Photo of Lillian from the article by Mike Schau, Special to the Globe-Democrat. Jim Patterson note: This appears to be an original photo to accompany the article. I have not seen the article before and it seems are appropriate for the date.
St. Louis
Globe-Democrat
May 11-12 1968 page 9B
Miss Gish Recalls –
St. Louis and Sodas at the Busy Bee
By Mike Schau, Special to the Globe-Democrat
New York, I walked into Lillian Gish’s dressing room
at the Longacre Theater where she is starring in Robert Anderson’s drama “I
Never Sang for My Father.” It is a little corner of cheerfulness in an
otherwise dark and gloomy backstage area.
The bulb-encircled make-up mirror, the array of
cosmetic jars and the drawing of Snoopy hanging on the wall helped to brighten the
small room, but I suspect the real glow came from the charm that Miss Gish
radiates – the same charm that has endeared her to film and playgoers since the
turn of the century.
At 72 Lillian Gish is still a beautiful woman. If the
Gish Girl-loveliness that John Barrymore described as “superlatively exquisite
and poignantly enchanting” is somewhat physically faded, the beauty of
character and spirit is overwhelmingly present.
She talked of the play, but when I mentioned I was
from St. Louis, her thoughts turned back to the days when she toured and later
went to school and lived there.
“My sister Dorothy and I loved to play in St. Louis
because of the ice cream sodas. We hit St. Louis many times where we were
children touring in Belasco’s productions. There was a place near the theater –
I can’t remember the name of the play much less the theater – were we got the
best ice cream sodas in the world.
Chocolate. Not the sweet chocolate. Bitter chocolate. It was called the
Busy Bee Ice Cream Parlor. Mary Pickford toured with us in a few shows (she was
known as Gladys Smith then) and the three of us came to know St. Louis for its
ice cream.”
But there were less happy days in the city. “Things
got rough and my father left us. We had an aunt in St. Louis and my mother, my
sister and I moved in with her. We opened a confectionery in the city and
Dorothy and I went to school and worked in the store. (The Misses Gish attended
Ursuline Academy for a year. [1909-1910]) Somehow though we got back on our
feet and back on the stage.”
There was a quiet knock at the dressing room door.
Miss Gish opened it and was as surprised as I was to see Dame Edith Evans
there. Miss Gish let out a little gasp of surprise and then more than 125 years
of show business experience embraced. Dame Edith looked chipper and a little
winded from the two-flight climb.
“I’m on my way home to London and I had to stop in to
see you,” she explained. She seemed none the worse for having won the Academy
Award presentations (she was nominated for her starring role in “The
Whisperers”).
By their manner, it was obvious they were old friends.
There was great praise for Miss Gish and the play, all of which was accepted
with modesty. There was a pause in their delight at seeing one another to
remember a mutual friend, Edna Ferber who had recently died. Dame Edith brought
news of the passing of Fay Bainter which surprised everyone. There was another
thoughtful silence and Miss Gish said something about the bright lights going
out one by one. Then, a dinner date having been made, there were more embraces
and the grand Dame Edith took her leave.
Miss Gish sat down and gave a sigh of relief. “If I
had known she was in the audience tonight I would have been like this.” (She
made a gesture describing extreme nervousness.) “I can usually tell who’s there
during the show. That is the greatest actress in the theater today.”
She spoke more like an adoring fan than an old friend.
“You know, when I was in London at the age of 16 I saw Edith in a bit part. She
was unknown and I singled her out even then as a great actress.”
Jim Patterson note: According to Broadway Show
Database “I Never Sang for my Father” ran for a total of 124 performances. The
last performance was May 11, 1968, also the date of the article in the St. Louis Globe-Democrat.
Cast of “I Never Sang for My Father” included Hal
Holbrook, Teresa Wright, and Laurinda Barrett. Lois Wilson was Miss Gish’s
understudy. In the 1970 film starring Gene Hackman had Holbrook’s role, actress
Dorothy Stickney (1896-1998) had the role of Margaret Garrison, the role
Lillian played in the Broadway production. Melvyn Douglas had the lead senior role
in the film. It was Melvyn Douglas who presented Lillian with her honorary
Academy Award in 1971.
The author is using an 1896 birthday for Miss Gish to
arrive at an age of 72 in 1968. Dorothy Gish died June 4, 1968.
-30-
Jim Patterson began correspondence with Lillian Gish
after seeing her and Helen Hayes as The Brewster Sisters in a TV production of
“Arsenic and Old Lace.” Patterson moved to New York shortly after high school
in pursuit of the excitement in highly creative Greenwich Village. He worked on his writing and other studies amid
the cultural backdrop of hippies and freestyle types interested in global
affairs and the U.N. Among midnight movies, he especially enjoyed “King of
Hearts,” “NOLD,” “Harold and Maude,” “El Topo,” and “Reefer Madness.”
