I was recently contacted by Russ Mates, who sent me a photo of this letter shown to him by his friend Ann. Back in 1950, the head of casting at MGM Lucille Ryman wrote to Ann’s mother, Eleanor Lewis about the possibility of Eleanor playing opposite Clark Gable in Across the Wide Missouri (1951) Evidently Ms Ryman had seen photos of Eleanor and saw potential in her (much like photos of Ava Gardner that brought her to Hollywood.) However Eleanor, who celebrated her 95th birthday this week, decided to thanks-but-no-thanks the Hollywood life and chose the wife-and-motherhood path instead, which makes me wonder how many times Lucille Ryman was knocked back. I’m guessing “not many.”