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Ginger's Susan Hayward Message Board: To reach If You Knew Susie by Trish Sharp, click the profile photo at www.facebook.com/susanhaywardclassicfilmstar and you will see the link.

Ginger's Susan Hayward Message Board
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Re: Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanks Ginger and Lynn for your warm wishes.

We don't celebrate Thanksgiving in Australia of course, but are very much aware of it as a North American event. ( I believe that Canada also celebrates Thanksgiving but on a different day and with some slightly different rituals ?)

But Britain, New Zealand and Australia don't - so thanks for your inclusive greetings and well wishes and I hope everyone there had a great holiday.

Re: Happy Thanksgiving!

Hi, Kerry!

What a nice message--I never think of Australians as even taking note of this holiday! Do you, by any chance, get to see on television, the "Macy's Day Thanksgiving Parade"? It's such an enormous parade here in NYC--when I was a child I thought it magical--that I often wonder if it's shown outside of the Northeast of America! The parade starts on Central Park West, only a few blocks from my apartment, and I used to watch them blowing up those enormous balloons the night before. It was always FREEZING!

On Sunday, a close friend of mine (who's English, but came to NYC to live in 1971), is flying over to Australia (Brisbane), to visit some of her family, who moved there from London. When I lived in London for 12 years, I met so many Australians there having a year or two off, to travel. (Of course, we were all a lot younger then--and felt free to wander!)

I made some very nice Australian friends in London, as I found you all just so friendly--and humorous!! We would laugh over everything! I tend not to meet as many Australians here in NYC, but I know that there must be a lot of you visiting. Without the concept of 'pubs' here, there is less opportunity for people to just gather casually and meet others. What a shame!

Anyway, I expect you are starting to really warm up there---while we are heading into our 'deep freeze'! Actually, I like cold weather very much (and lots of snow--for skiing!!), so winter never bothers me.

Well, Kerry........thanks so much for writing! I am trying to think of "Susan" topics that would awaken us hibernators--like I've been! It would be a shame for those of us on the Board to lose contact. (And I don't think that Susan would be very happy.....I can just see her eyes narrowing!)

all my best to you--and have a great holiday season, Lynn

Re: Happy Thanksgiving!

Lynn

Yes the Macy's Day Thanksgiving Parade usually gets a short grab on the news each year here- but as I was virtually raised on Hollywood product, it is a major event that has featured in many movies and tv shows over time and I recall being aware of it via those mediums when I was quite young.

Perhaps because of the tyranny of distance, Australians have been inveterate travellers for many decades now and the 'trip to London for a working holiday' was almost a rite of passage in the 1960's and 1970's when I was doing just that - along with trekking over as much of the globe as I could manage.

I visited the U.S. in 1970, '71 and '77. But only as a tourist whereas the London 'experience' was, like yourself, for extended stays of living and working.

Yes we are indeed sliding into our peak Summer here. Brisbane, where you mentioned that your friend will be visiting, is at present truly glorious weather. The average daily temps are around 28C ( maybe around 82 Fahrenheit?) with zero rain and sunny days and pleasant nights. HOWEVER - being sub tropical as a location - it can and does experience some dreadful Summer days with scorching temps and high humidity. Hopefully, the mild and temperate climes currently dominating in Brisbane may continue for her visit.

Actually Angelina Jolie was in Brisbane and its surrounds for a few weeks last month. She is down here shooting her new film 'Unbroken' but has since moved down to Sydney for the balance of the shoot. Brad flew in last week and they took the brood out for a yacht sail on Sydney Harbour ( and the weather looked pretty dazzling then too!)

But should the usual Australian Summer heatwaves erupt, we will be desperately envying you your snow and chill.

Best

Kerry


Re: Happy Thanksgiving!

Hi, again, Kerry,

How funny that while you were visiting the U.S. during the '70s, I was living and working in London!! If you were in NYC then, you would be so shocked to see the change---everything has been so 'beautified'--lovely little parks, Central Park a masterpiece of greenery, lakes, places to explore---and perfectly SAFE!! It's rather like they took a multi-colored paintbrush across the city and completely brightened it up. We were so bankrupt during the 60's and 70's that it wasn't until the economy got going again, that NY could become the place it is today. But it is still a city of so many different neighborhoods and areas to explore.

Where in Australia are you? My friend got off from JFK Airport yesterday just in time before we were hit by sleet and ice.

Yes, when I lived in London, I had not thought about the fact that Australians must make quite some trek or they will never see other parts of the world! Although I could take holidays in other countries, I had to hang onto the job I had, or I would have lose my 'alienship' and been forced to leave England. My work permit was for one job only. But I did enough exploring of other countries to make me very happy. I LOVED France and the people were very nice to me the few times I was there.

But I loved England best, and most of my dearest friends are still from those days I lived there. I wonder if young people still trek around the world as much......life seemed so much more laid-back then. All those young British 'kids' piling onto those van trips that went to India, Egypt, and all over the Middle East, Far East, etc. My English 'flatmate' did that many times!

Anyway, Kerry--it's so nice getting to know people from all over the world!

Take care and hope you stick around!

Lynn

Re: Happy Thanksgiving!

