The First King of Hollywood
Page 60
“Then our ears caught a suspicious sound”: Jesse L. Lasky Jr., Whatever Happened to Hollywood? (New York: Funk & Wagnalls, 1975), 11.
“I’m so—goll-darned tough”: Fairbanks Jr., Salad Days, 31.
Senior was “sport enough”: Ibid., 43–44.
“Satire is an advanced form”: Photoplay, March 1917.
“It drivels out into a mere vehicle”: Moving Picture World, November 4, 1917.
“Mr. Fairbanks is being completely eaten up”: Photoplay, February 1917.
“He vaults a dozen walls and fences”: New York Times, November 6, 1916.
she was paid $500: Anita Loos Papers, folder 26, Margaret Herrick Library.
a “nondescript vehicle”: Moving Picture World, November 18, 1916.
the highest weekly take: Variety, November 17, 1916.
Hundreds milled outside: New York Times, November 6, 1916.
“that he craved two boons”: Moving Picture World, November 4, 1916.
“Now make me laugh”: Ibid., December 9, 1916.
“From Constance I had heard”: Chaplin, My Autobiography, 199.
“Doug Fairbanks was my only real friend”: Schickel, His Picture in the Papers, 89.
“Sweet Douglas”: Ibid., 221.
“an incredible cowardice in Doug”: Anita Loos, Cast of Thousands (New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1977), 244–245.
“It would have made a whopper”: Variety, December 8, 1916.
“Fairbanks represents physical agility”: Moving Picture World, December 16, 1916.
“Douglas Fairbanks is a tonic”: Alfred Cheri, “Reflexions sur l’art de Douglas Fairbanks,” Cinéa-Ciné pour tous, November 1, 1927.
“saying that these were the money-making things”: Exhibitors Trade Review, March 3, 1917.
“All the actors and actresses who had been selected”: Ibid.
“No modern millionaire would do that!”: Ibid.
“There’s a lot of opportunity ahead”: Moving Picture World, October 7, 1916.
“Time and again I have sat through plays”: Ibid., December 12, 1916.
“He left New York in a hurry”: Ibid., December 28, 1916.
And, on January 2, 1917: Variety, February 9, 1917.
$3,250 a week: Ibid., February 12, 1917.
“No self-respecting actor can afford”: Photoplay, May 1917.
“One story,” wrote Variety: Variety, January 12, 1917.
“ensure against any judgment”: Ibid., February 2, 1917.
when it came time for the legal filings: Exhibitors Trade Review, March 3, 1917.
“deponent is familiar with the earnings”: Deposition with Walter E. Green, President of the Artcraft Pictures Corporation, May 8, 1923, Douglas Fairbanks Papers, Tax Dispute Files, Margaret Herrick Library.
“Mr. Daniel Sully, the father”: Ibid.
“enjoy a profit of $2500 a week thereby”: Ibid.
“Sully then sought to influence”: Ibid.
“Douglas Fairbanks Indemnity a/c”: US Majestic Motion Picture Co. ledger.
they had already lost over $8,000: Paolo Cherchi Usai and Lorenzo Codelli, L’Eredita DeMille (Pordenone, Italy: Edizioni Biblioteca dell’Immagine, 1991).
“Nobody has ever thought”: Triangle Film Corp. v. Artcraft Pictures Corp., 250 F. 981, 982 (2d Cir. 1918).
6. Triangle (as in Love)
Fairbanks stopped by Charlie Chaplin’s studio: Photoplay, March 1917.
“Ella’s natural instinct”: Letitia Fairbanks and Ralph Hancock, Doug Fairbanks: The Fourth Musketeer (New York: Henry Holt, 1953), 143.
“he wasn’t a mother’s boy”: Ibid., 144.
“I can get along without you, Mother”: Ibid., 144.
Douglas “paced up and down”: Ibid., 145.
“Don’t be blue”: Douglas Fairbanks correspondence, private collection.
he reportedly pulled Mary out: Fresno Bee Republican, August 11, 1934.
“Just a few lines in a hurry”: Mary Pickford correspondence from unknown lover, private collection.
“Mary I was so stuck on you”: Marshall Neilan, letter to Mary Pickford, September 13, 1958, Mary Pickford Papers, Margaret Herrick Library, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Beverly Hills, CA.
Charlotte paid him to go to Denver: Greely Daily Tribune, August 11, 1934.
Fairbanks escaped by sprinting: Fresno Bee, August 11, 1934.
“his great patriotic picture”: Moving Picture World, May 12, 1917.
“The single stunt”: Ibid.
