Suzan Ball - the trace of the fallen star

Forum rules
Communication only in English!!!
Messages in other languages will be deleted!!!
User avatar

Topic Author
Didier
Автор
Posts: 2150
Joined: 11 Jun 2017, 20:06
Reputation: 2493
Sex: -
Has thanked: 151 times
Been thanked: 4365 times
Gender:
Burundi

Suzan Ball - the trace of the fallen star

Post: # 22914Unread post Didier
12 Jan 2018, 17:36


In order to keep more details about life, work and tragic destiny of American movie star Suzan Ball this material is composed of two big articles - "Suzan Ball's great decision" by Terry Morris (fragments are given in italic), "Suzan Ball. Cinderella Girl of 1952" Tony Benvenuto (fragments are given in normal font) and some Suzan's interviews to different newspapers (bold italic). Illustrations are taken from the press of those times.

Once upon a time in the magical kingdom of 1950s Hollywood, a voluptuous brunette beauty named Suzan Ball seemed destined for major stardom. Touched by Universal-International's magic wand, Suzan's life resembled a modern Cinderella story. Suzan even met and married her prince charming, actor Richard Long. An unexpected twist of fate, however, would turn her charmed life into a
nightmare filled with pain and heartbreak.
Mention the name Suzan Ball to dedicated film buffs who enjoyed her films in the early 1950s, and you will see at least a glimmer of recognition sparked by fading memories of her extraordinary beauty, and that simple but distinctive name. Today, though, she is almost totally forgotten by everyone else. Movie histories either ignore her or consign her to a brief mention in the career of successful leading man Richard Long. Her story needs to be told, however. This woman who exhibited such courage in the face of tragedy deserves to be remembered.
Susan Ball was born on February 3, 1933 (according other data 1934) in Jamestown, New York, a farming and manufacturing community sixty miles south of Buffalo. Her parents, Howard Dale and Molly Ball, were of French, English and Irish descent. Susan's brother, Howard Jr., was born four years later. Susan's family traced their ancestry to both Massachusetts Pilgrim leader John Alden and to that state's first governor. Susan was also a second cousin of a movie and television legend, the fabulous Lucille Ball.
In 1938, Susan's family moved to Miami, Florida. Later, they returned to Buffalo where Susan attended Washington and Kenmore Junior High Schools. By this time, Susan had already reached her adult height of 5-feet, 7-inches.
In 1947, the Balls relocated to North Hollywood, California, not far from Universal Studios. Susan attended North Hollywood High School as a music major where she became president of the school's choral group and vice-president of the girls' club. Susan also performed in several operettas at North Hollywood High, and her driving ambition was to become a professional singer.
Susan later would state, "My happiest memories are of growing up in North Hollywood while attending North Hollywood High."
When she was fifteen, Susan auditioned for actor Richard Arlen's local television show, Hollywood Opportunity. Soon, Susan won a chance to sing on the show which led to a job as featured vocalist with the Mel Baker orchestra. For the next three years, Susan performed with Baker's orchestra at college dances, and other local functions around the Los Angeles area. She also made occasional appearances at the popular Florentine Gardens nightclub.
Since her mother was suffering from asthma, the family moved, in 1951, to Santa Maria, California. Susan, however, was allowed to remain in Hollywood to graduate that June from North Hollywood High. Susan already was determined to pursue her dreams of a movie career, and did not plan to leave the Los Angeles area.
With her earnings from the Baker orchestra and an allowance from her parents of $15-a-week, Susan moved to a boarding house, located in the hill section of La Brea Avenue, called "The House of the Seven Garbos." A former mansion of movie pioneer Jesse Lasky, the house was managed by Marie Cote, who acted as a surrogate mother to several aspiring young hopefuls. At various times, Ruth Roman, Linda Christian, Leonard Nimoy, and Hugh O'Brian resided at the house.
Susan signed with agent Ynez Seabury, a former Cecil B. DeMille contract player. Seabury quickly secured Susan a job at Monogram Studios as one of several harem girls in the low-budget Arabian Nights fantasy, "Aladdin and His Lamp" (1952) starring Johnny Sands and Patricia Medina. While filming Aladdin and His Lamp, Susan altered the spelling of her name to the more glamorous
and distinctive "Suzan Ball."
Suzan's "fairy godmother" then appeared in the person of actress Mary Castle. She became acquainted with Castle during one of Mary's visits to the House of the Seven Garbos, where she once had lived. Formerly under contract to Columbia Pictures where she was promoted as a Rita Hayworth look-alike, Mary Castle was now employed by Universal-International.
Castle believed that Suzan's stunning beauty, coupled with her refreshing innocence, could give her a shot at a major career. She arranged for Suzan to meet Robert Raines, Universal's top talent executive. Raines was simply overwhelmed by Suzan's dark beauty and charm. Next, Suzan read for Sophie Rosenstein, the studio's dramatic instructor in charge of young talent
and screen tests. Rosenstein had Suzan placed under the studio's test option program for a period of four months.
Following an intense grooming period, Universal screen-tested Suzan performing scenes from Crossfire and The Postman Always Rings Twice. Thoroughly-impressed with Suzan's talent, and photogenic loveliness, the studio signed her to a standard term contract on October 24, 1951.
Suzan's Cinderella story had begun.

