“The Artist” : a Silent Film Revival

What a marvelous movie! I saw “The Artist” at a theater yesterday and was thoroughly entertained. I suspect this will lead to a lot more interest in the large number of genuine silent movies that still exist. I’ve watched several myself through Netflix and see one occasionally on television. 

Do see “The Artist” if you haven’t yet. The acting is great fun–the laughs and gasps of surprise are there too.

The story is simple, a romance where one character’s career is rising and the other’s is falling. The main character, George Valentin, is Hollywood’s most popular leading man who, when talkies come, plummets from riches to rags. As his career tanks, that of young Peppy Miller skyrockets, turning her from aspiring extra to leading lady.

It will be instantly obvious to those who know about Hollywood in the Twenties that Valentin’s character is based on Douglas Fairbanks. First of all, he looks exactly like Fairbanks. He performs exactly the same sort of roles, and at one point, when the date says 1931, Valentin is shown reminiscing with his own old movies and the scenes they show come from Fairbanks’ 1920 movie, “Mark of Zorro.” (I recognized those scenes right away–the jump over the wall followed by a swarm of soldiers, the leaping somersault over the fence, and the jumps from rooftop to rooftop.) Fairbanks, too, failed to make the change from silents to talkies, although in his case it was more because of his age than ability. Valentin’s story also mirrors Fairbanks’ struggle with alcohol as his popularity wanes.

 The character of Peppy Miller, enthusiastically played by Berenice Bejo, could be any one of several actresses who rose from obscurity to fame due to their looks, talent, and silver screen charisma.  And I’d be remiss if I didn’t praise the superb acting skills of the little dog! I guess he won’t be nominated for an Oscar. 

The Smithsonian website carried an interesting article about this film.  See www.smithsonian.com/silentfilm

America’s First Action Hero: Douglas Fairbanks

Douglas Fairbanks was America’s first action hero. He invented the role with his 1921 silent film, The Mark of Zorro, an experimental movie that was so successful he embarked on a string of similar productions: in 1921, The Three Musketeers; in 1922, Robin Hood; in 1924, The Thief of Bagdad; in 1925, Don Q: Son of Zorro; and in 1926, The Black Pirate. He swashbuckled his way through these films, swinging from chandeliers, leaping from castle walls, fighting furiously with whips, swords, knives . . . and all while romancing the fair maiden. Watch this three-minute clip for an example of his acrobatic, action-packed adventures. His stunts seem somewhat cliche-ish today, but that’s only because everyone copied him and turned his innovative stunts into cliches. Note the delightful way he mixes humor with his stunts.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yaBud6ii5Wk

And speaking of special effects, watch this one-minute clip at the end of the Thief of Bagdad and see what wowed audiences in the Roaring Twenties. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hvFYcV84xv4 

Interestingly, his son, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., carried on Dad’s legacy with similarly dashing roles. He was very popular, although he never gained the unprecedented level of international fame and adoration that his father had. 

Pickfair Pictures

Originally a hunting lodge built in 1911 in remote Beverly Hills, the building and 15 acres were purchased in 1919 by Douglas Fairbanks for his new wife, Mary Pickford. He paid $35,000 for the property. The press, not the owners, christened the place Pickfair, a combination of the names of two of Hollywood’s biggest stars, but the name stuck. Pickford and Fairbanks renovated and greatly enlarged the house to about 40 rooms, added a swimming pool—supposedly the first swimming pool at any private residence in Hollywood—and entertained almost every night.  

To be invited to Pickfair was the dream of everyone in Hollywood and the world. It was like being invited to the White House. Maybe better. In fact, some referred to it as the second White House. Guests included the usual suspects of the film world like Charlie Chaplin, Joan Crawford, and all the famous stars, directors, and moguls, but also an eclectic bunch of internationally famous people, heavy on royalty. Albert Einstein, Helen Keller, Amelia Earhart, Arthur Conan Doyle, George Bernard Shaw, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Jack Dempsey, the kings of Spain and Thailand, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, the Duke of York (later King George VI), a Swedish prince, Lord Mountbatten, and hundreds more. 

And look at the swimming pool! It was so large you could canoe in it! 

Sadly, after Pickford’s death in 1971, the estate was sold (she had no children). A subsequent owner tore it down in the 1980s and built another house in its place. This new house is called Pickfair too, but don’t be misled. It’s nothing but a modern house with no connection—other than to the site—to the real Pickfair. 

I set a couple scenes of my mystery at Pickfair. It was hard to be accurate, since it doesn’t exist any longer and there are very few pictures of the interior. I did find a few black and white photos in biographies about Pickford and Fairbanks. Those plus some descriptions as to the color of the curtains and so forth let me be fairly confident of the accuracy of my details.  

Men’s Hair: Parted and Oiled

When it comes to Twenties hairstyles, all the attention goes to the women with their bobs and waves. But men had a distinctive hairstyle too, one with a slicked-back look that few would appreciate today. 

Many men wore their hair short, often parted (right or left, either side would do), longer on top than on the sides, and brushed back from the face. They kept it in place with lots of brilliantine or other perfumed oil.  

Film stars popularized the look. Here’s Rudolph Valentino, the heart-throb of millions. Another example (left) shows young Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., who got his start in pictures at 14 because of his father’s fame. 

Mary Pickford and the Star Sapphire

While at the Smithsonian’s Natural History Museum recently, I visited the gems and minerals hall to see the Hope diamond. I was surprised to see the nearby exhibit of the Star of Bombay, an enormous blue star sapphire that was given to Mary Pickford by her husband, Douglas Fairbanks. Mary donated it to the Smithsonian in 1981. (She died in 1979 at the age of 87.) The gem was discovered in Sri Lanka (formerly Ceylon), so why isn’t it called the Star of Ceylon?