“I was discharged on account”: Arthur Lennig, Stroheim (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2000), 45.
He “went to New York”: Ibid., 46.
Rutherford, New Jersey ultimately provided: Moving Picture World, May 19, 1917.
Fairbanks needed an “outstanding pug-ugly”: Oakland Tribune, September 10, 1922.
“He was a huge fellow”: Adolphe Menjou, It Took Nine Tailors (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1948), 91.
“Douglas, like royalty”: Frank Case, Do Not Disturb (New York: Frederick A. Stokes, 1940), 211.
“I disliked the idea of drawing”: Edward Knoblock, Round the Room (London: Chapman and Hall, 1939), 317.
“Fairbanks was, as my father described him”: Helen Reed Lehman, correspondence with Kevin Brownlow, June 2, 1991, private collection of Kevin Brownlow.
at the 81st Street Theatre: Variety, May 18, 1917.
“when Fate edged up and nudged me”: Anita Loos, Cast of Thousands (New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1977), 73.
The Rialto alone grossed $17,880: Variety, May 4, 1917.
“One is easily able to understand”: Motion Picture News 15, no 26: 4110.
He even would stand still for the Photoplay photographer: Photoplay, October 1919.
“I could see that it was being written”: Joseph Henabery, Before, In and After Hollywood: The Autobiography of Joseph E. Henabery (Lanham, MD: Scarecrow, 1997), 157.
“The judge was amused”: Moving Picture World, September 7, 1918.
“You might hang on”: Warren Evening Mirror, August 6, 1917.
“I know that D’Artagnan’s name”: Charles Russell, Good Medicine: The Illustrated Letters of Charles M. Russell (New York: Doubleday, 1966), 90.
“The wily Douglas”: Moving Picture World, June 9, 1917.
Bull Montana declared it: Photoplay, August 1917.
“Did you ever see a self respecting autograph stamp”: Douglas Fairbanks letter, private collection.
“We . . . saw Douglas Fairbanks in his little Mercer Raceabout”: Chick Larsen, letter, September 28, 1916, private collection.
He was one of the few stars: Photoplay, September 1918.
“the golden triplets”: Ibid., August 1917.
“Taking it by and large”: Moving Picture World, June 9, 1917.
“Charlotte surveyed the suite”: Scott Eyman, Mary Pickford, America’s Sweetheart (New York: Donald I. Fine, 1990), 80.
Photoplay featured a photo spread: Photoplay, October, 1917.
“I’m going to kill that climbing monkey”: Mary Pickford, Sunshine and Shadow (New York: Doubleday, 1955), 121.
“My Darling—Just two million thoughts”: Fairbanks correspondence, private collection.
the player in question was a small spotted dog: New York Dramatic Mirror, July 14, 1917.
“But the producers have looked”: Ibid., August 18, 1917.
“Book it, Mr. Exhibitor”: Variety, August 17, 1917.
“If we are to look closely”: Motion Picture News, August 25, 1917.
Fairbanks is a peppermint-eating product: Anita Loos, Anita Loos Rediscovered: Film Treatments and Fiction, ed. by Cari Beauchamp and Mary Loos (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003), 66–75.
an especially egregious example of Loos’s casual racism: Anita Loos Papers, Margaret Herrick Library.
“the leader was of utmost value”: Moving Picture World, May 19, 1917.
“Miss Anita Loos, who appears to believe”: Ibid
.
“Emerson and Doug were a little bit”: Kevin Brownlow, transcript of recorded interview with Joseph Henabery, December 19, 1964, private collection of Kevin Brownlow.
“Anytime that Douglas and Mary wanted”: Anita Loos, recorded interview, n.d., private collection of Kevin Brownlow.
“I was surprised to be asked”: Henabery, Before, In and After Hollywood, 161.
“I had to write them myself”: Ibid., 166.
“It’s the sort of square Western”: Michael Sragow, Victor Fleming: An American Movie Master (New York: Pantheon Books, 2008), 54.
“What we get is a ranch”: Unsourced clipping, Douglas Fairbanks Papers, scrapbook 5, Margaret Herrick Library.
“It was made in a hurry”: Photoplay, March 1918.
“worldwide acclaim had made Doug touchy”: Anita Loos, The Talmadge Girls: A Memoir (New York: Viking, 1978), 33.
“Then it was decided to let Emerson and Loos”: Henabery, Before, In and After Hollywood, 167.
“The first conference concerning Reaching for the Moon”: John Emerson and Anita Loos, “Photoplay Writing,” Photoplay, April 1918.
