Colman Andrews - Early Life

Early Life

Born in Santa Monica, California. His father, Charles Robert Hardy Douglas Andrews, born in Effingham, Kansas, was a newspaperman, pioneering radio soap opera writer, novelist, and screenwriter. In a 1948 New Yorker article on the soaps, James Thurber mentioned Andrews and his ability to turn out “a hundred thousand words a week over a period of years, without losing a pound or a hair.” Writing speed and fecundity would eventually become something Bob’s son Colman was known for as well. Andrews’ mother was Irene Colman (née Bressette), an actress of French-Canadian descent born in Nashua, New Hampshire. She was featured as a chorus girl in Gold Diggers of 1937 alongside Lucille Ball, and also appeared in Anthony Adverse with Fredric March and Tale of Two Cities with Ronald Colman (from whom she took her stage name, the second half of which she later passed on to her son). Andrews and his sister, Ann Merry Victoria Andrews (two years his junior), grew up on an estate in the West Los Angeles neighborhood of Holmby Hills, next door to Vincent Price. The family moved to Ojai, north of Los Angeles, in 1959, and Andrews attended Villanova Preparatory School in the same town. Even in those days, Andrews loved food; he relished dinners at the innovative Ranch House restaurant nearby and, living in a house rented from Loretta Young, he collected bags full of Ojai’s famed Valencia oranges from the small orchard out front and squeezed fresh juice from them. He also had his first job in journalism, writing community items for The Ojai Valley News for 35 cents a published column inch.