Image

Suzan Ball 1952



User avatar

Topic Author
Didier
Автор
Posts: 2150
Joined: 11 Jun 2017, 20:06
Reputation: 2493
Sex: -
Has thanked: 151 times
Been thanked: 4365 times
Gender:
Burundi

Re: Suzan Ball - the trace of the fallen star

Post: # 22915Unread post Didier
12 Jan 2018, 17:39

Universal-International launched the career of its promising new starlet with a bit role in "The World In His Arms" (1952) starring Gregory Peck and Ann Blyth. The lavish Technicolor romantic-adventure saga, set in 1850s San Francisco and Alaska, featured Peck as the captain of a sealing schooner. Ann Blyth played a beautiful Russian countess fleeing from a loveless
marriage arranged by the Czar. Suzan was seen briefly as one of the handmaidens of the countess. Third-billed Anthony Quinn, as a seal-poaching rival of Peck's, would be destined to play an unlucky role in Suzan's future.
Universal arranged for Suzan to be featured as the "Lux Girl" promoting Lux toilet soap on the Lux Radio Theatre's broadcast of the film, Winchester 73. Suzan also joined a press junket to Portland, Oregon, along with several other Universal players, for the world premiere of "Bend Of The River" (1952), a major western, starring James Stewart and Julie Adams.
Working its Hollywood magic, Universal began publicizing Suzan as "The New Cinderella Girl of 1952." Suzan told the press, "I've always felt I was a driven girl. Driven mostly by myself."
In her first important role, Universal gave Suzan special billing, adding the word "introducing" before her name. The film, "Untamed Frontier" (1952), turned out to be a long, rambling Technicolor western toplined by Joseph Cotten, Shelley Winters and Scott Brady. Unfortunately, the movie was not exactly helped by its similarity to an earlier epic, "Duel In The Sun" (1946), in which Cotten played a similar character. In this tale of a crippled cattle baron (Minor Watson) who selfishly forbade settlers to cross his property en route to free government lands, Cotten played the baron's upstanding nephew while Brady was his wastrel son. Suzan was showcased to excellent advantage as a beautiful dance hall queen who is also Brady's blackmailing mistress.
Although a newcomer, Suzan more than held her own with the solid emoting of veterans Cotten, Winters, and Brady.
The public took notice of this new Cinderella Girl. "The Hollywood Reporter" called Suzan a looker, as well as a competent actress, feeling she was most persuasive as a female menace.
Suzan Ball seemed to be on her way up.
Asked about her rapid rise, Suzan explained, "It's because I played a bad girl in "Untamed Frontier". I could have gone on for years and I never would have been noticed. I had the role of a mistress with a fiery temper. When a gal like that enters the room, she takes command of the scene".
Off-screen Suzan enjoyed a brief romance with her co-star Scott Brady. The two first got to know each other when Brady helped her prepare for her screen test.
Universal awarded Suzan star billing, along with Jeff Chandler and Scott Brady, in the Technicolor swashbuckler, "Yankee Buccaneer" (1952). In this action-filled adventure involving Brazil's struggle for independence from Portugal, Chandler was the rather humorless commander of an American frigate who allows his vessel to sail under the guise of a pirate ship to intercept
a fleet of plunderers masterminded by the Spanish governor (Joseph Calleia). Scott Brady was the commander's first officer whose nonchalant attitude constantly antagonize Chandler.
As a refugee Portuguese countess, Suzan's mission was to relay information to her compatriots that pirates are after gold needed to overthrow the Portuguese king. Naturally, Suzan's glamorous presence aboard the vessel causes romantic complications with both Chandler and Brady. Although her role in "Yankee Buccaneer" made few dramatic demands, Suzan looked ravishing in her gorgeous
period costumes, which as "Variety" noted were "somewhat incongruous aboard a fighting vessel."
While on a personal appearance junket to promote Untamed Frontier, Suzan was stricken with acute appendicitis in Buffalo, New York, not far from her hometown. She was rushed to the hospital where an emergency appendectomy was performed.
Returning to Hollywood and flushed with her newfound stardom, Suzan signed with the prestigious William Morris Agency. Universal announced she would star opposite Robert Ryan and Rock Hudson in Horizons West (1952); but the role subsequently was assigned to Julie Adams.
Instead, Suzan was cast in the role of Venita, a waterfront cafe singer, in the Technicolor adventure, "City Beneath the Sea" (1953). Based on a Harry F. Reisberg novel, "Port Royal, The Ghost City Beneath The Sea," the film was essentially a vehicle for its two male stars, Robert Ryan and Anthony Quinn. Ryan and Quinn played deep-sea divers who arrive in Kingston, Jamaica to dive for a million dollars in gold bullion and discover the submerged city of Port Royal.
Lovely Mala Powers provided the love interest; while Suzan as the exotic Venita performed the song, "Handle With Care" quite professionally. The highlight of City Beneath The Sea was a spectacular undersea earthquake sequence. Behind the camera, shockwaves of another sort were being felt.
During the film's production, Suzan fell in love with Anthony Quinn. A flamboyant actor of Irish and Mexican parentage, Quinn was very much married to Katherine DeMille, the exotic-brunette daughter of famed movie director Cecil B. DeMille. Born in 1915, Anthony Quinn was nearly 28 years older than Suzan, and already notorious for his many extramarital affairs with some of Hollywood's most alluring women. Tony was magnetic, extremely possessive and very passionate.
Suzan recklessly pursued Quinn from their first meeting. The couple's much-publicized romance resulted in an avalanche of press coverage which Universal feared would seriously damage the career of their budding young star. With her involvement with a married man, Suzan's Cinderella story was beginning to unravel.
Meanwhile, Suzan was selected as one of fifteen winners of the first annual "Golden Key Awards" presented to promising newcomers by the editors of "Modern Screen" magazine. Other winners included Anne Bancroft, Penny Edwards and Virginia Gibson. Columnist Hedda Hopper also picked Suzan as one of the most important "New Stars of 1953".

