“I think in sentencing them”: Pickford, Sunshine and Shadow, 163.
“The public has no idea”: Riverside Daily Press, August 14, 1925.
reporters were obliged to acknowledge: Ibid.
an ex-convict now wanted: Riverside Daily Press, November 19, 1923.
“Mary and I have decided”: Miami Herald, January 15, 1926.
even staged a rodeo for their conventioneers: Variety, June 10, 1925.
Doug, gripping his .45 revolver: Ibid., September 30, 1925.
Doug’s contribution to the kerfuffle: Seattle Daily Times, October 11, 1925.
There, on the bottom of his pool: Oregonian, June 7, 1925.
Kinemacolor was the first truly photographic color process: Fred Basten, Glorious Technicolor: The Movies’ Magic Rainbow (Easton Studio Press, 2005), xii.
“etch, print or hand block”: Ibid.
“a puzzling situation”: Ibid.
“to take the color out of color”: Motion Picture Classic, May 1926.
The Glorious Adventure, filmed in Prizma Color: Catalog of the 33rd Le Giornate del Cinema Muto, Pordenone, Italy, 2014.
“We were afraid that the public might at first”: R. J. B. Denby, interview, 1926, reprinted in Liberty Then and Now, Spring 1975.
Pickford replaced Dove in one of the final shots: Picture Play, February 1928.
an opportunity to dip into the deep pool: Photoplay, June 1926.
Jack Dempsey’s former sparring partner: Oregonian, November 15, 1925.
Multiple camera tests were taken: State Times Advocate (Baton Rouge, LA), November 16, 1926.
Fairbanks reviewed Dove’s color tests: American Cinematographer April 1992.
Dove was being touted: Seattle Daily Times, November 1, 1925.
Fairbanks himself cornered a traffic cop: Ibid., September 10, 1925.
“You don’t know—nobody can know”: Picture Play, June 1926.
One scholar argues that Fairbanks’s annoyance: Jeffrey Vance, Douglas Fairbanks (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2008), 198.
Hugo Ballin claimed: Motion Picture Classic, July 1926.
“There’s only one Fairbanks”: Letitia Fairbanks and Ralph Hancock, Doug Fairbanks: The Fourth Musketeer (New York: Henry Holt, 1953), 244.
“He was always striving”: Booton Herndon, Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks: The Most Popular Couple the World Has Ever Known (New York: Norton, 1977), 237.
“We had a place on the lot”: Ibid., 238.
he proceeded to dislocate a finger: Omaha World Herald, September 13, 1926.
Anders Randolf, who shaved his head: Ibid., October 11, 1925.
Fairbanks himself separated a rib: Morning Star (Wilmington, NC), October 14, 1925.
fencing master Fred Cavens: Plain Dealer, October 11, 1925.
“Pirates always were a bloody lot”: Oregonian, October 24, 1925.
filming took only nine weeks, five of which: State Times Advocate (Baton Rouge, LA), November 12, 1926.
Fairbanks purchased and had restored: Oregonian, October 8, 1925.
a reproduction Spanish galleon was built: Ibid., December 1, 1925.
Doug’s “particular brain child”: Richmond Times-Dispatch, December 6, 1925.
Mary came along for three weeks: Springfield Republican, December 13, 1925.
The ship snapped her hawsers: Richmond Times-Dispatch, November 15, 1925.
A miniature of the Morse: Picture Play, July 1926.
a stranded lumber schooner, the Muriel: Clipping from Motion Picture Director, 1925 (no month), Margaret Herrick Library, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Beverly Hills, CA.
He named the galley the Yo-Ho: Seattle Daily Times, December 20, 1925.
Two tugboats served as supply ships: Ibid., December 27, 1925.
Evenings and lunch breaks were spent: Times-Picayune, November 29, 1925.
They returned in time for the company: Oregonian, December 24, 1925.
“Right here at Christmas time”: Motion Picture Magazine, February 1926.
“I love my home”: Screenland, May 1926.
They leased their studio to Joseph Schenck: Motion Picture News, February 20, 1926.
Norma and Constance Talmadge moved into: Variety, February 17, 1926.
They would travel through Europe: Riverside Daily Press, November 27, 1925.
Schenck formed a business entity: Times-Picayune, February 28, 1926.
shortly after Christmas, she consented: Rockford Republic, December 30, 1925.
The princess briefly made headlines: Seattle Daily Times, January 18, 1926.
