The Man Who Made the Movies

by Vanda Krefft

  142 glowing light . . . into the devil: “Theda Bara Is Proof Devil is Woman, He Says,” CPD, Mar. 11, 1916, 6.

  142 The Devil’s Daughter was based on: George D. Proctor, review of The Devil’s Daughter, MPN, June 26, 1915, 79.

  142 Wolf-Ferrari’s opera The Jewels of the Madonna: Herbert Brenon deposition, at 2, FFC-HBFC; Jewels of the Madonna review, NYT, Oct. 15, 1913, 11.

  142 performed by New York’s Century Opera Company: Jewels of the Madonna review, 11.

  143 $30,000 Spanish city . . . Fort Lee: Golden, Vamp, 70.

  143 cast and crew of five thousand: “Fox Film Version of Merimee’s Carmen Completed,” MPN, Oct. 16, 1915, 51.

  143 only eighteen days: “The Old and the New,” NYT, Sept. 25, 1927, X7.

  143 “Hold it!” . . . “for love or for money?”: “Chapter VIII,” Drafts and Typescripts 2 Folder, Miriam Cooper Walsh Papers, LOC, Manuscripts Division.

  143 falling eighty-three feet: “Fox Film Carmen Full of Novelty,” The State (Columbia, SC), Nov. 10, 1915, 8.

  143 Toreador and stuntman Art Jarvis . . . Ausable: Ibid.

  143 two complete somersaults . . . never leaving the horse’s back: Ibid.

  143 still photo shows: “Remarkable Photo of Horse and Rider Falling Over Precipice,” Times-Picayune (New Orleans, LA), Oct. 31, 1915, 56.

  143 “no fake about it”: Oscar Cooper, review of Carmen, MPN, Nov. 13, 1915, 84.

  143 broken leg . . . horse swam ashore: “Fox Film Carmen Full of Novelty,” 8.

  143 fined for animal cruelty: “Fined for Movie Cruelty,” NYT, Nov. 9, 1915, 7.

  144 Academy of Music . . . and the Riverside: “Heavy Picture Advertising,” Variety, Nov. 5, 1915, 26.

  144 sixty-piece orchestra . . . police detail: Walsh, Each Man in His Time, 132.

  144 22,300 tickets . . . compared to 20,067: “News of Plays and Players,” NYTR, Nov. 3, 1915, 9.

  144 In Terre Haute . . . plastering posters: “Two Carmens Create Keen Rivalry in Terre Haute,” MPN, Nov. 20, 1915, 49–50.

  144 two men dressed as bullfighters: Charles M. Farrar to National Board of Censors, Nov. 11, 1915. Carmen, Box 103, NBR.

  144 “supremely and resistlessly” . . . “an epoch”: Fox Film ad, Carmen, Variety, Oct. 29, 1915, 26.

  144 “Imitation [is] preposterous”: Ibid., 6–7.

  144 “mechanically seductive”: “New York Papers Praise Carmen,” MPW, Nov. 6, 1915, 1116.

  144 “One thing is sure . . . masterpiece”: Jolo, review of Carmen, Variety, Nov. 5, 1915, 22.

  144 breaking box-office records: “Theda Bara in Sapho Proves Drawing Card,” New York Morning Telegraph, May 14, 1916.

  144 “large, bosomy”: Frances Marion, Off with Their Heads! A Serio-Comic Tale of Hollywood (New York: Macmillan, 1972), 43.

  145 “splendid entertainment if”: “Theda Bara Seen as Juliet of 1916,” NYTR, Oct. 23, 1916, 7.

  145 twenty-nine-year-old: Hilliard was born on Oct. 24, 1886.

  145 “remarkable resemblance” . . . Pinkham: “Theda Bara Seen as Juliet of 1916,” 7.

  145 “William Shakespeare Fox”: “Shakespeare Movie Way,” NYT, Oct. 23, 1916, 10.

  145 when Romeo kisses her: Romeo and Juliet review, Wid’s Daily, Oct. 26, 1916, 1053.

  145 take her to Mantua: “Shakespeare Movie Way,” 10.

  145 “still deeper gloom”: Ibid.

  145 “a pity William Shakespeare”: Ibid.

  145 “does not die gently and pleasantly”: “Theda Bara Seen as Juliet of 1916,” 7.

