Best of - Olivia de Havilland: The Last Belle of Cinema

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Academy of Achievement

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4.6 • 943 Ratings

🗓️ 10 August 2020

⏱️ 46 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Olivia de Havilland, who just passed away at the age of 104, was the last of the Hollywood's leading ladies from the Golden Age. She is best known for portraying Melanie Hamilton in "Gone With The Wind" (and admit it: you liked Melanie better than Scarlett, right?), but she had starring roles in dozens of films during the 1930's, 40's and 50's. This "best of" episode, which originally posted in June of 2016, features an extensive conversation with Ms. de Havilland about the early days of the American film industry. She explains how the studio system confined her to the role of the ingenue, and how she eventually broke out of it to play some of the more complex and fascinating women on the silver screen -- including in two films that won her Academy Awards for Best Actress: "To Each His Own" and "The Heiress". (c ) American Academy of Achievement 2016-2020

Transcript

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0:17.2	Hi, this is Alice. In 2016 we released an episode about the last leading lady of Hollywood's golden age. Olivia de Havland was on the verge of turning 100, and it seemed the perfect time to retrieve her interview from the audio archive of the Academy of Achievement
0:27.0	and remind listeners about the amazing story of her life and career.
0:32.0	Well, now that Ms. de Haviland has died at the age of 104, we think
0:38.8	it's the perfect time to repost her episode. It seems especially poignant at this moment when most movie theaters are
0:47.1	closed to us and when the future of the big screen is more uncertain than it's been since the first Hollywood studio opened, five years
0:57.6	before Olivia de Haviland was born.
1:00.8	Thanks for taking a lesson. When people talk about Hollywood's Golden Age, they're usually referring to that period between about 1930 and 1959.
1:16.6	When the studios ruled, glamour was the order of the day, and people on screen talked like this.
1:24.0	I know now why you tried so hard to kill this outlaw whom you despised.
1:28.0	It's because he was the one man in England who protected the helpless against a lot of beasts who are drunk on you in blood.
1:33.0	And now you intend to murder your own brother.
1:35.0	You'll be sorry you interfered.
1:38.0	Sorry, I do it again if you killed me for it.
1:42.0	He must take me away he must love me.
1:47.3	Catherine you must take hold of yourself no no Morris must take hold of me
1:52.2	Morris will love me.
1:55.0	We thought it best not to tell you, scholar, but Ashley and Frank and the others have gone to clean out those woods where you were attacked.
2:00.0	It's what a great many of our southern gentlemen have had to do lately for our protection. That was the adventures of Robin Hood, followed by the Aris and of course gone with the wind.
2:10.0	They all starred Olivia de Haviland, the only female superstar of the golden age who is still alive.
2:18.0	Mr. Haviland turns 100 on July 1st, 2016.
2:22.0	So this episode of what it takes from the Academy of Achievement
2:26.4	is devoted to her life and career. I'm Alice Winkler.
	...

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