' Where in Australia are you?'

Lynn, I dwell in a place called The Sunshine Coast which is in Sth East Queensland, north of Brisbane ( which is the State Capital).

" I wonder if young people still trek around the world as much."

Exactly. I imagine that they still travel prodigiously but it is certainly a different era for both how and why they get around I think.

Another aspect of present day travel is that the sheer ease of communicating back home ( or anywhere ) would tend to take away an element of the adventure perhaps?

In the 60's and 70's, when you travelled, there were only postcards sent away during your travels to get in touch with family and friends. Now, with cell phones and Skype and so many apps and PC based contact formats, one can be in the wilds of the Gobi Desert or exploring remote islands in the far Pacific and still have a face to face chat with your cousin at home twice a day if you wished.

( Confession- I was sailing back to England on a ship in December 1969 and it stopped in Miami, Florida for one day only. I was walking past a public phone and on a sheer ' doubt it but why not' notion, I looked up the telephone directory and there WAS a listing for E. Chalkley. I can't recall now whether it was for 'E and S' or whatever- but of course I rang it. A woman answered and when I asked if I could speak to Mrs. Chalkley she advised that she was not at home but I could leave a message.

It was not the lady of the house merely deflecting an unwanted call as I would know that voice ANYWHERE, but may have been a maid or cleaner or whoever.

Anyway - I almost got to actually speak to Barbara Graham / Messalina / Cherokee Lansing / Katie O'Neill / Bathsheba / Verna Carlson / Lone Star Crockett Sheridan herself! )

Re: Happy Thanksgiving!

Hi, Kerry,

Can't resist telling you what a laugh I had about the 'famous' telephone calls you made. So--what exactly did you plan to say, besides "Hello!", if 'Mrs. Chalkley'HAD answered the phone?? Knowing me, I would have tried to say something brief but something that made her laugh!! But--I don't think many people--including myself--could manage to say ANYTHING that she would have found even remotely amusing!!! (Actually, it's possible that all her calls went straight to an answering service!! And "Mrs. Chalkley was NEVER in!")

You are so right that the mystique of world travel on a shoestring--and the fun of knowing that you were out of reach--is in the ancient past! (I refuse to use a cell phone--if I'm outside taking a walk, I want to look around and take in the view--not plaster one of those things to my ear--and take in a voice!) Ah...."The World is Too Much With Us"!

Here's a sort of coincidence: while you were sailing back to England in 1969, I was living there for 9 months that year, on a temporary work permit, to see if I would like to 'settle' there for a longer period. And I loved London so much that this experience was the reason that I went back in 1970 for 12 years!!

Cheers!

Re: Happy Thanksgiving!

" So--what exactly did you plan to say, besides "Hello!", if 'Mrs. Chalkley'HAD answered the phone?? "

Exactly so. There was I,a callow star struck youth and if the unimaginable had occurred and I suddenly found myself speaking to Mrs. Chalkley, I would undoubtedly have been either lost for words or setting a new record in unintelligible babbling. LOL.

Actually your observation that her calls were perhaps screened via an answering service is probably close to the truth.

As it happens, VALLEY OF THE DOLLS came out in London in late 1967 / early 1968 I think? I clearly recall going to see it there and I think it may have been at the Odeon, Leicester Square. I returned to Australia in mid '68, worked for a time and saved up some more travelling cash and then headed back to London on Chandris Lines for my fateful and doomed Miami telephonic effort en route.

Your stint in London was far longer than mine as far as consistent dwelling. I probably accrued around six years living and working there but in three separate periods of time.

As it happens, I was having a one week holiday on the Pacific island of Vanuatu in March 1975 and as we had mentioned- there were no cell phones then and most of the islanders spoke French anyway.
I had gone to a restaurant where I ate most nights ( mainly because it had a spectacular bar and also because the owner who sat near the cash register in the evenings looked like a blowsy Jeanne Moreau.)

I had just arrived and walked to the bar and greeted her in my very inadequate and broken schoolboy French, when she mentioned what I thought was Susan Hayward in a conversation with the barman. I asked whether I had heard correctly and she said ' The American actress Susan Hayward died '.
This was how I heard about it and the odds on that happening in that place at that time were staggering really.

Re: Happy Thanksgiving!

How and where you learned of Susan's death strikes me as staggering, too--the fact that you were right there when the owner of the restaurant relayed the sad news! (Although the way Susan suffered at the end, it seems as if her death was a blessing to her.)

I have to admit that I was aware of her---but had not seen her films or known anything about her until I first read Beverly Linet's book a couple of years ago---and then found this Board. Reading about her and watching her act in films like "I'll Cry Tomorrow" made me wonder how I had missed out knowing more about her all these years. I have sure tried to make up for missed time, though!

After reading 3 books about her, I have now ordered a 4th---and though much of what is said in them may not be true, I do not have any other way to learn at least a little bit about her, as her sons--understandably--must have found it an overwhelming undertaking to write about someone so personal to them.

I must certainly have heard of Susan's death, when I lived in London, but, while I would have acknowledged how sad this news was.......I would not been at all familiar with her life.

Lynn