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At 90, Olivia de Havilland remains a Saratoga icon

By Willys Peck

For some reason, I keep experiencing events that make me extremely conscious of my old age. I may try to think young, but then along comes some circumstance that underlines my octogenarianism (ha! I've just coined a word). The latest occurrence of this was, I'll have to say, very pleasant. It involved a woman who is an almost-nonagenarian and who once brought considerable note to Saratoga. Her name? Olivia de Havilland.

The event was "An Academy Tribute to Olivia de Havilland," the sponsor being the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the Academy Foundation. It was held in the academy's headquarters in Beverly Hills.

My wife and I were among several Saratogans invited, but she thought our son, Bill, should go in her place. She also arranged for a former Saratogan, Lance Guest, to attend. Now a Southern California resident, Lance grew up in Saratoga and followed the de Havilland tradition of moving to the Southland and becoming an actor on stage and screen. This was preceded by a time in Bill's Valley Institute of Theater Arts, or VITA.

For the benefit of younger readers--if there are any--for whom the de Havilland name doesn't ring any bells, let me offer some biographical data. Olivia de Havilland was born in Japan on July 1, 1916, to English parents, who subsequently ended their marriage. Lilian de Havilland, the mother, brought Olivia and her younger sister, Joan, to Saratoga when Olivia was 4. The two girls went to Saratoga Grammar School, where Olivia graduated in 1930. She then went to Los Gatos High School, where she was on the debate team and in school plays, and graduated in 1934. She was planning on going to Mills College, where she had been awarded a scholarship.

The year 1933 was of note because that was when she played the title role in Alice in Wonderland, staged by the late Dorothea Johnston. Miss Johnston, a frequent subject of these columns, made theatrical history in Saratoga with her Theatre of the Glade, located alongside the creek behind the old Saratoga Inn.

In that Alice production, to which I have referred many times in this space, I played the part of a duck, my mother was the Cheshire Cat and my brother was either Tweedledee or Tweedledum.

But I digress. Returning to 1934, Olivia played the part of Puck in Miss Johnston's first Theatre of the Glade production, Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. Somewhere, there were wheels of influence turning, and that same year, Olivia went to Hollywood, where she played Hermia in Max Reinhardt's Hollywood Bowl production of that Shakespearean play. The following year, 1935, she played the role in the movie version, and Olivia's film career was launched.

Over the years, she appeared in more than 50 films and received two Academy Awards and five Academy Award nominations. She made her final film appearance in 1979 in The Fifth Musketeer. Through the 1980s she appeared in various television roles, and in 2003 she made a special appearance in the 75th Academy Awards ceremony.

Olivia is also recognized in Hollywood as a pioneer in the struggle for actors' rights. She won a lawsuit involving studio compulsion regarding roles while under contract.

All of these facets of her career were brought out in the recent observance. First, there was a reception in the Academy Grand Lobby, where attendees could line up and shake hands with Olivia, who remained seated. The place was packed, and any personal contact was limited to just a few seconds.

When my turn came, I introduced myself and said that I had played the duck to her Alice, but there was no time for chitchat. When my son brought up the name of Hazel Bargas of Lundblad's Lodge, Olivia beamed with delight, remembering when she had lived there as a girl. Had there been time, I would like to have told her I remembered the time or two in the Alice era when my mother had Olivia over as a baby-sitter for my brother and me. Also, there were letters we exchanged some 30 years ago, and the time in 1979 when she appeared at a benefit for the Saratoga Historical Foundation. There would have been much to talk about.

The reception was followed by a program in the academy's Samuel Goldwyn Theater, where the gracious Olivia offered some comments and a series of clips from her films was shown. If the size of the crowd was any indication, Saratoga's Olivia de Havilland remains an icon at the age of 90.