The Man Who Made the Movies
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416 owned the story rights: Ibid.
416 “absolutely novel motion picture”: Ibid.
416 more than he’d ever wanted to make: Ibid.
416 didn’t tell Murnau directly: Ibid.
416 Berlin-based representative for Central Europe: Julius Aussenberg to Carl Mayer, translation, Feb. 6, 1926, Sunrise files, FLC.
416 Frozen Justice would not . . . to Alaska: F. W. Murnau to W. R. Sheehan, Nov. 16, 1925, 2, JFP.
416 “of course” . . . sufficient: Ibid.
416 “Please do not hesitate”: Ibid.
416 “large cable bill” . . . Ford instead: W. R. Sheehan to John Ford, Dec. 11, 1925, JFP.
416 “Mr. F. W. Murnau of Berlin”: Ibid.
416 Holy Land . . . American censors: Julius Aussenberg to Winfield Sheehan, undated. “Sunrise Story and Action Correspondence,” FLC.
417 “crass commercialism”: Robert Garland, “By the Way,” Baltimore American, Nov. 25, 1921, 8.
417 adaptation of the novel Down to Earth: “Fox Has Superb Array of Dramatic and Literary Material For Screen Production During 1926,” Fox Folks, Feb. 1926, 14. Seaver Center, Natural History Museum, Los Angeles.
417 by Viennese writer Julius Perutz: “Sheehan Lines Up Fox Productions,” MPN, Nov. 14, 1925, 2245.
417 “Theme entirely unsuitable” . . . “continue search”: Winfield Sheehan to Julius Aussenberg, Jan. 22, 1926, “Sunrise Story and Action Correspondence,” FLC.
417 authorizing Aussenberg to pay: Winfield Sheehan to Julius Aussenberg, Jan. 29, 1926, “Sunrise Story and Action Correspondence,” FLC.
417 “strictly modern story” . . . “comedy”: Ibid.
417 bound only to “consider”: Julius Aussenberg to Carl Mayer, translation, Feb. 6, 1926, 2. “Sunrise,” FLC.
417 “Europe’s greatest director”: “F. W. Murnau,” Fox Film ad, MPN, May 8, 1926.
417 July 1, 1926, on the SS Columbus: “F. W. Murnau Is a Guest,” NYT, July 3, 1926, 5; “Leaders Welcome Murnau to America,” MPN, July 17, 1926, 209.
418 press luncheon: “Leaders Welcome Murnau to America,” MPN, 209.
418 Ritz-Carlton Hotel: Ibid.
418 sunken garden: Ibid.
418 Royal S. Copeland . . . navy admiral: “Dinner for Murnau,” FD, July 8, 1926, 7.
418 “Dr. Murnau, I charge you”: “Leaders Welcome Murnau to America,” 209.
418 final speaker: Ibid.
418 “his voice low”: Ibid., 210.
418 speed, energy, and initiative: Kann, “1902–1926,” FD, July 9, 1926, 1.
418 “I love my Fatherland” . . . “heaped upon me”: “Leaders Welcome Murnau to America,” 209.
418 July 8, 1926 . . . Fox signed: Janet Bergstrom, “Murnau in America: Chronicle of lost films,” Film History 14, no. 3/4 (2002): 434.
418 four-year contract: Ibid., 455n11.
418 would receive $40,000 . . . one movie: Ibid.
418 up to $125,000 . . . one movie per year: Ibid.
418 August 4: “German Screen Director Guest of William Fox,” LAT, Aug. 5, 1926, A11.
418 welcoming dinner at the Biltmore: “Murnau and America,” MPN, Aug. 28, 1926, 742.
418 KleinSmid: “German Screen Director Guest of William Fox,” A11.
418 “endless possibilities” . . . “open mind”: “Murnau and America,” 742.
419 thirty-seven-year-old: Born Dec. 28, 1888.
419 “Something like Frozen” . . . Wonderful”: Matthew Josephson, “F. W. Murnau Comes to America,” Motion Picture Classic, Oct. 1926, 84.
419 luxury American car: Ibid.
419 “barbarous there”: Ibid.
