by Nancie Clare
That pursuit of individual agendas is a constant theme in the continuing forays into politics by celebrities. Ronald Reagan, who had been a Democrat, was so put off by the perceived infiltration of Communist influence in Hollywood it drove him to change political parties and to pursue higher and higher elected offices. Sonny Bono, frustrated by bureaucracy in attempting to open a restaurant in Palm Springs, ran for mayor of the desert city—and won. He eventually ran for and won a seat in Congress. The bill Bono is associated with is named for him: the Sonny Bono Copyright Extension Act, which extends copyright protection by twenty years to, for example, songwriters such as himself. (The legislation’s derisive nickname is “The Mickey Mouse Protection Act.”) Other entertainers-turned-politicians such as Al Franken had long been self-proclaimed “policy wonks.” But who really needed any sort of actual political experience? Arnold Schwarzenegger had been a big-screen action hero and was married to a Kennedy. How hard could it be to be governor of California, the most populous state in the United States? There are two parts to this equation, though. Voters in the United States imbue celebrities with expertise by virtue of their fame alone. Thus imbued, with millions of people putting their faith and hopes in them, celebrities seem more than comfortable assuming the mantle of leadership. Bolstered by fans who believed that the Donald Trump they saw on television was a capable and experienced leader, it’s entirely plausible that he saw little difference between a reality TV show, with its big “reveal” at the end, and a run for the American presidency. Certainly Trump, who had no experience whatsoever—unlike Reagan, who had been politically active during his career as an actor before running for office and serving two terms as California’s governor, or Fred Thompson, senator from Tennessee, who had been minority counsel on the Senate Watergate Committee as well as an actual prosecutor before he played one on TV in Law & Order—used his name recognition as a means to an end. There may have been bumps on the road, but fame was the vehicle that conveyed Trump directly to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington, D.C. It’s impossible to say just what Mary Pickford would have made of the intersection of politics and celebrity in the second decade of the twenty-first century. Because she firmly believed in using fame to her advantage in getting what she wanted, chances are good that she would not have had any problems with it whatsoever. Regardless, when Mary Pickford got involved in the political process and took a stand against Beverly Hills’ annexation almost one hundred years ago, she is the one who started paving Donald Trump’s road to the White House.
Notes
Chapter 1: Rancho Rodeo de las Aguas and the Invention of Beverly Hills
1. Pierce E. Benedict and Don Kennedy, History of Beverly Hills (Beverly Hills, CA: A. H. Cawston and H. M. Meier, 1934).
2. “Communications,” in Donald S. Frazier, ed., The United States and Mexico at War (New York: Macmillan Reference Books, 1997).
3. Irving Stone, “Beverly Hills.” Original Drafts and Final Copy of Article Published in Holiday, October 1952. Courtesy of The Beverly Hills Library Historical Collection.
4. “Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo,” by Richard Griswold del Castillo, in The United States and Mexico at War, ed. Donald S. Frazier (New York: Macmillan Reference Books, 1997).
5. Ibid.
6. Benedict and Kennedy, History of Beverly Hills.
7. Les Standiford, Water to the Angels: William Mulholland, His Monumental Aqueduct, and the Rise of Los Angeles (New York: HarperCollins, 2015).
8. Michael Gross, Unreal Estate: Money, Ambition and the Lust for Land in Los Angeles (New York: Broadway Books, 2011).
9. Ibid.
10. Ibid.
11. Robert S. Anderson with Victoria Kastner, The Beverly Hills Hotel: The First 100 Years (Beverly Hills, CA: The Beverly Hills Collection, 2012).
Chapter 2: The Beverly Hills Hotel and the Birth of Its Namesake City
1. Elmer Grey, F.A.I.A, “Vicissitudes of a Young Architect,” The Architect and the Engineer, January 1933.
2. Ibid.
3. Genevieve Davis, Beverly Hills: An Illustrated History, produced in cooperation with the Beverly Hills Historical Society (Northridge, CA: Windsor Publications, 1988).
4. Pierce E. Benedict and Don Kennedy, History of Beverly Hills (Beverly Hills, CA: A. H. Cawston and H. M. Meier, 1934).
5. Ibid.
6. Michael Gross, Unreal Estate: Money, Ambition and the Lust for Land in Los Angeles (New York: Broadway Books, 2011).
7. Ibid.
Chapter 3: Setting the Stage
1. Neal Gabler, An Empire of Their Own: How the Jews Invented Hollywood (New York: Crown Publisher, 1988).
2. Mary Pickford, “My Whole Life: $10,000 a week at 23 … then—Douglas Fairbanks,” McCall’s Magazine, 1954.
3. Gregory Paul Williams, The Story of Hollywood: An Illustrated History (Los Angeles: BL Press LLC, 2011).
4. Ibid.
5. Ibid.
6. Ibid.
7. Cari Beauchamp, My First Time in Hollywood: An Anthology (Los Angeles: Asahina & Wallace, Los Angeles, 2015).
8. Eileen Whitfield, Pickford: The Woman Who Made Hollywood (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1997).
9. Tracey Goessel, The First King of Hollywood: The Life of Douglas Fairbanks (Chicago: Chicago Review Press, 2016).
Chapter 4: A Crash Course in Influence
1. James R. Mock and Cedric Larson, Words That Won the War: How the Creel Committee on Public Information Mobilized American Opinion Toward Winning the World War (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1939).
