Mistness of the And I Id elie astnot her fall My Misstory half- ed for a came to, but by Juliè Savage When the author and playwright by her physicians to stay at sea level home sewing business. Shortly after Mary Roberts Rinehart first for the "richest" air. Farview was in 4-year-old Mary's younger sister, rented a "cottage" for the summer a rather run-down state when it came Olive, was born, Tom moved his in Bar Harbor in 1936, she immedi- into her possession, as were many of family into their own small rented ately became a point of interest for the big old Bar Harbor "cottages" at house just down the street. the sightseeing boat tours around the that time, SO she immediately went Mary's young school days were island. As she relates in her autobi- about the business of refurbishing hard at first, until she learned to write ography, My Story, if, while sitting it. She soon found out why she had with her right hand instead of her on her shorefront porch, she heard been able to buy it for a song as the left. Her career to come was fore- a boat approaching, and a voice on a cost of repairs mounted. But still she shadowed when, at fifteen, she had megaphone, "The next house is occu- was happy to have a "nest" again, or three short stories published in a local pied by Mary Roberts Rinehart..., as she writes in My Story, "I had a magazine, for one dollar apiece. she swiftly got up to go hide be- magnificent view, seven acres of land, Perhaps she was not convinced ing shy of personal publicity. Her a stable to hold any number of the that a literary career would be the celebrity had been growing for the horses I could no longer afford or path to success however, because past 30 years, as she became one of even ride, a garage and an enormous when she was seventeen, she applied America's best-loved, most prolific Italian marble and bronze fountain to nursing school, hoping it would and most highly paid (for her time) just this side of decency." put her on course to become a doc- writers. It was said that she had put While Mary is absorbed in roof- tor. Her mother was scandalized at a new face on the mystery novel; it ing, plumbing and plastering, let us her unladylike choice. was even said she had made the first go back and see what led her to this The life of a student nurse in advance in the technique of the crime point. a hospital of the 1890s required story since Edgar Allen Poe! Murder Mary Eila Roberts was born on stamina and a strong stomach. It and mayhem were her stock in trade, August 12, 1876 near Pittsburgh, was hard, tiring, smelly, and fre- but she also made the stories witty Pennsylvania. Her parents, Tom quently disgusting work. One of and full of wry humor. and Cornelia, were still living in his Nurse Roberts' first duties was to While Bar Harbor society can mother's house, along with five other clean the operating room after sur- only claim her as one of their own in family members, and his mother's in- gery. She was proud of herself for the latter part of her career and life, Bernard Mansell Beech St. Savior Acadia Norumbega Sargent Penobscot Bubbles Pemetic Cadillac Champlain she certainly enriched the fabric of the times in the years she was a sum- mer resident. In 1937, she bought the cottage named "Farview" on Eden Mountains of Mt. Desert Island seen from the Cranberry Isles Street, where the Wonder View Inn 6 Trips Daily MAIL BOAT is now, for an "absurdly low price." 7:30* Mary liked Bar Harbor because a 10:00 12:00 BEAL & BUNKER, INC. lot of her friends and acquaintances 2:00 CRANBERRY ISLES already lived here or at least sum- MAINE 04625 4:00 FERRY SERVICE mered here. Also, after three heart 6:00 (207) 244-3575 to Cranberry Isles attacks, the last one being the worst, *Except Sunday from Northeast Harbor when she had been on an oxygen Municipal Pier tank for months, she was obliged RIDE THE MAIL BOAT - It S the Local Thing! July 6 - 2003 acadia Weetily 7 not being sick when asked to empty she still never wrote out a pail containing a dismembered when Dr. Rinehart human foot. Her work at the hospi- or the boys were at tal changed Mary's outlook on life, home. This balanc- as did a young doctor by the name ing of her family and of Stanley Marshall Rinehart. Her her professional life graduation and their wedding were was a thorny issue, virtually the only bright spots of as it has been now her nineteenth year. Ghastly death for generations of haunted the Roberts family that year women. - Mary's grandmother had fallen