Oh Lillian!

Everyone in the "99" Club welcomed Lillian Gish as a new member in February, 1993. Being born in October, 1893 meant that the lovely actress, whose career spanned stage roles, silent pictures, movies, and television, roamed this earth for 99 years without making it to triple digits.

I saw her not long ago playing a cool-for-her-age biology teacher on "Mr Novak," and I learned some cool things about her at the same time. She was credited as being the first true movie star. Her acting was highly regarded at a time when others became famous for being in the movies but couldn't act for beans (much like Nicolas Cage of this era.)

In the mid-20s, movie producer Charles H. Duell claimed that Gish had an ironclad contract forbidding her from making movies for any company but his. He took the case to Federal Court. He should have kept all this to himself, because the outcome of the suit was that Gish was vindicated and Duell was found guilty of perjury, and disbarred. Oooops.

During the trial, her fans came to learn that Lillian Gish was a vegetarian, and there were not many of them around at the time. She had the habit of eating raw carrots during times of stress or for a snack. This picture <<< of her chomping on a carrot during the trial was so widespread that gnawing on raw carrots became an American obsession for a time.

Gish later dropped vegetarianism for a healthy carnivorous diet of boiled eggs, fruit, meat and veggies. As a former smoker, I can say I have never had a serious urge to fire up another KOOL, but I would walk away from kale salad and go for bacon cheeseburgers very quickly if I fell into the hands of vegetarians, and still plan to live to be 99.

In fact, I think I'll throw a patty in the pan right now in honor of Ms Gish, and grind on a raw carrot while it sizzles.