Howard Hawks: The Grey Fox of Hollywood

by Todd McCarthy

  Hawks’s unusual ability to manipulate the big studio bosses was especially stressed to the author by the former Famous Artists agent Martin Jurow.

  Truffaut made his remark about Hawks’s intelligence and intellectual qualities in numerous interviews, as well as repeatedly in conversation with the author.

  Molly Haskell’s quote comes from her entry on Hawks in Cinema: A Critical Dictionary, volume 1, edited by Richard Roud.

  Paul Helmick’s remark was made in conversation with the author.

  1 Origins

  Much background information on the Hawks family and local Indiana history comes from the following sources: Virginia Hawks, the widow of John Hawks, the only surviving member of the Hawks family in Goshen; “History of Waterford,” by Harriet Yoder, English Department, Goshen College, January 1934; Elkhart County, Indiana, Index of Names of Persons and of Firms, compiled by the Works Progress Administration of Indiana, Work Project No. 6-20205, volume 1, sponsored by the Indiana State Library, Indianapolis, 1939; Pioneer History of Elkhart County, Indiana, with Sketches and Stories, by Henry S. K. Bartholomew, President, Elkhart County Historical Society, Goshen Printery, 1930. A Twentieth Century History and Biographical Record of Elkhart County, Indiana, edited by Anthony Deahl, Chicago and New York, Lewis Publishing Co., 1905; A Standard History of Elkhart County Indiana, under the editorial supervision of Abraham E. Weaver, 2 vols., Chicago and New York, American Historical Society, 1916; Violett Cemetery, Waterford, Indiana; Index to Marriage Records Elkhart County, Indiana 1850–1920 Inclusive, vol. 2, Letters F–K, compiled by Indiana Public Works Administration, 1940; Archives of the News-Times, Goshen; News-Times Goshen City Directory,1912; Goshen City Directory, 1885–86; Moore’s Standard Directory of Goshen, Indiana, 1908–09; Manual of Goshen, Butler & Knox, 1889; Goshen Sesquicentennial Edition, 1831–1981, Goshen, News Printing Co.; History of Neenah, by G. A. Cunningham, Gazette Printing Establishment, 1878, reprinted by Neenah Historical Society, 1948; Factories in the Valley—Neenah-Menasha, 1870–1915, by Charles N. Glaab and Lawrence H. Larsen, State Historical Society of Wisconsin, 1969; A History of Neenah, compiled by S. F. Shattuck, in collaboration with the Neenah Historical Society, Neenah, Wisconsin, published privately, 1958; History of the Fox River Valley, Lake Winnebago and the Green Bay Region, vols. 1–3, edited by Hon. William A. Titus, Chicago, S. J. Clarke Publishing Co., 1930; Family Letters: A Personal Selection from Theda Clark’s Life, edited by Suzanne Hart O’Regan, Neenah, Wisconsin, Palmer Publications, 1983; Ghosts in Sunlight: A Remembrance of Things Past, by Suzanne Hart O’Regan, Neenah, Wisconsin, Neenah Historical Society, 1985; Bunn’s Winnebago County Directory, John V. Bunn, publisher, Oshkosh, Globe Printing Co., September 1, 1900; Bunn’s Directory of Winnebago County, John V. Bunn, publisher, Oshkosh, Globe Printing Co., June 15, 1905; Dictionary of Wisconsin Biography, Madison, State Historical Society of Wisconsin, 1960; Hall of Records, Oshkosh, Winnebago County, Wisconsin; Edward Sherry Papers, State Historical Society, Madison, Wisconsin; Neenah Historical Society.

  The account of the Howard-Hawks wedding is drawn from the Neenah Daily Times, June 6, 1895, p. 1. The account of Howard Hawks’s birth is from the Neenah Daily Times, June 1, 1896. The account of C. W. Howard’s death and funeral comes from the Neenah Daily Times, January 6 and 7, 1916, and the Daily Northwestern, Oshkosh, January 6, 1916.

