Montgomery Clift
From RoyalWeb
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(→Ethel Blair) |
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A remarkable story is related by Patricia Bosworth in her biography of Montgomery Clift about his mother's birth. According to her report, she was told that Ethel "Sunny" had been born from the union of Woodbury "Woody" Blair and Maria "Bobbie" Anderson. Maria had formed an attachment to Woodbury, but Maria's mother Elizabeth disapproved of the relationship. Maria and Woodbury continued meeting without her mother's approval and eventually married secretly. When her mother learned about the marriage, she either had it annuled, or forced Maria to do so. She then kept Maria a virtual prisoner, sometimes guarded by her sister Sophie. | A remarkable story is related by Patricia Bosworth in her biography of Montgomery Clift about his mother's birth. According to her report, she was told that Ethel "Sunny" had been born from the union of Woodbury "Woody" Blair and Maria "Bobbie" Anderson. Maria had formed an attachment to Woodbury, but Maria's mother Elizabeth disapproved of the relationship. Maria and Woodbury continued meeting without her mother's approval and eventually married secretly. When her mother learned about the marriage, she either had it annuled, or forced Maria to do so. She then kept Maria a virtual prisoner, sometimes guarded by her sister Sophie. | ||
| − | Maria however had already became pregnant. When it came time for the child's birth, they moved in the Summer of 1888 to Philadelphia, [[Pennsylvania]] where she gave birth on 29 Sep 1888. The birth certificate, according to Patricia Bosworth, records her parents as "Sophie and Frank Adams". Her mother forced Maria to agree to give the child up for adoption. Sophia Anderson, Maria's sister is reported to have told Sunny decades later, that Woodbury Blair was never told of his wife's pregnancy or the birth of their child. The doctor who delivered the child, Edward E Montgomery, kept her for a year, and finally she was adopted by the Charles Fogg family of Germantown. | + | Maria however had already became pregnant. When it came time for the child's birth, they moved in the Summer of 1888 to Philadelphia, [[Pennsylvania]] where she gave birth on 29 Sep 1888. The birth certificate, according to Patricia Bosworth, records her parents as "Sophie and Frank Adams". Her mother forced Maria to agree to give the child up for adoption. Sophia Anderson, Maria's sister is reported to have told Sunny decades later, that Woodbury Blair was never told of his wife's pregnancy or the birth of their child. The doctor who delivered the child, Edward E Montgomery, kept her for a year, and finally she was adopted by the Charles Fogg family of Germantown. In 1895 Charles Fogg is listed as a machinist, age 48, while his wife Elizabeth is age 40. Evidently they had no children of their body. |
When Sunny was 18, she went to Cornell on a scholarship. It was then that Dr. Montgomery told her this story of her birth. The Blair family never accepted this story, at least they had not by the time of Patrica's book in 1978, calling it "hogwash" according to her report. The Anderson family did accept the story, at least some of them. | When Sunny was 18, she went to Cornell on a scholarship. It was then that Dr. Montgomery told her this story of her birth. The Blair family never accepted this story, at least they had not by the time of Patrica's book in 1978, calling it "hogwash" according to her report. The Anderson family did accept the story, at least some of them. | ||
