Email From an Oscar Winner's Son...

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtBEZYPAW6s-79IzkJ9Ee4ASd4QVL4LRtUTpHIJQD6fbGEJ4lsyYGu8ZInv_frqCuVeIYDK0jPYjodJczNlQ0B3Azbf3NrRZ6kPtaMek5qCWtwEgdlyErGZzYxCi-30Jr1P2nKm03THXY/s1600/gone+with+the+wind.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="305" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtBEZYPAW6s-79IzkJ9Ee4ASd4QVL4LRtUTpHIJQD6fbGEJ4lsyYGu8ZInv_frqCuVeIYDK0jPYjodJczNlQ0B3Azbf3NrRZ6kPtaMek5qCWtwEgdlyErGZzYxCi-30Jr1P2nKm03THXY/s400/gone+with+the+wind.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Every now and then a delightful surprise arrives in the <a href="mailto:ladyevesidwich@gmail.com">ladyevesidwich@gmail.com</a> emailbox.</span></span><br /><br /><a name='more'></a><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">A few months ago I was contacted by British scholar Dr. Susan Smith, Senior Lecturer in Film Studies at the University of Sunderland in England and author of <i>Hitchcock: Suspense, Humour and Tone</i>,<i> </i>published by the British Film Institute. Dr. Smith was interested in getting in touch with <span style="color: red;"><a href="http://eves-reel-life.blogspot.com/2011/08/akaann-newton-of-shadow-of-doubt.html" target="_blank"><b>Edna May Wonacott</b></a></span> who portrayed young Ann Newton in Hitchcock’s 1942 masterwork <i>Shadow of a Doubt</i> for a paper she was working on. I’d originally gotten to know Edna in 2010 and an interview I conducted with her was published online, in the local newspaper of the Arizona city where Edna now lives -and in <i>Films of the Golden Age</i>. Dr. Smith had came upon my interview (and those that followed) with Edna online and asked if I’d put her in touch with the now 80-year-old former child actress. I did, and Dr. Smith later interviewed Edna for her paper.</span></span></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWNmEkEKIzrVDA_GZ-Yw0Ax9YOdjKeAf4GVUnJWD_a841AL6WFgXENz89bIDUoZi4KkVnCkKj6-s9GViufQkmEA7-GSA9D8bAjRffJYXp_BQD3cZINr3sAAP6GIdPgTeEsQnDKLcrkWcQ/s1600/King+and+I.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWNmEkEKIzrVDA_GZ-Yw0Ax9YOdjKeAf4GVUnJWD_a841AL6WFgXENz89bIDUoZi4KkVnCkKj6-s9GViufQkmEA7-GSA9D8bAjRffJYXp_BQD3cZINr3sAAP6GIdPgTeEsQnDKLcrkWcQ/s320/King+and+I.jpg" width="256" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>The King and I </i>(1956)</td></tr></tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal"><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">More recently – i.e., last week -  I received an email from Brooke Wheeler, son of legendary art director/production designer/set decorator Lyle Wheeler, winner of five Academy Awards (for <i>Gone with the Wind, Anna and the King of Siam, The Robe, The King and I, The Diary of Anne Frank</i>). Last year, in July, I’d published a piece by a young woman, Constance/aka/”Captain Gregg,” who was then primarily blogging at Turner Classic Movies’ Classic Film Union. The piece was entitled “Lyle Wheeler – Setting the Scene.”</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">For those unfamiliar with Lyle Wheeler, he not only won five Oscars but was nominated for an additional 24 - for his work on films including <i>Rebecca, Laura, Leave Her to Heaven, All About Eve, Viva Zapata!, My Cousin Rachel, Love is a Many-Splendored Thing, Daddy Long Legs </i>and <i>Journey to the Center of the Earth</i>.<i> </i>He also contributed as art director and/or production designer and/or set decorator on well over 300 additional films that weren’t (though many should have been) Oscar nominated – films like <i>A Star is Born </i>(1937), <i>Nightmare Alley</i>, <i>The Snake Pit</i>, <i>A Letter to Three Wives</i>, <i>Niagara</i>, <i>Pickup on South Street</i>, <i>How to Marry a Millionaire</i>, <i>The Seven Year Itch</i>, <i>Carousel, The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit</i>, <a href="http://eves-reel-life.blogspot.com/2011/09/guilty-pleasures-movie-blogathon-no.html" target="_blank"><b><i>No Down Payment</i></b></a><i>, The Fly, South Pacific</i>, <i>The Long, Hot Summer</i>, <i>The Best of Everything</i> and <i>In Harm’s Way</i>. Wheeler worked in movies during every decade from the 1930s through the 1970s, that’s five decades, and was inducted into the Art Directors Guild Hall of Fame (est. 2005) in 2008 (other illustrious inductees include <a href="http://eves-reel-life.blogspot.com/2011/05/cmba-movies-of-1939-blogathon-private.html" target="_blank"><b>Anton Grot</b></a>, William Cameron Menzies, <a href="http://eves-reel-life.blogspot.com/search/label/Van%20Nest%20Polglase" target="_blank"><b>Van Nest Polglase</b></a>, Hans Dreier, Cedric Gibbons, Henry Bumstead, <a href="http://eves-reel-life.blogspot.com/2011/05/north-by-northwest-free-to-public.html" target="_blank"><b>Robert F. Boyle</b></a> and Alfred Junge). Wheeler also worked in TV, most notably on the the noirish and iconic <i>Perry Mason</i> series.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUh9OVuSN-XDfxya5DyZ7PEwnamB0XU9uO3HK9wzLN19EtCbpL3fG-PPBgr7I29aNXJEeA_u_RCWWmiBt4pgx4NJkVLAgl3FiTwvuIW9nf01jPNrgMKrVLlD7w0d_Q_9nJwwfXVm-r52w/s1600/Lyle+Wheeler+Films.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="202" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUh9OVuSN-XDfxya5DyZ7PEwnamB0XU9uO3HK9wzLN19EtCbpL3fG-PPBgr7I29aNXJEeA_u_RCWWmiBt4pgx4NJkVLAgl3FiTwvuIW9nf01jPNrgMKrVLlD7w0d_Q_9nJwwfXVm-r52w/s400/Lyle+Wheeler+Films.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Here is what Lyle’s son Brooke Wheeler wrote:</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><i>After doing some recent research on my father Lyle, I came across your excellent and well informed article…</i></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><i>I'm sure Lyle would have been appreciative of all the kind comments, as I am. Just an FYI, Lyle's career continued into the mid 1970's, renewing his relationship with Otto Preminger on IN HARMS WAY (1965) post 20th Century Fox, then with features through Columbia Pictures like MAROONED (1969) and his final feature, POSSE (1975) (with Kirk Douglas starring and directing). It is wonderful to hear younger audiences enjoying all the Classic "Golden Age of Hollywood" films…. Many Thanks,<br /><br />W. Brooke Wheeler</i></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">To read the superb piece on his father that prompted Brooke Wheeler's email, <a href="http://eves-reel-life.blogspot.com/2011/07/lyle-wheeler-setting-scene.html" target="_blank"><b>click here</b></a>.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtcPd7E21BWyXSQ4ny6VrwUajVJfvrVfRbdE7qGxzfaamem1eOCl8JnTzSUrXH1z-B_pU79mfq7vmUwPfDTBQNGy5nZa6av2CQ5Ez_uWsGkS0FB8vAjiX5Rz6pdTT3rhhNcj0-jADxSCM/s1600/Leave+her+to+Heaven.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="297" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtcPd7E21BWyXSQ4ny6VrwUajVJfvrVfRbdE7qGxzfaamem1eOCl8JnTzSUrXH1z-B_pU79mfq7vmUwPfDTBQNGy5nZa6av2CQ5Ez_uWsGkS0FB8vAjiX5Rz6pdTT3rhhNcj0-jADxSCM/s400/Leave+her+to+Heaven.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Leave Her to Heaven </i>(1945)</td></tr></tbody></table>

