After Larz Anderson’s death in 1937, Isabel Anderson simplified her life, divesting herself of real estate and other assets that she no longer wanted, and focusing her life on her home in Massachusetts and her simple camp in New Hampshire.  In Boston, she took an active part in the cultural life of the city, not only by mounting her own productions of plays and musicals, but attending other cultural and theatrical events.

In 1943, she met Lillian Gish (1893-1993), the legendary American film star.  On October 17, 1943, the Daily Boston Globe announced that Miss Gish would give a lecture in Boston’s New England Mutual Life Insurance Co. auditorium and that Isabel would be one of the hostesses for the event.

Lillian Gish to Make Lecture Debut at Mrs. Orcutt's Morning Programs

Attractive Lillian Gish, star of stage and screen, will make her debut on the lecture program on Wednesday, Oct. 27, when she opens Mrs. William Dana Orcutt's series of "Mornings of Diversion" for this year.  The program will be given at New England Mutual Hall at 11 o'clock and Miss Gish's dog, Mr. Malcolm, will share the platform with her.  Among the hostesses at mid-morning coffee before the lecture will be Mrs. Henry Endicott, Mrs. Horace Binney, Mrs. Henry B. Proud, Mrs. James Dean, Mrs. Larz Anderson...

Skip Moskey, the author of Larz and Isabel Anderson: Wealth and Celebrity in the Gilded Age, once had his own connection with Lillian Gish. In 1969, after seeing Miss Gish in a film presented by the Georgetown University Film Club, he wrote to her in care of her agent in New York City.

Within a few weeks, he received this reply written on the back of her photograph:

Illustrations:
Lillian Gish with her dog (undated)
via Pinterest.com.
Lillian Gish with autograph note (November 1969)
From the collection of Skip Moskey
All rights reserved.
(Digimarc® Guardian for Images)