Friday, April 29, 2022

What Could Have Been for Norma

I have been waiting to post this article (see below) for more than a year. I wanted to wait until Norma was out so readers could appreciate this interesting gentleman. In the last year of Norma's life, she was negotiating with John Griggs to work with him on a reissue of 88 American Beauties. Griggs had a copy and I think a first generation copy because he made stills for Norma and sent them to her. These are the images I included in the book. They are very good. 

There are things to be distressed about in Norma's turbulent life story but this one is really hard to take. Imagine if she had lived long enough to do the voice over on that film? We would have had Norma speaking about her memories of the win. 

But her children did not leave those memories untold. Thank you Sally and Roger! 

I am sorry for Norma that she came within weeks of recording her narration of her great victory. 

How many intriguing things are there in this article (below) about this man? I would have loved to have been a "Mosquito Muskateer" and watch silent films in his yard with children running about spraying the air for mosquitos. I enjoyed learning about Mr. Griggs and it is because of his interest in Norma that we have that full page piece about her published but a month or two before her death. Some correspondence from Mr. Griggs to Norma is included in the book.


This would have been published in 1961 because of the Joey Bishop Show reference. Credit to his archive housed in Yale University is cited in the book.