The First King of Hollywood
Page 58
His occupation was listed variably: US Federal Census Collection, Ancestry.com.
an 1873 passport application: US Passport Applications, Ancestry.com.
by 1876, he was the first president: Atlanta Constitution, May 13, 1876; Janesville Gazette, June 20, 1876.
They lived at 494 Jackson Avenue: New Orleans City Directory, 1872, Online Historical Directories Website, https://sites.google.com/site/onlinedirectorysite/Home/usa/la/orleans.
“The most distinguished looking man”: Macon Telegraph, April 1, 1928.
he “was probably abusive”: Fairbanks and Hancock, Doug Fairbanks, 41.
“I was the blackest baby you ever saw”: Richard Schickel, His Picture in the Papers: A Speculation on Celebrity in America Based on the Life of Douglas Fairbanks, Sr. (New York: Charterhouse, 1974), 13.
“Almost anyone who begins to take up his past”: Douglas Fairbanks, “Seriously Speaking” (unsourced article), Mary Pickford Papers, folder 1355, Margaret Herrick Library, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Beverly Hills, CA.
“Mr. Fairbanks was a splendid Shakespearean scholar”: Tampa Tribune, April 23, 1916.
“even then as close as peas”: Fairbanks and Hancock, Doug Fairbanks, 24.
“he had never known one yet”: Ibid., 25.
he “would recite you as fine and florid an Antony’s speech”: Ibid., 40.
“Schooling as such didn’t appeal to me”: Ibid., 41.
“They were my first glimpses”: Ibid., 27.
“That old biddy acts as if”: Ibid., 32.
“with customary—but dramatic—solemnity”: Ibid., 42.
The earliest evidence of this theatrical passion: Photoplay, May 1917.
“I braced him”: Fairbanks and Hancock, Doug Fairbanks, 51.
he danced both a gavotte and a hornpipe: Denver Rocky Mountain News, January 13, 1896.
January 1897 saw him at the Masonic temple: Denver Post, January 20, 1897.
“Mother had a time getting Douglas”: Fairbanks and Hancock, Doug Fairbanks, 53.
“Don’t you remember when your mother used to say”: Mansfield News, January 23, 1909.
“Get off that sofa!”: Douglas Fairbanks Papers, scrapbook 1: condolence letters, Margaret Herrick Library.
“Yours, Lovingly”: Ibid.
After the “dainty refreshments”: Denver Rocky Mountain News, May 9, 1897.
an evening of “literary and musical entertainment”: Denver Post, March 12, 1898.
“I had known him long”: Douglas Fairbanks Papers, scrapbook 1: condolence letters, Margaret Herrick Library.
the Wolhurst Fete, an open-air fundraiser: Denver Post, August 26, 1898; Denver Sunday Post, August 28, 1898.
he was to appear with Hobart Bosworth: Denver Evening Post, September 3, 1898.
In October 1898 he was seen at Windsor Hall: Ibid., October 18, 1898.
part of a program of special attractions: Denver Rocky Mountain News, November 19, 1898.
he performed his comic dialect speeches: Denver Evening Post, November 20, 1898.
“A remarkable thing about the entertainments”: New York Dramatic Mirror, December 10, 1898.
“Master Douglas Fairbanks has a part”: Denver Post, November 20, 1898.
“One day happened to meet an actor man”: Chicago Daily Tribune, April 28, 1912.
“The simple hurdles in this case”: Fairbanks and Hancock, Doug Fairbanks, 60.
“America’s greatest forgotten tragedian”: Alan Woods, “Frederick B. Warde: America’s Greatest Forgotten Tragedian,” Educational Theatre Journal 29, no. 3 (October 1977): 333.
“the touring tragedian, a star actor”: Ibid., 333–334.
The voice itself had a wealth: Allen Griffith, Lessons in Elocution (Chicago: Adams, Blackmer & Lyon, 1871), 14.
“Mr. Warde himself as Romeo”: Washington Post, May 5, 1900.
“While in Denver, Colorado, I made an address”: Frederick Warde, Fifty Years of Make Believe (New York: International Press Syndicate, 1920), 273.
“Here it is, teacher!”: Booton Herndon, Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks: The Most Popular Couple the World Has Ever Known (New York: Norton, 1977), 17.
He continued with temperate fibs: Fairbanks and Hancock, Doug Fairbanks, 76.
“His English teacher there”: Ibid., 56.
The company consisted of twenty-five people: San Diego Union, December 1, 1899.
