Personal Diary of Olive Grismer
Personal diary kept by the young adult daughter of 1930s California theatre aristocracy — the eminent playwright-producer-director Joseph R. Grismer and actress Olive Chamberlain (Harper) Grismer.
Very good plus.
Price: $375.00
Personal Diary of Olive Grismer
Olive Grismer, nineteen at the time of her first entry in 1934, had familial connections to or social acquantaince with an enormous number of theater, film, and artistic personalities in 1930s Los Angeles and San Francisco — most notably, the de Milles and the Barrymores. Diary highlights include a multi-page description of Grismer's visit to sculptor Lorado Taft's Chicago studio, a vast number of anecdotes regarding various Barrymores and de Milles, and a captivating "time-worn tale of the eternal triangle" whose three members were: the writer Isabel Garland, daughter of Hamlin Garland and then-wife of tenor Hardesty Johnson; the writer Mindret Lord, whom Garland would eventually marry; and Lord's established lover, Marguerite Namara, a once-famous opera singer and fading musical comedy star. Grismer lays out in exacting detail who loves whom, who knows about it, who is complacent, and who will be heartbroken. "Well, well," she concludes, "I wonder how it will end?" Grismer pauses her diary in 1935, following her 20th birthday, but returns for a brief post-script in 1941. In the intervening six years, she writes, she has been married and is now "on the brink of a 'trial separation' — I call it my vacation!"
Other well-known personalities appearing in the diary include: Stewart Edward White, writer and spiritualist, whose short story "The Girl Who Got Rattled" formed the basis for one chapter of the Coen Brothers' film THE BALLAD OF BUSTER SCRUGGS; Miriam Hopkins, film actress and star of Ernst Lubitsch's TROUBLE IN PARADISE; Barnaby Conrad, the author, bullfighter, and boxer; Carman Runyon, coal magnate and onetime owner of Los Angeles's Runyon Canyon/Runyon Park; and many others. A fascinating look into Hollywood and theater life from a unique perspective.
The Object
[Hollywood, CA]: n.p, [1934-35, 1941]. 6'' x 5.25''. Commercial journal bound in textured black cloth over stiff boards, gilt stamping to front cover. With metal and leather sideband locking mechanism (no longer functional). Red ribbon bookmark attached. All edges gilt. Unpaginated. Grismer's ownership notation to front flyleaf. Manuscript entries in ink to approximately 1/4 of the ruled leaves. Boards moderately worn, with scuffing to corners. Firm.
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