Luise Rainer

Whilst driving to the store with Joy this past week, I was half-listening to the radio, when I heard the sad news that Luise Rainer had recently passed away, at the incredible age of 104, just two weeks shy of her 105th birthday.

Now, I consider myself pretty knowledgeable on the actors and actresses of the golden era, and although I recognized the name Luise Rainer instantly, as I searched the deepest, darkest fathoms of my fusty old cerebral matter, I couldn't quite put my finger on why, so I began to listen intently to the radio program which was giving a wonderful eulogy about her life.

Then it clicked. I remembered watching a show many years ago, and Luise Rainer, the Hollywood 'golden era' double Oscar winner had been featured, as she was the first person to win multiple Academy Awards, and the first person to win them consecutively - an achievement that only Katherine Hepburn has matched. 

As a young actress, she was discovered by the legendary theater director, Max Reinhardt, whose company she became a part of, in Vienna, Austria. She moved to Hollywood in 1935 as a hopeful new star, making her American debut in the movie Escapade, and in the five short years she was there, she made cinematic history. She won the first of her two successive Best Actress Oscars for her role in The Great Ziegfeld in 1936, and the second for her role as a poor, plain Chinese farm wife in The Good Earth in 1937. 

She made her final film appearance in Hollywood in 1938, and then abandoned the film industry, moving to New York with her husband Clifford Odets, who she had married in 1937. 

After the breakdown of their stormy marriage, she had not planned on returning to the screen, but subsequently made an appearance in a movie called Hostages in 1943, until again she abandoned film making in 1944 after meeting and marrying publisher Robert Knittel, who she was married to for 44 years until his death in 1989

Thirty seven years passed before she made her final comeback, at the age of 86, in Dostoyevsky's The Gambler. 

I did a little research into whether Luise had also been a successful radio actress, but could only find a couple of mentions. There was a small part in the series Lincoln Highway, of which I believe there are only two extant episodes. The second was a guest appearance in the Hollywood's Open House series, where Luise re-enacts the telephone scene from The Great Ziegfeld, which won the Academy Award. 

There are at least 21 episodes of the Hollywood's Open House series available, and I've managed to locate them all in the RUSC collection. I will upload the first of these to RUSC today, featuring Luise Rainer, with more of the shows to follow over the coming weeks.

Here's the link to listen now: Guest - Luise Rainer

Happy listening my friends,