Mr. and Mrs. Fairbanks were excluded: Oregonian, October 21, 1925.
He would be seen playing tennis: Ibid., March 14, 1926.
dining at the Park Avenue apartment: Lexington Herald, March 31, 1926.
“He drew successful people to him”: Pickford, Sunshine and Shadow, 135.
Charlotte’s surgery did not take place: Variety, February 24, 1926.
Fairbanks stayed by her side: Omaha World Herald, March 1, 1926.
He and Mary departed for New York: Wid’s, March 3, 1926.
just in time to attend the premiere of The Black Pirate: Wid’s, March 8, 1926.
“The Black Pirate is everything one has come to expect”: Plain Dealer, March 14, 1926.
“Up to now, the Technicolor process”: Springfield Republican, March 21, 1926.
DOUG GETS AWAY WITH IT: Unsourced clipping, Douglas Fairbanks Papers, scrapbook 4, Margaret Herrick Library.
“He can have nothing of boyhood”: Motion Picture News, April 17, 1926.
“I never saw a movie that taxed the intelligence”: Plain Dealer, March 21, 1926.
she “never went anywhere”: Seattle Daily Times, March 19, 1926.
Charlotte, unwell from her cross-country train trip: Bellingham Herald, April 3, 1926.
“Sunlight in films makes one look so old”: Omaha World Herald, April 4, 1926.
both posed for the cameras: Springfield Republican, April 14, 1926.
They attended the premiere of Little Annie Rooney: Rockford Republic, April 29, 1926.
“We met Mussolini at every corner”: Oregonian, October 3, 1926.
“I would like to see the Prime Minister”: Prensa, April 30, 1926.
They met Mussolini: Tampa Tribune, May 11, 1926.
Mary was suitably cowed: Springfield Republican, May 16, 1926; Oregonian, October 3, 1926.
“He’s a great man”: Repository (Canton, OH), October 17, 1926.
“When Douglas Fairbanks met Premier Mussolini”: Aberdeen Daily News, May 24, 1926.
The orchestra played “The Star-Spangled Banner”: Seattle Daily Times, May 23, 1926.
“Tonight I am not Douglas Fairbanks”: Plain Dealer, June 13, 1926.
There was general objection, it seemed: Winston-Salem Journal, June 12, 1926.
“surely had no intention”: Omaha World Herald, April 25, 1926.
the main character wore a black shirt: Motion Picture Magazine, July 1926.
“nothing short of a national hero”: Wid’s, July 20, 1926.
Motorcyclists raced across Moscow: Seattle Daily Times, July 18, 1926.
“At last accounts, the movies taken”: Macon Telegraph, April 4, 1926.
“He typifies not only physical prowess”: Wid’s, January 10, 1926.
“The finest pictures I have seen”: Wid’s, August 26, 1926.
“I used to think I knew something”: Morning Star (Wilmington, NC), September 4, 1926.
“If you are taken ill in a foreign country”: Motion Picture Magazine, June 1927.
“In Russia, the moving picture”: Trenton Evening Times, August 26, 1926.
“Does Mr. Fairbanks hold the opinion”: Richmond Times-Dispatch, August 30, 1926.
“One day Rudolph Valentino”: Pickford, Sunshine and Shadow, 185.
They canceled their trip to the Far East: Educational Screen, November 1926.
Negotiations with
Cecil B. DeMille stalled: Omaha World Herald, January 14, 1925.
he even conferred with Erich von Stroheim: Variety, May 27, 1925.
the affiliation with Samuel Goldwyn: Oregonian, May 6, 1925.
“It is almost certain to go through”: Wid’s, November 15, 1925.
UA historian Tino Balio argues: Tino Balio, United Artists: The Company Built by the Stars (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1976), 62.
called Charlie a “kicker”: Ibid.
“He was always welcome to come”: Pickford, Sunshine and Shadow, 138.
“Charlie was always so proud”: David Robinson, Chaplin: His Life and Art (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1985), 168.
“But Charlie, you know Schenck”: Pickford, Sunshine and Shadow, 143.
14. Death . . .
John suffered a second stroke: Wid’s, November 28, 1926.
“behind which life will drowse”: Miami Herald, October 18, 1925.
they had shooed a hot dog vendor away: Photoplay, June 1927.
“I like the colorful life”: Miami Herald, October 18, 1925.
“The whole place will have a Spanish tang”: Evening Tribune (Hornell, NY), January 20, 1927.
