—Katherine Hepburn
The Dream Window in the Old Liselund Castle, 1903
oil on canvas: 71.5 x 49.3 cm.
The Artist Lives Dangerously, San Francisco, 1938
Petersen Automotive Museum, Los Angeles, Nov. 2016
—Farrah Fawcett (1947 -2009)
Confession, Mexico, 1960
“Oakhurst Drive”
2021
Acrylic on canvas; 20 x 20 inches
—Columbia Pictures boss Harry Cohn, himself Jewish, on being asked to contribute to a Jewish charity.
The Soap Box Brothers, Atlanta, 1937
“Flower Garden”
ca., 1913
oil on canvas; 99.7 x 73.7 cm
Apparently Cohn was a real sweetheart. From Wikipedia:
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Cohn expected, or at least asked for, sex from female stars in exchange for employment.[9][10] Harry Cohn’s relationship with Rita Hayworth was fraught with aggravation. The biography If This Was Happiness, describes how she refused to sleep with Cohn and how this angered him.[11] However, because Hayworth was such a valuable property Cohn kept her under contract because she made money for him. During the years they worked together, each did their best to irritate the other despite their lengthy work relationship which produced good results. Cohn wanted to groom Mary Castle as Hayworth’s successor. When Joan Crawford was subjected to Cohn’s advances after signing a three-picture contract with Columbia, she quickly stopped him by saying “Keep it in your pants, Harry. I’m having lunch with Joan and the boys [Cohn’s wife and children] tomorrow.”[12]
According to writer Joseph McBride, Jean Arthur quit the business because Cohn used to attack actresses.[13]
In a BBC documentary, Sammy Davis Jr – The Kid in the Middle, along with the titular star’s episode of TVOne’s Unsung Hollywood, it was disclosed that Cohn, in order to end Kim Novak’s relationship with a black man, had mobsters threaten Sammy Davis, Jr. with blinding or having his legs broken if he did not marry a black woman within 48 hours.
Cohn was married to Rose Barker from 1923 to 1941, and to actress Joan Perry (1911–1996) from July 1941 until his death in 1958.
His brothers all worked at Columbia. As well as co-founder Jack, the eldest brother Maxwell was a shorts subject producer and Nathan was the New York division manager.[14] Cohn’s nephew, Ralph, one of Jack Cohn’s three sons, founded Screen Gems.[15] Another of Jack’s sons, Robert, was also a Columbia executive.[16] Maxwell’s daughter was Leonore “Lee” Cohn Annenberg, the wife of billionaire publishing magnate Walter Annenberg of Philadelphia.
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And as to his funeral:
Cohn’s well-attended funeral on stage 12 of the Columbia lot[1] was the subject of the famous (perhaps apocryphal) quote attributed to Red Skelton: “It proves what Harry always said: Give the public what they want and they’ll come out for it.”[17] He is interred in the Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Hollywood.
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A few years ago I went to the Hollywood forever cemetery.
Family lore was such that a great uncle of mine was “buried next to Rudolf Valentino“
Well I found out he is in the same mausoleum about 100 yards down the corridor.
But I found that place fascinating. It’s sort of a place for Who’s Who of Hollywood history.
It’s worth going there just for a visit.
I’ve always been fascinated in the Hearst history and was wondering where Marion Davies was buried.
Looked all around and could not find it and then realized I was standing right next to her little mausoleum under her real name Douras.
Bill,
Wikipedia is exactly what I was referencing, especially at the level of entertainment industry gossip. Toss it.
Robert,
I lived with my grandparents on Oakhurst Dr from my age 2 to 6, then again, years later, in the same house with my uncle for several months. Your painting doesn’t look like the Santa Monica & Doheny area I was near — that small park with the fountain nearby — but maybe your painting depicts closer to Sunset? (heh heh)
BTW, my grandmother & I went to the Farmer’s Market many times during my early years. Lots of people, lots of vendors, including some seating & eating areas like in the photo. Good times.
I read that Harry Cohn was so unpopular that nobody attended his funeral. I’m sure there must have been a few? I had brought up the Three Stooges on Facebook the other day and learned that Cohn loved the Stooges, and Columbia had a special unit for short movies – he promised the Stooges that as long as he was alive they would have a place at Columbia.
The day after he died, they disbanded that unit.
I really enjoyed the series Bosch on Amazon; I think of all the shows they actually depict Los Angeles accurately. Who else has shown Angels Flight?
Just about every Sunday my family would have lunch at the Farmer’s Market.
Has anyone seen The Founder? About Ray Kroc and the founding of the McDonalds Franchise system.
My parents knew someone from Bank of America in San Bernardino who gave him that first loan to expand.
I heard the story that one person attended the funeral of Harry Cohn “Just to make sure the sonofabitch is dead.”
I knew quite a few people at Columbia who knew and liked him, including Valerie French, Louis Hayward, Seymour Friedman, more. As far as reading something somewhere, unless it is The Columbia Encyclopedia, or another at that level, not an idiot like Darwin Porter, or an array of like biographers, accept only what can be verified, or better yet, toss the damn thing away.
A personal anecdote. After my daughter was born, Louis and I were talking about names, and I had read in the first edition of Halliwell’s Filmgoer’s Companion that Louis Hayward was not my friend and associate’s name. He said: Yeah, what do you think it is. Me: Seafield Grant. Hayward was stunned. Barry, no one in the world is named Seafield Grant, but I wonder where they got that from. More properly it is the Land Grant of Seafield. A place in South Africa. I inherited at twenty -one, sold, and bought into a British touring company.
If you go to the TCM website on Hayward they still have Seafield Grant up as an alternative. I wrote them, his daughter-in-law Wendy did, but no dice. These people are dishonorable, they are stupid and if not proud of it, satisfied.
Good story.
That sounds about right!
My wife used to go to an early McDonald’s in Alhambra. I agree that Farmers’ Market picture could be a painting. I used to go there on weekends when I lived in LA. That art deco lift is interesting. Nice collection, as usual. I wonder how many cars Auburn sold ?
I love the Art Deco mascot!
I love the scrollwork on the Elgin watch, but I’ve never liked the dials where the numerals aren’t consistently aligned.
Myrna Loy looks happy and the photo doesn’t appear to be a staged publicity shot for the studio.
The Auburn is a really cool design.
Farrah was a beautiful woman.
When I was young we had a drive up McDonalds that looked exactly like this. It was store #16 but it is long gone now.
I wonder what happened to the Soap Box boys? Did they fight in WW II a few years later?
I like your painting, but I can’t figure out the Farmers Market picture. It appears to be a photograph (and if it is not, I will attribute it to the early hour and my lack of coffee), but is looks so. . . sanitary. I don’t see any soldiers or sailors present. Rationing would have started in May, 1942. I don’t see any smokers or ashtrays on the tables. Was this a set shot for some purpose?
Have a wonderful weekend!