The History of Wandsworth Common

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Index of years

1979 | 1981

Wandsworth Common

IN THE NEWS

1980

NB: whole pages, several photos] Wolverhampton Express and Star - Saturday 05 April 1980 How Bessie Love made the stars come out SRS SED RAY SEATON meets the actress who talked some of the legendary figures of Hollywood into taking part in Thames TV's epic history of the silent cinema Afl“ll’lco.c;lrlnlh and Bessie Love in Broadway Bessie Love with the strong arm of Wallace Beery for Me'odyflm- protection in The Lost World 1924). “WOULD you like some tea now or shall we have it later?’’ was Bessie Love's immediate inquiry before sitting down to talk about Hollywood. Tea has had a dyecisive influence on her life and acting career. In 1935, having been a Hollywood star for nearly twenty years, she came with her husband, a theatrical agent, to London. It was the year of Top Hat, Mutiny on the Bounty, Captain Blood and A Tale of Two Cities. While she was making a film at a British studio, someone called out: “‘Tea, everybody!”" It was 4 pm. “What did he say?’ she asked. “Time for tea.” She could not believe it. “What? Now?" : Nothing had stopped for tea, a highball or a milkshake in Hollywood studios. # “1 thought it was fantastic, really civilised,” she said, at her flat overlooking Wandsworth Common, London. From that relaxing teabreak Miss Love knew that her future was in England — and a few years ago she became a British subject. >Shadows London has been her home... >Twinkling Nostalgia... Griffiths, who had come to fame with Birth of a Nation, put her in his masterpiece, Intolerance, and changed her name — Bessie, because it was easy to say, and Love because he wanted audiences to love her. From the beginning she realised the importance of working with good directors and casts. The glamour had little or no appeal. “It wasn't exciting, just a job. We had no scripts. Everything was improvised as we went along.”’ ; As a Christian Scientist, she deplores a modern trend to take the myth out of Hollywood by delving into its seamy side and exgosing former stars as alcoholics, drug addicts, perverts or domestic tyrants. “Few people in the world are saints. Who can withstand being stripped in public? The people who indulge in this sort of thing have an inferiority complex. They ease their own conscience by seeing evil in others. By pullin%l down the stars, their own lives don't hurt so much. It's like a man who makes a fuss of his wife in public, a sure sign that he's uhre\pgtent. or unfaithful to Shadows London has been her hon.c since the mid-30s, but the ITV Hollywood series led to a Los Ar:feles homecoming. Having decided to invest £1,000,000 in the 13-part series, spreadin% research over the past four years, Thames Television had a problem — how to Eersuade stars and personalities of the silent era to be interviewed before the camera. Someone was needed to prepare the way, to draw them out of the shadows of the past, back into the limelight. Who better than Bessie Love, one of the most celebrated stars of the era, whom D. W. Griffith chose for Intolerance and Harry Beaumont directed in Broadway Melody, setting the style of 1930 s musicals? Miss Love was re-united with old friends and colleagues, some of whom she had not seen for 50 or 60 years. Mary Astor, who made her debut in The Beggar Maid (1920) and is iest remembered as the deceitful murderess teasing Bogart in The Maltese Falcon, was languishing in hospital. She did not want to be interviewed, or even seen. ‘“Nonsense,” Bessie told her. “What does it matter how you look? It's what you've done..."” N b Eventually, she agreed to being interviewed, irut, not filmed. .:fain. she had to be persuaded. After all, it was a TV, not a radio series. After her diffidence had been overcome, she was revitalised and is again writing books. Nurses said the Thames TV camera had done what they hadn’t been able to do, get her out of bed and on her feet. e could be 15 or 50, convincing and winsome as a screen sweetheart, yet be almost sexless; one of the few women of the screen who could make you believe in pure virginal innocence and unsophistication, yet one of her best roles was the ruined %rl in Marshall Neilan's heElt)ernalThree. - S~ In pynamite Smith (1924) she gave “a vivid picture of a prostitute in a tough dive on the Barbary Coast.’ Bessie Love in her Hollywood days: “At Versatilit — Griffith acclaimed {er the most t;omising actress he had own — q.ives her an o.of less aura. The record books list her age as 82, but she has the smooth leis of a dancing girl of 20, the smile of a twinkling-eyed Ziegfeld Follies chorus girl and the gravitas of a classical lctres?’. fla at our we sat on the floor and had stew ...our friends behaved themselves.” She took a streetcar to his studio, pretended she had an appointment and was tested by playing with an imaginary ?idu. to see if she ha creative “l .ont care what age you say I am. Just spell my name right.” (Right — it's Juanita Horton). Crash There is no sign of Excited She rarely goes to the cinema now. “Unless a film is very good, it's a waste of time. I caught up with Love Story recently and thought some of the wvulgar words made me flinch, I realised it was to counteract a treacly love story. All the President’s Men was a real shakeup experience, beautifully underplayed. I'd like to make a film like that. A lot of films today are searching for the truth. “Star Wars and Superman? There's no way I'd see them, but 2,001, A Space Odyssey, 1 t.h::fht a lot about it afterwards. It's far deeper than it appears on the surface. It was made to make people wake up. “But we shoudin’t get too excited about gndhgl:;s and sfleci-l effects in s. We should take them in our stride.” ] Which is flecisely what Bessie Love has been doing so elegantly since she dropped out of school and entered Hollywood before America entered the First World War. ~ “Now,” she said. “Would you like some tea?" https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0003126/19800405/365/0031