419 Five years earlier: Jack Leo to Lillian Semenov, Aug. 29, 1967, SMWP.
419 “Thoroughly exciting”: Josephson, “F. W. Murnau Comes to America,” 84.
419 “I am like a child”: Ibid.
419 “Nature’s own perfect”: “Murnau and America,” 742.
419 “Contrary to the impression”: Josephson, “F. W. Murnau Comes to America,” 17.
420 traveled up and down the West Coast: “Murnau and America,” 742.
420 across the lake from the real . . . village: Oral History Karl Struss © 1971, First Section, end of book, 4–5. Courtesy of AFI.
420 on September 25, 1926: Vivian Moses to Jack Leo, et al., Sept. 28, 1926. FLC.
420 $200,000 set . . . largest ever: “Out Where Fox Begins,” MPW, Mar. 26, 1927, 391.
420 Six- and seven-story . . . railway structure: Ibid.
420 1,500 rented cars: Sunrise Press Book, Sunrise file, FLC.
420 built a special power plant: Ibid.
420 mechanic’s overalls: “An Artist in Overalls,” Photoplay, May 1927, 76.
420 up to fifty times: Oral History interview with Janet Gaynor (1958), 7. CCOHA.
420 “Very often” . . . “do a whole scene over”: Ibid.
421 “Afterwards, when we were looking”: Lotte H. Eisner, Murnau (Berkeley and Los Angeles, CA: University of California Press, 1973), 87–88.
421 two cameras . . . higher-contrast images: Oral History of Karl Struss © 1971, Second Section, 3–4, Courtesy of AFI.
421 testing various chemicals: George O’Brien interview, 67, JFP.
421 “a little perturbed”: Ibid.
421 remained idle at full pay: Eisner, Murnau, 182.
421 “Let them go home” . . . dust storm: Ibid., 175–76.
422 gave instructions in a near whisper: Herbert Cruikshank, “Murnau or Never,” Motion Picture Classic, July 1928, 80.
422 Gaynor “adored” Murnau: Kevin Brownlow, Hollywood: The Pioneers (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1979), 262.
422 “gentle and kindly”: Janet Gaynor, “My Life—So Far,” as told to Dorothy Spensley, Photoplay, Jan. 1929, 95.
422 “Murnau would thank me”: Ibid.
422 “I learned so much”: Oral History interview with Janet Gaynor Oral History (1958), 7, CCOHA.
422 “Working with him”: Ibid.
422 “He had the ability”: George O’Brien interview, 66, JFP.
422 grips, property men . . . idolized: “Pictures and People,” MPN, Apr. 8, 1927, 1247.
422 allowed to view the rushes: George O’Brien interview, 66.
422 “He even wouldn’t allow: Oral History interview with Janet Gaynor (1958), 7, CCOHA.
422 young Rochus Gliese: Josephson, “F. W. Murnau Comes to America,” 84.
422 “a real Prussian”: Oral History of Karl Struss © 1971, 60. Courtesy of AFI.
422 By early 1927, Murnau had finished: “Murnau Completes Sunrise,” MPN, Feb. 18, 1927, 558.
422 to the country for a vacation: Sunrise Press Book, Sunrise file, FLC.
424 first, ten-reel . . . San Francisco-area preview: “Sunrise Before New Pre-View Audiences,” Variety, Mar. 9, 1927, 4.
424 “Tremendous hit”: W. R. Sheehan telegram to Saul Rogers, Feb. 25, 1927. “Sunrise Production,” FLC.
424 “Sensational artistic”: Winfield Sheehan telegram to Saul Rogers, Mar. 5, 1927, “Sunrise Production,” FLC.
424 another What Price . . . 7th Heaven: W. R. Sheehan telegrams to Saul Rogers, Feb. 25, 1927, and Mar. 5, 1927. “Sunrise Production,” FLC.
424 remaining obligations at the UFA studios: “Murnau Insists Camera Angles Shall Be ‘Dramatic,’ If Anything,” MPW, Apr. 2, 1927, 490.
424 in New York on March 22, 1927: Janet Bergstrom, “Murnau, Movietone and Mussolini,” Film History 17 (2005): 195.
424 following day . . . Ritz Carlton: “Movie Flashes,” NYT, Mar. 27, 1927; “The Week in Review,” MPN, Apr. 1, 1927, 1116.
