In the Shadow of the Sign by Renée Patin Farrington
Lavishly illustrated with almost 1000 photos, many seen for the first time, including vintage images dating from the twenties and exclusive photographs from the Walt Disney archives.
The Hollywood Sign is a beacon to all who seek the glitz and glamour of the tinseled town it shines down upon. To little Renée Patin--nicknamed Potsy--growing up in Burbank on the "wrong" side of the mountain that bears the fabled Sign meant that she lived in the shadow, far from all the sparkling treasures her future could offer. Those dancing klieg lights seen from her front yard did not shine for her...or so she thought. Now in her eighties, Renée Patin Farrington has created a highly entertaining, illustrated memoir of her journey out from under that shadow. She writes with the childlike wonder and humor inherited from her fairy tale-loving artist mother Maxine and cartoonist father, Ray Patin. Every page is filled with illustrations, many from the movie camera Ray focused on his only child and on his career animating Donald Duck at the Disney studio just blocks from home. One scenario features little Renée riding the full-sized train in the backyard of Ward, a family friend. She had no idea he was the creator of her first conscience, Jiminy Cricket, until she spotted the beloved bug and Ward Kimball's name on a train at Disneyland where she worked in its earliest days. Ray's art from high school in the twenties and cartoon-covered love letters to Maxine during their life together add a touch of fun throughout. The pioneering mid-century commercials from Ray Patin Productions on Sunset Boulevard illustrate a career worthy of Mad Men. The book is sprinkled with nostalgia such as war on the home front and teen-tempting magazine ads. From grade school classmate Natalie Wood to dreamy teen idol John Wilder to Miss Burbank Debbie Reynolds, you'll encounter a who's who of stars from the "right" side of the Sign. Readers are invited on a guided tour of the hidden highlights of La La Land and of Santa Barbara, home of the twenties movie studio that rivaled Hollywood. There, as a college student, Farrington dated a fellow student who became America's most famous sculptor.
After studies at the Louvre in Paris, teaching movie stars' kids near Beverly Hills and the children of jet setters in Switzerland, several careers including toy design, cruising from coast to coast in a hand-crafted yacht, and travels around the world, Renée Patin Farrington is back in California. She is far from the shadow of the Sign, sharing the journey that proves that T.S. Eliot was right: "We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time."
