Goldwyn

by A. Scott Berg

  CYTHEREA AND IN HOLLYWOOD WITH POTASH AND PERLMUTTER: R. A. Rowland to SG (T), Mar. 22, 1924; SG to R. A. Rowland (T), Apr. 16, 24, 1924; R. A. Rowland to SG (T), Apr. 24, 1924; “Goldwyn Seeking Screen Vampire,” prob. Los Angeles Herald-Examiner, c. Mar. 19, 1924, enclosed in letter from Neva Sylvester to SG, Mar. 21, 1924; SG to George Fitzmaurice (T), Feb. 9, 1924; George Fitzmaurice to SG, April 4, 1924; for details about Technicolor, see Oxford Companion to Film, p. 681.

  SG’S SOCIAL LIFE: SG’s secretary Valeria Belletti calls her boss a “chaser” in a letter to her friend Irma Prina, Feb. 27, 1925; John Mason Brown refers to one of the caricatures in Sherwood, p. 168; another is reproduced in Marion Davies, The Times We Had: Life with William Randolph Hearst (Indianapolis/New York: Bobbs-Merrill, 1975), p. 262; CC, Autobiography, pp. 227—28, 289; CC to SG (T), Aug. 25, 1921; SG to CC (NL), Aug. 27, 1921; David Rose to ASB (I), July 26, 1983; KV, A Tree, p. 99; KV to ASB (I), June 11, 1980.

  SG AND RGC: SG to Sadie Robinson (secretary), c. Apr. 5, 1924; RGC to ASB (I), Oct. 13, 1979; Nathan Burkan to SG, Jan. 20, 1920; Gabriel Hess to Nathan Burkan, Jan. 21, 1920; Nathan Burkan to SG, June 8, 1921; SG’s secretary to AL, Jan. 13, 1920; SG to Gabriel Hess (T), July 11, 14, 1921; Gabriel Hess to SG (NL), July 12, 1921; SG to Mrs. Hector Turnbull, Feb. 23, 1922; SG to Ruth Goldwyn, Aug. 24, 1922; Ruth Goldwyn to SG, c. June 6, 1923; SG to Ruth Goldwyn, June 10, 1923; SG to Ruth Goldwyn, May 14, 23, Aug. 13, Sept. 14, 28, 1923; Ruth Goldwyn to SG, c. Oct. 12, 1923; SG to Ruth Goldwyn, Oct. 22, 1923; Ruth’s note calling her father on his neglectful behavior does not exist but is referred to in SG to Ruth Goldwyn, Nov. 28, 1923; Ruth’s “sweet letter” is referred to in SG to Ruth Goldwyn, Dec. 12, 1923; Ruth Goldwyn to SG (T), Dec. 21, 1923; the baked potato incident: RGC to ASB (I), Sept. 18, 1978; SG to Ruth Goldwyn, Feb. 5, 1924; SG to Nathan Burkan, Feb. 29, 1924; SG to Nathan Burkan, Mar. 7, 1924; AL to SG (T), Aug. 27, 1924.

  LETTER FROM SG’S MOTHER: Hannah Gelbfisz to SG, May 23, 1922.

  SG-MARION-FITZMAURICE PICTURES OF 1924: SG to Nathan Burkan (T), Feb. 27, 1924; SG to George Fitzmaurice (T), Apr. 8, 1924; George Fitzmaurice to SG (T), Apr. 10, 1924; May McAvoy to ASB (I), July 30, 1983; Blanche Sweet to ASB (I), Apr. 2, 1983; “Estimated Production Cost, No. 3” for Tarnish; A. H. Giannini co SG (T), June 27, 1924; JAM to SG, Oct. 16, 1924; SG to AL (T), Oct. 17, 1924; Marion, Off with Their Heads!, p. 123; ”Foreign Sales“ accounting, c. Oct. 30, 1924.

  SG TO EUROPE: Adela Austin to ASB (I), Sept. 6, 1980; Hilde Berl Halpern to ASB (I), Sept. 7, 1980; Aron Gutgold to ASB (I), June 1, 1985.

  Details of Hannah Gelbfisz’s death are in a letter from her doctor, Henryk Higier, to SG, June 6, 1935.

