issuing a press release upon his discharge: Variety, November 1, 1918.
“I am positively sure”: Fairbanks correspondence, author’s collection.
“Why shouldn’t I divorce?”: Anita Loos, interview with Kevin Brownlow, slate 592, take 1, recorded for Hollywood (documentary TV series), 1980, private collection of Kevin Brownlow.
tagged as mail, Third Class: Wid’s, October 17, 1918.
“Mr. McAdoo then instructed the crowd”: Moving Picture World, November 2, 1918.
“Fifth Avenue, the great highway”: Ibid.
He took this heady show on the road: Wid’s, November 13, 1918.
Albert Parker had appeared as the villain: Variety, August 30, 1918.
“That Mr. Fairbanks is alone”: Motion Picture News, December 28, 1918.
“His performance of Lieutenant Denton”: Moving Picture World, December 28, 1918.
“The truth about ‘Arizona’ is so bad”: Virginia Tracy, “The Dazzling Sameness of Douglas Fairbanks” (unsourced article), Douglas Fairbanks Papers, scrapbook 3, Margaret Herrick Library.
“Success, particularly if easily won”: Boys’ Life, December 1923.
“Teddy decided to go out and do something”: Knickerbocker Buckaroo press book, 1919, private collection.
“Hell, I would have committed murder”: Frank T. Thompson, William A. Wellman, Filmmakers Series, no. 4 (Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow, 1983), 29.
Fairbanks met him on the third Liberty Loan drive: Michael Sragow, personal correspondence with author.
He built an “idealized Mexican village”: Knickerbocker Buckaroo press book, 1919.
8. United
Harry Schwalbe of Philadelphia: Moving Picture World, January 18, 1919.
The meeting, it was said: Ibid.
“full of rumors”: Moving Picture World, January 25, 1919.
“Let her go to First National”: Mary Pickford, Sunshine and Shadow (New York: Doubleday, 1955), 112.
“I am really very happy about Zukor”: Fairbanks correspondence, private collection.
“A dozen different representatives”: Moving Picture World, January 18, 1919.
“Exhibitors were rugged merchants”: Charlie Chaplin, My Autobiography (Brooklyn: Melville House, 2012), 221.
“a very clever girl, smart and attractive-looking”: Ibid.
with full access to the actor’s papers: David Robinson, Chaplin: His Life and Art (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1985), 35.
“[Zukor] and his associates were forming”: Chaplin, My Autobiography, 222.
“From the first, the aggressive Abrams”: Will Irwin, The House That Shadows Built: The Story of Adolph Zukor and the Rise of the Motion Picture Industry (New York: Doubleday, Doran & Company, 1927), 253.
“How vast and grand it seemed”: Budd Schulberg, Moving Pictures: Memories of a Hollywood Prince (New York: Open Road, 2012; orig. publ. 1981), e-book.
“We decided that the night before”: Chaplin, My Autobiography, 224.
“Doug was sizzling around”: Tino Balio, United Artists: The Company Built by the Stars (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1976), 13.
“While our lawyers haggled out legal technicalities”: Chaplin, My Autobiography, 224.
“One night I was up against Zukor”: Irwin, House That Shadows Built.
but by April he had resigned: Variety, April 4, 1919.
hearing that the former secretary was fond: Moving Picture World, February 15, 1919.
“The railroads and the treasury were at best”: Photoplay, May 1919.
“Schulberg has the tendency of writing”: Dennis O’Brien, letter to Morris Greenhill, August 20, 1920, United Artists Papers, US MSS 99AN, series 1A, box 211, folder 3, Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research, Madison, WI.
he was to send Woodrow Wilson: Cumberland Evening Times, January 10, 1920.
“McAdoo’s reported connection”: Wid’s Daily, February 6, 1919.
“The air is filled with bombs”: Variety, January 24, 1919.
“We believe this step necessary”: Moving Picture World, January 25, 1919.
“There is certain to be tremendous jealousy”: Variety, January 31, 1919.
“The star is the cause of more trouble”: Moving Picture World, March 15, 1919.
Others speculated that the stars’ existing contracts: Wid’s Daily, January 28, 1919.
Hearst telegrammed each of the owners: Ibid., January 23, 1919.
“legalizing their emotions”: Moving Picture World, March 1, 1919.
He sold out his share: Oelwein Daily Register, September 20, 1920.
