@crollyson.bsky.social
I hope you can enroll
November 12, 2025 at 9:47 PM
I hope you can enroll
November 5, 1967: “Former actress, Benita Hume, 60, wife of George Sanders and widow of Ronald Colman, died Wednesday after a long illness, relatives revealed today.” (Sunday, New York Daily News).
November 5, 2025 at 10:48 AM
November 5, 1967: “Former actress, Benita Hume, 60, wife of George Sanders and widow of Ronald Colman, died Wednesday after a long illness, relatives revealed today.” (Sunday, New York Daily News).
November 5, 1940: Otto Plath dies.
November 5, 2025 at 10:42 AM
November 5, 1940: Otto Plath dies.
If I Were King put Colman at the apogee of his power as a figure at home with both princes and the people they rule. Herbert Cohn in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle (November 2, 1938) called Colman’s Francois Villon a “complex composite of philosopher, statesman, crusader and charming lover,”
November 2, 2025 at 10:32 AM
If I Were King put Colman at the apogee of his power as a figure at home with both princes and the people they rule. Herbert Cohn in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle (November 2, 1938) called Colman’s Francois Villon a “complex composite of philosopher, statesman, crusader and charming lover,”
10/30/64: Beau Geste: Ronald Colman “trudging across the windswept wastelands of the Sahara to find a French fort manned by dead men. That one scene caused more tumult than anything the movies could have conjured for the next 20 years.” Kingston [Ontario] Whig-Standard).
October 30, 2025 at 10:17 AM
10/30/64: Beau Geste: Ronald Colman “trudging across the windswept wastelands of the Sahara to find a French fort manned by dead men. That one scene caused more tumult than anything the movies could have conjured for the next 20 years.” Kingston [Ontario] Whig-Standard).
Getting ready to write about Eve Arden and Grandma Moses. Nearing the 70,000 word mark of my biography.
October 23, 2025 at 10:03 AM
Getting ready to write about Eve Arden and Grandma Moses. Nearing the 70,000 word mark of my biography.
Frederick L. Horde, president of Purdue University, flew to Hollywood to present Ronald Colman with an award for “giving the American people, honest realistic stories of American college life.” (Tulsa World, October 22). Listeners wrote into the show asking for information about campus activities.
October 22, 2025 at 12:40 PM
Frederick L. Horde, president of Purdue University, flew to Hollywood to present Ronald Colman with an award for “giving the American people, honest realistic stories of American college life.” (Tulsa World, October 22). Listeners wrote into the show asking for information about campus activities.
October 20, 2006: Jane Wyatt dies. Her performance in Lost Horizon is mentioned in obituaries as an. important role in her career. www.amazon.com/Ronald-Colma...; I interviewed Wyatt for this biography: www.amazon.com/Lillian-Hell...
October 20, 2025 at 12:20 PM
October 20, 2006: Jane Wyatt dies. Her performance in Lost Horizon is mentioned in obituaries as an. important role in her career. www.amazon.com/Ronald-Colma...; I interviewed Wyatt for this biography: www.amazon.com/Lillian-Hell...
10/19/54: Halls of Ivy tv premiere. An LA Mirror, columnist thought the show’s tempo might be too slow, a laugh track disrupted scripts not made of punchy one liners…it requires a great deal of concentration from the viewers to catch all of the dialogue.” Worked better on radio
October 19, 2025 at 10:12 AM
10/19/54: Halls of Ivy tv premiere. An LA Mirror, columnist thought the show’s tempo might be too slow, a laugh track disrupted scripts not made of punchy one liners…it requires a great deal of concentration from the viewers to catch all of the dialogue.” Worked better on radio
I’ve completed 65,000 words of my biography, Our Eve Arden.
October 16, 2025 at 4:20 PM
I’ve completed 65,000 words of my biography, Our Eve Arden.
In the Los Angeles Times (October 16, 1994), Patt Morrison noted that a decade before the Charles Van Doren quiz show scandal, Champagne for Caesar satirized rigged quiz shows with “droll prescience.”
October 16, 2025 at 10:41 AM
In the Los Angeles Times (October 16, 1994), Patt Morrison noted that a decade before the Charles Van Doren quiz show scandal, Champagne for Caesar satirized rigged quiz shows with “droll prescience.”
10/15/37: Spokane Chronicle ad: “IN LOVE as a romantic adventurer dares every danger for the smile of a beautiful women IN ACTION as men battle for power . . . fired with hate . . . fearless of death.” Audiences were assured that the film would “take your breath away!”
October 15, 2025 at 10:34 AM
10/15/37: Spokane Chronicle ad: “IN LOVE as a romantic adventurer dares every danger for the smile of a beautiful women IN ACTION as men battle for power . . . fired with hate . . . fearless of death.” Audiences were assured that the film would “take your breath away!”
Awaiting the nor’easter.
October 12, 2025 at 2:43 PM
Awaiting the nor’easter.
October 8, 1950: “Halls of Ivy Real to Many,” the headline read in Fort Worth Star Telegram. Frederick L. Horde, president of Purdue University, flew to Hollywood to present Ronald Colman with an award for “giving the American people, honest realistic stories of American college life.”
October 8, 2025 at 11:48 AM
October 8, 1950: “Halls of Ivy Real to Many,” the headline read in Fort Worth Star Telegram. Frederick L. Horde, president of Purdue University, flew to Hollywood to present Ronald Colman with an award for “giving the American people, honest realistic stories of American college life.”