  2 Boy of Privilege

  Information on Pasadena, the Hawks family’s life there, and Howard Hawks’s education comes from: Barbara Hawks McCampbell; Pasadena Community Book, 1951 edition; Auld Lang Syne, vols. 43–44, Pasadena Historical Society; Polytechnic Elementary School Announcement, 1912–1913; Pasadena directory, 1909; Private institutional records of the Polytechnic Elementary School (Pasadena), Pasadena High School/Pasadena City College, Citrus Union High School/Citrus College (Glendora), Phillips Exeter Academy (Exeter, New Hampshire), Cornell University (Ithaca), and the University Club (New York City); “Life at Phillips Exeter,” bulletin of the Phillips Exeter Academy, vol. 9, no. 3, October 1913; The 1914 Edition of the Pean, published by the Senior Class of the Phillips Exeter Academy.

  Sources on Victor Fleming include Sam Marx, Allan Dwan, Pat Marlowe, John Lee Mahin, Barbara Hawks McCampbell, and Sally Fleming; a 1928 Paramount biography; a purported “autobiography,” Action Is the Word, published by MGM in 1939; Norma Shearer’s unpublished autobiography; an interview in the Los Angeles Daily News, by Virginia Wright, February 2, 1948; obituaries and follow-up stories in the Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Examiner, Hollywood Citizen-News, Variety, the Hollywood Reporter, and Motion Picture Herald; “Fleming: The Apprentice Years,” by John Howard Reid, in Films & Filming, January 1968; The Making of The Wizard of Oz, by Aljean Harmetz, New York, Alfred A. Knopf, 1977, and the Eddie Sutherland interview, February 1959, conducted by the Popular Arts Project, Columbia University.

  Information on Hawks’s entry into the film industry and his early work comes from the author’s interviews with Allan Dwan; Allan Dwan, by Peter Bogdanovich; the Cecil B. DeMille collection at Brigham Young University, and several interviews with Hawks, notably the London session with Kevin Brownlow.

  3 Rich Boy in Hollywood

  Sources on Hawks’s early Hollywood years include the author’s interviews with Allan Dwan; Norma Shearer’s unpublished autobiography; Motion Picture News, published weekly in New York, 1913–1930; The American Film Institute Catalogue, 1921–1930; “Famous Players-Lasky Corporation Studio Directory, August 1924”; the Cecil B. DeMille collection at BYU; Variety; Allan Dwan, by Peter Bogdanovich; the Eddie Sutherland interview for the Popular Arts Project, Columbia University; Victor Fleming’s 1928 Paramount biography and 1939 MGM “autobiography,” Action Is the Word; and the following lawsuits filed in District Court, Los Angeles: J. D. Bach vs. Howard W. Hawks and Kenneth Hawks, January 13, 1921; H. W. Hawks vs. Marshall Neilan, June 9, 1923; Collection Service Corp. vs. H. W. Hawks, January 26, 1923; and William Shea vs. H. W. Hawks and Walter Mitchell, a.k.a. Walter Morosco, December 1, 1923.

  4 Showtime

  Sources on Hawks’s silent-era directing career include the author’s interviews with Allan Dwan, May McAvoy, L. W. O’Connell, D’Arcy O’Brien, Barbara Hawks McCampbell, David Hawks; the Fox Film Corp. story, legal, and executive records at the University of California, Los Angeles, and the University of Southern California; the Hawks papers at BYU; Variety; Motion Picture News; The American Film Institute Catalogue, 1921–1930; Hollywood Filmograph, a weekly show-business trade paper published in Hollywood throughout the 1920s; Lulu in Hollywood, by Louise Brooks; Louise Brooks, by Barry Paris; the Louise Brooks interview in People Will Talk, by John Kobal; the British trade papers the Bioscope and the Kinematograph Weekly; Norma Shearer’s unpublished autobiography; Norma Shearer: A Life, by Gavin Lambert; Norma: The Story of Norma Shearer, by Laurence J. Quirk; My Story, by Mary Astor. Henri Langlois’s comment is taken from his article “Hawks Homme Moderne,” Cahiers du Cinéma, January 1963, translated by Russell Campbell and reprinted as “The Modernity of Howard Hawks” in Focus on Howard Hawks, edited by Joseph McBride.

