KIM NOVAK'S FAVORITE THINGS--WALL STREET JOURNAL TODAY

FROM TODAY'S WALL STREET JOURNAL..........

Kim Novak’s Favorite Things

The Hollywood star and artist shares a few of her favorite things

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Photo: Nicole Jean Hill for WSJ. Magazine

By

Kim Novak

June 14, 2016 10:24 a.m. ET

 

“IT’S IMPORTANT FOR ME to live by water—you can see the river from my window. I used to live by the ocean in Big Sur, after I moved away from Hollywood in the ’60s. I’d been living in Bel Air when there was that big fire in 1961. Later there was a mudslide. My house washed away; my furs slid down the mountain. The studio gave me a van, and I packed what I could. But I remember all I wanted was a kosher pickle and a pastrami sandwich. So I got this sandwich from a deli, but they were out of pickles. I broke down. The man at the deli said, ‘Lady, what’s so important about a dill pickle?’ But, of course, it wasn’t about the pickle. Afterward, I drove down the coast for a time before pulling over and running naked into the surf. I cleansed myself of Hollywood in the water. The piece of driftwood on the table is from when I used to wander the beaches, painting and sculpting. The table, which features a beautiful bronze chimpanzee, comes from France and was sculpted during the art nouveau era. All my life, I’ve wanted a live chimpanzee—so when I saw this table I had to have it. On the left side of the tabletop is a book given to me by Henry Miller, one he wrote called To Paint Is to Love Again. We were kindred spirits, both inspired by nature. To the right are two rosaries, one belonging to my grandmother and one given to me by Pope John Paul II in 1991. I used to rest them on the lamp in the back. But I had a fire out here, too, and somehow the lamp broke through the window and the rosaries were thrown clear, out onto the grass. So much was destroyed, but the lamp and the rosaries survived. Behind the rosaries is a “minute box”—my husband and I had it made when we were married 40 years ago. We save up the minutes we owe each other from bets, like playing cards. To the right is a photograph of my goat, Creature, and me. After I left Hollywood, I didn’t trust people. The people you met there wanted to know you because of who you were or how much money you had. So I turned to animals, like my dog Patches on the right, because they don’t care who you are. The painting in the back is not completed yet. I painted as a young girl and got sidetracked by Hollywood, but I’ve returned to it. It’s so healing. Finally, there is a hummingbird pin beneath the lamp; Jimmy Stewart bought it from Alfred Hitchcock after Vertigo and gave it to me. I wore the pin on the gray suit in the film. I hated that gray suit!”
—As told to Thomas Gebremedhin