The production traveled with a sixty-foot baggage car: Atlanta Constitution, September 28, 1899.
He made thirty dollars a week: Repository (Canton, OH), March 2, 1923.
“The school boy Douglas was no more”: Chicago Daily Tribune, April 28, 1912.
“to make a long story short”: Photoplay, December 1917.
“Mr. Warde’s company was bad”: Schickel, His Picture in the Papers, 20.
“I probably wore the most astonishing costumes”: Theatre Magazine, April 1917.
giving him progressively larger roles: Eric L. Flom, Silent Film Stars on the Stages of Seattle: A History of Performances by Hollywood Notables (Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2009), 57.
a “laughing face, a curly head of hair”: San Diego Union, May 24, 1923.
“Douglas saved him much money”: Riverside Daily Press, April 5, 1923.
“He is one of the men whom fortune”: Omaha World Herald, November 18, 1924.
Fairbanks claimed that he headed up the funeral procession: San Diego Union, May 24, 1923.
“If he says it was so, it must be true”: Unsourced clipping, Douglas Fairbanks Papers, Margaret Herrick Library.
“Miss May Warde, as Benetta”: Fort Worth Morning Register, November 10, 1900.
“Some actors draw a rapier”: Los Angeles Times, December 13, 1900.
a sheriff deputy crawling over his box: New York Times, March 15, 1900.
“When I played at the old Willis Wood”: Amarillo News Globe, May 21, 1933.
“Hockey scores will be given”: Manitoba Morning Free Press, January 31, 1901.
2. The Heroine’s Likable Younger Brother
More than forty “legitimate” theaters: Daniel Blum, A Pictorial History of the American Theatre, 1860–1970 (New York: Crown, 1969), 54.
He was paid forty dollars per week: Springfield Republican, October 28, 1923.
“The most poorly drawn character”: Syracuse Post Standard, March 16, 1902.
“capital as an impulsive, unsophisticated and not very discreet youth”: New York Dramatic Mirror, February 8, 1902.
“naturalness and refreshing spontaneity”: New York Clipper, January 18, 1902.
“boyish audacity”: Ibid.
“The name Coppet appealed to me”: George Creel, “A ‘Close-Up’ of Douglas Fairbanks,” Everybody’s Magazine, 1916.
“he is still remembered in that office”: Ibid.
“For five days in the week I would say”: Ibid.
“I shall never forget the day”: Douglas Fairbanks Papers, scrapbook 1: condolence letters, Margaret Herrick Library, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Beverly Hills, CA.
“I was seized with a restless spirit”: Boys’ Life, June 1928.
“I walked from Liverpool to London”: Chapter 4 in From Hollywood to Paris (draft copy) by Mary Pickford, Mary Pickford Papers, Margaret Herrick Library.
“I worked with street gangs”: Boys’ Life, March 1924.
Robert Florey claims: Robert Florey, Filmland: Los Angeles et Hollywood les capitales du cinema (Paris: Editions de Cinemagazine, 1923), 135.
“I think,” she famously said: Letitia Fairbanks and Ralph Hancock, Doug Fairbanks: The Fourth Musketeer (New York: Henry Holt, 1953), 80.
“boyish, natural and interesting”: New York Dramatic Mirror, October 11, 1902.
“with a good deal of judgment”: Jersey Journal, January 20, 1903.
“feeling quite at home”: Fairbanks and Hancock, Doug Fairbanks, 81.
He joined a group of young actors: Boston Herald, March 30, 192
4.
role in Mrs. Jack for “a whole year”: “How ‘Doug’ Fairbanks Made His First Thousand,” Three Musketeers press book, 1922, private collection.
Nineteen years later, at the height: San Antonio Express, May 21, 1922.
“it would not be possible to become a brilliant attorney”: Kenneth Davenport, Fairbanks studio biography, n.d., Thomas J. Geraghty Papers, file 22: miscellaneous, Margaret Herrick Library.
“No orchestra ever played loudly enough”: Ibid.
“more charm than was right”: Richard F. Snow, “William A. Brady,” American Heritage Magazine 31, no. 3 (April/May 1980).
“The ‘conductor’ stood on the back platform”: Edward Wagenknecht, The Movies in the Age of Innocence (New York: Ballantine Books, 1962), 9.
“Porter distinguished the movies”: Lewis Jacobs, The Rise of the American Film (New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1939).
“500 men of good appearance”: Chicago Daily Tribune, December 13, 1903.
It was being burlesqued in a sketch: New York Times, February 14, 1904.