She, of course, down the stairs and broken her neck, had always loved Farview - the Rhinhart cottage. her young niece was run over by a to write, and had had several short Mary also tried her hand at writ- train, and her father, Tom, commit- stories published in magazines here ing plays - with mixed success. A ted suicide in a Buffalo hotel room. and there, but her busy life had never few became Broadway smash hits, like Eventually Mary found herself allowed time for any serious author- Seven Days and The Bat. But there settled into the role of homemaker ship. However, when the Rineharts were a few that, no matter how hard and busy doctor's wife. A baby was suffered a $12,000 blow in the stock she and others worked, never took soon on the way; Stanley, Jr. was born market, Mary started writing more off. More than once, she gave up the in 1897. Her second, Alan, arrived seriously in an attempt to help out theatre "for good"! The Broadway in 1900, and to complete the family financially. production of The Bat was set up so came Ted, in 1902. Mary had always In 1907, one of her magazine seri- that not even the cast knew who the been very slender, and one unfortu- als was accepted for publication as a Bat - the murderer - was until nateside-effect of her pregnancies was book. The publisher wrote to Mary, the night of the opening in August a constant nausea. She couldn't keep "My dear Mrs. Rinehart: I have read of 1920. It was a great success. The anything down, and became nearly The Circular Staircase, not only with Bar Harbor Players performed The emaciated. Dr. Rinehart's formidable pleasure but with thrills and shivers." Bat, almost exactly 29 years later, half-brother, head of the hospital She was on her way! The same pub- as part of their last season in 1949. where she had been a nurse, decided lisher subsequently took two other Mary herself consented to "update" to try and feed her broiled lobster, of her serials, The Man in the Lower it to make it current for post-war piece by piece. The mere thought Ten, and The Window at the White viewers. of it made her stomach churn, but Cat. The former became such a sur- The war that affected Mary's life her brother-in-law was adamant, prising best-seller that it reputedly emost, however, wasn't World War and miraculously, it stayed down. affected train travel. The murder at II, but World War I. When the war This experience disposed her kindly the center of the novel took place in started in Europe, her curiosity and towards the crustacean, which likely a Pullman sleeping car, and as told sense of adventure were awakened. served her well when she came to Bar in Charlotte McLeod's biography of Mary finally contrived to be sent to Harbor! Mary, Had She But Known, Mary England as a war correspondent for Mary was a devoted mother to once met a ticket clerk who claimed the Saturday Evening Post in Janu- her three sons, and she would tell nobody would sleep in that numbered ary of 1915. London was filled with anyone that her family came first in bunk because "some fool woman had journalists but Mary wanted to get to all things. Even as her career grew, written a book... the front. Her British contacts told her there was nothing they could do, but she resourcefully convinced the Bel- gian Red Cross to give her the proper ROSE SILL credentials. In return, she promised to THE WINDOW SILL ANTIQUES make the American people aware of 278 MAIN ST. the horrible conditions at the Belgian front. Thus she became one of the BAR HARBOR, ME 04609 very few women to report firsthand from WW I battlefields. She wrote, DECORATIVE ARTS of course, her articles for the Post, but also got a few books, including SEARCH SERVICE TEL. (207) 288-0056 The Amazing Interlude, Dangerous Days and Kings, Queens and Pawns, out of her war experience. 8 Acadia Weekly In 1921, Stanley Rinehart was the cards for Dr. Rinehart. appointed a medical consultant to the He died in 1932, with his Veteran's Bureau, and they moved loving wife and three devot- to Washington D.C. Dr. and Mrs. ed sons gathered around. Rinehart were soon caught up into A desolated Mary con- the political and social whirl of the tinued to live in their big nation's capital. These were the tur- Washington house, alone bulent Harding years and scandal except for a few servants. was rampant. In 1926, the head of One of these was Reyes, the Veteran's Bureau was convicted the Filipino cook, who of fraud and sentenced to prison. had always considered Dr. Although arthritis kept him from Rinehart his boss, and was resuming his career as a surgeon, Dr. unsure about now hav- Rinehart was now completely frus- ing to take orders from trated by his government position and a woman-an attitude that resigned it to open a private practice, was to bear bizarre con- specializing in tuberculosis. sequences. In early 1934 Mary's career was the highest it Mary was stricken with a had ever been. Her latest book, Lost heart attack. It left her heart Ecstasy, a Western romance, was weakened, and she was little overwhelmingly successful. Saturday able to climb stairs and get Evening Post paid her $50,000 for the around her big house. Also, Mary with Reyes, the simmering cook. serial rights, and Hollywood paid her she missed the rest of her $15,000 for the movie rights. I Take family. So, in 1935, she moved to a point, the colony now consisted of a This Woman, starring Gary Cooper spacious one-floor apartment in New few "economic royalists," but mostly and Carole Lombard, was released York City. of people, like her, who had worked in 1931. For many years, the Rineharts hard for what they had. Stanley, Jr. and Ted, along with had been spending their summers at Farview, after Ms. Rinehart their friend John Farrar, started their a ranch out west when they weren't was through with it, looked far own publishing company in 1929, tarpon fishing in Florida, or vacation- from neglected. In the summer of and of course, Mary Roberts Rinehart ing in various rented beach houses on 1938 there was a flurry of construc- was one of their first authors. She the Northeast coast. Now, however, tion and relandscaping. The cream- granted them rights to all her future the Western cabin didn't feel the same white stucco house was built around hardcover books, which probably without Stanley there, and she needed a central open courtyard containing made her the savior of the fledgling a new summer place. a reflecting fish pond. It's position on publishers when the stock exchange When she first came to Bar Har- a hill with a commanding view of the crashed a few months later. bor in 1935, she rented a cottage bay reminded Mary of an aerie, and Dr. Rinehart had been handling attached to one of the hotels. In 1936, in later years she renamed it Eagles- the finances for his wife for some time she rented a house, and decided to gate. because she had a tendency to be too buy Farview in 1937. She finally moved into her free with her money. In the past she A new "nest" gave Mary a new renovated house in 1939, as Eu- had invested in several foolhardy interest in life and something to work rope rumbled with war and Hitler ventures, including a dry oil well, for. The Bar Harbor she saw in 1937 prepared to march into Poland. She parts of two worthless gold mines, was changing from the gay high life of had furnished it in light pastel colors; and a zinc mine that existed only in earlier in the century. The mountains, blue, platinum or white carpets, and the con-artist's head. The Crash of the sea, the exclusive clubs and the colorful upholstery. She had had the 1929 dealt them a serious, though big cottages were still there. But a architect put in a low-silled picture not fatal, blow and Stanley blamed lot of the large homes were for sale window in her bedroom SO that she himself bitterly. Mary believed that -their shuttered Victorian interiors could lie in bed and still see the water this contributed to his steadily fail- remnants of earlier days before taxes and the islands. ing health over the next few years. restricted their owner's incomes. In In 1938, Mary's fortieth book, Their finances soon recovered, in part her 1945 book, The Yellow Room, The Wall, was published by Farrar due to Mary's new monthly column, set in a Bar Harbor-like resort, she & Rinehart. It is set in a disguised "Thoughts," in Ladies Home Journal, describes the big empty houses and Bar Harbor and filled with intrigu- for which she was paid $2,500 per their "neglected gardens and blank ing characters, appalling murders, issue. Recovery, however, was not in closed windows." From Mary's view- and a background love story. Mary July 6 - 12, 2003 9 considered it one of the best novels Filipino cook, Reyes, who considered down the street to get help, thinking she had ever done, and the Saturday himself the domestic czar, was none that he was the intended victim. As Evening Post seemed to agree- they too happy about it. He had been with Mary went through the hall on her paid her $65,000 for the serial rights. the Rinehart household for 25 years way to phone the police, she saw Unfortunately, just as she finished it, and his skill was always highly praised a young man hovering outside the she had her most severe heart attack by everyone. This only made what door. Politely, the boy explained he of all, putting her on oxygen for a happened next all the more shock- was looking for a job as gardener's while and nitroglycerine for the rest ing. assistant. of her life. One day, Reyes told Mary he 'Young man," Mary said Now in her mid-sixties, Mary was was leaving. This didn't alarm her calmly, "You'll have to come back slowing down, by her own standards. overmuch as he had threatened to do later. There is a man here trying to She wrote just four books, along with SO in the past and always relented. kill me." Needless to say, the boy some short stories and magazine ar- The next day, however, Mary found didn't return. ticles, during the war years of 1940 his wife, Peggy, a parlormaid, crying. As Mary stood at the phone, once 46. A respectable output for most Peggy said Reyes had been drinking again in the library, she heard Peggy writers - but Mary usually wrote the night before and they had had a scream. She turned to find Reyes right at a frantic pace, dipping her foun- fight when she refused to leave with behind her, a long carving knife in tain pen in an inkwell when the ink him. Little did Mary know she was each hand. Fortunately, Ted and the wouldn't flow fast enough to keep about to be immersed in events that gardener came running in at that mo- up with her! could have come from one of her ment, and again knocked him down. Her summers in Bar Harbor novels. As she tells it in My Story, Peggy sat on his chest, and Ted held now were filled with friends, dinner she was reading in the library before his arms, getting cut by the wildly parties, and other social events, and lunch when Reyes, usually meticu- flailing knives in the process. Finally, her health steadily improved. She lous, came in, strangely without his the police arrived and took the cook remembers when her son Alan was white chef's coat. away. recovering from pneumonia one year. "Why, Reyes," Mary said, Mary's son, Alan, flew up that The two of them would go sit in the "Where is your coat?" night to be with his mother, and gave sun at the top of Cadillac Mountain "Here it is. Hesaid, and pulled a her the news the next morning. Reyes and rest in the lovely air, which, even gun from his pants pocket and pulled had hung himself in his jail cell. As at that altitude, was a little thin for the trigger within point blank range of he had plainly been of "unsound Mary's lungs. her face. misfired- the shells mind," the Catholic priest allowed Even though the absence of her were old. As he tried again, Mary the heretofore faithful cook to be bur- husband's steadying hand on the leapt to her feet and ran. He was hot ied in hallowed ground. Mary, who purse strings made itself felt occa- on her heels and, as she entered the harbored no anger against him, paid sionally (she even put Farview up for kitchen, Peggy and Theodore Falken- for his funeral. sale at one point, with no luck!), she strom, her chauffeur, saw what was For all that, 1947 was still not could not bring herself to let go of happening. Ted tackled the cook and done with Mary Roberts Rinehart any of her long-time servan Farview grabbed the gun. For a moment, it and the town of Bar Harbor. The was large and as it was hard to find a was quiet. Peggy ran to get a nitro- summer had been unusually hot and maid to come as far as Maine, she was glycerine tablet for breathless Mary, dry, and in October, a small grass fire forced to hire a male butler. This she and Ted went and threw the gun over turned into a raging inferno. More did for the summer of 1947, and her a garden wall. The butler had run than 17,000 acres and almost 250 houses went up in flames, including Mary's wonderful aerie. PERFECT SOUVENIR She went on to write several more FOR KIDS books, including a private memoir for her children, before succumbing ACADIA NATIONAL to a final heart attack in 1958. In her PARK COLORING autobiography, Mary says, "I have wondered whether Ihave had a career BOOK or a career has had me." Either way, Children will love coloring in Bar Harbor, and the world, should all the animals, doing all the be glad they had Mary Roberts Rine- games, and learning fun facts hart. in this unique activity book. Look for it! 10 Acadia Weekly