The Ear of the Heart: An Actress' Journey from Hollywood to Holy Vows

The Ear of the Heart, An Actress’ Journey from Hollywood to Holy Vows by Mother Dolores Hart, O.S.B. and Richard DeNeut, published in 2013 by Ignatius Press, San Francisco. 457 pages. $21,07 from AmazonIn 1963, 24 year-old Dolores Hart was by most human standards on top of the world. She was a successful movie actress whose beauty and talent were widely praised. She had appeared in 10 successful films and two TV shows and had acted in a popular Broadway play which ran for a year and for which she was nominated for a Tony. She was being called the next Grace Kelly and her salary was being increased to $7,000 per week—more than most people made in a year. She had many friends and was engaged to be married to a tall, handsome and kind young man. But she was in turmoil; she was being drawn to the religious life. Finally, after much soul-searching she shocked her family and friends and coworkers by entering a cloistered Benedictine monastery in Connecticut called Regina Laudis, which means Queen of Praise. Most of her friends and coworkers only learned of her decision through the letters she sent out after she had entered the monastery, and her fans heard the news from press releases from movie studios. Naturally, almost everyone was astounded, and most expected her to soon change he mind and resume her acting career. But she never did return to Hollywood, and because Regina Laudis was a cloistered community little information about her was published for many years, and most of her fans forgot about her. However, she lived a full and rewarding and sometimes challenging life in the monastery, so as she was approaching her 50th anniversary of joining the Benedictines, she agreed to write a biography of her life with the help of an old friend, Richard DeNeut.I was introduced to the book by my wife’s nephew who, although a lifelong Baptist, had found Mother Dolores’ story compelling and thought I, a practicing Catholic, would too. And he was right. I loved this book. I thought it was the most interesting and inspiring story of faith I have ever read. I have been recommending it to every Catholic I meet, including a number of nuns, most of whom had been unaware of it.The book presents Mother Dolores’ life story in straight chronological order. The only unusual wrinkle in the presentation is that the story is told through a combination of traditional narrative (probably composed in large part by Richard DeNeut) and extended quotes of Mother Dolores. The book is so fascinating because Delores Hart (born Dolores Hicks in 1938) faced and overcame challenges throughout her life that would have defeated most people. She was able to succeed with the benefit of a wonderful personality, lots of determination, and striking beauty. But it is hard not to think that God also had a hand in her life.Her early life was unusually difficult because her parents were just teenagers when she was born, and although both were quite attractive, they were essentially losers. Her mother was an on-again, off-again alcoholic and was often irresponsible. Her father was an alcoholic too and also a wife beater and philanderer. Dolores remembers once coming out of her bedroom as a small child and finding her father holding a knife to her mother’s throat. Her mother was probably saved by the presence of her sister, Dolores’ aunt, who incidentally later married Mario Lanza. Dolores’ parents eventually divorced, but her mother was ill prepared to take care of her and sent her back to Chicago to live with her parents (Dolores’ grandparents). Dolores made that trip and later several more back and forth between Chicago and Los Angles by herself on the train with just a porter to look out for her. But her stays in Chicago probably saved her from wasting her life because her grandparents introduced her to her extended family and enrolled her in a Catholic school simply because it was closer to her home than the public school. It was a fortuitous event because neither Dolores nor her grandparents were Catholics. And almost by accident it resulted in her conversion to Catholicism. The Catholic children went to mass before school, and they got a sweet roll and hot chocolate after mass, which non-Catholic children like Dolores did not get because it was assumed they had already had breakfast. Dolores screwed up her courage and asked the nun if she could have a sweet roll too. The nun thought that meant Dolores wanted to join the church and arranged for her instruction in the faith. Her guardians did not object, and almost by accident Dolores became a Catholic. And over time she came to truly love the church and the peace she found in it. Eventually, she became a daily communicant.When her mother married a successful Jewish businessman, Dolores moved permanently to Los Angles. However, it was not a happy marriage, in large part because of her mother’s drinking. Nevertheless, Dolores went to a Catholic girls’ high school where she caught the aching bug. Eventually her mother’s second marriage failed and she and Dolores were strapped for money. However, they scrapped up enough to pay for the first year’s tuition at a Catholic girl’s college where Dolores continued her interest in acting, and won the lead in a play about Joan of Arc. By this time, Dolores had become a remarkably beautiful young woman, and one of her admirers had photos of her made and sent them with an invitation to her play to several movie studios . As a result one producer at Paramount Pictures, Hal Wallis, offered her a contract, and gave her a part in an Elvis Presley film: “Loving You.” It was a huge break because in the movie she gave Elvis his first screen kiss, which generated lots of publicity.Hal Wallis took a special interest in Dolores’ career (mostly for financial reasons) and got her a number of good parts, including the lead in Where the Boys Are, which was MGM’s highest earning movie in 1960. But Dolores was not just a pretty face; she was a very serious actress. She worked hard to win parts and to give good performances, and between rolls and in her free time she often took acting lessons to perfect her craft. She also loved her work and most of her coworkers. (The only actors about whom she had any negative comments were Montgomery