Year of Ann Dvorak: Day 344

Well, I guess we remember Ann Dvorak here everyday, but on this particular day let’s take a moment to think about the Divine Miz D on the 34th anniversary of her passing. It was on December 10, 1979 that Ann succumbed to cancer at the Straub Clinic & Hospital in Honolulu. This photo was taken the previous July by her childhood friend Leona Cary who was visiting Ann and making plans to relocate to Hawaii from California. She looks much older than her 68 years, but she was already sick at the time and her body had endured years of alcohol abuse, along with the physical and mental abuse from her last husband. But, those Dvorak eyes are still there and big as ever, and for Ann to be clutching a kitty is definitely in character. Despite being on a very fixed income and residing in less than optimal living conditions, that always active mind of hers was still racing in many different directions and she didn’t seem defeated by her circumstances.

On this December 10th, let’s raise a glass and remember the woman who gave us many memorable performances and some great off screen stories as well.

Year of Ann Dvorak: Day 341

As I make the final touches on my pre-Code lecture for this afternoon, here’s an oldie but a goodie from my Ann Dvorak collection. I guess everything I have is an oldie, but this piece goes all the way back to 1916. As many of you already know, Ann technically made her film debut as a tot in the feature Ramona. Credited as “Baby Anna Lehr,” she was only in the prologue (on a reel that is now “lost”) and played the title character as a child. Despite this limited screen time, Ann garnered excellent notices, and as we can see from the above sheet music was featured not once, but twice!

I think that kid may have a future in pictures.

Year of Ann Dvorak: Day 337

I am currently succumbing to some sort of flu, so today’s post is purely visual. Here is a snapshot from the honeymoon scrapbook of Ann enjoying the winter holidays, possibly in St. Moritz, Switzerland in 1932.

Year of Ann Dvorak: Day 336

At various points in Ann Dvorak’s life, if you had asked her if she would rather be an actress or a writer, she may have opted for the latter. Writing was a personal love of Ann’s and something she always engaged it. As a child she would fill reams of paper with poetry which she occasionally shared with her mother. She claimed to have worked on the newspaper at her private school and to have been briefly employed at the Los Angeles Times as a cub reporter after graduating.

There were occasionally rumors Ann’s writing being published including a book of poetry, an account of her eight-month honeymoon, and a play she had written about her parents called “Vaudeville Days.” Unfortunately, none of these projects came to pass. She finally fulfilled this personal dream during the Second World War where she wrote articles for a newspaper syndicate, a British publication, and even for a couple of American movie magazines. In fact, when she came back to the United States from England, she is identified on the ship manifest as being a writer.

In later life, Ann launched an impressively ambitions project called “Historical Digest,” where she penned an 18 volume history of the world and recorded herself reading it. Aimed at being a teaching aid for university courses, the opus was not embraced by the academic community. I still have hopes that a copy of “Historical Digest” will one day appear.

The above photo of Ann engaged in one of her favorite hobbies is from her honeymoon scrapbook.