  VILMA BANKY: SG, (UN), Dec. 8, 1952; Vilma Banky to ASB (I), July 2, 1984; SG to Vilma Banky (R), March 9, 1925; Will Hays to JS (T), Aug. 18, 1925; SG discusses Vilma Banky (and the early troubles with her wardrobe) in Leonard Lyons, “The Lyons Den,” New York Past Magazine, August 4, 1967, p. 3; SG to Louella Parsons, March 9, 1925; Al Wilkie to AL (IOC), n.d.

  Condé Nast’s apartment is described in Caroline Seebohm, The Man Who Was Vogue: The Life and Times of Condi Nast (New York: Viking Press, 1982), p. 2; other details of his parties were supplied from the Condé Nast Archives: “Party Breakdowns,” “Things That Can Be Done a Day or Two Before a Big Party”; “Table Arrangement” (New York: Condé Nast Publications).

  MEETING FRANCES HOWARD: Coudert Nast’s interest in Constance Howard was told by her daughter, Patricia Gerhardt, to ASB (I), Sept. 29, 1984; SG, “What America Means to Me,” American Weekly, Jan. 27, 1952, p. 23; SG’s reminiscences, as reported to Leonard Lyons, loc. cit.; Johnston, Great Goldwyn, p. 54.

  FRANCES HOWARD’S BACKGROUND: Patricia Gerhardt to ASB (I), Sept. 29, 1984; Henry W. Clune to ASB, Sept. 17, 1984; SGJ to ASB (I), Oct. 17, 1983, and May 21, 1988; Billie Burke (with Cameron Shipp), With a Feather on My Nose (New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1949), pp. 197—98, 199; GC to ASB (I), Sept. 11, 1979, Nov. 27, 1981; GC, rough notes dictated Dec. 18, 1970, and written up as a short profile called “Frances Goldwyn,” by the Goldwyn office, Jan. 7, 1971; A. Winfield Chapin (fellow actor in Knickerbocker Players) to FG, Feb. 1, 1974; Irene Mayer Selznick to ASB (I), July 29, 1985; Katharine Hepburn to ASB (I), Apr. 9, 1983; Lasky, I Blow, p. 141; Gavin Lambert, On Cukor (New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1972), pp. 25—6; Curt Gerling, Never a Dull Moment (Webster, N.Y.: Plaza Publishers, 1974), pp. 26—8; FG, early draft for “Dear Sam: Do You Remember?,” Woman’s Home Companion, Dec. 1950; Vilma Banky to ASB (I), Aug. 31, 1984.

  VILMA BANKY GOES TO HOLLYWOOD: SG to AL, Mar. 27, 1925.

  SG’S COURTSHIP OF FG: FG, in Wagner, You Murt Remember, pp. 105—6; Hilde Berl Halpern to ASB (I), Sept. 7, 1980; GC to ASB (I), Sept. 11, 1979; FG, early draft for “Dear Sam: Do You Remember?”; AL to SG (T), Apr. 15, 1925; Vilma Banky to SG (T), Apr. 16, 1925; SG to Vilma Banky, Apr. 16, 1925; Johnston, Great Goldwyn, pp. 55—6; “Motion Pictures,” The New Yorker, Apr. 25, 1925, p. 31; Carl Brandt, “The Celluloid Prince,” ibid., pp. 13—14; Vic Shapiro to SG, Aug. 26, 1959; Jersey Journal, Apr. 24, 1925.

  10 CANAAN

  FG AND SG ARRIVE IN HOLLYWOOD: FG, in Wagner, You Must Remember, pp. 105—6; Carl Brandt, “Celluloid Prince”; FG, “Dear Sam: Do You Remember?,” pp. 42—44, 71; more on building of theaters in Los Angeles in Naylor, Picture Palaces, pp. 83—7, 216; Gernot Kuehn, Views of Los Angeles (Los Angeles: Portriga Publications, 1978), pp. 106—9; Morris, Not So Long Ago, p. 132; Irene Mayer Selznick to ASB (I), August 7, 1985; GC to ASB (I), Sept. 11, 1979; FG, draft of “Company’s Coming,” Los Angeles Examiner, Dec. 9, 1959, sec. II, 1; KV to ASB (I), June 11, 1980; Carmel Myers to ASB (I), May 21, 1980; Gish, The Movies, p. 281; Valeria Belletti to Irma Prina, June 26, 1925.

