The Chief

by David Nasaw

  23. KVW-WRH, October 28,1922, BW; A. Byne-JM, September 14,1925, JMp.

  24. WRH-LOR, June 25,1921, BW.

  25. Rémy Saisselin, The Bourgeois and the Bibelot (New Brunswick: Rutgers U.P., 1984), 133–68.

  26. Joseph Duveen-WRH, May 24,1926, BW.

  27. Emile Gauvreau, My Last Million Readers (New York: Dutton, 1941), 141.

  28. H. J. Kelekian-WRH, May 28,1924, BW.

  29. S. N. Behrman, Duveen (New York: Random House, 1952), 97; JW-CMG, October 31,1923, BW.

  30. WRH-Joseph Duveen, June 2,1927, BW.

  31. A. Byne-JM, June 5, 1924, JMp.

  32. WRH-Kobler, February 29, 1927; George Buckingham-Kobler, enclosed with Kobler-WRH, March 8, 1927; WRH-Kobler, March 21, 1927, carton 2, WRHp; Wesley Towner, The Elegant Auctioneers (New York: Hill & Wang, 1970), 414–15.

  33. W. G. Constable, Art Collecting in the United States of America (London: Thomas Nelson and Sons, Ltd., 1964), 139–40; Marion Davies, The Times We Had (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1975), 132.

  34. S. N. Behrman, Duveen (New York: Random House, 1952), 117.

  35. Towner, 182–83, 241,308,314, 452–53.

  36. WRH-MH, February 26,1927, carton 2, WRHp; WRH, Jr., 25.

  37. Assorted warehouse bills and statements, BW; Fortune, May 1931, 60.

  38. WRH-LOR, July 3 [1921], BW.

  39. JW-LOR, June 17, 1921, BW.

  18. Marion, Millicent, and the Movies

  1. JAM-WRH, June 29,1920, 4, JAMp; New York Star, July 5,1920.

  2. WRH, Jr., oh-SS, 3, 6–7.

  3. WRH, Jr., oh-SS, 6–8; I viewed “The Lighthouse Keeper’s Daughter” at San Simeon. I am indebted to John Horn and the staff at the castle for dating the film for me.

  4. Cari Beauchamp, Without Lying Down (New York: Scribner, 1997), 133; Fred Lawrence Guiles, Marion Davies (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1972), 98–100; WRH-JAM, August 17, 26,1920; WRH-JAM, August 22,1920, JAMp.

  5. M. R. Werner, “Yellow Movies,” New Yorker, September 14,1940, 61, 65.

  6. Kevin Brownlow, Behind the Mask of Innocence (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1990), 285–92; Frances Marion, Off with Their Heads! (New York: Macmillan, 1972), 71–75; Photoplay, December, 1921.

  7. JAM-WRH, August 30, 31,1920; WRH-JAM, August 27,30, September 1,3, October 14,1920, JAMp; W. R. Benson, “Boudoir Politics in the Movies,” Screenland, March, 1923, 38.

  8. WRH-LeBaron, May 5, 1921, carton 1, WRHp; WRH-JU, May 3, 1921, folder marked “Hearst International Film: Cosmopolitan Pictures 1921,” JUp.

  9. Notes from Gretl’s autobiography, box 45; JU-Mary Urban, May 30, [1921] and Mary’s diary, in Mary Urban box, JUp.

  10. WRH-JAM, October 14,1921, JAMp.

  11. JAM-WRH, October 19,1921; WRH-JAM, October 21,1921, JAMp.

  12. WRH-JAM, November 7,1921; JAM-WRH, November 10,1921, JAMp.

  13. WRH-JAM, November 12,1921, JAMp.

  14. MH-Pershing, June 8,1918, June 14,1919; Colonel Carl Boyd-Major J. H. Perkins, June 8,1918; Ralph J. Preston-Colonel Carl Boyd, June 14,1918, box 91, Pershing; NYT, July 3,1921,18; July 27,1923,1.

  15. William Randolph Hearst, Jr., with Jack Casserly, The Hearsts: Father and Son (Niwot, Col.: Roberts Rinehart, 1991), 239.

  16. WRH-JM, March 15,1922; WRH-JM, August 28,1922; WRH-JM, September 20, 1922, JMp.

  17. Birge-JW, November 29, 1922, BW.

  18. Edwin Emery, The Press and America, third edition (New York: Prentice-Hall, 1972), 448; WRH-JAM, April 12,1920, JAMp.

  19. JAM-WRH, May 5,1920, JAMp; Gene Fowler, Skyline: A Reporter’s Reminiscence of the 1920s (New York: Viking, 1961), 91.