Brooke Wheeler Captain Gregg Dr. Susan Smith Edna May Wonacott Lyle Wheeler The Lady Eve (author) Email From an Oscar Winner's Son...

Every now and then a delightful surprise arrives in the ladyevesidwich@gmail.com emailbox.A few months ago I was contacted by British scholar Dr. Susan Smith, Senior Lecturer in Film Studies at the University of Sunderland in England and author of Hi…

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Happy 80th Birthday, Edna May!

<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibpB1TzaHnybs4BMIKXz0HLu603hpAQJjFP-suDWMrkqodYwY4-gfsQSV_z83_aZKzl6m8URJad_p1ww1oyzRolU1o9Ir5IQCYKeZ-T0VLX348ngRwJdlBFOoJu7B8NZtCAPGrFSoZM8on/s1600/soad-edna-and-travers-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibpB1TzaHnybs4BMIKXz0HLu603hpAQJjFP-suDWMrkqodYwY4-gfsQSV_z83_aZKzl6m8URJad_p1ww1oyzRolU1o9Ir5IQCYKeZ-T0VLX348ngRwJdlBFOoJu7B8NZtCAPGrFSoZM8on/s400/soad-edna-and-travers-2.jpg" width="397" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Edna May Wonacott in </span><i style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Shadow of a Doubt</i><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"> (1943) with Henry Travers</span></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Edna May Wonacott, who turns 80 today, was born in the town of Willits in Northern California in 1932. She spent most of her childhood to the south, in Santa Rosa, where her father was a grocer. When she was nine years old a twist of fate occurred that changed her life forever. Edna happened to be waiting at a bus stop in downtown Santa Rosa when she encountered director Alfred Hitchcock and producer Jack Skirball. Hitchcock, who would be shooting much of his next film in town, thought there might be a part in it for the pig-tailed, bespectacled young girl whose curiosity captured his attention.</span><br /><br /><a name='more'></a><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Two years ago, on Edna's 78th birthday, I posted the story she told me of her fateful "discovery." She and I had talked at length about what transpired on that day, what it was like working with Hitchcock on <i>Shadow of a Doubt</i>,<i> </i>as well as her memories of working on Leo McCarey's <i>The Bells of St. Mary's </i></span><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">(1945). <a href="http://eves-reel-life.blogspot.com/2011/08/akaann-newton-of-shadow-of-doubt.html" style="color: #990000;">Click here</a> for the full interview.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">We've stayed in touch since, and last January just before her 79th birthday, Edna brought me up to date on her life during the intervening year. It was a busy year - a year of letters and autograph requests from fans who'd seen our interview online or when it was published in her local paper or when it later appeared in <i>Films of the Golden Age</i>. She'd been active in other ways, too; in fact, she'd been a very busy lady. <a href="http://eves-reel-life.blogspot.com/2011/01/shadow-of-doubts-ann-newtontoday.html" style="color: #990000;">Click here</a> to find out what interesting turns Edna's life took during 2010.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Then last summer, on the 112th anniversary of Alfred Hitchcock's birth, she was part of a celebratory event here at <i>Reel Life;</i> a drawing was held for a DVD copy of <i>Shadow of a Doubt</i> along with a copy of this photo signed by Edna:</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span id="goog_873078715"></span><span id="goog_873078716"></span></span><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEje17jLUM038bmE3k8zB85aKnVBkliygmufnnHalYeCy4GcjeqCow5yqUwrAHo6iWzlKNgvsnobw_dBS0pZlzBTI00LhQumiKfbPgU02xcggV2sueCFtkZPlZQ9eZmReVmX2FL438oLzVbF/s1600/Edna+and+Hitch+2+resized+small+cropped.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="302" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEje17jLUM038bmE3k8zB85aKnVBkliygmufnnHalYeCy4GcjeqCow5yqUwrAHo6iWzlKNgvsnobw_dBS0pZlzBTI00LhQumiKfbPgU02xcggV2sueCFtkZPlZQ9eZmReVmX2FL438oLzVbF/s400/Edna+and+Hitch+2+resized+small+cropped.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Edna May Wonacott and Alfred Hitchcock on the set<i></i></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span id="goog_873078715"></span><span id="goog_873078716"></span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Today, as Edna turns 80, I'd like to wish her an especially happy birthday and wish her many, many more. Thank you, Edna, for sharing your memories.</span><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/kQ3SfjwHMK0" width="420"></iframe></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">A ten minute segment from <i>Shadow of a Doubt</i> featuring scenes with Edna</span></div>

