Iconic Actress Olivia de Haviland Corresponds with Santa Barbara Writer. In this fascinating collection of letters, two-time Academy-Award-winning actress Olivia de Haviland shares stories of travel and parenting with her friend Beverley Jackson of Santa Barbara, California. They share news of their daughters’ careers and make plans to visit each other in Paris and California. Adding to the poignancy of the collection is the fact that these long-time friends died twelve days apart in July and August 2020.
OLIVIA DE HAVILAND. Archive of 6 Typed Letters Signed, 2 Autograph Letters Signed, and 1 Autograph Postcard Signed, Paris, France, to Beverley Jackson, Montecito, California, 1975-1992.
Highlights and Excerpts
-September 5, 1975, Typed Letter Signed, 2 pp., 8.25" x 11.5" "I discovered that Gisele, in the short period she had been back, had been pursued hotly by the Wrong Young Man, and that she had persuaded her father to put a down payment on a ticket for California this summer, but not for a Summer Session. The young man had his ticket, needless to say.... These are just a few, but a very few, of the crises which have kept me juggling oranges on a high wire, with no hands free for a typewriter!”
–September 19, 1975, Typed Letter Signed, 1 p., 8.25" x 11.5" "What an irony, to think that you were in this very street while I was here, and may very well have passed right in front of my little house – which is on the opposite side of the street from the apartment house at number 6, and toward the rue Spontini.... And there you were, already bizarrely frustrated by the Roumanians, unable to keep your rendezvous with Dracula, and through curious mischance frustrated here, too, from your rendezvous with me – I never thought that he and I would be linked in any way, but we are, now, through deprivation of your company!”
–July 5, 1978, Autograph Letter Signed, 4 pp., 6" x 7.625", with envelope "Tracey will have testified to the intense activity of my first days in the U.S.—but more was to follow: in addition to 13 lecture engagements there came the role of Henry Fonda's wife in 'Roots II,' followed by public relations for the imminent release of 'Swarm'—which took me to New York and Chicago. Sandwiched into this last undertaking were 3 extraordinary days in Kentucky with The American Academy of Achievement.... And the acutely well-informed questions of the students at the symposiums were impressive, indeed.”
–September 8, 1983, Typed Letter Signed, 1 p., 8.25" x 11.625" "It was such a happy stroke of fortune that we were able to dine together on your last night here, thus bringing full circle your and Tracey's European sojourn – and it was added luck that we went to Laurent, after all, with its music and candlelight and excellent cuisine."
June 8, 1984, Autograph Postcard Signed, 1 p., 5.875" x 4" "Have just re-read yet again your piece about 'Paris In August,' enjoying it greatly & enjoying, too, the recollections it evokes of our visit here last September.”
–January 26, 1985, Typed Letter Signed, 1 p., 8.25" x 11.625""As you may know, Gisèle is once again on a special assignment for Elle magazine in Los Angeles; she loves it there as the climate, the people and the lifestyle seem to suit her ideally. I delight in this, as she has long needed a protracted period away from both her parents, in congenial company and engaged with the work she loves."Here in the rue Benouville her mother goes about her daily chores and is now able to say that, aside from 43 steel file drawers full of documents and papers, she has reorganized a vast accumulation of the trivia which has heretofore been lurking in bureau drawers, closets, cupboards, boxes, and other receptacles all over the house. Apart from this rather impressive accomplishment, I have little to report except to say that after a fierce cold spell, the thermometer registering 15.8°F in the rue Benouville, today is a mild, sweet 50°F. Snow no longer mantles the garden, the winter shrubs have regained their vigor, and tiny birds chirp merrily.”
–July 11, 1985, Autograph Letter Signed, 2 pp., 8.25" x 11.625" ”Your welcome letter of June 20th brought me a fine mix of good news—the green chair waits still, a new black mink hangs in your closet, Tracey has a role with Meryl Streep, you are entertaining the Duke & Duchess of Norfolk in September for a good cause, and you and your offspring will be at the Castle in Taunton for Christmas! And you may be in Paris for the New Year! If I am not then with some cousins in Le Touquet, & if Gisèle is not then in Los Angeles, we will have a jolly reunion, the four of us, in this lovely city of light.”
–December 20, 1988, Typed Letter Signed, 1 p., 8.25" x 11.625" "Yes, isn't it delightful that Tracey and Gisèle ran into each other on the street in New York? And even more delightful is the direction which their lives are taking – Tracey having 'found herself' in script-writing and doing so wonderfully well at this métier which is so much more rewarding and stable than that of an actress; and Gisele with her curious adventure behind her, forging ahead in her journalistic career. At this moment she is in India interviewing Maharajahs for Paris-Match, but she’ll be home in a few days, just in time for the annual feast. "As for me, I had a most wonderful adventure in England at the beginning of November, having been asked by the British Academy of Film & TV Arts to attend their great dinner at Hampton Court Palace honouring the 60th Anniversary of the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences. What moved me very much was that they wanted me to come because I was a British-born Oscar winner. The evening, presided over by The Princess Royal who is President of the British Academy, was marvellous. The dinner itself was in Henry VIII’s Great Hall and I had the privilege of being seated at the Royal table between Lord Maclean, the former Lord Chamberlain to the Queen, and David Plowright, the Chairman of Granada TV, both of whom were charming and lively conversationalists – and the cuisine by the way, was excellent!”
–November 17, 1992, Typed Letter Signed, 1 p., 8.25" x 11.625" "You have no idea how relieved I am that you got some fun (and a lively column too) out of the large parcel of letters which I sent you. Normally I make the sign of the cross over a chain letter and burn it up, but this time I felt that if so many interesting people had added their links to the original I was really obliged to do the same. Not only did your column entertain me but so did the contents or your brief note. I can see from it that you are the most enchanted grandmother ever!”
Olivia de Haviland (1916-2020) was born in Tokyo, Japan, as the daughter of a British patent attorney. After her parents separated when she was three, her mother raised her and her sister Joan Fontaine (1917-2013) in California. She attended Mills College in Oakland, California, where she gained a role in a stage and then film production of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Between 1935 and 1988, she appeared in 49 feature films and received two Academy Awards in five nominations. She married Marcus Goodrich in 1946, and they had a son Benjamin before divorcing in 1953. In 1955, she married Pierre Galante and relocated to Paris. They had a daughter before separating in 1962, but they lived in the same house to raise their daughter Gisèle together. Even after their divorce was finalized in 1979, they remained close until his death in 1998. She continued to live in Paris for the remainder of her life.
Beverley Jackson (1929-2020) was born in Los Angeles and grew up in Beverly Hills, California. She wrote articles about travel and Santa Barbara society for the Santa Barbara News-Press for 25 years. She developed a fascination with Chinese clothing and art and wrote seven books on the subject. She had one daughter, Tracey Jackson (b. 1958), who is a screenwriter, filmmaker, and author.
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