  20. JW-LOR, May 16,1921; JW-KVW, May 1,1922, BW.

  21. WRH, March 28, 19l8, in Selections, 153.

  22. Swinnerton interview, WAS.

  23. JW-LOR, June 6,1921; February 7,1921, BW.

  24. JAM-WRH, May 5, June 10, June 29, July 19, 1920; WRH-JAM, July 12, 1920, JAMp.

  25. WRH-JAM, October 7, 8,1920, JAMp.

  26. WRH-JAM, June 30, July 21, August 24, 26,1921, JAMp; WRH-AZ, July 2,1921, folder 4, AZp.

  27. WRH-JAM, August 28,1921, JAMp.

  28. JAM-WRH, September 7,1921, JAMp; Giuliana Muscio, Hollywood ’s New Deal (Philadelphia: Temple U.P., 1997), 115.

  19. A Return to Normalcy

  1. John Witte, The Politics and Development of the Federal Income Tax (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1985), 88; Select Senate Committee of the Internal Revenue Bureau (Couzens Committee), Senate Report 27, 69th Congress, ist Session, 1926, 206–ll, 284–89.

  2. JAM-WRH, December 29, 1922, JAMp.

  3. WRH-JAM, December 29, 1922, JAMp.

  4. Minutes of Finance Committee, March 22, 1923, JAMp; NYT, March 31, 1923, 8; JAM-WRH, July 22,1924; WRH-JAM, August 9, 1924, JAMp.

  5. JAM-WRH, July 20, 1923, JAMp.

  6. JAM-WRH, July 25, 1923, JAMp; JAM-JFN, July 30, 1923, box 63, JFNp.

  7. Kevin Starr, Inventing the Dream: California Through the Progressive Era (New York: Oxford U.P., 1985), 273–75; Roger Lotchin, “John Francis Neylan: San Francisco Irish Progressive,” in The San Francisco Irish: 1850–1976, ed. James D. Walsh (San Francisco: Irish Literary and Historical Society, 1978), 96–101.

  8. WRH-JFN, October 8, 1923, box 63, JFNp.

  9. WRH-JFN, February 7, 1924, box 64, JFNp.

  10. JFN-WRH, March 5, June 13, 1924, box 64, JFNp.

  11. B. C. Forbes, NYA, April 24, 1924, 26.

  12. NYA, April 26, 1924,18; NYHT, April 29, 1924, 23; NYA, April 29, 1924, 1, 19, 20.

  13. NYT, May 6, 1924, 30.

  14. AB-Marks, May 15,1922; August 19,1922; Fall-WRH, August 19,1922; WRH-Fall, August 28, 1922, Fall.

  15. Norman Hapgood, The Changing Years (New York: Farrar & Rinehart, 1930), 263, 268; WRH-JAM, February 17, 21, 1924, JAMp.

  16. WRH-AB, January 29, 1928, box 6, ABp.

  17. Richard Norton Smith, The Colonel: The Life and Legend of Robert R. McCormick (New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1997), 220, 246; WRH-JAM, December 28, 1921, JAMp.

  18. Emile Gauvreau, My Last Million Readers (New York: Dutton, 1941), 109–112.

  19. EP, June 14, 1924, 1.

  20. Oswald Villard, Some Newspapers and Newspaper-Men (New York: Knopf, 1923), 20,15; Moses Koenigsberg, King News (Freeport: Books for Libraries, 1941), 441.

  21. “Serials Published in the Examiner (1923–1927),” in folder marked Serials, 1935, LAE; Koenigsberg, 447–49.

  22. WRH-DWG, October 21, 1921, DWGp; Randolph Carter and Robert Reed Cole, Joseph Urban (New York: Abbeville, 1992), 153–54; MPW, March 4, 1922,53; April 15, 1922, 730; September 2, 1922,33.

  23. Marion Davies, The Times We Had (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1975), 24.

  24. V, September 22, 1922.

  25. MPW, November 25, 1922,334; December 23, 1922,749; MPN, September 16,1922.

  26. Screenland, January 1924,38.

  27. Davies, 26; MPW, March 24, 1923, 455.

  28. MPW, January 6, 1923, 68; January 27, 1923, 383; February 10, 1923, 59l; Richard Koszarski, An Evening’s Entertainment (New York: Scribner’s, 1990), 128.