  5 The Sound Barrier

  Sources for this chapter include documents in the Fox Film Corp.; story files at UCLA and USC; Variety; the Bioscope; the Kinematograph Weekly; Tom Luddy; and the following lawsuits filed in District Court, Los Angeles: First National Prods. Corp. vs. H. Hawks and The Caddo Company, March 6, 1931, and Fox Film Corp. vs. Howard and Athole Hawks, May 3, 1932.

  6 A New Dawn

  Sources for this chapter include Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Fay Wray Rothenberg, and David Hawks; On the Other Hand: A Life Story, by Fay Wray; the Warner Bros. legal, story, and production files at USC; the interview with Richard Barthelmess conducted by Arthur B. Friedman of UCLA in 1956, on deposit at the Popular Arts Project collection at Columbia University; Inside Warner Bros. (1935–1951), edited by Rudy Behlmer; Variety; Starmaker: The Autobiography of Hal Wallis, by Wallis and Charles Higham; documents in the Howard Hughes Collection at
the Texas State Archives in Austin, notably a deposition of Hawks taken on September 28, 1977, in connection with the estate case of Howard Robard Hughes Jr. in Probate Court No. 2 of Harris County, Texas; the books on Howard Hughes by Charles Higham and by Peter Harry Brown and Pat H. Broeske. The picture of Kenneth Hawks’s death is drawn from the author’s interview with L. W. O’Connell; My Story, by Mary Astor, and several contemporary accounts, especially those in Variety, the New York Times, and the Los Angeles Times.

  7 The Criminal Code

  Sources for this chapter include the story, legal, and production files of Columbia Pictures at Sony Entertainment; Variety; and Philip Kemp’s interview with Constance Cummings, conducted on behalf of the author in London.

  8 Tough Guys: Hughes, Hecht, Hays and Scarface

  Sources for this chapter include interviews by the author with George Raft, John Lee Mahin, and L. W. O’Connell; the Howard Hughes Collection at the Texas State Archives in Austin; the lawsuit of First National Prods. Corp. vs. H. Hawks and The Caddo Company, filed in District Court, Los Angeles, March 6, 1931; the script drafts in the Hawks Collection at BYU; Ben Hecht’s papers at the Newberry Library in Chicago; the biographies of Hughes by Higham, by Brown and Broeske, and by Donald L. Bartlett and James B. Steele; Crime Movies: From Griffith to the Godfather and Beyond, by Carlos Clarens; Actor: The Life and Times of Paul Muni, by Jerome Lawrence; George Raft, by Lewis Yablonsky; Variety; Bashful Billionaire, by Albert B. Gerber, New York, Lyle Stuart, 1967; United Artists: The Company Built by the Stars, by Tino Balio, Madison, University of Wisconsin Press, 1976; the W. R. Burnett and John Lee Mahin interviews in Backstory: Interviews with Screenwriters of Hollywood’s Golden Age, edited by Pat McGilligan; Writers in Hollywood, by Ian Hamilton; the Ben Hecht entry in Talking Pictures, by Richard Corliss; “Scarface Returns After 45 Years,” by Todd McCarthy, Daily Variety, October 12, 1979; the 1964 Ben Hecht interview in the Popular Arts Project, Columbia University; Ben Hecht: The Man Behind the Legend, by William MacAdams. The information on the long censorship battle, publicity campaign, and eventual release of Scarface is largely drawn from the Lincoln Quarberg Collection at the Margaret Herrick Library of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences in Beverly Hills.

  9 Back to Warners: The Crowd Roars

  Sources for this chapter include the author’s interviews with Niven Busch, George Raft, and David Hawks; Actor: The Life and Times of Paul Muni, by Jerome Lawrence; George Raft, by Lewis Yablonsky; the Hawks deposition about his relationship with Howard Hughes in the Hughes Collection in Austin; the Warner Bros. production, story, and legal files at USC; Cagney: The Actor as Auteur, by Pat McGillian; “Niven Busch: A Doer of Things,” an interview by David Thomson in Backstory: Interviews with Screenwriters of Hollywood’s Golden Age, by Pat McGilligan.