2. Ibid.
3. Gregory Paul Williams, The Story of Hollywood: An Illustrated History (Los Angeles: BL Press LLC, 2011).
4. Mock and Larson, Words That Won the War.
5. Eileen Whitfield, Pickford: The Woman Who Made Hollywood (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1997).
6. Ibid.
7. Mary Pickford, Sunshine and Shadow (Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Company, 1955).
8. New York Evening-World, April 13, 1918, From the collection of the Mary Pickford Foundation, AMPAS.
9. Pickford, Sunshine and Shadow.
10. Ibid.
11. Tracey Goessel, The First King of Hollywood: The Life of Douglas Fairbanks (Chicago: Chicago Review Press, 2016).
12. Ibid.
13. Ibid.
14. Ibid.
Chapter 5: Veni, Vidi, Vici
1. Marc Wanamaker, Early Beverly Hills (Charleston, SC: Arcadia Publishing, 2005).
2. Tracey Goessel, The First King of Hollywood: The Life of Douglas Fairbanks (Chicago: Chicago Review Press, 2016).
3. Peggy Dymond Leavey, Mary Pickford: Canada’s Silent Siren, America’s Sweetheart (Toronto: Dundurn, 2012).
4. Ibid.
5. Goessel, The First King of Hollywood.
6. Ibid.
7. Ibid.
8. Kevin Starr, Inventing the Dream: California Through the Progressive Era (New York: Oxford University Press, 1985).
9. Ibid.
10. Eileen Whitfield, Pickford: The Woman Who Made Hollywood (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1997).
Chapter 6: The War Against Hollywood and the Lasting Legacy of Bad Behavior
1. Kevin Starr, Inventing the Dream: California Through the Progressive Era (New York: Oxford University Press, 1985).
2. Ibid.
3. “How You Gonna Keep ’em Down on the Farm (After They’ve Seen Paree’),” music by Walter Donaldson, words by Joe Young and Sam M. Lewis. Published by Water
son, Berlin & Snyder Co., New York 1919.
4. William J. Mann, Tinseltown: Murder, Morphine and Madness at the Dawn of Hollywood (New York: HarperCollins, 2014).
5. Frances Marion, Off with Their Heads!: A Serio-Comic Tale of Hollywood (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1972).
6. Mary Pickford, Sunshine and Shadow (Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Company, 1955).
7. Mann, Tinseltown: Murder, Morphine and Madness at the Dawn of Hollywood.
8. Ibid.
9. Ibid.
10. Ibid.
11. Ibid.
Chapter 7: Meanwhile, in Beverly Hills …
1. “Daily NewsLife—Beverly Hills, Calif., Extracts from notes taken from Paul E. Schwab,” B. J. Firminger, Retired City Clerk of Beverly Hills, 1954. Courtesy of the Beverly Hills Library Special Collections.
2. Ibid.
3. “Beverly Is Stirred Up by Petition,” Los Angeles Times, April 21, 1923.
4. “A Discussion of the Early History of Beverly Hills,” transcript of a conversation among Lawrence Block, Ben Hoy, Ivan Traucht, Arthur Pillsbury, Stanley Anderson, and Claude Kimball, April 19, 1946. Courtesy of Robert S. Anderson.
5. Ibid.
6. Pierce E. Benedict and Don Kennedy, History of Beverly Hills (Beverly Hills, CA: A. H. Cawston and H. M. Meier, 1934).
7. Ibid.
8. Letters of B. J. Firminger, volume 1-F, courtesy of the Beverly Hills Library Special Collection.
9. Ibid.
10. “Beverly Water Supply Up,” Los Angeles Times, November 25, 1922.
11. Ibid.
12. Les Standiford, Water to the Angels (New York: HarperCollins, 2015).
13. Ibid.
14. Ibid.
15. Ibid.
16. Ibid.
17. Ibid.
18. Marc Wanamaker, Early Beverly Hills (Charleston, SC: Arcadia Publishing, 2005).
19. “A Discussion of the Early History of Beverly Hills,” transcript of a conversation among Lawrence Block, Ben Hoy, Ivan Traucht, Arthur Pillsbury, Stanley Anderson, and Claude Kimball, April 19, 1946. Courtesy of Robert S. Anderson.
20. Frances Marion, Off with Their Heads! A Serio-Comic Tale of Hollywood (New York: The Macmillian Company, 1972).
21. Ibid.
22. Ibid.
23. Ibid.
24. Ibid.
25. Ibid.
Chapter 8: “California’s Floating Kidney Transplanted from the Midwest”
1. Frances Marion, Off with Their Heads!: A Serio-Comic Tale of Hollywood (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1972).
2. Ibid.
3. Richard Rayner, A Bright and Guilty Place: Murder, Corruption, and L.A.’s Scandalous Coming of Age (New York: Doubleday, 2009).