  29. V, August 9,1923.

  30. NYT, January 19, 1923, 3; MPW, May 25,323.

  31. Davies, 28.

  32. Screenland, March 1924, 17; MPW, November 10, 1923, 2l6.

  33. NYT, April 29,1923.

  34. WRH-JW, [1923],BW.

  35. WRH-JAM, February 13, 24, 1924, JAMp.

  36. WRH-JAM, February 17, 23, 1924, JAMp; Thomas Schatz, The Genius of the System (New York: Pantheon, 1988), 30–32.

  20. Another Last Hurrah

  1. NYT, May 4, 1922, 5.

  2. NYT, June 23, 1922, 1,8; June 25, 1922, Section II, 1; ECL-WRH, June 2, 1922, JAMp.

  3. NYT, May 23,1922.

  4. Fred Lawrence Guiles, Marion Davies (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1972), 107; WRH-JAM, June 2, 1922, JAMp; NYT, June 2, 1922,17.

  5. Guiles, 107–8; NYT, June 22, 1922, 19.

  6. NYH, June 28, 1922.

&n
bsp; 7. NYH, June 26, 27, 28, July 7, 1922; NYDN, June 26, 27, 28, 1922.

  8. NYT, June 22, 27, July 15, 1922.

  9. NYT, July 8, 1922.

  10. NYT, June 25,1922.

  11. NYT, July 8, 1922, l.

  12. NYT, September 28, 29,1922; Al Smith, Up to Now (Garden City: Garden City Publishing Co., 1929), 195–96.

  13. NYT, September 30, 1922.

  14. NYT, November 7, 8, 1923, l, 2.

  15. NYT, June 26, 1924, 9.

  16. AB-WJB, July 3, 1924, box 40, WJBp.

  17. WRH-Publishers and Managing Editors, July 10, 1924, box 64, JFNp.

  18. WRH-SC, August 7, 1925, JAMp.

  19. NYA, September 3, 1925, l.

  20. WRH-JAM, September 18, 1925, JAMp.

  21. “Do You Know Miss Marion Davies, the Movie Actress?”

  1. Nat Ferber, I Found Out (New York: Dial, 1939), 219–20.

  2. NYDN, July 23, 1924,1; NYT, July 23, 1924,17; NYEW, July 23, 1924, 6.

  3. NYT, August 7, 1924,1; NYDN, August 7, 8, 9, 10, 1924,1; NYHT, August 7, 1924,1; WP, August 7, 1924, 3.

  4. Wells interview, September 23, 1959, WAS.

  5. Alice Marble, oh-SS, 11; Fred Lawrence Guiles, Marion Davies (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1972), 137.

  6. Guiles, 134–35; JU-MU, n.d., erroneously catalogued in 1919 folder, JUp.

  7. Marion Davies, The Times We Had (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1975), 34; Charles Higham, Merchant of Dreams: Louis B. Mayer, M.G.M., and the Secret Hollywood (New York: Dell, 1993), 101–2; JU-MU, n.d., in Mary Urban box, 1919 folder, JUp.

  8. Louella Parsons, The Gay Illiterate (Garden City: Doubleday, Doran, 1944), 89; Charles Chaplin, My Autobiography (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1964), 309.

  9. Chaplin, 3l6.

  10. JAM-WRH, July 5, 1924, JAMp.

  11. Higham, 88; JU-MU, September 21,1924 folder, JUp.

  12. Vera Burnett, oh-SS, 4–5; Mary’s diary, Mary Urban box, JUp; Davies, 30.

  13. NYDN, November 9, 1924, 24; November 16, 1924, 22.

  14. Notes from Gretl’s autobiography, box 45; Mary’s diary, Mary Urban box, JUp.

  15. Notes from Gretl’s autobiography, box 45, JUp.

  16. NYT, November 21, 1924, 22; Notes from Gretl’s autobiography, box 45, JUp.

  17. NYDN, November 20, 1924, 3; December ll, 1924, 4; Davies, 66–68.

  18. For the latest story, ostensibly given the author by “one of Hollywood’s most senior and best-informed insiders,” see Amy Fine Collins, “Idol Gossips,” Vanity Fair, April 1997, 368.

  19. WRH-JAM, January 28,1925; March 1,1925; JAM-WRH, March 18, 1925, JAMp; WRH-Hatrick, August 23, 1927, carton 4, WRHp.

  20. Irene Mayer Selznick, A Private View (New York: Knopf, 1983), 84.

  21. Bosley Crowther, Hollywood Rajah (New York: Holt, 1960), 126; Selznick, 84.

  22. Davies, 37–40; [entries] May 29, June 8, June 9, July 7, Notes of Mr. Urban Secretary 1925, Folder marked notes. JUp.

