The First King of Hollywood
Page 64
“It was absolutely charming”: Douglas Fairbanks Jr., The Salad Days (New York: Doubleday, 1988), 144.
“He could not have enjoyed”: Ibid., 151.
reports circulated that Ernst Lubitsch would direct: Plain Dealer, August 11, 1923.
“It would be very unwise”: Repository (Canton, OH), August 17, 1924.
They were considering a play by Karl Vollmöller: Trenton Evening Times, July 4, 1926.
he “could do King Lear or Lady Macbeth”: Plain Dealer, April 7, 1929.
“Mary has made good in the all-talkies”: Greensboro Record, May 1, 1929.
“It will be the greatest thing”: Morning Olympian, April 13, 1929.
“Right now my biggest worry”: Daily Illinois State Journal, May 5, 1929.
Initial production on the film was delayed: Dallas Morning News, April 28, 1929.
Black Pirate and Gaucho had grossed: Variety, April 3, 1929.
a quiet run to New York City: Motion Picture News, May 4, 1929.
“There is no chance of the deal going through”: San Francisco Chronicle, May 17, 1929.
“Now [Doug and Mary are] not talking”: Bruce Humberstone, oral history files, T2B/P61, Directors Guild of America, Los Angeles, CA.
“Believe it or not,” Fairbanks declared: Times-Picayune, August 11, 1929.
“That is exactly what I do—read them”: Evening Tribune (Hornell, NY), June 19, 1930.
“I am going to be Douglas’ leading lady”: Daily Illinois State Journal, May 5, 1929.
“Mary, in real life”: Bruce Humberstone, oral history files.
“There were undoubtedly cross-currents”: Edward Bernds, Mr. Bernds Goes to Hollywood: My Early Life and Career in Sound Recording at Columbia with Frank Capra and Others (Lanham, MD: Scarecrow, 1999), 87.
“Fairbanks is truly capital”: Motion Picture News, October 12 and 19, 1929.
“Doug walks away with the whole show”: Oregonian, November 14, 1929.
“I have always thought that he and Mary”: Kevin Brownlow, handwritten notes on interview with Herbert Brenon, n.d., private collection of Kevin Brownlow.
One surly wit suggested: Macon Telegraph, October 13, 1929.
the condensation was expert: Sam Taylor, telegram to Lawrence Irving, Mary Pickford Papers, Margaret Herrick Library.
“The studio later became convinced”: San Francisco Chronicle, September 29, 1929.
A fire and explosion: Daily Illinois State Journal, October 25, 1929.
They were in London that October: The narrative for the 1929 world trip is derived from “Our Trip Around the World”, New York World Syndicate, 1930.
16. Mischief and Music
“Four months is long enough”: Evening Tribune (Hornell, NY), January 18, 1930.
“the original, Simon-pure”: Bluefield Daily Telegraph, December 1, 1931.
“Golf is great fun”: Aberdeen Daily News, March 27, 1927.
“His pace is too much for me”: Syracuse Herald, May 18, 1931.
one of entertainment’s “link bugs”: Variety, May 12, 1916.
Jack Pickford, suffering from tertiary syphilis: Tampa Tribune, January 25, 1930.
Fairbanks joined D. W. Griffith: Morning Star (Wilmington, NC), March 6, 1930.
A special celebration was held for them: Tampa Tribune, April 2, 1930.
the customization of an antique music box: Author’s collection.
he planned to remake The Mark of Zorro in sound: Variety, February 5, 1930.
He would play Murrieta: Dallas Morning News, March 23, 1930.
releasing his production and office staff: Ibid., August 27, 1930.
rumors that he intended to retire: Daily Register-Gazette (Rockford, IL), March 27, 1930.
“Mary and I looked at a silent picture”: Tampa Tribune, April 13, 1930.
“I find in talkies I can’t be active”: Morning Star (Wilmington, NC), July 11, 1930.
They had slept apart only once: Motion Picture Magazine, August 1930.
The first time they dined apart: Fresno Bee Republican, June 30, 1933.
“One thing I don’t believe in is marital vacations”: Plain Dealer, February 5, 1928.
“just for the purpose of telling them”: Motion Picture Magazine, August 1930.
“I can’t let her get more than one picture ahead”: Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, May 4, 1930, Mary Pickford Papers, folder 429, Margaret Herrick Library, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Beverly Hills, CA.
“I just live from one telegram”: Fairbanks correspondence, private collection.
