RTP- Research Book by almudena severo

CLARA BOW RTP: RESEARCH BOOK DENA SEVERO

‘Contents’ 4 Publications 6 Photoplay 12 18

Little White Lies

Readership

Submission Feedback

Readings

Clara Bow

Hollywood’s lost screen Godess

Flappers

52 1920s Flapper Profiles 78 84

Silent Films

The Big Five The Remembered

â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;publica

ationsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;

‘photoplay’ Photoplay, founded in the same year as Motion Picture. While Motion Picture initially had the edge over its rival, and the greater circulation in the early days, Photoplay reigned supreme in the 1920s and 1930s, with a canny mix of studio tie-ins and an “independent” editorial voice. While co-operation from the industry allowed Photoplay access to stars and sets, campaigning editorials claimed to speak for the fans. Like Motion Picture, it soon shifted its focus to the stars and their private lives. As the majority of film-goers were women, Photoplay addressed them directly with fashion and beauty hints, plus relationship advice. Beginning in 1920, the Photoplay Medal of Honor (a “solid gold” Tiffany medallion) was handed out every year to a film voted for by readers – one of the first major movie awards. The “gossip” in Photoplay was discreet and mostly innocent: indeed, the magazine often did its best to dial down scandal. When Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks divorced their respective spouses and married each other in 1920, a double-page spread in Photoplay presented the couple’s story as “filmdom’s greatest real-life romance”. It was the perfect sop to any delicate readers who were upset by the thought of divorce and the whiff of infidelity. Photoplay made it OK to carry on liking Mary and Doug, and buying tickets to their films. The cover of each issue of Photoplay featured a painted portrait of a film star, and before the reader reached the articles, the first few pages were devoted to expensive studio photographs – the essence of Hollywood big-screen glamour, downsized into pinups for fans. Inside, photo spreads appeared to show the stars in private: relaxing with their famous friends or in snapshots of domestic bliss.

On the pages of Photoplay, stars could appear to speak directly to their fans, either in “authored” pieces or in profiles and biographies. In the February 1922 edition, Gloria Swanson offered “The Confessions of a Modern Woman”, for example, and in April 1924, vamp star Nita Naldi shared “What Men Have Told Me About Other Women – A Story That Every Wife Should Read”. Photoplay’s secret weapon was Adela Rogers St Johns, whose “sob sister” interviews with movie stars appeared to be so emotionally revealing as to create an entirely illusory sense of intimacy between reader and celebrity – although the “confessions” were mostly sanitised and scandal-free. One exception was the extended interview that Clara Bow gave to St Johns in 1928, which the “mother confessor of Hollywood” decided to run as a first-person narrative. The idea of Bow telling her painful life story in her own words was meant to evoke sympathy for the Brooklyn-born flapper. But instead, readers and Hollywood colleagues alike were horrified by the revelations in the piece entitled “My Life” . What really offended her peers was that while so many of them were trying to hide their pasts, Bow was prepared to put hers on display – and they didn’t like this trend for honesty.

Below, a link to all scanned copies of photoplay, where ‘My Life’ article (right) was found. http://mediahistoryproject.org/fanmagazines/

‘My Life, Article- With Clara Bow’

Another of St Johns’ interviews had became controversial, when in a 1921 article titled “Love Confessions of a Fat Man”, Roscoe Arbuckle joked: “It is very hard to murder or be murdered by a fat man.” While that issue of Photoplay was on the newsstands, the actor Virginia Rappe died in a San Francisco hotel room where Arbuckle was hosting a party, and the quip took on a sinister tone. Arbuckle was charged with rape and manslaughter and endured three trials and the attendant publicity. Although he was eventually acquitted, the scandal reverberated through the industry, blackening Arbuckle’s name. The comedian was ostracised by Hollywood and banned from working in the business.

‘Roscoe Arbuckle “Fatty”’

Quirk was one of the founders of the magazine. He was the editor of Popular Mechanics when Photoplay was first launched, but took over the editorship in time for the January 1916 issue. He was a well-connected, well-liked man, known to some as “the father of the fans”, with close friends in Hollywood and the world of publishing. His tactful, not to say corporate, editorship of Photoplay ensured that popularity, but his relationships with celebrities were often just as intimate as the magazine made out. He died in 1932, aged just 47, when Photoplay was at the height of its powers. The magazine’s influence dissipated with the decline of the studio system in the 1950s, but Photoplay struggled on until 1980.

‘little white lies’

13 Little White Lies launched in 2005 with the sole aim of creating a magazine that captures the excitement of talking about movies with good friends by bringing together impassioned, intelligent writing with striking illustration. The magazine has since become renowned for its independent ethos and iconic covers. Each issue of the magazine dedicates its entire front section to an upcoming theatrical release, drawing inspiration from the themes and visual tone of the carefully selected film. The back section features essential reviews of the latest movie releases, plus exclusive interviews, festival reports and more. In 2014 we published our first book, â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;What I Love About Moviesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;, a compendium of undiluted movie passion in which some of the film industryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s greatest artists share what makes them movie fans. Today LWLies continues to look for new ways of combining cutting-edge editorial and graphic design while remaining dedicated to championing the best film talent from around the world. Check out some of our recent back issues and subscribe to get each new issue delivered straight to your door.

Contributing to Little White Lies Little White Lies is an arbiter of taste when it comes to the world of film. We’re wholly independent – driven by creativity and originality. We publish news, reviews, profiles, feature stories and interviews across digital and print. We also commission original video works, short documentaries and essay films. What kinds of stories is LWLies looking for? Profiles: Interesting characters shaping film culture today – directors, below-the-line personalities, activists, people with a story to tell. Try to address why we should cover them now. We usually cover interviews with big-name directors and actors ourselves, so again, we’re looking more to hear about people we might not already know. Opinion: Strong perspectives pegged to current news, delivered in under 800 words (online only). These pieces often have a rapid half-life, so how quickly can you turn this around? We also run anniversary pieces if there is a worthwhile angle. Take a look at our website to get a feel for what we look for in these pieces. Reviews: All film reviews are commissioned inhouse, so we ask you not to offer your services in this respect. Exceptions are festival premiers, or if you have unique access to a title that we may not have been able to see/cover elsewhere. If a festival film or smaller title has a newsworthy aspect, then this is something we’d be keen to hear about.

IntroIntroducing the article with history facts/ experience

TitleName of Article SubtitleBriefly speakinig/ commenting on topic.

QuestionsRelaxed formed questions, about her life and experience ResponseQuestioins answered informally. Giving facts and stories for the reader to enjoy.

Further in to the article, paragraphs inbetween questions, comment on the interview. Introducing facts and comments that leads to following questions. These paragraphs inform the reader about things that may have not be mentioned by the interviewee as well as adding informatioin on to the subject spoken about.

Why Little White Lies Magazine? As shown on the previous spread, LWL look for comission work of many sorts; profile, reviews, opinion and even film and essays.

â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;why?â&#x20AC;&#x2122;

It is a magazine for film lovers, a niche and unique form of film journalism combined with iconic visuals and illustrations. Their tone of voice is relaxed and informal. I chose LWL as my publication as I will be talking/writing about silent film whilst interviewing the iconic Hollywood 1920s actress, Clara Bow. I believe this publication fits with my idea, as I will be writing in an informal way. I will be introducing facts about the 20s film era and will also focus on the flapper culture and other Hollywood actresses. This RTP will cover opinion, profile and even views.

re-

â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;readershipâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; 18-30 Young professionals/students, or graduates with significant disposable income and time rich. Likely to enjoy independent and cult cinema, and discussion of film as an art form rather than just entertainment. They want to read about certain key films in great depth and digest unconventional ideas about films and help form opinion. In depth interviews with creative practitioners involved in film. Significant amount of free time, into more leisure activities such as art, liberal politics, history, independent culture. Most likely to come from a cosmopolitan urban area. Likely to subscribe to the magazine and have their collection on display. Into established street fashion and contemporary literature. Internet and design savvy, with some aspirations to work in a creative industry.

‘draft submission’ ‘feedback’

‘2nd December 2019’

Although I love this idea Dena, you need to provide much, much more context and evidence of research if you are going to make the most of this project. So far it is very biographical, you’re focusing on the details of Clara Bows life at the expense of research about the time period and the context of her celebrity. The celebrity system and the film Industry in the 1920’s should be widely researched in your journal. Start by reading about the 1920’s celebrity, femininity and film culture. I strongly recommend these books: The Spectacular Modern Woman: Feminine Visibility in the 1920’s By Liz Conor Film Stars: Hollywood and Beyond By Andrew Willis Becoming Modern: Young Women and the Reconstruction of Womanhood in the 1920’s By Brigitte Soland Flappers: Six Women of a dangerous generation By Judith Mackrell Women in the Silent Cinema: Histories of Fame and Fate By Annette Forster A Cultural History of Fashion in the 20th Century By Bonnie English Stars By Richard Dyer You must incorporate your reflections on what you read in your research journal. You need a whole section on 1920’s fashion and modernity. A visual guide to the flapper would be fantastic. Include the designers who created the looks and look at the type of women they were designing for. Also consider how fashion changed and WHY in the 1920’s. How did women change in their attitudes as well as their dress? Another section in your journal could be on 1920’s film stars and celebrity culture. There is so much colourful research to explore and integrate into your journal – it should be a wealth of material that engages us in the Bow’s world her culture as well as her personal story.

21 Then think about how you can integrate what you’ve read into article. Is there another voice besides Clara Bow’s, who is the interviewer and can they bring more then just questions. Could it be you?? What context could you bring to the conversation, could you share your ideas and the reading about the culture of the 1920’s? Think about key terms and define them in your research book use academic literature to help you. Silent Cinema Modernity The Moderne Women Flapper Garconne style The Star System Writing style? The interview should have a purpose, how can we rewrite Bow’s experience using contemporary insights into her situation? The story is great piece of writing. But how will this be integrated? We can discuss this. Also…Which publication? Readership is this aimed? We can discuss in the tutorial. Remember to include research on publications in your journal.

‘applying the feedback’ When I read the feedback, I realised what I was told. It helped me realised what I had to actually research and do. I researched 1920s film actresses, the silent film and talkies alongsides with film companies. I did some reading on some of the recommended books as well as note taking on documentries on Clara Bow and Hollywood in the 1920s. Even though my main focus was the flapper culture, I have been drawn by the silent film history. I will research into flapper culture and will mention it on the article. My writing style will be relaxed and slightly informal. I will be writing an interview with Clara Bow as well as adding insight of the decade. After a lot of thinking and mind changing, my favourite publications for my writing piece are photoplay and little white lies. I ended up going for LWL as my publication as I am focusing slightly more on film and the magazine is still running unlike photoplay. Also, I wrote a short story for my introduction based on a flapper experience. I believe my piece fits as it will allow the reader to get in the environment of what it meant to be a woman or even better, a flapper in that decade. As to how it will be integrated, I am not sure yet. For now its a separete piece of the article and will be before the it.