Clift, Peter Sellers, and George Peppard.) Although she often worked with handsome and talented actors, she formed a romantic attachment with just one: Stephen Boyd. However, she formed lasting friendships with many of her fellow actors. The one aspect of the work she did not like was the dispersal of the crew when a picture was completed; she cherished the camaraderie she found on the movie sets and was depressed when the work ended. As mentioned, Dolores also acted in a Broadway play (The Pleasure of His Company) in 1958-59, and that lead to her finding Regina Laudis. Feeling at lose ends on the weekend breaks from the play, Dolores was urged by one of her friends to visit the Regina Laudis monastery in Bethlehem, Connecticut, not far from New York City. Although not Initially keen on the idea, Dolores eventually wrote and asked for and received permission to come for a visit. To her surprise she loved it. She found more peace and joy than she had ever experienced in her life, and she went back often, and before long she began thinking of joining the monastery. However Abbess discouraged her and advised her to return to Hollywood, which she did and made several more movies and became engaged to be married. Yet she returned several more times to Regina Laudis, and never completely gave up the idea of a vocation.By the beginning of 1963 Dolores was in turmoil; her desire to join the monastery had not gone away; it had gotten stronger. Finally she realized she could not fight it any longer and decided to apply for admission. The admission process was not easy, and cutting her ties with her fiance and friends was especially difficult. The process was made even more difficult by the need to keep her decision secret for professional reasons. But finally it was all arranged and she became a cloistered Benedictine nun. However, the transition to the religious life was far more difficult than she had imagined. The work on the monastery farm was hard, the food was seldom appetizing, the prayer schedule left her often tired, she had little opportunity to make friends with the other nuns, and she missed her old friends from Hollywood. The only close associations she formed with her fellow nuns during her early years in the monastery were with the Lady Abbess and her mentor, Mother Placid. However, she corresponded with many old friends in the outside world, which helped to keep her spirts up. Nevertheless, she said that she cried herself to sleep every night during her first three years in the monastery. But she persevered and eventually, after seven years, she made her final vows and became Mother Dolores Hart, a full-fledged member of the Benedictine order. Pictures of Mother Dolores at the time are included in the book, and she appears as beautiful as ever, even in her habit.Although it is doubtful many members of the community recognized it at the time (1970), having Mother Dolores become an accepted member of the Abbey when she did was a stroke of good fortune. It was a time of great turmoil in the Catholic Church in general and in Catholic religious orders in particular because of the changes instigated by Vatican II. And Regina Laudis was not immune to the problems. As was happening in convents and monasteries and dioceses throughout the world, a number of members of the Regina Laudis community decided to leave the religious life, and others were probably considering it. To deal with the crisis, some communities threw out their age-old rules and customs and practices and discarded their traditional habits. But having recently completed her formation period, Mother Dolores did not believe such drastic steps were called for. She had grown to cherish the established practices; however, she had identified a number of problem areas that need to be corrected, especially with regard to giving all nuns, including women in formation, a method of expressing their concerns and also giving them the opportunity to use their unique talents. The Lady Abbess accepted Mother Dolores’ ideas, and Regina Laudis thus avoided many of the problems experienced elsewhere.Mother Dolores still had a love of acting and the theater and turned her efforts in that direction. Using her contacts in the theater world, she created a theater program at the Abbey. She collected enough money to build a theater building and enlisted talented actors to perform in it. She also helped to raise money for other building projects and to create and market a recording of the community singing Gregorian Chants.Unfortunately, without warning Mother Dolores was afflicted with a tremendously painful foot ailment that precluded her from walking. The local doctors could not diagnose the cause, and she was laid up for months. Finally she was referred to a doctor in New York City who immediately recognized the cause of her pain: neuropathy, which is caused by inflammation that assaults the nerves on her feet and legs. He told her he doubted he could cure it, but that he could control it with injections of an anti-inflammation drug. The drug worked, and although she continued to experience symptoms, she could return to work. Eventually, Mother Dolores became a spokesperson for the Neuropathy Association, which permitted her to attend meetings and dinners outside of the Abbey, including a banquet in Hollywood at which she saw many old friends from her acting days.Because of her age, Mother Dolores has been forced to relinquish many of her duties at the abbey. However, she is still does as much as she is able, and she has been given many honors, including being appointed prioress of the abbey, which means she is the first assistant to the abbess. She has also been awarded two honnary degrees, one from Marymount College which she left at the end of her freshman year to begin her Hollywood career.Mother Dolores’ book is fascinating because it tells of the life of a very interesting woman. However, it is a great book because Mother Dolores writes with such passion of her love of God and the Catholic Church and her Monastery. And it was undoubtedly because of this love that she was able to give up her acting career to enter the monastery and subsequently to be able to hold on to her vocation in the face of great tribulations. I found it one of the most inspiring book I have ever read.Henry Borger