  BEVERLY HILLS AND SANTA MONICA: Joe Shea, “Beverly Hills: Then & Now,” and a facsimile of the “Chain of Title from the King of Spain to the City of Beverly Hills,” appear in Goldbook (Beverly Hills: Goldbook, 1983), pp. 35, 37, 41; Sandra Lee Stuart, The Pink Palace (Secaucus, N.J.: Lyle Stuart, 1978), pp. 26—32; CC, Autobiography, p. 200; Charles Lockwood, Dream Palaces (New York: Viking Press, 1981), pp. 100—23; AL to SG (T), Jan. 9, 1925, informed SG that Marion Davies had bought the Lexington Road house; Marion Davies, The Times, pp. 32, 34, 101, 103; Clinton H. Anderson, Beverly Hills Is My Beat (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1960), p. 23; Parsons, Illiterate, p. 89; Selznick, Private View, pp. 71—2, 81—2; FG, in Wagner, You Must Remember, pp. 107—8.

  FG’S ROLE IN SG’S LIFE: FG, “Dear Sam: Do You Remember?,” p. 71; GC to ASB (I), Sept. 11, 1979; RGC to ASB (I), Oct. 13, 1979; Louella Parsons, “The Real Mr. Goldwyn,” Los Angeles HeraldExaminer Pictorial Living, Feb. 22, 1959, p. 42.

  STUDIO LIFE: Valeria Belletti to Irma Prina, Feb. 19, n.d. (c. Mar.), n.d. (c. Apr.), May 6, June 6, 1925. (N.B.: Valeria Belletti’s letters are not part of the Goldwyn archives; they are privately owned.)

  LEAVING FIRST NATIONAL: Nathan Burkan to SG (T), May 28, June 7, 1924; JAM to SG, June 11, 1924; SG to R. A. Rowland, May 29, 1924; R. A. Rowland to SG (T), June 6, 1924; SG to Nathan Burkan (T), Sept. 22, 1925; SG to AL (T), Nov. 1, 1925; AL to JAM, Aug. 19, 1925; SG to Nathan Burkan (T), July 1, 1925; SG to AL (T), Nov. 7, 1925; Nathan Burkan to SG (T), Apr. 30, 1925.

  JOINING UNITED ARTISTS: SG’s difficulties finding a new distributor are discussed in JS to SG, n.d. (c. Oct. 30, 1931); Balio, United Artists, pp. 49—60; Gloria Swanson, Swanson on Swaruon (New York: Random House, 1980), p. 264; SG to Nathan Burkan, June 1, 1925; Nathan Burkan to SG (T), June 9, 1925; A. H. Giannini to SG, May 22, 1925; United Artists deal memorandum, “Samuel Goldwyn Contract,” dated July 1925; “Agreement Between Samuel Goldwyn and United Artists Corporation,” dated Aug. 29, 1925; Valeria Belletti to Irma Prina, June 6, 1925.

  THE DARK ANGEL: KV, A Tree, pp. 112—15; Variety, Oct. 14, 1925, p. 42; information on George S. Barnes was obtained from a “Biography of George Barnes,” at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Library; KV to ASB (I),
June 11, 1980; Marion, Off with Their Heads!, p. 123; Irving Sindler to ASB (I), May 22, 1980.

  BANKY PUBLICITY AND HOLLYWOOD GOSSIP: Valeria Belletti to Irma Prina, Aug. 21, Sept. 26, 1925; Victor Shapiro to C. F. Bertelli, July 28, 1925—includes English versions of the telegrams to be sent from Imre Lukatz to Vilma Banky, Sept. 1, 1925, and her reply to be cabled to the baron at the Hotel Crillon, Paris, Sept. 5, 1925; news clipping in SG files, n.d. (poss. New York Times, c. Sept. 10, 1925); Louella O. Parsons to SG (T), Sept. 2, 1925; Louella O. Parsons to SG, Feb. 12, 1929; the quotes of acclaim for Vilma Banky were excerpted and collected in several pages for SG; Guy Bolton to SG, Oct. 15, 1925; Quinn Martin, “Magic Lantern,” Motion Picture World, Oct. 25, 1925; a monthly tally of Vilma Banky’s fan mail—“Total Banky Fan Letters”—is in the SG files; Marion, Off with Their Headr!, pp. 123, 126.