‘readings’

‘The Spectacular Modern Woman Feminine Visibility in the 1920s’

Chapter 7 – The Flapper in the Heterosexual Leisure Scene More than any other type of modern woman, it was the flapper who embodied the scandal which attached to women’s new public visibility, from their increasing street presence to their mechanical reproduction as spectacles. Flapper continued through a play of looks Flapper complicated the picture of modern woman- and the status of the woman object- by associating agency with her visibility. Continuing herself as a spectacle, appearing in heterosexual scenes. Flappers seemed to court the gaze of men, her modernity as sexual subject, continuing herself as an object within the new conditions of feminine visibility. A favoured figure of mass cultural forms “low” culture became associated with them (flappers) Indulged and deviant by magazines- male readership Darling and disdained of women’s print media As object + subject, attracted modern gaze A category of the adolescence and its “demonstration of the difficulty of becoming subject” Term Flapper- designated a young Modern Woman- action and descriptive possibilities tied closely, not exclusively, to visual realm. Flappers had an extended adolescence as an emergent ideal of modern femininity, internationally exchanged and received as a global type. Notable for her mobility, love of dance and movement, “sporting” sexual “frankness” with men. Constructed on her perception How the meanings of her techniques of appearing were definitional parameters of this modern feminine. Nineteenth century, term ‘flapper’ meant ‘a very young harlot’ Essentially, remained as a figure of a female heterosexuality, encompassing the spectrum of sexual trade, from exchange of sex for ‘treats’ in the manner of the ‘amateur’ to marriage market as entered by the society. As an adolescence, liminal figure: between virgin and bride, schoolgirl and business girl, shearing off her flapping braids., shortening her hems, experimenting with makeup, learning to drive- embodying her transformational faux of modern identity.

‘Stars’ Fashion can be a variation of manipulation thesis, which takes one of the objections to the thesis, namely the rise and fall in a star’s popularity, as a question of the star coming in as a novelty and going out as a has-been. This can be seen as pure phenomenon of manipulation. Fashion is often assumed to be the ultimate in manipulation because it is so superficial. Jarvie Suggests: ‘One function a star serves are to fix a type of beauty, to help a physical type identify itself.’ Clearly types of beauty define norms of attractiveness. Fashion in this sense is much less superficial or trivial phenomenon than it appears. Seen in this perspective, a change in physical style is also always a change in social meaning. The role of close-ups in the creation of a stardom. ‘Until the camera got to close enough to record the player’s own personality, the film star could not emerge from the group.’ (Alexander Walker, Writer) Bela Balazs: the close-ups are a fundamental aspect of the film medium which reveals ‘ the hidden mainsprings of a life which we had thought we already knew so well’, ‘the quality in a gesture of the hand we never notices before when we saw the hand stroke or strike something. ‘Capturing the face and the soul’. A close-up is a kind of silent monologue. Common view, not very intellectually respectable, starts are stars because they are exceptional, wonderful, gifted. I.C Jarvie, ‘starts are starts because of ‘talent’, which includes, striking photogenic looks, acting abilities, presence on camera, charm and personality, sex appeal, attractive voice and bearing. Stars as a phenomenon of consumption- It has been argued that a more determining force in the creating of a star is the audience- that is, the consumers, rather than the producers if the media text. Stars are like characters in a story, representations of people. The role and/or performances of star in a film were taken as revealing the personality of the star. Alexander Walker- suggests the turning point was on the 1930s, and that sound was of the elements of the process. Sound brought a certain realism (‘to concrete truth of noises, the precision and nuances of words’). The search for ‘realism’ was also marked by the growth of ‘social themes’ in Hollywood cinema. The Depression caused Hollywood to commit itself to the ‘dogma’ of happy ending: ‘the new optimistic structure favoured the “escapism” of the audience and in this sense departed from realism. In another sense, the mythic content of film were “profaned”, brought down to earth. Morin argues, constitutes the embourgeoisement of the cinematic imagination, the cinema was a ‘plebeian spectacle’, at first, drawing on the melodrama and penny-dreadful, characterised by magic, extraordinary adventures, sudden reveals, the sacrificial death of the heroes, violent emotions, etc. Realism psychologism “happy end” and humour reveals precisely the bourgeois transformation of the imagination.

28 Clara Bow is It Cynthia Felando It is a product of a decade, the productof the hour. It, a slang term for sex appeal, soon it became a synonymous with Clara Bow. Being released in 1927, proved to be a popular phenomenon of extraordinary proportions and, since then, it has been fixed in popular memory as a quintessential ‘Jazz Age’ movie. ‘It’ was a smash hit, a distinctive example of the ‘flapper movie’, which foregrounded and helped redefine feminine sexuality suring the 1920s. This assured Clara Bow’s satus as the era’s most popular icon and youthful sexuality and as an idol if her generation. Bow’s spirited performance, understood in relation to the emergent changes in feminiity, as newly mobile, modern young woman. The corresponding changes in women’s fashion were profound: in the earlier period, women’s clothes - including long skirts, long sleeves, petticoats and corsets- functioned to restrict movement and was meant to convey an ‘inner spiritial beauty’. 1920s clothing was designed to accomodate the newly dynamic feminine style. Fashion Historian Valerie Steele notes, woman’s clothing was designed to be ‘seen at (it’s) best either in an instant of walking or dancing, conversing or gesturing. Designers in 1920s, like the internationally renowned Lucien Lelong, characterised the fashionable silhoutte as ‘predominately kinetic’. ] In the 1920s, descriptions of modern feminity and modern feminity and modern youth were remarkably similar- both were spoken of as hyperkinetic. The conections between youth and feminity during early twentieth century was understood in relation to the emergence of new ideals of morality. This ideal was changed by ‘new morality’, women no longer were expected to subliminate their sexuality, but rather to find partners who offered passion and eroticism in marriage. Clara Bow was an important Flapper movie star of the 20s, not only she embodied the changes in fashion, feminity, youth and morality, they were crucial elements of her appeal in the 20s. Inspired by an obsession with flappers in the popular press and literature, Hollywood produced a cycle of flapper movies, starting with ‘Flaming Youth’ in 1923, and followed by equally provocatively titled movies such as ‘Love ‘Em and Leave ‘Em (1926), Our DancingDaughters (1928), and The Wild Party (1929).

‘Film Stars, Hollywood and Beyond’

31 The typical flapper, a naive young woman in the Big City, indulges freedom and manner of ‘flamming youth’ by drinking, dancing, smoking, ‘joyriding’ and ‘petting’. Then death or something sudden happens and its followed by being rescued by formerly rejected suitor. She renounces her modern ways and and the movie ends with the promise of a marriage that her victorian grandparents would embrace. However, the cycle was not followed by It nor Clara Bow’s performance. Motion picture is classic declared that was the spirit of youth Symbol of flapperdom Film daily yearbook named Bow one of the 12 ‘best players’ of 1926 as a performance in ‘Dancing Mothers’ and ‘Mantrap’. Movie flappers provided specially enticing and influential models of the new femininity Clara Bow who best embodied the modern ideal, bouncy and full of pep. Her Betty Lou is a strikingly active dynamo who’s sexuality dominates the movie via her physical confidence, her agility and her tactile ease with other characters, and her facial expressions. Colleen Moore- popular flapper movie ‘Flaming Youth’ - 1923. As Moore explained, “Clara Bow was my chief rival, we were quite different in our styles, obviously she was very sexy in her approach and mine was not.” Bow’s performance in It derived parallels between her sexy offscreen persona and her on screen flapper character. The interaction between Bow’s star persona and her performance as the heroine of It can be read in relation to Richard Dyer’s notion of the ‘fit’ between the star’s image and the character he or she plays in a particular movie correspondingly it is the ‘misfit’ between image and character that encourages alternative readings that can illuminate the ideological struggle with him which a movie and situated. Dyer suggests, movie star image is constructed from both film appearance and publicity, the star brings an image as an ‘already signifying complex of meaning and affect’ 1926, year before It was released, popular press filled with apocryphal stories about Bow’s many lovers and problems she had keeping track of them as a busy actress. Fan press published several reports that Clara was engaged, inevitably followed by announcements that said engagements were canceled or proven to be false rumors. Publicity for the movie, Clara star’s image as a ‘playergirl’ distributed the narrative promise of marriage for It’s heroine, along with a flirtatious performance as Betty, made it possible to read the movie as a tacit endorsement of new morality of eroticism the young women and as a rejection of the sexuality of the 19th century. The speed in which Clara moved, her repertoire of gestures, and the association of her persona, both by critics and fans, with her movie roles as sexually aware flappers were all important factors in her deception of a distinctly modern, youthful femininity. Critics Described Clara’s performance as dynamic, flirtatious , vivacious, spontaneous and spirited.

32 Dyer argues, that it is through movement that women onscreen can escape the controlling patriarchal gaze or narrative that is typical of classical Hollywood Cinema. Bow exudes a jazzy physical exuberance. Her movements often evoke the seductive ‘shimmying and shaking’ associated with popular 1920s dances. Bow’s It’s narrative and Bow’s performance helped to reconfigure the conventions of the flapper movie and the Cinderella myth that informs it. Accordingly, instead of the narrative trajectory of the classical romance- boy meets girl, boy loses girl, and boy gets girl back, the movie It, -girl meets boy, boy loses girl, and girl ‘hooks’ boy – on her own terms and without regard to genteel feminine proprieties. Betty Lou contrasts sharply with two other important female characters in it– specifically the sympathetic working-class Molly and the wealthy, supercilious Adela. The contrasts are rendered not only in terms of physical appearance and behavior, but also by means of performance and style and transgressive narrative elements. Other flapper movies, typically posed oppositions between a moderately flaming, but still virginal flapper heroine, and a modern, mobile, urban and sexually experienced young women. Accordingly, feminist historian Lois banner was prompted to argue, “Bow’s movie flapper provided the most influential model of femininity for American women during the 1920s”. The indicators of her influence are that sales of red henna hair coloring increased, as did request for the ‘Bow bob’ in beauty salons throughout the United States. National retailers immediately capitalized on Bow’s enormous appeal to young women by offering products endorsed by Bow. 1970s feminist film scholars took up the subject of 1920s movie heroines, they referred to It and to Clara Bow only briefly. Sumiko Higashi, argued that It provided a ‘negative’ model of femininity, because the heroine, a working-class ‘sexual predator’, schemes to achieve her ultimate goal – marriage to and economic dependence upon a rich man, rather than her own career and independence. Given the popular commentary unleashed by It, most of which focused on Clara Bow, it is clear that her performance touched a rather sensitive sociocultural nerve among critics and audiences. To conservative critics, her deception of a spirited young women, enjoying the new morality posed a serious threat to already weak genteel feminine ideals, and the social order in general. Studies between the 1929 in 1933, proved the pernicious effect of movies on young people, one aspect of the research concerned the effects of movies that feature the themes of love and sex on young women. Such young women were hardly alone in their admiration of bow. Shortly after It was released, F Scott Fitzgerald proclaimed that ‘Clara Bow is the quintessential of what the term flapper signifies… Pretty, impudent, superbly assured, as worldly wise, briefly clad and “hard-barked” as possible.

