In Reverence of Research Libraries
Year of Ann Dvorak: Day 313
Two more promo pieces went live yesterday, both focusing on how offline Los Angeles research collections aided in the quest to document the life and career of Ann Dvorak.
The first is kind of cheating because it was written by me for the Central Library blog where I work. My post focusing on the value of undigitized newspaper collections.
The second was written by Los Angeles historian extraordinaire Nathan Masters who blogs for KCET on behalf of the L.A. as Subject organization. Nathan’s focus goes a bit broader and extends to some of the other local institutions that I utilized which proved to be invaluable.
Both posts feature one of my all-time favorite images of Ann Dvorak which is from the Los Angeles Herald Collection at the Los Angeles Public Library. The photo shows her entering the courthouse on February 14, 1936 for the first day in her lawsuit against Warner Bros. It’s a wonderfully dramatic shot and she looks like she’s ready to step before the cameras. I first saw this photo in 2004 when I was interning in the LAPL Photo Collection and the second I saw it I knew it was a must have for the book. Nine years later, it’s still one of the most striking photos I have even seen of the Divine Miz D.
Reading over these pieces brings to mind something I recall from Stephen Ambrose’s biography of Dwight Eisenhower. He quoted Ike as saying “the United States never lost a soldier or a foot of ground in my administration. We kept the peace. People ask how that happened. By God, it didn’t ‘just happen’. I’ll tell you that.”
Which is a way of pointing out, or saying, that lot of hard work, which is not always evident, goes into the end result of a successful finished product. Which, in turn, is meant to point out that bringing Ann Dvorak’s story ‘didn’t just happen’, either. Save for countless hours of diligent and dogged research.
That is a striking photograph of AD. And “wonderfully dramatic” would be aptly descriptive. Her eyes almost seem to glow.
This will be certainly covered in the book, but was the lawsuit a big story at that time, that received a lot of attention?
Oh no, this certainly did not just happen, though even I am amazed that it took so long.
Ann’s court case did received national attention, though the coverage in the Los Angeles papers was much more intense than elsewhere. I ended up using 4 photos in the book from the 1936 legal battles which originally ran in the LA Times, Herald, and Examiner.
I think the 1932 walk out received more national attention. I guess running away for love was a more relate-able story.