the only good thing about living this long, i suppose, is i got to see that bitch olivia de havilland go first. oh, she was awful, but everyone loved her. she had those doe eyes, you see, and so they just kept giving her the same part over and over and over again. but she didn't even want it. no, she'd no intention of being an actress. she wanted to be a school teacher. at least she did when we first met. lord, this had to be the summer of 1934. we were both freshman at mill's college for girls. she and i were roommates our first year, and i took a shining to the poor awkward girl. she was a bit of a snob, you see, and none of the other girls really took to her. her mother was some famous actress none of us had ever heard of, and her father had abandoned the family to marry his maid, if you can believe such a thing. the de havilland family were descended from members of the landed gentry, anglo-normans, olivia said and often, and her mother had settled them in sarasota after their father left. it was my idea to have her audition for midsummer with us. she had some acting back home because of her mother, but she was simple. didn't really have the interest, you see. wanted to be an english teacher, get married and settle down back in sarasota. but i insisted she go because i thought it would loosen her up and get her out of her own head. anyways, i knew the direct down with the sarasota players, so i put in a good word for her, and sure enough, both of us were cast. she as hermia and me as helena. but as it turns out, the famous german film director max reinhart was in california at the same time and he was also doing a production of the play over at the hollywood bowl with gloria stuart. well as fate sometimes happens, stuart caught sick and the understudy was no longer available. so reinhart's assistant comes to see the show, takes one look at olivia and says, sure, you'll do, and they offer her the part. simple as that. but as everyone knows, helena is the harder role. hermia's the pretty one who simpers about the stage, but there's no meat there, there's no vocality. didn't matter. that fall, the girl who had no interest in acting was opening shakespeare at the hollywood bowl which led, of course, to her then doing the movie version. as for me, well i suppose i wasn't as lucky, was i? though perhaps i was. it's alright. i had a good life. i married the set designer with the sarasota players, and the troupe had a good ten years there before the money ran dry. anyway, we traveled quite a bit here and there. saw some things, acted here and there throughout my life, had a couple kids, both of whom i buried, along with my husband. and now i'm 105, living in an assisted living facility in oakland. erroll flynn never confessed his love to me at the coronation of king george vi. i never dated howard hughes or jim stewart. i was not the last surviving member of the golden age of hollywood. but goddamit, i could've been. if only.