Celebrating 100th anniversary of "Broken Blossoms."
About Jim Patterson, Writer/Speaker Gish Scholar
Facebook Jim Patterson, Gish Scholar
Speaking/Film Introduction/Panel Availability JEPDiplomat@gmail.com
Jim Patterson began writing to and lecturing on the life and career of Lillian Gish (1893-1993) when in high school in the 1970s and has never stopped.
Patterson’s correspondence with Lillian Gish began after seeing her performance in 1969’s ABC TV production of “Arsenic and Old Lace,” with Helen Hayes. Her autobiography, “The Movies, Mr. Griffith, and Me,” was released the same year and sparked a renewed global interest in Silent Film screenings and film history. Patterson first saw Miss Gish’s 1919 “Broken Blossoms” in Atlanta in 1971 and bought Miss Gish’s photo from the film from New York’s Museum of Modern Art and kept it above his study desk while at Auburn University.
Patterson often sent Gish US and international postage to encourage her correspondence. When he had a US Flag raised over the US Capitol in memory of Dorothy Gish (1898-1968), Lillian phoned her appreciation. The flag is housed at the Dorothy and Lillian Gish Theater, Bowling Green State University, where Patterson was a Board Member for ten years. During the Reagan administration, Lillian was a frequent White House guest and lecturer at Smithsonian Institution, Folger Shakespeare Library, Library of Congress. Lillian received a Kennedy Center Honor in 1982.
In 1986, Patterson received a card from Gish informing she was on Cliff Island, Maine, filming “The Whales of August.” He visited the location to see “Gish in action,” as he described it. Gish was known as “The Iron Butterfly” for daring scenes in such films as “Way Down East” and “The Wind.”
Patterson sent Gish birth announcements for his children and Miss Gish wished them the “gift of curiosity” throughout their lives. During their correspondence, Patterson learned of Gish’s Hollywood friendship with Helen Keller (1880-1968), whose life was basis for the Broadway Play and Academy Award-winning 1962 film “The Miracle Worker.” Keller starred in 1919’s “Deliverance.” Patterson’s mother was named Helen in honor of sister Alabamian Helen Keller.
Patterson’s articles on Miss Gish have appeared in The San Francisco Chronicle, Christian Science Monitor, Montgomery (Alabama) Advertiser, Classic Images, Auburn Magazine, San Francisco Examiner, and many others. He blogs at LDGish.blogspot.com Facebook: Jim Patterson Gish Scholar He annually attends ceremonies for The Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize, America’s largest annual arts prize administered by JP Morgan Chase, in New York. See http://gishprize.org/
Patterson is working to have Miss Gish remembered on a U.S. Forever Stamp. Gish successfully campaigned for a 1975 stamp in honor film pioneer D.W. Griffith (1875-1948). Patterson is reader, researcher and lecturer on the life of Lillian Gish. He corresponds with Gish’s costars for articles and blogposts. At 2006’s 11th San Francisco Silent Film Festival, Harry Carey, Jr., Lillian’s costar in “The Whales of August,” called Patterson “The Gish Guy,” for his knowledge of Lillian’s career.
Patterson is life member of the American Foreign Service Association, life member Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum, member San Francisco Silent Film Festival, life member Auburn University Alumni Association. He presents, interviews, panels and lectures on the life and career of Lillian Gish. He resides in Washington DC. JEPDiplomat@gmail.com
