spotlighted | Character Information

History:

Ruby Ann Blauvelt Flint was born in New York City in 1926, at the height of the Roaring Twenties. Her mother, Irene Blauvelt Flint, was a prominent heiress and socialite, coming from old New York Dutch roots. Irene's father, Anthony Blauvelt, was the owner of a factory that made clothing (specifically women's hosiery), and had inherited this position from his father before him. Irene's marriage to Ruby's father, second generation immigrant Benjamin Flint, was something of a scandal when they wed late in 1925, just two months before Ruby was born. While Anthony insisted on the marriage to preserve his daughter's honor, he never warmed up to Ben Flint, who was 13 years older than Irene, came from a peniless family, and was an idealistic intellectual who aspired to be a playwright. Anthony saw both Ben and Irene (who had come to prominence during the 1920s as a celebrity singer and sex symbol) as a threat to the traditional power structure that he was desperately clinging to, and which was being eroded as the American Dream broadened to include changing roles for both women and immigrants such as Ben's family (Jewish immigrants who had changed their surname from Fleig upon arriving in America). The marriage and Irene's emerging left wing political views caused a huge rift between Anthony, but he demanded to be able to raise his grandchild, Ruby. While Ben and Irene initially refused, the Wall Street crash left them unable to provide for Ruby, and so they left Ruby in her grandfather's care and set out for California, hoping to make a living there. They mostly made a very modest income, with Ben writing pretty standard, forgettable love songs, but he soon began to extend his writing to songs supporting labor unions, which infuriated Anthony, especially when recordings of his daughter Irene singing this "communist filth" were released commercially.

Ruby grew up estranged from her parents and resenting them as she saw them as not wanting to be a part of her life. While she adored her grandfather and did everything that she could to impress him, it was seemingly never enough. He was a very business oriented person and seemed to measured Ruby's worth in similar terms. He hired a governness to teach her, so that he could control the education she received, and make sure that she wasn't getting influenced from any worldviews that he didn't agree with. The result was that Ruby ended up very isolated and unhappy. Anthony eventually recognized this and compromised by sending her away for high school to a prestigious boarding school in Connecticut, but Ruby found that she was unhappy in an academic environment and found it difficult to both fit in and compete with the other girls. Having left school in 1944, Ruby's grandfather was disappointed with her, but just changed his plans of marrying her off to the son of one of his wealthy business associates to do that immediately rather than putting her through college first. Ruby knew that this was possibly the only chance she had to try and make her own life, and she decided to enlist in the USO, for the opportunity to be able to leave New York and the grip of her grandfather, as well as help out with the war effort, something she felt very strongly about.

The USO assigned her to the foxhole circuit - the overseas touring circuit which went as close to the front lines as possible and tried to keep up the morale of the troops, as well as visiting the military hospitals just behind the lines. Ruby found that not only did she enjoy singing and dancing and entertaining, but it was something that she was good at, and decided to try and make singing her career, determining to become a singer, socialite, and everything of the glamorous image that she held of her mother, before she had met her father. While she enjoyed travelling in Europe and contributing to the war effort, there is plenty about her time in the USO that Ruby wishes that she could forget. She saw the troops returning from battle, recovering in hospitals, and the looks of horror and emptiness in their eyes haunted her. She began more and more to see the war as something that had no point other than to let brave young men die thousands of miles away from home. She also found herself smitten by a young GI, Private Joshua Etheridge, who she kept running into all over France and began a secret romance with. They were young and naive, and talked as though their brief relationship would last forever, and when Joshua died en route to hospital from battle, it left a permanent hole in Ruby's heart. Joshua's death also gave her a sharp awakening, and she grew up quickly and became far more cynical, becoming scared of getting attached to people only to lose them. It also got rid of any romantic notions she had about doing one's duty for the good of the country.

After the war, Ruby returned from America, and quickly landed a job singing in a night club. As her reputation as a singer steadily grew, combined with the fact that she came from a well known family, she got better and better gigs, eventually landing a job in the prestigious Stork Club, where she got to rub shoulders with the rich and famous. She also moved into an apartment in Gramercy, with keys to the park, and spent much of her spare time between parties and trips to the theatre and the movies. She did try and reconcile herself with her grandfather, but he was always cold towards her. While she was determined to try and make her own life, at the same time she didn't understand what was so wrong with her that she never seemed to measure up to his expectations, and this is a constant worry for her in a lot of her interactions.

In 1951, other of Ruby's family connections came back to haunt her. Ruby's father, now a successful playwright whose plays held a strong left-wing message, as well as his pro-union songwriting, was dragged before the House of Unamerican Activities Committee (HUAC). When he refused to name names, Ben Flint was blacklisted by HUAC, making him essentially unable to work, and compounding his association with Communism. Now, the attention of both HUAC and the media turned on Ruby, who was angry at the accusations thrown at her, and became more virulently anti-Communist as a response. But the media were trying to prove that she was secretly a "red", even going so far as to make up fake stories about her war service, insinuating that she had fallen prey to Communist ideas while in Europe, and doing anything they could to besmirch her reputation. While she was questioned by HUAC on two occasions, they ultimately decided that she had no connection to her father's activities and moved on to their next victim. By that time, however, the newspapers had done their work, and none of her socialite friends would contact her any more, and her job hinted that she should step down before she gave the club a bad reputation. To top things off, her grandfather disinherited her completely at the first sign of her involvement with the Red Scare.

Personality:

Ruby has developed a protective layer around herself over the years. She is scared about getting hurt physically or emotionally, as the people she has attached herself to in the past have either died or left or not wanted her around. On the one hand, this has left her very paranoid, and she tends to question the motives of people who show kindness to her for its own sake, as she's scared that she will fail whatever expectations they have of her, as well as being cynical and expecting that everyone is only out for themselves, and that if they are nice to her it's only because they want something from her. On the other hand, she is genuinely grateful to those who are friendly to her, and ends up doing whatever she can in order to feel that she is worthy of their approval, and gain their attention.

Her glamorous, public persona as a singer is another layer that she has created to hide behind, and while she does very much enjoy this lifestyle, it allows her to conceal how inwardly vulnerable she is. She likes to be noticed, and thrives on compliments and praise. While she prides herself on her independence and the fact that she ultimately made her own way in life, she can also be very easy to manipulate, especially if she thinks that it will net her approval from the right people.

Ruby's sheltered, upper class childhood has made her a little naive about certain things, especially when it comes to other people. She doesn't really understand how hard the life of someone from a poorer community can be, and assumes that if anyone works hard enough, then they will succeed despite whatever circumstances they have. She uses herself as an example of success, blindly ignoring all the head starts she had in life. This assumption can make Ruby quite obnoxious to be around, but she is ultimately well meaning, and if faced with the decision to help someone then she will.

Ruby has a tendency to see things in black and white terms, something that was compounded by living in Cold War America. She does think of herself in very 'us and them' terms, and while being thrown into a different society will make her question that, this process of questioning it is something that she is very afraid of having to do. Her sense of paranoia is something that has grown partly due to the time period in which she is from, as well. She sees the world as much smaller than it actually is, and assumes that everyone fits neatly into categories. Part of her paranoia is the fear that she actually falls into the wrong category.

Ruby likes the finer things in life - good food, good booze, designer dresses - and is aware that she needs to work hard to maintain both that lifestyle and the cultured image of one who leads it. She very much enjoys company, and enjoys flirting and bantering with men, although after losing Joshua she is afraid of committing to a serious relationship.