  145 had made fifty copies . . . audience of about eight hundred thousand: “Counting Up the People,” Times-Picayune (New Orleans, LA), Jan. 9, 1916, 26.

  145 “You are a menace”: Theda Bara, “What Is It Like to be a Vampire?” Charlotte Observer (Charlotte, NC), Apr. 9, 1916, 29.

  145 jabbed a hole: Ibid.

  146 conspicuously bad teeth: Unpublished Bara autobiography, 110.

  146 “seem tall and slender”: Yezierska, Red Ribbon, 84.

  146 “really a very nice man”: Miriam Cooper, Dark Lady of the Silents: My Life in Early Hollywood with Bonnie Herndon (New York: Bobbs-Merrill, 1973), 117.

  146 “not like those fresh guys”: Ibid., 144.

  146 “A man of simple tastes”: David A. Brown to the Justice of the District Court of the United States, Apr. 9, 1941, DABP.

  146 “gracious, cultured woman”: Marion, Off with Their Heads!, 36.

  147 Thus Spake . . . Joseph Conrad: “Mme. Petrova Interviews,” Shadowland, Mar.–Apr. 1920, 44.

  147 listen to music: Franklin “Purgatory’s Ivory Angel,” 72.

  147 lived with her parents: Agnes Smith, “The Confessions of Theda Bara,” Photoplay, June 1920, 57.

  147 “timid, shy, precise”: Alma Whitaker, “New Theda Bara is Born of Exclusive Society Setting,” LAT, July 28, 1918, II-2.

  147 “fine eyes”: Unpublished Bara autobiography, 110.

  147 “like an electric current”: Ibid.

  147 “a personality that is felt”: Ibid.

  147 “natural, assertive”: Ibid., 109.

  147 “After hearing Mr. Fox say”: Ibid.

  147 “keen as a knife”: Ibid.

  147 “If one could open,” . . . “a series of ledgers”: Ibid., 110.

  147 understanding of human nature: Ibid., 109.

  147 “Well, any girl”: Ibid.

  147 she’d appeared in an English comedy: Ibid., 85.

  148 “The ‘comedy’ certainly”: Ibid.

  148 “the tomb could not”: Ibid.

  148 “a voice like a whiskey tenor”: Ibid.

  148 “He wanted to close . . . patience gave out”: Ibid.

  148 “Mr. Fox remembered . . . a great laugh”: Ibid.

  148 cast Theda in “good girl” roles: Ibid., 112.

  148 But Theda insisted: Ibid.

  148 to film in Quebec: Ibid.

  148 “inferior” she protested: Ibid., 140a.

  148 “However, Mr. Fox urged . . . $30,000 to $40,000”: Ibid.

  149 whether Theda was Fox’s wife: Ibid., 105.

  149 waiting until about three months after: Ibid., 109.

  149 “an actual film drawn over”: Ibid., 109–10.

  149 “as enigmatic as the proverbial”: Ibid., 109.

  149 “I am working for a living”: Golden, Vamp, 67.

  150 gray-blue eyes: “Farnum Very Healthy,” Atlanta Constitution, June 18, 1922, C4.

  150 “Big Bill”: Harriette Underhill, “A Movie Idol In the Role of A Stage Idol,” NYTR, Feb. 12, 1922, C4.

  150 standard for screen violence: “Genius Under Stress,” NYT, Nov. 16, 1941, X5.

  150 two-year contract: Grace Kingsley, “At the Stage Door,” LAT, Apr. 2, 1915, III-16.

  150 $1,000 per week . . . forty weeks of work: Transcript, 86.

  151 governor in Iceland: “The Bondman,” Motography, July 8, 1916, 99.

  151 wants to kill: Ibid.

  151 rescuing his hated half brother: “At the Critcher Theater Tonight,” Pueblo Chieftain (Pueblo, CO), Jan. 22, 1917, 3.

  151 amid dense fumes . . . keeled over: “Fox Draws 4 More Directors of Note to His Standard,” MPN, June 12, 1915, 37.

  151 Battle of Hearts: Hedda Hopper, From under my Hat (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1952), 83.

  151 nearly drowned . . . dry clothes: Gordon Trent, “Farnum Says Goodby to ‘Rough Diamond’ Roles,” New York Morning Telegraph, July 5, 1916.

  151 “A fine, decent gentleman”: Transcript, 87.