‘Clara Bow’ Clara Gordon Bow, the future “It Girl”, was born in a run-down tenement in old Brooklyn, to a schizophrenic mother (Sarah Gordon Bow) and a chronically destitute, physically abusive father (Robert Bow). As a child, she was a tomboy and played games in the streets with the boys; since her clothes were so ragged and dirty other girl children wouldn’t play with her. Her best friend Johnny burned to death in her arms when she was 10 years old after he got too close to a fire. Years later, she could make herself cry at will on a movie set by listening to the lullaby “Rock-A-Bye Baby”. She claimed it reminded her of her small friend. She also told reporters simple, brutal, honest stories about her horrific childhood, which was a big no-no in her day. Mental illness was considered shameful. She entered “The Fame and Fortune Contest” as a teenager. Girls from all over the country competed, and the 1st Prize was a part in a movie. Bow showed up in ragged clothes and the other girls smirked at her. The contest judges paid no attention until she did her screen test

and then they unanimously chose her over all the other girls. Bow lit up the screen and got the part but it was later cut from the movie. During this time her mother tried to kill her and was institutionalized where she remained until her death. Bow was taken to Hollywood by B.P. Schulberg, who used her sexually and financially. He worked her like a horse and paid her very little compared to other stars of the day. Even so, the talented actress became a superstar, and the first ever Hollywood sex symbol. She could flirt with the camera just by looking into it with her big brown eyes and mischievous bow-tie grin. She exuded sex appeal from every pore in her body and was not afraid to flaunt it. She personified “flaming youth in rebellion”. Her characters were always working class gals; manicurists, showgirls and the like. Her movies reportedly emancipated many young people from the restrictive morals of their parents. Bow’s characters were unashamed about being attracted to men and went after them with proudness. Her shop girl in It (1927) sees the boss’s son one day, and says “Oh Santa, gimme him!” She knows exactly what to do to get him interested and then keeps him on his toes. Her characters cut her dresses up to look sexier, cut off her hair, drank and smoked in public, and danced all night long. At the height of her career, she received 45,000 fan letters a week, a record that has never been equaled. She was the idol of working girls and the dream of working class guys everywhere.

Although the public adored Bow, Hollywood elite shunned her. Many of Hollywood’s big names of the 1920s had also come from poor backgrounds but after they made it big they tended to develop upper class values and personas. It was later discovered by a biographer that Clara suffered from mental illness, although not as severely as had her mother. She had very public affairs. This behavior horrified her peers, and eventually she was driven out of Hollywood. Nasty rumors about her sexuality floated around the movie colony, including one about her taking on the entire USC Football Team one night, which was finally disproved by a biographer, David Stenn. The coming of sound was like an earthquake to Hollywood. It shook up everything. Her fans probably wouldn’t have minded her blue collar Brooklyn accent, since most of them were working class girls themselves, but Bow got herself so worked up with mic fright she had breakdowns during her first talkies. Before she could recover from this, she ended up in court with her private life splashed all over the papers, which didn’t help matters. Her secretary and best friend, Daisy de Voe, was caught embezzling from her. When Bow took de Voe to court, the secretary told the court about and the press reported uncensored details of Bow’s sex life, much of which was exaggerated. Bow had another more serious breakdown and entered a sanatorium. Soon after, she retired and moved to Nevada with her new husband, cowboy actor Rex Bell. The couple had two sons. She died in 1965, aged 60.

Clara Bow

‘Hollywood’s lost screen goddess-Documentary’

‘Clara Bow’

‘Notes’

“On screen she was bigger than Garbo, bigger than anybody. But off screen she disappeared like an over-exposed negative.” – Louisa Brooks

Silent movie star, the IT girl, once queen of Hollywood now forgotten by most. A sensation Movies – box office gold - Flirts with camera when acting, to please Born 1905, Brooklyn NY, in the most brutal poverty, history of mental illness (mother, grandfather), father chronic drunk. Bow refuged herself in the emerging silent movies industry. Mother said actresses were like street walkers. Heavy makeup, seen on street. Mother: “I’d rather see you dead” Bow was chased after mother around room with a butcher’s knife. Bow left home for a few days and lived on the streets for the time being. 3 days later she went back home, and her mother was committed to a mental institution and never came out again. -Clara won the competition (The Fame and Fortune contest 1921) Left home to focus on new life and career.

1922 -First screen appearance. Her scenes weren’t seen by audience and it did not make the final cut. Second film- camera loved her Played a tomboy, character she claims she used to be when a kid. She’d brought to the screen’s naturalism. – a prodigy, a genius. No one understood how she did it, no training no nothing and yet she was perfect at it. A teenager doing its best as a teenager. During her third film, she played a major role in a romantic film. During the recording of the film, one day Bow’s dad came to the set and delivered the news that her mother had passed away in the asylum. It hurt Bow bad as she felt bad that she was dancing and filming whilst her mum was dying. Soon she appeared under the credits of 4 films and started to earn more money and support her father. She wasn’t huge at this point as she was still living in NY. To become bigger, she had to move to LA. When 17, she moved to Hollywood and signed a deal with her new boss ‘BP Schulberg’, one she was soon to regret. In the meantime, she didn’t really care though, it was Hollywood. The producers and studio where cheap, were low people making money out of a young and unaware girl. They took advantage of her situation and paid her $50 a week whilst they were making much more money. At the time she didn’t really care and if she did know she would not care anyways as she was doing what she truly loved, doing what she wanted. Hollywood debut ‘Maytime’ as supporting actress. During film they suggested to make her the leading role, but it never happened.

Starring in these secondary roles, became a routine, a pot boiler. But when the camera focused on Bow is like everything would become alive. She was energetic and ppl couldn’t really stop looking at her. Diana Cary known as baby Peggy on ‘Helen’s babies’ remembers working with young Bow. Saying even though it was a small role she had a lot of personality and it came through, very devour and extremely nice. She wasn’t snappy and she wasn’t sharp looking. She had a lot of expression. Bows father moved to California to join her. His presence was like a ‘a pebble under her shoe’. Hard to about him without being insulting, he served no productive purpose in his life and was a malignant force in bows life. He did nothing for her as a father in fact he did much worse than nothing and followed her to Hollywood moved in with her and lived off her money. Was well known for introducing himself as Clara Bows father, specially to extra girls.

On an advertainment campaign trip to San Francisco, Bows father. Was meant to go with her and chaperone but instead he got drunk and was banned of travelling by train. She ended up travelling alone. Clara was becoming box office gold. In 1925 alone, she made 15 films and producers were struggling to release them fast enough. She was working all day into the night, doing 5 pictures at a time, like she was a dog. B.P Shulberg being responsible for it, but no one knew at the time. Back in the 20s there were a lot. Independent producers, making films because they could be made in a fairly low budget. Actors were the lowest rung on the ladder, there were hotels in Hollywood where they would say to film producers/companies ‘no actors or dogs’ Actors were under contract and they would go form one picture. To another to another. The fascinating thing about Clara was she had no training nor education and yet she popped off the screen. She seemed to thrive on this sort of a tomboy, even when she was all dressed up and looking beautiful and sexy. She’s feisty, she’s real. Audience wouldn’t feel like she’s acting, but as if every character she played, she was being herself. Bow had an incredible talent for her face expressions, she didn’t need any dialogue because through her face expressions she would tell you what she was thinking without even speaking. Billy Wilder called it ‘flesh impact’, the ability of someone to appear in a three-dimensional in a two-dimensional medium, like film. He also said the only people he ever saw who had that were Clara Bow and Marilyn Monroe. She had a quality, that made people just want to be with her.

41 Clara’s persona and the flapper movement seemed made for each other. Flapper refers to a new woman at the beginning of the 20th century, after ww1 who broke with traditional standards. Everybody gasped at the way the skirts were going up and the way they carried on. They cut off their hair, they cut off their skirt’s length, they wore make-up, they drank, had a very casual attitude about sex and relationships. Clara’s personality made that lifestyle so compelling and with the roles she was in, she became the face of it. Flapper Icon became part of the publicity stunt between Paramount and British novelist, who was taking over Hollywood. Elinor Glyn. A mature woman who wrote about sex and sexuality. She wrote a novel called ‘It’. Everyone owned a copy of this novel and Paramount bought the rights for $50,000. Glyn watched Bow working and said she had something unique and special, so she became the face of ‘It’. ‘It’- Bow plays a shop girl, loaded with the essential it, who peruses her handsome boss. She had good lines during the film, and to keep the excitement during it they introduced a kissing scene, with a fast kiss but followed up by a slap. The usual plot a woman following on a man and pursuing him. As simple and ordinary as that sounds it was revolutionary back then. Bow flipped the whole ritual of courtship. She received thousands of fan mail about her behaviour. A fan learnt how to kiss her boyfriend from watching her kissing in films. Bow identified with her fans, she was one of them. Wings- 1927. A big budget war film. They gave Clara the lead role to help guarantee thw film’s success (1.2 million investment). Clara- the girl next do with a crush on Charles Roger’s character. Roger goes out drinking in Paris and Bow disguissed herself as a Parisian girl who tries to seduce him into sleepiing with her. She gets him on the bed but he soon passes out and Bow being a good girl, decided to not take advantage of him.

