Inspired by a Movie

[from My Photo a Day Adventure blog]

Saturday, November 6, 2021 … Serendipitous timing … Eleanor Roosevelt died November 7, 1962 … Sunrise at Campobello, 1960, was the movie that led me to the summer home she and Franklin shared … on FDR’s “beloved island” … Campobello Island, New Brunswick, Canada … June 15, 2003 … at the Roosevelt Campobello International Park …

Roosevelt Cottage … built 1897 … extension on left added 1915 … June 15, 2003

Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt were major humanitarian figures in American history when I grew up … so there was an immediate draw when Sunrise at Campobello was on color tv in the late 1960s, early 1970s … most memorable was the location  filming at Campobello …

Back porch … Roosevelt Cottage … water … facing west

Opening scenes of the lively family … sailing, putting out a small fire near the beach, running up to the cottage … August 10, 1921 … just before FDR is stricken with the paralysis of his legs that he struggled with, but didn’t let get in the way of his political career … elected President 4 terms, 1933-1945 …

One of my favorite rooms … Roosevelt Cottage … west end, first floor

Front porch family time … 1920 … FDR, his mother, Sara Roosevelt, and Eleanor … FDR’s parents brought him to the island in 1883, when he was a year old, building their own cottage in 1885 … In 1907, Sara purchased the 1897 Kuhn cottage on the adjacent property as a belated wedding gift … FDR and Eleanor married, 1905 … The Kuhn cottage became the now known Roosevelt Cottage – source …

5 kids … and a dog! … 1920 … Roosevelt Cottage … Photo of photo in cottage

Expanded cottage … 1920 … FDR didn’t return to Campobello for over 10 years after 1921 … His final brief visits occurred in 1936 and 1939, before his death in 1945, though his family continued to use the house until 1952 … By 1957, the Hammer brothers, who purchased the property, began to lobby Congress for the creation of an international park … which opened August 24, 1964 … jointly owned and managed by both Canada and the United States, created by a treaty that honors the memory of FDR and the legacy of friendship between the two countries  … the only such international park in the world. – source …

“Our house Campo 1920” … In 1915, FDR enlarged “the Roosevelt cottage” with an L-shaped extension (on the left in this view) … Photo of photo in cottage

Will the real Eleanor Roosevelt please stand up … 1960 … Eleanor visiting Ralph Bellamy and Greer Garson … Hyde Park, New York location … Sunrise at Campobello …

A special visitor … Eleanor Roosevelt with Ralph Bellamy, Greer Garson

Sunset, actually … at Campobello … Ralph Bellamy … reprising his Broadway role … Greer Garson

Sunrise at Campobello, 1960 … nominated for 4 Oscars: Actress – Greer Garson; Art Direction, Color; Costume Design, Color; Sound … But first, it was a 1958 Broadway play … winner of 4 Tony’s: Best Play; Actor in a Play – Ralph Bellamy; Featured Actor in a Play – Henry Jones; Director – Vincent J. Donehue (also directed film) …

Movie poster … Sunrise at Campobello, 1960 … makes FDR and Eleanor look a lot younger than they were!

The journey to Campobello Island, New Brunswick, Canada … June 2003 … train from Vancouver, Washington to Buffalo, New York … rental car through New York and Massachusetts … up the coast through New Hampshire and Maine … a night at a Lubec, Maine B&B … the easternmost edge of the U.S. … then across the Franklin D. Roosevelt Memorial Bridge to Campobello … the only bridge to the island … southern end of the Bay of Fundy … but wait! … The Bay of Fundy is one of the 7 wonders of North America. The highest tides on earth, the rarest whales in the world, semi-precious minerals and dinosaur fossils – source …

Map of Maine, with Lubec … and New Brunswick, Canada, with Campobello Island and Bay of Fundy

Kate’s Brownies – At Last

Sunday, November 22, 2020, 12:15 am — Katharine Hepburn … in her kitchen at the family home on the water at Fenwick, Old Saybrook, Connecticut … where she whipped up many a batch of brownies … Lights! Camera! Action! … Brownies! … followed her recipe … scrumptious! …

[Book … The Private World of Katharine Hepburn, 1990, pp. 34-35]

Recipe … 6 years ago … Kate’s Brownies, Nov. 17, 2014 … “The brownies don’t have a lot of height, but are supremely moist and chewy, quite fudge-like.” … BACKSTAGE SECRET: don’t use too much flour!

For baking ambiance, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, 1967 … livingroom tv … TCM OnDemand … not my favorite Kate, Spence film, but the only readily available.

BONUS! … Woman of the Year, 1942 … Kate’s accomplished Tess Harding is a shambles in the kitchen … (first film with Spencer Tracy) …

Shirley Temple – John Agar Wedding

July 2015 … Shirley Temple is Turner Classic Movie’s Star of the Month … To celebrate, here’s a post from August 2009:

THIS must be why I’ve always been a Shirley Temple aficionada!