“Movie producers are liars”: Boston Daily Globe, May 25, 1919.
the Artcraft films continued to push the envelope: Variety, September 9, 1919.
by the time A Modern Musketeer hit the screens: Motography, February 23, 1918.
The norm for other films in 1919: Motion Picture Magazine, July 1919.
“[The War Department] laid down”: Moving Picture World, January 25, 1919.
“We open with Democracy, a young tree”: Film Fun, January 1919.
“Doug promised to include in his next release”: Joseph Henabery, Before, In and After Hollywood: The Autobiography of Joseph E. Henabery (Lanham, MD: Scarecrow, 1997), 183.
“As soon as he finishes with one bunch”: Wid’s Daily, July 21, 1919.
“Hard work and money went into making it”: Henabery, Before, In and After Hollywood, 184.
“another routine Douglas Fairbanks celluline cyclone”: Motion Picture News, January 20, 1920.
“My feeling about that thing”: Kevin Brownlow, transcript of recorded interview with Joseph Henabery, December 19, 1964, private collection of Kevin Brownlow.
Even a month before its release: Wid’s Daily, August 15, 1919.
The Capitol Theatre in New York paid a record price: Ibid., June 27, 1919.
the “wild and delirious nightmare”: His Majesty the American press book, private collection.
“The revolving room—that was my idea”: Joseph Henabery, recorded interview with Kevin Brownlow, 1964, private collection of Kevin Brownlow.
“rather incensed over the fact”: Variety, January 16, 1920.
“The story was the original idea”: Ibid., February 6, 1920.
Four enormous electric pumps: Winnipeg Free Press, January 3, 1920.
“If he had begun his United Artists’ career”: Photoplay, March 1920.
He took out a quarter-page ad in the trade papers: Wid’s Daily, June 16, 1920.
He also brought Geraghty out to New York: Ibid., June 10, 1920.
“There just wasn’t anyone in the world”: Allan Dwan, interview with Kevin Brownlow, slate 318, take 1, recorded for Hollywood (documentary TV series), 1980, private collection of Kevin Brownlow.
“He did almost all of his own stunts”: Mary Astor, A Life on Film (New York: Bantam Doubleday Dell, 1967), 30–31.
In late April, the avalanche special effect was triggered: Wid’s Daily, April 30, 1920.
dragged on “an unconscionably long time”: Motion Picture Classic, September 1920.
“If a horse which Mr. Fairbanks was riding”: Legal correspondence, Douglas Fairbanks Papers, Tax Dispute Files, Margaret Herrick Library, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Beverly Hills, CA.
Fairbanks standing on a cabinet phonograph player: Akron Register-Tribune, July 1, 1920.
Several Remington paintings, as well as a piano: Democrat Tribune (Mineral Point, WI), February 13, 1920.
9. Love and Marriage
Mary had traveled to New York City: Renwick Times, January 8, 1920.
“My own darling beautiful”: Fairbanks correspondence, private collection.
Mary swore before a judge in Minden County: Reno Evening Gazette, March 31, 1920.
“Then I shall never be excommunicated”: Photoplay, June 1920.
It was beautiful weather but bad for outdoor work: Syracuse Herald, March 10, 1920.
“I had a hunch”: M
orning World Herald (Omaha, NE), March 31, 1920.
she wanted to be married on a Sunday: Buffalo Enquirer, March 31, 1920.
“far from the way a man usually looks”: Ibid.
having his name withdrawn from nomination: Winnipeg Free Press, June 29, 1920.
He survived censure: Oneonta Daily Star, June 30, 1920.
Certainly the attorney general of the State of Nevada: Chronicle Telegram (Elyria, OH), April 5, 1920.
The governor of Nevada found his office deluged: Reno Evening Gazette, April 6, 1920.
without his aid, the Nevada officials could prove nothing: Eau Claire Leader, April 8, 1920.
a reported “nervous collapse”: Oakland Tribune, April 9, 1920.
“Her state of health forbids the slightest worry”: Lincoln Daily News (Lincoln, IL), April 10, 1920.
the attorney general filed a complaint: Reno Evening Gazette, April 16, 1920.
Mary, no fool, hired Gavin McNab: Modesto Evening Journal, April 16, 1920.
“I can’t honestly say I was completely surprised”: Joseph Henabery, Before, In and After Hollywood: The Autobiography of Joseph E. Henabery (Lanham, MD: Scarecrow, 1997), 184.
