Ethel Borden Explained

Ethel Borden
Birth Name:Ethel Borden Harriman
Birth Date:December 11, 1897
Birth Place:New York, U.S.
Death Place:New York, U.S.
Occupation:Screenwriter, author
Parents:J. Borden Harriman
Florence J. Harriman

Ethel Borden Harriman (December 11, 1897July 4, 1953) was an American heiress, actress, and author who worked as a screenwriter at MGM and RKO during the 1930s.

Early life

Ethel Harriman was born into a wealthy New York family in 1897. Her father, J. Borden Harriman, was a banker, and her mother, Florence "Daisy" Hurst, was a suffragist and diplomat who served as the Minister to Norway after her father's death.[1] [2]

Her paternal grandparents were Laura (Low) Harriman and banker Oliver Harriman. Her maternal grandparents were Caroline Eliza (Jaffray) Hurst and F. W. J. Hurst, who became wealthy in the cross-Atlantic shipping business.

Ethel served with the Women's Ambulance Service in France during World War I, and afterward spent two years as an actress in a theatrical stock company.[3] [4]

Career

She played Grace Torrence in a 1933 production of Design For Living and began writing screenplays after being encouraged to do so by playwright Noël Coward. She published a comedic book, Romantic, I Call It, in 1926, and took on writing assignments in Hollywood at MGM, penning films like They Wanted to Marry and I Live My Life under the name Ethel Borden.[5] [6] She continued to act in the 1930s, appearing in productions such as the Ziegfeld Follies.[7] She is credited by the Broadway Internet Database as translating Hedda Gabler in 1942,[8] and writing Anne of England in 1941. Ancestry census records for 1940 show her living with the 46 year old Mary Cass Canfield (author of the one act play Lackeys of the Moon) in Nassau, New York, and they were both hired by Broadway producer Gilbert Miller, so the 2 women probably collaborated on Anne of England and other works for Miller.

Personal life

In 1918 Ethel married stockbroker Henry Potter Russell (1893–1943) in the American Cathedral in Paris on the Avenue de l'Alma.[9] The "quiet wartime ceremony" was only attended by a few "intimate friends, among them Ambassador and Mrs. Sharp, Mr. and Mrs. W. K. Vanderbilt, and General Lewis. Mrs. Vincent Astor of New York served as matron of honor and Lieutenant Minot was best man." Henry was a son of Charles H. Russell of New York.[10] Before their divorce in 1925, they were the parents of:

Later in her life, Borden was in a long-term relationship with the British novelist Pamela Frankau.[13] [14]

She died of leukemia on July 4, 1953, aged 55, in New York City.[15] [16]

Selected filmography

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Obituaries: Mrs. Ethel H. Russell. 6 Jul 1953. The New York Daily News. en. 2019-05-15.
  2. Web site: Noted Diplomat May Make a Home Here. 29 Aug 1958. The San Francisco Examiner. en. 2019-05-15.
  3. Web site: Find 'Lost' Society Woman Is Writing Scripts in Studio. 1 Oct 1934. Press and Sun-Bulletin. en. 2019-05-15.
  4. Web site: American Heiresses Work in War-Torn France. 19 Mar 1918. El Paso Herald. en. 2019-05-15.
  5. Web site: Daughter Writes Book. 28 Aug 1927. The Indianapolis Star. en. 2019-05-15.
  6. Web site: Heiress Writer. 30 Jul 1934. The Decatur Herald. en. 2019-05-15.
  7. Book: Carey . Gary . All the Stars in Heaven: Louis B. Mayer's MGM . 1981 . Dutton . 0-525-05245-3 . 182 . registration .
  8. News: Preview of 'Hedda Gabler' on Wednesday Will Aid American Friends of Norway, Inc. . 15 August 2022 . . 23 January 1942.
  9. News: ETHEL HARRIMAN MARRIES; Wed to Lieutenant Henry Potter Russell of New York in Paris. . 15 August 2022 . . 31 January 1918.
  10. Web site: Aimee Gourand to Be Relation of H.P. Russell. July 31, 1927. The New York Daily News. en. 2019-05-15.
  11. News: PHYLLIS RUSSELL ENGAGED TO WED; The Granddaughter of Mrs. J. Borden Harriman to Be Bride of John Hartley Lewis . 15 August 2022 . . May 11, 1940.
  12. News: ALICE ALLEN WED TO PILOT OFFICER; Bride of Geoffrey B. Russell of RCAF, a Grandson of Mrs. J. Borden Harriman . 15 August 2022 . . 13 June 1943.
  13. Book: Gonda . Caroline . Roden . Frederick . Jewish/Christian/Queer: Crossroads and Identities . 2009 . Ashgate . 978-0-7546-7375-0 . 181–203 . "A Roller-coaster of a Life with Everything in it": Pamela Frankau (1908–67).
  14. Gonda . Caroline . Love and loss in wartime: An unpublished narrative by Pamela Frankau (1908–67) . Journal of Lesbian Studies . 2018 . 22 . 4 . 446–458 . 10.1080/10894160.2018.1432743. 29509079 .
  15. Encyclopedia: Harriman, Florence Jaffray (1870–1967). Women in World History: A Biographical Encyclopedia. 2002. July 13, 2019. Encyclopedia.com. Gale Research.
  16. News: EX-ENVOY'S DAUGHTER DIES; Mrs. Harriman Russell, Former Scenarist, Was A. E. F, Nurse . 15 August 2022 . . 5 July 1953.