In that scene, Clara reveals her naked self to the public for a second. Scrapping the limit of what was acceptable to show on the American TV at the time. In the end, the girl next door gets the man. Wings, became an international success. It played for 63 weeks at the Critiria Theathre in New York, at $2 a ticket. In 1968, Wings co-star was asked about his experience with Bow. “Curious little girl, vivacious, full of live. One of the best people I have ever worked with, generous”. Bow was humble, but still a tomboy from Brooklyn at heart. Louise Brooks- “She wasn’t socially acceptable, and she knew that” Bow was invited to some Hollywood parties, but her behaviour was mortifying and caused the invitations to quickly ceased. During the filming of Rough House Rosie, Bow had a breakdown. For years she had suffered from chronic insomnia, working all day and famously partying at night; caused the cracks to show. Paramount realsied the issue and gave Bow a 3 months holiday but she still maintained a high profile on her private life. Bows relationships or as she would call them “engaments”, meaning men she was sleeping with, included the famous director Victor Fleminig and amongst others, the two famous actors, Gary Cooper and Gilbert Roland. Bow opened up about everything in her personal life in an article for Photoplay called ‘My Life Story’. (You can find the article with the photoplay section at the beginning of the research book).

Joan Crawford was good friend of Bows until she got married and the decided to ignore Clara, because knowing her, brought you down socially. 1929- Sound was the new thing, Talkies. Gloria Garbo was given 2 years to drop her accent before she could appear in a talkie and Bow was given 2 weeks to learn. Clara became shy with the microphone, she felt the intense pressure of Hollywood and everything depended on it. It came at the peak time of her career. In 1929- The Wall Street Crash, The Depression and the Employment was in contrast with the excesses of Hollywood. People became less tolerant with Bow’s childish behaviour, spending large amounts of money on gambling and other things. People thought it was insensitive of her, with what was going on with the world at then time. True to the Navy - 1930. Co-star Rex Bell came into Bow’s picture. Scandal- Bow’s friend Daisy DeVoe, said under oath all sorts of lies about Clara Bow including - wild spending orgies. Tabloid News also crossed the line, speaking of Clara and how she was a drug addict, incest, lesbianism, gambling and sexual orgies. Tha stained Bow’s reputation forever. The publisher was sent to prison after the article was released but the damage was already done. Soon after she had a nervous breakdown and had to leave Hollywood at the age of 25.

Rex Bell became Mr Right for Clara, he took care of her and loved her like no one else did. They both soon left Hollywood to persue their raunch life. The moved to a raunch in the dessert, in Nevada. Short after, they got married. She was then persued to go back to Hollywood and she signed a 2 film contract with Fox with a reward of a big check. The two films she starred in were “Call Her Savage” which became a best seller and “Hoop-La” that became her last ever appearience onfilm forever. She then moved back to the Raunc, where she settled down and had 2 kids. In 1937, Bow and Bell opened the “It” Cafe in Hollywood. Soon after, Rex became interested in politics and Bow saw herslef as a politician’s wife. In 1943 Bow took and overdose and left a suicide note that said “I prefere death than the public life”. Bow was gone from the public life for 15 years. In 1947, she reappeared in a radio show as Mrs. Hash, but the secret was revealed. She started having trouble again with her insomnia and she also started having aches and pains. Bow then checked into a psychiatric hospital, where she had electroconvulsive therapy to forget about her childhood but also freshened her mind, giving her memories she had burried in her mind. She spoke to doctors about those memories, she said how her mother was a prostitute in occasions when money was really bad and she also said how her father once raped her. Eventually, she was diagnosed with schizophrenia and her life at the raunch came to an end. Her and Rex separated and she moved to Los Angeled into a humble home with a care taker. She was out of sight, she had a private life and she did one last appeareance at Rex’s funeral. She started deteriorating and decided to organise her funeral, at the age of 60 in 1967, Clara Bow passed away at home.

‘Clara Bow- Hoop La, 1933’

‘flappers’

‘flapper culture’ The 1920s also brought about Prohibition, the result of the 18th Amendment ending legal alcohol sales. Combined with an explosion of popularity for jazz music and jazz clubs, the stage was set for speakeasies, which offered illegally produced and distributed alcohol. Henry Ford’s mass production of cars brought down automobiles prices, allowing the younger generation far more mobility than in earlier eras. Many people, a number of them young women, drove these cars into cities, which experienced a population boom. No one knows how the word flapper entered American slang, but its usage first appeared just following World War I. The classic image of a flapper is that of a stylish young party girl. Flappers smoked in public, drank alcohol, danced at jazz clubs and practiced a sexual freedom that shocked the Victorian morality of their parents. Flappers of the 1920s were young women known for their energetic freedom, embracing a lifestyle viewed by many at the time as outrageous, immoral or downright dangerous. Now considered the first generation of independent American women, flappers pushed barriers in economic, political and sexual freedom for women. During World War I, women entered the workforce in large numbers, receiving higher wages that many working women were not inclined to give up during peacetime. In August 1920, women’s independence took another step forward with the passage of the 19th Amendment, giving women the right to vote. And in the early 1920s, Margaret Sanger made strides in providing contraception to women, sparking a wave of women’s rights to birth control.

51 No one knows how the word flapper entered American slang, but its usage first appeared just following World War I. The classic image of a flapper is that of a stylish young party girl. Flappers smoked in public, drank alcohol, danced at jazz clubs and practiced a sexual freedom that shocked the Victorian morality of their parents. Flappers were famous—or infamous, depending on your viewpoint—for their rakish attire. They donned fashionable flapper dresses of shorter, calf-revealing lengths and lower necklines, though not typically form fitting: Straight and slim was the preferred silhouette. Flappers wore high heel shoes and threw away their corsets in favor of bras and lingerie. They gleefully applied rouge, lipstick, mascara and other cosmetics, and favored shorter hairstyles like the bob. Designers like Coco Chanel, Elsa Schiaparelli and Jean Patou ruled flapper fashion. Jean Patou’s invention of knit swimwear and women’s sportswear like tennis clothes inspired a freer, more relaxed silhouette, while the knitwear of Chanel and Schiaparelli brought no-nonsense lines to women’s clothing. Madeleine Vionnet’s bias-cut designs (made by cutting fabric against the grain) emphasized the shape of a woman’s body in a more natural way. F. Scott Fitzgerald found his place in American literary history with “The Great Gatsby” in 1925, but he had already garnered a reputation before that as a spokesperson for the Jazz Age. The press at the time credited Fitzgerald as the creator of the flapper because of his debut novel, “This Side of Paradise,” though the book didn’t specifically mention flappers. The credit stuck and Scott began to write about flapper culture in short stories for the Saturday Evening Post in 1920, opening up the Jazz Age lifestyle to middle-class homes. A collection of these stories was published that year under the title “Flappers and Philosophers,” cementing Fitzgerald as the flapper expert for the next decade.

‘Jean Patou-1928’ Not everyone was a fan of women’s newfound sexual freedom and consumer ethos, and there was inevitably a public reaction against flappers. Women who populated beaches in bathing suits that were deemed inappropriate were escorted off the beach by police or arrested if they refused. Flappers also received the criticism of women’s rights activists like Charlotte Perkins Gilman and Lillian Symes, who felt flappers had gone too far in their embrace of licentiousness. The age of the flapper came tumbling down suddenly on October 29, 1929, with the stock market crash and the beginning of the Great Depression. No one could afford the lifestyle any longer, and the new era of frugality made the freewheeling hedonism of the Roaring Twenties seem wildly out of touch with grim new economic realities.

‘Greta Garbo’

‘1920s flapper profiles’

‘Louise Brooks’ ‘actress, dancer and writer’

Mary Louise Brooks, also known by her childhood doubt the trend setter of the 1920s with her Bustname of Brooksie, was born in the midwestern er Brown-Page Boy type hair cut, much like today’s town of Cherryvale, Kansas, on November 14, 1906. women imitate stars. Because of her dark haired look and being the beautiful woman that she was, plus beShe began dancing at an early age with the Den- ing a modern female, she was not especially popular ishawn Dancers (which was how she left Kansas and among Hollywood’s clientle. went to New York) and then with George White’s Scandals before joining the Ziegfeld Follies, but be- She just did not go along with the norms of the film came one of the most fascinating and alluring per- society. Louise really came into her own when she left sonalities ever to grace the silver screen. Hollywood for Europe. She was always compared to her Lulu role in Pan- There she appeared in a few German productions dora’s Box (1929), which was filmed in 1928. Her which were very well made and continued to prove performances in A Girl in Every Port (1928) and she was an actress with an enduring talent. Beggars of Life (1928), both filmed in 1928, proved to all concerned that Louise had real talent. Until she ended her career in film in 1938, she had made only 25 movies. After that, she spent most of She became known, mostly, for her bobbed hair her time reading and painting. style. Thousands of women were attracted to that style She also became an accomplished writer, authoring and adopted it as their own. a number of books, including her autobiography. On August 8, 1985, Louise died of a heart attack in RochAs you will note by her photographs, she was no ester, New York. She was 78 years old.

‘Colleen Moore’ ‘silent film actress’

Colleen Moore was born Kathleen Morrison in Port Huron, Michigan. Her father was an irrigation engineer and his job was good enough to provide the family a middle-class environment. She was educated in parochial schools and studied at the famed Detroit Conservatory. Colleen’s family moved to Atlanta, Georgia, and later to Tampa, Florida, where she spent some of her happiest years. She described her childhood as a happy one where her parents were very much in love. In fact, she claims she never heard her parents argue with each other, although she admitted they had their differences. As a child she was fascinated with films and the queens of the day such as Marguerite Clark and Mary Pickford and kept a scrapbook of those actresses; she even kept a blank space for the day when she would be a famous star and could put her picture there. When a neighbor down the street from her had a piano delivered, Colleen talked to the delivery men into taking the wooden packing crate to her house, and she set it up as a stage. It was the beginning of her career, as she and her friend performed plays for the other neighborhood children. By 1917 she would be on her way to becoming a star. Colleen’s uncle, Walter C. Howey, was the editor of the “Chicago Tribune” and had helped D.W. Griffith make his films The Birth of a Nation (1915) and Intolerance:

Love’s Struggle Throughout the Ages (1916) more presentable to the censors. Knowing of his niece’s acting aspirations, Howey asked Griffith to help her get a start in the motion picture industry. Soon after, she arrived in Hollywood where she found herself playing in five films within that year, The Savage (1917) being her first. Her first starring role was as Annie in Little Orphant Annie (1918). Colleen was on her way. She also starred in a number of westerns opposite Tom Mix, but the movie that defined her as a “flapper” was the classic Flaming Youth (1923), in which she played Patricia Fentriss. By 1927 she was the top box-office draw in the US, pulling in the phenomenal sum of $12,500 a week (unlike many other young, highly-paid actresses, however, Colleen did not spend her money frivolously. Instead, she put it into the stock market, making investments). She successfully made the transition into the “talkie” era of sound films. Her final film role was as Hester Prynne in The Scarlet Letter (1934). She did make one final appearance in the TV mini-series Hollywood (1980), but it was her silver screen appearances that mattered the most. After she retired she wrote two books on investing and went so far as to marry two stockbrokers. On January 25, 1988, Colleen died of an undisclosed ailment in Paso Robles, California. She was 88.