The attorney filed suit against Moore: Modesto Evening News, July 24, 1920.
“I don’t think what Doug would say to me”: Joseph Henabery, recorded interview with Kevin Brownlow, 1964, private collection of Kevin Brownlow.
a “White List” of motion picture actors: Variety, April 22, 1921.
Variety wrote a long and indignant editorial: Ibid., April 16, 1920.
Thousands of telegrams of congratulation poured in: Olean Times, April 1, 1920.
“They’re married now—let ’em alone!”: Photoplay, August 1920.
“Except for a small coterie”: World Magazine (New York World Newspaper Sunday Magazine), August 1, 1920.
“A positive bellow of savage and strident sound”: Ibid.
“They have only been married a few weeks”: Chicago Herald and Examiner, June 1, 1920.
“Somebody asked me if the baby was mine”: Evening State Journal and Lincoln Daily News, May 31, 1920.
“Keb, sir? Taxi-any-part-of-the-city?”: Clipping from Sunday Gazette (Atlantic City), n.d., Douglas Fairbanks Papers, scrapbook 6, Margaret Herrick Library, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Beverly Hills, CA.
“It’s great, simply great”: Syracuse Herald, June 4, 1920.
They popped down to Washington for a day: Oxnard Daily Courier, June 8, 1920.
“Men with cameras seemed to appear”: Unsourced clipping, Douglas Fairbanks Papers, honeymoon scrapbook, Margaret Herrick Library.
“Door opens. Mary appears”: Billings Gazette, August 22, 1920.
“Immediately I felt it lock”: Mary Pickford, Sunshine and Shadow (New York: Doubleday, 1955), 127.
“At first, when I saw the ‘entire British nation’”: Des Moines Daily News, July 14, 1920.
“As the motor-car turned out into Piccadilly”: Unsourced clipping, Mary Pickford Papers, scrapbook of Pickford-Fairbanks honeymoon, Margaret Herrick Library.
“They were a living proof”: 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), 21.
“the ten foot brick wall”: Pickford, Sunshine and Shadow, 126.
“A welcoming committee met us”: Ibid., 129.
“After a day of shopping and sight-seeing”: Ibid.
“I don’t expect any ‘twosing’”: Ibid., 130.
“Douglas doesn’t like it”: Washington Herald, June 6, 1920.
“Our tickets for Basle”: Chapter 4 in From Hollywood to Paris (draft copy), Mary Pickford Papers, Margaret Herrick Library.
He returned, according to Mary, “in a brand-new car”: Ibid.
their guide made such a fuss over Fairbanks: Pickford, Sunshine and Shadow, 132.
“’Ully gee! Douglas and Mary!”: Chicago News, July 29, 1920.
“Some of the things women wear abroad”: Hardin County Ledger, September 9, 1920.
Mary was obliged to be rescued: Galveston Daily News, August 1, 1920.
“Those marvelous memories”: Douglas Fairbanks Papers, scrapbook 1: condolence letters, Margaret Herrick Library.
10. “Having Made Sure I Was Wrong,
I Went Ahead”
“Douglas Fairbanks was a man”: Margaret Case Harriman, The Vicious Circle: The Story of the Algonquin Round Table (New York: Rinehart, 1951), 222.
a letter from Cap O’Brien: Booton Herndon, Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks: The Most Popular Couple the World Has Ever Known (New York: Norton, 1977), 208.
“He had ‘that thing’”: Oakland Tribune, October 11, 1936.
“Since parting company from Miss Loos”: Photoplay, October 1918.
“Doug was timid about doing”: Enid Bennett, phone interview with Kevin Brownlow, April 1967, private collection of Kevin Brownlow.
“Douglas Fairbanks has not ‘slipped’”: Photoplay, November 1919.
“Now some of the critics are beginning”: Motion Picture Magazine, May 1919.
“I admitted freely that when it came”: Colliers, June 18, 1921.
“I was a little timid”: Douglas Fairbanks, “Let Me Say This for the Films,” Ladies’ Home Journal, September 1922.
hiring Belgian world fencing champion M. Harry Uttenhover: Las Vegas Optic, January 5, 1921.
Orphaned at sixteen: Seattle Daily Times, August 5, 1923.
In its first week, Zorro broke all attendance records: Wid’s Daily, December 8, 1920.
