Coolest Gift
Coolest Gift
#0Coolest Gift
Posted: 1/2/06 at 1:14pm
This requires some backstory.
My Aunt Clara, who has been dead for at least 20 years now, was a slient film start, and something called a "Sunshine Girl" - which was similar to a Zigfeld girl.
Some of the old books from back from the 20's have pictures of her as cleopatra, but most of our collection was taken during a family squabble with an evil Step-Grandmother named Vickie.
My Aunt is actually an amazing story. Became a madame, owned bars in Watts that burned (uninsured), legend has it that she won and then lost a million dollars in vegas all in the same week . . .
She left her career in the movies for love, at her prime (I saw some of the newspaper clippings about her leaving the business). Then her husband eneded up with some affiliation to Al capone, and he fled when the noose feel around his boss, never to return. Her one son, was killed during WWII, his body never recovered.
When she died we recovered massive amounts of quarters from all of the juke boxes and poll tables she had in bars, and also came across a few surprising sex toys. Apparently, in her late 70's, she was still working it.
She was so much fun. I have great memories of going to her apartment complex in the Griffith Park area and playing her piano and looking through her things. She would wear a fur coat in the dead of summer, with pancake makeup an inch think!(that side of the family is full of carnies, bus drivers, cigar manufacturers . . . no wonder my father's Anglican parents almost passed out when he said he was marrying this Jewish She-Devil).
Well...
It appears that one of the movies she was in has been preserved, and is in the Harold Lloyd collection of films recently released on DVD. She is supposed to be in at least one of the films ("High and Dizzy) if not more. This is what my little sister got me for Hannukah - a chance to take a look and visit with my great, great, Aunt Clara.
How Cool is that?
#1re: Coolest Gift
Posted: 1/2/06 at 1:24pm
What a great gift! I love gifts with thought behind them.
#2re: Coolest Gift
Posted: 1/2/06 at 1:29pm
I was just watching it, and was like - Holy Sh*t - My Aunt Clara was the pretty patient Harold Lloyd was hitting on.
It just brought a huge, silly smile to my face.
etoile
Broadway Legend Joined: 8/2/03
NYadgal
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/18/04
#4re: Coolest Gift
Posted: 1/2/06 at 1:45pm
Yes, very, very cool, indeed.
Family history is fascinating, and being able to preserve our memories and stories are so important!
Be sure to write down everything you remember about her and talk to other relatives about their stories, as well.
And, enjoy the DVD!
Mamie
Broadway Legend Joined: 3/26/04
#5re: Coolest Gift
Posted: 1/2/06 at 1:53pmIsn't that wonderful? Now she's going to live forever - even for those generations of your family who never got to know her. What a truly remarkable gift!
A click for life.
mamie4 5/14/03
#6re: Coolest Gift
Posted: 1/2/06 at 1:54pm
My younger sister is actually doing the whole family history.
It is a very interesting combo - Immigrants on my mother's side fleeing the pograms in Russia and discrminiation in other parts of Eastern Europe, and Dutch, English, French and German on my father's side.
So, His family is made up of farmers (they actually sold orchards to the Irvine Company - my Grandmother grew up on an Orange Ranch in the OC, I have cousins who are still farmers in Central California. They are very blue bloodish - the arrivals after the mayflowers. Not here first, but damn close. They came to California in the 19th century.
My mom's family settled in Chicago - they owned the Pines Cigar company for a while, but did not manage is well. My mother's parents divorced when she was young. My Grandfather was a bookie and drank too much. My Grandmother on her side drove a bus for the Bay Cities Jewish Community Center. By the time I and my sisters came into being, he remarried and worked travelling carnivals. My Grandma Tybee got a boyfriend and though never married, they were together for about 20 years until she died.
One side of the family - pretty bland and predictable
The Other Side - A little crazy.
I will not even go into my cousins and my Aunt.
It might make an interesting book someday about America's melting pot - at least in terms of Anglo america.
Updated On: 1/2/06 at 01:54 PM
#7re: Coolest Gift
Posted: 1/2/06 at 2:08pmThat is a fantastic story. Thank you for sharing it.
justthefacts2
Broadway Star Joined: 4/24/05
#8re: Coolest Gift
Posted: 1/2/06 at 2:59pm
YouWantItWhen - WOW!!! WOW with double STARS*****
What a story!! My next question is when are you writing her story? Get yourself a ghostwriter, if you have to, but that lady MUST be a musical!! Who wouldn't want to play her? Find some take on her story that sets it apart from others and write! Compose!! Oh my gosh - what a treasure!!
#9re: Coolest Gift
Posted: 1/2/06 at 4:16pm
My younger sister actually has been tracking the whole family history. I don't know if she ever considered making a book about it, but I do think it tracks the whole melting pot experience, at least as it involves European Americans. No in-breeding in this DNA chain. She has gone back to some european contries to track birth records, and visited some grave sites in No Cal where my father's family lived. She also did some oral interviews with my mother's mom before she passed away, which was a good 12 years ago. My Dad's mother passed away the day I passed the bar exam, which as to be about 15 years ago now. I think she sait down with her as well and taped some interviews.
One of the more interesting sub-plots is that though my father was raised Anglican, he became a practicing Jew by the time he married my mom. He did not, however, out of respect for his parents, convert until after both died. It was a pretty funny day at temple when he had his conversion cermony. Everyone just assumed he had - he and my mother have been such a strong part of the Temple community.
I think my Grandma always had hope that he would find his way back from that Jewish She-Devil!
As for the book, or anything written about our family history and its colorful characters, my sister probably has "dibs" on writing anything, but it might be an interesting family project to try and get smething done. Sometimes family politics prevail over family history!
#11re: Coolest Gift
Posted: 1/2/06 at 11:13pm
We actually talked today about trying to get some of the family geneology in order.
Who knows.
#12re: Coolest Gift
Posted: 1/2/06 at 11:17pmWOW- that is going to be a great thing to pass on to future generations!
#13re: Coolest Gift
Posted: 1/2/06 at 11:47pm
It might actually do something even more important - bring my sister and I together again. We have been Semi-astranged for a while. You know the story - too many buttons to push for each of you, with the best odds being avoiding any sort of exchange. Both sides of victims and perpetrators of our shared history.
This may actually give us something to start fresh on. Which would indeed make it an amazing gift.
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