Image

Suzan Ball circa 1953



User avatar

Topic Author
Didier
Автор
Posts: 2150
Joined: 11 Jun 2017, 20:06
Reputation: 2493
Sex: -
Has thanked: 151 times
Been thanked: 4365 times
Gender:
Burundi

Re: Suzan Ball - the trace of the fallen star

Post: # 22916Unread post Didier
12 Jan 2018, 17:40

While their romance blazed, Suzan and Quinn would appear together in another film. "East Of Sumatra" (1953) was yet another in the long line of Universal-International's tropical adventures filmed in glowing Technicolor. Set on a remote, sun-scorched Pacific island, the brawling saga pits American mining engineer Jeff Chandler against the island's hot-blooded chieftain, Quinn, after whites are blamed for a fire which destroys the local rice crop.
Suzan portrayed Quinn's alluring fiancee who develops a passionate interest in rugged Chandler. Suzan's splendid performance as the voluptuous island beauty emerged as torrid and erotic, yet completely sympathetic, ranking as one of her finest achievements. She was stunningly photographed in her exotic sarongs and tropical makeup.
The movie's climactic sequence involved a duel-to-the-death between Chandler and Quinn armed with knives and flaming torches. In the end, Suzan becomes the island's ruler, thus allowing the beauteous Marilyn Maxwell to end up in Chandler's arms.
Rather than allude to the Ball-Quinn romance, Universal promoted East Of Sumatra with rather misleading advertisements showing Suzan and Chandler in a torrid embrace with the tag line, "For her savage kisses . . . he plundered the last forgotten corner of the earth!"
"East Of Sumatra" required Suzan to perform a sensuous dance number. Universal had engaged an expert dancer, Julie Newmeyer (later Julie Newmar), to double for Suzan in the dance's more strenuous steps. During a rehearsal, however, Suzan noticed Quinn on the set. Wanting to impress Tony with her dancing skills, Suzan decided to do the number herself without Newmar's help when the actual filming began. One of the more intricate steps required Suzan to execute a knee drop. A more experienced dancer would have done the drop without going too far forward and landing on the knee with all her weight. Unaware of how to lean and soften the landing, Suzan came down hard, squarely on her right knee as it hit the solid cement floor.
Later, Suzan explained to columnist Louella Parsons in a "Los Angeles Examiner" interview, "I'm not really a dancer and I had worked very hard on this dance sequence. I was finally doing my dance before the cameras when I slipped and banged my right knee hard on the cement floor. It hurt like blazes. Annoyed at my clumsiness, I picked myself up and started again. After the studio doctor treated my leg, I went right back to work. The knee was sore for a few days, but I forgot about it."

