Originally posted in Blink Talk.
BLIND PARENTS TO BE FEATURED IN SEPTEMBER 22 CBS MOVIE
Release Written by Hap Holly
What Love Sees is a made for television movie that will feature Jean
Treadway (played by Annabeth Gish), the blind daughter of an over
protective New England industrialist (played by Edward Herrmann). In 1944
at age 26, Miss Treadway marries Forrest Holly, (renamed Gordon in the
movie and played by Richard Thomas), a blind, rural Southern California
rancher. Together they raise 4 children: Forrest Jr. (Gordy), Faith,
Billy, and Hap who looses his sight in 1958 at age 7. In 1959 at the
close of the movie, the family moves from its small adobe Ramona,
California home to nearby Escondido to enroll Hap in a resource program
for the blind at Lincoln Elementary School.
Forrest Sr. earned the respect of his peers as a quality general
building contractor and designer in San Diego County until he retired to
Nogales, AZ in 1979, where he continued his leadership in Rotary
International and Toastmasters. He gained international recognition for
his "Ask A Builder" column, which he wrote for the Christian Science
Monitor from 1965 until his death in 1984.
While raising 4 children was of course a full time job for Jean, she
was a hard worker in her church and blind community. Today she is
enjoying active retirement in central Oregon.
MOVIE BACKGROUND
In 1988 San Diego high school English teacher Susan Vreeland published
her first book, entitled "What Love Sees". Canadian publisher Paper Jacks
printed some 15,000 copies of this $4.00, 390-page paperback before going
bankrupt a year later. Noted Los Angeles Hallmark Hall of Fame producer,
David Rosemont, read the book, loved it, then searched 5 years for a
network to finance its production into a made for TV movie. He was
unsuccessful until his close friend Richard Thomas (of Walton fame)
agreed to play the part of Forrest Sr. in 1994; one week later CBS came
aboard.
ABOUT HAP HOLLY
Alanson P. "Hap" Holly settled in Des Plaines, Illinois, in 1974 at age
23 after having received his Bachelor of Arts degree in sociology from
Principia College in Elsah, Illinois;
Married his Tucson, Arizona, sighted summer camp sweetheart, Miss
Stephanie Eckman, in 1976;
Has been active in the Des Plaines Lions Club since 1975, receiving
Lions International's Melvin Jones Fellowship humanitarian award in 1995;
Has been active as a Des Plaines Toastmaster since 1977, serving
recently as an Area Governor for 2 terms, 1994/95;
Has been known nationwide for producing audio informational programming
for the U.S. Amateur Radio Service since 1987 via his Radio Amateur
Information Network (RAIN);
Has performed throughout Chicago over 20 years as a dance
band/contemporary keyboard musician and composer.
"What Love Sees" was released as a hard cover, large print book by
Simon and Schuster subsidiary Thorndike Press in July. It will become
available as an audiobook by Recorded Books Inc. Rerelease of the
paperback has not been announced.
Harvey
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* Origin: The Metairie Point -- New Orleans, LA (1:129/89)
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