Hollywood Studio Magazine (December 1969)

Picture Country House, but there you sit opposite the dame who squandered her money on men, but you will spend the rest of your life hearing how good they made it during their careers.” Almira has some definite ideas about how to spend your sunset years. “Arrange your finish,” she told us sagely, “the things you want for yourself late in life. You arrive \yjthout warning, you are snatched away the same way. It’s a dreary life. A friend of mine went for a ride with her family one day and never came back. They took her to a rest home.” Because of her property and fairly steady income, Almira is often urged by her friends to spend more of her money. “Spend it! Spend it!” my friends say. So you do, then you live on without the money — and nobody cares a kitty. While most of her family has died off, Almira isn’t completely alone. She has 11 cats to keep the fireside bright. “I eat out, all my meals,” she smiles, “if I didn’t the cats would eat it off my plate before I could get it into my mouth. Besides, going out to eat is an escape from a room and a bath. My life is out period. Out to work, out for entertainment, out for meals.” Walking down a street, almost anywhere can be a chore for Almira. Her face is so familiar strangers stop to talk to he r -o” “ —- my life. “I married a very young man once, who wants an old one?” she began matter-of-factly, “and later he inherited something, but that doesn’t concern me. We’re divorced. I saw to that before I came out here to make the almighty dollar.” At the present time she hinted, “I’ve stopped looking.” “I was the first one raped and found dead in ‘The Boston Strangler,’ ” she went on with a note of pride in her voice. “It was one of my most dramatic roles.” The woman three booths away blinked and choked over her blueberry pancakes. “But in \ . . tick . . . tick . . .’ I only said Hurrmuph!’ and I think that is going to be one of the best things I ever did. I’m very proud of it.” She won’t wait for the movie to be released before trying to find a better part. The world of an aging actress is work, auditions, work and more auditions. Almira makes the rounds of all the studio casting offices, producers auditions and interviews. Usually she finds stiff competition. “The crowds of women who show up are really something,” she confided. “All kinds, poverty stricken, fat and thin, well dressed, most of them are 60 to 80 years old. But a few of the young ones dye their hair grey and try to whiddle old f f i t I e n it >f s, a it ir al ’t was simple enough. I didn’t think I had that good of a figure, and I didn’t want the boys who were calling on me to be able to come down and have a lot. After the Aborn Opera farce, Almira hit the Vaudeville boards. At first she played it straight. With a good, strong voice, she hoped to win fame as a singer. “I did the whole bit, trills, classical, and popular,” she recalls, “but none of it seemed to set the world on fire.” One day she hammed up part of her act and made a discovery. “Found out I could make more money singing off key than I could singing on.” That changed her life. She had found her stride. But success was still always a heart beat away, and her finances rose and fell like the tides of politics in Washington. When things were too much to take in show business, Almira would pack up and go back to her family. Her friends included Ethel Roosevelt, Helen Taft and Alice Roosevelt Longworth, but most of her acquaintances were dull and boring. When she couldn’t take parties and the dull social life of Washington any longer, she would pack her bags, get a booking and head for the stage again. After coming west, things picked up for her. The list of credits are endless and so are the stars she has worked with. The all-time favorite was Gary Cooper, but right behind him comes Elvis Presley Fredrick March, “He’s so cuddly,” and Fred MacMurray. After seeing Elvis Presley for the first time, Almira was enchanted and called Mike Connolley at the Hollywood Reporter. After giving the columnist a long pitch on the virtues of Presley Connolley said: “Who is he?” Almira also likes to take some of the credit for introducing Cary Grant to the movies. “I met him in a hotel lobby and asked if he was working. He wasn’t, so I suggested he see a friend of mine. He did, got a part and shortly afterwards went to Hollywood. Greer Garson was one of her favorite lady stars, mainly because of an odd incident. “I worked with her once, then years later we were on the same set at MGM and when she saw me, she recited my dialog. That was some compliment.” Speaking of Mickey Rooney, Almira went on, “I didn’t think he was funny — on or off camera.” When queried about Claudette Colbert, who she worked with in “Family Affair,” she said simply: “I don’t remember anything about her.” Although she never appeared in the same scene with Judy Garland, Almira has a soft spot in her heart for the star. “I was supposed to be Judy’s nurse when she was a child, so I was gone by Continued on Page 10 PaKe 5