Jann's Blog: Remembering a Love Story

Cover of Love Story

"Love means never having to say you're sorry." If you are a baby boomer, you know exactly the movie from which this line comes: Love Story. This movie from 1970 earned seven Academy Award nominations and made Ryan O'Neal and Ali MacGraw superstars. They were the Brad and Angelina of today.

The movie Love Story was based on the novel by the same name written by Erich Segal, a Yale classics professor's first novel. Segal just died in January of this year (January 17, 2010), but he will always be remembered for this book that spent more than a year on the New York Times hard-cover best seller list. Both the book and the movie swept the country.

I remember exactly where I was in life when this movie came out. I was in high school and we went as a family to the nearest theater and it was common for the line to be wrapped around the block with people waiting in line to get into the movie for weeks. Ali MacGraw was setting the fashion trend because she was so popular. In fact, my grandmother knitted me several hats that looked exactly like Ali's in Love Story.

Now Ali MacGraw is 71 and that is hard to believe. I read an article about her recently that talked about her journey in which she said, "Every life experience makes us who we are. I don't regret anything." And in many ways, her life has not been easy, but it has been interesting.

Ali described how at her last birthday, almost every man from her past called her:

"That's another thing that getting older really cements: ex-lover, ex-husband, child, girlfriends, gay friends--that gaggle of human beings is a gift. Time is really precious now. I have too many books I haven't read and too much music I haven't listened to and too many long distance calls with people I don't get to see. So I get up very early, at 6:30. I am disciplined, in many ways. And--this will sound Pollyanna-ish--but gratitude is where I start."

Great words from a woman who is becoming a sage on her terms. She charmed us in the 1970s and she continues to charm me in her 70s.

For Valentine's Day and in honor of Erich Segal, I am including one of my all-time favorite movie scenes from Love Story: