RIP Maureen O’Hara

Maureen O’Hara passed away yesterday.

With her red hair, peaches and cream complexion and fiery tongue, she played against some of the most masculine and iconic actors of her day: John Wayne, Tyrone Power and Errol Flynn.

Two of my favorite movies of hers are diametrically opposite.

The first is The Quiet Man (1952). Sean Thornton (John Wayne) is an American boxer returning to his family’s ancestral Irish village. He is attracted to Mary Kate Danaher  (Maureen O’Hara), and is eager to marry her. But before Mary Kate will agree to marry Sean, he must obtain her dowry from  her hard headed brother, who is refusing to part with it.

One of my favorite qualities of her character is in this movie is that Mary Kate is no shrinking violet. She knows what she wants and has no problem speaking her mind to get what she wants.

My other favorite Maureen O’Hara movie is Only The Lonely (1991).  Danny Muldoon (the late John Candy) is a single man whose life is dominated by loving, but overbearing mother, Rose (Maureen O’Hara). It is only when he meets Theresa Luna (Ally Sheedy), that Danny could possibly stop his mother from treating him like a child.

It is obvious that Rose loves her son, like a parent should. But like some parents, they forget that their adult children have their own minds and are capable of making their own decisions.

Maureen O’Hara was 95. RIP.

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Stolen Legacy Book Review

During World War II, the Nazis took everything from their victims.  Today, the living heirs of some of these victims are fighting to reclaim what was taken from their ancestors.

Dina Gold is the author of the memoir, Stolen Legacy: Nazi Theft and the Quest for Justice at Krausenstrasse 17/18, Berlin. Ms. Gold is the descendant of the original owner of the building. For many years, her mother’s family ran a successful business. But when the Nazis came to power, they forced all German Jews to give up their property. While the author’s family was lucky ( her mother escaped to then British controlled Palestine with her parents and siblings before the borders closed), others German Jewish families lost everything, including their lives.  

The book chronicles the author’s long fight to prove that she and the rest of her living relations are the legal inheritors of the building.

The subject of the book was fascinating. She tells the story as it if it were fiction instead of real life. My problem with the book is that it gets so bogged down with details is that it becomes too dry near the end. But otherwise, it’s not a bad book.

Do I recommend it? Yes.