Read Online Bette Davis by Barbara Leaming - Free Book Online Page B

period (notes that, she confided to her journal, she found disappointing) suggest that he was bewildered and perhaps even a bit frightened by Bette's persistent advances. For her part, declaring it ' 'humiliatingly obvious'' that he was more interested in music than in her, Bette promptly involved herself in all of the school's abundant musical activities where Ham, a talented singer, was certain to be encountered: the Cushing Glee Club, the Music and Minstrel Show, and the Fireside Sing. Her single-minded pursuit paid off. By the time they appeared onstage together in Seventeen later that spring, Bette could happily note in her memory book that she and Ham were now considered every bit as much a couple as Blake and Marion.
    Although Bette had invited her father to attend her Cushing dramatic debut, he failed to appear. On opening night, Harlow sent his regrets and a bunch of sweet peas for good luck. When she wrote to thank him afterward, she made the mistake of mentioning her newly acquired theatrical ambitions. Bette's declaration plunged Harlow into a fit of agitation. Yearnings such as these had caused him to draw back from Ruthie when she experienced them, and now it was happening all over again with Bette. It seemed to Harlow that, like her mother before her, Bette failed to comprehend that her only happiness in life could be in marriage and motherhood. Unwilling to send her to college or to listen to any further talk of a stage career, Harlow instructed Bette to find work as a secretary until a suitable marriage proposal materialized.
    By this time, Bette was preoccupied with the romance of her senior year at Cushing, and she seemed to give hardly a thought to the dilemma posed by Harlow's steadfast refusal to contribute to her boarding school tuition. While Bette talked and wrote of nothing besides the upcoming graduation festivities, at which she and Ham planned to outshine Blake and Marion as that year's golden couple, Ruthie faced the prospect of her daughter's being denied her diploma if Ruthie failed to pay her tuition in full. Harlow did not respond to his ex-wife's plea for funds, so Ruthie undertook to pay both daughters' Cushing bills by signing on as school photographer. Added to her already heavy work schedule, shooting and developing all the class portraits before June 11 was a formidable task for one person. But even if she had to stay up night after night developing the student pictures, it was worth it to Mrs. Davis to avoid disappointing and humiliating Bette. So long as Ruthie had

    the pictures ready in time to collect her fees from the students, she could pay the final installment of Bette's tuition before the graduation ceremony, from which the anxious mother feared her daughter might otherwise be barred.
    As Friday, June 11, approached, Bette, oblivious of her mother's ordeal, was all feverish anticipation of the Glee Club recital, set to launch the week's commencement activities. Watching Ham Nelson step out to sing a solo of' 'Moonlight and Roses'' would be his parents and his younger sister, Lois. With a teenager's all-consuming determination that everything be absolutely perfect, Bette could hardly keep herself from agonizing about what the Nelsons would think of her bohemian mother. When the big day arrived and, at the last possible moment, Mrs. Davis rolled into Ashburnham in her battered Ford to deliver the portraits, Bette was in agonies of embarrassment at her mother's appearance. Weeks of overwork and sleepless nights had shrunken Ruthie's frame to a mere ninety pounds. From a distance, she seemed haggard and oddly wraithlike as she frantically gathered the dollars for Bette's tuition. Only when Bette came closer could she make out the hideous rash that covered large areas of her mother's face, the effect of the harsh chemicals used to develop the school portraits. There could be no more tangible sign of the price Ruthie willingly paid to fulfill her daughter's dreams, but all Bette