‘Louise Brooks’

‘Colleen Moore’

‘films’

‘Gloria Swanson’ ‘silent film actress’ Gloria Swanson was born Gloria May Josephine Svensson in Chicago, Illinois. She was destined to be perhaps one of the biggest stars of the silent movie era. Her personality and antics in private definitely made her a favorite with America’s movie-going public. Gloria certainly didn’t intend on going into show business. After her formal education in the Chicago school system and elsewhere, she began work in a department store as a salesclerk. In 1915, at the age of 18, she decided to go to a Chicago movie studio with an aunt to see how motion pictures were made. She stood out from the crowd, because of her beauty, she included as a extra in the film The Fable of Elvira and Farina and the Meal Ticket (1915). In her next film, she was an extra too, when she appeared in At the End of a Perfect Day (1915). After another uncredited role, Gloria got a more substantial role in Sweedie Goes to College (1915). In 1916, she first appeared with future husband Wallace Beery. Once married, the two pulled up stakes in Chicago and moved to Los Angeles to the film colony of Hollywood. Once out west, Gloria continued her torrid pace in films. She seemed to be in hit after hit in such films as The Pullman Bride (1917), Shifting Sands (1918), and Don’t Change Your Husband (1919). By that then, Gloria had divorced Beery and was remarried, but it was not to be her last marriage, as she collected a total of six husbands. By the middle 1920s, she was the highest-paid actress in Hollywood. It has been said that Gloria made and spent over $8 million in the ‘20s alone.

That, along with the six marriages she had, kept the fans spellbound with her escapades for over 60 years. They just couldn’t get enough of her. Gloria was 30 when the sound revolution hit, and there was speculation as to whether she could adapt. She did. In 1928, she received an Oscar nomination for Best Actress for her role of Sadie Thompson in the film of the same name but lost to Janet Gaynor for 3 different films. The following year, she again was nominated for the same award in The Trespasser (1929). This time, she lost out to Norma Shearer in The Divorcee (1930). By the 1930s, Gloria pared back her work with only four films during that time. She had taken a break from film work after 1934’s Music in the Air (1934) and would not be seen again until Father Takes a Wife (1941). That was to be it until 1950, when she starred in Sunset Blvd. (1950) as Norma Desmond opposite William Holden. The movie was a box office hit and earned her a third Academy Award nomination as Best Actress, but she lost to Judy Holliday in Born Yesterday (1950). The film is considered one of the best in the history of film and, on June 16, 1998, was named one of the top 100 films of all time by the American Film Institute, placing 12th. After a few more films in the 1950s, Gloria more or less retired. Throughout the 1960s, she appeared mostly on television. Her last fling with the silver screen was Airport 1975 (1974), where she played herself. Gloria died on April 4, 1983, in New York City at the age of 84. There was never anyone like her, before or since.

‘Greta Garbo’ ‘silent film actress’

Greta Garbo was born Greta Lovisa Gustafsson on September 18, 1905, in Stockholm, Sweden, to Anna Lovisa (Johansdotter), who worked at a jam factory, and Karl Alfred Gustafsson, a labourer. She was fourteen when her father died, which left the family destitute. Greta was forced to leave school and go to work in a department store. The store used her as a model in its newspaper ads. She had no film aspirations until she appeared in short advertising film at that same department store while she was still a teenager. Erik A. Petschler, a comedy director, saw the film and gave her a small part in his Luffar-Petter (1922). Encouraged by her own performance, she applied for and won a scholarship to a Swedish drama school. While there she appeared in at least one film, En lyckoriddare (1921). Both were small parts, but it was a start. Finally famed Swedish director Mauritz Stiller pulled her from the drama school for the lead role in The Saga of Gösta Berling (1924). At 18 Greta was on a roll. Following Joyless Street (1925) both Greta and Stiller were offered contracts with MGM, and her first film for the studio was the American-made Torrent (1926), a silent film in which she didn’t have to speak a word of English. After a few more films, including The Temptress (1926), Anna Karenina (1927) and A Woman of Affairs (1928), Greta starred in Anna Christie (1930) (her first “talkie”), which not only gave her a powerful screen presence but also won an Academy Award nomination as Best Actress (but she didn’t win). Later that year she filmed Romance (1930), which was somewhat of a letdown, but she bounced back in 1931, landing another lead role in Mata Hari (1931), which turned out to be a major hit. Greta continued to give intense performances in whatever was handed to her.

The next year she was cast in what turned out to be yet another hit, Grand Hotel (1932). However, it was in MGM’s Anna Karenina (1935) that she gave what some consider the performance of her life. She was absolutely breathtaking in the role as a woman torn between two lovers and her son. Shortly afterwards, she starred in the historical drama Queen Christina (1933) playing the title character to great acclaim. She earned an Oscar nomination for her role in the romantic drama Camille (1936), again playing the title character. Her career suffered a setback the following year in Marie Walewska (1937), which was a box office disaster. She later made a comeback when she starred in Ninotchka (1939), which showcased her comedic side. It wasn’t until two years later she made what was to be her last film, Two-Faced Woman (1941), another comedy. But the film drew controversy and was condemned by the Catholic Church and other groups and was a box office failure, which left Garbo shaken. After World War II Greta, by her own admission, felt that the world had changed perhaps forever and she retired, never again to face the camera. She would work for the rest of her life to perpetuate the Garbo mystique. Her films, she felt, had their proper place in history and would gain in value. She abandoned Hollywood and moved to New York City. She would jet-set with some of the world’s bestknown personalities such as Aristotle Onassis and others. She spent time gardening and raising flowers and vegetables. In 1954 Greta was given a special Oscar for past unforgettable performances. She even penned her biography in 1990. On April 15, 1990, Greta died of natural causes in New York and with her went the “Garbo Mystique”. She was 84.

‘Gloria Swanson’

‘Greta Garbo’

‘films’

‘Jean Arthur’ ‘actress’

This marvelous screen comedienne’s best asset was only muffled during her seven years’ stint in silent films. That asset? It was, of course, her squeaky, frog-like voice, which silent-era cinema audiences had simply no way of perceiving, much less appreciating. Jean Arthur, born Gladys Georgianna Greene in upstate New York, 20 miles south of the Canadian border, has had her year of birth cited variously as 1900, 1905 and 1908. Her place of birth has often been cited as New York City. Following her screen debut in a small part in John Ford’s Cameo Kirby (1923), she spent several years playing unremarkable roles as ingénue or leading lady in comedy shorts and cheapie westerns. With the arrival of sound she was able to appear in films whose quality was but slightly improved over that of her past silents. Her career bloomed with her appearance in Ford’s The Whole Town’s Talking (1935), in which she played opposite Edward G. Robinson, the latter in a dual role as a notorious gangster and his lookalike, a confused, well-meaning clerk. Here is where her wholesomeness and flair for farcical comedy began making themselves plain. The turning point in her career came when she was chosen by Frank Capra to star with Gary Cooper in the classic social comedy Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936). Here she rescues the hero - thus herself becoming heroine! - from rapacious human vultures who are scheming to separate him from his wealth. In Capra’s masterpiece Mr.

Smith Goes to Washington (1939), she again rescues a besieged hero (James Stewart), protecting him from a band of manipulative and cynical politicians and their cronies and again she ends up as a heroine of sorts. For her performance in George Stevens’ The More the Merrier (1943), in which she starred with Joel McCrea and Charles Coburn, she received a Best Actress Academy Award nomination, but the award went to Jennifer Jones in The Song of Bernadette (1943) (Coburn, incidentally, won for Best Supporting Actor). Her career began diminish toward the end of the 1940s. She starred with Marlene Dietrich and John Lund in Billy Wilder’s fluff about post-World War II Berlin, A Foreign Affair (1948). Thereafter, the actress would return to the screen but once, again for George Stevens but not in comedy. She starred with Alan Ladd and Van Heflin in Stevens’ western Shane (1953), playing the wife of a besieged settler (Heflin) who accepts help from a nomadic gunman (Ladd) in the settler’s effort to protect his farm. It was her silver-screen swansong. She would provide one more opportunity for a mass audience to appreciate her craft. In 1966 she starred as a witty and sophisticated lawyer, Patricia Marshall, a widow, in the TV series The Jean Arthur Show (1966). Her time was apparently past, however; the show ran for only 11 weeks.

‘Mary Pickford’

‘actress + producer + screenwriter’ Actress, producer and screenwriter Gladys Mary Smith was born on April 8, 1892, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Known as “America’s Sweetheart,” Mary Pickford was a legendary film actress during the age of silent pictures. She often appeared on screen in young girl roles, even when she was an adult. Pickford began performing at the age of five on the stage and was known for a time as “Baby Gladys.” After touring in different shows and productions for more than nine years, she went to New York to conquer Broadway. Taking the stage name, Mary Pickford, she made her Broadway debut in The Warrens of Virginia. Soon after the show’s run, Mary Pickford got into film, working for D. W. Griffith, a director and head of American Biography Company. At the time, most films were short and she appeared in more than 40 movies in 1909. When Griffith moved his operation to California the following year, Pickford went with him. Over the years, her fame grew as well as her salary. She became an international star, beloved for her beauty and charm. Some of Mary Pickford’s greatest films were a collaborative effort with friend and writer-director Frances Marion. Together they worked on such hits as Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm (1917) and Poor Little Rich Girl (1917). Pickford also worked behind the scenes as a producer and founded the United Artists (UA), a film company, in 1919, with D. W. Griffith, Charlie Chaplin, and Douglas Fairbanks, Sr., who would become her second husband. She had been married to actor Owen Moore and divorced him to be with Fairbanks.

Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks married in 1920, becoming one of Hollywood’s earliest super couples. Fans adored the pairing, and the couple were known to host fabulous events at their home, called Pickfair, which were attended by many of the leading figures in film. In the 1920s, Mary Pickford continued to score more box-office hits with Polyanna (1920) and Little Lord Fauntleroy (1922). She went on to help establish the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 1927. Around this time, the film industry was changing and talking pictures were on the rise. In 1929, Pickford starred in her first talkie Coquette, which explored the dark side of a wealthy family. She won an Academy Award for her work on the film. Still she was never quite able to recreate the phenomenal success she had in silent pictures with the sound films. Her last film was 1933’s Secrets. After retiring from the screen, Mary Pickford continued to be involved in filmmaking. She worked as a producer on such films as One Rainy Afternoon (1936), Susie Steps Out (1946) and Sleep, My Love (1948). She also was on the board of directors for UA for many years. She married her third husband, Charles “Buddy” Rogers, in 1937. They adopted two children and stayed together until her death. In her final years, Mary Pickford became reclusive. She largely stayed home at Pickfair and choosing to only see a select few friends. She died on May 29, 1979, in Santa Monica, California.

‘Jean Arthur’

‘Mary Pickford’

‘films’

‘Fay Wray’ ‘actress’

She was born Vina Fay Wray near Cardston, Alberta, Canada, on September 15, 1907. Fay was from a large family that included five siblings. She moved to Arizona when she was still young in order for her father to find better work than what was offered in Alberta. After moving again to California, her parents divorced, which put the rest of the family in hard times. Being in entertainment-rich Los Angeles, there was opportunity to take advantage of the chances that might come her way in the entertainment industry. At the age of 16, Fay played her first role in a motion picture, a small one. The film was Gasoline Love in 1923. The film was not a hit, nor was it a launching vehicle for her career. It would be two more years before she ever got another chance. When it did come, it was another lackluster film called The Coast Patrol (1925). The only thing it did for Fay was give her a slightly more prominent role than the film two years earlier. Four more films followed in 1926, and her career finally left the ground. She was noticed to the extent that the Western Association of Motion Pictures chose her as one of thirteen starlets most likely to succeed in film. After three films in 1927, the following year established Fay as an actress to be reckoned with. She played the lead, Mitzi Schrammell, in the hit The Wedding March (1928). She had made the successful transition into the “talkie” era when most performers’ services were no longer needed because of the sound of their voices on film. In 1933, Fay appeared in eleven films,

including Enemies of Society (1933), The Vampire Bat (1933), and Ann Carver’s Profession (1933). But it was another film that placed her in a role that is remembered to this day. That year she played Ann Darrow in the classic King Kong. After that, Fay came by more and better roles, but she is best remembered for that one performance. The movie wound up being named one of the 100 greatest films of all time by the American Film Institute in 1998. She continued her pace in films, making eleven films again in 1934, including Once to Every Woman (1934), Viva Villa! (1934), and Bulldog Jack (1935). But her career was now beginning to go backward. Movie roles were becoming fewer and fewer with new stars on the horizon. Now it was Fay’s services which were being curtailed. Her 11-year marriage to John Monk Saunders ended in a painful divorce. After Not a Ladies’ Man (1942), Fay was not in another film until Treasure of the Golden Condor (1953). The films she appeared in during the latter ‘50s were not much to write home about, and several were some of the weakest ever projected. Her last performance before the cameras was a made-for-television movie called Gideon’s Trumpet (1980). Fay Wray died of an natural causes on August 8, 2004. She was an excellent actress who never was given a chance to live up to her potential, especially after being cast in a number of horror films in the ‘30s. Given the right role, Fay could have had her star up alongside the great actresses of the day. She remains a bright star from cinema’s golden era.

‘Fay Wray’

‘films’

‘Zelda Fitzgerald’ ‘dancer and writer’

Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald was born in Montgomery, Alabama. She was strikingly beautiful and intelligent, but wild and impatient with learning. In the summer of 1918, shortly after graduating from high school, she met an Army lieutenant and aspiring novelist named F. Scott Fitzgerald at a dance at the Montgomery Country Club. Following a stormy courtship, Zelda married him one week after the publication of his first novel. Their only child Frances Scott Fitzgerald Smith (nicknamed “Scottie”) was born in October 1921. The early years of their marriage were ones of high and happy living, financed by Scott’s success as a writer and shaped by his drinking. Between 1922 and 1932, Zelda wrote articles about the jazz age for the New York Tribune, Scribner’s magazine, Metropolitan magazine and The New Yorker. She was known as a leading cultural voice for the Roaring Twenties. At the age of 27, Zelda decided to pursue her lifelong dream of becoming a professional ballerina, and began to study ballet in Paris. However, after two years of dedication, she realised

she had started the pursuit of dance too late and had a nervous breakdown. Gradually her behavior became more erratic and obsessive, and the Fitzgeralds’ relationship more strained. Zelda spent the next decade in and out of mental hospitals, including Johns Hopkins in Baltimore; Craig House in Beacon, New York; and Prangins Clinic in Switzerland. During one hospital stay, she wrote her only novel, “Save Me the Waltz”, which was published in 1932. She also painted throughout the 1930s and 1940s. Though a woman of exceptional energy and ability, her doctors’ failure to diagnose her mental disability, as well as the demise of her marriage, took its toll on her talent, and, as a result, Zelda published only a handful of articles and short stories in her lifetime. Her husband eventually moved to Hollywood to become a screenwriter, and died of a heart attack in his mistress’ (Sheilah Graham) home. Eight years later, Zelda died in a fire while staying at the Highland mental facility in Asheville, North Carolina.

‘silent films’

‘the

Silents are the films of the early era that were without synchronized sound, from the earliest film (around 1891), until 1927, when the first ‘talkie’, The Jazz Singer (1927) - the first commercially successful sound film, was produced. Its follow-up was The Lights of New York (1928), the first all-synchronized-sound feature. The silent era basically lasted until the end of the decade when most films were all-talkie, although there were hold-outs like Chaplin’s City Lights (1931). Many early silent films were either dramas, epics, romances, or comedies. One-reelers (10-12 minutes) soon gave way to four-reel feature-length films. On-screen inter-titles (or titles) that were inserted intermittently between sequences of the film narrated supplemental story points, presented dialogue, and were sometimes used to provide commentary on the action for the theater audience. In the decade of the 1920s, Hollywood’s output of films reached an average of about 800 feature films annually. Calling them silent films was something of a mismatch. In the earliest silent film days, movies were often accompanied by a phonograph recording. Then, movie theatres and other dream palaces provided live music from pianists, organists, wurlitzers, and other sound machines. In the larger cities with bigger theaters, silents were usually accompanied with a fullfledged orchestra to provide musical background and to underscore the narrative on the screen. Live actors, singers or narrators were sometimes provided, and some films were produced with complete musical scores (but many organists and pianists just improvised). Unfortunately, many of the early classics have been lost to decomposing nitrate film bases and outright destruction. Estimates by some film historians state that about 80% of silents have been lost forever.

beginning’

81 Silent films, usually made with low budgets and few resources, were an important evolutionary stage in the development of movies, since they forced film-makers to tell engaging narrative stories with actors who could emote (with body language and facial expressions). They provided the major foundational elements and visual vocabulary of cinema, including mise en scene, lighting, cinematography, set design, costuming, camera shots, composition, movement, special effects ( jump cuts, dissolves, superimpositions, miniatures, matte paintings), and more. After the film was shot, editors were compelled to use fundamental techniques (montage, cross-cutting, parallel scenes, tableaux, etc.) to convey the proper rhythm and continuity.

Early masters of cinema during the silent years included Cecil B. De Mille, known for his epics such as The Ten Commandments (1923), Erich Von Stroheimâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s dramatic tale of the degenerative effects of avarice in Greed (1924), King Vidorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s war drama The Big Parade (1925) and his simple yet dramatic story The Crowd (1928) of a young couple in the city experiencing the plight of Everyman. In addition, F. W. Murnau was most famous for his silent melodramatic masterpiece Sunrise (1927).

‘the foundation’

Films really blossomed in the 1920s, expanding upon the foundations of film from earlier years. Most US film production at the start of the decade occurred in or near Hollywood on the West Coast, although some films were still being made in New Jersey and in Astoria on Long Island (Paramount). By the mid-20s, movies were big business (with a capital investment totaling over $2 billion) with some theatres offering double features. By the end of the decade, there were 20 Hollywood studios, and the demand for films was greater than ever. Most people are unaware that the greatest output of feature films in the US occurred in the 1920s and 1930s (averaging about 800 film releases in a year) - nowadays, it is remarkable when production exceeds 500 films in a year. Throughout most of the decade, silent films were the predominant product of the film industry, having evolved from vaudevillian roots. But the films were becoming bigger (or longer), costlier, and more polished. They were being manufactured, assembly-line style, in Hollywood’s ‘entertainment factories,’ in which production was broken down and organized into its various components (writing, costuming, makeup, directing, etc.). Even the earliest films were organized into genres or types, with instantly-recognizable storylines, settings, costumes, and characters. The major genre emphasis was on swashbucklers, historical extravaganzas, and melodramas, although all kinds of films were being produced throughout the decade. Films varied from sexy melodramas and biblical epics by Cecil B. DeMille, to westerns (such as Cruze’s The Covered Wagon (1923)), horror films, gangster/crime films, war films, the first feature documentary or non-fictional narrative film (Robert Flaherty’s Nanook of the North (1922)), romances, mysteries, and comedies (from the silent comic masters Chaplin, Keaton, and Lloyd).

1920-1930 was the decade between the end of the Great War and the Depression following the Stock Market Crash. Film theaters and studios were not initially affected in this decade by the Crash in late 1929. The basic patterns and foundations of the film industry (and its economic organization) were established in the 1920s. The studio system was essentially born with long-term contracts for stars, lavish production values, and increasingly rigid control of directors and stars by the studio’s production chief and in-house publicity departments. After World War I and into the early 1920s, America was the leading producer of films in the world - using Thomas Ince’s “factory system” of production, although the system did limit the creativity of many directors. Production was in the hands of the major studios (that really flourished after 1927 for almost 20 years), and the star system was burgeoning.

Originally, in the earliest years of the motion picture industry, production, distribution, and exhibition were separately controlled. When the industry rapidly grew, these functions became integrated under one directorship to maximize profits, something called vertical integration. There were eight major (and minor) studios that dominated the industry. They were the ones that had most successfully consolidated and integrated all aspects of a film’s development. By 1929, the film-making firms that were to rule and monopolize Hollywood for the next half-century were The Big Five. They produced more than 90 percent of the fiction films in America and distributed their films both nationally and internationally. Each studio somewhat differentiated its products from other studios.

