Des Kennelley passed away on December 4th. It was a great loss for those of us who were associated with her in the production of Classic Films through the early and middle 1980's. As a Mensa society Special Interest Group (SIG), it attracted a number of readers both from members of the society and from other readers who came into contact with it.
Des had special skills when it came to both writing and editing the newsletter. She had an instinctive knowledge of communicating through the written word. And, her background both educationally and in career positions culminated with several years experience as a technical editor in the aerospace business.
I first met Des in 1980, after I had accepted a position as a Proposal Development Specialist with GenCorp's Aerojet ElectroSystems Division. That job entailed both writing and putting together the management portions of the Division's new business acquisition organization primarily in Space System activities involving sensing technologies. The work I did called for me to interface with the Editing Department. Des was somewhat unique at the time, the only woman in a group with several men. It took a lot of convincing on her part to convince the Manager of that department to accept a woman in that responsibility.
After a few contacts with Des, I discovered two things: one, that we were both members of Mensa; and two, that we had a lifetime interest in films. Putting two and two together, we convinced Mensa, not a difficult task, to let us provide a Newsletter for a new SIG of our invention. Thus the birth of the Classic Films SIG and our newsletter.
My contacts with Des in the process of producing the monthly newsletter led to discussions of her family history. Though having a basic family background of many generations in England, she was actually born in Scotland in the early 1920s. This was a product of her father's position as Manager of a regional Igranic facility. Igranic was the largest of what we would call today an Electronics firm in Britain. Its headquarters were in Bedford, England. Des's early years were spent in Scotland but eventually she moved to Bedford when her father became the firm's overall General Manager. She told me at one time that her father spent a considerable amount of money with a language coach to correct her Gladwegian Scotch burr when speaking. You might get an idea of this accent by seeing a video. There is a review of the very entertaining Gregory's Girl in Classic Films issue No. 42, April 1985. In a trip to Britain in 1988, I was exposed to English accents at the Falconberg Arms, the little hotel we stayed at in Coxwold, England. This little village is in Yorkshire about 25 miles north of the city of York. I talked to the maitre d' at the hotel's pub about one peculiar accent. I noted one of his employees was a man I could never understand at all and inquired where he was from, figuring it must be somewhere far away. No, I was told, this particular chap lived about 20 miles away.
At some point in time in her early years, Des caught Scarlet Fever. This disease was far more serious in those days than it is today. The severity was learned by Des when her parents came to visit her in the hospital, while she was recovering, and she asked why everyone was whispering. Her mother burst into tears when she realized Des had suffered damage to the eardrums which is one of the bad possibilities from Scarlet Fever. While going to school in those earlier days she had to carry a small box which served as an listening device. Later, as technology advanced, she acquired the first of many hearing aids.
She told me a lot about the war years in Britain. Bedford is about 40 miles north of London, so that the Blitz affected it as well. Children were evacuated out of London into nearby communities; Des's mother took in four from London's east side, not the most promising part of London. It was quite a learning experience to have these young girls living with them. One of the older girls sent them Christmas cards for a couple years after their stay.
Another peculiarity of the bombing incidents was people's attitude relative to the excitement during the noise of bomb explosions, firing of anti-aircraft guns, fires and fighting fires. This often resulted in passionate occurrences that would probably not have happened except for the excitement induced by air raids. Two British films of the Battle of Britain, where these kinds of exciting happenings occur are Danger UXB, the Masterpiece Theatre series starring Anthony Andrews, and Hope and Glory, the semi-autobiographical film by John Boorman. In the first of these, Andrews lives in a boarding house where his military job is defusing German-dropped, unexploded bombs, UXB's. The owner of the boarding house has a very nubile daughter played by Carol Watling, who entices Andrews on occasion when bombs are falling and she is dressed in either a filmy nightgown or just her panties and bra. In Hope and Glory, teenager Sammi Davis is overcome by the excitement of an air raid and finds herself in a ruined building making love to a Canadian soldier she has met in a pub. Des said these kinds of events were not unusual during the war years, but she assured me that she was never affected that way.
Later during the war she worked for a government office in Bedford that was responsible for assuring agricultural pests, particularly from American Lend Lease, did not end up feasting on British crops. This was fun work, according to her.
There were many airbases surrounding Bedford. Many of these were American bases. She and some of her friends became acquainted with American officers from these bases at Canteens that offered food, relaxation and dancing. Des met an Officer at one of the bases who became a steady date. After the war he returned home and she eventually came to America with her mother and older sister. She stopped in Kansas on the way west and discovered that the old fire had disappeared and the relationship was over.
She told me of one other wartime event, a trip she and her sister and a number of others made to Paris after that city had been liberated. Those were exciting times with the French reacquiring freedom, and the air was filled with festivity. She met a man who had been a member of the Norwegian underground who had been fighting in Norway. It was interesting to her to meet someone who had actually been involved with that kind of war.
Des, her mother, and sister located in Santa Monica. While there her sister had a heart attack, the same disease that had struck her father just before the start of the war. Margaret, the sister was only 40 at the time.
While in Santa Monica Des got a job at the big Rexall main drugstore at La Cienega and Beverly in Los Angeles. At the time it was the largest drugstore in the United States. There she met Joe Kennelley, who worked there as well and who she eventually married. They were blessed with two sons, Chris and Cam. Both these boys are married, to Holly and Rose respectively, and between them there are two daughters each, Brook and Lauren for Chris and Holly, and Erica and Megan for Cam and Rose.
Des passed on this family history to me over time including many other events of interest, including discussions of her four granddaughters and her daughter-in-laws. Since this is supposed to be about her experience with Classic Films, we should pursue that area. Des was an outstanding writer and a great editor. She once told me that it would be nice if I had learned to spell in school and had also received some sort of instruction in the proper use of punctuation. All I could say was that the teachers tried, but they didn't have that much to work with.
Her first review in our very first issue was the wonderful World War II film called Brief Encounter that starred the doe-eyed Cecilia Johnson and the craggy faced Trevor Howard. It was a very romantic story and was beautifully reviewed by Des. To a certain extent, Des concentrated on British films, though she has a number of reviews of American-made favorites. In our initial discussions of movies I first connected to her when I noted I was familiar with an English-made fantasy film she mentioned called "Dead of Night." She was surprised I had ever heard of it, let alone seen it. It's an interesting film with five separate fantasy stories recounted by visitors to a house for a party. The ending is very surprising and makes you want to think about what you saw before.
As this is the Christmas Season, I would like to call particular attention to Des's Christmas commentaries, which dealt with Christmas practices and events while she was growing up in Britain. These are fun to read and allow for comparison with times past and celebration in Britain as compared with today here. These are in Issue 26, Dec. 1983 and Number 50 in Dec. 1985. They are quite entertaining and discuss recipes, party activities and the like. It is Des's writings on England and how things differed there that I find most interesting in her work.
We will really miss Des. Her son Cam told me she was a very underassuming person who was last in line for blowing her own horn. I would have to agree with him. You really needed to talk to her and bring out her interesting history. She was a pleasure to work with and fun as well. Her insults of my writing performance were always very carefully laid out to assure that I was well aware that she was just teasing.
Desiree Kennelley, 1922 - 2008, a person really worth knowing.
Dick Gardner, Classic Films
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