Leonora Hornblow; GREAT NY Sun obituary
Hyfler/Rosner
By STEPHEN MILLER Staff Reporter of the Sun
Leonora Hornblow, who died Saturday at 85, was a novelist
and children's book author. Hornblow was married to Arthur
Hornblow, a film producer whose credits include "Gaslight"
and "Bang the Drum Slowly."
Hornblow will probably be best remembered as a footnote
in the biography of other more famous friends, such as Frank
Sinatra, Ronald Reagan, Bennett Cerf, Claudette Colbert, and
Kitty Carlisle Hart.
"Easily the savviest broad in town," Sidney Zion said,
Hornblow was a denizen of the Stork Club and El Morocco,and
the most exclusive private dinner tables, from Cole Porter's
to David Selznick's.She was a frequently dropped name in
Hedda Hopper's column and others; she was also often
referred to as Bubbles, a childhood moniker she loathed."My
heartbeat soon doubles/At the sight of dear 'Bubbles,'"
wrote Douglas Fairbanks Jr. Selznick, perhaps more wisely,
had a gold pin made for her with the inscription, "NOTICE:
MY NAME IS LEONORA."
Raised in a mansion on Riverside Drive, Hornblow was an
heir to the tobacco magnate and philanthropist, Leon
Schinasi, who formally adopted her after marrying her mother
in 1926. Growing up "miserable," she once said, in Manhattan
society, she wed film star Wayne Morris in 1938, when she
was just 18.
Morris was flying high, just off a star turn as a boxer
in "Kid Galahad" when the couple set up housekeeping in an
airy, sprawling villa in the Hollywood Hills.An Associated
Press profile of the newlyweds described the scene: "She is
charming, slim, gracious, and apparently sensible beyond her
18 years. . In her quiet way she dominates the whole house
and everything in it, including Wayne." Her most prized
possession was an old volume of Swinburne; his was a Wayne
Morris fan club magazine. The marriage ended after 18
months.
Hornblow returned to Manhattan, with a baby son in tow,
and established herself in a Park Avenue apartment. She
found work as a fashion columnist at Liberty magazine and
had no problem finding male companionship. She liked to
refer to the eminent men in her life as "sequoias." She
dated John Gunther, the gregarious, prolific author of the
series "Inside Asia," "Inside Africa," etc. She later told
her son, Michael, "I had a very good war."
In 1945, she married Arthur Hornblow. Arthur was an old
acquaintance, having once brought his then-wife Myrna Loy to
stay at the Schinasi family beach home on the Jersey shore,
when Leonora was an adolescent.Leonora recalled that she was
disappointed to find that Loy had married someone other than
her "Thin Man" foil William Powell, and disliked Arthur
because of it. He was indifferent to her. "Long after, he
told me that he thought I was . the plain child of a
beautiful mother," Leonora recalled in a 1993 interview.
"Fortunately for me, I improved."They were wed at Bennett
Cerf's house. Twenty-five years later, the couple celebrated
their 25th anniversary at the Cerfs; those in attendance
included Pamela Harriman,Truman Capote, Bill and Babe Paley,
and Sinatra, who sang "Thanks for the Memory," with special
words by Phyllis Cerf.
After their wedding, Arthur Hornblow took her back to Los
Angeles, a city she detested and once described as
"among the alien corn." But as the wife of an MGM producer,
she met everyone. Sinatra became a close friend, although
she insisted they never dated; Hornblow was the only one
permitted to call him "Blue." Reagan was another intimate;
Hornblow was a bridesmaid at his wedding to Jane Wyman.
"Jane and Ronnie got married at the Wee Kirk O' the Heather,
a little chapel in Forest Lawn, the famous cemetery," she
recalled. "That was an omen - being married in a graveyard."
Hornblow even appeared in a film, "Thunder in the East"
(1952), as a Hindu maid, clad in a sari by Edith Head. Forty
years later, she was still giggling about watching Alan Ladd
climb onto a box to be tall enough for the love scenes with
Deborah Kerr.
The years in Hollywood furnished Hornblow with plenty of
material for her first novel, and she had no trouble selling
"Memory and Desire" (1950), a racy tale that became a
bestseller, published by Cerf's Random House. "She gives the
reader credit for having a little native intelligence, an
amazing trait in an author," the Los Angeles Times said.
Her second novel, "The Love-Seekers" (1957), was set in
New York and was,if anything more explicit.The book "tells
how love may be sought if you live in the 80s between
Madison and Fifth, work for an interior decorator or some
such, and are fond of s-x," the Washington Post said in its
"Fiction for Fun" column. Her agent, Irving "Swifty" Lazar
sold the rights, but a film was never made.
Hornblow also collaborated with her husband on various
productions, including the difficult "Oklahoma!" (1955). "My
hair was black then,black-black; by the time the movie
opened, it was wellstreaked with gray - and I was only the
producer's wife!" she recalled. "'Witness [for the
Prosecution]' [1957] on the other hand, was sheer
happiness."
Their collaboration took a new direction after Arthur
Hornblower retired in 1962 and the two began producing
children's books about odd animal behavior, an interest of
Arthur's. "Birds Do the Strangest Things," "Insects Do the
Strangest Things," and so forth, up to "Prehistoric Monsters
Did the Strangest Things," all published by the Random House
imprint Landmark. She also wrote "Cleopatra of Egypt," a
biography for young readers. Her success with children's
books may have owed something to her treating children with
utmost respect. "I would rather walk naked down Fifth Avenue
than patronize a child," she once said.
Arthur Hornblow died in 1976, and Leonora lived in New
York, cultivating notable friendships and working on a new
novel. Titled "Listen to the Sad Songs," it was a love
story. Unfortunately, it was lost when her luggage was
stolen at the airport. She rewrote it but was never
satisfied with the result. In 2003, ill health forced her to
move to North Carolina, where her son built her a house
along the lines of her apartment. It retained the same décor
she had at Park Avenue - collages by Gloria Vanderbilt,
paintings by Sinatra, a collection of tchotchkes shaped like
hands, and a Bactrian camel carved of smokey quartz willed
to her by Porter.
Leonora Hornblow:
Born June 3, 1920 in New York; died November 5 at
Fearrington Village, N.C.; survived by her son, Michael, and
three step-grandchildren.
Hyfler/Rosner
"Hyfler/Rosner" <rel...@rcn.com> wrote in message
> Their collaboration took a new direction after Arthur
> Hornblower retired in 1962 and the two began producing
> children's books about odd animal behavior, an interest of
> Arthur's. "Birds Do the Strangest Things," "Insects Do the
> Strangest Things," and so forth, up to "Prehistoric
> Monsters Did the Strangest Things,"
Loved that you included this. Hilarious.
Brad Ferguson
<rel...@rcn.com> wrote:
> Her most prized possession was an old volume of Swinburne; his was a
> Wayne Morris fan club magazine. The marriage ended after 18 months.
My favorite bit.
Charlene
>
> Hornblow returned to Manhattan, with a baby son in tow,
> and established herself in a Park Avenue apartment. She
> found work as a fashion columnist at Liberty magazine and
> had no problem finding male companionship. She liked to
> refer to the eminent men in her life as "sequoias." She
> dated John Gunther, the gregarious, prolific author of the
> series "Inside Asia," "Inside Africa," etc. She later told
> her son, Michael, "I had a very good war."
Well, if they were all sequoias, she probably did.
wd41