Diana Bourbon

Diana Bourbon
A young white woman with dark hair, wearing a costume with a very high scalloped collar that reaches above her head, and a medieval-style gown
Diana Bourbon in theatrical costume, from a 1921 publication
Born
Ruth Hunt

August 28, 1900
New York City
DiedMarch 19, 1978
Los Angeles, California
Other namesDiana Hunt, Diana Hillson (after marriage)
Occupation(s)Writer, actress, producer

Diana Bourbon (born Ruth Hunt; August 28, 1900 – March 19, 1978) was an American actress, journalist, producer, director, and writer. She wrote for The New York Times from 1923 to 1927.

Early life

Diana Bourbon was born Ruth Hunt in New York City, the daughter of John Wesley Hunt and Mary Ellen Hunt. Her father was a newspaper editor. She studied ballet, and was educated in Paris, and at Oxford University.[1] As a young woman in World War I, she drove an ambulance and worked in a canteen.[2][3]

Career

Bourbon began her career as a stage actress,[4] and appeared in one Broadway show, in the original cast of John Galsworthy's Loyalties (1922–1923).[5][6] She also starred in Edith Millbank's Tancred in London in 1923.[7] Later in life, she returned to the stage in Los Angeles, in Music in the Distance (1960).[8]

Bourbon wrote articles for The New York Times from 1922 to 1927, usually on cultural topics while she was based in London and Paris,[9][10][11][12] such as a 1924 interview with Emma Goldman in exile,[13] a 1924 interview with Amelita Galli-Curci about feminism,[14] and a 1926 interview with H. G. Wells, in which he speculates on the century ahead.[15] She also wrote for Cosmopolitan,[16] and Harper's Bazaar.[17]

Bourbon was a writer, producer, and director in radio,[1][18] including Burns and Allen's Hollywood Hotel,[18] the game show Double or Nothing (1940–1954),[19] the drama anthology The Campbell Playhouse (1940),[20][21] the comedy The Judy Canova Show (1943–1944), Club Fifteen (1947–1953), and the soap operas Brenda Curtis (1939–1940) and Life Begins (1940).[22][23] She also acted on radio, in The Vanishing Lady (1957).[24]

For the screen, she co-wrote Born That Way (1936), and co-wrote the stories adapted as Atlantic Adventure (1935) and Roaming Lady (1936). She had three television acting credits, for roles in episodes of Thriller (1961), The Fugitive (1963), and Mission: Impossible (1968).

Personal life

Bourbon married English writer and editor K. Norman Hillson in 1928; they later divorced. She died in 1978, aged 77 years, in Los Angeles.[25]

References

  1. ^ a b Kelling, Vesta (1941-06-22). "Dynamic Diana Bourbon Keeps Radio's Soap and Soup Serial Dramas Always Humming". Fort Worth Star-Telegram. p. 34. Retrieved 2021-09-02 – via Newspapers.com.
  2. ^ "Woman Director was Actress, War Ambulance Driver". Harrisburg Telegraph. 1941-02-01. p. 24. Retrieved 2021-09-02 – via Newspapers.com.
  3. ^ "American Girl Wears Beautiful Gown at Royal Presentation". San Francisco Chronicle. 1919-09-28. p. 8. Retrieved 2021-09-02 – via Newspapers.com.
  4. ^ "In Striking Successes of the Season" The Spur 27(May 15, 1921): 45.
  5. ^ "Diana Bourbon". Playbill. Retrieved 2021-09-02.
  6. ^ Bourbon, Diana (February 15, 1923). "Acting Doesn't Require Brains". Maclean's | The Complete Archive. Archived from the original on 2021-09-02. Retrieved 2021-09-02.
  7. ^ "'Tancred' Acted in London". The New York Times. July 17, 1923. p. 14 – via ProQuest.
  8. ^ "'Distance' Play Winds Sunday". Valley Times. 1960-03-04. p. 9. Retrieved 2021-09-02 – via Newspapers.com.
  9. ^ Bourbon, Diana (1924-11-23). "Aged Empire Builder is Almost an American; Sir Bradford Leslie, Who Has Passed 93, Constructed Indian Railways and Many Bridges -- His Father, a Famous Artist, Was Born in This Country". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2021-09-02.
  10. ^ Bourbon, Diana (1926-01-10). "The Tiger Plays Demosthenes; Although He Denies the Allegation, Some Frenchmen Hold That Clemenceau in His New Book Has Drawn a Self-Portrait, Reproaching His Enemies Indirectly and Picturing France Today". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2021-09-02.
  11. ^ Bourbon, Diana (1925-08-09). "First Woman Wins Grand Prix de Rome for Canvas; Odette Pauvert, 22, Parisian Artist, Has Captured Coveted Award With Picture Displaying Mystical Imagination and Grasp of Portraiture". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2021-09-02.
  12. ^ Bourbon, Diana (1927-04-10). "England Hunts by Motor; Ancient Traditions of Riding to Hounds Are Rudely Jarred by Crowds of Autoists". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2021-09-02.
  13. ^ Bourbon, Diana (December 7, 1924). "Emma Goldman Weary of Bolshevism". The New York Times. p. XX5 – via ProQuest.
  14. ^ Bourbon, Diana (1924-03-09). "Galli-Curci Deplores Feminism; Singer Pleads for Return of Old-Fashioned Womanhood -- Says Home Makers Wield Greatest Power". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2021-09-02.
  15. ^ Bourbon, Diana (1926-06-06). "Wells Looks Ahead One Hundred Years; Century of Struggle at Hand, Says British Writer, Between the Unified World Idea and Persistent And "Suicidal" Nationalism -- He Foresees New and Great Groupings of Mankind". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2021-09-02.
  16. ^ Marshall, Marguerite Mooers (1928-11-29). "The Woman of It". The News Tribune. p. 16. Retrieved 2021-09-02 – via Newspapers.com.
  17. ^ "Lack Clan Spirit". The Tampa Times. 1931-08-24. p. 6. Retrieved 2021-09-02 – via Newspapers.com.
  18. ^ a b Donnell, Darrell (1937-02-10). "Woman Produces Radio Shows; Diana Bourbon Star in 3 Different Fields". The San Francisco Examiner. p. 11. Retrieved 2021-09-02.
  19. ^ Terrace, Vincent (2015-09-02). Radio Programs, 1924-1984: A Catalog of More Than 1800 Shows. McFarland. p. 103. ISBN 978-1-4766-0528-9.
  20. ^ "The Campbell Playhouse". Pumpkin FM-Old Time Radio. 2011-11-06. Archived from the original on 2020-12-04. Retrieved 2021-09-02.
  21. ^ "Miss Bourbon in Action". The Gazette. 1940-12-06. p. 6. Retrieved 2021-09-02 – via Newspapers.com.
  22. ^ Dunning, John (1998-05-07). On the Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio. Oxford University Press. pp. 207, 294. ISBN 978-0-19-977078-6.
  23. ^ "Diana Bourbon directs the radio serial Life Begins for CBS Radio". Getty Images. July 1, 1940. Archived from the original on 2021-09-02. Retrieved 2021-09-02.
  24. ^ "Vanishing Lady, The". RUSC. Archived from the original on 2021-09-02. Retrieved 2021-09-02.
  25. ^ "Deaths" (PDF). Broadcasting: 109. April 10, 1978.