Leatrice Joy: Hollywood star, Gideon’s grandmother.
Reader Joan Wolcott has reminded me that my grandmother, besides being a major motion picture star, also taught Sunday school, and, in addition, was a wacky, fun-loving kook that I was glad to be related to.
She was born in 1893, so I really didn’t get to know her till she was practically 70 years old. As a person of the 19th century, she had the quaint notion that all of us Fountain boys should behave as “little gentleman” and was forever correcting our behavior, which you can imagine did not go over well.
Nowadays, I regret not playing along with her wishes a bit more, I mean, how hard would it have been to stand up when she entered the room, for instance? I was a spoiled brat and that’s too bad. She was a great lady.
I remember her well. She was a great lady. Fun, too. Riding around town in her VW bus packed with her grandkids was a gas.
Cobra:
There is, I believe, an “art” to appearing to drive recklessly, but in fact maintaining control of the vehicle. I like to think that my Granny practiced that art…
Cobra, I remember one brisk fall day Granny piling all the grandchildren onto the roof rack of her VW bus (foreshadowing Seamus!) and taking us all for a spin (there’s a snapshot of it somewhere–do you have it, Gid?).
Anthony Fountain:
By gum, I think I DO have that photo of all of us riding on the roof-rack of Granny’s VW bus. What were Mom and Dad thinking?, I now must wonder….
The memory of the photo improves: it was Granny’s first bus of the thee she owned, red with black trim. It must have been near Christmas for she had stuck some magnetic shapes of Santa and his reindeer on beneath the driver’s window. We’re all up on the roof rack, Granny’s standing outside the driver’s door wearing her furs.
It’s funny, as kids we thought she was your typical grandmother.
She was a great lady. … and a stunning beauty! What happened down the line?
Just kidding Gid!
She was fantastic in the (1923) Ten Commandments, one of the best movies ever made.
armonk:
Thanks for bringing this up! “Grandma” (Leatrice Joy) screened this movie for my brother Anthony and I when we were around 7 and 8 years old. Clearly I need to see it again.
The picture of us all on the red and black VW roof was a photo shoot for her Christmas card that year. I was playing Mary in the Riverside School Christmas Pagent ( Sarah Kernochan was the Angel Gabriel) but Granny took us all to her house for the picture at lunch and created a bit of a panic by not getting me back on time for the play… they had to wait for me… hahahaha. She didn’t drive us around outside the driveway on Williams st as I recall…