  151 nearly 80 percent of the world’s movies: “Los Angeles May Recede from Censorship Stand,” MPN, Feb. 19, 1916, 977.

  151 twenty production companies . . . twelve thousand people: “Film-making Means Millions to Los Angeles,” LAT, Jan. 1, 1916, III-66.

  151 Three studios operated exclusively: Ibid.

  152 its own mayor, police . . . departments: “The Strangest City in the World,” Scientific American, Apr. 17, 1915, 365.

&nbs
p; 152 Selig Polyscope studio: Selig, one of the MPPC members, was in the process of going broke and had retrenched its moviemaking operations onto the adjoining property, occupied by the Selig Zoo.

  152 in the Edendale area: “William Fox ‘De Luxe,’ Department Ready in 1916,” MPN, Jan. 8, 1916, 69.

  152 in December 1915 he sent: “How Fox Has Expanded, in the West,” MPW, Jan. 5, 1918, 59.

  152 a feature a week: “Fox Still Expanding,” Variety, Mar. 24, 1916, 22.

  152 If, after reading . . . dropped the idea: Transcript, 59.

  152 “natural and human” rather than “mere puppets”: Ibid., 58.

  152 “impressively dominant theme”: “William Fox Gives Advice to Writers” Times-Picayune (New Orleans, LA), Sept. 16, 1917, 61.

  152 In July 1937 . . . Little Ferry, New Jersey: “Film Storehouse Swept by Flames,” New York Sun, July 9, 1937.

  153 Three violent . . . forty-five minutes: The Marble Heart review, Wid’s Daily, Mar. 16, 1916, 437.

  153 cholera epidemic . . . vault: Lynde Denig, review of The Unfaithful Wife, MPW, Dec. 18, 1915, 2195.

  153 “as enthusiastic as a schoolboy”: “At the Local Playhouses,” AS, Nov. 22, 1915.

  153 gin-soaked . . . blasting them to bits: “Island of Desire Empire’s Feature,” Montgomery Advertiser (Montgomery, AL), Dec. 24, 1916, 14.

  154 eyes gouged out with hot irons: Oscar Cooper, review of The Ruling Passion, MPN, Feb. 12, 1916, 866.

  154 skeleton in a casket: Fred K. McBrook to National Board of Censorship, Jan. 15, 1916, NBR.

  154 dead and dying bodies: Lynde Denig, review of A Soldier’s Oath, MPW, Jan. 1, 1916, 91.

  154 choking him with a rope: Harvey F. Thew, review of The End of the Trail, MPN, Aug. 19, 1916, 1099.

  154 118 double exposures . . . leopard: George D. Proctor, Review of Wormwood, MPN, June 12, 1915, 67.

  154 “I crawl through the city . . . sheer alarm”: Fox Film ad, Wormwood, MPN, May 1, 1915, 6–27.

  154 “Fox chamber of horrors”: “Better Stories Needed for Fox Screen Pictures,” CPD, Mar. 24, 1916, 6.

  147 “years of misery”: Fox Film ad, The Battle of Life, MPN, Dec. 16, 1916, 3746.

  147 persecuted by the police: “Gladys Coburn Makes Film Debut,” MPW, Dec. 16, 1916, 1661.

  155 father jumps out . . . jail again: The Victim review, Variety, Dec. 29, 1916, 21.

  155 burned in a fire . . . confess: Ibid.

  155 alcoholic father . . . as a model: “Empire to Have Theda Bara Today,” Montgomery Advertiser (Montgomery, AL), May 7, 1916, 30.

  155 steals her saintly sister’s boyfriends: “Week’s Amusements at the Theatres,” San Jose Mercury News, Dec. 17, 1916, 17.

  156 she drowns herself: Jolo, review of Her Mother’s Secret, Variety, Dec. 17, 1915, 18; “Her Mother’s Secret?, Fox, Stars Ralph Kellard in Strong Drama,” MPN, Dec. 11, 1915, 72.

  156 “heritage of shame”: Fox Film ad, Sins of Her Parent, MPN, Nov. 11, 1916, 2928.

  157 fifteenth-century two-handed sword: William Ressman Andrews, review of Should a Mother Tell?, MPN, July 10, 1915, 68.

  157 husky son of Italy: Edward Weitzel, review of Conscience, MPW, Oct. 13, 1917, 251.