  STELLA DALLAS: Griffith, Goldwyn, p. 17; SG to Nathan Burkan, Feb. 29, 1924; JAM to AL, Oct. 2, 1924; Marion, Off with Their Heads!, pp. 112—23; Henry King to ASB (I), May 28, 1980; SG to Fannie Ward, May 16, 1924; Fannie Ward to SG, c. June 1, 1924; Belle Bennett to SG, “Monday,” c. Feb. 1925; Valeria Belletti to Irma Prina, June 26, 1925.

  Marion, Off with Their Heads!, p. 122; SG to A. H. Giannini, May 26, 1925; Henry King to ASB (I), May 28, 1980; Griffith, Goldwyn, p. 16; Valeria Belletti to Irma Prina, Sept. 5, 1925; KV to ASB (I), June 11, 1980; “Mr. Goldwyn Describes Try-Outs of Pictures,” New York Times, Oct. 25, 1925; JS’s opinion of Stella Dallas is mentioned in Hiram Abrams to SG (T), Sept. 26, 1925; SG to Victor Shapiro, Sept. 3, 1925; “Mr. Goldwyn suggests following changes on folder for Stella Dallas advertising” (M), (c. Sept. 5, 1925).

  REACTION TO STELLA DALLAS: Ethel Barrymore to SG, n.d. (c. Oct. 9, 1925); Elinor Glyn to SG, Oct, 7, 1925; Douglas Fairbanks to SG, Oct. 9, 1925; CC to SG (T), Oct. 31, 1925; John Barrymore to SG (T), Oct. 9, 1925; Cecil B. DeMille to SG, Oct. 6, 1925; Harold Lloyd to SG, Oct. 10, 1925; Montague Glass, “Samuel Goldwyn: Motion Picture Producer,” souvenir program for Stella Dallas (New York: Commanday-Roth, 1925), p. 2; the details of Hearst’s reaction appear in (M) from FG to George Slaff, May 23, 1958, which he incorporated in an article allegedly written by SG, “If You Like It, Give a Cheer!,” This Week, Oct. 19, 1958, p. 2; W. R. Hearst to Arthur Brisbane, n.d. (c. Oct. 8, 1925); SG to W. R. Hearst, Oct. 8, 1925; W. R. Hearst to SG, Nov. 15, 1925; Mordaunt Hall, “The Screen,” New York Times, Nov. 17, 1925, p. 30.

  COLMAN AND BANKY: Ronald Colman to SG, n.d. (c. Oct. 1925); Photoplay, May 1926, p. 35; Lasky, I Blow, p. 195; “Total Colman Fan Letters”; FG, “Dear Sam: Do You Remember?”; Rod La Rocque discussed his early career in Rosenberg and Silverstein, Tinsel, pp. 236—47; Cecil B. DeMille to SG (T), Jan. 12, 1926; SG to Cecil B. DeMille (T), Jan. 13, 1926; details about DeMille Studios appear in Valeria Belletti to Irma Prina, March 31, 1926; Vilma Banky to ASB (I), July 2, 1984.

  STARTING BARBARA WORTH: Quotations from the synopsis and statistics about the book appear in the souvenir program of The Winning of Barbara Worth (© SG; Lord Printing Company, 1926), pp. 1, 7, 10, 11; SG to AL (T), Feb. 3, 1926; SG to AL (T), Feb. 18, 1926; SG to AL (T), Feb. 16, 1926.

  SG’S FINANCES (1926): “SG—Loans Outstanding Nov. 29, 1926”; SG to Max Radt of Capitol National Bank, March 17, 1926; Max Radt to SG, March 18, 1926; SG to Jules Brulatour, Apr. 26, 1926; SG to Nathan Burkan, Aug. 28, 1926; SG to Nathan Burkan (T), Oct. 27, 1927; Nathan Burkan to SG (T), Dec. 5, 1927; SG to Nathan Burkan (NL), Dec. 5, 1927.

  FILMING BARBARA WORTH: KV uses the Abe Stern quotation as both title and epigraph of his memoirs; “Making the Film,” souvenir program, pp. 12—14; SG to Hiram Abrams (T), Apr. 21, 1926; SG to A. H. Giannini, June 21, 1926.

