Description: Here is a wonderful very rare very early vintage original autographed 7" by 9" photo of actress, screenwriter and author Betsy Drake, from 1954, the year she traveled with husband Cary Grant while he was making To Catch A Thief, signed in fountain pen. Photo by and stamped by Bert Six. Known for Every Girl Should Be Married (1948), The Second Woman (1950) and Room for One More (1952). Drake began looking for work as an actress in New York City, supporting herself by working as a Conover model. She met the playwright Horton Foote, who offered her a job as an understudy in his play Only the Heart, which enabled her to join the Actors' Equity Association and thus become a professional actress. After coming to the attention of the producer Hal Wallis, Drake was pressured by her agent to sign a Hollywood contract. She hated Hollywood and managed to be released from the contract by declaring herself insane. She returned to New York City and, in 1947, read for the director Elia Kazan for the lead role in the London company of the play Deep Are the Roots. Later that year, Drake was selected by Kazan as one of the founding members of the Actors Studio. Cary Grant spotted her in 1947 while she was performing in London. The two, who both happened to be returning to the U.S. on the RMS Queen Mary, struck up an instant rapport. At the insistence of Grant, Drake was subsequently signed to a film contract by RKO Pictures and David Selznick, where she appeared, opposite Grant, in her first film, the romantic comedy Every Girl Should Be Married (1948). New York Times film critic Bosley Crowther called her performance “foxily amusing”. On Christmas Day 1949, Drake and Grant married in a private ceremony organized by Grant's best man, Howard Hughes, and chose a low-key, introspective private life. They delved into transcendentalism, mysticism, and yoga. She took up causes including the plight of homeless children in Los Angeles. In 1954, they bought the "Las Palomas" estate in the Movie Colony neighborhood of Palm Springs, California. The couple co-starred in the radio series Mr. and Mrs. Blandings (1951). They appeared together in the comedy drama Room for One More (1952), and Drake appeared in leading roles in England and the U.S., and a supporting role in the satiric comedy film Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? (1957). Drake wrote the original script for the film Houseboat (1958) under a pseudonym, basing it on an unpublished story she had written. Starring Grant, Drake anticipated co-starring in the film. Grant, however, who began an affair with Sophia Loren while filming The Pride and the Passion (1957), arranged for Loren to take Drake's place in Houseboat with a rewritten script for which Drake did not receive credit. The affair ended in bitterness before The Pride and the Passion's filming ended, causing problems on the Houseboat set. Drake subsequently gave up acting and pursued other career interests. She earned a Master of Education degree from Harvard University and became a children's therapist. Drake was a director of psychodrama at the UCLA Neuropsychiatric Institute, worked at Cedars-Sinai Hospital, and maintained a private therapy practice. She taught at UCLA, Pepperdine University,[14] and presented research at the 52nd Annual Meeting American Orthopsychiatric Association in 1975. Under the name Betsy Drake Grant, her novel Children, You Are Very Little (1971) was published by Atheneum Books. Corner and edge wear, minor corner creasing. Very rare. Will ship worldwide. I always combine shipping on multiple orders.
Price: 207.99 USD
Location: Marietta, Georgia
End Time: 2025-01-20T02:00:01.000Z
Shipping Cost: 3.5 USD
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Item Specifics
Return shipping will be paid by: Buyer
All returns accepted: Returns Accepted
Item must be returned within: 14 Days
Refund will be given as: Money Back
Industry: Movies
Signed: Yes
Object Type: Photograph
Original/Reproduction: Original
