Dana Andrews in Rockdale by Jeanne Williams.Temple Daily Telegram & Rockdale Reporter

Author Rollyson to speak about Dana Andrews in Rockdale

Jeanne Williams

Temple Daily Telegram - October 31, 2010

ROCKDALE — Celebrity author Carl Rollyson of New York will present a program titled

“Dana Andrews: The Road from Rockdale to Hollywood” from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Thursday

in the Lucy Hill Patterson Memorial Library, Chamber President Denice Doss said.

Andrews, star of “The Best Years of Our Lives” and other motion pictures, grew up in

several Texas towns and spent part of his early childhood in the First Baptist Church

parsonage in Rockdale as one of 13 offspring of powerful, charismatic Baptist minister

Rev. C.F. Andrews. No matter how far Dana Andrews traveled away from Texas, or how

famous he became in the motion picture industry, he never forgot what he owed to the

state and to his upbringing in Rockdale.

Rollyson will speak on Dana Andrew’s Texas background and will show scenes from

Andrews’ films “The Oxbow Incident” or “Swamp Water.” Both motion pictures reflect how

he drew on his Southern roots. Rollyson is researching material for a Dana Andrews’s

biography to add to his extensive collection of books on celebrities, including Marilyn

Monroe, Norman Mailer, Pablo Picasso, playwright Lillian Hellman, journalist Martha

Gellhorn and scientist Marie Curie.

“I am excited about meeting people in Rockdale who may have stories to tell about what

it was like to grow up in Rockdale in the years Dana and his family resided there,”

Rollyson said. “I don’t imagine there are any contemporaries of Dana Andrews left but

there are certainly the ancestors from those contemporaries.”

The Andrews family stayed in Rockdale about 18 months in the early 20th Century just

before World War I.

Rollyson’s biography of Dana Andrews will be published by the University Press of

Mississippi. For information on the free presentation call the Rockdale Chamber of

Commerce at 512-446-2030.

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Dana Andrews program set for Nov. 4th

Rockdale Reporter - October 28, 2010

Carl Rollyson, journalism professor at Baruch College of the City University of New

York, will host a program on actor Dana Andrews from 6 to 7:30 p.m. Nov. 4 at the city

library.

Rollyson, is writing a biography of Andrews. The program is entitled “Dana Andrews: The

Road From Rockdale to Hollywood.” Andrews lived in Rockdale as a child in the World War

I era. His father, Rev. C. F. Andrews, was pastor of First Baptist Church. The Andrews

family had 13 children.

Dana Andrews was born Carver Dana Andrews on a farmstead outside Collins, Covington

County, Mississippi.

The family subsequently moved to Huntsville, Texas, where his Dana Andrews program set

for Nov. 4th younger siblings (including actor Steve Forrest) were born.

Andrews attended college at Sam Houston State University and also studied business

administration in Houston, working briefly as an accountant for Gulf & Western.

In 1931, he travelled to Los A ngeles, Ca lifor nia seek ing opportunities as a singer.

He worked at various jobs to earn a living, including pumping gas at a filling station

before getting his big break in films.

He was of Hollywood’s major stars in the 1940s and continued acting into the 1980s.

He had a starring role, with Fredric March and Myrna Loy, in William Wyler’s “The Best

Years of Our Lives,” one of the most honored films of the 1940s and still regarded as

the definitive American movie dealing with returning World War II veterans.

He starred in The Ox-Bow Incident, an “anti-western” filmed by maverick director

William Wellman, which has become a cult.

He also appeared in “Laura”, “Airport, 1975” and more than 70 other films. Andrews died

in 1992 at age 83.

Rollyson has also written biographies on Marilyn Monroe, Norman Mailer, Pablo Picasso

and Marie Curie.

“I am excited about meeting people in Rockdale who may have stories to tell about what

it was like to grow up in Rockdale in the years Dana and his family resided there,” he

said.

“I don’t imagine there are any contemporaries of Dana Andrews left but there are

certainly the ancestors from those contemporaries,” he added.

For more information on the free presentation call the Rockdale Chamber of Commerce at

512-446-2030

All articles from the Temple Daily Telegram are published with the permission of the
Temple Daily Telegram.
All credit for this article goes to
Jeanne Williams and the Temple Daily Telegram