Image

Suzan Ball in "East Of Sumatra"



User avatar

Topic Author
Didier
Автор
Posts: 2150
Joined: 11 Jun 2017, 20:06
Reputation: 2493
Sex: -
Has thanked: 151 times
Been thanked: 4365 times
Gender:
Burundi

Re: Suzan Ball - the trace of the fallen star

Post: # 22917Unread post Didier
12 Jan 2018, 17:43

Universal then sent Suzan on a personal appearance tour to promote East Of Sumatra. While she was driving up to the Berkshire Mountains with a studio publicist, her auto was sideswiped by another vehicle. Although it was only a minor mishap, the jolt caused the upper part of Suzan's right knee to strike the window crank handle of the car. Again, Suzan paid little attention to
the injury.
When she returned to Hollywood, Suzan started to come to her senses and decided to end her affair with Tony Quinn. It was then that she met a tall, dark and handsome actor in the Universal commissary. Born in 1927, Richard Long was also under contract to Universal. Suzan was immediately attracted to Long's sophisticated personality and delightful sense of humor.
Romance ignited, and soon the two were inseparable.

After military serice on the Pacific, in 1952 Dick came home and went to work on the Barbara Stanwyck picture "All I Desire". Suzan was then making "East of Sumatra" on an ad­joining set. "I saw her walk by on the set," Dick recalls. "She was dressed in a sarong, and she was very beautiful. This was the only time I ever saw her walk normally."

Suzan next appeared in Universal's Technicolor western, War Arrow (1953) starring Maureen O'Hara and Jeff Chandler. An action-filled adventure, War Arrow focused on the efforts of U.S. Army Major Howell Brady (Chandler) to secure the assistance of Seminole Indians in putting down fierce Kiowa uprisings in Texas. Romance blooms as Brady develops an interest in fiery redhead Elaine Corwin (Maureen O'Hara) whose cavalry officer husband disappeared on a scouting mission.
Suzan was third-billed as Avis, a hot-blooded Seminole princess who also has romantic designs on Chandler. Although Suzan made the most of another tempestuous character, her role in "War Arrow" was essentially secondary. While filming War Arrow, Suzan was warned by her physician that she had developed tumors on her leg. By the time the movie was completed, Suzan was
walking on crutches because of the throbbing pain. Still believing her condition was not serious, Suzan continued to work with studio coaches and pose for publicity photos. "I didn't understand what was happening to me," Suzan later admitted.
As her situation deteriorated, Suzan went from one doctor to the next, always hoping to get a better prognosis. It was no use; each doctor gave her the grim news that the tumors in her leg were cancerous.

Image

One of Susan's photo shortly before amputation



User avatar

Topic Author
Didier
Автор
Posts: 2150
Joined: 11 Jun 2017, 20:06
Reputation: 2493
Sex: -
Has thanked: 151 times
Been thanked: 4365 times
Gender:
Burundi