How Bessie Love made the stars come out SRS SED RAY SEATON meets the actress who talked some of the legendary figures of Hollywood into taking part in Thames TV's epic history of the silent cinema Afl“ll’lco.c;lrlnlh and Bessie Love in Broadway Bessie Love with the strong arm of Wallace Beery for Me'odyflm- protection in The Lost World 1924). “WOULD you like some tea now or shall we have it later?’’ was Bessie Love's immediate inquiry before sitting down to talk about Hollywood. Tea has had a dyecisive influence on her life and acting career. In 1935, havinf been a Hollywood star for nearly twenty years, she came with her husband, a theatrical agent, to London. It was the year of Top Hat, Mutiny on the Bounty, Captain Blood and A Tale of Two Cities. While she was making a film at a British studio, someone called out: “‘Tea, everybody!”" It was 4 pm. “What did he say?’ she asked. “Time for tea.” She could not believe it. “What? Now?" : Nothing had stopped for tea, a highball or a milkshake in Hollywood studios. # “1 thought it was fantastic, really civilised,” she said, at her flat overlooking Wandsworth Common, London. From that relaxing teabreak Miss Love knew that her future was in England — and a few {lears ago she became a British subject. could be 15 or 50, convincing and winsome as a screen sweetheart, yet be almost sexless; one of the few women of the screen who could make you believe in pure virginal innocence and unsophistication, yet one of her best roles was the ruined %rl in Marshall Neilan's heElt)ernalThree. - S~ In pynamite Smith (1924) she gave “a vivid picture of a prostitute in a tough dive on the Barbary Coast.’ Bessie Love in her Hollywood days: “At Versatilit — Griffith acclaimed {er the most t;omising actress he had own — q.ives her an o.of less aura. The record books list her age as 82, but she has the smooth leis of a dancing girl of 20, the smile of a twinkling-eyed Ziegfeld Follies chorus girl and the gravitas of a classical lctres?’. fla at our we sat on the floor and had stew ...our friends behaved themselves.” She took a streetcar to his studio, pretended she had an appointment and was tested by playing with an imaginary ?idu. to see if she ha creative “l .ont care what age you say I am. Just spell my name right.” (Right — it's Juanita Horton). Griffiths, who had come to fame with Birth of a Nation, put her in his masterpiece, Intolerance, and changed her name — Bessie, because it was easy to say, and Love because he wanted audiences to love her. From the beginning she realised the importance of working with good directors and casts. The glamour had little or no appeal. “It wasn't exciting, just a job. We had no scripts. Everything was improvised as we went along.”’ ; As a Christian Scientist, she deplores a modern trend to take the myth out of Hollywood by delving into its seamy side and exgosing former stars as alcoholics, drug addicts, perverts or domestic tyrants. “Few people in the world are saints. Who can withstand being stripped in public? The people who indulge in this sort of thing have an inferiority complex. They ease their own conscience by seeing evil in others. By pullin%l down the stars, their own lives don't hurt so much. It's like a man who makes a fuss of his wife in public, a sure sign that he's uhre\pgtent. or unfaithful to her.

TOM COX 17 DEC 1980

We have all recently received from British Rail a letter telling us of the cuts in Southern Region services. We are told that they are being made because of a need to save money. The suggested cuts in my area can be described only as utter madness, a comment that could be echoed by hon. Members on both sides of the House. Few London Members will not be affected by the cuts that British Rail will impose in the very near future.

We have little employment in Wandsworth; it all went away long ago. Local people were willing to travel to other parts of London to work, but I do not know how long they will be able to do that - or will want to.

I should like to speak of just a little of what British Rail's decision involves. Tooting and Wandsworth Common stations, which cater for a large number of people who come into the city to work, will close after 10 o'clock at night from Monday through to Saturday.

Wandsworth Road station is to close after 10 o'clock from Monday through to Friday and will close all day on Saturday.

Two other stations serving a wide area of the borough - Earlsfield and Putney - will be closed at night.

What utter stupidity this is on the part of British Rail! Who thinks that the world ends at 10 o'clock? There are many shift workers. Shift work follows no set pattern. People can start and end at all hours of the day or night. What will happen to the transport services to take them to or from their work?

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