The nine-thousand-acre Rancho Santa Fe: Ibid., October 15, 1927.
He bought 847 acres: Ibid., January 20, 1927.
then, for $125,000, another 2,700: San Diego Union, May 20, 1927.
he owned Black Mountain: Ibid., March 23, 1927.
A pump house was constructed at the base: Evening Tribune (Hornell, NY), April 13, 1927.
Fifteen thousand Valencia orange seedlings: Ibid., July 16, 1927, and August 13, 1927.
the largest installation of its kind: Ibid., September 10, 1927.
improvements on the property were reported: Ibid., September 24, 1927.
“It has been planned to have the house”: San Diego Union, January 20, 1927.
“He didn’t have to draw on his regular account”: Ibid., December 31, 1927.
In 1927 his cost for improvements: Schedule F, 1927–1930, income tax schedules, Fairbanks Papers, Margaret Herrick Library, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Beverly Hills, CA.
A front facade for a ranch house: Architectural Digest, September 1982.
The organization was not his brainchild: Robert Osborne, 65 Years of Oscar (New York: Abbeville Press, 1989), 8.
$100 subscriptions: Wid’s, May 13, 1927.
“dishonorable or unethical conduct”: Bellingham Herald, May 12, 1927.
the industry had “been making pictures”: Ibid., July 19, 1927.
“The Academy . . . has been organized”: Motion Picture News, July 29, 1927.
“button-hole makers”: Riverside Daily Press, July 29, 1927.
a standard contract for freelancing workers: Wid’s, October 26, 1927.
Actors wished to be paid: Exhibitors Herald and Moving Picture World, February 25, 1928.
He even gave the inaugural lecture: Educational Screen, March 1928.
“Courses in acting for the screen”: St. Albans Daily Messenger, August 23, 1927.
night courses were set up at USC: Riverside Daily Press, October 11, 1927.
“Those of us who get our names in electric lights”: Transactions of the Society of Motion Picture Engineers 12, no. 33 (1928).
a film about the progress of civilization: Wid’s, November 24, 1926.
It would be called The Brotherhood of Man: Ibid., December 29, 1926.
“First mention to me of Martian idea”: Lotta Woods, diary for 1927, private collection.
“Disappointed to find there was no story”: Ibid.
a modern-day version of A Houseboat on the Styx: Winston-Salem Journal, January 15, 1927.
explore the history of the Children’s Crusade: Boston Herald, January 19, 1927.
“a devil-may-care Mohammedan”: Picture Play, March 1927.
he would film a version of Captain Cavalier: Oregonian, March 17, 1927.
Reinhardt came to California at Fairbanks’s invitation: Unsourced clipping, Mary Pickford Papers, folder 1760, Margaret Herrick Library.
“stronger character and bolder relief”: Motion Picture News, May 6, 1927.
Fairbanks invited director Edwin Carewe: Seattle Daily Times, July 10, 1927.
claiming Southern was “lunched” to fame: Springfield Republican, May 15, 1927.
originally intended for Dolores del Rio: Oregonian, March 27, 1927.
he now worked to master the bola: Seattle Daily Times, May 15, 1927.
His job was to run across the lot: Daily Register-Gazette (Rockford, IL), March 8, 1928.
six hundred longhorns were shipped: Oregonian, September 4, 1927.
Exhibitor complaints poured in: Exhibitors Herald and Moving Picture World, September 8, 1928.
“It is not always easy to distinguish”: Plain Dealer, May 22, 1927.
Fairbanks took his dancing lessons: Seattle Daily Times, March 28, 1927.
“symbolize the wild life”: Plain Dealer, May 22, 1927.
“Already the famous agile star”: Jan and Cora Gordon, Star-Dust in Hollywood (London: George G. Harrap, 1930), 154.
He was slashed on the leg: Oregonian, June 4, 1927.
an ailment variably described as peritonitis: Wid’s, August 11, 1927.
or malarial fever: Oregonian, August 22, 1927.
“If Mary did have or was inclined to like Buddy”: Bruce Humberstone, oral history files, T2B/P61, Directors Guild of America, Los Angeles, CA.
“I have never known a man to read”: Mary Pickford, Sunshine and Shadow (New York: Doubleday, 1955), 185.
All sources are adamant: Booton Herndon, Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks: The Most Popular Couple the World Has Ever Known (New York: Norton, 1977), 283.
“My own darling little baby”: Fairbanks correspondence, private collection.
“If there was an affair going on”: Bruce Humberstone, oral history files.