Re: Suzan Ball - the trace of the fallen star

Post: # 22918Unread post Didier
12 Jan 2018, 17:45


Occasionally Dick Long caught a glimpse of Suzan in the studio commissary. Her vivacity attracted him, hut she was always so surround­ed by a chattering crowd that he couldn't get through to her. One after­noon in July he saw her sitting alone at a table. He introduced himself and sat with her a while, chatting.
Casually they met again in the com­missary. At their third meeting Dick and Suzan put their heads together and talked for three hours before either noticed the time. She had an appointment to see some friends and invited Dick to come along.
Dick led the way to his car and Suzan hopped nimbly alongside on her crutches. He held the door of the car open for her. She had to lift her right leg with both hands before she could step inside.
"Something's really wrong with that leg." he said. "What is it?"
Suzan did not hesitate. "It's can­cer."
"I couldn't get over her total lack of self-pity," Dick says. "She always found fun and laughter in whatever turned up."
What turned up was baseball games, acting classes, visiting and parties. At times they collected a few friends and went to Suzan's apartment to listen to recordings and do a little vocaliz­ing on their own.
Then Dick had to leave for Banff, in Canada, to make a picture with Alan Ladd and Shelley Winters. "Even though we had just been good friends who had a lot of laughs to­gether," Dick says, "I was annoyed that she was so casual when I called to say goodbye. The first thing I did after I got to Banff was to stop off at Western Union. I thought: I'll wire Suzan to find out how the new X-rays shaped up. I cared about the X-rays all right, but it also hit me that I was beginning to fall in love with her."
Back at her apartment Suzan was idling about and feeling strangely lonely when Dick's telegram arrived. Next day, crutches and all, she flew to Banff. They had a wonderful week together. They were in love. Of this both of them were certain. And for the moment it was all they needed to know.
Shortly afterward Suzan flew to Mexico for treatments at a health farm. Dick finished the picture and went on a personal-appearance tour. It was early autumn before Suzan and Dick got together again.

Image

A page of some magazine of those times



User avatar

Topic Author
Didier
Автор
Posts: 2150
Joined: 11 Jun 2017, 20:06
Reputation: 2493
Sex: -
Has thanked: 151 times
Been thanked: 4365 times
Gender:
Burundi

