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SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2016
PANORAMA
THE SUMTER ITEM
Debutantes presented
PHOTOS PROVIDED
The Sumter Assembly presented one debutante at its annual ball on Monday Dec. 14, 2015, at Sunset Country Club. She is Ann Elizabeth McCreight with escorts Edwin Chase Wentzky and James Patrick Hunter.
The Camellia Ball presented one debutante, McKenzie Rose Smith, at Sunset Country Club on Monday, Dec. 28, 2015. Her escorts were Adam Michael Smith and Parker Bradley McDuffie.
Donahue’s career took off after name change BY NICK THOMAS Tinseltown Talks Widely known for her role as Robert Young’s eldest TV daughter on the series “Father Knows Best,” Elinor Donahue was also a regular on other series such as “The Andy Griffith Show” and “The Odd Couple.” She guest starred in dozens of popular TV shows from the 1960s into the early 1980s including “Star Trek.” But even before little Eleanor, as she was then known, began working as a 5-year-old on radio in her home town of Tacoma, Washington, the arts were influencing her. “When I was 18 months old, my mother let me join in a dance class to work off energy,” she said from her home in California’s Coachella Valley. “And while she prepared dinner, my brother would keep me busy by playing the piano and teaching me songs.” Young Ellie was just 6 when her mother packed up the children and moved to California; Ellie was hired almost immediately for her first movie, “Mister Big” (1943) with Donald O’Connor. “I’d seen in him movies and had such a crush on him even at that early age,” she laughed. “When he came on the set for his first scene, he looked at me with a big smile and said ‘Hi there!’ I was so excited that I burst into tears.”
CLUB DIGEST Sumter Duplicate Bridge Club Winners for January were: Jan. 6: 1st — Kenneth Hamilton and Hon Keith 2nd — Jimmie Ann Anderson and Barbara James 3rd — Marie Mills and Hugh Cook Jan. 13: 1st — Larry Baum and Hon Keith 2nd — Gary Harbath and Denis Harbath Jan. 20: 1st — Lila Cobb and Hugh Cook 2nd — Winnie Field and John Mills Jan. 27: 1st — Jimmie Ann Anderson and Barbara James 2nd — TIE — Kenneth Hamilton and Hon Keith Stan Kohli and Marvin Chin
As her teenage years approached, Donahue had already appeared in a dozen movies, although the roles were small and often uncredited. Then one day, around 12 years old, she reached for a book that would affect her career in an unexpected way. “When I opened it, out fell a newspaper clipping about Elinor Glyn,” she recalled, referring to the British novelist and screenwriter. “I loved the way the name was spelled and how it looked. So I changed my name and son of a gun, if things didn’t suddenly turn around for my career.” Donahue was cast — now as Elinor — in “Father Knows Best” from 1954 to 1960. “My parents had been divorced for some time, so Robert Young became a father figure,” she noted. “I had three screen tests, and six weeks after the last one heard that I got the role. Like me, the other two actors who played his children in the show were without dads at home, so I think (Young) picked up on that during all our screen tests and it reinforced our connection on screen throughout the series.” In 1967, Donahue guest starred on the “Star Trek” episode Metamorphosis where she plays an irritable, ailing Federation diplomat who lands on a planet inhabited by a famous Earth inventor, Ze-
PHOTO PROVIDED
DeForest Kelley, Elinor Donahue and Leonard Nimoy are shown in a scene from “Metamorphosis,” an episode of the original Star Trek TV series. fram Cochrane, and an alien energy cloud known as the Companion. “After we finished filming and the set was torn down, something happened to the film and we had to do some reshooting two weeks later,” recalled Donahue. “Meanwhile, I had been really sick and lost an enormous amount of weight, so the original dress I had worn was
just hanging on me. They wrapped a scarf around my head and chest to cover up that I was all bony.” While she essentially retired from film work in the late 1950s, Donahue was occasionally coerced back to the big screen. In 1990, she appeared briefly in a scene with Julia Roberts in “Pretty Woman.” “We shot the scene at Gucci’s on Rodeo Drive,”
said Donahue. “We only worked together for one day, and Julia was delightful. When the film opened, I sat in the back of the theater and when my scene came on, the audience roared, and I heard the chatter ‘that’s Elinor Donahue.’ It was such a thrill that they recognized me.” Donahue, who turns 79 in April, was again induced out of retirement for several episodes of
“The Young and the Restless” in 2010. “I don’t think actors can truly retire because when a plum role comes along, it’s hard to resist,” she says. “So you never know.” Nick Thomas teaches at Auburn University at Montgomery, Alabama, and has written features, columns, and interviews for more than 600 magazines and newspapers.
Crosswell & Company topic at genealogical society BY IVY MOORE ivy@theitem.com Dr. Arland Compton will be the speaker at the Monday, Feb. 15 membership meeting of the Sumter County Genealogical Society. He will discuss his family’s business, Crosswell and Company Inc., which was one of the city’s fastest growing businesses in the late 19th century and survived well into the 20th century, becoming at one time the largest wholesale business in the state. Beginning at 7:30 p.m. at Swan Lake Presbyterian Church, 912 Haynsworth St., Compton will speak on “The Principals of Crosswell & Company, Inc.” He plans to discuss the owners, from the founding Crosswells to his father, Arland Compton. The Company’s annual board minutes from 1909 to 1978 will be available, as well as ledger books revealing the names of customers from the early 1900s. Compton said it is surprising that his family does not have photos of the Crosswells or the building, “although, at the time, it was a family owned business, as were most of the locally owned businesses.” The Sumter County Genealogical Soci-
SUMTER ITEM FILE PHOTO
Crosswelll and Company was once located on the corner of Main and Liberty streets. The business will be the topic of the Feb. 15 program of the Sumter County Genealogical Society. In 1889, it was one of the fastest growing businesses in Sumter, offering a wide range of goods. ety meets monthly from September through May. Visitors are welcome and encouraged to attend. Admission is free to the public, and refreshments are served following the presentations. Interested persons can join the Society. Membership includes nine monthly newslet-
ters during the year and free use of the Sumter County Genealogical Society Research Center. Annual dues are $30 for an individual membership and $35 for family. Readers can call the society’s research center for more information at (803) 774-3901.