Emily Kimbrough

lighthearted travel books with such titles as Wa ter, Wa ter Everywhere; And a Right Good Crew; and Pleasure by the Busload . When at her elegant Manhattan apartment in between her jaunts, she loved to entertain. "You had to 'sing' for your sup- •· per, " recalled Charles Kimbrough, who was a frequent guest while attending Yale University Drama School. "Aunt Em told witty, brilliantly constructed anecdotes at the table, just as her father and other members of the family used to do. You By the puplication of The Innocents from Indiana, Kimbrough were expected to do the same." was gliding into the new medium of television and significantly Kimbrough maintained her high spirits even as the women's increasing her impact on radio. One of her first forays into club circuit and her book sales began to falter in the 1970s. "I television was inauspicious. In June 1951 she was a regular pan­ am an early riser," she cheerfully told an interviewer before a elist on the debut of CBS:fV's Who's Whose program. The show, lecture in Indianapolis in 1973. "I usually begin work about 6 on which a celebrity panel attempted to identify which of three a.m. and quit about 1 p.m. Of course, you can stop writing contestants was the spouse of a fourth, was so dreadful that it but you can't really stop thinking about your writing. Writing was canceled after a single broadcast. Radio, though, turned out a book is like having a baby. You carry both around with you to be a bonanza, another ideal outlet for Kimbrough's talent as constantly, and you can't unload either one." Her final book, a conversationalist. In 1952 she began on WCBS Radio as the Better Than Oceans, about her travels in Europe by barge, came host and writer of a daily, twenty-five-minute program. She out in 1976. That year also included the dedication of the attained national syndication with the show, a blend of fashion restored Emily Kimbrough House in Muncie. Delighted at the news, lifestyle reports, and witty chatter. project initiated by residents of her hometown, Kimbrough During this era of her life, Kimbrough, who moved from demonstrated her phenomenal memory when consulted by Philadelphia to New York with the growth of her radio career, telephone about fabrics and furnishings in her girlhood home. hobnobbed with the elite of theater, music, politics, and lit­ Suffering from lung cancer, Kimbrough died at age ninety erature. Eleanor Roosevelt dined and corresponded with on February 10, 1989. "Emily Kimbrough used to be a house­ the Muncie-born author. Opera singer Marian Anderson, a hold name," American Wo men Wr iters reminded readers. "(Her) beloved friend, sang at the weddings of Kimbrough's daugh­ delightful, low-key books, reminiscent of james Thurber, should ters. Always an avid theatergoer, Kimbrough became a fre­ be included among ...reading selections." If her leisurely­ quent "opening nighter" at Broadway shows; her glittering paced, anecdotal travel books are dated ("they could hardly cast of friends ranged from Carlisle, the stage star and tele­ have been written in these days of jet travel, inflation, and vision personality, to British actor Nigel Bruce. instant communication," Women Wr iters conceded), many crit­ Publication of the updated version of It Gives Me Great ics emphasize that her best works, particularly the endearing Our Pleasure intrigued television executives searching for the next Hearts, retain the potential to captivate new generations. vehicle for Eve Arden. The drolly cqmic actress had enjoyed Nelson Price is the author of several books, including Indiana an enormous success from 1948 through 1956 with the radio Legends: Famous Hoosiers from johnny Appleseed to David and television versions of Our Miss Brooks. In September 1957 Letterman and Indianapolis Then and Now. A former feature CBS-TV premiered The Eve Arden Show, in which the actress writer and columnist for the Indianapolis Star, he teaches jour­ portrayed a character based on Kimbrough's life: an author nalism at Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis. who toured the country (and endured comic mishaps) on the His article abqut football and World Wa r II hero Tom Harmon lecture circuit while raising twin twelve-year-old daughters. appeared in the SJ-lmmer 2005 issue of Traces.

Although the pilot episode received warm reviews, the series FOR FURTHER READING Skinner, Cornelia Otis, and Emily quickly faltered and lasted only one season; �he final pro­ Kimbrough. Our Hearts Were Yo ung and Gay . New York: Dodd Mead and Company, Inc., 1942. I Kimbrough, Emily. Tt Gives Me Great Pleasure. New gram was broadcast on March 25, 1958. In her autobiography, York: Harper and Row, 1948. I --. The Innocents from Indiana. New

Arden blamed the show's failure on creative difficulties that Yo rk: Harper and Brothers, 1950. I --. How Dear to My Heart. New did not involve Kimbrough. Yo rk, Dodd, Mead and Company, 1944. I --. Now and Then. New Yo rk: Harper and Row, 1972. I --. Through Charley 's Door. New York: Harper Throughout the 1950s and well into the 1960s, Kimbrough and Brothers, 1952. I --. We Fo llowed Our Hearts to Hollywood. New enjoyed overseas excursions with her friends and turned out Yo rk: Dodd, Mead and Company, 1943.

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