Alfred Hitchcock Edna May Wonacott Shadow of a Doubt The Bells of St. Mary's The Lady Eve (author) Happy 80th Birthday, Edna May!

Edna May Wonacott in Shadow of a Doubt (1943) with Henry TraversEdna May Wonacott, who turns 80 today, was born in the town of Willits in Northern California in 1932. She spent most of her childhood to the south, in Santa Rosa, where her father was a…

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...aka/'Ann Newton' of "Shadow of a Doubt"

<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgojZ9jp-etWTxKzSK6L3SownKXy4D6kHkMAbhf3Rd5dAfkL2ILkDHpnl24Gsv7fiRutyiGdoUAhhXAYeFmDaf5RHA9Cahyphenhyphens3chOd7pvCfs94LjXaadHHF04XptKudg80MgLw-woX5nvVtc/s1600/Edna+Ford+and+Carey+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgojZ9jp-etWTxKzSK6L3SownKXy4D6kHkMAbhf3Rd5dAfkL2ILkDHpnl24Gsv7fiRutyiGdoUAhhXAYeFmDaf5RHA9Cahyphenhyphens3chOd7pvCfs94LjXaadHHF04XptKudg80MgLw-woX5nvVtc/s1600/Edna+Ford+and+Carey+2.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Shadow of a Doubt</i>, Wallace Ford, Edna May Wonacott, Macdonald Carey</td></tr></tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; text-align: center;"></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><i>Early in 2010 I was doing research for a post on Alfred Hitchcock's </i>Shadow of a Doubt<i> and in the process came upon an interesting piece by one of TCM's MovieMorlock bloggers, Medusa. Entitled "My Favorite Book Worm or: Where in the World is Edna May Wonacott?", it focused on the child actress who portrayed Ann Newton in</i> Shadow of a Doubt<i>. I was inspired to locate and contact Edna (now Edna Green) and asked her if she'd like to be interviewed. She agreed, and our conversation evolved into a blog that first appeared at </i>The Classic Film & TV Cafe<i> on her 78th birthday in February 2010, was later published as a Sunday feature in </i>The Yuma Sun <i>and, later still, as an article in </i>Films of the Golden Age<i>. Here is a slightly revised version:</i></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Edna May was nine years old and living with her family in Santa Rosa, California, when she caught the eye of director Alfred Hitchcock while he was in town preparing to make <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Shadow of a Doubt</i> (1943). The director cast her in the role of Ann Newton, younger sister of the protagonist, Charlie Newton (Teresa Wright) and niece of the villain, Charles Oakley (Joseph Cotten). Edna May made quite a splash in the part and appeared in small roles in other films over the next few years.<br /><br />That Alfred Hitchcock happened upon Edna May and cast her in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Shadow of a Doubt</i> is a minor legend, but an imprecise one. In some versions of the story, Joseph Cotten was with the director when they met. Edna clearly recalls the circumstances of that fortuitous day when she and two cousins were on their way home from a shopping excursion:</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">"I was discovered in Santa Rosa, standing on a street corner waiting for a bus. Alfred Hitchcock and producer Jack Skirball were standing at the same corner looking over the town."</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnh_IUSetapGSq8c8YazjKArQIn83zhN9DH9EI6nzAPWcHRqsgDoIAfjemAHLINhy3FXkgchmJBlJgaWNhc78VcXZulzwBNQUr33FxA4TViyOXBFlkecNq7nyMZQACJb1c5mBtdhh_6Yuq/s1600/Edna+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnh_IUSetapGSq8c8YazjKArQIn83zhN9DH9EI6nzAPWcHRqsgDoIAfjemAHLINhy3FXkgchmJBlJgaWNhc78VcXZulzwBNQUr33FxA4TViyOXBFlkecNq7nyMZQACJb1c5mBtdhh_6Yuq/s1600/Edna+2.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hitchcock (right) in Santa Rosa, near the spot where he met Edna</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">That particular corner bus stop, in front of a Karl's shoe store, had a view of several prominent downtown locations including the courthouse, a circular green and the bank. Hitchcock and Skirball were looking and talking and jotting down notes on a clipboard. Edna May watched them and was curious. She edged away from her cousins to be closer to Hitchcock and Skirball so she could find out what was going on. The two men noticed her observing them and began to look her over.</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">"My older cousin made me move away from them and next to her, and the two men kept looking at me and finally walked over to us and introduced themselves and said they were making a movie in town and wanted to know if I wanted to be in it." They asked for her address and said they would be out to talk to her parents that afternoon.</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Edna May ran all the way home to tell her mother that she was going to be in a movie. Her mother, well aware of her daughter's vivid imagination, thought she'd made it up until the cousins arrived and confirmed her story.</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhK9KfC9_PbDcYpVYrRJDwGUTE2dz6z4Qb58Ewg3GgeO5uL1URJBmkqdiNeEwIy3b6KSNfo1Y6tDHmNFbXVTMQk2YHDeWrh-UUp-RNmkPQD_f6GqGfupRkHQbZ6RG3lLsPMgYMax9uzeb8P/s1600/Edna+on+the+phone.