Product Code Database
Sheilah Graham (born Lily Shiel; 15 September 1904 – 17 November 1988) was a British-born, nationally syndicated American gossip columnist during Hollywood's "Golden Age". In her youth, she had been a showgirl and a freelance writer for Fleet Street in London. These early experiences would converge in her career in Hollywood, which spanned nearly four decades, as a successful columnist and author.
Graham also was known for her relationship with F. Scott Fitzgerald, a relationship she played a significant role in immortalizing through the autobiographical Beloved Infidel, a bestseller that was made into a film.
In Recollections of Sheilah Graham, Sheilah's daughter, Wendy Fairey, wrote: "Entering this institution at age six, my mother had her golden hair shaved to the scalp as a precaution against lice. To the end of her life, she was haunted by the degradation of this experience. Eight years later when she 'graduated,' she had established herself as Norwood's 'Head Girl': captain of the cricket team and recipient of many prizes, including both the Hebrew language prize and a prize for reciting a poem by Elizabeth Barrett Browning".
Graham, then still known as Lily, had been trained for a career in teaching. When she left the orphanage, her mother was dying of cancer, and Graham returned home to care for her.
During this marriage, largely through the tutelage of her husband, Graham improved her speech and manners. She also enrolled in the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, changed her name, and became a music hall dancer as a "Cochran's girl." It was during her time in the British musical theater that Graham began to write professionally, anecdotally receiving two guineas (£2.10) from the Daily Express for an article entitled "The Stage Door Johnnies, by a Chorus Girl," which she wrote on a challenge by her husband. While still in Britain, she attained some success as a freelance writer and published two novels, both of which sold poorly.
In 1935, John Neville Wheeler, head of the North American Newspaper Alliance, which was becoming the preeminent press service, recruited her to write NANA's syndicated Hollywood column. She describes having "landed in the film capital on two left feet" and needing to temper her brash outspokenness with film industry sensibilities. In her autobiographical book A College of One, she relates the dichotomy between dealing with "notoriously ignorant" filmmakers and the discomfort she felt over her own limited education and background in the company of her colleagues in journalism and screenwriters, mentioning Robert Benchley, Marc Connelly, Dorothy Parker and F. Scott Fitzgerald, with whom she would soon become an intimate companion.
She divorced John Gillam in June 1937 and became engaged to the Marquess of Donegall (Dermot Chichester). A month later, she met F. Scott Fitzgerald, with whom she relates having immediately fallen in love, and the engagement with Chichester was broken soon thereafter.Graham, Sheilah. Beloved Infidel: The Education of a Woman, 1958 (with Gerold Frank). Ruthe Stein quotes her as saying, "I'll only be remembered, if I'm remembered at all, because of Scott Fitzgerald."
They shared a home and were constant companions while Fitzgerald was still married to his wife Zelda, who was institutionalized in an asylum. Nonetheless, Graham protested at being described as his "mistress" in her book The Rest of the Story on the basis that she was "a woman who loved Scott Fitzgerald for better or worse until he died."
It was she who found his body in 1940 in the living room of her West Hollywood, California, apartment, where he had died of a heart attack. They had been together only three and a half years, but her daughter reports that Graham "never really got over him." During those three years, Scott outlined an educational "curriculum" for her and guided her through it, which she later wrote about in detail in A College of One.Graham, Sheilah. College of One: The Story of How F. Scott Fitzgerald Educated the Woman He Loved, 1967. Graham also later wrote of her years spent with Fitzgerald in the 1958 book Beloved Infidel,"Beautiful Infidel," imdb.com which Beloved Infidel.
In the UK, she met Trevor Cresswell Lawrence Westbrook, whose company manufactured Spitfire fighter planes for the Royal Air Force.
In August 1947, Graham was naturalization under the name Sheila Westbrook with her arrival in US dated 1934, as a United States citizen, and in February 1953, married her third husband, Wojciechowicz Stanislavovich "Growing up in Disneyland by Ron DeFore: Interview" Teddy Rose Book Reviews (October 8, 2019); retrieved June 2, 2021 note: "Stanislavovich" is misspelled as "Stanislavnovich" (W.S.) Wojtkiewicz, "Just Goes to Show It’s Dog-Meet-Dog World Out There" Los Angeles Times (November 12, 1997); retrieved June 2, 2021 known in Hollywood circles as "Bow Wow". During their divorce proceedings, she accused him of, among other things, running a restaurant out of their home, which he denied. "Sheilah Graham Los Angeles Examiner Photographs Collection, 1920-1961 via digitallibrary.usc.edu (February 2, 1956); retrieved June 2, 2021 In her autobiography, Graham dismissed Wojtkiewicz as "that nut whose name you can't pronounce". He would later gain infamy for mounting Chill Wills's notorious Oscar campaign " The Alamo Mission" Los Angeles Times (January 6, 2010); retrieved June 2, 2021
Neither her foreign correspondence nor motherhood prevented Graham from achieving her ambitions. She demanded $5,000 per week to resume her column, an amount comparable to that of the stars she was covering. In addition, she was a regular contributor to Photoplay and had her own radio program, which moved to television in 1951, whereon she delivered commentary and celebrity interviews—a forerunner to the talk show. From 1952 to 1953, Daily Variety carried a separate daily gossip column by Graham that differed in content, style, and attention to precise accuracy, from that which she wrote for the general public.Graham, Sheilah. Confessions of a Hollywood Columnist, 1969. Army Archerd took over writing the Just For Variety column from her.
