MEMORIES from Mary French

MEMORIES from Mary French

Mary is sure that the Studebaker was the car her father used to drive for Max Milder, head of Warner Bros. films in England through the 1940’s.

She adds:

It originally had a Q registration as it was imported from America. It may well have been owned by the film company but I remember my father having to take it to France by air ferry for a short time, probably in order to avoid import tax! Generally my father chauffeured Mr Milder up to the Warner Bros. London Offices or the studios in Teddington I believe.

Sometimes my dad would drive Mrs Milder, Maxine her Nanny and me into the countryside on Sunday afternoons. How posh was that? Mr Milder was married to a very glamorous lady – Madeleine Belle Sturnberg who had been a Ziegfeld girl. A picture of Mrs Madeleine Milder can currently be seen for sale on media storehouse website. I always thought that she looked a lot like Betty Grable but taller, with a dash of Brooklyn. She was always very caring to the staff and generous too. She must have got candy from America and would pass it round at the film shows….our sweets were still on ration. I used to see the latest films in the Milder’s private cinema (had been the ballroom) in their Weybridge mansion, as, with my family, we lived in a cottage in the grounds. There was a son David Abraham and a daughter Maxine Ann who was just a bit older than me. I spent a lot of time at Netherfield House with her, we got on well together. My internet trawls have only found Mr Milder at a press reception for the stars attending the Royal Command Film Performance 1946. There is a 10 minute film of the guests arriving. After 3.58mins Pat O’Brien enters with wife, then an unknown girl. The next guest is Max Milder. Following behind is Hedy Lamarr escorted by Howard Hughes (unless I am mistaken). Interesting for any film fan of the 40s and 50s. Deborah Kerr, Jean-Pierre Aumont, Ray Milland, Valerie Hobson but too many to name here. These free film shows gave my mother and me an appetite for the cinema so we would go to the “flicks” every Saturday afternoon. Three cinemas in Walton on Thames, two in Weybridge and five in Kingston upon Thames. I used to like Walton because we would often go for a supper in the Black and White Fish Buffet see Emergency Call (Capture 12). Later an autographed photo of Jack Warner and Anthony Steel alongside the owners taken of them behind the counter, was put on display.

Whilst only aged nine when Max Milder passed away on the 1st August 1948 I remember the house being put up for sale in 1952 and as a result we had to move on.

Happy days !

Another tale from Mary……

……….. that happened about 70 years ago. On the way home from school one day we were passing Lawn House, St Georges Ave, Weybridge where there was a huge horse chestnut tree. No conkers on the footpath, but lots on the driveway. A nice old gentleman spoke to me and helped to pick up some.

Who was he? Sir Felix Aylmer ( A REEL Toff )

What a wonderful character actor he was too. (RL)