The Very First Academy Awards in 1929

It was Douglas Fairbanks who first thought of creating awards for films and actors. He and his wife, Mary Pickford, organized the competition and held a dinner at a Hollywood hotel in May of 1929.

It was nothing like the extravagant shows we are accustomed to today. Each of the 270 people who attended paid $5 for a ticket. There were speeches and a meal, but not a shred of suspense—the 15 winners had been announced several months earlier. It took Fairbanks 15 minutes to hand out the statuettes.  See http://www.filmsite.org/oscars30.html for a list of the winners.

The now-famous statuette was not yet named Oscar—that would happen a few years later—and there are many conflicting stories as to how Oscar got his name.

United Artists: Doomed to Fail?

In 1919, the three best known actors in the world, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, and Charlie Chaplin, plus one of the best known directors, D. W. Griffith, established United Artists Studios.  It was a remarkable film studio, the first and only one owned and run by actors. The major studios said it was doomed to fail—after all, everyone knew actors weren’t smart enough to manage their own careers, let alone a studio. Yet United Artists did pretty well, year after year.

The actors’ motive was independence—remember this was the era of the studio system, where studios “owned” the actors and had total control over what they did (even in their private lives), which films they acted in, which parts they played, and how much they were paid.

What happened to their films? Chaplin’s are controlled by his estate through a French distribution company. Most of Griffith’s and Fairbanks films belong to the Film Preservation Associates, a restoration company. The Mary Pickford Foundation owns the rights to her existing films.  In 1931, only a few years after the advent of sound, Mary almost destroyed all her old silent films, fearing that they would make her look ridiculous to future generations. Fortunately her lifelong friend and actress Lillian Gish talked her out of it.

United Artists pretty much ceased to exist in the 1940s. A version of the studio continues today under the same name, but it has nothing in common with the original. Tom Cruise is one of the principal partners.

The Origins of Zorro

         Just two years before Douglas Fairbanks’ first (1921)  Zorro film was released, a serial called “The Curse of Capistrano” appeared in the  pulp magazine shown here. These cheap fiction magazines, usually sold for 10 cents, were popular in the early part of the 20th century. The author, Johnston McCulley, clearly found his inspiration in THE SCARLET PIMPERNEL, a story about a brave Englishman during the French Revolution that was written in 1903 by Baroness Emma Orczy, a British woman of Hungarian origin. In Baroness Orczy’s story, the Scarlet Pimpernel is the secret name for a mysterious man who snatches innocent French citizens about to be guillotined during the Reign of Terror.

      Zorro and the Scarlet Pimpernel have much in common. Both are  nobly-born heroes who disguise themselves as effeminate nincompoops in order to fight against evil in the form of a brutal government. Both hide their true identity from everyone, even their fathers and the women they love. Each has a trusted sidekick who is in on the charade. And each taunts his opponents by leaving his mark–a red flower or a slashed Z–wherever he has struck.

     Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford selected this story while on their honeymoon. As usual, they chose wisely! “The Mark of Zorro” was such a success that Fairbanks followed it four years later with a sequel, “Don Q: Son of Zorro.” It was these two silent films that firmly established Zorro as an American legend and led to many more movies, books, and television programs.

“Out of the Night, When the Full Moon is Bright . . .”

      The story of Zorro existed before Douglas Fairbanks’ two movies (1921 and 1925), but it was the movies that made the character a household name. Just two years before the first film, a serial called “The Curse of Capistrano” appeared in a “pulp magazine”—that’s the term for the cheap fiction magazines that were distributed in the first half of the 20th century and were usually sold for 10 cents. It’s author was Johnston McCulley.

         Douglas Fairbanks, through his two films, helped create the image of Zorro that persists to this day. For instance, Fairbanks was an amateur magician and he gave Zorro that ability. It was Fairbanks who created the black outfit, black mask, and round black hat that figure in all subsequent versions. And Fairbanks’ acrobatic abilities—think swinging from the chandelier and leaping from rooftop to rooftop—were transferred to Zorro.  Watch this fabulous clip (it’s only 3 ½ minutes) to the end and you’ll see the leap across wide space between buildings that Mary Pickford couldn’t bear to watch.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yaBud6ii5Wk&feature=PlayList&p=54B8576AB5117C0D&playnext_from=PL&playnext=1&index=7

         Or watch the clip where Don Diego (Zorro) performs several foppish tricks: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZazIILRVRw&NR=1 (start at minute 4:40 and you’ll see him play the bored, uninterested suitor who does a magic trick for his intended).

         “The Mark of Zorro” was released by United Artists (a corporation founded in 1919 by Douglas Fairbanks, Mary Pickford, Charlie Chaplin, and D. W. Griffith) in 1921. The film was hugely popular, so he reprised the role in 1925 in “Don Q: Son of Zorro,” which was, incidentally, one of the first sequels in Hollywood history.  If you want to see the whole feature-length film (and it’s very entertaining!) click here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZH5C45FKv6M

       The Zorro character was very important to Douglas Fairbanks—he and Mary even named their little dog Zorro.

 

The Quarter Million Dollar Ringlet

      Although born a Canadian, Mary Pickford worked hard to sell Liberty Bonds to help with the U.S. war effort during the first World War. She and Douglas Fairbanks (her secret lover) and Charlie Chaplin toured the country, speaking at rallies like this one, urging people to buy war bonds. And remember, there were no microphones in those days!

      One time, as a publicity stunt, Mary offered to auction off one of her famous curls. The blond ringlet fetched $15,000. That is approximately a quarter of a million dollars in today’s money.

I wonder where that ringlet is today . . .