“Forgotten Hollywood”- Paul Newman Charity Honors Legacy

Posted on November 9, 2015 by raideoman1 | No Comments

Manny P. here…

paul_newman   A star-studded charity bash celebrated the legacy of Paul Newman in London. The gala is the final of three SeriousFun hosted this year during what would have been his 90th year, and the United Kingdom fundraiser comes on the heels of the New York City and Los Angeles events. Clea Newman is the director of special initiatives for the organization and the actor’s youngest daughter. Along with raising needed money, her hope is to preserve the legacy of Paul Newman’s philanthropic efforts over the course of his motion picture career. 

   The third annual SeriousFun Children’s Network UK gala at the Roundhouse honored the  Hollywood legend who founded the charity in 1988. Among the major stars who turned out to help in the cause were Renee Zellweger, Danny DeVito, Jeremy Irons and Downton Abbey’s Elizabeth McGovern.

126794_1223815580_medium   SeriousFun is a global community of 30 camps and programs serving children living with serious illnesses and their families, and is always free of charge. It has served more than 600,000 children and their family members from more than 50 countries. Newman christened them the Hole In The Wall Gang camps, a reference both to one of his best-loved roles as Butch Cassidy and to the Wyoming area where the celebrated train robber and his fellow outlaws would hide out. Newman’s Own Foundation has also been providing support to camps and programs around the world since the charity began.

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Betsy_Drake_in_Every_Girl_Should_Be_Married_trailer   Betsy Drake was the actress who starred opposite her husband Cary Grant in Every Girl Should Be Married and Room for One More. After coming to the attention of the producer Hal Wallis, she was pressured by her agent to sign a Hollywood contract. Later, Elia Kazan selected her as one of the founding members of the Actors Studio in New York.

   Drake was born in in Paris in 1923 to wealthy parents — her grandfather had built Chicago’s Drake Hotel — but the 1929 stock market crash sent the family reeling, and she spent her childhood being shuttled among relatives on the East Coast.

   Drake met Grant in August, 1949 when both were aboard the Queen Mary on a trip back to the US from England. Grant, 20 years her senior, had seen her in London as the lead in a production of Kazan’s Deep Are the Roots, and he asked actress Merle Oberon to arrange an introduction. They were married on Christmas Day, 1949 in an Arizona farmhouse in a ceremony that was arranged by Grant’s best man, millionaire Howard Hughes. Grant and Drake separated in 1958 and were said to remain friends until his death in November, 1986. She introduced him to LSD therapy, which was legal until 1966.

   Drake appeared in such films as Pretty Baby, Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter, and Clarence the Cross-Eyed Lion. She wrote the original script for Houseboat, starring her husband, who originally intended that she would star with him. However, after he began an affair with Sophia Loren while on location for The Pride and the Passion, Grant arranged for the Italian actress to take his wife’s place with a rewritten script. Drake didn’t receive screen credit.

   In 1956, Drake and actress Ruth Roman were among the passengers rescued from the sinking Italian ocean liner Andrea Doria. At the time, she had been visiting Grant in Spain and was returning to the United States.

   Betsy Drake was 92.

Until next time>                               “never forget”

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