I'm 77 now so it appears the Gish girls represented my one chance at connecting with big-as-life Hollywood folks.
Bob Shryock The Gish sisters were a famed early 20th Century acting duo and Lillian was best-known of the two, deftly making the successful transition from silent flicks to the talkies. But nowhere on the resumes of Lillian nor Dorothy does it point out that their distant nephews include yours truly, Bob Shryock.
How quickly they forget.
I mean if I'm a far removed 88th nephew of the Gish sisters what does that make my mom?
You wouldn't know and likely wouldn't care if I'm related to the Gishes, but you also would have trouble refuting the news. Mom told me about the relationship. The Gish girls were somehow related to the Elden clan and mom grew up an Elden. They reportedly made the foray into town a few times, on visits, but never came to 705 E. Main to see me and, as far as I can recall, never sent me $5 for my birthday or, for that matter, provided free movie passes.
I don't include Lillian nor Dorothy in my family genealogy, either, not that it's a case of sour grapes or anything.
I'm 77 now so it appears the Gish girls represented my one chance at connecting with big-as-life Hollywood folks.
That's unless you count the late Art Vallee of Woodbury and Vallee & Bowe fame who drew Donald Duck and other cartoon characters for Walt Disney when Disney burst on the scene and who was later a movie bit player who won an audition for a lead role which went eventually to Burt Lancaster. Vallee, Perry Como's best friend, didn't lose the part; he forfeited it to Lancaster to come home to Gloucester County and get married.
I ghosted a book for Art, one of the true gentlemen and classy guys I've met.
Besides the Gishes and Art Vallee, the closest I've gotten to movie greatness is Joanne Woodward, who spent some time in Gloucester County in 1971 filming an imminently forgettable flick, "They Might be Giants," at the then soon-to-open Pathmark in Woodbury Heights.
The best feature of the movie likely was that Woodward's co-star was George C. Scott. But, unlike Woodward, Scott was barely visible in the county for filming.
I had my photo taken with Woodward in 1971, spiffy in my corduroy jacket and sporting deep sideburns, and had one "date" with her, sharing a burger and fries at the Woodbury Heights McDonald's. Alas, then her husband, Paul Newman, came to town.
Managing editor at the time, I had written a Page One story about the movie stars coming to the county so Joanne - we were on a first-name basis - intervened for me and I was permitted to watch wild store scenes being shot and reshot at Pathmark.
Most of the scenes didn't get off the cutting room floor.
And my outside shot at a Hollywood bit part never materialized.