‘the big five’ The Big-Five studios had vast studios with elaborate sets for film production. They owned their own film-exhibiting theatres, as well as production and distribution facilities. They distributed their films to this network of studio-owned, first-run theaters (or movie palaces), mostly in urban areas, which charged high ticket prices and drew huge audiences. They required blind or block bookings of films, whereby theatre owners were required to rent a block of films (often cheaply-made, less-desirable B-pictures) in order for the studio to agree to distribute the one prestige A-level picture that the theatre owner wanted to exhibit. This technique set the terms for a film’s release and patterns of exhibition and guaranteed success for the studio’s productions.

‘Warner Bros. Pictures’

Warner Bros. began with the four Warner brothers—Albert, Sam, Harry and Jack. In books chronicling the American film industry, the brothers are all legendary, especially the flamboyant showman Jack L. Warner. Pioneers in their own right, the Warners brought sound to movies, introduced the first “four-legged star,” revitalized the movie musical, created the gangster-picture era, and produced a number of socially significant films that evoked national awareness about growing problems of their times.

Their first full-scale picture, “My Four Years in Germany,” based on the best-selling book by America’s ambassador to the court of Kaiser Wilhelm, premiered in 1918 and grossed an amazing (for that time) $1.5 million. soundproofed, and underground conduits linked each stage with a special state-of-theart sound building where recording could take place under exacting laboratory conditions. Later that year, the Warner brothers purchased property at 5842 Sunset Boulevard for $25,000, and the Warner Bros. West Coast Studios was born. With Harry as president and Albert as treasurer, guiding the company’s finances, Sam and Jack focused on production, incorporating their new movie studio on April 4, 1923. Their projects included “The Beautiful and Damned,” which employed a young writer named F. Scott Fitzgerald, adapting his novel for the screen. In 1924, they created the world’s first “fourlegged superstar,” Rin Tin Tin, who would become known to the Warners as “the mortgage lifter” for his box-office reliability. At the other end of the artistic spectrum, the Warners could proudly point to Beau Brummel, starring a handsome young John Barrymore. They also enjoyed an alliance with director Ernst Lubitsch, whose “The Marriage Circle” and “Kiss Me Again” brought the Studio much critical acclaim.

And although Warner Bros. was now established as a complete film company, showcasing both successful commercial and artistic properties, it lacked company-owned theatres and thus struggled to compete in the Hollywood community. the rest of First National, acquiring a newly built studio in Burbank (in California’s San Fernando Valley, which today remains the home of Warner Bros. Studios). The Warners invested heavily into converting the new studio into the finest movie sound facility in the world. Stages were soundproofed, and underground conduits linked each stage with a special state-of-the-art sound building where recording could take place under exacting laboratory conditions.

87 In May 1925, Sam and Harry heard the first faint sounds of “talking pictures” in the New York offices of Bell Laboratories’ parent company, Western Electric. Sam, self-taught in mechanics, instantly recognized the groundbreaking potential of this new technology and immediately installed the new sound equipment in their just-acquired Vitagraph Studios in Brooklyn. On October 6, 1927, Warner Bros. Pictures released “The Jazz Singer,” starring Al Jolson, and a whole new era began, with ”pictures that talked,” bringing the Studio to the forefront of the film industry. “The Jazz Singer” played to standing-room-only crowds throughout the country and earned a special Academy Award for technical achievement. However, Sam Warner paid for his family’s triumphant achievement with his life—dying of sheer exhaustion the day before the movie premiered. The Warners went on to quickly produce the first “all-talking” movie and their first “talking” gangster film, “The Lights of New York.”

By late 1928, the rush for sound was on, with the Warners well out in front. The Warners went on to quickly produce the first “alltalking” movie and their first “talking” gangster film, “The Lights of New York.” By late 1928, the rush for sound was on, with the Warners well out in front. In 1928, the brothers bought The Stanley Company of America for its theatre chain, which included one-third ownership of First National Pictures. Later that year, they purchased the rest of First National, acquiring a newly built studio in Burbank (in California’s San Fernando Valley, which today remains the home of Warner Bros. Studios). The Warners invested heavily into converting the new studio into the finest movie sound facility in the world. Stages were soundproofed, and underground conduits linked each stage with a special state-of-the-art sound building where recording could take place under exacting laboratory conditions.

The studio’s first principal asset was Rin Tin Tin. It became prominent by 1927 due to its introduction of talkies (The Jazz Singer (1927)) and early 30s gangster films. It was known as the “Depression studio.” In the 40s, it specialized in Bugs Bunny animations and other cartoons.

‘Paramount Pictures’ Paramount Pictures began humbly in 1912 when Adolph Zukor, the owner of a New York nickelodeon, released the first full-length drama shown in the United States (Queen Elizabeth, starring Sarah Bernhardt) and founded the Famous Players Film Company. A year later, Zukor began distributing his films through a start-up company called Paramount Pictures. In 1916, Zukor’s Famous Players merged with The Jesse L. Lasky Company, which was producing films in Hollywood (including the first feature-length film ever produced in Hollywood – The Squaw Man) and also using Paramount Pictures as a distributor. The newly formed Famous Players-Lasky Corporation, soon consolidated with the distribution company (in which Zukor was a major stockholder) and all three companies became what you now know as Paramount Pictures.

After the merger, audiences first began seeing the iconic logo with the mountain and stars, which was created by Paramount (the distribution company) founder W. W. Hodkinson. Hodkinson had borrowed the Paramount name from an apartment house that he frequently passed in his neighborhood. A mountain peak he remembered from his childhood in Utah inspired the logo, which he designed. Legend has it that the stars surrounding the mountain represented the original 22 film stars Hodkinson had under contract. Another implication was that Paramount had more stars than there were in the universe. In 1926, Lasky supervised the construction of a new Hollywood studio, which was the foundation of the Paramount Pictures studio lot today. The original studio, which cost $1 million to build, stood on a 26-acre lot and contained four large sound stages.

89 It only took a year after moving onto our current studio lot for Paramount’s success to become evident. In 1927, Paramount received the very first Academy Award for Best Picture with its release of Wings, a silent movie about World War I fighter pilots. In addition, Wings is the only silent film in movie history to win that award. There was no looking back after that.

Famous Stars (1912-1929)

Memorable Movies (1912-1929)

• Cecil B. DeMille

• The Sheik (1921)

• Mary Pickford

• Wings (1927, Winner of the 1st

• Clara Bow

Academy Award for Best Picture) • Interference (1928, Paramount’s 1st All Talkie) • Coconuts (1929)

‘The Golden Age Through the Post War Years’ The 30s through the mid-50s proved to be an immensely successful period for Paramount. Many of the classics we’ve all come to know and love were created during this time. In the midst of the Great Depression, the memorable Bing Crosby musicals, Cecil B. DeMille spectacles and the outrageous comedies of Mae West were all created. Throughout our history, Paramount has nurtured and aided the industry’s most legendary movie talent. From the earliest years and through the 1930s, actors and actresses were more like professional football players of today. They were contracted by the different studios to only appear in each particular studio’s movies. They were also traded back and forth for particular productions between studios. (In more recent times, actors, directors and other talent now have the freedom to work on any production they wish, with any studio.)

• Douglas Fairbanks • Gloria Swanson • Rudolph Valentino The Beginning and Early Years

‘Metro Goldwyn Mayer’

Marcus Loew of Loew’s, Inc., was the parent firm of what eventually became Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Metro Pictures Corporation was a production company founded in 1916 by Richard A. Rowland and Louis B. Mayer. In 1918, Mayer left this partnership to start up his own production company in 1918, called Louis B. Mayer Pictures.

‘1920s’

In 1920, Metro Pictures Corporation (with its already-acquired Goldwyn Pictures Corporation) was purchased by early theater exhibitor Marcus Loew of Loew’s Inc. In another acquisition, Loew merged his Metro-Goldwyn production company with Louis B. Mayer Pictures. So, in summary, MGM, first named Metro-Goldwyn Pictures, was ultimately formed in 1924 from the merger of three US film production companies:

‘1960s’

Metro Pictures Corporation (1916) Goldwyn Pictures Corporation (1917) Louis B. Mayer Pictures Company (1918) The famous MGM lion roar in the studio’s opening logo was first recorded and viewed in a film in 1928.

‘Current Logo’

91 MGM known as the legendary roaring lion logo was formed in April 1924, by theater magnate Marcus Loew, who orchestrated the merger of Metro Pictures Corp., Goldwyn Pictures and Louis B. Mayer Productions. With visionary Louis B. Mayer and production genius Irving Thalberg at the helm, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer was a powerhouse of prolific artistry and filmmaking expertise that the studio famously said attracted “more stars than are in the heavens.” During a golden three decades from 1924 to 1954, the Culver City-based studio dominated the movie business, creating a Best Picture nominee every year for two straight decades. One of the more memorable years at the Academy Awards® was in 1939 when MGM’s Gone With the Wind and MGM’s The Wizard of Oz were both nominated for Best Picture. Gone With the Wind took home Best Picture that year, along with 8 other Oscars. The Wizard of Oz secured two Oscars. Hattie McDaniel Won for Best Actress in a Supporting Role, and became the first African American to be nominated for and win an Oscar®. United Artists was established on July 15, 1919 by Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks and D.W. Griffith and was best known as “the company built by the stars.” The budding company quickly left an indelible mark on Hollywood, revolutionizing the motion-picture business by promising creative freedom to actors and filmmakers, while offering the filmmakers a share of the film’s profits. UA’s Midnight Cowboy, released in 1969 starring Dustin Hoffman and Jon Voight, was the first X-Rated film to be nominated and win an Academy Award®. It won 3 Oscars®, including Best Picture. It was changed to an R-rating in 1971. United Artists later joined the MGM family in 1981, and thrived as member of the “lion’s pride.” MGM boasts more than 177 Academy Awards® in its vast library. Among those are 12 Best Pictures. These films include; Hamlet (1948), Marty (1955), The Apartment (1960), West Side Story (1961), In the Heat of the Night (1967), Midnight Cowboy (1969), Rocky (1976), Annie Hall (1977), Platoon (1986), Rain Man (1988), Dances With Wolves (1990), The Silence of the Lambs (1991).

Irving Thalberg (nicknamed the ‘Boy Wonder’) was head of production at MGM from 1924 until his death in 1936. Its greatest early successes were: The Big Parade (1925), Broadway Melody (1929) Grand Hotel (1932) Mutiny on the Bounty (1935) A Night at the Opera (1935) The Good Earth (1937) Gone With the Wind (1939) The Wizard of Oz (1939) As well as Tarzan films, Tom and Jerry cartoons, and stars such as Clark Gable, Greta Garbo, and Spencer Tracy.