On Sept. 19, 1945, Mom just happened to be in the right place at the right time, outside the Los Angeles Wilshire Methodist Church where 17-year-old Shirley Temple was marrying John Agar.

“A crowd of 5,000 which started assembling at 3 o’clock this afternoon gathered outside the church. Following the brief ceremony the young couple escaped through the throng to a waiting automobile.” – New York Times, Sept. 20, 1945, p. 25

Things are mighty quiet now. Notice how the palm tree to the right of the door has skyrocketed since 1945? Wilshire United Methodist Church, 4350 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, CA

The reception was held at Shirley’s family home, Brentwood, CA.

Unfortunately for Mom, the crowd outside the church wasn’t invited to the reception. Not known to be a party-crasher, she missed her chance and will have to make do with these photos …

Alas, fairy tales are short-lived when they cross the threshold of reality. In 1950 Shirley and John divorced. (Above, Shirley & a pal, Pie Covered Wagon, 1932)

In the interim, they acted together in Fort Apache, 1948, the first of John Ford’s Monument Valley “cavalry trilogy.” John went solo in the second of the trilogy, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, 1949.

Our plucky Shirley tried her valiant thespian best, but she’d lost her natural ease in front of the camera.

(Left) When the cameras stopped rolling, we see this wonderfully candid glimpse of the real Shirley, not “acting”, but herself, the true “sparkle”!

[First posted August 18, 2009]

Kate’s House

November 17, 2014 — Remember Katharine Hepburn’s Fenwick kitchen, circa 1980s? … (see Kate’s Brownies, Nov. 17, 2014) …

Look at it now … After her death in 2003, the house was sold and totally remodeled …

Kate’s Brownies

November 17, 2014 — The accomplished Katharine Hepburn (1907-2003) of Woman of the Year, 1942, finds her Achilles’ heel in the kitchen … Her culinary prowess is a shambles … as Spencer Tracy discovers …

The real Kate knows her way about a pot or pan or three …

Below, in her kitchen at the family home on the water at Fenwick, Old Saybrook, Connecticut … cleaning up after dinner and whipping up chicken paprika …

Both are from the 1990 book, The Private World of Katharine Hepburn, pp. 34-37, a 1991 Christmas gift from Kevin … Kate poses with Perkins, November 2013 …

• See more adventures of Perkins the Orange Tabby and Teeny the Tuxedo Cat

Now back to Kate and her brownies … She once said, “Never quit, be yourself, and don’t put too much flour in your brownies.”

“This recipe is from an interview Katharine Hepburn gave in 1975 to Liz Smith of The Ladies Home Journal.” …  (It was also “shared in the New York Times, by one-time neighbors of Katharine Hepburn. When they brought her a batch of brownies, she said they had too much flour and were overbaked, then proceeded to share her family’s brownie recipe. The brownies don’t have a lot of height, but are supremely moist and chewy, quite fudge-like.”)

“Let’s make them … they are a cinch … put together in minutes in one saucepan and tossed in the oven….so simple.  I can even picture Katherine slamming around in the kitchen proclaiming she doesn’t have time for a more complicated recipe. ” – Noble Pig Blog …  

Natalie Wood

October 6, 2014 — My favorite child actress (after Shirley Temple) … Natalie Wood (1938-1981) … her early years through 1950 …

From the Life magazine archives … two unpublished photos … 1945 … This could have been during or after filming her first credited role in Tomorrow Is Forever, which came out in early 1946 … with Claudette Colbert and Orson Welles! …

Watering the lawn (and sidewalk) … “her mother, Maria Gurdin, supervises” …

• More photos at Natalie Wood: Rare and Classic Photos of the Lifelong Movie Star

Hugh Beaumont – Ward Cleaver

Beaver’s composition (My Most Interesting Character). …  “He never shot things in Africa or saved anybody that was drowning, but that’s all right with me because when I am sick he brings me ice cream and when I tell him things or ask him things he always listens to me. He used a whole Saturday to make things in the garage. He may not be interesting to you or someone because he’s not your father, he’s mine.”

I would like to be a bear
Gay and happy free from care.
That’s a life like no other,
Climbing trees with my mother.

Though they call me beast with savage rage,
I never locked anyone in a cage,
Or set a trap since times begun,
Or shot at humans with a gun.

Above, Season 1, 1957 – Opening credits and theme …

Theme music, “The Toy Parade”, lyrics:

Hey! Here they come with a rum-tee tum they’re having a toy parade.
A tin giraffe with a fife and drum is leading the kewpie parade.
A gingham cat in a soldier’s hat is waving a Chinese fan,
A plastic clown in a wedding gown is dancing with Raggedy Ann.

Fee fie fiddle dee dee they’re crossing the living room floor
Fee fie fiddle dee dee they’re up to the dining room door.

They call a halt for a choc’late malt or cookies and lemonade
Then off they go with a ho ho ho right back to their toy brigade.