He rose early every morning: Daily Mail, May 6, 1930.
“Our conversations probably”: Riverside Daily Press, May 30, 1930.
He went with the American golfers: Western Daily Press (Bristol, England), May 8, 1930.
a dinner party studded with lords and ladies: Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette, May 17, 1930.
Jones attributed his general state of fitness: Omaha World Herald, April 3, 1930.
DON’T HAVE TOO GOOD A TIME: Pickford telegrams, Mary Pickford Papers, Margaret Herrick Library.
Her father had been a stable hand: Evening Independent (St. Petersburg, FL), July 10, 1933.
“a garment so sketchy”: Daily Oklahoman, February 17, 1934.
at the Strand: Lethbridge Herald, March 3, 1934.
“Such an alliance is unthinkable”: Daily Oklahoman, February 17, 1934.
“You have an intensely emotional nature”: “Delineation of the Horoscope: Douglas Fairbanks” (booklet), Mary Pickford Papers, folder 1249, Margaret Herrick Library.
“But it’s no use trying”: Advocate (Baton Rouge, LA), May 29, 1930.
“Mary got about as far as the thirties”: Plain Dealer, May 31, 1930.
Fairbanks faced down a trio of burglars: Springfield Republican, August 5, 1930.
Fans wrote in to movie magazines: Motion Picture Magazine, November 1930.
“So Doug burgled Mary”: Omaha World Herald, August 6, 1930.
the week before, their publicist had resigned: Times-Picayune, August 6, 1930.
“I have heard talk about this woman”: Omaha World Herald, July 10, 1930.
Fairbanks was reluctant to invest: Variety, July 16, 1930.
Then over the course of nine months: Richmond Times Dispatch, October 12, 1930.
He struck a deal with Schenck: Variety, December 10, 1930.
“He actually takes direction”: Motion Picture Magazine, February 1931.
his “lethargic indifference to anything”: Ibid.
he recalled it as Fairbanks; his biographer states: Gary Giddens, Bing Crosby: A Pocketful of Dreams; The Early Years, 1903–1940 (Boston: Little, Brown, 2001), 233.
17. Around the World in Eighty Minutes
“He has such little ideas of catching a boat”: Variety, February 7, 1913.
“Mr. Fairbanks had the idea of making films”: Bessie Love, From Hollywood with Love (London: Elm Tree Books, 1977), 61.
“It is quite possible”: Wid’s, November 23, 1918.
announced to the press their plans to visit: Lethbridge Herald, January 17, 1931.
Two dozen singers in flowered kimonos: Telegram, Douglas Fairbanks Papers, Margaret Herrick Library, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Beverly Hills, CA.
in New York, she claimed, on “a rampage”: Daily News (Huntingdon, PA), January 19, 1931.
“My Goddess”: Fairbanks correspondence, Douglas Fairbanks Papers, Margaret Herrick Library.
THREE HUNDRED FEET EXCELLENT STUFF: Telegram, Douglas Fairbanks Papers, Margaret Herrick Library.
“it was an interesting experience”: Syracuse Herald, August 21, 1934.
Mary, taking care to have the media present: San Antonio Light, May 8, 1931.
The ship docked at Southampton: Edwardsville Intelligencer, May 18, 1931.
he “marked himself a generous sportsman”: Titusville Herald, May 19, 1931.
husband and wife posed for a joint pic
ture: Ames Daily Tribune, June 1, 1931.
On midnight of the eighth day: Lethbridge Herald, May 27, 1931.
twenty-one steamer trunks: Van Wert Daily Bulletin, June 2, 1931.
Sid Grauman’s Egyptian Theatre: Capital Times, June 23, 1931.
“In . . . Reaching for the Moon, there is much”: Hayward Daily Review, August 27, 1931.
“The talking motion picture has claimed”: Kingsport Times, August 2, 1931.
“somebody is lucky enough to get a job”: San Mateo Times and Daily News Leader, October 15, 1931.
He would go to Norway to fish: Ibid., July 2, 1931.
he would go to the Amazon: Oakland Tribune, September 28, 1931.
“will slide instead of climb”: Variety, November 24, 1931.
“Conditions are not worse”: Coshocton Tribune, November 3, 1931.
One editor, perhaps in possession of a strong sense: Ibid.
He got no farther than Europe: Galveston Daily News, January 3, 1932.
A mad dash followed: Daily Northwestern (WI), December 29, 1931.
18. Castaway
A columnist came to visit Pickfair: Motion Picture Magazine, May 1932.
