Life of the party
By Jesse Phelps

They say it isn't polite to ask a lady her age and that perhaps that goes double for a lady of the stage.

"One thing about the theater that's different than anything else on earth is that you never ask anyone their age," says Frances Dewey Wormser. And she would know.

Wormser was a leading lady in vaudeville and on Broadway on the early 1930s, playing the lead in Rogers and Hart's "The Girlfriend" among other roles before retiring to travel and paint. She starred next to Archie Leach (who later became known as Cary Grant) and James Stewart, among other luminaries of the silver screen.

On Monday, Wormser reached a milestone, her 100th birthday. When a person reaches 100, age, more than ever, becomes a reason for respect; especially when one has managed to do so in style.

Wormser, who resides at The Gables of Ojai, is a multitalented woman and political thinker who has lived a life full of experience.

"Overpopulation and pollution are two issues she's very passionate about," says her grand-nephew, Jason Dewey. Her stories are the stuff of legend among her family.

There's the one where she talks about bowling with Babe Ruth. "He was just a regular pain in the neck because he would drink so much and was so competitive," she's known to have said.
Or there's the one where she traveled with her best friend, another leading lady of her day, Imogene Coca, to Havana. The ladies, the story goes, were lounging in a nightclub when a composer recognized them and asked for their opinion on a piece he was composing.

He played it to them to get their feedback. Turns out the composer was Oscar Hammerstein, and the music, "My Fair Lady."

Wormser became a traveler extraordinaire, making "countless" trips to Europe to paint, and flying cross-country in the first airplane many people had ever seen and staying year after year in picturesque Swiss villages.
She spent 25 years in Florida before moving to California fairly recently. Wormser, who cultivated a love of tennis, once hosted a young Martina Navratilova in her home when she'd first come to the United States.

Today Wormser spends most of her time in Ojai but, at 100 years old, she still gets behind the wheel to drive - something her family isn't thrilled with. But Wormer's adventurous spirit isn't easy to quell. "Of course I drive," she says. "Mostly in Ojai but sometimes to Santa Paula," she says.

She channels her still-active creative spirit into paintings. She paints on acrylic on canvas, mixing in other materials where she sees fit. Her work subjects range from the flowery still life to the figure drawings of beautiful women and the pieces hang in galleries and homes across the country.

"My father was an artist," she says. In fact, he ran a successful New York gallery until the Great Depression, when he moved to California with the rest of the family.
Except Wormser, who stayed in New York to pursue her career on stage.

Though Wormser has no children of her own, Johanna Bradley calls herself an "adopted daughter" and speaks very highly of a woman she calls "a unique person who always tells you how she feels and isn't afraid to be herself. She's everyone's best friend and she's extremely generous and charitable."
Wormser was joined Monday for a series of parties in her honor by friends and family who traveled from all over the country.

© 2003 The Ojai Valley News

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