  10 Tiger Shark

  Sources for this chapter include the author’s interviews with David Hawks, Barbara Hawks McCampbell, John Houseman, Wells Root, John Lee Mahin, and King Vidor; the Warner Bros. production, story, and legal files at USC; All My Yesterdays: An Autobiography, by Edward G. Robinson with Leonard Spigelgass; Run-Through, by John Houseman.

  11 Sidetracked at MGM: Faulkner, Thalberg and Today We Live

  Sources for this chapter include the author’s interviews with Sam Marx, John Lee Mahin, Wells Root, and Meta Carpenter Wilde; papers in the Hawks Collection at BYU; the lawsuit of Fox Film Corp. vs. Howard and Athole Hawks filed in District Court, Los Angeles, May 3, 1932; the biographies of William Faulkner by Joseph Blotner and Stephen B. Oates; Faulkner and Film, by Bruce F. Kawin; Faulkner’s MGM Screenplays, edited by Kawin; MGM files at Turner Entertainment; Variety.

  12 Viva Villa!

  Sources for this chapter include the author’s interviews with John Lee Mahin and Sam Marx; papers in the Hawks collection at BYU; Showman: The Life of David O. Selznick, by David Thomson; the Ben Hecht papers at the Newberry Library in Chicago; Ben Hecht: The Man Behind the Legend, by William MacAdams; the MGM files at Turner Entertainment; Merchant of Dreams: Louis B. Mayer, MGM and the Secret Hollywood, by Charles Higham; U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Josephus Daniels’s official report on the Lee Tracy incident on file at the National Archives, Washington, D.C.; accounts of the incident in Daily Variety, Los Angeles Daily News, Los Angeles Evening News, Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Herald, Los Angeles Post Record, Hollywood Citizen; Mexico Visto por el Cine Extranjero, vol. 1, by Emilio Garcia Riera, Ediciones ERA, Universidad de Guadalajara, 1987; El Universal, Mexico City, November 20, 23, 24, 1933; Excelsior, Mexico City, November 22, 23, 1933.

  13 Screwball: Twentieth Century

  Sources for this chapter include the author’s interview with Edward Bernds; the Columbia Pictures story, production, and legal files at Sony Entertainment; The House of Barrymore, by Margot Peters, New York, Alfred A. Knopf, 1990; Variety; the Ben Hecht papers at the Newberry Library; Ben Hecht: The Man Behind the Legend, by William MacAdams; the Ben Hecht interviews in the Popular Arts Project at Columbia University.

  14 Barbary Coast

  Sources for this chapter include the author’s interview with Meta Carpenter Wilde; the production, story, and legal files of Samuel Goldwyn; the interview with Joel McCrea in People Will Talk, by John Kobal; All My Yesterdays: An Autobiography, by Edward G. Robinson with Leonard Spigelgass; the Hawks Collection at BYU; Ben Hecht: The Man Behind the Legend, by William MacAdams; the Ben Hecht and Walter Brennan interviews in the Popular Arts Project at Columbia University.

  15 Flying High: Ceiling Zero

  Sources for this chapter include the Warner Bros. production, story, and legal files at USC; Cagney: The Actor as Auteur, by Pat McGilligan; I Shot an Elephant in My Pajamas: The Morrie Ryskind Story, by Morrie Ryskind and John H. Roberts, Lafayette, Louisiana, 1993, 1994; Variety.

  16 The Road to Glory

  Sources for this chapter include the author’s interviews with Meta Carpenter Wilde and Andre de Toth; the 20th Century–Fox files at UCLA; the Faulkner books by Blotner, Kawin, and Oates; Variety; A Loving Gentleman, by Meta Carpenter Wilde with Orin Borsten.