‘RKO Pictures’

‘1930s’

‘1940s’

In 1928, two titans of their age – David Sarnoff, President of the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) and Joseph P. Kennedy, father of the future President and owner of the Film Booking Office of America (FBO), a movie distribution company – met at an oyster bar in Manhattan. By the time the meal was over, they’d agreed to combine RCA’s Keith-Albee-Orpheum theater chain with Kennedy’s company (as well as the fledgling Pathe Studios) to form Radio-Keith-Orpheum, or the RKO Corporation. By combining film production, distribution, and hundreds of theaters under one umbrella, they knew they had an innovative business model. Little did they know how innovative the company would be. Over the following two decades, RKO would go on to produce classics in nearly every genre, from dramas: Frank Capra’s It’s a Wonderful Life (starring Jimmy Stewart), comedies: Howard Hawks’ Bringing Up Baby (starring Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn), horror films: the original King Kong (starring Fay Wray), thrillers: Hitchcock’s Notorious (starring Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman), and perhaps the most influential film of all-time, designated by AFI as Number One on their list of the 100 Greatest Movies, Orson Welles’ masterpiece Citizen Kane. Simultaneously, RKO’s distribution arm worked with Walt Disney studios and others, bringing beloved classics like Fantasia, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, and Bambi to the big screen. After a tumultuous period beginning with Howard Hughes’ purchase of the studio in 1948, RKO regained its bearings with its acquisition by Ted Hartley and Dina Merrill in 1989.

Beginning with 1981’s Carbon Copy, RKO General became involved in the coproduction of a number of feature films and TV projects through a subsidiary created three years earlier, RKO Pictures Inc. In collaboration with Universal Studios, RKO put out five films over the next three years. Although the studio frequently worked with major names—including Burt Reynolds and Dolly Parton in The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, Jack Nicholson in The Border, and Nastassja Kinski in Cat People (all 1982)—it met with little success. Starting with the Meryl Streep vehicle Plenty (1985), RKO took on more projects as sole studio backer.

93 Films such as the erotic thriller Half Moon Street (1986) and the Vietnam War drama Hamburger Hill (1987) followed, but production ended as GenCorp underwent a massive reorganization following an attempted hostile takeover. With RKO General dismantling its broadcast business, RKO Pictures Inc., along with the original RKO studio’s trademark, remake rights, and other remaining assets, was spun off and put up for sale. After a bid by RKO Pictures’ own management team failed, the managers made a deal with Wesray Capital Corporation—under the control of former U.S. Secretary of the Treasury William E. Simon and Ray Chambers—to buy RKO through Entertainment Acquisition Co., a newly created purchasing entity. The sale was completed in late 1987, and Wesray linked RKO with its Six Flags amusement parks to form RKO/Six Flags Entertainment Inc. In 1989, RKO Pictures, which had produced no films while under Wesray control, was spun off yet again. Actress and Post Cereals heiress Dina Merrill and her husband, producer Ted Hartley, acquired a majority interest and merged the company with their Pavilion Communications. After a brief period as RKO/Pavilion, the business was reorganized as RKO Pictures LLC. With the inaugural RKO production under Hartley and Merrill’s ownership, False Identity (1990), the company also stepped into the distribution business. In 1992, it handled the well-regarded independent production Laws of Gravity, directed by Nick Gomez. RKO’s next significant production came in 1998 with Mighty Joe Young, a remake of 1949 RKO movie. The film was distributed by Disney’s Buena Vista Pictures Distribution and released under the “Walt Disney Pictures” trademark. In the early 2000s, the company was involved as a coproducer on TV movies and modestly budgeted features at the rate of about one annually. In 2003, RKO coproduced a Broadway stage version of the 1936 Astaire–Rogers vehicle Swing Time, under the title Never Gonna Dance. That same year, RKO Pictures entered into a legal battle with Wall Street Financial Associates (WSFA). Hartley and Merrill claimed that the owners of WSFA fraudulently induced them into signing an acquisition agreement by concealing their “cynical and rapacious” plans to purchase RKO, with the intention only of dismantling it. WSFA sought a preliminary injunction prohibiting RKO’s majority owners from selling their interests in the company to any third parties. The WSFA motion was denied in July 2003, freeing RKO to deal with another potential purchaser, InternetStudios.com. In 2004, that planned sale fell through when InternetStudios.com apparently folded. The company’s minimal involvement in new film production continued to focus on its remake rights: Are We Done Yet?, based on Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House (1948), was released in April 2007 to dismal reviews. In 2009, Beyond a Reasonable Doubt, a remake of a 1956 RKO film directed by Fritz Lang, fared even worse critically, receiving a 7% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Two years before, RKO had announced the launching of a horror division, Roseblood Movie Company. By early 2010, Roseblood’s mission had expanded, according to the RKO, to encompass the “popular horror/thriller genre ... youth-oriented feature-length motion pictures that are edgy, sensuous, scary and commercial” A stage version of Top Hat toured Great Britain in the second half of 2011. The most recent RKO film coproductions are the well-received A Late Quartet (2012) and the 2015 flop Barely Lethal.

‘Dina Merrill’

‘Fox Film’ 20th Century Fox, in full 20th Century Fox Film Corporation, also spelled Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation, formerly (1935–85) Twentieth Century–Fox Film Corporation, major American film studio formed in 1935 by the merger of Twentieth Century Pictures and the Fox Film Corporation. Since 2019 it has been a subsidiary of the Disney Company. Headquarters are in Los Angeles. William Fox was a New York City exhibitor who began distributing films in 1904 and producing them in 1913. In 1915 he moved his studio to Los Angeles and named it the Fox Film Corporation. In 1927 the company secured the patents to a German sound-on-film process, and later that year it introduced the first sound newsreel, Fox-Movietone News. Having borrowed heavily to finance these moves on the eve of the Great Depression, Fox lost control of his company in 1930. The studio then foundered until its merger with Twentieth Century Pictures. The latter company was founded by Joseph Schenck and Darryl F. Zanuck in 1933 after Zanuck had quit as head of production at the Warner Brothers studio. The two companies merged in 1935 to form Twentieth Century–Fox.

From 1935 to 1971 (except for 1956–61), Zanuck was head of production for the studio. In the late 1930s and ’40s Twentieth Century–Fox produced mainly westerns, musicals, screen biographies, and religious epics. Among its early efforts were several of director John Ford’s best-known films, notably The Grapes of Wrath (1940). The company’s early musicals featured Shirley Temple and then Betty Grable. It subsequently produced several important social dramas, such as Gentlemen’s Agreement (1947) and The Snake Pit (1948). Despite such successes, however, the studio’s productions were often criticized for lacking the style and excitement of films made by rival studios, notably Warner Brothers and MGM.

95 In 1953 Twentieth Century–Fox introduced CinemaScope, the process by which a picture is projected on a screen two and a half times as wide as it is high; the company’s first wide-screen feature film, The Robe (1953), began the trend toward the use of wide screens in motion-picture theatres. Twentieth Century–Fox was the studio that brought Marilyn Monroe to stardom in the 1950s. Among the studio’s most successful musicals of the decade were The King and I (1956) and South Pacific (1958). Twentieth Century–Fox almost foundered after the box-office failure of its enormously expensive epic Cleopatra (1963), and Zanuck was brought back to serve as chief executive in place of Spyros Skouras (1942–62). Zanuck risked the company’s remaining fortunes on another epic, The Longest Day (1962), whose commercial success kept the company alive. The even greater commercial success of The Sound of Music (1965) was followed by several highly expensive flops, but the studio retrieved its fortunes with such films as Patton (1970) and M*A*S*H (1970). During this time it also began producing the popular Planet of the Apes series. Other big box-office successes in the 1970s included The Towering Inferno (1975), the cult classic The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975), and Star Wars (1977; later retitled Star Wars: Episode IV—A New Hope), the latter of which launched one of the most lucrative film series in the history of the industry. The studio had continued success with such movies as Romancing the Stone (1984); Wall Street (1987); Home Alone (1990); Speed (1994); and Titanic (1997), which was the first film to surpass $1 billion at the global box office; Cast Away (2000); and Lincoln (2012). It also produced the hugely popular Alien, Die Hard, and Avatar series. In addition, it owned the rights to several Marvel Comics series, notably Deadpool, Fantastic Four, and X-Men, all of which were made into blockbuster movies.

Ownership In 1981 the Twentieth Century–Fox Film Corporation was bought by Marvin Davis and his family, who in turn, in the course of 1985, sold it to the international publisher Rupert Murdoch. At this time the hyphen was dropped from the name. Murdoch consolidated his American film and television companies under a holding company, Fox, Inc., which was overseen by the News Corporation conglomerate. In 2013 News Corporation split into separate publishing and television/film companies, called News Corporation and 21st Century Fox, respectively. Thus, 20th Century Fox came under the oversight of 21st Century Fox. In 2017 the Disney Company agreed to purchase 20th Century Fox and most other holdings of 21st Century Fox. The deal closed two years later and was valued at about $71 billion

‘the remembered’ Early pioneering director D. W. Griffith was often identified with silent epics including: -The Civil War saga The Birth of a Nation (1915) -The Spectacular saga Intolerance (1916) with four inter-woven narratives -Broken Blossoms (1919), the melodramatic story of an abused girl (Lillian Gish) who is cared for by a young Chinese man -Orphans of the Storm (1921) - a tale set during the French Revolution

‘Broken Blossoms’ The most-remembered films from the silent years are the visual comedies from the Mack Sennett Keystone Kops series, starring Fatty Arbuckle and Mabel Normand, and slapstick from the ‘silent clowns.’ Tragi-comic superstar Charlie Chaplin is most noted for The Kid (1921), his classics including The Gold Rush (1925), the exquisite City Lights (1931), and his first mute “silent film” with sound Modern Times (1936) - a satire on the machine age. lent The Artist (2011).

97 Physically-daring comedian Buster Keaton (“Old or Great Stoneface”) appeared in many other classic comedies, including Sherlock Jr. (1924), The General (1927), and Steamboat Bill, Jr. (1928). Harold Lloyd’s most famous silent film found him dangling from a clock on the side of a city building in Safety Last (1923), although he was most popularized with his college-related The Freshman (1925).

In the modern era, only a few films have been made as silents - some as homage to the period, including Jacques Tati’s Les Vacances de Monsieur Hulot (1953, Fr.) (aka Monsieur Hulot’s Holiday), Mel Brooks’ Silent Movie (1976), Charles Lane’s Sidewalk Stories (1989), Eric Bruno Borgman’s The Deserter (2003), and the Best Picture-winning mostly-silent The Artist (2011).

100