4. Civil Code of the City of Los Angeles, pages 206–207. www.lacity.org/your-government/government-information/city-charter-rules-and-codes
5. Ibid.
6. City of Beverly Hills Resolution #73, signed by John G. Soulay, City Clerk of the City of Beverly Hills.
7. B. J. Firminger, “Annexation Battle in 1923,” notes for Daily NewsLife, April 1954. Courtesy of the Beverly Hills Library Special Collection.
8. “A Discussion of the Early History of Beverly Hills,” transcript of a conversation among Lawrence Block, Ben Hoy, Ivan Traucht, Arthur Pillsbury, Stanley Anderson, and Claude Kimball, April 19, 1946. Courtesy of Robert S. Anderson.
9. “Beverly Hills Is Hit at Realty Convention,” Los Angeles Record, December 9, 1922.
Chapter 9: Dramatis Personae
1. Eileen Whitfield, Pickford: The Woman Who Made Hollywood (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1997).
2. Ibid.
3. Ibid.
4. Mary Pickford, Sunshine and Shadow (Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Company, 1955).
5. “Beverly Hills Is Hit at Realty Convention,” Los Angeles Record, December 9, 1922.
6. Whitfield, Pickford: The Woman Who Made Hollywood.
7. Pickford, Sunshine and Shadow.
8. Robert S. Birchard, King Cowboy: Tom Mix and the Movies (Burbank, CA: Riverwood Press, 1993).
9. Ibid.
10. Richard D. Jensen, The Amazing Tom Mix: The Most Famous Cowboy of the Movies (Lincoln, NE: iUniverse, 2005).
11. Gregory Paul Williams, The Story of Hollywood: An Illustrated History (Los Angeles: BL Press LLC, 2011).
Chapter 10: Playing with Fire
1. Joan Renner, “How Murderess Clara Phillips Became ‘Tiger Girl,’” Los Angeles Magazine, June 24, 2013; accessed at LAMag.com., June 24, 2013.
2. Clark Fogg, Senior Forensic Specialist, Beverly Hills Police Department, interview December 15, 2015.
3. “Editor Injured in Bomb Blast: Beverly Hills Publisher Hurt by Infernal Machine; Lays Trouble to Long Dispute,” Los Angeles Examiner, February 27, 1923.
4. “Beverly Hills Hunts Bomber,” Los Angeles Evening Express, February 27, 1923.
5. “Hunt Sender of Death Device to Journalist,” Los Angeles Record, February 28, 1923.
6. “Editor Injured in Bomb Blast: Beverly Hills Publisher Hurt by Infernal Machine; Lays Trouble to Long Dispute,” Los Angeles Examiner, February 27, 1923.
7. “Beverly Hills Hunts Bomber,” Los Angeles Evening Herald, February 27, 1923.
8. “Arrest in 24 Hours,” Los Angeles Record, February 28, 1923.
9. “Reward Posted in ‘Bomb’ Plot,” Los Angeles Times, February 28, 1923.
10. “Beverly Hills Hunts Bomber,” Los Angeles Evening Express, February 27, 1923.
11. “William J. Burns.” Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., last updated (24 September, 2016); accessed on September 27, 2016 at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_J._Burns.
12. “Beverly Bomb Sender Sought,” Los Angeles Examiner, February 28, 1923.
13. Ibid.
14. Email exchange with Michael A. Fratantoni, archivist for the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department, dated December 4, 2015.
15. “Bomb Sent Editor as Joke, Is Belief,” Los Angeles Evening Herald, March 1, 1923.
16. “Bomb Proves to Be Firecrackers,” Los Angeles Record, March 1, 1923.
17. “‘Infernal Machine’ Explodes; Firecrackers Injure Editor,” New York Times, March 1, 1923.
18. B. J. Firminger, “The Story of Beverly Hills,” Beverly Hills Citizen, May 9, 1941.
19. Minutes of the Board of Trustees of the City of Beverly Hills, March 1, 1923.
20. Minutes of the Board of Trustees of the City of Beverly Hills, March 12, 1923.
21. Resolution #73, City of Beverly Hills, March 12, 1923.
Chapter 11: On Their Own
1. Myrtle Gebhart, “Marry in Haste, and Repent in the Courtroom,” Los Angeles Times, January 28, 1923.
2. “Plain Water Stirs Beverly,” Los Angeles Examiner, April 5, 1923.
3. Inspired by a discussion between two characters in Martin Seay, The Mirror Thief (Brooklyn, NY: Melville House, 2016).
4. “Sculptor and Actress View Film Memorial,” Los Angeles Times, July 30, 1959, and “Monument Salutes 8 Annexation Fighters,” Los Angeles Times, March 15, 1964.
5. Minutes of Meeting, Bureau of Sanitary Engineering, April 7, 1923. Department of Public Health, State Board of Health Records Minutes (February 1923–February 1926) R384.001.
6. “Beverly Water Brings Dispute,” Los Angeles Examiner, April 21, 1923.
7. Ibid.
8. �
��Ibid.
9. Ibid.