Website: Frances Farmer Tribute
Website: Story from the Citizens Commission on Human Rights
Merchandise: Various Frances Farmer items for auction at eBay
"I'm an unfriendly, secretive, hostile, profane, vulgar image and likeness of God."--Frances Farmer to her asylum counselor
I just finished reading Frances Farmer's autobiography entitled Will There Really Be a Morning?, which was completed in 1972, a short two years after her death from cancer. It only took me two days to read this astounding book that details her horrific experiences in childhood and adulthood, her survival in society and in asylums.
Frances Farmer isn't a name that most people nowadays can remember from the glory days of Hollywood. But she was an acclaimed actress that co-starred with Cary Grant, Joel McCrea, and Ray Milland, among others. And then she disappeared. But she was still in all the papers: she had been committed to a mental institution in Seattle, WA--put there by her own mother.
The book outlines Farmer's tale through a series of flashbacks. We meet Frances as she battles with her mother until a mere traffic violation blooms into a 180-day sentence in an asylum with horrible conditions. From her room (a "cell" really), she begins to recall the steps it took to bring her to this place. It's a sad story of a mother and daughter who were never on the same page: an angry daughter who resented being a Hollywood starlet, and a wretched mother who desperately wanted to be famous for "something."
Frances Farmer was born late in her parents' life, an unhappy accident between two people who were barely tolerant of each other. Frances was never really shown an affection in her childhood, and grew distant and cold to everyone around her. When she reached the University of Washington in 1931, she met some people in the drama department, and after being encouraged by the professor, she fell in love with the stage. She dreamed of going to Broadway, and so the drama department helped her win a subscription contest for the local Communist newspaper. Farmer easily won the prize--a trip to Russia via New York.
While her mother howled in protest (to the local press) that no daughter of hers was a Communist, and threatened her "pinko" daughter at home, Frances packed her bags. She didn't care about going to Russia--she just wanted to get to New York so that she could join The Group Theatre, which had such members as Clifford Odets in their ranks. She took the trip to Russia, and upon her return, she cashed in her train ticket back to Seattle and found a small room to rent.
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