Date and details re Merle Oberon's car crash?
Radioacti...@hotmail.com
Americans under age 70 in 2008, granted--knows that the British
actress (and publisher Michael Korda's aunt, it turns out!) who was
born in India (less than a fortnight after Reagan, on Sunday, February
19, 1911, and expired in Malibu on Thursday, November 23, 1979) had
her severely career altered by a nasty car crash she survived sometime
in 1937. (The Chas Laughton version of "I, Claudius" was suspended
and never finished as a result.)
Her supposedly severe facial scars would be hidden by creative
lighting in her few remaining films, and her Indian origins would be
hidden under after her demise.
But I can find absolutely no specificity on the Internet as to the
date of that London collision, nor any details about the accident.
(Was she driving, and if not, what seat was she in? Who hit whom?
Were the other vehicle's occupants killed?) Does anyone herein know
more?
Ever living in the past,
BRYAN STYBLE/Seattle
Ted
another car.
Since her injuries were on the right side (the ear and neck as well as
the cheek),
I would hazard a guess that she was seated in the back right seat.
She definitely was being chauffeured as she filed a lawsuit against
the
driver that struck her car (a man named Edward Bundy) but the judge
decided that her own driver (Sidney J. Digby) was equally at fault, In
fact, the
judge ruled that Digby had to pay Oberon 5000 pounds.
The initial reports of the accident on March 17, 1937 described her
as "slightly hurt." She was treated for cuts on the right side of her
face,
and behind the ear and on the neck. And it was reported that she
wouldn't suffer any disfigurement. Now that could just be the PR
machine talking -- or her injuries became more severe over time.
No one else seemed to have been hurt in the accident.
"I, Claudius" was a very troubled production and Laughton was
apparently HELL to work with -- Korda was looking for a way to
save face and Oberon's fender-bender gave him an out. The surviving
footage doesn't seem like some great piece of work was lost.
Charlene
> Okay, just about everyone who remembers her--which ain't many
> Americans under age 70 in 2008, granted--
And everyone who read David Niven's autobiographies, in which she is
obliquely referred to as Great Big Star. Also anyone following the
tale of her treatment of her mother - she brought her to London and
Hollywood with her but told everyone she was her maid, since she was
Indian.
wd44
Radioacti...@hotmail.com
Day 1937 collision--thanks for passing it on! (I've always wondered
what I was missing by never cracking any of David Niven's several
highly-regarded memoirs...)
Always fearing a similar fate as Oberon's,
BRYAN STYBLE/Seattle
Chef Juke
The only reference in NEWSPAPERARCHIVE.COM (okay, a plug from a
fan/subscriber...great resource) is from the March 16, 1937 San Mateo
Times:
"http://www.newspaperarchive.com/FreePdfViewer.aspx?img=47412759&firstvisit=true&terms=HERE"
-Chef Juke
"EVERYbody Eats when they come to MY house!"
http://www.chefjuke.com
petermit...@btinternet.com
Bryan Styble
Is the car also reputed to be the one in which the star was injured the following March?
BRYAN STYBLE/Florida [a decade removed from Seattle, three cities ago now]