“This was Landry Court”: Frank Norris, The Pit: A Story of Chicago (New York: Doubleday, 1903), 15.
Doug played “with refreshing spirit”: New York Dramatic Mirror, February 20, 1904.
“After a season of what I thought”: “How ‘Doug’ Fairbanks Made His First Thousand.”
“There were some stormy aspects”: William A. Brady, Showman (New York: E. P. Dutton, 1937), 267.
“boyish, roistering, likable”: New York Clipper, May 7, 1904.
“Discouragement isn’t the word”: “How ‘Doug’ Fairbanks Made His First Thousand.”
the “cattle boat” was a passenger ship: Incoming Passenger Lists, 1878–1960, record for “Ella Fairbanks,” National Archives, London, England; Douglas was misrecorded in the passenger list as “David.”
He returned to New York late in August: Incoming Passenger Lists, 1878–1960, record for “DE Fairbanks” and “Mrs. Ella Fairbanks.”
“In the first act the entire dramatis personae”: Fairbanks and Hancock, Doug Fairbanks, 86.
noted not only for an unusually fine voice: New York Dramatic Mirror, January 21, 1905.
he sang a solo, “Just My Style”: Tampa Tribune, May 4, 1924.
“He’s not good-looking”: Brady, Showman, 272.
“reigning craze for watering stocks”: Chicago Daily Tribune, March 12, 1905.
“made up his mind to be a power”: New York Times, April 4, 1905.
“When there were no natural obstacles”: Boys’ Life, November 1923.
“pleasing when he was not spouting platitudes”: New York Times, April 4, 1905.
“fervor and enthusiasm”: New York Clipper, April 8, 1905.
“shows the hurried pitchfork”: New York Dramatic Mirror, April 15, 1905.
“I think the play is one of the best”: New York Morning Telegraph, April 7, 1905.
four pages from a young theatergoer’s album: Author’s collection.
“Douglas Fairbanks . . . did excellently”: New York Morning Telegraph, April 4, 1905.
“The general public will not be admitted”: Chicago Daily Tribune, September 14, 1905.
“Robust fun of the usual huckleberry flavor”: New York Times, December 26, 1905.
“If the minister portrayed in the play”: New York Dramatic Mirror, January 6, 1906.
The crowds at the Garden were the largest in five years: Middleton Daily Press, January 9, 1906.
“In my home town I played”: Theatre Magazine, April 1917.
Kenneth Davenport was able to step in: Oakland Tribune, October 31, 1906.
“Douglas Fairbanks gave his customarily truthful picture”: New York Dramatic Mirror, September 22, 1906.
“Douglas Fairbanks . . . played an unimportant part”: New York Clipper, September 22, 1906.
“During rehearsals, which always wore everybody else”: Brady, Showman, 262.
“the simplest way”: New York Times, October 28, 1906.
Fairbanks “had the audience with him”: Galveston Daily News, February 24, 1907.
“Douglas Fairbanks played his now familiar “: New York Times, December 5, 1906.
“She epitomized that upper-class world”: Douglas Fairbanks Jr., The Salad Days (New York: Doubleday, 1988), 17.
“Opposition to the suit aroused the fighting blood”: Trenton Evening News, January 18, 1907.
“At the conclusion of the conference”: Ibid.
The sun parlor at Kenneth Ridge: Washington Post, July 12, 1907.
“I think you are making a great mistake”: Fairbanks and Hancock, Doug Fairbanks, 91.
“he will be launched as a full-fledged star”: Washington Post, August 29, 1907.
3. Stage Stardom
the self-described “Captain of the Good Ship Take-it-Easy”: Richard Schickel, D. W. Griffith: An American Life (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1984), 107.
rehearsals for All for a Girl began: Anaconda Standard, July 19, 1908.
“Another star burst forth”: New York Clipper, August 29, 1908.
Fairbanks “is extremely clever”: Washington Post, August 30, 1908.
“Mr. Fairbanks is not beautiful”: New York Times, August 23, 1908.
“I played the part of a speedy young chap”: Theatre Magazine, April 1917.
He had lunch with a friend: Collier’s Magazine, June 18, 1921.
“Bully!” and “A corker!”: Souvenir program for A Gentleman from Mississippi, author’s collection.
Roosevelt was “energetic, stubborn, opinionated”: Richard Zacks, Island of Vice: Theodore Roosevelt’s Quest to Clean Up Sin-Loving New York (New York: Anchor, 2012), 4.
