Tuesday, June 11, 2019

Of Robert Taylor and Grandma Brady

Robert Taylor in a late Western, Return of the Gunfighter (1967)
I watch a lot of GRIT TV – the nostalgic cable channel that runs mostly old-time westerns. Although many of the films feature John Wayne, there are many other fine actors whose pictures are highlighted.

I’ve grown quite fond of many of them, including Joel McCrea, Audie Murphy and Randolph Scott. But there’s one that I’ve come to appreciate because of what he meant to a member of my family.

The actor is Robert Taylor and he was Grandma Brady’s favorite. Taylor passed away this month back in 1969. Here’s a small article that appeared in the Journal on June 7, 1969.

Taylor died the next day on June 8, 1969.
As an article that appeared in the Journal on June 12, 1969, noted, “He epitomized an era of motion pictures: a time in the 30s, 40s and 50s when all leading men were handsome. During those decades the matinee idol was at his height.
“Of them all, Bob Taylor was perhaps the most popular in Hollywood."
Well, he was popular with Grandma, that’s for sure. She even had his photo taped to her cash register at Kline’s in Downtown Lorain, where she worked for thirty years.
Grandma lived a hard life. She was only eleven when her mother died in 1909, just a couple years after the family arrived in Lorain from Europe. Her brother Ben was killed at U. S. Steel in 1937. Her husband was out of the picture by the end of the 1930s; within a few years her son (my Dad) would be in the Army and away from Lorain for three years. In later years, she took care of her ailing and bedridden stepmother without complaining.
But despite Grandma's hardships, my own mother remembers her mother-in-law as sweet, kind and generous. She was practically a saint.
Maybe that picture of Robert Taylor taped to her cash register helped Grandma cope, like a little window into a private world where she could forget about her problems for a while – and dream.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Robert Taylor was one of the great actors of a bygone era.Remember the famous Robert Taylor Ranch?None of the modern day so-called "stars" can even attempt to be as good as he was.To me these newer modern day actors are nothing but eye candy.Pretty boy Brad Pitt and his ilk are nothing but glorified screen hustlers looking for us to pay them for their services.....All the old time Hollywood stars were the best.There will never be another golden era like in the 30s and 40s.George Clooney and his cronies are nothing but imitators.They can't even imitate good enough to win an Academy Award.Just like everything else nowadays the current generation missed out on how a true movie star used to be.

Dan Brady said...

I agree with you 100%, especially about the 'pretty boy' actors like Clooney. (I once dared someone to name a truly great movie that Clooney was in, one that will be regarded as a classic thanks to his performance... they couldn't.)

Actors known for being handsome like Robert Taylor still could act, and they got even better as they aged. Taylor really is terrific in all the movies that GRIT plays (The Law and Jake Wade, Saddle the Wind, etc.)

Buster said...

Lovely article about your grandma, Dan.

-Alan D Hopewell said...

I remember watching Robert Taylor on THE DETECTIVES, and DEATH VALLEY DAYS, and all his wonderful films.
Where are the Taylors, Waynes, Bogarts, and Karloffs of today?

Battle Beast said...

You mentioned "The Journal"... what newspaper is that?

Dan Brady said...

That’s the predecessor of today’s Morning Journal. In the early 1960s the paper dropped the “Lorain” that was part of its name and was simply called The Journal.