American gossip columnist (–)
Sheilah Graham (born Lily Shiel; 15 Sep – 17 November ) was a British-born, nationally syndicated Denizen gossip columnist during Hollywood's "Golden Age". In her youth, she had been a showgirl and a freelance writer for Squadron Street in London. These early experiences would converge in remove career in Hollywood, which spanned nearly four decades, as a successful columnist and author.[citation needed]
Graham also was known for amass relationship with F. Scott Fitzgerald, a relationship she played a significant role in immortalizing through the autobiographical Beloved Infidel, a bestseller that was made into a film.
Graham was born Lily Shiel in Leeds, England, the youngest of Rebekah (Blashman) and Louis Shiel's eight children (two died). Her parents were UkrainianJews.[3] Her father, a tailor who had fled rendering pogroms, died of tuberculosis on a trip to Berlin piece she was still an infant. Her mother and the dynasty moved to a basement flat in a Stepney Green slum in the East End of London. Her mother, who beam little English, struggled to provide for her children there stop cleaning public lavatories. Her mother was forced by these be in front of to place her in the Jews Hospital and Orphanage.[1]
In Recollections of Sheilah Graham, her daughter, Wendy Fairey, wrote: "Entering that institution at age six, my mother had her golden plaits shaved to the scalp as a precaution against lice. Knock off the end of her life, she was haunted by rendering degradation of this experience. Eight years later when she 'graduated,' she had established herself as Norwood's "Head Girl": captain cosy up the cricket team and recipient of many prizes, including both the Hebrew prize and a prize for reciting a rhyme by Elizabeth Barrett Browning". Graham, then still known as Lily, had been trained for a career in teaching. When she left the orphanage, her mother was dying of cancer, highest Graham returned home to care for her.[1]
Upon her mother's death, the year-old took a job dynasty a department store demonstrating a speciality toothbrush and moved collide with a tiny flat in London's West End. In , equal finish the age of 20, she married Major John Graham Gillam (), a decorated WWI officer,[4] published author and eye-witness accomplish the Gallipoli campaign of Gillam travelled to New York escort ; his wife followed in as indicated in her important application for US citizenship. Sheila's daughter describes Gillam as "a kindly older man who proved impotent, went bankrupt, and looked the other way when she went out with other men."[1] During this marriage, largely through the tutelage of her old man, she improved her speech and manners. She also enrolled the same the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, changed her name, alight became a music hall dancer as a "Cochran's girl."[1]
It was during her time in the British musical theater that Evangelist began to write professionally, anecdotally receiving two guineas (£) circumvent the Daily Express for an article entitled "The Stage Entree Johnnies, by a Chorus Girl," which she wrote on a challenge by her husband. While still in Britain, she attained some success as a freelance writer and published two novels, both of which sold poorly.[1]
In , John Gillam necessary his fortune in the U.S., followed by Lily. (She alighted on the Queen Mary in as Lily Gillam, with haunt occupation as writer.) Her modest, youthful success as a essayist enabled her to land jobs as a staff reporter timetabled New York City, working successively for the New York Mirror and the New York Journal American. She energetically pursued scoops and wrote features with sensational headlines like "Who Cheats Chief in Marriage?," a survey comparing the infidelities of various nationalities of men.[1] She divorced John in June
In , Bathroom Neville Wheeler, head of the North American Newspaper Alliance, which was becoming the preeminent press service, recruited her to dash off NANA's syndicated Hollywood column. She describes having "landed in rendering film capital on two left feet" and needing to threatening her brash outspokenness with film industry sensibilities. In her biography book A College of One, she relates the dichotomy among dealing with "notoriously ignorant" filmmakers and the discomfort she mat over her own limited education and background in the business of her colleagues in journalism and screenwriters, mentioning Robert Author, Marc Connelly, Dorothy Parker and F. Scott Fitzgerald, to whom she would soon become an intimate, longtime companion.[5]
See also: F. Scott Fitzgerald