  23. Cari Beauchamp, Without Lying Down (New York: Scribner, 1997), 165–66.

  24. LP, NYA, May 3, 1925.

  25. NYT, May 23, 1925,18.

  26. Alice Head, It Could Never Have Happened (London: Heinemann, 1939), 79, 81.

  27. Head, 86; AH-WRH, assorted telegrams cited in Clive Aslet, The Last Country Houses (New Haven: Yale U.P., 1982), 199; NYT, August 16, 1925,1.

  28. NYT, May 21, 1925,3.

  22. Family Man

  1. William Randolph Hearst, Jr., with Jack Casserly, The Hearsts: Father and Son (Niwot, Col.: Roberts Rinehart, 1991), 239.

  2. Charles Chaplin, My Autobiography (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1964), 313.

  3. WRH, Jr., 239.

  4. WRH, Jr., oh-SS, 49.

  5. WRH, Jr., 183, 240.

  6. WRH, Jr., 77.

  7. WRH, Jr., 240; Cora Older, William Randolph Hearst, American (New York: Appleton-Century, 1936), 406–8.

  8. Elsa Maxwell, R.S.V.P. (Boston: Little, Brown, 1954), 128–29.

  9. WRH-JAM, April 16, 1926, JAMp; WRH-JM, October 18, 25, 1926, JM-WRH, December 28, 1926, JMp.

  10. Chaplin, 3l3.

  11. WRH-JAM, January 17,1926; JAM-WRH, January 28, 1926, JAMp.

  12. WRH-MH, July 16, 1926, box 1, WRH, Jr.91.

  13. JW-CMG, September 9, 1926, BW; MH-WRH, February 24, 1927, carton 2, WRHp; Jones-WRH, February 24, 1927, carton 3, WRHp.

  14. Hunter-Schrader, August l, 1927, carton 4, WRHp.

  15. WRH-MH, September 23, 1926, box 1, WRH, Jr.91.

  16. WRH-MH, May 7, 1927, box 1, WRH, Jr.91.; WRH-JM, July 18, 1927, JMp.

  17. WRH-MH, June 22,1926; October 29, 1930, box 1, WRH, Jr.91.

  18. JW-CM, November 30, 1928, BW; WRH, Jr., 64.

  19. WRH-GH, September 16, 1927, in WRH, Jr., 92; WRH-WRH, Jr., October 2, 1927, box l, WRH, Jr.9l.

  20. RH, oh-DN; WRH, Jr., 89–90.

  21. WRH, Jr., 90–9l.

  22. WRH-MH, in Edmond D. Coblentz, ed., William Randolph Hearst: A Portrait in His Own Words (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1952), 78–79; Older, 501–2.

  23. WRH, Jr., 90.

  24. WRH, Jr., 9l.

  25. WRH-JAM, Nov. 2, 1923, JAMp.

  26. WRH-JFN, May 9, 1924, box 65, JFNp; EP, October 23, 1926,5.

  27. WRH-GH, October 7, 1927, box 1, WRH, Jr.91.

  28. WRH-WRH, Jr., July 24, 1927, box 1, WRH, Jr.91.

  29. WRH-WRH, Jr., December 7, 14, 1933, box 1, WRH, Jr.91.

  30. WRH-JM, February 28, 1927, carton 2, WRHp.

  31. JH-WRH, September 13, 1927, in WRH, Jr., 94.

  32. WRH-JH, September 20, 24, 1927, in WRH, Jr., 95; WRH-Edwards, September 26, 1927, carton 2, WRHp.

  33. Sally Bedell Smith, In All His Glory (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1990), 96; Time, May 1, 1933,19; WRH-JH, September 25, 1929, box 1, WRHp.

  34. MH-WRH, February 21, 24, 1927, carton 1, WRHp; WRH-MH, October 29, 1930, box l, WRH, Jr.9l.

  23. Dream Houses

  1. Marion Davies, The Times We Had (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1975), 101.

  2. Fred Lawrence Guiles, Marion Davies (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1972), 175–76.

  3. Jesse Lasky, Jr., Whatever Happened to Hollywood? (New York: Funk & Wagnalls, 1975), 29–30.

  4. Irene Mayer Selznick, A Private View (New York: Knopf, 1983), 85–86.

  5. Davies, 101.

  6. WRH-JM, June 15, 1926, JMp.

  7. Anne Edwards, “Marion Davies’ Ocean House,” Architectural Digest, April 1994, 175, 277.

  8. Louise Brooks, “Marion Davies’ Niece,” Film Culture, 1974, 249; David Niven, Bring On the Empty Horses (London: Hamish Hamilton, 1975), 241–42.