Re: Suzan Ball - the trace of the fallen star

Post: # 22919Unread post Didier
12 Jan 2018, 17:47


"I was not thinking about mar­riage." Suzan says. "I went to a friend's bridal shower, and I remember babbling to the girls about how mar­riage was great but not for Suzie. Three weeks later Dick and I an­nounced our engagement and the same friends were giving me a shower."
Suzan had been told by at least two doctors that her leg eventually would have to be amputated. But she was pinning her faith on the new treat­ments, and Dick supported her. "She was taking a calculated risk." he says, "and I thought there was justification for it. The cancer had been dormant for seven months. We simply refused to admit the condition could not be licked."
Boldly, they set their wedding date for around the first of the year.
Early in November Suzan went into the kitchen of her apartment to prepare lunch. As usual, she was on crutches, but she put them aside to hop around the narrow little space. Her French poodle, Cezanne, had slopped some water from his plate onto the linoleum.
"I remember seeing the pool of water and thinking that I should mop it up or put some paper down." Suzan says. "I turned around, slipped, and my right leg crumbled under me. I knew at once the leg was broken. The pain was agonizing, but all I could think was: What's happened to the tumor? What's going to happen now?"
In the living room, Dick heard Suzan's scream. He dashed into the kitchen, picked her up and carried her into the bedroom. "I called the doctor. I called the studio nurse to come at once to give Suzan a seda­tive. She was hysterical with pain and fright. That poor right leg of hers was dangling, broken, and God alone knew what was going to happen."
She was taken to the hospital, and an orthopedic surgeon, Dr. Francis Englemann, was called in. The break was at the weakest point, where can­cer had invaded the marrow of the bone. The leg was put in traction.
All along Suzan had stubbornly re­sisted any form of surgical interven­tion. But on the advice of Dr. Engle­mann she agreed to have a biopsy performed, with the proviso that if the cancer appeared dormant and only dead tissue were left the surgeon would perform a bone graft to the knee from her hip.
Meanwhile Dick had been cast in "Play Girl", starring Shelley Winters. On the morning of the operation he went to the hospital, held Suzan's hand while she was given anesthesia, then reported to the set. "It did ap­pear that only dead tissue remained, and the bone graft was made," Dick says. "Suzan was in a cast from chest to toe and in considerable pain, but we were so happy, so hopeful that the bone would knit."
She was permitted to transfer to a sanitarium, where she would be free of the usual hospital atmosphere and restrictions. Her room was crammed with flowers and gifts from half of Hollywood. Visitors came and went at all hours. Even her poodle was per­mitted to stay with her for a few days, until the supervisor pleaded that the sanitarium was turning into a resort. But all the gaiety and activity were the air Suzan loved to breathe, and she remained buoyant and optimistic.
A few weeks after the bone graft Nurse Kay Biddle was called in to at­tend Suzan at the sanitarium. "From what I gathered," Kay says, "my pred­ecessors couldn't take the pace Suzan set. I wasn't thrilled either with the idea of nursing some spoiled young movie star."
Kay reported at 7:00 a.m. to find the movie star sitting up in bed suck­ing away at a huge peppermint candy cane. Suzan smiled at Kay. "Here, you have one too." At this point Kay was enslaved.
"Kay Biddle was a very important factor in Suzan's over-all recovery and adjustment." says Dr. Englemann. "She is a very positive person. No one can be depressed or sink into self-pity when she's around." Suzan and her nurse set precedents for bed­side behavior. They teased and pranked and laughed their way through the fog that was closing in.
A pathologist's analysis reported that tissue from the leg contained live cancer cells. It was soon obvious that the bone graft was not knitting and that even the incision was not healing properly. Suzan began to slip steadily downhill. She was unable to eat, and her weight went down to 92 pounds. But she turned even this con­dition around to suit her. "I had never been really thin," she says. "I told everybody that now the studio would not be after me about my weight."
Dr. Englemann intensively cam­paigned to prepare her for the pros­pect of an amputation. He brought an amputee to see her, a man who had married, had a family and a fine job. Suzan listened to what he had to say, but her mind remained closed on the subject.
Dick too told her about marvelous new developments in artificial limbs and how she could resume normal living within months of an amputa­tion. An artificial practice leg could be ordered in advance of the amputa­tion and speed the readjustment.
A high studio official assured Suzan that an amputation would not impair her usefulness as an actress. A new movie would he waiting for her just as soon as she could report. In addi­tion the studio was paying all med­ical expenses so her mind could he at rest on that score.
Dick Long continued in constant at­tendance from eight in the morning until he was compelled to leave around midnight.
"I was trying to he terribly noble, telling Dick he didn't have to marry me." Suzan says. "I told him he didn't have to feel sorry for me. I wasn't going to be helpless. No matter what happened. I was going back to work and could support myself."
"I'm not marrying you for your legs." Dick insisted. "I'm marrying you. I love you!"
At the New Year no one could avoid the knowledge that Suzan was slip­ping all the way downhill. "She was still living in a circle of maybe," Kay Biddle explains. "Maybe they'll come up with a cure tomorrow... maybe the bone will start to knit... maybe. It wasn't doing her any good. She was a very sick girl, and we were all ter­rified that if she didn't make up her mind about an amputation the delay would kill her."
On January 11, Dr. Englemann had been compelled to deliver a stern ultimatum: "You can keep your leg, Susan, but you will die. Or you can give it up and live." He had demanded her decision by the following morning.
Dick Long was at her bedside.
"Want to talk about it, honey?" he asked.
Suzan shook her head. "Let's play gin rummy."
They played until two o'clock in the morning. Suzan won.
Suzan con­ceded that she had no choice. "One thing I've always been sure of," she says, "I want to live right up to the hilt. Right up to every minute of what life has to offer. If I refused, all I'd have would be flowers and a pretty epitaph. I had to agree."
She slept briefly and called for Dr. Englemann. Within a few hours her right leg was amputated midway between the hip and the knee.



User avatar

Topic Author
Didier
Автор
Posts: 2150
Joined: 11 Jun 2017, 20:06
Reputation: 2493
Sex: -
Has thanked: 151 times
Been thanked: 4365 times
Gender:
Burundi

Re: Suzan Ball - the trace of the fallen star

Post: # 22921Unread post Didier
12 Jan 2018, 17:51

Soon fan magazines and newspapers were filled with stories about her ordeal. All noted Suzan's bravery and stoic acceptance of her fate. After the operation, Suzan commented, "When something like this happens, you find the courage somehow. After the surgery, I was sure my days as an actress were over. I was determined to find other things to do."


