Read Online The Ear of the Heart: An Actress' Journey From Hollywood to Holy Vows by Dolores Hart, Richard DeNeut - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Dolores Hart, Richard DeNeut
Tags: Personal Memoirs, Biography & Autobiography, Entertainment & Performing Arts, Biography, Spirituality, Non-Fiction, Religious, Spiritual & Religion
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“Action!” Stunned and humiliated, but with tears streaming, I did the “King of Heaven” scene. Mr. Preminger asked me back for a second reading. To put it mildly, I was reluctant. I was afraid he might hit me again. He didn’t, but I was so nervous I read very badly, and that was the end of that. Jean Seberg, a young girl from Iowa, was the chosen one. From what I have been told, her life changed radically and so sadly. Over the years, I often prayed for Jean .
The “King of Heaven” scene was useful twice more: first, when the high school cast was invited to present it on the local Gene Norman television show, which put Dolores in a professional atmosphere for the first time in her life; and again when she presented it in a bid for a scholarship at her school of choice, Marymount College in Los Angeles.
Just before graduation, arguments between Mom and Pop accelerated to the point where divorce was talked about. I could hear them late at night calculating who would get the television set and whether the car was community property. She added and subtracted ironed shirts and hot meals, while he added and subtracted scotch and sodas. Their ears were closed to my pleas to try to work things out as they sat there and divided love. Pop wanted to sell the house—he always called it the “big house”—and promised to pay my Marymount tuition if we moved to an apartment. Mom vetoed that fast, and Pop walked out. Then he came back once again. That summer no people moved through the house on Hazeltine, just shadows .
I was peeved at Pop’s constant reference to the “big house” as if it were costing a fortune and his using my tuition as a wedge. Although I thought of his financial support of me as my due, I wasn’t about to ask for his help. I didn’t ever want to beg for anything .
— There’s a lot of Grandma Hicks in me .
Pop made good on his threat to withhold money. Still, I had to acknowledge that Pop had been very good to me; when all was said and done, I didn’t dislike my stepfather, and my relationship with him continued to be affectionate .
Dolores and her mother scraped together $400 for the tuition and took it personally to Marymount. It was after hours, and they traipsed up and down hallways, peeking into rooms until they found a lone nun sitting at a typewriter. Dolores presented the money and was told she was $75 short. The nun, Mother Gregory, was not a clerk but the president of the school, and she assured Dolores and her mother that something could be worked out.
That was when Saint Joan came through for Dolores again. The scene won her a scholarship of $500, which ensured that she would be able to attend the college. Her freshman year at Marymount would begin in September 1956.
The scholarship would pay for the tuition, but I was still responsible for room and board. So I enrolled as a day student and planned to live at home the first semester .
On graduation day, I was valedictorian of the Corvallis class of 1956. I wasn’t chosen because I had the highest scholastic average but because the nuns thought I could speak better. Everyone was impressed except Grandpa. He still preferred that I was prom queen .
During the summer between high school and college, I got a job at the Glen Aire Country Club in Sherman Oaks. They tried me out in several positions, but I ended up making hamburgers in the small pool cafe. It was a pretty boring job, so I daydreamed a lot about being an actress. The jukebox in the cafe continually played Bing Crosby and Grace Kelly singing “True Love” from High Society. The kids at Corvallis had teased me about looking like Grace Kelly. But when Grace Kelly was my age, she was already modeling in New York and studying at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. And there I was, making hamburgers .
Five
Marymount College was founded in Los Angeles in 1933, separately from but parallel to Loyola, the Catholic men’s university. These institutions would merge and
The “King of Heaven” scene was useful twice more: first, when the high school cast was invited to present it on the local Gene Norman television show, which put Dolores in a professional atmosphere for the first time in her life; and again when she presented it in a bid for a scholarship at her school of choice, Marymount College in Los Angeles.
Just before graduation, arguments between Mom and Pop accelerated to the point where divorce was talked about. I could hear them late at night calculating who would get the television set and whether the car was community property. She added and subtracted ironed shirts and hot meals, while he added and subtracted scotch and sodas. Their ears were closed to my pleas to try to work things out as they sat there and divided love. Pop wanted to sell the house—he always called it the “big house”—and promised to pay my Marymount tuition if we moved to an apartment. Mom vetoed that fast, and Pop walked out. Then he came back once again. That summer no people moved through the house on Hazeltine, just shadows .
I was peeved at Pop’s constant reference to the “big house” as if it were costing a fortune and his using my tuition as a wedge. Although I thought of his financial support of me as my due, I wasn’t about to ask for his help. I didn’t ever want to beg for anything .
— There’s a lot of Grandma Hicks in me .
Pop made good on his threat to withhold money. Still, I had to acknowledge that Pop had been very good to me; when all was said and done, I didn’t dislike my stepfather, and my relationship with him continued to be affectionate .
Dolores and her mother scraped together $400 for the tuition and took it personally to Marymount. It was after hours, and they traipsed up and down hallways, peeking into rooms until they found a lone nun sitting at a typewriter. Dolores presented the money and was told she was $75 short. The nun, Mother Gregory, was not a clerk but the president of the school, and she assured Dolores and her mother that something could be worked out.
That was when Saint Joan came through for Dolores again. The scene won her a scholarship of $500, which ensured that she would be able to attend the college. Her freshman year at Marymount would begin in September 1956.
The scholarship would pay for the tuition, but I was still responsible for room and board. So I enrolled as a day student and planned to live at home the first semester .
On graduation day, I was valedictorian of the Corvallis class of 1956. I wasn’t chosen because I had the highest scholastic average but because the nuns thought I could speak better. Everyone was impressed except Grandpa. He still preferred that I was prom queen .
During the summer between high school and college, I got a job at the Glen Aire Country Club in Sherman Oaks. They tried me out in several positions, but I ended up making hamburgers in the small pool cafe. It was a pretty boring job, so I daydreamed a lot about being an actress. The jukebox in the cafe continually played Bing Crosby and Grace Kelly singing “True Love” from High Society. The kids at Corvallis had teased me about looking like Grace Kelly. But when Grace Kelly was my age, she was already modeling in New York and studying at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. And there I was, making hamburgers .
Five
Marymount College was founded in Los Angeles in 1933, separately from but parallel to Loyola, the Catholic men’s university. These institutions would merge and
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