424 his best picture: “Pictures and People,” MPN, Apr. 8, 1927, 1247.
424 “so wonderfully” . . . “a pleasure”: “The Week in Review,” MPN, Apr. 1, 1927, 1116.
424 couldn’t wait to return: Ibid.
424 refusing to screen the movie: “Pictures and People,” MPN, Apr. 8, 1927, 1247.
424 “fifty dollars�
� worth of flowers”: “Murnau’s Trip to Hollywood,” Motion Picture Classic, July 1927, 36.
424 “genius of this age”: William Fox, “Reminiscences and Observations,” in The Story of the Films, ed. Joseph P. Kennedy (Chicago and New York: A. W. Shaw Company, 1927), 307.
425 “the greatest motion picture”: “Hello, Everybody!” Roxy Theatre Weekly Review, Apr. 30, 1927, 3. HTC.
425 producing the film negative . . . $750,000: “Sunrise, Murnau’s First, May Cost $750,000,” Variety, Sept. 22, 1926, 7.
425 number had escalated to $1.2 million: “Fox May Abandon Program Films,” Variety, Aug. 29, 1928, 4.
425 three times as much as for The Iron Horse: “Fox Re-signs Murnau,” FD, Mar. 6, 1927, 1.
425 cost from $25,000 to $250,000: Halsey, Stuart & Co., The Motion Picture Industry as a Basis for Bond Financing (New York: Halsey, Stuart & Co., 1927), 10.
426 Ansass and Indre: Vivian Moses to Jack Leo and others, Sept. 28, 1926, “Sunrise,” FLC.
426 “So I had to get dressed”: Oral History interview with Janet Gaynor Oral History (1958), 6, CCOHA.
426 “silliest film” . . . dull ideas: H. G. Wells, “Mr. Wells Reviews a Current Film,” NYT, Apr. 17, 1927, 4 + 22.
426 Friedrich W. Murnau became “Fred W. Murnau”: Sunrise Press Book, “Sunrise,” FLC.
427 as late as August 1927, Roxy: Bergstrom, “Murnau, Movietone and Mussolini,” 193–94.
427 1,080-seat Times Square Theater: “Paramount $71,600; $113,000 for Roxy—Sunrise $19,450,” Variety, Oct. 5, 1927, 7.
427 open Sunrise there on September 23, 1927: Mordaunt Hall, “The Screen,” NYT, Sept. 24, 1927.
427 “The most important picture” . . . not even “the Stoniest Heart”: Sunrise Press Book, “Sunrise,” FLC.
427 revolutionizing the art of film: “Sunrise to Have Showing,” New York Review, Aug. 13, 1927.
427 music and sound effects: Oscar Cooper, “Sunrise and Movietone,” MPN, Oct. 7, 1927, 1046.
427 only fifty-five U.S. theaters: Edward W. Kellogg, “History of Sound Motion Pictures, Second Installment,” JSMPTE, July 1955, 357.
427 titled “Voices of Italy”: “Sunrise and Movietone,” 1046.
427 first time . . . recorded: Unsigned to H. C. Stewart, 19 May 1927. WHP, Part I.
428 forty-four-year-old: Born July 29, 1883
428 “I salute the noble government”: Hall, “The Screen.”
428 “This can bring”: “Mussolini’s Hope in Screen,” Variety, Sept. 21, 1927, 1.
428 “singing and running” . . . mizzenmasts: “Mussolini” review, Sept. 21, 1927, 1.
428 help of the former US ambassador: “Mussolini Takes Star Role For a New Talking Movie,” NYT, Sept. 7, 1927, 31.
428 current ambassador introduced: “Mussolini” review, Variety, Sept. 21, 1927, 20.
428 Vatican Choir . . . St. Peter’s: “Sunrise and Movietone,” MPN, Oct. 7, 1927, 1046; “Sunrise and Movietone,” FD, Sept. 25, 1927, 4.
428 four hundred thousand Italian-born immigrants: “Italians In The United States,” The Literary Digest, Apr. 23, 1927, 30.