“She was something of a secret drinker”: Douglas Fairbanks Jr., personal communication with Kevin Brownlow.
“Gin or whiskey?” he recalled Jack asking: Eileen Whitfield, Pickford: The Woman Who Made Hollywood (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1997), 266.
“He said,” she recalled, “that Mr. Fairbanks gave express orders”: Booton Herndon, Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks: The Most Popular Couple the World Has Ever Known (New York: Norton, 1977), 277.
“If the truth were known”: Scott Eyman, Mary Pickford, America’s Sweetheart (New York: Donald I. Fine, 1990), 230.
“Steve Drexel had grown suddenly tired”: Thomas J. Geraghty Papers, Margaret Herrick Library, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Beverly Hills, CA.
“They would retire to the main salon”: Moving Picture World, May 1932.
“a larger than life personality”: Melissa Schaefer, interview with author, 2012.
Fairbanks, as was his dapper wont: San Antonio Light, May 15, 1932.
“I had a pair of white linen knickers”: Oakland Tribune, August 21, 1932.
He gave the tailor one of his most expensive: San Antonio Light, May 15, 1932.
“I never saw a dinner table deserted”: Oakland Tribune, May 19, 1912.
A native drowned soon after eating: Zanesville Signal, July 31, 1932.
suggested that Fairbanks and Alba had a “discreet affair”: Jeffrey Vance, Douglas Fairbanks (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2008), 293.
“That wasn’t Doug, that was me”: Herndon, Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks, 288.
as best man at Farnum’s wedding: Evening Independent (St. Petersburg, FL), June 9, 1932.
He frightened the locals on the Fourth of July: San Mateo Times, July 19, 1932.
he and Mary parted ways again: Edwardsville Intelligencer, July 21, 1932.
“If something isn’t done”: Circleville Herald, July 30, 1932.
he shinnied up the side: San Mateo Times, June 1, 1932.
“rumors were current that linked Mary’s name”: Syracuse Herald, July 31, 1932.
Doug simply “laughed like hell”: Herndon, Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks, 285.
“For my sweetheart”: Fairbanks correspondence, private collection.
he forgot to pack his gun: Tyrone Daily Herald, October 19, 1931.
LIKE IDEA SHANTY TOWN: Fairbanks telegrams, Mary Pickford Papers, Margaret Herrick Library.
“He possesses 60 to 70 suits of clothes”: Photoplay, November 1921.
There his records are still kept: Anderson and Sheppard, 17 Clifford Street, London W1S 3RQ.
he “had a fetish for overcoats”: David Kamp, “A Style Is Born,” Vanity Fair, November 2011.
There he was met with a door: San Antonio Light, December 28, 1932.
19. “Felt Terribly Blue . . .
Although I Was Laughing”
a falling studio light struck her: Fresno Bee Republican, December 29, 1932.
Jack had been in a Paris hospital: Modesto News Herald, January 3, 1933.
“progressive multiple neuritis”: Ibid.
she served as the first female grand marshal: Daily News (PA), January 2, 1933.
GOOD NIGHT DEAR FELT TERRIBLY BLUE: Mary Pickford Papers, Margaret Herrick Library.
“She’s got to come along”: Syracuse Herald, February 5, 1933.
“Mary didn’t tell me she was leaving”: Letitia Fairbanks and Ralph Hancock, Doug Fairbanks: The Fourth Musketeer (New York: Henry Holt, 1953), 235.
He caught up with Mary in Albuquerque: Oakland Tribune, July 25, 1933.
“I replied that I would do nothing”: Mary Pickford, Sunshine and Shadow (New York: Doubleday, 1955), 188.
“I love my husband”: Fresno Bee Republican, July 30, 1933.
“Mary is said to have been displeased”: Brainerd Daily Dispatch, June 30, 1933.
“principally of ex-actresses”: Fresno Bee Republican, October 18, 1933.
She was of the sort that would go anywhere: Waterloo Daily Courier, August 6, 1933.
Sylvia had hair that was dirty blonde: Syracuse Herald, May 1, 1936.
“A prop smile sterilized”: Fresno Bee Republican, April 18, 1936.
He was a jolly old bounder: Ibid., August 11, 1933.
who was tremendously flattered by royal names: Waterloo Daily Courier, August 6, 1933.
the only short man anyone had seen: Evening Independent (OH), June 30, 1933.
He wasn’t really as large and powerful: Hayward Daily Review, July 11, 1933.
