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| The Seattle Times, 3/24/44 |
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| Seattle P-I, 3/24/44 |
When Frances Farmer was committed to Western State Hospital on March 24, 1944, both The Seattle Times and Seattle P-I covered the event; however, each took its own approach.
While Seattle P-I featured Farmer's institutionalization on its front page, the article was rather short. It mentioned Farmer's history, including her time as a student as well as her arrest and her visit to a California hospital after her trouble began in 1942. The article indicates Farmer's mental health concerns started after her arrest in 1942, and Farmer's mother is reported as the one who filed the insanity complaint.
Curiously, Seattle P-I also chose to incorporate a photo; however, the picture chosen was an old one from Farmer's "Happy Days" (see below) and is just another picture of Farmer during her acting career. There was no current/contrasting photo provided.
The Seattle Times, on the other hand, did not include an article about Farmer on its front page, but instead chose to run her article a couple of pages into the paper. The Times' article also touched upon Farmer's time as a student, but it provided a clearer timeline of Farmer's troubles since 1942. The article quoted Farmer's mother, saying Farmer's mental health issues began emerging after her run-in with the law in 1942, then continuing on through the present. The Times explained how, after removing Farmer from the California hospital, her mother tried to care for Farmer until she became unmanageable at home. The article then described an incident between Farmer and her mother, after which her mother filed an insanity complaint, as she was "entirely unable to control her at home." The Times even quotes doctors describing Farmer's form of insanity as schizophrenia.