428 “Getting all the barbers”: “Capitol’s New Mark At $95,312 With New Jazz Policy Last Week,” Variety, Oct. 19, 1927, 23.
428 “most important and impressive”: Bergstrom, “Murnau, Movietone and Mussolini,” 189.
428 Fox himself attended . . . Catholic prelates: “Sunrise Has Premiere; Movietone Also on Bill,” FD, Sept. 25, 1927, 1.
428 impressive $19,450: “Paramount $71,600; $113,000 for Roxy—Sunrise $19,450,” 7.
428 following week, it took in $16,900: “$22,000 Drop for Carmen, Roxy; Parade, Capitol, 3 weeks, $176,000,” Variety, Oct. 12, 1927, 7.
428 “the most important picture . . . disturbingly real”: R. E. Sherwood, “Sunrise,” unidentified publication, undated, Audrey Chamberlin Scrapbooks, 121. MHL.
429 “an artist in camera studies”: Hall, “The Screen.”
429 “most adult and absorbing” . . . “resourcefulness”: Norbert Lusk, “Sunrise Is Much Praised,” LAT, Oct. 2, 1927, 17.
429 “highbrow picture”: Ibid.
429 “a tear or a smile”: Ibid.
429 “slipping into oblivion” . . . $7,000: “P.D.C. Films Drop 3 Houses $13,700,” Variety, Nov. 9, 1927, 7.
429 canceled the booking: “Warners’ Jazz Singer,” Variety, 7.
429 relatively small capacity: Ibid.
429 “giving [Sunrise] tickets away”: “Joe and Sam Talk Show,” Variety, Dec. 7, 1927, 7.
429 twenty-eight weeks . . . April 8: Bergstrom, “Murnau, Movietone and Mussolini,” 194, 191.
429 weekly cost of $10,000: “Two-Dollar ‘Hits’ and ‘Flops,’” HR, June 9, 1928, 89.
422 more than had ever advertised: “Key City Reports,” MPN, Jan. 14, 1928, 136.
430 “most important money-getter”: Fox Film ad, Sunrise, FD, Mar. 8, 1928, 4.
430 “a forced run” . . . “dying”: “Flops and Hits,” HR, Mar. 3, 1928, 36.
430 Grainger invited Harrison . . . Newark: “In the Interest of Truth,” HR, Mar. 17, 1928, 44.
430 “a marvelous production” Sunrise review, HR, Oct. 1, 1927, 158.
430 Sunrise had not, as Grainger claimed . . . only $4,500 to $5,000: “Two-Dollar ‘Hits’ and ‘Flops,’” 89.
430 “$5,300 is the correct figure”: Ibid.
430 alleged $20,000 at Newark’s Terminal Theatre: Ibid.
430 “a dump”: Harrison, “Two-Dollar ‘Hits’ and ‘Flops,’” 89.
430 he sent his secretary there: Ibid., 89, 92.
431 saw about fifty people downstairs: Ibid., 92.
431 two other people: Ibid.
431 “too gruesome”: Ibid.
431 “Let Jimmy Grainger show me”: “In the Interest of Fair Play,” HR, June 16, 1928, 95.
431 “Jimmy Grainger is working for”: Ibid.
431 played in only half: Bergstrom, “Murnau, Movietone and Mussolini,” 200–201.
431 State Theatre . . . local Girl Scouts: “What Is Art?” HR, Mar. 23, 1929, 48.
431 “Never in our eight years”: Ibid.
431 “oriented toward”: Bergstrom, “Murnau, Movietone and Mussolini,” 188.
431 “In short, Mussolini: Ibid., 201.
431 “Sunrise would have had”: Ibid.
432 “But for the Mussolini feature”: “The Value of Movietone News Has Shrunk By More than 50%,” HR, Feb. 22, 1930, 32.
432 1,360-seat Warners’ Theatre: “$22,000 Drop for Carmen, Roxy; Parade, Capitol, 3 weeks, $176,000,” Variety, Oct. 12, 1927, 7.
432 $9,900 in its first two and a half days: Ibid.
432 gross $3.9 million: Alex Ben Block and Lucy Autrey Wilson, George Lucas’s Blockbusting: A Decade-by-Decade Survey of Timeless Movies Including Untold Secrets of Their Financial and Cultural Success (New York: HarperCollins, 2010), 112.
