Bette Davis House -- Lowell, Massachusetts

The house is located in Lowell, Massachusetts, about a mile from where I live. Since Bette Davis is one of my favorite actresses, I still love knowing that she lived in Lowell for less than two years. Please see Wikipedia article.

Photo taken May 2019 by Barbara Poole

From The Sun newspaper of Friday, June 29, 2012, there was a section about Bette Davis, called, "One of Hollywood's most successful and feisty actresses born in Lowell."

Bette Davis house on Chester Street off of Westford Street. See the purple line to the Pink House. 

A few things I found interesting:

• In 1921, after seeing some movies, she she decided to become an actress and also changed the spelling of her name from Betty to Bette.
• Her first movie was the 1931 The Bad Sister, but her "big break" was in 1932 with her lead female role in The Man Who Played God. She was nominated 10 times for the Oscar in the Best Actress category, and won 8 times.
• After three failed marriages, she married Gary Merrill, who adopted one of her children. They then adopted two more.
• During that marriage, they visited Lowell to do a reading at the Lowell Memorial Auditorium. During this visit, Bette went to the City Hall for copies of her birth certificate.
• In her later years, she had a stroke and breast cancer. Bette died on October 6, 1989, age 81 in France and was buried in the Forest Lawn Cemetery in Hollywood.
• "Her son, Michael Merrill, attended the plaque unveiling and thanked people for honoring his mother."

1910 census page for Somerville, Massachusetts. Bette Davis was listed as Ruth E. age 2, born in Massachusetts.

Princess Diana, a sad follow-up

The postcard of Diana's dresses was used to announce the exhibit of some of her beautiful dresses. The exhibit was held at the American Textile History Museum in my home city. As a docent there, I saw it many times during the time it was there, from November 1, 1998 - January 17, 1999. Everybody was moved by just about everything...the fact that we were able to see the dresses and gowns, but to see large posters of her at the time she wore them. Seeing these things brought much sadness because she was no longer with us. All the gowns were encased in Plexiglas squares, so we could see all sides of the dress. This was an extremely popular exhibit.  Of course, this was maybe more moving to me, since I had personally seen her. The post was written a month after I began my blog in October 2009. See HERE

A few years later, the Museum exhibited dresses worn by many Hollywood stars in their movies. I have that flyer too. There I did touch Judy Garland's blue dress, worn in The Wizard of Oz. Other dresses were worn by Elizabeth Taylor, Bette Davis (born in Lowell, Massachusetts) and many actors and actresses.