I Thought We Were Making Movies, Not History

27. Personal Matters—Familial and Corporate [contains image plates]

27 Personal Matters—Familial and Corporate B y 1963, my oldest brother, Irving, was also living in Los Angeles. He had been running the Theaters Candy Company in Milwaukee for a long time but felt that without an infusion of a great deal of capital it was impossible to expand the business. He became anxious to sell it. He and Harold owned the major share in the company, and they agreed to dispose of it when he found a customer. Irving had become lonely in Milwaukee, and he wanted to move to Los Angeles and join the rest of his family. It was also an exciting time for his brothers, and I think he wanted to share more closely in their activities . He had moved to Los Angeles briefly in the 1940s, when he had come to open a branch of the candy company. It wasn’t successful, and finally he gave it up and moved back to Milwaukee. But he liked living in Los Angeles—as did his wife, Frances, who had been born and raised in Long Beach—and they both wanted to move now that their children were grown and had left Milwaukee. Without much delay, he sold the candy company, moved to Los Angeles, and retired. Now, with my parents, Irving, and Frances living in Los Angeles, our whole family was reunited. For the first time in thirty-three years, we were all living in the same city. From a familial point of view, it really was wonderful for us. Frances died in 1966, and Irving later remarried. His children were also reunited in Los Angeles: his daughter Nan and 271 his son David, who has been in the public-relations business for his entire career. The period 1963 through 1968 was a wonderful time of togetherness for our family, and we truly cherished it. However, this happy time ended in 1968 when my father died at the age of ninety-four. Harold also died later in 1968, and my mother died in 1969. In 1971, Irving died at the age of sixty-seven. Within a period of two and a half years, I suffered the loss of both parents and two brothers. It was devastating. Ours was a small but close-knit family, and it was now quickly decimated . My father, who was the first to go, had lived a long life. He was not quite fifty when I was born, and I used to amaze myself by remembering that he was born only nine years after Lincoln was shot. He had seen a lot of changes in the world and had a difficult but finally fulfilling life. He possessed a marvelous disposition. He was always cheerful, positive , and wise. His life was completely wrapped up with those of his four sons. He took a great deal of pleasure, not only in the success that our work brought us and the achievements that we had enjoyed but mainly in the kind of people we were. My mother died of heart failure at the age of seventy-eight, although she hadn’t previously suffered from heart disease. In her late thirties, she had become diabetic. When I was a young boy, I remember her giving herself insulin shots, and she continued that treatment all of her life. But it led to many other problems, and she had been in fragile health most of her years. Considering all the illness she had endured, she enjoyed a relatively long life. During the period between 1961 and 1968, my brother Harold had suffered a number of heart attacks, which were followed by hospital stays and convalescences. He had sought the best medical advice he could find. He had gone to the Mayo Clinic for evaluation, where he was told he was being treated correctly. People talked about bypass surgery at that time, but it was still experimental, and he was absolutely set against being experimented on. He was also relatively inactive, businesswise , during this whole period. Marvin and I would discuss with him projects, casting, and the deals that had to be made with actors or directors, and he was helpful in proposing compromises. He had great connections within the industry, and when he thought he could help in a particular situation, he would do so. But he was actually living most of 272 Personal Matters—Familial and Corporate / Julie Andrews has just presented...