433 November 29 premiere . . . in Los Angeles: Bergstrom, “Murnau, Movietone and Mussolini,” 197.
433 “greatly delighted” . . . “exterior shots”: F. W. Murnau to William Fox, Dec. 22, 1927, 2. Copy courtesy of Janet Bergstrom.
434 “I shall mail you”: Ibid.
434 “My dear Fred”: William Fox to F. W. Murnau, Dec. 27, 1927, 1. Copy courtesy of Janet Bergstrom.
434 too big a star: George O’Brien interview, 66, JFP.
434 In May 1929: Bergstrom, “Murnau in America: Chronicle of lost films,” 447.
434 reshot about a quarter of the movie: Ibid.
434 “Such goings on” . . . “so substantial an idol”: R. E. Sherwood, review of The Four Devils, unidentified publication. Audrey Chamberlin Scrapbooks, 15, MHL.
435 “to tell a tale about WHEAT”: Bergstrom, “Murnau in America: Chronicle of lost films,” 430.
435 half the film reshot: Ibid., 431.
435 In May 1929 . . . South Pacific: Ibid., 442.
435 Tabu, a drama of young lovers . . . escape: Mordaunt Hall, “The Screen: M
r. Murnau’s Last Picture,” NYT, Mar. 19, 1931, 21; Arthur Calder-Marshall, The Innocent Eye: The Life of Robert J. Flaherty (New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1963), 127.
436 in late 1930: “F. W. Murnau Killed in Coast Auto Crash,” NYT, Mar. 12, 1931, 36.
436 old-fashioned hotel: Margaret Reid, “Exile Murnau Returns Here,” LAT, Feb. 22, 1931, B9.
436 in Santa Monica: “F. W. Murnau Killed in Coast Auto Crash,” 36.
436 laughed and said only: Reid, “Exile Murnau Returns Here,” B9.
436 By late February 1931 . . . Paramount: “Projection Jottings,” NYT, Mar. 1, 1931, X5.
436 March 10, 1931 . . . on top of Murnau: “F. W. Murnau Killed in Coast Auto Crash,” 36.
436 skull was fractured: “Director’s Body Rests in Film City,” LAT, Mar. 12, 1931, A8.
436 ribs broken, and his lungs punctured: “F. W. Murnau Killed in Automobile Crash,” FD, Mar. 12, 1931, 10.
436 the following morning: “F. W. Murnau Killed in Coast Auto Crash.” 36.
CHAPTER 32: THE TRIUMPH OF MOVIETONE
437 May 14, 1928 . . . Movietone: “Film Trade Goes Talker,” Variety, May 16, 1928, 5 + 29. The LAT reported the signing date as May 15, 1928 (“Producers Make Alliance,” LAT, May 16, 1928, 1).
437 Hal Roach . . . Columbia: FCC-ERPI, Part II, 178.
437 “[N]one of them made”: Transcript, 115.
437 switch in 1930 . . . records: Theisen, “Pioneering in the Talking Picture,” JSMPE, Apr. 1941, 433.
437 In 1933 . . . Columbia: Edward W. Kellogg, “History of Sound Motion Pictures, Second Installment,” JSMPTE, July 1955, 357.
437 at least one-third: Bill of Complaint, Nov. 26, 1934, 22, William Fox v. AT&T, NARA-NYC.
438 played on a Movietone machine: Epes W. Sargent, “Sizing Up the Talkies,” Movie Makers, Sept. 1928, 604.
438 drop its ban on interchangeability: Theisen, “Pioneering in the Talking Picture,” 441.
438 only 5 percent silent: Kellogg, “History of Sound Motion Pictures, Second Installment,” 357.
438 55 for both disk and film: Ibid.
438 1,032 for disk and film: Ibid.
438 By July 1930: J. Douglas Gomery, “The Coming of Sound to the American Cinema: A History of the Transformation of an Industry,” PhD diss. (University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1975), 271.
438 Small theaters . . . took longer: Ibid.
438 as of 1935 . . . 100 percent to sound: “A Brief Chronology of Talking Pictures,” FD, Aug. 6, 1946, 35.