Twitch Upon a Star by Herbie J. Pilato Read Free Book Online Page A

her, because he didn’t. In fact, she said, at times he bent over backwards to go in the opposite direction. “Maybe that was his problem,” she thought. “He gave me the best of everything—clothes, education, things like that, but he demanded a lot, too. Dad is a very complex man. I don’t think I’ve ever been able to come up to Martha in his eyes.”
    However, five months prior to that she told TV Radio Mirror :
    I never replaced Martha in his heart, but I did help to soothe his grief.

    As was explained in Richard Lamparski’s book, Whatever Became Of …? Volume III , between 1928 and 1950, Robert Montgomery was married to “actress Elizabeth Allan” (with an “a”), an actress best known for her pairing with Ronald Coleman in the 1935 film, A Tale of Two Cities . But this Elizabeth Allan, born British in Skegness, England, in 1908, was not Lizzie’s mother, nor was she ever married to Robert.
    A little over two decades later, the American actress Elizabeth Allen (with an “e”) was born “Elizabeth Ellen Gillease” on January 25, 1929 in Jersey City, New Jersey. In 1972, she co-starred on ABC’s The Paul Lynde Show , playing Lynde’s on-screen wife in this series that was executive produced by Bewitched’s Harry Ackerman, and William Asher and Elizabeth Montgomery under their banner production company, Ashmont Productions. But this Elizabeth Allen was not Lizzie’s mother either, nor was she ever married or related to Robert Montgomery.
    However, a second American actress named Elizabeth Allen (with an “e”) arrived on the scene before Gillease. James Pylant provides the details in his Bewitching article:
    Elizabeth Daniel Allen was born on 26 December 1904 in Louisville, Jefferson County, Kentucky, to Bryan Hunt Allen and the former Rebecca Lowry Daniel. Elizabeth Montgomery’s maternal grandparents—like her paternal grandparents—were newlyweds at the time of the 1900 federal census enumeration. Fifty-seven-year-old widow Ellen W. Daniel, born in Indiana in February of 1843, owned a house on Brook Street in Louisville, Kentucky, which she shared with daughter Lizzie W., age twenty-five; son William A., age thirty-five, daughter-in-law Mollie, age thirty-six, and daughter Rebecca Allen, age twenty. Except for Ellen Daniel, all were born in Kentucky. Rebecca Allen’s marital status is given as married, with 0 given for the number of years married. Bryan H. Allen is listed elsewhere in Louisville, although his marital status is recorded as single. An inspector for a gas company, he was born in November of 1877 in Kentucky to a Missouri father and a Kentucky mother. Rebecca Lowry Daniel Allen—Elizabeth Montgomery’s beloved Becca —was born in June of 1879 in Kentucky (as per the 1900 census), but her death certificate gives 5 June 1886 as her birth date. Her death certificate also identifies her mother’s maiden name as Wright. Daniel family genealogists show that Ellen Wright was the wife of Coleman Spencer Daniel, who died in Louisville on 8 June 1898, two years before Mrs. Ellen W. Daniel is shown on the rolls of the twelfth federal census as a widow. Daniel family records show Ellen Wright Daniel died two years later on 7 June 1902. The same record gives 16 February 1843 as her birth date, which agrees with what is found on the 1900 census. Coleman S. Daniel and Ellen Wright wedded in the bride’s native Switzerland County, Indiana, on 20 May 1864. The daughter of John W. Wright, who represented Switzerland County in the state legislature, Ellen Wright was only six months old when her mother, Ellen (Lowry) Wright, died at age 36. Her father remarried the following year to Rebecca D. Saunders. Clearly, when Ellen (Wright) Daniel named her daughter Rebecca Lowry Daniel, she did so in honor of her mother and stepmother.
    It was Lizzie’s grandmother Becca with whom she formed a