Turner Classic Movies recently had a Luise Rainer evening. You know, the Viennese Teardrop. Oh, give up, you don't know. But anyway. She won two Academy Awards in the 1930s, back to back, for “The Great Ziegfeld” and “The Good Earth.”
She is still alive. She turned one hundred and one years old last Wednesday.
Robert Osborne, bless his heart, did an on-stage interview with her back in 2010 when she was one hundred years old, and I just watched it on TCM. And then I watched it again. And then I taped it.
She was tiny and frail and deaf. She was wearing more jewelry than a Macy's Christmas tree.
And she was completely adorable.
“Up until four years ago, I was still so – vivid. And then I fell - idiotically - on the back of my head. And a normal person would have broken her neck. But it did not. I am a strong girl.”
And:
“First I married a beautiful man, a pIaywright, and I adored him. Clifford Odets! But we divorced. And then I found a man who was beautiful inside and out, and I married him. And he loved me idiotically! And we were very happy for forty-seven years. And he was kind, and loving, and - most importantly - to him I was the center of the universe. And that was good.”
And:
“Louis B. Mayer! Oh! He said I was Frankenstein, I would ruin the company. He was not fond of me. I was in his office, he told me that sometimes actresses sit on his knee. I said, “Mister Mayer, I will not sit on your knee.”
I paraphrase. But it doesn't matter.
Happy belated birthday, Luise. And many more.
I love you idiotically.
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