RSW's Diary Comments

Woodward and Harold Grieve

"Painted in 1935. A large one of my north window at the Buckland studio. Exhibited with high praise, quite generally when Harold Grieve and his wife called here in 1936. He had it sent west and early in 1937 it was sold to Mr. Norman Krasna of 627 North Rodeo Drive, Beverly Hills, California, he being a noted scenario writer doing things for, and a friend of Charley Chaplin, the Marx brothers, etc. It has been illustrated quite largely in magazines and periodicals as a splendid example of room decoration."

Editor's Note:

Boy would we love to find any one of those magazines or periodicals... Woodward was pretty good at saving these sort of things but for whatever reason, none remain in his estate collection.

Harold Grieve first met Woodward in Los Angeles, CA, before his accident. Grieve's father was the neighborhood butcher. There is a sixteen year age gap between the two, Grieve was just five years old when Woodward was accidentally shot by his own revolver while undressing after a camping trip. They remained close throughout their lives. The picture of the two was taken in Buckland at the artist's home and studio on the visit mentioned above.

The painting hanging in the home of Norman Krasna

Norman Krasna (November 7, 1909 " November 1, 1984) was an American screenwriter, playwright, producer, and film director. He is best known for penning screwball comedies which centred on a case of mistaken identity. Krasna also directed three films during a forty-year career in Hollywood. He garnered four Academy Award screenwriting nominations, winning once for 1943's Princess O'Rourke, a film he also directed. Source: Wikipedia - Norman Krasna

Harold Grieve was a close friend. He made a bookplate for Harold while he was still working in his first studio, Redgate and another when the Grieves moved to Hermosa Beach, CA. Harold was a popular motion picture art director and interior decorator of homes in Hollywood, California, and chose several "Woodwards" to be center pieces in the living rooms of famous movie stars of the day, including Jack Benny,, George Burns and Gracie Allen, as well as producer, Bernard Hyman.

Norman Krasna (far right) with actress Sylvia
Sidney (L) and film director Eddie Bazzell (C)

Posing with the painting is Harold Grieve
friend of both Norman Krasna and Woodward