“One thing you can’t reproduce with scenery”: “Douglas Fairbanks Crosses Country for a Few Scenes” (unsourced article), Douglas Fairbanks Papers, scrapbook 5, Margaret Herrick Library.
“Just as the Czar of Russia”: Ibid.
“One ‘close-up’ which he did yesterday”: Ibid.
“a series of fist fights”: Variety, November 23, 1917.
A young woman watching the action fainted: Photoplay, February 1918.
“When John asked for a cancellation”: Loos, Talmadge Girls, 33.
John Emerson (“a pimp”): Anita Loos, A Girl Like I (New York: Viking, 1966), 275.
“We made Douglas Fairbanks”: Anita Loos, personal communication with Kevin Brownlow.
the hall “fairly rocked with laughter”: Bernard Rosenberg and Harry Silverstein, The Real Tinsel (New York: Macmillan, 1970), 406.
“One always dislikes giving up”: Motion Picture Magazine, March 1918.
“Of course we liked Mr. Fairbanks”: Ibid.
“to get away from Los Angeles”: Ibid.
A full scenario exists: Joseph Henabery Papers, folder 132, Margaret Herrick Library.
“Fairbanks makes the Dumas swashbuckler”: Photoplay, March 1918.
he gave Dwan a Twin Six Packard: Motography, January 5, 1918.
A review of the Musketeer script reveals: Anita Loos Papers, Margaret Herrick Library.
“Leaving here for the Painted Desert”: Fairbanks correspondence, private collection.
“Dad’s once or twice leading lady”: Douglas Fairbanks Jr., The Salad Days (New York: Doubleday, 1988), 29.
“really the only intimate [woman] friend”: Lowell Sun, September 16, 1921.
astride a horse in the Canyon de Chelly: Photoplay, February 1918.
Daw spent three years of her adolescence: Ibid., July 1918.
Eagle Eye was, at the time of the injury: Moving Picture World, March 23, 1918.
“He said ‘Go down and look’”: Kevin Brownlow, transcript of recorded interview with Joseph Henabery, December 19, 1964, private collection of Kevin Brownlow.
“The Fairbanks smile is carrying a load”: Photoplay, May 1918.
“Whereas A Modern Musketeer was the perfectly balanced combination”: Motion Picture News, March 16, 1918.
“Mr. Fairbanks is prodigal”: Variety, May 3, 1918.
all shots involving Fairbanks: Motography, March 30, 1918.
7. Citizen Doug
“Five dollars a foot”: Photoplay, September 1917.
He spent a day in San Diego: Motography, January 19, 1918.
It was an elaborate event: Moving Picture World, January 12, 1918.
Doug then paid to move the entire enterprise: Ibid., February 23, 1918.
Fairbanks contemplated touring nationally: Capital Times, April 19, 1918.
He raised a million dollars: Motion Picture Magazine, June 1918.
$100,000 of which was his personal subscription: Moving Picture World, June 23, 1917.
he and Doug invented a game: Photoplay, February 1929.
“His million-dollar grin”: Nevada State Journal, May 2, 1918.
they were there for the crowds at Fort Wayne: Gettysburg Times, April 1, 1918; Fort Wayne News and Sentinel, April 5, 1918; Moving Picture World, May 4, 1918.
They sold bonds on the Capitol plaza: Oakland Tribune, April 7, 1918; La Crosse Tribune and Leader-Press, April 7, 1918.
It was Roosevelt who bought the first bond: Washington Post, May 5, 1918.
Upon arrival each was served in a lawsuit: Variety, April 19, 1918; Motography, May 11, 1918.
WIRED YOU AFFAIR WAS OFF: Scrapbook, Douglas Fairbanks Jr. Papers, Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center, Mugar Memorial Library, Boston University, Boston, MA.
RATHER BLUE SPLENDID MOON TONIGHT: Pickford telegrams, Mary Pickford Foundation.
“Mary Pickford sold one of her famous gold curls”: Logansport Press, July 8, 1933.
“I think the three of us all got stage fright”: Film Fun, June 1918.
The New York Times published a photo: New York Times photo archives.
the “one big love”: Bridgeport Telegram, April 15, 1918.
the work of “German propagandists”: Oakland Tribune, April 21, 1918.
“I have not the remotest idea”: Ibid., April 12, 1918.
“I am sorry the woman who has caused”: Ibid.
“I deeply sympathize with Mrs. Fairbanks”: Oakland Tribune, April 12, 1918.
“It was like him to add this”: Ibid.