In April 1969, Graham changed the name and format of her syndicated column, citing waning public interest in Hollywood gossip. Retitled "Hollywood Everywhere," the scope included celebrities, public figures, and diverse commentary.
In 1971, Graham wrote her last syndicated column and moved to Palm Beach, Florida, where she continued for several years to make celebrity guest appearances on television, wrote on a freelance basis for magazines, and authored nine more books. She co-starred in the 1978 talk show America Alive!, in its "gossip check" segment.
Graham died on 17 November 1988, in Palm Beach, Florida, of congestive heart failure at the age of 84.
Marriage to John Graham Gillam
After her mother died, the 16-year-old Graham moved into a tiny flat in London's West End and took a job in a department store demonstrating a specialty toothbrush. In 1925, at the age of 20, she married Major John Graham Gillam (1884–1965), a decorated WWI officer,Gillam was the first commanding officer of a highly-acclaimed WWI concert party, The Diamond Troupe, and was awarded the Distinguished Service Order by King George V during the 1917 Birthday Honours. published author, and eyewitness to the Gallipoli campaign of 1915–1916. Sheilah’s daughter describes Gillam as "a kindly older man who proved impotent, went bankrupt, and looked the other way when she went out with other men."
Early career
In 1933, she moved to the US. Her modest, youthful success as a writer enabled her to land jobs as a staff reporter in New York City, working successively for the New York Mirror and the New York Journal American. She energetically pursued scoops and wrote features with sensational headlines like "Who Cheats Most in Marriage?," a survey comparing the infidelities of various nationalities of men.
The Hollywood years and Fitzgerald
Although marked by an inauspicious start, Graham quickly rose to fame through her column, "Hollywood Today," which she wrote daily for over 35 years, interrupted only by serving as a war correspondent during World War II. The column at its peak was carried in 178 papers in 1966, compared to 100 papers for rival Louella Parsons, who had retired from writing her column in 1965, and 68 for Hedda Hopper, passed away that year. Sheilah Graham Is Dead at 84; Wrote Hollywood Gossip Column Along with these two rivals, Graham came to wield sufficient power to make or break Hollywood careers—prompting her to describe herself as "the last of the unholy trio."
Brief return to the UK
Upon Fitzgerald's death, seeking a respite from the social demands and frantic pace of her life, Graham arranged for an assignment as a foreign correspondent in NANA's London bureau. This afforded her the opportunity to demonstrate her abilities as a serious journalist. Her first major story from the UK was an in-depth interview with George Bernard Shaw, and she later filed another with Winston Churchill. Her brief respite from Hollywood lasted until the conclusion of World War II.
Return to the US
After her return to the United States in late 1941, Graham and Westbrook married. Graham's two children, Wendy and Robert, were born during this marriage, which ended in divorce in 1946. Wendy, in her autobiographical book One of the Family, writes of discovering as an adult that her father was, in fact, British philosopher A. J. Ayer; Ayer reportedly suggested that Robert Westbrook's biological father was probably actor Robert Taylor.
Later years and death
In 1957, Graham guest-starred as herself in "Academy Award," an episode of the CBS situation comedy Mr. Adams and Eve. The Classic TV Archive Mr. Adams and Eve (1957-58) Accessed 12 June 2021
Books
Filmography
1939 That's Right – You're Wrong Sheilah Graham – Newspaper Columnist Uncredited 1947 Jiggs and Maggie in Society Herself 1949 Impact Herself 1950 The Great Jewel Robber Television Commentator Uncredited 1959 Girls Town Sister Grace 1960 College Confidential Reporter (final film role) 1958 The Bob Cummings Show Sheilah Graham 1 episode 1959 General Electric Theater Aunt Cecilia 1 episode
External links
Categories: 1904 Births, 1988 Deaths, 20th-century American Actresses, 20th-century American Biographers, 20th-century American Jews, 20th-century American Non-fiction Writers, 20th-century American Women Writers, 20th-century British Jews, 20th-century British Non-fiction Writers, 20th-century British Women Writers, American Autobiographers, American Expatriates In England, American Film Actresses, American Gossip Columnists, American People Of Ukrainian-jewish Descent, American Radio Personalities, American Reporters And Correspondents, American Television Actresses, American Women Autobiographers, American Women Columnists, British Emigrants To The United States, British People Of Ukrainian-jewish Descent, Jewish American Non-fiction Writers, Jewish American Women Writers, Naturalized Citizens Of The United States, People From Stepney, Variety People, New York Journal-american People
|
|
