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ENCHANTÉ- MAY 4 : AUDREY HEPBURN’S 90th ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION

On May 4, we celebrate Audrey’s birthday. Born in Ixelles near Brussels in 1929, from a British father, Joseph Ruston and a Dutch mother, Ella Baroness van Heemstra, she would have been 90 had she lived. Although she died tragically from an intestinal disease in 1993, only 63 years old, she still has many fans. Turner Classic Movies repeats her movies regularly. My favorites are Roman Holiday, My Fair Lady, Wait Until Dark, The Nun’s Story, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, and Charade. If I am pushed to the wall, I would rate The Nun’s Story her best because I know that world and loved the scenes in Africa’s Congo which I visited later while working for the World Bank. But Roman Holiday was the movie that rocked us in the family as Audrey had suddenly turned into a film star. At school, everybody was jealous that I knew her.

The above pictures are ‘pre-fame’ Audrey when she was modeling in London in the early fifties. The first is a copyrighted picture of the Audrey Hepburn family archive given to me by her second son Luca Dotti.  The second is a rare photograph by Noel Mayne, a London photographer of Baron Studios, which Audrey’s mother left me.

Audrey (then 13) and I (then 7) played together in Holland in 1943 during World War II. I wrote about it in my paperback, entitled ‘Audrey – a Cherished Memory,’ which also includes some ‘pre-fame’ pictures, some given to me by her mother, and others by Audrey’s second son, Luca Dotti, from the family archive. The paperback contains two short stories, the first on how Audrey (then still Audrey Ruston) and I met at the house of my grandparents, not far from where Audrey lived with her mother and grandfather, and the second how we met again later in life in Geneva, Switzerland. You can read it in one sitting, with a cup of coffee or tea, a scotch or a glass of wine. For Audrey lovers, it is a nice souvenir. I am sending the sales proceeds to the Audrey Hepburn Children’s Fund. I have lowered the price to US$5.25 or equivalent, to encourage more sales, which yields $1 in royalty. So, the more booklets sold, the merrier for the Audrey Hepburn Children’s Fund (www.audreyhepburn.org). The paperback is featured below:

 

 

The booklet is sold by Amazon.com with the following links, in the various locations of the USA, Canada, UK (Europe), France, Italy and elsewhere. as listed below:

USA and Canada:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/0999154400

http://www.amazon.ca/dp/0999154400

Europe:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0999154400

http://www.amazon.de/dp/0999154400

http://www.amazon.es/dp/0999154400

http://www.amazon.fr/dp/0999154400

http://www.amazon.it/dp/0999154400

For the cookerers among you, Luca Dotti produced a wonderful cookbook with Audrey’s recipes, including Dutch recipes, entitled Audrey at Home: Memories of My Mother’s Kitchen – http://amzn.to/2AqVPF1

Those who already purchased my Audrey booklet or want to donate directly to the Audrey Hepburn Children’s Fund, please do so by clicking on http://www.audreyhepburn.org

“Like” this blog! You clicked to read it free! Why not click a second time on “like”?

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Audrey Hepburn’s Benevolence

 

May 4 is Audrey’s birthday anniversary. She would have been 89 today but sadly she died way too early when she was only 63. She remains an icon in my mind as she touched my life when I was a kid during World War II.

  1941-1943 circa © Copyrighted Material

Neither of us knew then that she would become a famous and worldwide adored filmstar a decade later, and a beloved UNICEF Ambassadrice at the end of her flamboyant career. This is why May 4 is a splendid occasion to reward her tireless effort to support the deprived children of the world, in Africa, Asia, the Middle East and South America.

There are several ways you can do this: directly through Audrey’s website www.audreyhepburn.org, or by buying a copy of ‘Audrey Hepburn – A Cherished Memory’, a short story about how her bright star brushed my personal life https://amzn.to/2JOcjL4, the proceeds of which go to the Audrey Hepburn Children’s Fund. You can also navigate my website www.johnschwartzauthor.com and look under ‘Books’ for more details on the Audrey story.  There you will also find direct links to the Audrey Hepburn website, courtesy Luca Dotti, Audrey Hepburn’s second son, who is Chairman of the Fund’s board.

Give magnanimous Audrey and her poor and malnourished children magnanimously! I have seen them myself and it is heartbreaking when you meet the orphaned kids on the street, in cities or rural towns, many limping because of maltreated diseases or injuries by war, or emaciated by hunger, struggling to stay alive, stretching their little hands for food or a dime. Many are abused by pimps and thieves. I know of a few organizations that help to keep them off the streets and build a new life for them (e.g. Website: www.givhopeafrica.org) and this is most gratifying. The Audrey Hepburn Children’s Fund deserves your good intentions too. Please don’t ignore this. Every little bit helps!

 

https://amzn.to/2JOcjL4

All my best,

John

 

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ENCHANTÉ – GIVE AUDREY A CHANCE!

Picture: Audrey dancing ballet in Arnhem – 1946

In honor of Audrey and her Children’s Fund (www.audreyhepburn.com) I published a short story on how we met as children and thereafter at a chance meeting when she was a well-known and beloved actress, with many good movies on her repertoire. My favored Audrey movie is Roman Holiday, her first, when I heard at boarding school the girl I played with when I was 7 (and she 13) during World War II had become a movie star and an overnight sensation. The short story is on holiday sale for only US$5.99 plus shipping or equivalent in other currencies (Pound Sterling, Euro) and the proceeds go to help Audrey’s Children’s Fund. Be a little generous and receive a sweet memory in return, with a few rare pre-fame Audrey pictures included.

