Taber’s column, “Diary of Domesticity,” started its Ladies’ Home Journal run in 1937 and ran through most of the 1940s. It’s believed the character of Elizabeth Lane, from the 1945 film, “Christmas in Connecticut,” was loosely based on the then popular columnist. Gladys Taber, who wrote nearly 60 books and was a beloved columnist for magazines such as Ladies’ Home Journal, appears in a publicity photo at her Stillmeadow Farm home in Southbury. “It is sort of an Elizabeth Lane photo.” (Elizabeth Lane is the character at the heart of “Christmas in Connecticut.”) Courtesy of Susan Turnley and family of Gladys Taber / Contributed photo Show More Show Less 5 of14 “It was given to me by her family, who told me it was taken by a family member long ago,” Turnley said. Turnley, editor of FOGT (Friends of Gladys Taber) Quarterly Journal.
Gladys Taber, cooking in her kitchen at Stillmeadow Farm in Southbury, is seen in a photo which hangs in the office of Susan J. Taber, who lived at Stillmeadow Farm in Southbury, wrote nearly 60 books, as well as a column in the 1930s and 1940s called “Diary of Domesticity.” Elizabeth Lane’s column is “Diary of a Housewife.” Getty Images / Contributed photo Show More Show Less LMPC via Getty Images / Contributed photo Show More Show Less 2 of14Ī runaway horse-drawn sleigh allows magazine food writer Elizabeth Lane (Barbara Stanwyck) and war hero Jefferson Jones (Dennis Morgan) a chance to escape for some alone time in 1945’s “Christmas in Connecticut.” (But then the police catch up, shown here.) It’s believed the character of Elizabeth Lane was loosely based on author Gladys Taber, a popular columnist at the time for magazines such as Ladies’ Home Journal.
The romantic comedy follows what happens when she pretends to be what she isn’t, and falls in love with one of her fans, war hero Jefferson Jones, played by Morgan. She can’t cook and doesn’t live on a farm. Taber, who lived at Stillmeadow Farm in Southbury, wrote nearly 60 books and a column in the 1930s and 1940s called “Diary of Domesticity.” Elizabeth Lane’s column is “Diary of a Housewife,” but it’s a sham.
Barbara Stanwyck and Dennis Morgan are seen in a poster for 1945’s “Christmas in Connecticut.” It’s believed Stanwyck’s character, Elizabeth Lane, was loosely based on Gladys Taber, a popular columnist at the time for magazines such as Ladies’ Home Journal.