CBA: Were you determined to be self-sufficient? Ann: I tried. The values that my mother held were not mine. My mother was a very beautiful woman, and she was interested in looks and clothes and manners, and things like that. As I said, I was a maverick. CBA: Where do you think you got that quality? Ann: I have no idea. I just knew that I didn’t want any part of that. But I didn’t know there was anything different until I went out into the world. I just found that these people in the world outside were much more interesting. CBA: Did you go to the movies? Ann: Oh, yes. I saw Now, Voyager nine times… I loved that romantic element, with the two cigarettes Paul Henreid would light… all that stuff. CBA: Did you make up for lost time with the cosmopolitan culture? Did you go to Broadway? Ann: I did go to Broadway shows. My father used to reserve tickets at Radio City Music Hall when the new movies would be announced. Because of my father’s business, my parents were very social. They were out most nights or entertaining guests at home, so my sisters and I were pretty much left to ourselves. Don’t misunderstand me: We weren’t neglected, not at all, but I certainly wasn’t interested in what my parents were doing. CBA: Did you meet any of the important people of the day? Financiers or politicians? Ann: Possibly, but I don’t remember. I do recall when I was in fourth grade, my father had a group of men over and I was listening to their conversation . They were talking about who the richest man in the world was, and I was very impressed. The names of John D. Rockefeller and Henry Ford came up. About a week later, I was in school and the teacher asked, “Does anyone know who the richest man in the world is?” Of course, I spoke up [laughs] and I was brilliant! The teacher was very impressed, not knowing I had just overheard a conversation. CBA: Insider information. You’re Jewish? Ann: Yes. On both sides of my family, the great-grandparents came to America from Germany. CBA: With Hitler’s rise to power, were you cognizant at all regarding the worsening situation for Jews? Ann: Well, I never thought of myself as anything but an American, though my father did sponsor something like 99 relatives to leave Germany and settle here, swearing under oath that these immigrants would not become a public charge. CBA: What is your maiden name? Ann: Weingarten. CBA: Did you encounter anti-semitism growing up? Ann: Not really. At the boarding school, I was one of two Jewish girls, and once I remember a girl asking me, as we were going home on vacation, “Are you Jewish?” I said, “Yes,” and that was it. So I think she must have gone home and mentioned my name. CBA: “Ma, I know one!” [laughter] Did you go to Temple? Ann: I went to Sunday school and was confirmed when I was 13, but we only went to Temple on high holy days; we did not go on a regular basis.
CBA: Did you have a bat mitzvah? Ann: No. Reformed Jews did not do that in those days. CBA: How much older is your sister? Ann: She was seven-and-a-half years older. My father had been previously married and his first wife died in the flu epidemic of 1918, and he married my mother a year or so later. CBA: She was your half-sister? Ann: Yes, but we were more in-tune and alike than I was with my “real” sister, who was only two years younger. CBA: How would you describe your relationship with your older sister? Ann: Oh, we were very close. As a matter of fact, my older sister was married three times. Her first husband died when she was just 32 and her second husband, Jerry (who adopted her boys, Allan and Carl, from the first marriage), was a friend of Will. Then Jerry died — my sister used to joke that she was married in 1941, ’51, and ’71 — and she married a widower, Harold, four or five years later. She had three wonderful husbands. Her first husband died before I met Will, but she and her second husband and Will saw a lot of each other, though they lived sort of a different life than we did. CBA: In 1941, when she was married for the first time, was it a swanky affair? Ann: No, it was a nice, small wedding. That was it. CBA: You went to secretarial school? Ann: Yes, but one didn’t move out on one’s own, as a single woman, in those days! CBA: How did you meet Will? Ann: You really want to hear this long story? [laughter] Let’s see… my younger sister, who was similar to my mother — very beautiful — and all the boys were after her. (In those days, you didn’t have one boyfriend; you went out with a bunch of different guys, if you were lucky — Tom one night, Dick another night.) My sister was very, very popular, and one of the guys she would date was named Arthur. One night they were in the living room talking and I came in from a date or something — I came in late — and this was in August, 1949. I said that I would love to go up and visit my sister, Susan, who was then widowed and in Maine for the summer. I worked at Paramount Pictures at the time and said I would be able to get a day off from work, but I didn’t know how I would get there. (In those days you didn’t fly the way you do now.) Then Arthur said, “Oh, this friend and I are going up to Maine for the weekend, and I’m sure he will be glad to give you a lift.” Well, the friend was Will, and Will was not at all happy to give me a lift. Arthur and Will were in there way to a sort-of adult, singles camp type of place, where they would have a very good time. Where my sister was staying with her two boys was a family-type place. Anyway, Arthur said to Will, “Would you like to take this girl up to Maine with us.” Will said, “No, I don’t want to take this girl! We’re going to meet plenty of girls up there.” Now, Arthur was a Boy Scout, okay? So he kept asking Will and finally Will said to him, “Arthur, did you make a promise?” Arthur said, “Sort of.” Will was very annoyed and then he remembered that Jerry Gropper, who was also a friend of both, was going up to the Sunset Inn, where my sister was, to visit his sister, who was up there with her
OPPOSITE PAGE: June, 15, 1950: The wedding of Will and Ann Eisner. Photo courtesy of Ann. ABOVE: As refered to in Ann’s interview, the splash page to “Sammy and Delilah,” The Spirit section, March 5, 1950. ©2005 the Estate of Will Eisner.
49 CBA V.2 #6