“UA’s product could not be sold”: Tino Balio, United Artists: The Company Built by the Stars (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1976), 38.
Michigan exhibitors organized: Wid’s, December 9, 1922.
delayed the film’s release from February 22 to March 1: Variety, February 4, 1921.
“one of his few commercial failures”: 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), 73.
the “relative failure” of The Nut: Jeffrey Vance, Douglas Fairbanks (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2008), 86.
Publicity for the film trumpeted: Variety, May 13, 1921.
He purchased the rights from Famous Players–Lasky: Wid’s Daily, February 8, 1921; agreement between Famous Players–Lasky Corporation, Mazie LaShelle Hunt (individually and as executrix under the last will and testament of Kirk LaShelle) and Owen Wister (of Philadelphia) and Douglas Fairbanks re: The Virginian, Douglas Fairbanks Papers, Margaret Herrick Library, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Beverly Hills, CA.
“There is a shortage of money”: Variety, January 21, 1921.
“You know as much about the high cost”: Lillian Gish and Ann Pinchot, Lillian Gish: The Movies, Mr. Griffith, and Me (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1969), 247.
“Right now the studio is as much”: Variety, April 22, 1921.
“The Ince plant issues a statement”: Ibid., July 29, 1921.
“I had always wanted to do The Three Musketeers”: Douglas Fairbanks, Douglas Fairbanks: In His Own Words (New York: iUniverse, 2006), 102.
“Nothing could have exceeded”: Edward Knoblock, Round the Room (London: Chapman and Hall, 1939), 299.
“Pickfair was about—certainly, the most”: Lord Mountbatten, interview with Kevin Brownlow, slate 340, recorded for Hollywood (documentary TV series), 1980, private collection of Kevin Brownlow.
he had found himself surrounded: Film Fun, December 1919.
When they finally located the misplaced manservant: Photoplay, August 1920.
“He’s old-fashioned enough”: Bridgeport Telegram, January 23, 1922.
“Although D’Artagnan figured throughout”: Knoblock, Round the Room, 303.
“Working in a Fairbanks picture”: Adolphe Menjou, It Took Nine Tailors (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1948), 89.
&nb
sp; “Doug invariably got the very best”: Ibid., 92.
“Sometimes we worked so late”: Mary Pickford, From Hollywood to Paris (New York: Press Publishing Company, 1922), Mary Pickford Papers, Margaret Herrick Library.
“Thus Douglas had learned to know”: Robert Florey, Filmland: Los Angeles et Hollywood les capitales du cinema (Paris: Editions de Cinemagazine, 1923), 135.
“We had to resort to the good old glycerine”: Motion Picture Magazine, November 1922.
Fairbanks “went completely unorthodox”: Menjou, It Took Nine Tailors, 91.
“Untrue, perhaps, but why unkind?” News Sentinel (Uniontown, PA), June 9, 1921.
“Her mother made her”: Author interview with Tom Moore, nephew of Owen Moore, to whom Mary confided this story in the mid-1960s, December 2013.
“Not less than four babies”: Oakland Tribune, July 29, 1921.
“An old age without children”: Reno Evening Gazette, December 24, 1921.
“darling little baby girl”: Fairbanks correspondence, author’s collection.
Mary had won the first round: San Antonio Light, June 26, 1921.
his bride “was very much gratified”: Independent (Helena, MT), June 26, 1921.
He did, and the following June: Oelwein Daily Register, June 1, 1922.
Fairbanks optimistically leased the Lyric Theatre: Variety, August 5, 1921.
Alexander filed suit in federal court: Nebraska State Journal, September 1, 1921.
Cap O’Brien brought the case: Variety, August 12, 1921.
The issue hinged on the failure: Ibid., September 16, 1921.
The commission ruled in Fairbanks’s favor: Lima News, September 29, 1922.
“The crowds were gathered”: Charlie Chaplin, My Trip Abroad (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1922), e-book.
“Charlie found at least five places”: Pickford, From Hollywood to Paris.
“I suggested a few changes”: Chaplin, My Trip Abroad.
“The Three Musketeers with Douglas Fairbanks is not only a great picture”: Exhibitors Trade Review, December 3, 1921.
“Search high and low”: Exhibitors Trade Review, December 3, 1921.
“Liberties have been taken”: Motion Picture Magazine, December 1921.
“There was one whole phase”: New York Times, November 6, 1922.
The First King of Hollywood Page 61
