Ethel Borden

Ethel Borden Harriman (December 11, 1897 – July 4, 1953) was an American heiress, actress, and author who worked as a screenwriter at MGM and RKO during the 1930s.

Ethel Borden
circa 1915–1917
Born
Ethel Borden Harriman

December 11, 1897
New York, U.S.
DiedJuly 4, 1953(1953-07-04) (aged 55)
New York, U.S.
OccupationScreenwriter, author
Spouse(s)Henry Potter Russell (div.)
Parent(s)J. Borden Harriman
Florence J. Harriman

Biography

Ethel Harriman was born into a wealthy New York family in 1897. Her father, J. Borden Harriman, was a banker, and her mother, Florence "Daisy" Hurst, was a suffragette and diplomat.[1][2] Ethel served with the Women's Ambulance Service in France during World War I, and afterward spent two years as an actress in a theatrical stock company.[3][4]

Ethel married stockbroker Henry Potter Russell; the pair divorced in 1925.[5] She played Grace Torrence in a 1933 production of Design For Living and began writing screenplays after being encouraged to do so by playwright Noël Coward.[3] She published a comedic book, Romantic, I Call It, in 1926, and took on writing assignments in Hollywood at MGM, penning films like They Wanted to Marry and I Live My Life under the name Ethel Borden.[lower-alpha 1][7][8] She continued to act in the 1930s, appearing in productions such as the Ziegfeld Follies.[6] She is credited by the Broadway Internet Database as translating Hedda Gabler in 1942 and writing Anne of England in 1941. Ancestry census records for 1940 show her living with the 46 year old Mary Cass Canfield (author of the one act play Lackeys of the Moon) in Nassau, New York, and they were both hired by Broadway producer Gilbert Miller, so the 2 women probably collaborated on Anne of England and other works for Miller.

Later in her life, Borden was in a long-term relationship with the British novelist Pamela Frankau.[9][10]

She died of leukemia on July 4, 1953, aged 55, in New York City,[11] and was survived by her daughter, Phyllis Russell, and her son, Charles Howland Russell.[1][2]

Selected filmography

Notes
  1. She dropped the name Harriman professionally to conceal her wealthy background.[6]

References
  1. "Obituaries: Mrs. Ethel H. Russell". The New York Daily News. July 6, 1953. Retrieved May 15, 2019.
  2. "Noted Diplomat May Make a Home Here". The San Francisco Examiner. August 29, 1958. Retrieved May 15, 2019.
  3. "Find 'Lost' Society Woman Is Writing Scripts in Studio". Press and Sun-Bulletin. October 1, 1934. Retrieved May 15, 2019.
  4. "American Heiresses Work in War-Torn France". El Paso Herald. March 19, 1918. Retrieved May 15, 2019.
  5. "Aimee Gourand to Be Relation of H.P. Russell". The New York Daily News. July 31, 1927. Retrieved May 15, 2019.
  6. Carey, Gary (1981). All the Stars in Heaven: Louis B. Mayer's MGM. Dutton. p. 182. ISBN 0-525-05245-3.
  7. "Daughter Writes Book". The Indianapolis Star. August 28, 1927. Retrieved May 15, 2019.
  8. "Heiress Writer". The Decatur Herald. July 30, 1934. Retrieved May 15, 2019.
  9. Gonda, Caroline (2009). ""A Roller-coaster of a Life with Everything in it": Pamela Frankau (1908–67)". In Roden, Frederick (ed.). Jewish/Christian/Queer: Crossroads and Identities (PDF). Ashgate. pp. 181–203. ISBN 978-0-7546-7375-0.
  10. Gonda, Caroline (2018). "Love and loss in wartime: An unpublished narrative by Pamela Frankau (1908–67)" (PDF). Journal of Lesbian Studies. 22 (4): 446–458. doi:10.1080/10894160.2018.1432743. PMID 29509079.
  11. "Harriman, Florence Jaffray (1870–1967)". Women in World History: A Biographical Encyclopedia. Gale Research. 2002. Retrieved July 13, 2019 – via Encyclopedia.com.

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