“He was tremendously excitable”: Ibid.
“because it was the best [background] to demonstrate”: Alistair Cooke, Douglas Fairbanks: The Making of a Screen Character, Museum of Modern Art Film Library Series 2 (New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1940), 19.
Sully “loves Roosevelt about as much”: Green Book, October 1914.
“I expected he’d howdy do me”: Ibid.
The success of the play was assured: New York Dramatic Mirror, October 10, 1908.
Doug’s “fresh, breezy, wholesome way”: New York Times, September 30, 1908.
Her father had advanced the young couple: Douglas Fairbanks Jr., The Salad Days (New York: Doubleday, 1988), 19.
“equally extravagant actor-husband”: Ibid.
“the student body compelled Mr. Fairbanks”: Syracuse Post Standard, April 19, 1910.
arriving in Great Britain in late May: Fairbanks Jr., Salad Days, 19; Incoming Passenger Lists, 1878–1960, record for “Douglas Fairbanks,” Ancestry.com.
relaxation of official mourning for King Edward VII: New York Times, June 5, 1910.
“Douglas Fairbanks, the actor, chased a ‘bookie’”: Washington Post, June 3, 1910.
the family returned to the States: New York Times, August 8, 1910.
The Cub, which previewed in Boston in mid-September: Boston Globe, September 25, 1910.
a quarrel about a pig: New York Clipper, November 12, 1910.
a cub reporter, “fresh from college”: Washington Post, January 26, 1911.
“The further progress of the ass”: Ibid.
“In one scene he had to run upstairs”: William A. Brady, Showman (New York: E. P. Dutton, 1937), 265.
until “my lawyers had made sure of him”: Ibid., 267.
“Put him in a death scene”: George Creel, “A ‘Close-Up’ of Douglas Fairbanks,” Everybody’s Magazine, 1916.
“It requires the physical endurance of a trained athlete”: Washington Post, January 26, 1911.
“The audience was kept almost continually in laughter”: New York Clipper, November 12, 1910.
a limited-run revival of The Lights o’ London: New York Times, April 6, 1911.
a tremendous hit when it premiered in 1881: New York Times, April 15, 1911.
Brady himself played the policeman: Ibid.,
May 21, 1911.
“The prize melodrama of 30 years”: Washington Post, May 7, 1911.
The opening curtain went up too early: Ibid.
the hapless uncle was murdered in bright light: Chicago Daily Tribune, May 7, 1911.
They threatened to quit: Indianapolis Star, May 14, 1911.
“one after another, sent a perfect shower of fish”: Los Angeles Times, August 29, 1912.
“No doubt Fairbanks’ temperament had a good deal to do”: Brady, Showman, 266.
“a young man of medium height”: P. G. Wodehouse. A Gentleman of Leisure (New York: Overlook Press, 2003), 15.
“the audience was treated to one of the most realistic fights”: New York Clipper, September 2, 1911.
in order to make room for his production: New York Times, September 7, 1911.
featuring Grace George—his wife: Ibid., September 21, 1911.
“after the final curtain”: Letitia Fairbanks and Ralph Hancock, Doug Fairbanks: The Fourth Musketeer (New York: Henry Holt, 1953), 94.
Mr. Fairbanks, from his dressing room at the Globe: New York Times, October 6, 1911.
He had a piece, Jack Spurlock, Prodigal: Ibid.
“Western capitalists” were planning to build a theater: New York Times, January 7, 1909.
“anxiously watching the till fill up”: Lowell Sun, February 1, 1934.
“The public owes no more toward the theater”: Frederic Lombardi, Allan Dwan and the Rise and Decline of the Hollywood Studios (Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2013), 52.
“The typical young American”: Fairbanks and Hancock, Doug Fairbanks, 95.
“I got the wanderlust so bad”: Douglas Fairbanks, “Combining Play with Work,” American Magazine, July 1917.
With him was friend and costar: New York Passenger Lists, 1820–1957, record for “Douglass Fairbank,” Ancestry.com; the misspelling is correct: that is how he is listed and this is how one may find the reference.
From there he took a ship for the Yucatán Peninsula: Kenneth Davenport, Fairbanks studio biography, n.d., Thomas J. Geraghty Papers, file 22: miscellaneous, Margaret Herrick Library, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Beverly Hills, CA.
“I’ve got the young man in the drawing room”: Fairbanks and Hancock, Doug Fairbanks, 96.
he signed with Arthur Klein: Variety, February 10, 1912.