Join My Mailing List!

My name is Jacqueline T. Lynch, author of Ann Blyth: Actress. Singer. Star.,
and I would like to invite you to join my mailing list HERE for updates, special offers, and a free eBook!

Wednesday, April 26, 2017

Ann and her pal, Roddy McDowall

Roddy McDowall and Ann became lifelong friends, and dated for a while during the period of time when fan magazines were chasing her every move.  For one, Screenland, Roddy, likely with the help of the publicity department, wrote an article about Ann and how he had come to know her as a guest at one of his Sunday parties.

She was at the house most of the day and I thought was one of the sweetest and nicest people I’d ever met.  I’d say that gentility was the right term to use to describe her.

He goes on to describe, or to attempt to describe, her personality for a readership, but more for the press that had since her coming of age regarded Ann as an enigma.

When you take her to a party, as I have on several occasions, she really can throw you.  To begin with, and not many know this about her, she is one of the funniest people I’ve ever met.  She’s a tremendous story-teller and when she gets started on one of dialect stories you laugh so hard you almost fall on your face.  I’ve never ceased to be amazed at how quickly she changes when she’s being the comedienne.

Ann really loves parties—especially if charades is the game of the evening.

She also liked roller coasters.

When they met up for a date in New York City, she took him, with a New Yorker’s savvy and sense of humor, to the Automat for dinner.  

McDowall also notes, as others have:

She simply does not like to talk about herself.

That is perhaps her most unusual characteristic—her reserve.  She’s a great introvert.  It’s as though there was a wall around her.  Maybe you’d call it self-sufficiency, but I really don’t know.  It does seem, however, that she lives a good deal within herself.

Roddy McDowall, among his many accomplishments, was also an excellent photographer who published several volumes of his photographs.  In Double Exposure: Take Four, he includes a portrait photo he took of Ann Blyth.  It’s in black and white, taken in the early 1990s when Ann was in her early sixties and remarkably lovely, and the pose and facial expression—serene, enigmatic, with a touch of humor in her soft eyes—is strikingly similar to the cast head shot of her when she started in Watch on the Rhine in 1941.  The photo is accompanied by a quote from Jane Withers, in part, “She radiates beauty from within in everything she ever does.” 

Despite her reputation for being reserved and enigmatic, in the contemplative setting in the pages of this book, she is clearly supported by the understanding of two loving friends who had known her since they were all teens together in a special place at a special time.

*****************************
The audio book for Ann Blyth: Actress. Singer. Star. is now for sale on Audible.com, and on Amazon and iTunes.


Also in paperback and eBook from Amazon.


Also in paperback from CreateSpace, and from my Etsy shop: LynchTwinsPublishing.

Wednesday, April 19, 2017

Brute Force (1947) on TCM...


Ann Blyth and Burt Lancaster on set in Brute Force (1947).  He plays a criminal on the run in this flashback scene, stopping briefly to check on his love.  He will attempt to break out of prison for her sake in the movie's climactic scene.  It's coming up on Turner Classic Movies this Sunday the 23rd, at 10 a.m. Eastern.

Read more about the movie here at my Another Old Movie Blog.


*****************************
The audio book for Ann Blyth: Actress. Singer. Star. is now for sale on Audible.com, and on Amazon and iTunes.


Also in paperback and eBook from Amazon.


Also in paperback from CreateSpace, and from my Etsy shop: LynchTwinsPublishing.

Wednesday, April 12, 2017

Clowning off set at Rose Marie


The cast of Rose Marie (1954) clowns around at the Mammoth Lakes, California, shooting location.  Here we have Fernando Lamas, Ann Blyth, Howard Keel, Joan Taylor, and Bert Lahr.  Tomorrow, Thursday the 13th, Turner Classic Movies is showing Rose Marie in a lineup of splashy 1950s MGM musicals.  NOTE:  Kismet (1955) with Ann Blyth is also part of the lineup.  Catch Rose Marie at 2 p.m. ET, and Kismet at 6 p.m. ET.  Howard Keel costars in both -- it's actually Howard's day, so enjoy a string of great Howard Keel performances.

We discussed Rose Marie here on my Another Old Movie Blog, and of course, there's more in the book -- Ann Blyth: Actress. Singer. Star.
*****************************
The audio book for Ann Blyth: Actress. Singer. Star. is now for sale on Audible.com, and on Amazon and iTunes.


Also in paperback and eBook from Amazon.


Also in paperback from CreateSpace, and from my Etsy shop: LynchTwinsPublishing.

Wednesday, April 5, 2017

Once More My Darling scene photo


Ann Blyth and Robert Montgomery in a very funny scene in a very, very funny movie: Once More My Darling ( 1949).

Sadly, the movie is not one of those that regularly pop up on TV, and to my knowledge, there is no DVD yet, but you can read about it here on my Another Old Movie Blog, and of course, in my book, Ann Blyth: Actress. Singer. Star. 

I certainly hope this gem is rediscovered so more people can enjoy this great "screwball" comedy in which Ann Blyth shines.  The film was the last acting role for Robert Montgomery in his feature film career, and the first of his directorial efforts.

*****************************
The audio book for Ann Blyth: Actress. Singer. Star. is now for sale on Audible.com, and on Amazon and iTunes.


Also in paperback and eBook from Amazon.


Also in paperback from CreateSpace, and from my Etsy shop: LynchTwinsPublishing.