Hollywood's Broken Angel
is remembered in the Courbat room of Engelbrecht House
When I showed you Gracilla (Gracie-ella,) the sculpture by Aaron Royal Mosely that gives thanks from the garden of Chapel Dulcinea, I asked, "For what is she joyously thankful? It causes the mind to wander and makes us count our blessings. Can you imagine her surrounded by flowers in the springtime as rain falls soft from the sky?"
But that was the idealized woman, the one of whom James Michener spoke in his epic novel, Hawaii. "And he had a second intuition: that during the forthcoming even emptier years, she would still be there, a haunting vision of the other half of life, the womanliness, the caretaking symbol, the majestic, lovely, receptive other half.”
But this isn't the idealized girl, she's the real, with problems and sadness and frustration and shame.
And she lost her way home in the dark.
Her name was Lillian Millicent Entwistle, "Peg" to her friends. She was born in 1908.
At the age of 19, Peg married Robert Keith, 10 years older than she. Too late she discovered that he had been married before and had a 6 year-old son. The couple was soon divorced.
"I'll move to a new place and get a new start," she thought. "Goodbye, New York. Hello, L.A. I'm going to become an actress." But hopes and dreams are fragile things and hearts are easily broken.
At the age of 24 "she decided she'd failed," says David Wallace, author of Hollywoodland. "She was very dejected and one day in 1932 she came up to the Hollywood sign, found a maintenance ladder by the 'H,' climbed up to the top and presumably took one last look over the city she had failed to conquer, and jumped." Her body was discovered two days later by a hiker.
A handwritten note was found in her purse. "I am afraid I am a coward. I am sorry for everything. If I had done this a long time ago, it would have saved a lot of pain."
On the day her body was discovered, a letter came in the mail. It was from The Beverly Hills Playhouse. They wanted her to star in their next production. Are you ready for this? It was to be a play about a young girl who loses all hope and commits suicide in the final act.
Peg, if only you could've hung on. Things are never as bad as they seem. Why didn't anyone tell you? And now all we have left of your life is a photograph and a note.
Remember the 6 year-old son of Robert Keith? That boy, Brian Keith, grew up to become a famous actor, best known for his role as "Uncle Bill" on the hit TV show, Family Affair.
Brian Keith shot himself in 1997.
Yes, hopes and dreams are fragile things and hearts are easily broken.
Friend, will you please be gentle with the hearts that have been entrusted to you?
Promise me you'll do your best and I'll promise you the same.
Okay, then. It's a deal.
Roy H. Williams
Peg was a Broken Angel.
Are you ready to meet the others?
PS - If the meter of "Hopes and dreams are fragile things and hearts are easily broken" seems familiar, it's because your right brain remembers the music of "Mares eat oats and does eat oats and little lambs eat ivy." – RHW