“Then, too, comes the lingering suspicion”: Moving Picture World, May 25, 1918.
her husband’s denial “had the opposite effect”: Variety, April 19, 1918.
Fairbanks’s image was hissed: Ibid., May 3, 1918.
“Of the country, I see nothing”: Motion Picture Magazine, August 1918.
Fairbanks was in Detroit, Flint, and Saginaw: Variety, April 19, 1918.
“he rushed about the city like mad”: Moving Picture World, May 4, 1918.
By the next day he was in Ohio: Evening State Journal and Lincoln Daily News, April 12, 1918.
“The only thing left for him”: Moving Picture World, May 4, 1918.
“Mr. Fairbanks also talked at Macaulay’s Theater”: Ibid.
“When here he was on the verge”: Mansfield News, May 21, 1918.
All visits were canceled: Racine Journal-News, April 15, 1918; La Crosse Tribune and Leader-Press, April 15, 1918.
“a nervous wreck”: Mansfield News, May 21, 1918.
“Mr. Pickford Moore”: Clearfield Progress, April 20, 1918.
Moore “hadn’t proved anything”: Ibid.
“If anyone thinks I am about to retire”: Oakland Tribune, May 12, 1918.
“Of that I have absolutely nothing to say”: Ibid.
a mass meeting at Clune’s Theatre: Moving Picture World, June 15, 1918.
He competed in a “drinking bout”: Ibid., June 29, 1918.
He promoted the “Smileage” campaign: Motion Picture Magazine, August 1918.
“Our amusements here are limited”: Ibid.
“There was a lot of ‘trick stuff’”: American Classic Screen 3, no. 3 (January–February 1979).
“Hunch” was prone to such pearls: Say! Young Fellow title sheet, Joseph Henabery Papers, Margaret Herrick Library, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Beverly Hills, CA.
visualized “in a kind of allegorical way”: Unsourced clippings, Joseph Henabery Papers, Margaret Herrick Library.
“Doug was as happy”: Joseph Henabery, Before, In and After Hollywood: The Autobiography of Joseph E. Henabery (Lanham, MD: Scarecrow, 1997), 178.
on a set adjacent to the Lasky pool: Ibid.
it was the ending that caused comment: Joseph Henabery, interview with Kevin Brownlow, n.d., private collection of Kevin Brownlow.
A st
ray firecracker thrown onto the roof: Moving Picture World, July 27, 1918.
He asked all seventeen thousand theaters: Motography, April 13, 1918.
a new four-minute film every three days: Washington Post, September 17, 1918.
Fairbanks’s contribution to the spring drive: Unsourced clippings, Douglas Fairbanks Papers, scrapbooks, Margaret Herrick Library.
“clean living and physical fitness”: Ibid.
“morale pictures” in the early postwar months: Moving Picture World, January 25, 1919.
“The good-bad loveable chap”: Photoplay, March 1917.
“He is what every American might be”: Motography, March 23, 1918.
“He was the Yankee Doodle Boy”: Edward Wagenknecht, The Movies in the Age of Innocence (New York: Ballantine Books, 1962), 172.
He brought on his brother Robert: Variety, July 12, 1918.
“He was more spit than fire”: Frances Marion, interview with Kevin Brownlow, n.d., private collection of Kevin Brownlow.
“My father, though not in the least religious”: Douglas Fairbanks Jr., The Salad Days (New York: Doubleday, 1988), 49.
He paid $10,000 for the rights: Motography, May 25, 1918.
four rooms and two hallways simultaneously: Wid’s Daily, September 10, 1918.
Marion, who trained birds as a hobby: Photoplay, December 1918.
“A knockout—and then some”: Motion Picture News, September 21, 1918.
“the fastest and funniest thing”: Wid’s Daily, September 15, 1918.
Arizona first made its appearance: New York Times, September 9, 1900.
how they were “getting on with his drama”: Moving Picture World, November 23, 1918.
“When he was not ‘kidding’”: Unsourced article, Douglas Fairbanks Papers, scrapbook 3, Margaret Herrick Library.
“The parting of star and director”: Photoplay, March 1919.
on July 2 he sent a telegram: Joseph Henabery Papers, folder 267, Margaret Herrick Library.
“Believe me, it is a tough job”: Ibid.
Fairbanks was avid to stop playacting: Frances Marion, Off With Their Heads! A Serio-Comic Tale of Hollywood (New York: Macmillan, 1972), 54.
“Dad’s efforts to enlist”: Fairbanks Jr., Salad Days, 48.
Ten thousand movie theaters: Photoplay, January 1919.
The trip was made with scant notice: Wid’s, October 9, 1918.