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="284" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhK9KfC9_PbDcYpVYrRJDwGUTE2dz6z4Qb58Ewg3GgeO5uL1URJBmkqdiNeEwIy3b6KSNfo1Y6tDHmNFbXVTMQk2YHDeWrh-UUp-RNmkPQD_f6GqGfupRkHQbZ6RG3lLsPMgYMax9uzeb8P/s320/Edna+on+the+phone.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Edna's first scene as Ann Newton</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">The next day Edna May and her mother were on the night train to Los Angeles where the young girl would make her screen test. The following morning they taxied from the Glendale depot to Universal Studios, where they were met at the gate and escorted to the audition. Edna May was given a script for the phone scene, the first appearance of Ann Newton in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Shadow of a Doubt</i>. Hitchcock directed her, basically instructing her on the reactions and expressions he was after. Edna May wasn't nervous, she just followed Hitchcock's direction and aced the screen test. She said she didn't have to be coaxed into taking the part, adding: "What nine year old wouldn't want to be in a movie?"</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">The story goes - and it's true - that Edna May had no experience as a performer up to that point, not even in school plays or church pageants, "I hadn't had any acting experience and no interest in ever doing such a thing..."</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6HI0OZH0w_WoUeJ98iGmUlaASAzUJOYun8RGZqMY39H-fzsrr3OQP2kEpkWxHS9SqdlMKTBWUbvBF6FO6CoaT1wif-DypgPTkKWYyURGd1-_Q8-nmbm9bntLZz2XQ8eFIZiiDYBIKbmyE/s1600/Abbott+and+Costello+3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6HI0OZH0w_WoUeJ98iGmUlaASAzUJOYun8RGZqMY39H-fzsrr3OQP2kEpkWxHS9SqdlMKTBWUbvBF6FO6CoaT1wif-DypgPTkKWYyURGd1-_Q8-nmbm9bntLZz2XQ8eFIZiiDYBIKbmyE/s200/Abbott+and+Costello+3.jpg" width="135" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Abbott & Costello</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">While at Universal, Edna May and her mother ate in the commissary and were entranced as they watched actors and actresses in costume eating lunch. Edna remembers meeting Abbott and Costello, Deanna Durbin and Shemp Howard of Three Stooges fame that day. In fact, she and her mother were offered an all-expenses-paid weekend in Hollywood, including a chauffeur-driven car to take them anywhere they'd like to go. Edna May wanted more than anything to visit the Disney studios, but her mother, unsettled at being away from home and on her own for the first time, didn't want to stay - and they were on the train headed back to Santa Rosa that night.  </div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Though she was a novice, Edna May didn't receive any special training for her performance. She gives credit to the director: "I had no coaching for the part and just took direction from Alfred Hitchcock." She worked well with him and had no trouble understanding what he wanted from her. She felt it was the same for the other actors in the cast (Joseph Cotten, Teresa Wright, Henry Travers, Patricia Collinge, Hume Cronyn, Macdonald Carey, Wallace Ford). She recalls Hitchcock as a very quiet man who kept to himself much of the time (she often saw him reading comic books on the set).</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Ann Newton was a unique character, a confident, self-possessed little girl who loved books and didn't hesitate to speak up. She was an observant child, the only family member who took a dubious view of Uncle Charlie early on. I wondered if Edna May had been like Ann Newton as a child. In some ways, she doesn't think so ("I didn't like reading and would rather be outside riding my bike or playing."). On the other hand, she noted that she was "a very confident kid and never doubted I could do anything I wanted to do." And she was observant; it was her curiosity about Hitchcock and Skirball on that street corner that set her Hollywood adventure in motion.</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifrE91_4ieDPpcwPNJKhP1_bThyphenhyphenNKR_bR9XPRmJk20b-OoNqfg5b_6DCHRjZW2IQay15SN_TjI2DQRilp9mMYUeSPrEjzKyau6L12aB6oi3jXRSolCFlg3lCiGWQc_Q0taOQHv_XKqISqY/s1600/Edna+4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifrE91_4ieDPpcwPNJKhP1_bThyphenhyphenNKR_bR9XPRmJk20b-OoNqfg5b_6DCHRjZW2IQay15SN_TjI2DQRilp9mMYUeSPrEjzKyau6L12aB6oi3jXRSolCFlg3lCiGWQc_Q0taOQHv_XKqISqY/s200/Edna+4.jpg" width="166" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ann Newton is not impressed</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Edna remembers filming <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Shadow of a Doubt</i> fondly: "The cast and crew were like a happy family. No one was treated any differently than anyone else. I had no favorites on the set other than the fact that I was madly in love with Joseph Cotten and melted every time he talked to me. Everybody knew this and I got kidded a lot!" Her crush on the charismatic Mr. Cotten didn't get in the way of her performance, though. Hitchcock's instructions to Edna May regarding her scenes with Cotten were: "It doesn't matter how nice he is to you, always be suspicious of him and question why he's doing what he's doing." Ann's skepticism of him is reflected the moment Uncle Charlie hands her an ill-chosen teddy bear gift and Edna May screws up her face and gives him a withering sidelong glance.