Love the story about Dolores Hart becoming a nun and how each steps in her life director her to be who she is

Obviously, I love this book and its subject since I give it five stars. The work done by Mother Dolores and her co-author is exceptional despite imperfections noted by other reviewers. Anyone interested in Dolores Hart's story will find it told here bravely, often insightfully, and as fully perhaps as the strictures of religious life and affiliation can permit. The book encompasses her whole life to her seventies--from birth to very young parents, her childhood pains and difficulties, her famous young adulthood as movie star; it continues into her long years of spiritual, personal, and even physical agonies and joys. There are two voices in print. Richard's text in regular typeface tells the story third-person and is interrupted by Mother Hart's first-person voice shown in italics. The result is, I think, clear enough and encourages a conversational narrative that is lively and--as the book waxes long--refreshing. There are many photos of good quality; they occur in two different sections, one for the Hollywood Dolores and the second for her years at the Abbey of Regina Laudis. Plus, there is an Index. The story is told well by these two authors; it's engaging, candid, full of specifics about the many people who either loved, acted with, influenced, kissed (Elvis), or otherwise had some impact on Dolores' life. Her childhood was marred by alcoholism at home and marked by a conversion to Catholicism that revealed faith; her acting and beauty were quickly endorsed by Hollywood fame; a conflict between worldly success and a mysterious call to religious retreat came to dominate her early twenties. She finally acted fatefully but with unexpected and continuing psychological distress evidenced by years of nightly weeping. Eventually she suffered even more. But at no time did she leave the Abbey behind or give up her chosen vocation. There is always a hole in the donut. And as other reviewers have suggested, there remain things unspoken about which many readers have questions. I suspect these issues are intensely private for Mother Dolores, so it feels unfair to want to probe her about them. After reading the book twice, I've come to the view that it's unfair to ask her to speak about what she does not know, did not do or experience, cannot tell about sex, marriage and children, the golden life of growing old surrounded by family, estate, rewards, etc. She chose a different, arduous path at a relatively youthful stage of her develpment and paid dearly for it. This is her story. And like any veteran deeply and irrevocably wounded at that early stage, she found ways to cope with everything that followed. God love her. It was her calling that her faith and devotion be as great as her grief. She found ways to combine her acting and love of theatre with her vocation and, in her unfolding history, these things became gifts she gave to her community, helping to preserve and advance its life. She reveals in her book that, though roughly challenged, she never fell to the base earth but found glory within her shadowed life. It's worth anyone's time and attention to learn how she did it.

This is a must have if your a Elvis fan! Absolutely loved it and enjoyed it very much! It was very reasonable and I was happy to add it to my collection!!! I give it five stars!!!!Louise Schuld Milford ,Connecticut 1-31-23

A great book, of an interesting lady - both film star and Nun. Her honesty and frankness are an eye opener..From Elvis, to a role as Mother in a Monastery!Interesting pictures from all aspects of her life..She must be so admired for her frankness and truth.I really admire the story of Mother Dolores from A to Z.Who could fail to love her? Even her illness does not stop her life. Wonderful!God bless you Sister.

An excellent memoir of one woman's journey into the contemplative life over several decades. Very well balanced so that one can relate one's own personal journey in life to Dolores's. Also a very good document of the times she grew up in and her formative years in America.

This is a most inspiring book! A difficult start to her life and then catapulted into Hollywood and a truly glamorous lifestyle.and then a wonderful description of selfless love for others which is continuing today at Regina Laudis Abbey. Very hard to put this book down. Essential read!

An excellent reader for anyone who has such a transition in mind.

Very interesting spiritual book