  GARY COOPER: Valeria Belletti to Irma Prina, June 26, 1925; Gary Cooper (as told to Dorothy Spensley), “The Big Boy Tells His Story,” Photoplay, Apr. 1929, pp. 64—5, 133—35. and May 1929, pp. 70—1, 84—5; Gary Cooper (as told to George Scullin),

  “Well, It Was This Way,” Saturday Evening Post, 8-part series, Feb. 18, 1956, to Apr. 7, 1956; Homer Dickens, The Films of Gary Cooper (Secaucus, N.J.: Citadel Press, 1970), pp. 2—3, 6—7; Valeria Belletti to Irma Prina, July 15, 1926; Gary Cooper, filling out “Samuel Goldwyn Productions—Biographical Record,” June 13, 1926; “Artist’s Contract” between Gary Cooper and SG, June 5, 1926; Brownlow, Parade, pp. 114—17; Henry King to ASB (I), May 28, 1980. Irving Sindler to ASB (I), May 22, 1980; Nan Collins to R. B. McIntyre, July 2, 1926; AL to SG (T), July 17, 1926; SG to AL (T), July 29, 1926; AL to SG (T), Aug. 2, 1926; Gary Cooper to SG (T), Aug. 2, 1926; SG to Garry [sic] Cooper, Aug. 3, 1926; Marion, Off with Their Heads!, pp. 126—27; Valeria Belletti to Irma Prina, July 15, and Nov. 3, 1925; SG’s comments appear in (UN) from spring 1959 in preparation for Jack Smith’s Los Angeles Times profile.

  DEATH OF VALENTINO: SG to Rudolph Valentino (T), Aug. 18, 1926; SG to JAM (T), Aug. 23, 1926; JAM to SG (T), Aug. 23, 1926.

  BANKY-COLMAN FILMS: Untitled clipping (poss. Los Angeles Examiner), Aug. 26, 1926; another unsourced clipping, “Vilma Banky Trampled After Fall from Horse,” Aug. 2, 1926; Marion, Off with Their Heads!, pp. 145—46.

  UNITED ARTISTS GROWING PAINS AND SG’S FORTUNES: Balio, United Artists, pp. 61—71; Variety, Dec. 2, 1925, p. 27; JS to Trustees in the Dissolution of Art Cinema, May 20, 1935; Sinclair, William Fox; Nathan Burkan to SG, Apr. 4, 1927; “SG, Inc.—Summary of Pictures Released,” cost and profit accounting, Aug. I, 1931; “Royalty Statement—‘Stella Dallas,”’ Mar. 29, 1930; Henry King to SG, Aug. 20, 1926; SG to Henry King, Aug. 25, 1926.

  BIRTH OF SGJ AND JEWS IN L.A.: Rabbi Edgar F. Magnin to ASB (I), May 27, 1983; SGJ to ASB (I), Oct. 11, 1983; GC to ASB (I), Sept. 11, 1979; Irene Mayer Selznick to ASB (I), Nov. 18, 1984; Carmel Myers to ASB (I), May 21, 1980; on Mary Pickford’s anti-Semitism, David Rose to ASB (I), Feb. 21, 1980; Pickford, Sunshine , pp. 213—14.

  SPECTERS IN HOLLYWOOD (1926): Swanson, Swanson, p. 283; SG writes of censorship troubles in a letter to William Curley (of the Chicago Evening American), May 18, 1927; Robert Osborne, 50 Golden Years of Oscar (La Habra, Cal.: ESE California, 1979), pp. 2—3; Miles Kreuger, “Vitaphone: 1926—1976,” The 50th Anniversary of Vitaphone (New York: Institute of the American Musical, 1976; the Institute is now located in Los Angeles), p. 3; Hays, Memoirs, pp. 390—92; Sinclair, William Fox, pp. 73—4, 103—6; Parsons, Illiterate, pp. 117—18; Ramsaye, Million and One Nights, p. 514; Fred Niblo, JS, et al. to SG (T), Oct. 7, 1926; Constitution and By-Laws (Hollywood: Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, 1927), p. 1; Henry King to ASB (I), May 28, 1980.

  RITES OF HOLLYWOOD; BANKY WEDDING: FG, “Dear Sam: Do You Remember?,” pp. 80—1; Rod La Rocque, in Rosenberg and Silverstein, Tinsel, pp. 247, 251; Vilma Banky to ASB (I), Aug. 31, 1984; Mayfair dances described in Selznick, Private View, p. 95; Cecil B. DeMille to SG (T), Apr. 7, 1927; SG to Cecil B. DeMille (T), Apr. 8, 1927; various clippings, newspapers unidentified, including “Banky Wedding Program Told,” June 9, 1927; “Screen Stars Get License,” June 18, 1927; Rev. Michael Mullins to SG, June 27, 1927; SG’s secretary to Dr. Louis Furedi, June 30, 1927; SG said the wedding cost him $25,000, in interview for Jack Smith’s Los Angeles Times profile of Gary Cooper, spring 1959; “2nd Front Page,” Los Angeles Herald-Express, Oct. 31, 1951, shows original front-page coverage of the Banky-La Rocque wedding; SGJ to ASB (I), June 10, 1980; May McAvoy to ASB (I), July 30, 1983.

