friends, like Ann Blyth, get together at least once a month to go to lunch. Our delightful conversation culminated in a discussion of one of our favorite topics, jewelry!
Being 87 is a cause for celebration for Withers as Twentieth Century Fox has released seven of her previously unavailable films:
The Farmer Takes a Wife (1935), Paddy O'Day (1935), Little Miss Nobody (1936),
Rascals (1938), Chicken Wagon Family (1939), High School (1940), and
Golden Hoofs (1941).
For more information about her recently released films, follow this link:
http://www.reellifewithjane.com/2013/05 ... e-withers/
For another in-depth interview with Jane Withers, follow this link:
http://www.reellifewithjane.com/2013/05 ... -hayworth/
