We all enjoyed a wonderful weekend in Los Angeles in preparation for the sceening of “Ramona” on Saturday at the UCLA Billy Wilder Theater.

Prior to the event, we attended a pre-screening party hosted by Diane Allen, a granddaughter to Edwin Carewe and a cousin to many of us. The party was a huge success and was attended by a wide variety of industry people who also had an interest or hand in this project.

When we arrived to the Billy Wilder theater, you could feel the buzz in the air with anticipation of seeing a movie which had not been viewed for some 85 years. Ramona, based on the book by author Helen Hunt Jackson, is a wonderful story of early California history.

This particular film has had quite a storied history. During WWII, a print of “Ramona” was in Czechoslovakia and was confiscated by the Nazi’s and sent to Berlin. At the end of the war, Soviet soldiers took the movie back to Russia where it remained for many years in obscurity. In the 1960’s, a Czech archivist located the film in the Russian archives and brought it back to the Czech archives since this copy contained Czech language subtitles. It is truly amazing that this film survived such a journey and yet today, it has been restored to all its previous glory.

During the screening, which was also presented by Diane Allen, the Mont-Alto Motion Picture Orchestra was on hand to lend their talent and musical score to the movie. In my view, it was the music score to this movie which truly told the story in all of its lore. The music was so critical to telling the story and the Mont-Alto Orchestra did a superb job of presenting the music to accompany the film. You can learn more about the Mont-Alto Orchestra by visiting their website here:

http://www.mont-alto.com

On behalf of all of us and our greater family at large, we thank everyone who had a hand in making this restoration a reality. We would also like to thank Diane Allen for her unwavering support to make this event a true success and wonderful experience. There will be other showings of this film and we will do our best to post this information as it becomes available.

You can hear Dolores del Rio signing the title song, “Ramona” in both the Biography page and also the Filmography page to this website.

It has recently been discovered that there is a small town in the state of Oklahoma which is named after Edwin’s father, Frank Marion Fox. It is likely that this town was inside of the Chickasaw Nation back when it was formed. Here is a link to see where it is:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fox,_Oklahoma

From The Purcell Register, Friday, June 9, 1899

Mrs. Sallie J. Fox, wife of F.M. Fox and daughter of J.P. and Elizabeth Priddy, was born August 16, 1855 at Stonewall, Chickasaw Nation.

She was educated at Stark College, Paris, Texas and was married to F.M. Fox at Caddo, Choctaw Nation, January 22^nd, 1871. This union was blessed with seven children, four of whom proceeded the mother to the grave, leaving the husband and three children to mourn the loss.

She joined the Methodist Church South in 1873. She moved with the children to Gainesville, Texas in 1883 where she remained five years, moving from there to Purcell, Chickasaw Nation, Indian Territory, where she remained until her death, which occurred Friday evening at 10:00pm, June 2, 1899. Mrs. Fox was buried in the Purcell Hillside Cemetery. Mrs. Fox was one of the chapter members of the Ladies Aid Society of the Methodist Church South, organized ten years ago, and was its first President, which position she held for two years; since then she has been Treasurer of the society. She was also the Treasurer of the Benevolent Society from its organization. And in each of these societies, she was one of the most active members.

She was a very devout and consecrated Christian lady, always in her place at prayer meeting and on the preaching service. She was a teacher in the Sunday school and had done as much as any other member to advance the cause of the church and Sunday school.

She was loved and respected by all who knew her, both in the church and out of it, and we feel that we have lost in the death of Sister Fox, one of our best church members, and the poor have lost one of their best friends, as she was always ready and willing to assist and help the needy.

Recently, I had the pleasure of talking with Wallace Fox, Jr, the son of Edwin’s brother Wallace. Thanks to Erik for letting us know about Wallace Jr. and his whereabouts.

We spoke over the phone for quite some time and I believe he is the only living person who not only knew Edwin but as a member of the family, he had some wonderful stories to tell about growing up in the early days of Hollywood.

Both Edwin’s brothers, Finis and Wallace, were accomplished members of the Hollywood movie business. After Edwin passed away, Wallace went on to enjoy a long and storied career in the movies as a writer and producer.

Wallace, Jr. told me of the event and time when he went to my mothers wedding, Carol Lee Carewe. This would have been sometime in the early 1950’s.

Wallace, Jr. also told the story of how Edwin was often referred to by the greater family as, “The Duke.” Likely, this was as a result of Edwin’s regal stature and popularity in Hollywood.

All in all, we had a wonderful conversation with plans to continue communications moving forward. However, my conversation with Wallace Jr. brought about some reflection upon the role of this website and blog. While the original vision was and remains a legacy to Edwin and his life, it is also a place for family to gather, talk and share stories etc.

With the addition of the Facebook page, we have already made contact with other distant family members who were previously unknown to this side of the family. We welcome one and all to join us no matter how you are related to Edwin, as family or friend.