Claude Jarman Jr. and Elizabeth Suddeth
Photo: Arthur Kobin for Drew Altizer Photography

Billy Getty and Vanessa Getty
Photo: Arthur Kobin for Drew Altizer Photography

Anne-Sophie Deneve and Alex Chases
Photo: Arthur Kobin for Drew Altizer Photography

Charlotte Shultz and George Shultz
Photo: Arthur Kobin for Drew Altizer Photography

Vandy Boudreau and Owsley Brown
Photo: Arthur Kobin for Drew Altizer Photography

Andrew Gn and Allison Speer
Photo: Arthur Kobin for Drew Altizer Photography

Maca Huneeus and Michael Avedon
Photo: Arthur Kobin for Drew Altizer Photography

A selection of hors d'oeuvres
Photo: Arthur Kobin for Drew Altizer Photography

Claude Jarman Jr.'s new memoir
Photo: Arthur Kobin for Drew Altizer Photography

A photo of a young Claude Jarman Jr. (right) at the 1946 Oscars
Photo: Arthur Kobin for Drew Altizer Photography

Billy and Vanessa Getty invited family and close friends to the home of Ann and Gordon Getty for a book signing and party on Wednesday, November 7, in honor of Vanessa’s father, former actor Claude Jarman Jr., and his new memoir, My Life and the Final Days of Hollywood.

Guests assembled in the beautiful atrium of the Getty residence, which overlooks the fabled Palace of Fine Arts and San Francisco Bay, to celebrate Jarman, who began his career in entertainment as a child in the 1940s. The Nashville native was chosen from among 13,000 hopefuls to play the lead role in 1945’s The Yearling, the film adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. The role earned Jarman a Juvenile Oscar, a special honorary Oscar for young actors that has been given out only a dozen times in the history of the Academy Awards.

Jarman ultimately worked on 12 films with some of the generation’s most famous players, including John Wayne, Maureen O’Hara, Randolph Scott, Lee Marvin and Donna Reed, before retiring from acting at age 21. “I’m so proud of my father,” Vanessa shared, “and I loved reading his biography and learning about his Hollywood life before I was born. He met everyone famous—from Esther Williams and Liz Taylor to Katharine Hepburn, Shirley Temple and Judy Garland.” In 1965 Jarman became the director of the San Francisco International Film Festival.

While guests of the Gettys indulged in delicate pastries, candies and fruit tartlets by the family’s pastry chef, Jarman signed books with a flourish for Denise Hale, Andrew Gn, Allison Speer, Alex Chases, Anne-Sophie and Paul Deneve, Vandy Boudreau and others.

Written by Diane Dorrans Saeks