“that he had made no demands”: Pickford note to self, December 24, 1934, private collection.
“He was not thrilled”: Lotta Woods, diary for 1927.
the film had a “favorable prognosis”: Ibid.
“A queer combination of pictorial heights”: Wid’s, November 30, 1927.
“It is a tale partly barbaric”: Ibid.
“Maybe Douglas Fairbanks’ ardent fans”: Picture Play, February 1928.
the “paradigmatic American man”: Scott Eyman, personal correspondence with author.
“Talkies were not an evolution”: Scott Eyman, The Speed of Sound: Hollywood and the Talkie Revolution, 1926–1930 (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999), 22.
“In the course of a decade or so”: “Doug Shoots Tomorrow’s Perfect Film,” Liberty Magazine, 1926, reprinted in Liberty Then and Now, n.d., Douglas Fairbanks Papers, Margaret Herrick Library.
“There I remained for eighteen weeks”: Pickford, Sunshine and Shadow, 180.
“The report is idle street talk”: San Diego Union, April 20, 1928.
hustled her off to Europe: Idaho Statesman, April 19, 1928.
In such a hurry was he that he left town: Seattle Daily Times, April 19, 1928.
They visited Geneva: Evening Tribune (Hornell, NY), May 11, 1928.
travel to visit friends in Surrey: Boston Herald, May 29, 1928.
Mary, Winchell reported, “was brooding”: Evansville Courier and Press, November 8, 1928.
“Dialog may and may not be the ultimate result”: Motion Picture Magazine, May 1927.
The court let him off: Evening Tribune (Hornell, NY), April 25, 1928.
“When I removed my hat”: Pickford, Sunshine and Shadow, 176.
“was and is witheringly bad”: Eyman, Speed of Sound, 275.
“Why not D’Artagnan”: Maurice Leloir, Cinq mois a Hollywood avec Douglas Fairbanks (Paris: J. Peyronnet, 1929), 11.
“It wasn’t unusual for Doug”: Bruce Humberstone, oral history files.
Lady de Winter dislocated Const
ance’s pretty jaw: Sunday Repository (Canton, OH), January 6, 1929.
a nationwide radio broadcast in late March: Oregonian, March 30, 1928.
They gathered in front of a six-foot microphone: Ibid., March 28, 1928.
“the transmission of the program”: Ibid., March 30, 1928.
Preview prints also had Fairbanks: Plain Dealer, April 10, 1929.
“And thus it was in France of old”: Application for reexamination, The Iron Mask censorship records, February 29, 1929, Motion Picture Division, New York State Education Department.
“Finally, we got a complete take”: Eyman, Speed of Sound, 272.
“And gosh, we stopped it quick”: Allan Dwan, interview with Kevin Brownlow, slate 324, take 1, transcript p. 5, recorded for Hollywood (documentary TV series), 1980, private collection of Kevin Brownlow.
“While we were about halfway through”: Laurence Irving, interview with Kevin Brownlow, slate 672, take 1, recorded for Hollywood.
While there were tests of sound recordings: San Diego Union, May 19, 1929.
15. . . . and Taxes
Handwritten schedules of his deductions: Tax records, Douglas Fairbanks Papers, Margaret Herrick Library, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Beverly Hills, CA.
“It is the desire and intention of the parties”: Notarized document, April 20, 1922, Mary Pickford Papers, Margaret Herrick Library.
It was not as if he were a tax scofflaw: Motion Picture Magazine, February 1925.
At least that nice Mr. Coolidge: Photoplay, January 1929.
fourteen-seat trimotored Ford monoplane: Daily Illinois State Journal, March 24, 1929.
for $175 per hour: Screenland, July 1929.
green and airsick: Oregonian, March 25, 1929.
They gave up after Phoenix: Riverside Daily Press, March 26, 1929.
smashed all box office records: Motion Picture News, March 9, 1929.
“Doug has always managed to feed it”: Ibid., March 2, 1929.
“It was a better picture [than Robin Hood]”: Allan Dwan, oral history files, Directors Guild of America, Los Angeles, CA.
“He spoke distinctly”: Evansville Courier and Press, February 10, 1929.
“We have not heard many Shakespearian actors”: Movie Makers, May 1929.
“registered like warm dish water”: Times-Picayune, June 30, 1929.
DOUG MUST MAKE ACTIONS SPEAK: Daily Illinois State Journal, March 30, 1929.
The First King of Hollywood Page 63