</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Shadow of a Doubt</i>'s exterior scenes were shot on location in Santa Rosa, which was unusual for the time. The interiors were shot at the studio on a soundstage. When the time came to travel to Hollywood again, Edna May's mother and brother accompanied her. Her dad, who was a Santa Rosa grocer, stayed home and minded the store. It was her brother who helped her memorize her lines.</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdnSiWPQTXKCPkmY7VlvoR8RzNC80jzqwoVT7y5-fTrhxaqhscr6NvlyMflVhC3JLTToiEIPKJCN-_5ORZO8O17JvmOHtzoPNvU6LOMHXuT90ARsVQrKGd0Hf1HORvBqI_Kc3mS5LdWI7T/s1600/Edna+B1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="277" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdnSiWPQTXKCPkmY7VlvoR8RzNC80jzqwoVT7y5-fTrhxaqhscr6NvlyMflVhC3JLTToiEIPKJCN-_5ORZO8O17JvmOHtzoPNvU6LOMHXuT90ARsVQrKGd0Hf1HORvBqI_Kc3mS5LdWI7T/s320/Edna+B1.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Edna's classmate, Sabu, 'the elephant boy'</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Filming on <i>Shadow of a Doubt </i>began in August 1942 and took three months to complete. While in Hollywood during the school year, Edna May was tutored on the set on the days that she worked. On off-days, she attended classes at the studio's schoolhouse. She particularly remembers one fellow student, Sabu, who captivated the class with stories about the elephants of India. His stories gave Edna May the impression that in India elephants were as common as dogs in the U.S., and treated in much the same way.</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Edna May became close to Pat Hitchcock, the director's daughter, and the two often played gin rummy on the set. Both girls had crushes on Joseph Cotten, and when he gave Edna May an autographed picture inscribed "with love," Edna remembers that Pat was a little disconcerted because Cotten hadn't signed his picture to her with the same sentiment.</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjci5xSC0pS1zqmjbZQLkf3NLdqtt8QGBvzIf6zSAzMwUceb3OiukRgEy0EPuWHIFwBDx8CvRY_gTG5P4cZ58mCzkhk2wWortTKj8GTbHHv4OhNSdZy0qYEL-BibACeGCK100G4kNRtcx_6/s1600/Joseph+cotten3.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjci5xSC0pS1zqmjbZQLkf3NLdqtt8QGBvzIf6zSAzMwUceb3OiukRgEy0EPuWHIFwBDx8CvRY_gTG5P4cZ58mCzkhk2wWortTKj8GTbHHv4OhNSdZy0qYEL-BibACeGCK100G4kNRtcx_6/s1600/Joseph+cotten3.JPG" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Joseph Cotten</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">The Hitchcocks frequently took Edna May to Hollywood's famous Brown Derby restaurant with them, and she spent many weekends as Pat's guest at the Hitchcock home. On most days, their meals would be ordered from the kitchen and sent up to Pat's room via a "dumb-waiter" built into the wall. One day, though, Pat told her there would be a formal dinner that evening and to "wear something nice." Edna May was flustered, not being familiar with the forks, spoons, knives, dishes and glasses used at proper dinners. She hoped to sit next to Pat and follow her lead. But Pat told her they'd be sitting across the table from each other and, when it came to the silverware, "just start from the outside and work your way in." It turned out that the evening's guests were Joseph Cotten, his wife and step-daughter - and Edna was seated next to him. She remembers being so smitten that she was trembling. And she'll never forget that he talked with her all through dinner.</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Like so many kids of that era, Edna May had an autograph book. When it was Alfred Hitchcock's turn to sign, he did it as one might expect - with a twist. He signed the last page in the book and with his left hand (he was right-handed): "By hook or by crook, I'll be the last one to sign in this book."</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">At the end of the shoot, there was a goodbye party in San Francisco. Edna May received many gifts that she still cherishes, including an inscribed bracelet from Teresa Wright, a scarf with a "pigtail" motif from Joseph Cotten and a golden bow from Hitchcock inscribed "to Ann Newton from Alfred Hitchcock." Edna recalls that Hitchcock never called her anything but Ann throughout the making of <i>Shadow of a Doubt</i>.</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkHO2mcU15JprMCi9Zy46CpYnsyUfwaHp_trHsXh4bU3SxDrCLDJ3mkm5kloitW67lzg9SbHizWT4Pz_nUKZI8jwEO_LjEfRlbiHeqlrmI9l3l4-c8OTSWWNAZA0fZE6ZfH-H2VgihEdp3/s1600/Edna+autograph+resized.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkHO2mcU15JprMCi9Zy46CpYnsyUfwaHp_trHsXh4bU3SxDrCLDJ3mkm5kloitW67lzg9SbHizWT4Pz_nUKZI8jwEO_LjEfRlbiHeqlrmI9l3l4-c8OTSWWNAZA0fZE6ZfH-H2VgihEdp3/s320/Edna+autograph+resized.jpg" width="259" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Edna May Wonacott, child actress</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Edna May, of course, was a local celebrity in Santa Rosa (then with a population of 19,000). "There was a lot of publicity and women would come into dad's store and want to touch the father of a movie star! I have lots of scrapbooks of the publicity and had quite a write-up in <i>Life</i> magazine and was in movie magazines. Little girls with pigtails and glasses suddenly started showing up on the street corners in town."