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Wednesday, August 5, 2020

#WomenDoingAwesomeThingsWednesday Olivia de Havilland


  • Learned her best lighting and camera angles on her first film, "A Midsummer Night's Dream" (1935)
  • Joined the national three-week Hollywood Victory Caravan train tour and helped raise money through selling war bonds. 
  • Was given the role of Melanie from "Gone With the Wind" when she went to Jack Warner's wife, Ann, for help. 
  • Campaigned for FDR's re-election in 1944. 
  • Filed suit against Warner Bros. in August 1943 when she was suspended from rejecting multiple roles (and while recovering from appendicitis surgery) and sought a declaratory judgment on the grounds of the California Labor Code. The Superior Court found in her favor two months later, the California Court of Appeals ruled in her favor a year later. This would help offer creative freedom to all actors and reducing the power of the studios. de Havilland ended up not working for two years afterwards, when Warner Bros circulated a letter to the other studios to blacklist her. 
  • Went behind Jack Warner's back into getting the role of Melanie from "Gone With the Wind" (1939) and with Warner's wife's help
  • Was a member of the Hollywood chapter of the public policy advocacy group The Independent Citizens' Committee of the Arts, Sciences, and Professions. 
  • Danced with the troops at the Hollywood Canteen. 
  • Renegotiated a seven-year-contract with Warner Bros. in 1936 where she would be paid $500 weekly
  • Rewrote her own speeches she was unknowingly delivering for the Independent Citizens' Committee to reflect Truman's anti-Communist platform after she found a few of the members manipulating the committee. de Havilland attempted to reform the committee before resigning completely
  • Visited wounded WW2 soldiers in military hospitals in addition to joining a USO tour through the United States and the South Pacific. 


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