"The biggest fear when my right leg was amputated recently was: "How was it going to af­fect other people"
Say you're living alone on a desert island and you have a sear on your face This prob­ably won't upset you Our socal standards are based on what other people think.
But when you're living in a society, as we all do, your first thought is: What will other people think? Will I be laughed at or pitied? Will anybody want to fall in love with me? Can I keep my job?
The first problem of ad­justing is to realize other people don't condemn you.
They want to help you. They still love you. If anyone stops loving you because you lose a leg, they aren't worth lov­ing, anyway.
The second thing to under­stand is that it depends large­ly on your own attitude whether people accept you.
If you make people uncom­fortable, if you spend the rest of your life moaning about a broken finger nail or a lost arm, they won't want to see you. You must say. "I lost my leg. I've got a wooden leg," and don't make an issue about it Then people will relax around you.
It's my life, and I don't plan to ruin it with regrets. Self-pity is a waste of valu­able time.
At first I wondered if my fiance, actor Dick Long, still would want me. I told him, "I'm certainly not going to marry you now." He said, — "This doesn't make any dif­ference to me." Now I know it doesn't.
I didn't lose my job in pic­tures. I have received more than 1,000 letters, mostly from people who have lost limbs and they are pulling for me. They have sent me bibles and other gifts. They aren't repelled by the idea of seeing me on the screen with an artificial leg In fact, they all say they want to see my next picture, so you see, I have gained friends.
If regretting the past is more important to a person than peace of mind and a happy life, then that person is narrow and vain.
Most people lost something during their lives. If a girl has an unhappy love affair, she should say: "I've lost him but I learned this and this and I'll go on to find someone else"
I can't change what has happened to me. I am going on to find other things in life, too."

(Suzan Ball's interview for "Lundington Daily News", April, 13, 1954)




User avatar

Topic Author
Didier
Автор
Posts: 2150
Joined: 11 Jun 2017, 20:06
Reputation: 2493
Sex: -
Has thanked: 151 times
Been thanked: 4365 times
Gender:
Burundi

Re: Suzan Ball - the trace of the fallen star

Post: # 22922Unread post Didier
12 Jan 2018, 17:52


Yet no one could foresee how in­credibly rapid her recovery and ad­justment would be. "She had youth, coordination, spirit on her side," says Dr. Englemann. "The stubborn but futile resistance she had turned against the amputation now went con­structively to work on the problem of recovery. She fought back with a will."
An artificial leg had already been ordered. Within a month after the amputation Suzan was driving herself and Kay Biddle to the first of a series of fittings. As they drove into the parking lot another car pulled in at the opposite entrance. Its driver was a former stewardess, Bonnie Buhler, who had lost her left arm and left leg in a motorboat accident. The girls had met and become friends.
A group of parking-lot attendants gaped tactlessly when Bonnie Buhler, minus an arm and a leg, stepped out of one car and Suzan Ball, minus a leg, stepped out of the other.
"Hi, Suzan," Bonnie hailed. "Want to play golf?"
"Sorry," Suzan called back. "I can't. I have a tennis game at two."
Of course, while Suzan whistled in public, she was fighting a long, up­hill struggle with terrifying feelings of inadequacy. What were people say­ing about her? Why did they stare? Would she ever really be accepted?
"What she had to learn," Dick says, "is that there were adjustments to be made. She couldn't skip over any of them. Once they were met there was a fine, secure place for her."
One of the most difficult adjust­ments was to realize that how people reacted to her depended on her be­havior. "If I made a tender issue of my missing leg others would be em­barrassed and clumsy," she says. "But if I satisfied the normal curiosity of people and showed them how I wished to be treated I would be ac­cepted on my own terms."
Shortly after her discharge from the hospital Dick and Suzan were at a party at the home of close friends. Suzan bounced agilely into the room on crutches. At once she sensed the general constraint.
She sank into a chair, propped her crutches beside her and said vehement­ly. "Gosh, this darn stump hurts!"
The terrible word had been spoken. At once everyone was at ease. She answered a few routine questions about the operation. Soon everyone forgot about it.
"If you inflict your problems on everybody else," Suzan comments, "you're asking for isolation, and you usually get it. You have to be terri­bly selfish and self-centered to wish to make others bear your burdens."