</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">When <i>Shadow of a Doubt</i> was released it premiered in Santa Rosa and Pat Hitchcock came up from Hollywood and attended with Edna May. There was quite a hubbub in town over the film and its release signaled a war bond drive, with Edna May kicking it off at the courthouse in Santa Rosa. She also took a trip to sell war bonds in Salinas when the movie opened there.</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">When she signed a five-year contract with producer Jack Skirball, Edna May and her parents moved to Glendale following the release of <i>Shadow of a Doubt</i>. Her older brother, then in college, stayed in Santa Rosa and ran the family store until he went into the military and served during World War II.</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Her first assignment for Skirball was to be <i>It's in the Bag</i> with Fred Allen, and Edna May was to have equal billing. But Allen balked at this and refused to work with her. Ultimately, her contract was broken, but when the film was eventually made without her, Edna May was paid in full.</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiy8eJ6HN3Rw-HpglAqAn4JM8Zo1ciz-mN92OlK3hvt3_yHiyP5319XfV3gMxTjMDCgbyqG7MjZKOoJ2EBhwisiP3c1wY9k882qrZ441YvxQV8JttD4UnK8gsLKScbxREIHFahxTcFGLx8I/s1600/Edna+C.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="308" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiy8eJ6HN3Rw-HpglAqAn4JM8Zo1ciz-mN92OlK3hvt3_yHiyP5319XfV3gMxTjMDCgbyqG7MjZKOoJ2EBhwisiP3c1wY9k882qrZ441YvxQV8JttD4UnK8gsLKScbxREIHFahxTcFGLx8I/s320/Edna+C.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>The Bells of St. Mary's</i>,<i> </i>Ingrid Bergman, center, and Edna, right</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">At this point, she signed with an agent who handled child actors exclusively. Edna May won small roles in several more films, and she has warm memories of working on Leo McCarey's <i>The Bells of Saint Mary's </i>(1945), a film nominated for eight Oscars and winner of one. She played Delphine, a girl about to graduate from St. Mary's, the one who smacks a baseball through a window in Mr. Bogardus's (Henry Travers) new building. Edna recalls that, like <i>Shadow of a Doubt</i>, the atmosphere on the set was "just like family." Ingrid Bergman was "a real sweetheart who said hello to everyone from the janitor on up when she came on the set." Edna also remembers that a member of the crew would play a little tune on an ocarina whenever Miss Bergman arrived. She adds, "We had a lot of fun with Bing Crosby - since there was a schoolyard set, he was always playing basketball with the kids."</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Edna continued playing bit parts for the next few years but left acting at the beginning of the 1950s. Though her movie career is now long ago, she remembers those days with pleasure, "I have nothing but good memories of working in Hollywood. It was a different era than it is now and, being as young as I was, I didn't feel like an actress...I was just a kid who did what she was told to do."</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Along with her memories, Edna has a treasure-trove of <i>Shadow of a Doubt </i>memorabilia. From her scrapbooks, copies of <i>Life</i> magazine and the prized goodbye gifts, to her original script with its cover signed by Hitchcock and the entire cast.</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Edna mused that some friends of hers recently watched <i>Shadow of a Doubt</i> after she told them she was in it. They were quick to tell her: "You are just <i>exactly</i> like you were in that movie." And I'll admit that at times during our conversation I could hear a little bit of Ann Newton as I spoke with Edna Green.</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgK4a5xII9BGZhLn5ehPsrSOCsKM-TnrVYQbDS0y9l_y2CHT3FnQvAANI5d-ZVoyMFyCUPJuS3493dc2xkj-mG6iB2nFVIcIESl2T8GtczHymH8Fm91XZAIaHJiqml49qYO1kNtXRJfJ8v7/s1600/Edna+and+cougar+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgK4a5xII9BGZhLn5ehPsrSOCsKM-TnrVYQbDS0y9l_y2CHT3FnQvAANI5d-ZVoyMFyCUPJuS3493dc2xkj-mG6iB2nFVIcIESl2T8GtczHymH8Fm91XZAIaHJiqml49qYO1kNtXRJfJ8v7/s400/Edna+and+cougar+2.jpg" width="396" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Edna on the set of <i>Under Western Skies </i>(1945) with one of her co-stars, a young mountain lion</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><b><a href="http://moviemorlocks.com/2008/08/03/my-favorite-bookworm-or-where-in-the-world-is-edna-may-wonacott/">Click here</a></b> for MedusaMorlock's post about Edna; <b><a href="http://eves-reel-life.blogspot.com/2011/01/shadow-of-doubts-ann-newtontoday.html">click here</a></b> for an update on Edna's life a year after our first interview,<span style="color: #990000;"> </span><b><a href="http://evesreellife.wordpress.com/2011/08/03/from-edna-may-wonacotts-photo-collection/">click here</a></b> to view publicity photos from Edna's personal collection. <b><a href="http://eves-reel-life.blogspot.com/2012/07/a-tv-tour-of-hitchcock-film-locations.html">Click here</a> </b>to watch a 2012 TV interview with Edna (courtesy of KPIX TV, San Francisco).</div>

