Lillian Gish, 69, Still Part of Motion Picture History – By Bob Thomas (San Bernardino Sun, 1966)

 

Lillian Gish, 69, Still Part of Motion Picture History – By Bob Thomas (San Bernardino Sun, 1966)

San Bernardino Sun, Volume 72, 13 April 1966

Hollywood Beat

Lillian Gish, 69, Still Part of Motion Picture History

By Bob Thomas

Hollywood (AP)  – Lillian Gish neither looks nor acts like a museum piece. Her history would indicate that she should be put on display at some repository of movie history. After all, she appeared in her first film in 1912 and starred in D.W. Griffith classics: “Birth of a Nation,” “Intolerance,” “Broken Blossoms,” etc.

Yet the soulful Gish eyes remain as alert as a teen-ager’s, and she has an outlook to match.

“ I don’t believe I had more than two weeks off in the past year,” she remarked. “I did a season of Shakespeare up in Stratford, Conn. Then I came right out here for “Follow Me Boys” at the Disney Studios.

Lillian Gish, Fred MacMurray photo from Walt Disneys Follow Me Boys

“After that, I went back to New York to begin rehearsals for ‘Anya,’ which George Abbott directed. It was a beautiful play which lasted only a month in New York because of three bad reviews. I think it will have the same fate as ‘Porgy and Bess,’ which did poor business because of reviews when it opened, then was reviewed to become an American classic.

1966 LILLIAN GISH and Edith Head – Warning Shot Wardrobe Preparations

Miss Gish flew here from an Italian vacation to appear in “The Warning Shot” with David Jannsen. During her stay here she will visit with old friends and coworkers. If there is any time left over, she may do some work on the memoir she us writing about her great mentor, Griffith.

“But that is terribly hard work for me,” she admitted, “and I usually have to hole up in a room in Switzerland to get anything written.”

Her schedule may seem remarkable for a 69-year-old, but it doesn’t seem so to Miss Gish. Fortunately for her, she is not required to maintain an income. During her heyday on the screen, from the age 12 to 30, she managed herself well. She never succumbed to the grand living that consumed the assets of many stars.

“I never even bought a home in California,” she explained. “New York was always my home and still is. The money I made went into the bank, not into acquisitions.”

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