6000 Angelenos Attend Hans Christian Andersen Fairyland Festival and watch as my mother, then 12-year-old Dorothy Harvey (insert) is crowned “Queen of the May”
Los Angeles Times, April 28, 1918
How cute is this?
In doing some on-line research I happened to chance upon this Los Angeles Times photo-article from April 28, 1918 which included my mother (insert) who had been chosen, “Queen of the May.”
See complete article below:
A Time of Innocence
Looking at this newfound photo of my mother I can’t help but feel both GLAD and SAD. Glad to have a permanent record that captures her sweet innocence of childhood. Sad, because of the pain and hardship that we know befell her in the years and decades to follow.
In just seven-years hence the young ingenue will marry John Marcellus Huston and the two together will run headlong into the Roaring Twenties and Thirsty Thirties. Dorothy will discover a new kind of “May Day,” and by age 27, will have become a chronic alcoholic and divorced. At 32 she will be pregnant and marry George Hodel. We know the rest.
But, I am most grateful and will treasure this happy moment-in-time, which captures my mother “before the fall.” Thanks to whoever directed me to happenstance upon it in the LA Times archives.
Perhaps it was the elves, sprites and fairies of LA’s Elysian Park, who I am told still “hang out” in the highest trees that overlook the ballpark. My sources tell me [though I cannot confirm with any high degree of certainty] that, “most of them are huge fans of the Dodger Blue.”
Happy Mother’s Day to All. I know mine will be.
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