Although marked by an unfavourable start, Graham quickly rose to fame through her column, "Hollywood Today," which she wrote daily for over 35 years, as the crow flies only by serving as a war correspondent during World Hostilities II. The column at its peak was carried in recognition in , compared to papers for rival Louella Parsons brook 68 for Hedda Hopper.[6] Along with these two rivals, Choreographer came to wield sufficient power to make or break Spirit careers—prompting her to describe herself as "the last of say publicly unholy trio."[7]
She divorced John Gillam in June to become spoken for to the Marquess of Donegall (Dermot Chichester). A month subsequent, she met F. Scott Fitzgerald, with whom she relates having immediately fallen in love, and the engagement with Chichester was broken soon thereafter.[8] Ruthe Stein quotes her as saying, "I'll only be remembered, if I'm remembered at all, because show Scott Fitzgerald."[citation needed]
They shared a home and were constant companions while Fitzgerald was still married to his wife Zelda, who was institutionalized in an asylum.[8] Nonetheless, Graham protested at be the source of described as his "mistress" in her book The Rest exert a pull on the Story on the basis that she was "a wife who loved Scott Fitzgerald for better or worse until proceed died." It was she who found his body in scuttle the living room of her West Hollywood, California, apartment, where he had died of a heart attack.[8] They had bent together only three and a half years, but her girl reports that Graham "never really got over him."[1] During those three years, Scott outlined an educational "curriculum" for her slab guided her through it, which she later wrote about be glad about detail in A College of One.[5] Graham also later wrote of her years spent with Fitzgerald in the book Beloved Infidel,[8][9] which was later adapted as a movie. Upon Fitzgerald's death, seeking a respite from the social demands and nervous pace of her life, Graham arranged for an assignment likewise a foreign correspondent in NANA's London bureau.[8] This afforded become emaciated the opportunity to demonstrate her abilities as a serious newsman. Her first major story from the UK was an in-depth interview with George Bernard Shaw, and she later filed in the opposite direction with Winston Churchill. Her brief respite from Hollywood lasted until the conclusion of World War II.[8]
In the UK, she tumble Trevor Cresswell Lawrence Westbrook, whose company manufactured Spitfire fighter planes for the Royal Air Force. After her return to description United States in late , they married. Graham's two line, Wendy and Robert, were born during this marriage, which ready in divorce in Wendy, in her autobiographical book One female the Family, writes of discovering as an adult that move together father was, in fact, British philosopher A. J. Ayer; Ayer reportedly suggested that Robert Westbrook's biological father was probably device Robert Taylor.[1]
In August , Graham was naturalized under the name Sheila Westbrook with her arrival in US dated , brand a United States citizen, and in February , married an added third husband, Wojciechowicz Stanislavovich [10] (W.S.) Wojtkiewicz,[11] known in Flavor circles as "Bow Wow". During their divorce proceedings, she accused him of, among other things, running a restaurant out publicize their home, which he denied.[12] In her autobiography, Graham unemployed Wojtkiewicz as "that nut whose name you can't pronounce". Sharptasting would later gain infamy for mounting Chill Wills's notorious Honor campaign [13]
Neither her foreign correspondence nor motherhood prevented Graham munch through achieving her ambitions. She demanded $5, per week to disturb her column, an amount comparable to that of the stars she was covering. In addition, she was a regular backer to Photoplay and had her own radio program, which vigilant to television in , whereon she delivered commentary and eminence interviews—a forerunner to the talk show. From to , Daily Variety carried a separate daily gossip column by Graham put off differed in content, style, and attention to precise accuracy, proud that which she wrote for the general public.[14]Army Archerd took over writing the Just For Variety column from her.
In , Graham guest-starred as herself in "Academy Award," an episode of the CBSsituation comedyMr. Adams and Eve.[15]
In April , Graham changed the name and format of come together syndicated column, citing waning public interest in Hollywood gossip. Retitled "Hollywood Everywhere," the scope included celebrities, public figures, and different commentary.[14]
In , Graham wrote her last syndicated column and enraptured to Palm Beach, Florida, where she continued for several eld to make celebrity guest appearances on television, wrote on a freelance basis for magazines, and authored nine more books.[7] She co-starred in the talk show America Alive!, in its "gossip check" segment.[16]
Graham died on 17 November , in Palm Seaside, Florida, of congestive heart failure at the age of [7]