Year of Ann Dvorak: Day 365

At long last we have come to the 365th and final post in the Year of Ann Dvorak. And what a year it’s been! When I first decided to write a full length biography on Ann back in the late 1990s, I frequently daydreamed of the day when the book would finally be finished and out in the world. The actual release of Ann Dvorak: Hollywood’s Forgotten Rebel exceeded all those dreams of the last 15+ years and I am ok admitting that I am proud of how it turned out. At the same time, I am extremely relieved and grateful for all the positive feedback I received so far. In case you didn’t notice, all the wonderful press and reviews have been compiled onto one page, called – Press & Book Reviews. 

As to my commitment to blog about Ann everyday for an entire year – well, that may not have been my most inspired idea. I am not sure what I hoped to accomplish by blogging daily, and now that it’s over I am not exactly sure if it really achieved much of anything. The process was rather grueling and since I was usually unable to get multiple posts queued up, every night found me uttering the phrase, “Not yet, I still have to do my blog post.” In retrospect, committing to once a week probably would have sufficed, but no one can accuse me of backing out once I set my mind on something!

For all the complaining I have done the last year over this fool’s errand, there were a handful of people who genuinely seemed to appreciate my efforts. I wanted to take a moment (or more specifically, a paragraph) to thank those who took the time to frequently comment here over the last year which reminded me that I wasn’t playing to an empty room. These fine folk included Dick P., Scott, Mike, Vienna, and JV. Your comments really fueled me to keep going! Major gratitude needs to go to the guest bloggers  who gave me a much needed break when I was finishing up the manuscript for University Press of Kentucky. Mary Mallory, Paul Petro, Daniel Nauman, Glen Creason, and Mary McCoy are the bees knees! Finally, much appreciation to Cliff Aliperti, Will McKinley, John Rabe, Danny Reid, and Kendra Bean for the many tweets and re-tweets. My sincere apologies to anyone I may have forgotten.

Finally, thanks to my husband Joshua Hale Fialkov and my daughter Gable, who thought the Ann madness had ended when I finished writing the book. Little did they know what insane heights I could rise to in the name of Ann Dvorak!

Just because the Year of Ann Dvorak is over, doesn’t mean my work here is done. I’ll still be posting news, tv airings, film screenings, etc as they come up, though I will probably take a break from writing up my random musings on Ann.  I might add that I am still a compulsive collector who is always on the prowl for new Dvorak memorabilia. The book may be out, but I am by no means finished with Ann.

Before I end this, let’s go out on a true AD note with a This Day in Ann Dvorak History factoid: On December 31, 1931 Ann Dvorak met Leslie Fenton for the first time. In less than three months, the pair would be married and Ann’s life and career would be dramatically altered.

Happy New Year!