Ellen: Show Notes
Dr. Love, Anita, Ellen, and Barbara in the New Family Car, New York City, 1910.
In Episode Two, Jill Sim covers her grandmother Ellen’s passed down recollections of childhood, between 1907-1923.
Ellen Love is born to the house of her grandparents, the Hemmingses, in Boston, but her parents, Anita and Dr. Andrew Love, leave for a fresh start in New York City, after the death of their eldest child, Dorothy, 3, to diphtheria. Ellen's childhood is lonely, and the relationship with her parents is tense.
The three surviving Love children, Ellen, Barbara, and Andy, enjoy a white middle-class upbringing, pursuing music and dance, attending private schools and summer camps, and Dr. Love, on the rise, moves his family into a luxury high rise building on Manhattan’s Upper West Side.
Jill contrasts her childhood of ‘70s decay spent in the same neighborhood her grandmother knew under rapid development during the 1920s. She is envious of Ellen’s summers spent in Massachusetts, at a sleep away camp on Cape Cod, and on the island of Martha’s Vineyard.
This episode sets up certain revelations about the family to come.
Ellen Love, aged 15, c. 1920
Torn Photo of Sister Barbara (L), Boyfriend Dick (M), and Ellen (R)
Ellen Love, center, as a Native American warrior from the 1921 Camp Quanset brochure.
Quotations, Citations, Attributions, Gratitude:
Anita Hemmings quoted in Undated letter from Anita Hemmings Love to Northfield/Mt.Hermon School, stamped as answered September 20, 1929.
All quotes in the section on Andy at Mt. Hermon taken from: Andrew J. Love Student File, Northfield/Mount Hermon School Special Collections. Mount Hermon, MA.
Thanks to author Karin Tanabe for making me aware of this file’s existence, and to Northfield/Mt. Hermon librarian Peter Weis for suppling the copy of the file.
Louise Brooks quoted from: Brooks, Louise. Lulu in Hollywood (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2000), p. 8.
Peaches and Daddy coverage in New York Daily News, New York, NY, January 26 and 31, 1927. Newspapers.com.
Snow, Richard F. “Letter from the Editors: When They Really Loved New York.” American Heritage. November, 1988. Vol. 39, Issue 7.
At Vassar College, Ellen played the character of Simwa, in a 1911 play centered around the Paiute people, entitled The Arrow Maker, by Mary Hunter Austin.
Barbara Love quoted from a phone call between Jill Sim and Barbara Love, January 1, 1998.
Original Music:
Al Sim: “March of the War Gods” and “Mystery 3”
Fair Use/Royalty-Free
Ben Selvin: “Dardanella” 1919.
Paul Whiteman: “I’ll Build a Stairway to Paradise.” 1922.
George Gershwin: “Rhapsody in Blue.” 1924.
Gilbert and Sullivan: “Three Little Maids from School” The Mikado.
Maurice Ravel: “Les Entretiens de la Belle et de la Bête” and “Miroirs: Une Barque Sur le Ocean.”
Scriabin: “Étude in C Sharp Major, Op. 2, No 1.“ Played by P. Barton, Feurich Grand Piano.
George Gershwin: “Swanee.” 1919.
Antonin Dvořák: “II. Largo” from Symphony No. 9: The New World.
Claude Debussy: “Clair de Lune.”
Max Bruch: Part one excerpt, from Scottish Fantasy, Op. 46.
Recordings are either in the public domain, copyright free, intended for educational purposes, and are found at the Internet Archive (Archive.org), and from royalty free and/or stock online music libraries for creators: Musopen, Pixabay, Adobe, and YouTube.
Image attribution: