_{Wow okay being a total stunner with great hair runs in the family, huh? Cool cool. Blossom with Jack Quinn’s dog, Christmas, 1965.}

I’ve gone back and forth about a thousand times in how I want to present this information, and what I want to say.

When I initially heard what I am going to share here, my instant reaction was joy — followed up by immediately reaching out to Sharon. She deserved to be the first to know what I’d found. Like me, her reaction was euphoric. Years later, her connection to Blossom is still something beyond “just” being the catalyst for what would in essence become Sharon’s life’s work. She had a relationship with Blossom before she ever knew the first thing about Jeanette.

When I thought about it more, I got pretty irritated, and there are several drafts of this post in my head that are entirely in that tone.

I’ve since decided it’s not worth it, to devote the whole post to what I want to say to a select few people. I will say, it utterly pisses me off that any information that came from Blossom regarding her kid sister, her sister’s relationships with Nelson and Gene, her sister’s pregnancies — things she would damn well know all about as one of Jeanette’s closest confidantes their entire lives, and things she’d have absolutely no reason to make up, much less to start telling a clueless but bright young person to write about — is discounted because Blossom “couldn’t talk” — despite what Sharon has consistently claimed for years about how they were able to communicate. That’s been used to discount, discredit, make a liar of, etc. Like Blossom is little more than a vegetable, without credible thoughts. Like anything that came from Blossom should be tossed out because she had a stroke. Like it was impossible for Blossom to get her feelings across, to make herself understood.

Sharon knew Blossom from 1970 until her death in January of 1978. They had a lot of time to figure each other out.

Most people familiar with this story at all know that Sharon Rich came into the knowledge of Jeanette MacDonald in the first place by being “assigned” to help Blossom MacDonald Rock when Sharon’s high school honor society was helping with a show at the Motion Picture Country Home, where Blossom lived. Blossom had had a stroke, and her speech was badly affected — a condition generically known as “aphasia” — and when the teenaged Sharon found this out, she tried to trade her off on another classmate.

Blossom could walk, could dance, could smoke, could feed herself, could take care of stray cats, could make her ’rounds’ at the MPCH, had all her motor skills. Her comprehension and cognitive abilities were just fine. Blossom’s post-stroke writing was shaky, but she could do it. Sharon tells me that it’s obvious, when looking at an autograph, for example, whether it was pre-stroke or post-stroke.

You know what else Blossom could do? She could hand this young woman her geedee phone book and point to names to call. And this wet-behind-the-ears kid got interviews with people who never would have talked to her except for the fact that Blossom sent her.

_{Blossom in 1972, with Nanette and Scotty. This is about six years post-stroke, and two years after teenaged Sharon Rich first met her.}

Apparently, there are several different varieties of the condition known as “aphasia” — Broca’s Aphasia is the most common form, and is what describes Blossom. The information at the link provided will fill in the details of the condition, but basically your comprehension is not affected but your expression is, as opposed to Wernicke’s Aphasia, wherein the person can speak fluently and freely but their comprehension is impaired and often the flowing words are nonsensically organized.

Sharon has written and talked a lot about her relationship with Blossom, and how they learned to “make do” in their communications. If you’ve ever known a stroke victim, or had to figure out how to communicate with a loved one through any other sort of barrier, you know this is possible, give me a break. Blossom was also an actress, let’s not forget, and Sharon recalls being haunted by Blossom’s pantomime of Jeanette struggling to get herself to the telephone, for example. I’ve asked Sharon several questions about all this as I prepared this blog post, and earlier today, I sent her the Broca’s Aphasia article I linked above. Here’s her response:

It’s always been interesting to me that Blossom “acting things out” to explain a concept to Sharon during times of increased speech difficulty has been denounced by the people who — well, they just damn well don’t want to believe what they’re hearing, is all, as long as they’re hearing it from this particular pariah, understand (which actually feeds SO WELL into my next big post topic, lol, stay tuned…!)

Hilariously, Emily West has the exact same thing to say with regard to communicating with Blossom, as seen here, in a 1977 letter to Clara Rhoades, that Queen of Selective and Censored Information:

Oh. It’s fine if Emily plays charades with Blossom to figure out what she’s trying to say, but it’s not fine if Sharon reports doing the exact same damn thing with Blossom to get clarification on a point. Got it!

Further, what is Emily trying to do, here? Run interference? Shut it down? I’m going to have to assume that Emily means that Blossom “cannot speak” in terms of….like….giving a speech, because the fact of the matter is that Blossom COULD speak, and she could speak in the same year that this letter was written, and there is absolutely no way Emily didn’t know that, and I’m going to prove it. By making remarks like this, to Clara, in a letter full of responses about what this Sharon Rich person was starting to bring forth, Emily is complicit in this deceit. Digest that. Think about what else that might mean.

For years, Blossom attended the “Clan Clave” banquet — the annual gathering of the Jeanette MacDonald International Fan Club (JMIFC), a tradition that Jeanette began in 1962 (the club itself is much older), that went on for decades. Her last one was 1977, as she passed away the following January.

Well folks, it just so happens that The JAM Project is in possession of complete recorded audio from the 1977 Clan Clave. (We have many other years, too, which has proven to be very interesting.)

Clara Rhoades (with frequent interjections from Gene Raymond) can be heard as emcee, and as this clip begins, she’s speaking about Meredith Willson, who was present, then of course she introduces Emily, who gets a hand, and then Blossom, who has lived with the after effects of her stroke for over a decade, at this point, and who had less than a year to live.

Click THIS LINK. Turn your speakers up. Listen, and navigate back to this page when you’re finished.

Clara: You know, Blossom has been coming to our banquet for years, haven’t you?

Blossom: Indeed I have!

Clara: We just love having you!

I also believe I detect a thank you at the very end of the initial applause, but I was listening with AirPods and the volume turned way up. There is, however, no mistaking that Clara asks Blossom a question and that Blossom answers it.

There’s no mistaking this. It’s a cold, hard fact.

Any one of us would know that lilting MacDonald inflection anywhere. Grandmama, is that you? Of course it is. And Clara frakkin’ well knew she could talk, else why would she put her on the spot like that?!

Blossom could speak. Blossom could speak under pressure in an all-eyes-on-her setting. Blossom is in there, in the building, in the moment, receiving and responding immediately.

How dare people suggest otherwise, because it makes it easy and convenient to discount and attempt to discredit her testimony? How dare they!

You know, over the years, Sharon and I have disagreed many times about certain things, and I’m sure we aren’t finished disagreeing, but as a friend, and as someone I’ve now known for more than half of my life, as someone who has seen so much of this shit firsthand and for a long time, I was really genuinely glad to be able to share this, because I know what it will mean to her to have this out there. She’s been accused so many tired times of lying about what Blossom was capable of. This has got to feel vindicating.

I love this for the story that “can’t be told in our lifetime,” to quote Ted Paxson.

But, most importantly, I love this for Blossom. For the sister and best friend whom Jeanette adored. For the spunky gal who helped raise her and shape her and guide her star into the stratosphere, who loved her and protected her and kept her secrets and finally decided that enough was enough. Blossom struck out first. Blossom paved the way. Blossom put up with Jeanette’s cold feet under the covers and their parents under her roof so that Jeanette might have the chance that led to any of us talking about any of this anyway. I feel like, when being referred to as a source, that much of Blossom’s personhood and dignity has been taken from her in an easy, “Well, Blossom couldn’t talk, so obviously none of that is true,” type way.

But Blossom could, and Blossom did. And if even one person reviews this post and questions what they’ve read or been told about what Blossom MacDonald Rock could not do, this has been an outstanding use of my time.

Thanks once again to Angela for sponsoring the digitization of this important material.

_{Blossom in 1976.}