Ayn Rand and the World She Made - Anne C. Heller [268]
substituted “z’s” for American “th’s”: Harry Binswanger, “Recollections of AR,” talk presented to the NYU Objectivist Club, November 20, 2007.
where she was able to eat as much as she wanted: Author interview with FB, June 21, 2004; TPOAR, p. 76.
“as though the subject didn’t interest her”: Author interview with FB, March 18, 2004; TPOAR, p. 71.
“Yessir, That’s My Baby”: McConnell, “Recollections of AR I.”
American proletarian novels: 100 Voices, NR, p. 9.
“all she talked about was what she was going to be and going to do”: TPOAR, p. 71.
“being of self-made soul”: AS, p. 934.
“I felt I was not yet in an American city”: TPOAR, p. 69.
She spent her time in movie theaters: Author correspondence with FB, December 16, 2004; “Ayn Rand’s Family and Friends.”
138 movies between late February and August 1926: Russian Writings on Hollywood, pp. 190–202.
her then-favorite film director: TPOAR, p. 77.
read and even think in her new language: Letter to Lev Bekkerman, August 28, 1926 (LOAR, p. 1). The letter was written in Russian and is the only surviving letter from AR’s early years in America, according to LOAR editor Berliner.
picked up period words and phrases: The Skyscraper, July—September 1927 (JOAR, p. 8).
a letter, written in Russian: Letter to Lev Bekkerman, August 28, 1926 (LOAR, p. 1).
Sarah Lipton inveigled a film distributor: Author interview with Roger Salamon, Sarah Lipton’s grandson, July 2004.
By late August 1926, she was ready to go: Author interview with FB, June 21, 2004.
four completed scenarios: AR:SOL, DVD.
“a noble crook”: Quoted in TPOAR, p. 73.
“heavy, hopeless stupidity”: circa February 1928 (JOAR, pp. 24–25).
they believed she would be famous: Author interview with FB, June 21, 2004.
tart stories were still being told: Author interview with FB, June 21, 2004. Fern’s mother, Minna Goldberg, “had some very strong feelings about her,” Fern told me. “She couldn’t wait to get rid of Ayn.”
“Rolls-Royce and a mink coat”: “I didn’t get five cents,” said Minna Goldberg in a 1983 taped interview with BB. Said Roger Salamon, Fern’s cousin, “The family was annoyed because when Ayn got into the upper brackets she forgot where she came from and how she got there. There was a feeling of—shall I say disappointment? I’m being kind.” Author interview with Roger Salamon, October 30, 2006; also, author interview with FB, April 13, 2004.
On return visits—one in 1949: Letter to Pincus Berner, September 10, 1949 (LOAR, p. 456).
and one or two in the 1960s: Author correspondence with FB, April 25, 2005.
acolytes told newspapers that she had no family in America: Author interview with FB, March 18, 2004.
“She never talked about her family”: Taped interview with Minna Goldberg, FB, and MS, conducted by BB, February 20, 1983.
“The [extended] family had enough money”: Author interview with Susan Belton, October 24, 2006.
she made up her mind to marry: The basics of this version of the story are told by JB in “An Illustrated Life” and by Michael Paxton in his film and companion book, AR:SOL. Both JB and Paxton had access to the Ayn Rand Papers.
the nerve to ask his name: AR told this version to a reporter in 1932 (“Russian Girl Finds End of the Rainbow in Hollywood,” Chicago Times, September 26, 1932).
she saw him before he saw her: TPOAR, pp. 76–77.
“She never left a thing to chance”: Author interview with FB, March 18, 2004; said Roger Salamon, “There were no coincidences in Ayn’s life. What Ayn wanted to do, she did.”
proper and delightful Hollywood Studio Club: TPOAR, p. 75; AR, p. 33.
created specifically to shelter aspiring actresses: At various times, the Studio Club housed Maureen O’Sullivan, Donna Reed, Marilyn Monroe, Kim Novak, and other stars of screen and stage.
brand-new quarters on Lodi Place: “Studio Club Opens Tomorrow,” Los Angeles Times, May 6, 1926, p. A7.
residents had use of a well-stocked library: Grace Kingsley, “Film Club is Joy Haven,” Los Angeles Times, September 5, 1921, p. II, 9.
typically a waiting list: