Outtakes: Eve Arden

Although it's the words that matter most in a book about a legendary performer like Eve Arden, I also love using photos to document the careers I write about -- and  you'll find 60 of them in "Eve Arden: A Chronicle of All Film, Television, Radio and Stage Performances."   Inevitably, though, there are pictures that, for one reason or another, don't make the cut in the finished book. I thought it would be fun to use this blog to share some of those that I've collected in the course of writing four books.

This one shows Eve in 1947, shopping for dresses with her daughter Liza. Onscreen, Eve's character in Our Miss Brooks faced an uphill battle in her quest to find love and domestic happiness. In real life, though, Eve adopted two daughters in the 1940s, and was subsequently married for many years to actor and artist Brooks West. Together they raised a family of four, and if you've ever read or heard an interview with Eve, you'll know how important that family was to her. I think this photo nicely illustrates that.