Alfred Hitchcock Edna May Wonacott Henry Travers Hume Cronyn Joseph Cotten Macdonald Carey Patricia Collinge Shadow of a Doubt Teresa Wright Wallace Ford ...aka/'Ann Newton' of "Shadow of a Doubt"

Shadow of a Doubt, Wallace Ford, Edna May Wonacott, Macdonald CareyEarly in 2010 I was doing research for a post on Alfred Hitchcock's Shadow of a Doubt and in the process came upon an interesting piece by one of TCM's MovieMorlock bloggers, Medusa. …

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Shadow of a Doubt Giveaway on Hitchcock's Birthday...the details

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYJEu7rw-6-WRm0_4UztirtS1EQmUtfd0BmcU0w6Mld91p7quhZKeuXd1taAmn3q8wfG3r5DNsEBz-4rh3g1AjVf8-2E2cazjNiWt-ON9vBokkKDGf23b19K2TWvBysGNOi3oO7TgFlJUo/s1600/shadow+of+a+doubt+dvd.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYJEu7rw-6-WRm0_4UztirtS1EQmUtfd0BmcU0w6Mld91p7quhZKeuXd1taAmn3q8wfG3r5DNsEBz-4rh3g1AjVf8-2E2cazjNiWt-ON9vBokkKDGf23b19K2TWvBysGNOi3oO7TgFlJUo/s1600/shadow+of+a+doubt+dvd.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">In celebration of Alfred Hitchcock's 112th birthday on August 13, Reel Life is giving away a DVD of one of his great masterpieces, <i>Shadow of a Doubt </i>(1943). The giveaway will be in the form of a random drawing to be held on the 13th at noon Pacific Time. To enter, send an email to ladyevesidwich@gmail.com and include your name and mailing address (U.S. residents only, please).</span></div><div style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /></div><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">In addition to the DVD, the winner will also receive an 8 x 10 photograph (shown below) personally autographed to them by Edna May Wonacott (Green), who portrayed younger sister Ann Newton in </span><i style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Shadow of a Doubt</i><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">. </span></span><i><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"></span></span></i><br /><br /><i style="color: #990000;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b>Update</b>: </span></span></i><span style="color: #990000; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The drawing has been held and Jeff in Ohio is the winner. Thanks to all who participated!</span></span><br /><span style="color: #990000; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> </span></span><i><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="color: #990000;">The Lady Eve</span> </span></span></i><br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><br /> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaGI2Q8wF316aV3YIuojf9Jv1C1zNlqOaVU-SswvEnBehGsEe6xLmgDaZhmnHelNVV3SfIykau-znCyxchJErO1bK58R-TU4c2nZ-M-XNN8C5pkt3bNUf3lBOLaYXiz4mBn0b9P_iJk7if/s1600/Edna+and+Hitch+2+resized+small+cropped.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="303" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaGI2Q8wF316aV3YIuojf9Jv1C1zNlqOaVU-SswvEnBehGsEe6xLmgDaZhmnHelNVV3SfIykau-znCyxchJErO1bK58R-TU4c2nZ-M-XNN8C5pkt3bNUf3lBOLaYXiz4mBn0b9P_iJk7if/s400/Edna+and+Hitch+2+resized+small+cropped.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><br /> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Edna and Hitch on the set of <i>Shadow of a Doubt</i></td></tr><br /> </tbody></table>

Alfred Hitchcock DVD giveaway Edna May Wonacott Shadow of a Doubt The Lady Eve (author) Shadow of a Doubt Giveaway on Hitchcock's Birthday...the details

In celebration of Alfred Hitchcock's 112th birthday on August 13, Reel Life is giving away a DVD of one of his great masterpieces, Shadow of a Doubt (1943). The giveaway will be in the form of a random drawing to be held on the 13th at noon Pacific T…

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SHADOW OF A DOUBT's "Ann Newton"...Today...

