Norfolk Library screens Bette Davis film

Norfolk Library screens Bette Davis film

Robert Dance, right, and his old friend Parker Stevenson, actor from "Hardy Boys" and "Baywatch."

Provided

Robert Dance, the author of “Fabulous Faces of Classic Hollywood” (2024), introduced the classic Bette Davis film “Now, Voyager” (1942) at the Norfolk Library on Friday, November 22.

Now Voyager plays the dowdy youngest daughter of a wealthy Boston family meant to stay behind the walls of her family’s Boston mansion caring for an elderly mother.

During her nearly six-decade career, Davis was nominated for eleven Oscars and won two (each of the films shown in Norfolk were Oscar nominated). Wildly popular, especially during the 1930s and 40s, Davis continues to be highly respected.

“She wasn’t a herald of fashion like her great rival Joan Crawford, but she represented the archetypal upper middle class American woman as presented by Hollywood (in her case by Warner Brothers). Davis defied glamor and beauty with her extraordinary screen talent, although in the end she could portray a sort of crisp glamor perhaps more in keeping with the pages of Vogue than Hollywood fan magazines,” Dance said.

Davis’s films are continually shown on TCM. She was even the subject of a song, “Bette Davis Eyes,” that was number one on the billboard chart for several weeks in the 1980s:

“Her hair is Harlow gold

Her lips a sweet surprise

Her hands are never cold

She’s got Bette Davis eyes

She’ll turn her music on you

You won’t have to think twice

She’s pure as New York snow

She got Bette Davis eyes”

“The ‘Harlow’ is Jean Harlow, the movie’s original blond sex goddess back in the 1930s. She died at age 26 in 1937 but was one of the greatest stars of Hollywood’s golden age. Who remembers her now? Maybe we need a Jean Harlow series in Norfolk,” Dance said.

As a young student living in Manhattan, Dance went to see movies frequently, absorbing silents, musicals, classic German films. These outings solidified his love of movies and the celluloid heroes of yesteryear.

“Something like half of all Americans went to the movies every week from the 1920s to the 50s (when television changed entertainment). Cinema is one of the last century’s great technological and entertainment inventions, so it seemed necessary to become fluent in this culture. What is exciting today is that I am continually discovering something new made a century ago. Kino and the Criterion collection are among the invaluable services that discover little known works and return them to the public,” Dance explained.

Today, Davis seems to have slipped away in popular culture, while Joan Crawford remains popular with websites devoted to her, and Instagram has more than a hundred dedicated Crawford sites. But Davis continues to be revered by older generations.

“Davis survives because of an astonishing body of screen work. ‘Now Voyager’ is one of her best, although for some it might seem old-fashioned. Still, it has it all: perfect performances from the entire cast, a compelling story, superb direction. The American Film Institute’s rank of actresses lists her number two overall. ‘Now Voyager’ ranks high among dramas,” Dance says.

“Maybe Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson in Sunset Blvd – see it if you haven’t) was right: “I am big. It’s the pictures that got small.”

Latest News

Amenia’s Elk Ravine Farm funds conservation through unique tours

Jim Archer of Elk Ravine Farm takes a seat on Billy the water buffalo on Wednesday, Sept. 10.

Nathan Miller

AMENIA — Jim Archer doesn’t look like a typical “influencer.” He doesn’t have a podcast and he doesn’t take jet-setting trips to Bali for advertising shoots.

But he has amassed a following of more than 100,000 people across his Instagram and TikTok accounts. Archer shows off his unique collection of farm animals and produces educational content about ecology and the environment all from Elk Ravine Farm, his property on Smithfield Valley Road in Amenia.

Keep ReadingShow less
Sharon Dennis Rosen

SHARON — Sharon Dennis Rosen, 83, died on Aug. 8, 2025, in New York City.

Born and raised in Sharon, Connecticut, she grew up on her parents’ farm and attended Sharon Center School and Housatonic Valley Regional High School. She went on to study at Skidmore College before moving to New York City, where she married Dr. Harvey Rosen and together they raised two children.

Keep ReadingShow less
Haystack Book Festival: writers in conversation

The Haystack Book Festival, a program of the Norfolk Hub, brings renowned writers and thinkers to Norfolk for conversation. Celebrating its fifth season this fall, the festival will gather 18 writers for discussions at the Norfolk Library on Sept. 20 and Oct. 3 through 5.

Jerome A. Cohen, author of the memoir “Eastward, Westward: A Lifein Law.”Haystack Book Festival

Keep ReadingShow less
Salisbury Family Services to honor Danielle Mailer at Sept. 27 benefit

Danielle Mailer with her 12 foot aluminum mountain lion outside of the Scoville Library.

Peter McEachern

On Saturday, Sept. 27, Salisbury Family Services (SFS) will hold a benefit dinner and barn dance, honoring artist Danielle Mailer. Taking place at Stillwater Farm in Salisbury, this festive fundraiser will feature cocktails, hors d’oeuvres, dinner, and lively barn dancing — all in support of the critical services SFS provides.

Founded in the mid-1930s during the Great Depression, Salisbury Family Services has been a lifeline for residents of Salisbury and the surrounding villages of Amesville, Lakeville, Lime Rock, and Taconic for nearly 90 years. What began as an effort by local women to mend clothes and provide food has evolved into a professional social service agency offering confidential support for housing, food, childcare, medical needs and more.

Keep ReadingShow less