A few years ago, I picked up a memoir Justine Chase published in 1988, A World Remembered, at John Bale Books. Many of the illustrations were paintings by her mother, Elsie Rowland Chase. It's a lovely little book, with a very nice blurb by May Sarton, one of my favorite authors, on the back cover.
Justine Chase, from the little I can glean (mostly from the book's dust jacket), had a fascinating life. Her poetry was published in the Atlantic Monthly, she collaborated on several plays, and held leading roles in several Broadway plays including Kind Lady. When that play was produced as a film starring Basil Rathbone, Chase appeared as his wife Ada.
Justine Chase as Ada, in Kind Lady (1935)
The movie can be watched on YouTube, broken into nine segments. Chase first appears about seven minutes into the third segment (embedded below), playing the supposedly ailing wife of Rathbone's con artist role.
Chase moved to England after World War II.
5 comments:
So pleased you like Justine's book! Her children also came to live in the UK and have been my dear friends for over 40 yrs. I only knew her in her old age - still formidable. The photo you show on your blog is lovely!I'll alert her family to your blog.
My friend Sue, who sent you an anonymous comment, did alert me. I was delighted to see this blog, especially the picture, which I hadn't seen before. I'm Justine Chase (Haight)(Ashby)'s eldest daughter, Mary Rowland Haight. I live in Scotland, recently retired from the University of Glasgow's Philosophy Dept. My sister Amanda Haight (Caines), biographer of Anna Akhmatova, died in Australia in 1989. My brother John Haight is a mathematician at University College, London. We never knew my grandmother, Elsie Rowland Chase, but John and I have a lot of her paintings. Which painting of Aunt Freddie is in the Mattatuck Museum?
Hi All!
My name is Fredrika (“Freddie”) Millett Camozzi. I was named after my mother, Fredrika Chase Rand (Millett). My maternal grandmother was Helen Chase Rand, daughter of Elsie Rowland Chase! I found this blog while searching the internet for information on Elsie and how best to preserve some of the paintings by Elsie that we have in our family. This has been a true delight to read about all of these Chase family members! (When I was a child, I’d try to memorize the names in the annual “Chase Chatter”!)
Happy 2019 to all and if you have any preservation tips, please email me! Fredrika.camozzi@gmail.com
x+o
I knew Justine Chase and her sister Fredrica (sorry if name is misspelled), who was married to Duncan Brent. I am Cathy Hertz, daughter of the late David Hertz and Margaret Reid Hertz. I am 87 years old and live on Loma Linda CA. I last saw Justine's daughter Amanda Haight in London 50 years ago. I would love to hear from anyone who remembers that family. I can be reached at cat36481@gmail
com.
On further reading, I was very sad to learn that both Amanda and Mary Rowland Haight died (in 1989 and 2021, respectively), as I have fond childhood memories of both of them. Their aunt Fredrika Chase and her husband Duncan Brent were very close friends of my mother, Margaret Reid Hertz, and we knew them by the nicknames "Freddie and Boo."
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