Dance Til You Drop - Saturday April 15, 1939
While researching for my latest video on Ann Dvorak, I stumbled upon a fascinating piece of Hollywood history in the Getty archive (you can watch it at the link below)
After digging a bit deeper, I uncovered more details about this event. On the evening of April 15, 1939, Basil Rathbone and his wife, Ouida, hosted a lavish charity party for the Hollywood Guild.
The Guild, founded in 1935 by Ann Lehr, the wife of retired film producer Abraham Lehr (not to be confused with Dvorak’s mother, Anna Lehr—yes, a strange coincidence), was established to support older and indigent members of the film industry in need of aid. Later, during World War Two, Lehr founded the Hollywood Guild Canteen, not to be confused with the Hollywood Canteen, established by stars John Garfield and Bette Davis.
When guests arrived at the Rathbones', who had a reputation of throwing some of the best parties in Hollywood—Ouida, in particular, was known as the film colony’s most popular hostess—they were treated to a night of dining, games and dancing in a tented garden reportedly adorned with 40,000 cut and live flowers. The Getty footage features many of the era's big names, like Gary Cooper, Errol Flynn and Irene Dunne, but other notable guests included Ann Sheridan, Jimmy Stewart, and Marlene Dietrich, who made quite an entrance with not one but two dates—director Josef von Sternberg and author Erich Maria Remarque.
Beyond seeing Ann Dvorak in a candid moment, some other highlights for me included seeing perennial film gangster Jack La Rue and his sister cutting a rug with style, Edward Everett Horton being his charming self, Mervyn LeRoy showing he's as smooth on the dance floor as he is behind the camera, and Glenda Farrell deep in conversation with Richard Arlen. But perhaps the best part was seeing so many stars on the dance floor, moving to a rhumba beat.
The event raised around $5,000 ($113,000 in 2024 dollars) for the Hollywood Guild.
For more history on the Rathbone’s parties take a look at this page from Basil Rathbone.net;
Read more details about the Hollywood Guild party
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