FANNY VANDEGRIFT was ten years older than her groom, and also a lot more famous. Her family name originally was Van der Grift, they hailed from the Rotterdam district of Charlois, but as is so often the case in America, they turned three words into one, hence Vandegrift. Fanny was a writer, filling columns in the great magazines of her day, such as Scribner’s. Her husband was Robert Louis Stevenson. He soon became famous in his own right as the author of Paradise Island and the creator of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. They got married in San Francisco, and from there they went to honeymoon in the small town of Calistoga.
Calistoga was a paradise, in Napa Valley, with vineyards everywhere, and hot springs. It was getting the attention of Hollywood, where one of the leading directors of the day was also from the Rotterdam area, a few miles south of Charlois, just across the border with Brabant. Ben Sharpsteen’s family came from Willemstad, and from nearby Steenbergen. They were known as Scherpsteen there; a scherpsteen is a file block for a diamond drill. Ben built the Sharpsteen Museum in Calistoga, and filled it with movie mementos.
HE BECAME well-known through the Disney cartoon Dumbo, about the little elephant with the giant ears that enable him to fly. He had the final responsibility, as supervising director, and Disney instructed him to keep spending under control. It worked out. He cut back on background details and on which drawing supplies to use. No oil paint, for example, but watercolor. You can see it, even eighty years later, but it makes no difference. The story is timeless, the film was a huge success, and Sharpsteen’s name was established for good. Pinocchio, Cinderella, Alice in Wonderland – all Sharpsteen cartoons. He won an Oscar.
You can find Ben Sharpsteen’s grave in Calistoga. Not Fanny Vandegrift’s. Her marriage to Robert Stevenson did not last long, he was unhealthy and died young. Fanny hooked up with a much younger man, twenty years younger than her own daughter, but when she herself died, she had her ashes placed on a volcano in Samoa, next to Stevenson’s. The much younger companion then married the daughter.
* Fanny Vandergrift