Image
Image
Image

Richard Long is obtaining a marriage license



User avatar

Topic Author
Didier
Автор
Posts: 2150
Joined: 11 Jun 2017, 20:06
Reputation: 2493
Sex: -
Has thanked: 151 times
Been thanked: 4365 times
Gender:
Burundi

Re: Suzan Ball - the trace of the fallen star

Post: # 22923Unread post Didier
12 Jan 2018, 17:53

Looking radiant in a beautiful Universal-designed wedding gown, Suzan became Mrs. Richard Long on April 11, 1954. Suzan was able to walk down the aisle using her new artificial limb. She stated, "I always said I would walk down the aisle at my own wedding and that's just what I'm going to do."

On Palm Sunday, April 11, 1954, Suzan Ball took her father's arm and walked down the aisle of El Montecilo Presbyterian Church for her marriage to Richard Long. The dislance from the head of the aisle to the altar was 100 feet. For Suzan and Dick each step of the way cele­brated their joint victory over disaster.
A guest at the wedding, Dr. Francis Englemann, watched intently as his beautiful young patient walked slowly and steadily to the altar.
Следуя за Сьюзан по длинному приделу, главная подружка невесты, сиделка Кей Биддл беззвучно молилась на протяжении всего пути.
Preceding Suzan down the long aisle, her matron of honor, Nurse Kay Biddle, prayed silently all the way. Suzan's artificial practice leg had been fitted only a few weeks before. Ordinarily months of trial would be required to master it. Unless she managed to snap a clasp device at the knee joint inlo place with each forward thrust of the leg she would topple over. "I prayed she'd remember," Nurse Biddle says.
Suzan reached the altar without mishap, and Dick Long stepped forward to claim his bride. He slipped a platinutn-and-sapphire ring on her finger and received a wide gold band in return. And so the marriage ceremony between two young and gifted movie stars was solemnly sealed at the altar of the little country church in the Santa Barbara hills.

Image

The marriage ceremony between Richard Long and Suzan Ball



User avatar

Topic Author
Didier
Автор
Posts: 2150
Joined: 11 Jun 2017, 20:06
Reputation: 2493
Sex: -
Has thanked: 151 times
Been thanked: 4365 times
Gender:
Burundi

Re: Suzan Ball - the trace of the fallen star

Post: # 22924Unread post Didier
12 Jan 2018, 17:54

The newlyweds appeared together the following month in an episode of TV's Lux Video Theatre titled, "I'll Never Love Again". Suzan played a wheelchair-bound accident victim who learns
to walk again with Long's encouragement. The Los Angeles Times critic called her performance "beautifully sustained."

Image

Suzan and Dick were just casted for TV show

Director George Sherman who had directed "War Arrow" cast her opposite Victor Mature in "Chief Crazy Horse" (1955). The movie was to be photographed on authentic locations in the Black Hills
of South Dakota. Despite Universal's desire to replace her with Susan Cabot, Sherman insisted on keeping Suzan in the picture. "She doesn't act with her legs, she acts with her face, with
her mind, with her spirit," declared Sherman.
Eager to resume filmmaking, Suzan and Richard flew to the location site. Although the role was a difficult one and temperatures were over a hundred degrees Fahrenheit, Suzan was able to
maintain a high-energy level and a cheerful attitude on the set. A double was used for scenes that required walking. In closeups, Suzan managed to move her shoulders to simulate normal
motion. Skillful camera work managed to conceal her noticeable limp.
According to the prophecy of a dying Lakota-Sioux Indian chief, a great warrior would emerge to lead his people to victory, only to be killed by one of his own. This legend formed the basis
for the events depicted in Chief Crazy Horse. A perfectly-cast Victor Mature gave an intelligent portrayal of the proud, idealistic Crazy Horse (1842-1877), who fulfills the prophecy and unites
the Indian nations. The legendary warrior's story was very well made, but at times the CinemaScope and Technicolor production seemed a bit slow-moving. Also featured in the strong
cast were John Lund, Ray Danton, Keith Larson, David Janssen and Dennis Weaver.
In this film, Suzan offered a sensitive, deeply moving portrait of Crazy Horse's devoted wife, Black Shawl. She seemed to pour her heart and soul into this, her finest hour as an actress.
Perhaps she realized that Chief Crazy Horse would be her last motion picture. "The Hollywood Reporter" praised Suzan's performance, stating she acquits herself well in her first camera
outing since her leg amputation.

Image

Wardrobe test



Post Reply

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 1 guest