With the world in its present state of tragedy and turmoil, we can, for one brief moment, look back to a local event that, despite its absence of historical significance, hopefully will bring a smile to our faces. In April of 1966, veteran screen star Rosalind Russell and up-and-coming sensation Hayley Mills visited San Domenico School in San Anselmo as part of the west coast premiere for their recently released film, The Trouble with Angels. The film was a benefit fundraiser for the all-girl’s school and premiered at the New Royal Theater at Polk and California streets in San Francisco. For the $50 benefit tickets, guests were treated to a pre-screening dinner at the Mark Hopkins Hotel and were shuttled by bus to the theater a few blocks away. The benefit dinner and premiere were cosponsored by the Dominican Convent Alumnae and the San Domenico Service League. Tickets were sold by students at the school in a competition that awarded the number one ticket seller, Meredith Mason, a wire-haired-terrier puppy.
The film, co-starring June Harding, Binnie Barnes, Gypsy Rose Lee and Mary Wickes was directed by actress and ground-breaking female director, Ida Lupino. It was based on the novel, Life with Mother Superior, by Jane Trahey and tells the story of two troublesome students (Mills and Harding) who try the patience of the Mother Superior (Rosalind Russell) at a girl’s Catholic School with their pranks and unruly behavior. Though constantly in trouble and often at odds with the teaching Sisters and Mother Superior, over time Mill’s character comes to respect the dedication, devotion and kindness of the sisters and upon graduation decides to become a novitiate in the religious order.
Pictured above is Hayley Mills, just shy of her 20th birthday, blowing out the candles on a birthday cake at San Domenico School. To her right in the white, designer ‘helmet hat’, is Rosalind Russell and to her left, helping to extinguish the candles is her young co-star, June Harding. Two San Domenico students who presented Hayley with the cake look on. June Harding and Binnie Barnes accompanied Ms. Mills to the Sleepy Hollow campus the day before the premier to attend a lunch and reception with the school’s students and to present the 10-week-old terrier puppy to Ms. Mason.
(Originally appeared as History Watch article in the Marin Independent Journal)