  157 1915 . . . $3.21 million: William Fox testimony, SEPH, Part 8, at 3767.

  157 $272,401 posted the previous year: Ibid.

  157 profits totaled $523,000: Ibid.

  157 $4.24 million, with profits of $365,000: Ibid.

  157 a concern whose films: Wid Gunning, “The Sex-Film Problem,” Wid’s Daily, Feb. 17, 1916, 369.

  157 fastest arrival: Ibid.

  157 “portraying of indecency or filth”: John M. Casey to National Board of Censorship, Jan. 31, 1916, NBR.

  158 “getting a little nauseated”: Sidney Strong to W. D. McGuire Jr., Feb. 1, 1916, NBR.

  158 “work an evil influence”: “Clubwomen in Earnest—Want Good Pictures,” Columbus Daily Enquirer, June 16, 1916, 8.

  158 “burned into my consciousness”: Charles M. Farrar to W. A. Barrett, Dec. 7, 1915, NBR.

  158 “Revolting,” “degenerate drivel”: “Better Stories Needed for Fox Screen Pictures,” 6.

  158 “American Babylonia”: “Daughter of Gods Judges Cities as the Babylons of Today,” Tucson Daily Citizen, May 19, 1917, 5.

  158 “William Fox has some of the best”: “Better Stories Needed for Fox Screen Pictures,” 6.

  158 “The public, especially”: Ibid., 6.

  158 “avoid lurid dramas”: “Bids $1,000 Each for 100 Scenarios,” New York Morning Telegraph, June 18, 1916.

  159 “disgusting vulgarity” . . . banned the movie: “Theater Man Is Irate,” MO, Jan. 24, 1916, 15.

  159 patrol wagon’s clanging gong: “The Kreutzer Sonata (sic) at the Orpheum Auditorium,” AS, Apr. 12, 1915, 8.

  159 would not renew: “Picture Theaters to Stop Fox Productions,” Macon Daily Telegram, Feb. 22, 1916, 9.

  159 “sensuous love scenes”: “A Fool There Was,” Rejections and Cutouts 1914–1917 folder, Box 163, NBR.

  159 stop filming risqué scenes: W. D. McGuire Jr. to Mr. Wallace, Fox Film, Feb. 10, 1916, “20th Century Fox, 1915–1926” folder, Box 12, NBR.

  160 could not be banned as salacious: W. D. McGuire Jr. to Q. W. Wales, Apr. 10, 1916, “Sin” file, Box 106, NBR.

  152 “Mr. Fox desires”: Lloyd Willis to W. D. McGuire, Jr., Sept. 27, 1916, “20th Century Fox, 1915–1926” folder, Box 12. NBR.

  160 wrote letters . . . brokered meetings: W. D. McGuire, Jr., to Samuel F. Kingston, May 22, 1917, “20th Century Fox, 1915–1926” folder, Box 12. NBR.

  160 “There is no company” . . . “educational work”: W. D. McGuire Jr. to Winfield R. Sheehan, Oct. 31, 1916, “20th Century Fox, 1915–1926” folder, Box 12. NBR.

  160 from November 1916 until September 1919: W. D. McGuire Jr. to Samuel F. Kingston, Nov. 27, 1916; Winfield R. Sheehan to W. D. McGuire Jr., Sept. 17, 1919, NBR.

  160 “sordid curiosity”: “Fox Agrees with Bush,” MPW, Nov. 21. 1914, 1097.

  160 disapproved of “salacious”: Ibid.

  160 second floor: Burns Mantle, “They Invite You to Dance Upon the Stage in this New York Theater,” CDT, Feb. 22, 1914, G2.

  160 served no liquor: “Model Public Dance Hall,” Sunday Oregonian (Portland, OR), Dec. 7, 1913, 7.

  160 “I don’t want that kind of money”: “Fox Agrees with Bush,” 1097.

  161 “clean policy”: Ibid.

  161 chaperones and floor managers: Mantle, “They Invite You to Dance Upon the Stage in this New York Theater,” G2.

  161 plainclothes . . . as large as fifteen hundred: “Model Public Dance Hall,” 7.

  161 “Please be careful” . . . remove it: Ibid.

  161 “[O]ur pictures deal with Life”: Fox Film ad, “The New William Fox Policy,” 22.

