Diana Bourbon (born Ruth Hunt; August 28, 1900 – March 19, 1978) was an American actress, journalist, producer, director, and writer. She wrote for The New York Times from 1923 to 1927.

Diana Bourbon
A young white woman with dark hair, wearing a costume with a very high scalloped collar that reaches above her head, and a medieval-style gown
Diana Bourbon in theatrical costume, from a 1921 publication
Born
Ruth Hunt

August 28, 1900
New York City
DiedMarch 19, 1978
Los Angeles, California
Other namesDiana Hunt, Diana Hillson (after marriage)
Occupation(s)Writer, actress, producer

Early life

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Diana Bourbon was born Ruth Hunt in New York City, the daughter of John Wesley Hunt and Mary Ellen Hunt. Her father was a newspaper editor. She studied ballet, and was educated in Paris, and at Oxford University.[1] As a young woman in World War I, she drove an ambulance and worked in a canteen.[2][3]

Career

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Bourbon began her career as a stage actress,[4] and appeared in one Broadway show, in the original cast of John Galsworthy's Loyalties (1922–1923).[5][6] She also starred in Edith Millbank's Tancred in London in 1923.[7] Later in life, she returned to the stage in Los Angeles, in Music in the Distance (1960).[8]

Bourbon wrote articles for The New York Times from 1922 to 1927, usually on cultural topics while she was based in London and Paris,[9][10][11][12] such as a 1924 interview with Emma Goldman in exile,[13] a 1924 interview with Amelita Galli-Curci about feminism,[14] and a 1926 interview with H. G. Wells, in which he speculates on the century ahead.[15] She also wrote for Cosmopolitan,[16] and Harper's Bazaar.[17]

Bourbon was a writer, producer, and director in radio,[1][18] including Burns and Allen's Hollywood Hotel,[18] the game show Double or Nothing (1940–1954),[19] the drama anthology The Campbell Playhouse (1940),[20][21] the comedy The Judy Canova Show (1943–1944), Club Fifteen (1947–1953), and the soap operas Brenda Curtis (1939–1940) and Life Begins (1940).[22][23] She also acted on radio, in The Vanishing Lady (1957).[24]

For the screen, she co-wrote Born That Way (1936), and co-wrote the stories adapted as Atlantic Adventure (1935) and Roaming Lady (1936). She had three television acting credits, for roles in episodes of Thriller (1961), The Fugitive (1963), and Mission: Impossible (1968).

Personal life

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Bourbon married English writer and editor K. Norman Hillson in 1928; they later divorced. She died in 1978, aged 77 years, in Los Angeles.[25]

References

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  1. ^ a b Kelling, Vesta (1941-06-22). "Dynamic Diana Bourbon Keeps Radio's Soap and Soup Serial Dramas Always Humming". Fort Worth Star-Telegram. p. 34. Retrieved 2021-09-02 – via Newspapers.com.
  2. ^ "Woman Director was Actress, War Ambulance Driver". Harrisburg Telegraph. 1941-02-01. p. 24. Retrieved 2021-09-02 – via Newspapers.com.
  3. ^ "American Girl Wears Beautiful Gown at Royal Presentation". San Francisco Chronicle. 1919-09-28. p. 8. Retrieved 2021-09-02 – via Newspapers.com.
  4. ^ "In Striking Successes of the Season" The Spur 27(May 15, 1921): 45.
  5. ^ "Diana Bourbon". Playbill. Retrieved 2021-09-02.
  6. ^ Bourbon, Diana (February 15, 1923). "Acting Doesn't Require Brains". Maclean's | The Complete Archive. Archived from the original on 2021-09-02. Retrieved 2021-09-02.
  7. ^ "'Tancred' Acted in London". The New York Times. July 17, 1923. p. 14 – via ProQuest.
  8. ^ "'Distance' Play Winds Sunday". Valley Times. 1960-03-04. p. 9. Retrieved 2021-09-02 – via Newspapers.com.
  9. ^ Bourbon, Diana (1924-11-23). "Aged Empire Builder is Almost an American; Sir Bradford Leslie, Who Has Passed 93, Constructed Indian Railways and Many Bridges -- His Father, a Famous Artist, Was Born in This Country". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2021-09-02.
  10. ^ Bourbon, Diana (1926-01-10). "The Tiger Plays Demosthenes; Although He Denies the Allegation, Some Frenchmen Hold That Clemenceau in His New Book Has Drawn a Self-Portrait, Reproaching His Enemies Indirectly and Picturing France Today". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2021-09-02.
  11. ^ Bourbon, Diana (1925-08-09). "First Woman Wins Grand Prix de Rome for Canvas; Odette Pauvert, 22, Parisian Artist, Has Captured Coveted Award With Picture Displaying Mystical Imagination and Grasp of Portraiture". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2021-09-02.
  12. ^ Bourbon, Diana (1927-04-10). "England Hunts by Motor; Ancient Traditions of Riding to Hounds Are Rudely Jarred by Crowds of Autoists". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2021-09-02.
  13. ^ Bourbon, Diana (December 7, 1924). "Emma Goldman Weary of Bolshevism". The New York Times. p. XX5 – via ProQuest.
  14. ^ Bourbon, Diana (1924-03-09). "Galli-Curci Deplores Feminism; Singer Pleads for Return of Old-Fashioned Womanhood -- Says Home Makers Wield Greatest Power". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2021-09-02.
  15. ^ Bourbon, Diana (1926-06-06). "Wells Looks Ahead One Hundred Years; Century of Struggle at Hand, Says British Writer, Between the Unified World Idea and Persistent And "Suicidal" Nationalism -- He Foresees New and Great Groupings of Mankind". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2021-09-02.
  16. ^ Marshall, Marguerite Mooers (1928-11-29). "The Woman of It". The News Tribune. p. 16. Retrieved 2021-09-02 – via Newspapers.com.
  17. ^ "Lack Clan Spirit". The Tampa Times. 1931-08-24. p. 6. Retrieved 2021-09-02 – via Newspapers.com.
  18. ^ a b Donnell, Darrell (1937-02-10). "Woman Produces Radio Shows; Diana Bourbon Star in 3 Different Fields". The San Francisco Examiner. p. 11. Retrieved 2021-09-02.
  19. ^ Terrace, Vincent (2015-09-02). Radio Programs, 1924-1984: A Catalog of More Than 1800 Shows. McFarland. p. 103. ISBN 978-1-4766-0528-9.
  20. ^ "The Campbell Playhouse". Pumpkin FM-Old Time Radio. 2011-11-06. Archived from the original on 2020-12-04. Retrieved 2021-09-02.
  21. ^ "Miss Bourbon in Action". The Gazette. 1940-12-06. p. 6. Retrieved 2021-09-02 – via Newspapers.com.
  22. ^ Dunning, John (1998-05-07). On the Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio. Oxford University Press. pp. 207, 294. ISBN 978-0-19-977078-6.
  23. ^ "Diana Bourbon directs the radio serial Life Begins for CBS Radio". Getty Images. July 1, 1940. Archived from the original on 2021-09-02. Retrieved 2021-09-02.
  24. ^ "Vanishing Lady, The". RUSC. Archived from the original on 2021-09-02. Retrieved 2021-09-02.
  25. ^ "Deaths" (PDF). Broadcasting: 109. April 10, 1978.
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