  17 Include Me Out: Come and Get It

  Sources for this chapter include the author’s interviews with Meta Carpenter Wilde, David Hawks, Samuel Goldwyn Jr., and Sam Marx; the production, story, and legal files of Samuel Goldwyn; William Wyler, by Axel Madsen; Goldwyn: A Biography, by A. Scott Berg; Will There Really Be a Morning?, by Frances Farmer; Frances Farmer: Shadowland, by William Arnold; the Walter Brennan interview in the Popular Arts Project at Columbia University; the Joel McCrea interview in People Will Talk by John Kobal; A Loving Gentleman, by Meta Carpenter Wilde with Orin Borsten; Variety; the lawsuit of Howard Hawks vs. Universal Pictures Corporation filed in District Court, Los Angeles, June 16, 1936.

  18 Big Spender: RKO, Gunga Din, and Bringing Up Baby

  Sources for this chapter include the author’s interviews with Meta Carpenter Wilde, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Barbara Hawks McCampbell, John Lee Mahin, King Vidor, Frank Capra, Christian Nyby, Vernon Harbin, and Pandro S. Berman; the production, story, and legal files of RKO Pictures; the Faulkner books by Blotner, Kawin, and Oates; Me, by Katharine Hepburn; Kate: The Life of Katharine Hepburn, by Charles Higham; the Cary Grant books by Beverley Bara Buehrer, Warren G. Harris, Charles Higham and Roy Moseley, Nancy Nelson, Jerry Vermilye, and Geoffrey Wasnell; Ben Hecht: The Man Behind the Legend, by William MacAdams; Norma Shearer: A Life, by Gavin Lamberg; Variety; the records of the Directors Guild of America; Frank Capra: The Catastrophe of Success, by Joseph McBride; the Joel McCrea interview in People Will Talk, by John Kobal.

  19 Only Angels

  Sources for this chapter include the author’s interviews with King Vidor, Frank Capra, David Hawks, Andre de Toth, Joseph Walker, Al Keller, and John Kobal; the Columbia Pictures production, story, and legal files at Sony Entertainment; the lawsuit of Ben Kaufman vs. Howard Hawks and Donald Miller filed in District Court, Los Angeles, April 6, 1938; the records of the Directors Guild of America; Var
iety; Slim: Memories of a Rich and Imperfect Life, by Slim Keith with Annette Tapert; the Hawks Collection at BYU; the Cary Grant books by Buehrer, Harris, Higham and Moseley, Nelson, Vermilye, and Wasnell; the Richard Barthelmess interview in the Popular Arts Project at Columbia University; the Chicago Reader.

  20 His Girl Friday

  Sources for this chapter include the author’s interviews with David Hawks, Barbara Hawks McCampbell, Joseph Walker, and Al Keller; the Columbia Pictures production, story, and legal files at Sony Entertainment; the interview with Ben Hecht in the Popular Arts Project at Columbia University; Ben Hecht: The Man Behind the Legend, by William MacAdams; the Cary Grant books by Buehrer, Harris, Higham, and Moseley, Nelson, Vermilye, and Wasnell; Life Is a Banquet, by Rosalind Russell and Chris Chase, New York, Random House, 1977; The Columbia Story, by Clive Hirschhorn, New York, Crown, 1989; the entry on Charles Lederer in Talking Pictures, by Richard Corliss; I Shot an Elephant in My Pajamas, by Morrie Ryskind; Variety; Slim: Memories of a Rich and Imperfect Life, by Slim Keith with Annette Tapert.

  21 Slim, Hemingway, and an Outlaw

  Sources for this chapter include the author’s interviews with Jane Russell, Meta Carpenter Wilde, David Hawks, and Barbara Hawks McCampbell; the Howard Hughes papers at Austin; the Hughes biographies by Donald L. Barlett and James B. Steele, Peter Harry Brown and Pat H. Broeske, and Charles Higham; the interview with Lucien Ballard in Behind the Camera: The Cinematographer’s Art, by Leonard Maltin, New York, Signet, 1971; Jane Russell: My Paths and Detours—An Autobiography, by Jane Russell; Slim: Memories of a Rich and Imperfect Life, by Slim Keith with Annette Tapert; the books on Ernest Hemingway by Carlos Baker, Kenneth S. Lynn, Norberto Fuentes, Jeffrey Meyers, and Frank M. Laurence; Variety; the divorce papers filed for Athole Hawks by Norma Shearer in Los Angeles, July 24, 1940.