Lost children, lost years, enduring quest - Part I

[jjbrannon]

     To adequately explain what unfolded next after my Tuesday, 1 December 2009 meeting with Lisa Scottoline and her family, requires one to know that her previously released book was Look Again about an adoption by a single-mother reporter which led to a custody battle with the supposedly biological father from whom the child was kidnapped at

Comments

Re: Harry Woolman

[jjbrannon]

Ed, I appreciate your comment.

I only had the chance to meet my grandfather once, during our summer 1964 cross-continental drive to Alaska.

Gary Kent writes about my grandfather in his Shadows & Light: Journeys with Outlaws in Revolutionary Hollywood.

My grandfather did embroider his adventures a tad to make a better story but, where I have been able to verify either from either news accounts or primary witnesses to events, there has always been a core truth to his tales.

My mother had the same attitude shared by your skeptical friends when we visited in 1964. She has recounted to more than one person the contempt and disbelief she held for his claims about his so-called famous acquaintances and friends, such as Elizabeth Taylor [at the time at the height of her career], for whom he purportedly built her house.

Of course, my mother dined on crow when a few minutes following this assertion, during the drive where Harry was showing my parents the sights around LA, he pulled into the Taylor estate and gave them a tour of the house, as he had a set of keys to care for the place while newlyweds Taylor and Burton were away on location filming.

I authored both the IMDb and Wikipedia entries on my grandfather.

JJB

Re: Harry Woolman

[jjbrannon]

Jerry, What a wonderful read this has been. My dad, your grandfather Harry S. Woolman did lean to exaggeration. I think that was due to his lack of education because of dyslexia and never learning to read. I often wonder how it would feel to be looked down on by peers and elders in a day when you were labeled dumb if you couldn't learn to read. How would that effect ones personality as an adult if you had no mentor. Perhaps he overcompensated from an early age to gain attention by keeping people entertained so they wouldn't question his intelligence. Perhaps deep in his heart he believed he was flawed, but cleverly learned that the more colorful the words, the more others found him interesting to be around, so over the years his stories were spun with bolder color. I actually have no idea, because I did not know him when he was young. But I do remember meeting Spencer Tracy as a young child. And I remember being pulled out of the water on a California lake by Andy Devine after I fell over the side of an outboard motor boat while my dad and Andy were fishing. Andy was an excellent swimmer and saved my life. I remember Jock Mahoney, Edgar Bergen and John Carradine. I have a photo of Carradine and Bergen with Harry. Bergen was a quick witted man. And Carradine always soft spoken with little whiffs of in-taken air just before his voice rose, but only for a word or two and then it would go back down. His voice was enticingly hypnotic. But Andy's voice was anything but divine.
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What would you call me? Your half aunt?

Donna Woolman

Re: Harry Woolman

[jjbrannon]

Oh! So good to hear from you, Aunt Donna! [And, like military titles, there are technical references -- e.g., Lieutenant-Colonel, addressed as simply "Colonel" -- and personal references, so whatever our technical relationship, you're plainly "Aunt" to me.]

We haven't spoken since before the millennium. Like so many people these days, apparently you've switched from a landline to a cellphone and the number I had for you no longer works. Same holds true for you email address. Cousin Judy at Woolman Central didn't have a good e-address for you. I've had mine for almost 20 years now.

I can still be reached at jjbrannon (at) aol-dot-com [written so to deter skimmer-bots].

While I was mostly called "Jerry" when a child, I'm mostly known as "Jim" or "James" these days [and in the SF community, by "JJ"], except by some elder relatives. It's what my younger of my two aunts from this side of the family still calls me, so you're fine with that.

When we last spoke, your daughter's son was living with you. He seemed to be a Star Trek: The Next Generation fan.

I was trying to reach you a few years ago just to check-in and later with the hope that you could provide some material and fact-check for the Wikipedia and IMDb entries I furnished for your Dad. Any improvement on the articles would be cherished. Gary Kent helped with some material from his book.

My father, my brother Jeff, and his son Jeffery Nicholas all had/have some degree of dyslexia. However, I believe the raconteur gene is wholly separate.

I did see your "Sarah Palin" piece back in 2008 while I was Googling for your new address.

I hope you are well.

JJB