  9. Memorandum: “International Magazine Company,” December 1924, JAMp.

  10. WRH-JFN, November 24, 1927, box 65, JFNp.

  11. Robert B. King with Charles O. McLean, The Vanderbilt Homes (New York: Rizzoli, 1989), 164–67; Clarice Stasz, The Vanderbilt Women: Dynasty of Wealth, Glamour, and Tragedy (New York: St. Martin’s, 1991), 234; NYT, August 7, October 30, 1927.

  12. King, 167.

  13. NYT, October 30,1927; MH-WRH, October 5, 1927, box 7, WRH, Jr.91.

  14. Emile Gauvreau, My Last Million Readers (New York: Dutton, 1941), 137–39.

  15. Steilberg, 62, JM-oh.

  16. Basic Training Manual Tour l, February 16, 1997 revision, 13, HSSSHM.

  17. WRH-JM, April 24, 1927, JMp.

  18. WRH-JM, February 19, 1927, JMp.

  19. WRH-Schrader, June 15, 1929, July 27, 1929, August 11, 1929, carton 9, WRHp.

  20. Davies, 45.

  21. WRH-JM, April 12, July 4, August 7, 14,1926; C. C. Rossi-JM, February 7, 1927, JMp.

  22. WRH-JM, October 2, 1927, JMp.

  23. Davies, 143.

  24. NYT, December 20, 1924, 27; JM-WRH, October 20, 1925, JMp.

  25. WRH-I. S. Horne, April 23, 1927, carton 2, WRHp; NYT, July 21, 1927, 8; JM-WRH, July 27, 1927, JMp.

  26. WRH-JM, October 18, 1927, JMp.

  27. “Check list of animals,” June 15
, 1928, record group VI, Baldwin Collection, HSSSHM.

  28. Davies, 144.

  29. WRH-Slattery, June 13, 1929, carton 7, WRHp.

  30. Vidor, oh-SS, 6; Frances Marion, oh-SS, 3.

  31. St. Johns, oh-SS, 3.

  32. Moore, oh-SS, 22.

  33. St. Johns, The Honeycomb (Garden City: Doubleday, 1969), 123–31.

  34. WRH-JM, June 2, 1926, JMp.

  35. St. Johns, 129.

  36. Alice Head, It Could Never Have Happened (London: Heinemann, 1939), 101.

  37. Rotanzi, “The Ranch Dairy, Orchard, and Grounds,” oh-SS.

  38. Rotanzi, “Fifty-Four Years at San Simeon,” oh-SS.

  39. C. C. Rossi-JM, with WRH-Rossi letter attached, February 7, 1926, JMp; I have rearranged the quotation.

  40. WRH-C. C. Rossi, February 16, 1927, JMp.

  41. WRH-JM, February 21,1927; JM-WRH, February 25, 1927, JMp.

  24. Businesses as Usual

  1. H. L. Mencken, American Mercury, May, 1927, 28–30.

  2. Melvyn Leffler, “Political Isolationism, Economic Expansionism, or Diplomatic Realism: American Policy Toward Western Europe 1921–33,” in Perspectives in American History VIII (1974), 419.

  3. Richard Coke Lower, A Bloc of One: The Political Career of Hiram W. Johnson (Stanford: Stanford U.P., 1993), 191–93.

  4. Wayne S. Cole, Roosevelt & the Isolationists, 1932–45 (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1983), 6–7.

  5. WRH, NYA, February 12, 1922, in Selections, 193.

  6. WRH-publishers, October, 1928, in Selections, 307–8.

  7. WRH-editors, February 10, 1929, in Selections, 316–17; WRH-PP, September 16, 1926, carton 2, WRHp.

  8. Philip V. Cannistraro and Brian R. Sullivan, Il Duce ’s Other Woman (New York: Morrow, 1993), 360.

  9. PP-WRH, n.d.; WRH-PP, Feb. 24, 1927, carton 3, WRHp; WRH-Ettelson, January 19, 1927, carton 2, WRHp.

  10. MH-WRH, August 19, 1927, carton 4, WRHp.

  11. WRH-EDC, copy to PP, September 2, 1927, in NYA, September 8, 1927,1; WRH-Shiber, September 3, 1927, carton 4, WRHp.

  12. WRH-Obregón, October 4,1924; Obregón-WRH, November 1, 1924, file 802-H-34, Obregón-Calles, Presidentes.