Rare Beauty: Bonita Granville
I’m beginning a big thing: I’m going to hopefully write a biography on Bonita Granville (Wrather) . I have to get the clearance from her son first, but I might already have the clearance from her daughter, since I know her daughter very well and she’s a dear friend of mine. It’s been known that I’ve wanted to write a biography on this woman for so long, but there are so many problems.
- I will have to try to find people who knew her or met her, or who at least interacted with her.
- Having to convince her son that I am serious about writing about her
- Not give up, when I can’t travel to the places I need to go to .
- Just trying to find information in general.
So I have tried to do research already, and I am going to talk to my friend, her daughter this week to see if her brother would be willing to discuss this book with me, cause I really want everyone to be onboard.
I have begun writing some of it, especially the beginning:
“Nobody’s Perfect! But Bonita Granville was pretty Darn Close!”
1: The Glam Girl
October 1942
At the Hollywood Canteen, stood a woman with blonde hair and stunning blue eyes. She wanted to make sure that everyone was having a good time. This woman was Bonita Granville. She had just released the film The Glass Key and was now trying to be taken seriously as an actress. She had been in the business for as long as she could remember.
“Bunny,” as she was known to many people, danced and enjoyed her time with service men. She was 19 years old.
Bonita’s nature was generous and kind. But to the men, she was considered one of the most beautiful blondes they had ever seen. At 19, Bonita felt like she could conquer the world, and to her, she did.
That night, she wanted to be seen as a woman, and not as the child star, she once was, and yet, at 19, she had the world at her fingertips, but she did not know it yet.
That night, she met up with friends, Anne Shirley and Deanna Durbin. She asked Anne how everything was? Deanna was having marital problems and Bonita knew it.
But Deanna assured her that she was there to have a good time and not worry about a marriage. Bonita made sure her friend was ok, and then was asked by a solider to dance. Of course, she said “Yes!” Why wouldn’t she?
Bonita stood 5 foot and that’s all. She was a short, but lively woman.
She had about 10 years of showbusiness experience under her belt.
The once child star, was now a “woman”- at least to these men, she was probably one of the younger ones.
Gloria Jean, an actress, who saw Bonita that night, said this:
“Bonita was dressed to the nines, and her eyes sparkled. Considerably, Bonita danced and danced some more, and that wasn’t the end of it. She tried not to drink or to smoke, but she did both”.
Underage, she slipped beneath every crack. No one really knew her age, they just assumed she was there to have a good time and she was.
She danced and laughed a lot. She always had a smile on her face.
According to actress Gloria Jean, Bonita was perhaps the most vibrant one there that night. Yes, there was Bette Davis, and others, but Bonita was the one who everyone wanted to see.
It was then and there Bonita felt more like an adult, than a silly child.
She wanted to explore this new found fame she had found.
But people didn’t realize that Bonita Granville was going to be a big star, in ways that couldn’t be imagined on that night in 1942.
Bonita’s beauty dazzled and she wanted more than ever to be among her peers and help with the war effort.
She talked with Anne Shirley and then she talked with Gloria Jean. She talked with soldiers and she was the belle of the place.
2- The Bunny is Born
On a cold February day in 1923, Rosina (Nee Timponi) went into labor.
Bonita Gloria Granville was born on February 2, 1923 in New York City. The daughter of renowned actor, Bernard Granville, it would be no surprise that Bonita’s destiny would be in showbusiness as well. Bernard was a known actor, who left the family when Bonita was still very young. When he died in 1936, Bonita and Rosina were really on their own. It was Bonita and Rosina against the world. What were they going to do? Bonita knew she had to make a living to help her mother.
How were they going to make it? How was this going to happen?
In 1932, a little girl was needed to for the film Westward Passage. Bonita, then 9 years old, auditioned for the role. It was a part she easily won. Her part was small, but she made an impression. Bonita’s career was headed in the right direction, but she was not a star right away. She was a freelancer and had no agent. Producers had liked her middle name, Gloria. They had wanted her to change her name to Gloria Granville. But Bonita insisted that she be kept Bonita.
In 1933, Bonita made the film Cavalcade , she had no lines and her part was very small. But, still, this little girl was not a star yet, though she remained impressionable.
In 1936, Samuel L Goldwyn needed a little girl to play the brat, Mary Tilford in the film These Three .
The film would star Merle Oberon and Miriam Hopkins. The film was an adaptation of her play The Children’s Hour.
The film would have to be changed from it being about the LGBTQ community to it being a love triangle. Bonita’s role was rather large, and she had to play a complete brat. Only thing was, Bonita was far from one.
She felt guilty about being mean to Marcia Mae Jones’s character in the film. In fact, she was so kind that Marcia Mae Jones remembered her:
“She was the kindest girl, but when the cameras were rolling, she could turn on that bratty charm.” She had to dye her hair darker to make her look more meaner, but she was just the same Bonita Granville, as she had always been .
Her acting was so on point that she was nominated for an Oscar and age 13, she lost.
That’s what I have so far, as I hope to talk to the family this week to get the details more concrete and I hope that I’m able to get this book done.
x