He was going to give up his citizenship: Fresno Bee Republican, August 11, 1933.
He was so unpopular that United Artists: Port Arthur News, October 3, 1933.
“which Mary Pickford now can put first”: Bismarck Tribune, June 11, 1934.
“has met her problems with a dignity”: San Antonio Light, July 5, 1933.
“all a tempest in a teapot”: Ogden Standard-Examiner, July 3, 1933.
finally caught at a London hospital: Daily News (PA), July 7, 1933.
“I don’t want to say anything”: San Mateo Times, July 6, 1933.
going to Italy when Sylvia went there: Modesto News Herald, July 8, 1933.
“I believe that a great deal of love”: Motion Picture Magazine, March 1934.
a flat denial (“all nonsense!”): Vidette Messenger (Valparaiso, IN), August 14, 1933.
a joint deal between UA and London Films: Daily Gleaner, September 4 and 8, 1933.
he gallivanted publicly with Sylvia: Syracuse Herald, October 12, 1933.
she put Pickfair on the market: Daily News (PA), July 10, 1933.
she took the house off the market: Dunkirk Evening Observer, August 15, 1933.
“You are probably wondering why”: Mary Pickford, letter to Nathan Burkan, November 17, 1933, Mary Pickford Papers, academy correspondence B, Margaret Herrick Library, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Beverly Hills, CA.
Mary officially filed suit: Modesto Bee, December 9, 1933.
“That destroyed the legitimate ends”: Daily Northwestern (WI), November 9, 1933.
claiming that Doug “stole the show”: Ibid.
“I cannot affirm or deny any reports”: Lowell Sun, November 18, 1933.
“Women ought to learn that kindness”: Ibid., January 5, 1934.
They cabled each other at Christmas: Gleaner, January 18, 1934.
“Kiss Mary and tell her”: Lincoln Star, February 6, 1934.
no knowledge of “Miss Pickford’s husband”: Oakland Tribune, February 10, 1933.
Doug received notice of the papers: Edwardsville Intelligencer, February 6, 1934.
“Very embarrassing”: Ibid.
“Frequently,” one journalist wrote: Nevada State Journal, February 7, 1934.
“if Doug wo
uld woo her”: Syracuse Herald, February 27, 1934.
Tom Geraghty scuttled back and forth: Times Evening Herald (New York, NY), February 13, 1934.
“It’s in the bag”: Edwardsville Intelligencer, March 27, 1934.
“a new man [who] apparently has forgotten”: Helena Daily Independent, March 4, 1934.
“It is just a matter of time now”: Ogden Standard-Examiner, March 12, 1934.
he rented an enormous estate: San Mateo Times, June 25, 1934; Daily Gleaner, March 23, 1935.
Tom Geraghty got lost one night: Edwardsville Intelligencer, August 13, 1934.
Their chambers, however, were adjoining: New Castle News, July 20, 1934.
She started having frequent—and public—dinner dates: Daily Times-News (Burlington, NC), June 18, 1934.
“Men are like naughty little boys”: Fresno Bee, April 13, 1934.
he gave up North Mimm’s Park: Ibid., July 23, 1934.
he abruptly boarded the SS Rex: San Mateo Times and Daily News Leader, August 8, 1934.
she could only speculate that her errant lover: Ibid., August 8, 1934.
He arrived in New York City in mid-August: Syracuse Herald, August 16, 1934.
the Colorado funeral of his sister-in-law: Greely Daily Tribune, August 16, 1934.
A private train car brought him: Vidette Messenger (IN), August 25, 1934.
But he was smiling the Fairbanks smile: Lincoln Star, August 21, 1934.
He met Mary in Beverly Hills: Modesto Bee and News-Herald, August 22, 1934.
They dined together at Pickfair that night: Lima News, August 22, 1934.
He was there bright and early the next morning: Helena Daily Independent, August 22, 1934.
they had retired to their respective corners: Ogden-Standard Examiner, August 24, 1934.
they inspected the gardens and discussed locations: Nevada State Journal, August 27, 1934.
“his old-time zest”: Galveston Daily News, August 23, 1934.
“I won’t deny it”: Oneonta Daily Star, August 29, 1934.
She shortened her hair: Modesto Bee and News-Herald, September 12, 1934.
“rushed into any decision”: Ibid.
They smiled distantly at each other: Nevada State Journal, September 19, 1934.
she and Douglas “were reconciled”: Syracuse Herald, November 3, 1934.