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; text-align: center;"></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPHoj-LQLc8WFu4HrR5WR9zWG4K-h5gzHgM1b30UTfG5uW3wdSpz203EKSzCy77wlhfllqod0DsD49HuykX5Hy2WmPHTBdw6aQMbqXSuhqKTlziIBopC_OCICmVNLQYNo3XkolHryqCAJ4/s1600/Edna+and+Hitch+2+resized+small+cropped.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="302" s5="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPHoj-LQLc8WFu4HrR5WR9zWG4K-h5gzHgM1b30UTfG5uW3wdSpz203EKSzCy77wlhfllqod0DsD49HuykX5Hy2WmPHTBdw6aQMbqXSuhqKTlziIBopC_OCICmVNLQYNo3XkolHryqCAJ4/s400/Edna+and+Hitch+2+resized+small+cropped.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Edna and Hitch</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">While doing research for a blog on <b>Shadow of a Doubt</b> last year I unearthed information about Edna May Wonacott Green who portrayed Ann Newton, the younger sister in the 1943 film. I wrote a letter asking Edna if she'd be interested in being interviewed and a little while later received an email from her saying "yes." We had a lengthy telephone conversation soon after and on Edna's 78th birthday, February 6, 2010, the first part of our interview was posted at <i>The Classic Film & TV Cafe</i> as "Happy Birthday, Edna May." Part 2 posted a few days later (<a href="http://classic-film-tv.blogspot.com/2010/02/happy-birthday-edna-may.html"><span style="color: #cc0000;">Part 1 link</span></a><span style="color: #cc0000;">, </span><a href="http://classic-film-tv.blogspot.com/2010/02/happy-birthday-edna-may_10.html"><span style="color: #cc0000;">Part 2 link</span></a>). The blog also posted later at TCM's Classic Film Union fan site. <br /><a name='more'></a></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEht9QuBheQXrs2nAfluu0iGl7W1pJIChNvXhSjc5kG1r_4_smF28K4fat07bAlN_xzUsY8Ut6PDQIE_5q0yIClMWjuD-zkrkrWSML4s1yrEzt29NTCgP8fLzTpIyNL5uk1BTBxvyLO4Ve_R/s1600/Edna+now+resized+and+cropped.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" s5="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEht9QuBheQXrs2nAfluu0iGl7W1pJIChNvXhSjc5kG1r_4_smF28K4fat07bAlN_xzUsY8Ut6PDQIE_5q0yIClMWjuD-zkrkrWSML4s1yrEzt29NTCgP8fLzTpIyNL5uk1BTBxvyLO4Ve_R/s200/Edna+now+resized+and+cropped.jpg" width="145" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Edna Green today</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Edna Green is a truly genuine, intelligent and warm woman whose childhood was extraordinary. It occurred to me that the local paper where she now lives might be interested so I emailed the paper's features editor suggesting a piece about her. I included a link to my interview so he could get an idea of Edna's story. He was interested but said he liked what I'd written and asked for permission to reprint it. It was my turn to say "yes"...and in March of last year, Edna got the front page of the features section of a Sunday edition of the <i>Yuma Sun</i> (the interview was also posted with the online edition). But wait, there's more...</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">I submitted our interview to <i>Classic Images</i> - and it was accepted - for the journal's glossier sister publication, <i>Films of the Golden Age</i> and appears in the new issue - #63, Winter 2010 - 2011. It's an eight-page spread with many pictures from Edna's personal collection (a few are shown here), several taken on the set of <b>Shadow of a Doubt</b>. According to Wikipedia, TCM's "Robert Osborne has gone on record proclaiming <i>Films of the Golden Age</i> is one of his favorite publications."  </div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; text-align: right;"></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"> </div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Last weekend Edna and I, who have stayed in touch since our initial interview, talked about events in her life over the past year.</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCwqEsM3AYidoAr7xxDxNEAK_ShftzsWexdkvXsYpIzfJNooGSRC5TYjUT_F0W84Ozv4efJCrGVXobDuKSWXTZekC62452q_AQ32ogDDaHKsvNRPjw7RYAtOT2lxfe42bLzhV47p-cAIsz/s1600/Edna+with+Martha+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="287" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCwqEsM3AYidoAr7xxDxNEAK_ShftzsWexdkvXsYpIzfJNooGSRC5TYjUT_F0W84Ozv4efJCrGVXobDuKSWXTZekC62452q_AQ32ogDDaHKsvNRPjw7RYAtOT2lxfe42bLzhV47p-cAIsz/s320/Edna+with+Martha+2.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Edna with Martha O'Driscoll on <i>Under Western Skies</i></td></tr></tbody></table><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Once our interview appeared Edna began to hear from fans all over the U.S., Canada and...the world (Belgium, England, France, Germany, Greece, Slovakia, Spain and Sweden). The letters she receives usually include a photo of her printed from the Internet and a request that she sign it. Edna still averages about three letters a week and reports that most are interested in <b>Shadow of a Doubt</b>, but some even mention <b>Under Western Skies</b>, a 1945 film that co-starred Noah Beery and Martha O'Driscoll. One young American girl wrote asking for advice on how to get into the movies. Edna responds to all who write her and in the girl's case emphasized that it's been nearly 70 years since she was "discovered," and that Hollywood has changed dramatically since then...Edna is a little surprised (and pleased) that so many of those who contact her are young people.</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">After Edna's interview appeared in the <i>Sun</i> she began to receive invitations from local community groups to speak about her years as a child actress. So far she has led two such programs and has a third coming up soon. She brings her memorabilia and scrapbooks and talks about her experiences on <b>Shadow of a Doubt</b>, <b>The Bells of St. Mary's</b> and the other films on which she worked during the 1940s. </div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Edna's life has also opened up over this last year in an arena unrelated to her Hollywood heyday. When her husband died of cancer a few years ago, Edna became interested in diet and nutrition. She attended <i>Food for Life</i> classes offered by <i>The Cancer Project</i> and was soon part of a small group of women who regularly met to share ideas and recipes. Eventually Edna was leading a class of 30+ men and women who still meet once a week on Mondays. Edna is committed to a plant-based diet and claims she feels better than she has in decades. She is now leading two additional classes a week and her crusade to promote healthy eating was recently covered by the <i>Yuma Sun</i>. <a href="http://www.yumasun.com/articles/diet-66578-green-recipes.html"><span style="color: #990000;">Click here for link</span></a>. Following this latest newspaper coverage, Edna was contacted by a local judge in charge of a rehab center who is interested in incorporating healthy eating into his program and has asked for her assistance.</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Edna's childhood could be called magical, but she left the movie business while still young and led a normal life in the intervening years. It seems somehow fitting that she has come full circle and is once again in the spotlight - not only because of interest in her onetime movie career, but also because of the work she is doing to help others in her community.</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"> </div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYAusZU0vnEEhOGXkj9lwAvxFo8cXGh4R1VhHz3ZpTnTR44EzqH1M-YNrjxt9aYUyLKt0sxy_U4fHZX3rVqvpf6VMFA-utFQtz419Wi7H5aFH-3xowYQHMNgkIlhIcdmdIMPTgMeRnkAVK/s1600/FGA+63+cropped.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" s5="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYAusZU0vnEEhOGXkj9lwAvxFo8cXGh4R1VhHz3ZpTnTR44EzqH1M-YNrjxt9aYUyLKt0sxy_U4fHZX3rVqvpf6VMFA-utFQtz419Wi7H5aFH-3xowYQHMNgkIlhIcdmdIMPTgMeRnkAVK/s400/FGA+63+cropped.jpg" width="308" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Films of the Golden Age</i> Winter 2010/2011,<span style="color: #990000;"> </span></span><a href="http://www.filmsofthegoldenage.com/contact/"><span style="color: #990000; font-size: x-small;">click here</span></a><span style="font-size: x-small;"> to go to site</span></td></tr></tbody></table><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"></div>

Alfred Hitchcock Edna May Wonacott Films of the Golden Age Shadow of a Doubt The Lady Eve (author) SHADOW OF A DOUBT's "Ann Newton"...Today...

Edna and HitchWhile doing research for a blog on Shadow of a Doubt last year I unearthed information about Edna May Wonacott Green who portrayed Ann Newton, the younger sister in the 1943 film. I wrote a letter asking Edna if she'd be interested in b…

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