Hi, friends. Last blog post was super heavy, and I’m afraid, in the coming weeks, that I’m going to have to cover some more heavy topics, as we are just now starting to reap the benefits of some of our requested research materials. I saw some things this evening that were both incredible and sad, and Angela and I will be working together to share them with you all soon. The fact is, when you set out to study someone’s private life—it no longer is relevant whether or not things are “your business” — certainly, biography is a form of writing that has existed for many hundreds of years. You find out a great many things that aren’t your business. Yet I don’t see the field at large vanishing anytime soon. When a person has been dead for half a century, you can’t just call them and interview them. You have to fact-find, and dig, and research, talk to people who knew them, befriend archivists at the Library of Congress, etc etc—and try to piece together their story. What you cannot do is pretend parts of their life didn’t happen, or ignore things because they aren’t to your taste or they make you personally unhappy. This isn’t, in fact, about you. So while I’m bummed just like you guys about a future that looks a little grey with some sad posts, I won’t apologize for it. I feel strongly that these things need to be heard and read and said and observed and understood, if we are ever to gain a true sense of these tremendously complex beings we’ve decided to love. I do, however, have some ideas in mind for ways to lighten the mood, so stick with me. In the meantime, here are some of my favorite pictures of the Beauty and the Baritone. ❤
Costume Designer Adrian is there and nobody gives a damn.
Nearly ten years into this thing and he still makes her self-conscious.
Y so touchy, Nels? Y so happy, Jeanette?
I just love this picture. Always have. They look so easy and relaxed and happy together.
With Woody, the man who was probably their single greatest friend. Look at the way she’s openly gazing at Nelson. Yeah.
And speaking of gazing, check out homeboy.
Sigh. And this is why we do what we do.
The Case for Jeanette and Nelson 
All you say is so true, Katie. They break our hearts yet still we come back for more…because we care. Love your choice of photos too. Every picture tells a story so they say, and the story every one of your picture tell is the same: ‘These are two people so deeply in love that half the time others are of no consequence.’
To say much of that is to do a disservice to all who have done their homework and found Sweethearts to be wholly unsupported. You know, yourself, that I spent a week with at the AMPAS Library, researching both Kathryn and Jeanette. I questioned Kathryn about her friend. But since she didn’t say what you wanted her to say, she’s dismissed. How is that even close to fair?
She’s not dismissed, I have never dismissed her, so don’t put words in my mouth, dude. I believe that she said what you say she said and I recognize that to you, because of your relationship with her, she’s a Numero Uno type valuable source. I would feel the EXACT same way if I’d been in your position. However, in the grand scheme of Jeanette and Nelson’s entire lives, a friendship with Kathryn–which obviously existed, though I haven’t seen evidence that they were constant daily basis forever and ever BFFs–makes up a very small corner of the story. There are people who deny it or didn’t know or assert that it didn’t happen for any number of reasons, and she is one of those people. She’s not the only one. I don’t discount that. However, for every one of those people, we have an interview on file–audio, video or transcription–of someone who knew about it. Which you (and your side of the fence) discount handily because it doesn’t match your belief systems or you don’t like the person who did the interviewing (though I’m pretty sure none of you actually knows her). I understand the desire to actually see/hear the footage and I am working on trying to make those things more available. The latest edition of Sweethearts has–wait, I’ll go count–49 pages of source notes. But oh yeah, Sharon Rich personally went around the town and held a gun to everyone’s head to make them talk into various recording equipment, right? I see. You guys chat up your good Saintly buddy Brent Perry! I have seen with my own eyes extensive video footage of him discussing EXACTLY what he knew from his own relationship with Blossom, which existed separate of and together with Sharon’s, and his own research, including details of the Sweethearts pregnancy/loss of baby from several sources at MGM. There are sources on both sides of this thing. Irene Dunne verified it on the phone and said she let Jeanette and Nelson use her New York apartment to tryst in, but she wouldn’t give an interview about it. June Allyson verified it to Merv Griffin, “Everybody at the studio knew about it.” Van Johnson verified it to several people, including someone who has discussed it directly with me. The list goes on and on. You have people, I have people, and that sort of makes this particular argument a moot point.
Furthermore, I have no “hard evidence” that Kathryn said to you what you say she said, I just have chosen to believe that she did because I have made the choice to believe that you have no reason to lie. But I could discount her easily, if I wanted to, for the same exact reasons you discount Ruth Van Dyke, William Tuttle, and other people whom Sharon interviewed and quoted but hasn’t released the actual footage of—you don’t want to take anyone’s word for it, you want to see the stuff yourself. Well. That’s a two-edged sword.
Nice one Katie. I hope whatever you’re planning blows the whole negative discussions sky high because I’m heartily sick of people disrespecting Sharon Rich and all the effort she has put into proving beyond doubt that Jeanette and Nelson were lovers. As for the disbelievers who won’t see the obvious because they can’t bear to think of Jeanette being unhappy…for God’s sake, do they REALLY believe she WAS happy, married to a money grabbing leach who beat on and neglected her, and who got his kicks from dating MEN! Yes, what a fu**ing happy marriage that must have been! Feel free to edit my post as I’m pretty close to losing my cool here!
Thanks for the pictures by the way. They show what shots of Jeanette and Gene fail to show, true love often so blinding that other may as well not be in existence!