USA and Canada:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/0999154400

http://www.amazon.ca/dp/0999154400

Europe:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0999154400

http://www.amazon.de/dp/0999154400

http://www.amazon.es/dp/0999154400

http://www.amazon.fr/dp/0999154400

http://www.amazon.it/dp/0999154400

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL OF YOU!

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Audrey Hepburn is Calling!

The above picture is ‘pre-fame’ Audrey Hepburn when she was modeling in London in the early fifties, a copyrighted picture of the Audrey Hepburn family archive given to me by her second son Luca Dotti.  Audrey (then 13) and I (then 7) played together in Holland during World War II. I wrote about it in my just-published paperback, entitled ‘Audrey – a Cherished Memory,’ which also includes some ‘pre-fame’ pictures, some given to me by her mother, Ellen Baroness van Heemstra, and others by Luca Dotti, also from the family archive. The paperback is a short story and you can read it in one sitting, with a coffee, a cup of tea, a scotch or a glass of wine. For Audrey lovers, it is a nice souvenir. I am sending the sales proceeds to the Audrey Hepburn Children’s Fund. Originally priced at US$8 or equivalent, I have lowered the price to US$5.99 or equivalent, to encourage more sales during the Christmas and New Year period.

Many charities are claiming your generosity these days but with this contribution, you also get a sweet Audrey story in return! So give it your best, and click on where you are buying from:

The booklet is sold by Amazon.com with the following links, in the various locations of the USA, Canada, UK (Europe), France, Italy and elsewhere. as listed below:

USA and Canada:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/0999154400

http://www.amazon.ca/dp/0999154400

Europe:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0999154400

http://www.amazon.de/dp/0999154400

http://www.amazon.es/dp/0999154400

http://www.amazon.fr/dp/0999154400

http://www.amazon.it/dp/0999154400

MAKE IT YOUR CHRISTMAS GIFT! Audrey will be delighted.

For the cookerers among you, Luca Dotti produced a wonderful cookbook with Audrey’s recipes, including Dutch recipes, entitled Audrey at Home: Memories of My Mother’s Kitchen – http://amzn.to/2AqVPF1

Those who already purchased my Audrey booklet and want to donate directly to the Audrey Hepburn Children’s Fund, please do so by clicking on http://www.audreyhepburn.com

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ENCHANTÉ – Audrey Hepburn – A Cherished Memory

Thanks to all of you who are contributing to the www.audreyhepburn.com Children’s Fund by ordering my personal memoir of Audrey – A Cherished Memory!  The full proceeds of the sales will be transferred to the Audrey Fund. 

 

 

Finally, Sun Hill Books, USA, has published its first little booklet, entitled Audrey – A Cherished Memory. It is an updated 32-page printed version of the 2014 e-book “Audrey” with a few additional “pre-fame” photographs of Audrey when she was still a young girl as I knew her. Two were given to me by her second son, Luca Dotti, from their family archive, on behalf of the Audrey Hepburn Children’s Fund.  Much later, there were so many photographs of her widely published that adding one of those to my Audrey story would be superfluous. Sadly, in the seventies, we did not make personal photographs the way we do now with our cell phones. The cover photograph of the Audrey booklet is “pre-fame” by Noel Mayne of Baron Studios in London, made in the early nineteen fifties when Audrey was modeling. I received this photograph from her mother through an aunt of mine when I was still in secondary school. It is rare because it was part of Baron’s negatives which perished in flooding before Baron’s photos were transferred to the National Photo Gallery in London. Luca Dotti, who is now chairman of the board of the Audrey Hepburn Children’s Fund (Pasadena, California) sent me the second photograph above, which is from the same period and copyrighted by the Audrey Hepburn Family Archive.

Sun Hill Books issues this booklet for the benefit of the Audrey Hepburn Children’s Fund,  http://www.audreyhepburn.org. To widen the audience in 2019, we have priced it at US$5.25, and equivalent prices in other countries, which would net the Fund the royalty of US$1. Now I hope that many of you still have a loving memory of Audrey’s movies (Roman Holiday,  The Nun Story, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Charade,  My Fair Lady, Two for the Road,  some of my favorites) and buy the booklet to read how we first met as children during World War II. I know she told her two sons, Sean Ferrer and Luca Dotti, of those bad days and the malnutrition she endured while living in Arnhem and Velp in The Netherlands. Both read the booklet before publication, Sean in 2014 and Luca in 2017, and they remembered their mother’s horror tales of World War II.

As you know, in 1988, Audrey became a beloved Ambassadrice of UNICEF, visiting malnourished and sick children in some twenty countries. She actively helped fundraise millions of dollars in the USA and Europe, while eventually succumbing to colon cancer at the age of 63 in 1993, perhaps induced by the malnutrition she suffered during World War II. She was a very engaged and courageous woman, both a famous movie star and a bright star in the firmament, which is still shining.

1988 – Audrey in Ethiopia – by John Isaac

The booklet is sold by Amazon.com with the following links, in the various locations of the USA, Canada, UK (Europe), France, Italy and elsewhere. as listed below:

USA and Canada:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/0999154400

http://www.amazon.ca/dp/0999154400

Europe:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0999154400

http://www.amazon.de/dp/0999154400

http://www.amazon.es/dp/0999154400

http://www.amazon.fr/dp/0999154400

http://www.amazon.it/dp/0999154400

For the cookerers among you, Luca Dotti produced a wonderful cookbook with Audrey’s recipes, including Dutch recipes, entitled Audrey at Home: Memories of My Mother’s Kitchen – http://amzn.to/2AqVPF1

Those who already purchased my Audrey booklet or want to donate directly to the Audrey Hepburn Children’s Fund, please do so by clicking on http://www.audreyhepburn.org

(Updated in February 2019)

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