Deanna on the big screen in Palo Alto, Califonia

The Stanford Theater in Palo Alto, California will be showing Three Smart Girls on June 22-24 at 7:30 PM. The Stanford is located on 221 University Avenue, near the campus of Stanford University. If you live within driving distance this would be a great chance to see Deanna on the big screen! The movie is part of a summer series devoted to Hollywood Musicals of the Golden age: see the full calendar here.

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1981 Photo of Durbin by Charles David

Deanna Durbin has notably shunned the spotlight since her retirement from film in the late 1940s. Since then, any interview, missive or photo of the star has been increasingly rare. Below is one I had not seen before. This photo was taken in 1981 by her husband Charles David (director of Lady On A Train). It was later sent to NYU Cinema Studies professor William Everson. 

Scrawled at the bottom of the photograph are these words:

Dear Will Everson
In gratitude for your invitations I thought I'd send you this snapshot I took of Deanna a year ago.
                       Sincerely
                       Charles David

Enjoy, film fans.

Copyrights belong to their respective owners

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Durbin's "Certain Age" Co-Star, Jackie Cooper, has Died

Actor/Director, Jackie Cooper died on May 3, 2011. He was 88. Cooper began his show business career as a child actor, gaining popularity in Hal Roach's Our Gang series. For his work in Skippy (1931) at the age of nine, Cooper holds the record as the youngest actor to garner an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor.

Later, the teen would famously date Judy Garland and co-star with Deanna Durbin in That Certain Age (1938), with whom he also claims to have had a romantic interest.

From his autobiography, Please Don't Shoot My Dog (William Morrow and Co., 1981):

"[I] had a brief on-the-set fling with Deanna Durbin, when we did a picture together. It is an old Hollywood custom for leading man and leading lady to fall for each other. In That Certain Age I kissed her on screen,  and I gave her a few off-screen kisses, too. We had problems finding privacy on the bustling movie set and finally took to a tactic which I imagine has stood romantically inclined couples on movie sets in good stead for many years. We would duck behind the backdrops and find a few precious— although musty— moments of quiet and togetherness. Then, when the call came for the first team to report back, she would go one way and I would go the other way."

Although there are no kissing scenes in the final film, Cooper's admiration of Ms. Durbin is unmistakable in the role of  boy-next-door for the Universal Studios star.

Here are Further Resources on Jackie Cooper:

• Read our review of That Certain Age (1938)
• New York Times: Obituary for Jackie Cooper
• Hollywood Reporter: What You Don't Know About Jackie Cooper
• Watch Jackie Cooper on a "What's My Line" game show episode from January 1, 1956.

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