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Our Forefathers and Foremothers 33
Opposite
Sidney, Hayworth Avenue, Los Angeles, June 21, 1937.
Rae and Louis Lipsky. Date unknown.
Laquered Russian box. Salter collection.
Below
Gilt angel, 1890s. Salter collection.
THE MOVIES
Like my mother, my father took me to the movies. One night we were in a theatre watching “The Champ,” and it was toward the end of the film. Wallace Beery played a has-been prizefighter who had been badly beaten. He was lying on a table, dying, and little Jackie Cooper, tears streaming down his face, cried, “Don’t die! Don’t die!” I started sobbing and crying along with him.
My father tapped me on the shoulder, saying, “Don’t cry honey, it’s not true, it’s just a movie!” I was so involved in it that I started hitting my father and shouting, “It IS too true!” I never forgot that.
My father was so handsome that several times Hollywood scouts approached him about doing a screen test for the movies. They called him “The Big Swede,” and he proudly told everyone about the offers but didn’t take them seriously. When I was older and fell in love with Cary Grant, I wished that my dad would have become an actor. Then he could have introduced me to Cary Grant.