10/4/88: “Benita Hume owned the [Charles Addams] cartoon of a psychiatrist asking a woman patient, ‘Now in your dreams of being chased by Ronald Colman and a plumed alligator—which is in the lead?’” “Say Good Night to Chas Addams—the man who made us laugh,” The Berkshire Eagle).
October 4, 2025 at 10:23 AM
10/4/88: “Benita Hume owned the [Charles Addams] cartoon of a psychiatrist asking a woman patient, ‘Now in your dreams of being chased by Ronald Colman and a plumed alligator—which is in the lead?’” “Say Good Night to Chas Addams—the man who made us laugh,” The Berkshire Eagle).
In his dual role, Colman used mirrors to watch himself, making sure to differentiate his gestures, switching from the light-hearted yet bitter king to his adventurous, yet sober-minded kinsman (Vero Beach Press Journal, October 1, 1937).
October 1, 2025 at 12:06 PM
In his dual role, Colman used mirrors to watch himself, making sure to differentiate his gestures, switching from the light-hearted yet bitter king to his adventurous, yet sober-minded kinsman (Vero Beach Press Journal, October 1, 1937).
On September 30, 1938, Two days after the release of If I Were King, Ronald Colman (47) married Benita Hume (32).
September 30, 2025 at 11:48 AM
On September 30, 1938, Two days after the release of If I Were King, Ronald Colman (47) married Benita Hume (32).
What tributary nations would I bring/To stoop before your sceptre and to swear/Allegiance to your lips and eyes and hair./
Beneath your feet what treasures I would fling:/The stars should be your pearls upon a string,/The world a ruby for your finger ring…If I were king
September 28, 2025 at 12:01 PM
What tributary nations would I bring/To stoop before your sceptre and to swear/Allegiance to your lips and eyes and hair./
Beneath your feet what treasures I would fling:/The stars should be your pearls upon a string,/The world a ruby for your finger ring…If I were king
Selznick’s Prisoner of Zenda featured “sixty-odd breathtaking sets, including a cathedral, a castle, and sumptuous castle ballroom” (Altoona [Pennsylvania] Tribune, September 24, 1937).
September 24, 2025 at 12:04 PM
Selznick’s Prisoner of Zenda featured “sixty-odd breathtaking sets, including a cathedral, a castle, and sumptuous castle ballroom” (Altoona [Pennsylvania] Tribune, September 24, 1937).
9/18/20: Married Thelma Raye, departs a month later for US, with just enough money for steamship ticket and travel expenses. She would have to wait until he could afford to send for her—a stunning reversal of the role she had played as the driving force in his stage career.
September 18, 2025 at 10:10 AM
9/18/20: Married Thelma Raye, departs a month later for US, with just enough money for steamship ticket and travel expenses. She would have to wait until he could afford to send for her—a stunning reversal of the role she had played as the driving force in his stage career.
British actress Jane Baxter’s obituary (9/17/86) reported that said she was the love of his life. RC scholar Kendall Miller comments: “I seem to recall she dated not Ronald Colman, but his agent Jack Crosby, and in old age, she improved upon her story.”
September 17, 2025 at 12:05 PM
British actress Jane Baxter’s obituary (9/17/86) reported that said she was the love of his life. RC scholar Kendall Miller comments: “I seem to recall she dated not Ronald Colman, but his agent Jack Crosby, and in old age, she improved upon her story.”
On September 15, 1940, in the Los Angeles Times, Hedda Hopper’s syndicated column announced: “Colman Changed, Too, After Marriage”: “He walks alone, dignified, aloof, many times lonely—that was until he married happily, I might add, Benita Hume.”
September 15, 2025 at 10:12 AM
On September 15, 1940, in the Los Angeles Times, Hedda Hopper’s syndicated column announced: “Colman Changed, Too, After Marriage”: “He walks alone, dignified, aloof, many times lonely—that was until he married happily, I might add, Benita Hume.”
September 13, 1952. Watches Marilyn Monroe trying to overcome the trauma of her fiancé’s death. The acute isolation of the mirror gazing Monroe swallows her up just as thoroughly as the self-consumed speaker of Plath’s poem, “Mirror.” www.amazon.com/The-Making-o...
September 13, 2025 at 11:38 AM
September 13, 1952. Watches Marilyn Monroe trying to overcome the trauma of her fiancé’s death. The acute isolation of the mirror gazing Monroe swallows her up just as thoroughly as the self-consumed speaker of Plath’s poem, “Mirror.” www.amazon.com/The-Making-o...
9/9/46 LA Evening Citizen News: “Colman Suffers Severe Infection, But Doing ‘Nicely.” Juliet Colman said it was her father’s “first serious fight with pneumonia,” and the beginning of “respiratory problems” that were “ultimately responsible for his death.”
September 9, 2025 at 10:09 AM
9/9/46 LA Evening Citizen News: “Colman Suffers Severe Infection, But Doing ‘Nicely.” Juliet Colman said it was her father’s “first serious fight with pneumonia,” and the beginning of “respiratory problems” that were “ultimately responsible for his death.”
Norbert Lusk in the Los Angeles Times (September 5, 1926), noting the film’s tremendous success in New York City said: “There’s no telling what heights of popularity Colman will have reached in a year.”
September 5, 2025 at 10:07 AM
Norbert Lusk in the Los Angeles Times (September 5, 1926), noting the film’s tremendous success in New York City said: “There’s no telling what heights of popularity Colman will have reached in a year.”