  161 “pre-eminently moral”: “Shadow Stage Vampire Queen at the Ansonia,” AS, Oct. 18, 1915, 9.

  161 “wages of sin”: Lynde Denig, review of The Unfaithful Wife, MPW, Dec. 18, 1915, 2195.

  161 “he forgets, like the old Greek voyagers”: “Shadow Stage Vampire Queen at the Ansonia,” 9.

  161 “any old catch-penny feature”: Fox Film ad, “The New William Fox Policy,” 22.

  161 “Doomsday bell sounding”: Ibid.

  162 “a modern problem”: “The Nigger,” Albuquerque Journal, May 20, 1915, 8.

  162 “millionaire’s playhouse” on Central Park: “Object to Play,” Quincy Daily Herald (Quincy, IL), July 31, 1915. (Papers of the NAACP, Microfilm, Part 11, Series A, Reel 35.)

  162 Du Bois found the play unobjectionable: Mary Childs Nerney to Mrs. Val Do Turner, Apr. 10, 1915. (Papers of the NAACP, Microfilm, Part 11, Series A, Reel 35.)

  162 reported budget of $100,000: “The Nigger,” Albuquerque Journal, May 20, 1915, 8.

  162 “my gran’mothah was a niggra?”: Fox Film ad, The Nigger, MPN, Feb. 13, 1915, 10–11.

  163 “crushed, but not broken . . . manfully”: Fox Film
ad, “Fox Features—Better Than The Best,” 5.

  163 “taint,” “self sacrifice,” “uplifting of the negro”: Ibid.

  163 “fiendish, mouth-frothing” “Race Question in Features,” Variety, Mar. 26, 1915, 21.

  163 “the usual crime”: “Some Ministers Object to The Nigger Film Play,” AS, Apr. 20, 1915, 9.

  163 chased by bloodhounds: Mary Childs Nerney to Mrs. Val Do Turner, Apr. 10, 1915. (Papers of the NAACP, Microfilm, Part 11, Series A, Reel 35).

  163 whether the subsequent lynching: Ibid.; “William Farnum in The Nigger at the Ansonia,” AS, Apr. 19, 1915, 8.

  163 mobs of drunken . . . race riots: “Some Ministers Object to The Nigger Film Play,” 9.

  163 The New Governor when it premiered: “The Hippodrome Bill,” NYTR, Mar. 28, 1915, B4.

  163 Hippodrome theater on March 29, 1915: “New Governor Shown,” NYTR, Mar. 30, 1915, 9.

  163 some copies were titled The Nigger: Miller’s ad, LAT, Apr. 10, 1915, I-6; “The Nigger,” Albuquerque Journal, May 20, 1915, 8.

  163 In Augusta . . . different movie: “Flim-Flammed by Film Company,” NYTR, Mar. 17, 1915, 1.

  163 idea soon withered: “Film Which Caused Protest in Augusta To Be Shown Here,” Atlanta Constitution, Mar. 18, 1915, 12.

  163 prevent exhibition of The Nigger: “Flim-Flammed by Film Company,” 1.

  163 near-riot occurred: Jacob J. Kalter, “Film, The Nigger, Causes Near Riot,” Moving Picture World, May 29, 1915, 1481.

  163 arrested the two protesters: Ibid.

  163 likely to incite racial prejudice: John P. Flannagan, “Picture Offends Negroes,” MPW, Apr. 17, 1915, 428.

  163 Anaconda, Montana: “Some Ministers Object to The Nigger Film Play,” 9.

  163 Newport, Rhode Island: “Bars The Nigger,” New Bedford Evening Standard, June 5, 1915. (Papers of the NAACP, Microfilm, Part 11, Series A, Reel 35.)

  163 to Gary, Indiana: “Mr. Griffith Killed in Gary,” Chicago Defender, undated. (Papers of the NAACP, Microfilm, Part 11, Series A, Reel 35.)

  163 New Bedford, Massachusetts: “Commend Action,” New Bedford Evening Standard, June 7, 1915. (Papers of the NAACP, Microfilm, Part 11, Series A, Reel 35.)

  164 state of Ohio . . . revoked the movie’s permit: “Governor of Ohio Protects Black Citizens,” Chicago Defender, Apr. 17, 1915, 1.

  164 Pittsburgh also banned: “Protest in Smoky City,” MPW, July 10, 1915, 359.