  THE JAZZ SINGER: May McAvoy to ASB (I), July 30, 1983; George Jessel, in Wagner, You Must Remember, pp. 89—90.

  SG MADE DIRECTOR OF UNITED ARTISTS: SG to JS (T), Oct. 11, 1927.

  11 INTERREGNUM

  THE JAZZ SINGER AND TALK OF TALKIES: SGJ to ASB (I), Oct. 31, 1983; GC to ASB (I), Sept. 11, 1979; Jack Warner to SG (T), Dec. 20, 1927; Variety, Oct. 12, 1927, p. 7; Variety, Oct. 19, 1927, p. 23; Variety, Nov. 16, 1927, p. 7; Variety, Dec. 7, 1927, p. 7; D. W. Griffith quoted in Stuart Berg Flexner, Listening to America (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1982), p. 404—see also D. W. Griffith, “The Movies 100 Years f
rom Now,” Collier’s, May 3, 1924, p. 7; Mary Pickford quoted in Flexner, Listening, p. 405; Variety , Oct. 5, 1927, pp. 1, 58.

  CURSE OF TALKIES: Sam Warner’s obituary appears in Variety, Oct. 12, 1927, p. 11; Marcus Loew memorial issue of Variety was Oct. 19, 1927; Samuel Marx, Mayer and Thalberg: The Make-Believe Saints (New York: Random House, 1975), p. 100; Rogers, Autobiography, p. 187.

  WIRING FCR SOUND: Balio, United Artists , pp. 77—80; William Fox to SG, Aug. 21, 1928; memorandum and “Routine for Preparing Prints for Synchronization,” H. D. Buckley to Producers of United Artists Pictures, Oct. 29, 1928; Gordon Sawyer to ASB (I), Apr. 30, 1980; Zukor, The Public, pp. 253—54.

  PLIGHT OF THE ACTORS: “Too Many Picture Actors,” Variety, Nov. 30, 1927, p. 1; Zukor, The Public, pp. 253—54; Budd Schulberg, Moving Pictures: Memoirs of a Hollywood Prince (New York: Stein and Day, 1981), p. 176; Parsons, Illiterate, pp. 118—19.

  THE AWAKENING: Variety, Jan. 9, 1929; Arthur Hornblow to SG (T), Mar. 9, 1928; more discussion of theme songs appears in Ethan Mordden, The Hollywood Musical (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1981), pp. 18—19; Irving Berlin to SG (T), Sept. 17, 19, 1928; cost and profit figures appear on “Summary of Pictures Released,” Aug. 1, 1931.

  THE RESCUE: Ronald Colman to AL, Aug. 5, 1928 (N. B.: This letter has been reproduced with the salutation reading “My dear Sam”; in fact, the latter was addressed to AL); SG to Pete Smith (T), Apr. 20, 1928; Lynn Farnol to SG (T), May 8, 1928; (M) marked “Important Please,” from Barrett C. Kiesling to Robert McIntyre, May 17, 1928; cost and profit figures appear on “Summary of Pictures Released,” Aug. 1, 1931.

  OUT WITH THE OLD, IN WITH THE NEW: Stephen Harvey, “‘Queen Kelly’ Opens—More Than 50 Years Late,” New York Times, Sept. 22, 1985, sec. H, pp. 17, 32; the activity at Paramount’s Astoria studios is discussed in Lasky, I Blow, pp. 219— 20; Robert Montgomery’s screen test is described in Johnston, Great Goldwyn, pp. 88—9; Lambert, On Cukor, p. 28; GC to FG (T), n.d. (c. Oct. 12, 1926); AL to SG (T), Oct. 13, 1926; GC to ASB (I), Nov. 27, 1981; C. B. DeMille, Autobiography, pp. 304—5; Valeria Belletti to Irma Prina, Dec. 15, 1928; early musicals are discussed in Mordden, Hollywood Musical, pp. 18, 21, 22.