Edna Ferber, Part 3: The Kalamazoo Cowgirl

After I was given this sweet gift of a cowgirl picture frame, I took some time and thought about how to use it. I ended up putting a headshot of Edna Ferber into it.  

Ferber, a member of the Algonquin Round Table, might seem, to some, an odd choice for the frame. But maybe it'll make more sense when we've gone through a short list of the films made from novels and plays written or co-written by Ferber. We'll see a lot of horses, tumbleweeds, and cowboy hats. 

Ferber, who endured much cruel anti-Semitism in her youth, spoke of her pride in her Jewish heritage in her memoir A Peculiar Treasure. (I'm sure there were Jewish cowboys, but you know what I mean; Ferber was a city person.) And when she lived in places smaller than New York City she was always a "townie." 

At the same time, Ferber grew up with a degree of hardship and struggle, as her father's disability meant a constant search for income in new locales. Maybe that's what drove Ferber to write novels which often became movies about farmers, ranchers, and Texas oilmen? The best-known of these is the film "Giant," remembered less for its story than for mega-stars including Rock Hudson, Elizabeth Taylor, and James Dean. 

[Image source: https://www.interabangbooks.com/article/bygone-bestsellers-edna-ferbers-giant'

Here's the film trailer:
 

One of my favorite Western-themed Ferber books is Cimarron. 

Earilier readers must have agreed about the quality of the book, because the novel became a movie twice. The first time around, Irene Dunne starred with William Dix in 1931 -- the same year "Frankenstein" hit early movie screens. 

Here's a movie poster from the 1931 version of "Cimarron." (I snagged the image from this blog.)

Glenn Ford starred, along with Mercedes McCambridge (and Anne Baxter, obviously!) in the 1960 version:

It doesn't have to be in Wyoming to be a Western, right? Set in New Orleans and Saratoga, New York, the film "Saratoga Trunk," adapted from a Ferber novel, has a Texan as the male romantic lead. 

Trailer for 1945's "Saratoga Trunk":

The novel So Big, which won Ferber the Pulitzer Prize early in her career, used one of the author's favorite themes: a woman unsuited to a harsh, rugged lifestyle learns to overcome adversity. She's raising a son alone; it's a bit like Jack Shaefer's Shane, but without a father in the family.

Here's the trailer for "So Big":

Not everything Edna Ferber wrote was Western-themed, but that was quite a list, wasn't it?

About the title of today's post:  Last week, I included a video of the Big Band hit "I've Got a Gal in Kalamazoo" because Edna Ferber was born in that Michigan city. But in Ferber's early childhood, the family moved to the Chicago area and then to a small town in Iowa before settling in Appleton, Wisconsin when Edna was twelve years old. 

If you read the previous post in this series, you may remember that there was an article in the Appleton newspaper about the postage stamp with Edna Ferber's image on it. Appleton celebrates Ferber as one of its own, and as a young woman, Ferber wrote for Appleton's Post-Crescent. The town  has an elementary school named for Ferber.

Next week: The Wisconsin Sophisticate. . .on Broadway!

Garbo