EARLY GOLDWYN STARS: All dates and salaries were taken from unpublished contract books of the Goldwyn Company; Arthur Mayer to ASB (I), Aug. 2, 1980.
MABEL NORMAND: Sennett, King, pp. 47—52, 103, 137, 193—98, 199—201, 205; Minta Durfee Arbuckle, quoted in Walter Wagner, You Must Remember This (New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1975), p. 34; Madge Kennedy to ASB (I), Feb. 6, 1980; KV to ASB (I), June 11, 1980; CC, Autobiography, pp. 153—56; Irene Mayer Selznick to ASB (I), Apr. 14, 1985; Blanche Sweet to ASB (I), Apr. 2, 1983; Arthur Mayer to ASB (I), Aug. 2, 1980; Mabel Normand to Mack Sennett, telegram, July 23, 1917, quoted in Betty Harper Fussell, Mabel (New Haven and New York: Ticknor & Fields, 1982), p. 105.
GOLDWYN CORPORATE PLANS: Contract books of the Goldwyn Company; Application of Goldwyn Pictures Corporation to the Committee on Stock List of New York Stock Exchange: A—5768—Goldwyn Pictures Corporation, Aug. 30, 1922; SG to staff (mimeo. bulletin), summer 1917.
MAKING MOVIES: J. J. Cohn to ASB (I), Feb. 11, 1980; Madge Kennedy to ASB (I), Feb. 6, 1980; Fort Lee: Past and Present (Fort Lee, N.J.: Fort Lee Chamber of Commerce, 1973), pp. 18—19; Hedda Hopper, From Under My Hat (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1952), p. 100; SG, Behind the Screen, pp. 123—25, 131; Johnston, Great Goldwyn, pp. 50—1; Mary Garden and Louis Biancolli, Mary Garden’s Story (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1951), pp. 229—33; Arthur Mayer to ASB (I), Aug. 2, 1980.
ADVERTISING AND NEW STARS: Howard Dietz, Dancing in the Dark (New York: Quadrangle/New York Times Book Co., 1974), pp, 38—9, 42—3, 54—5; Jock Lawrence to ASB (I), Oct. 17, 1982; Arthur Mayer, Merely Colossal (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1953), pp. 11—13; Arthur Mayer to ASB (I), Aug. 2, 1980; SG, Behind the Screen, pp. 134—35, 143—44; SG, (UN) to unidentified interviewer, Dec. 8, 1952.
MABEL NORMAND: David Rose to ASB (I), Feb. 21, 1980; Mayer, Colossal, p. 13; Hopper, Under My Hat, pp. 93—5; Fussell, Mabel, p. 106; Madge Kennedy to ASB (I), Feb. 6, 1980; Sennett, King, pp. 209—11.
ACQUIRING TALENT: Quotes about Rex Beach, cited in Asa Don Dickinson, The Best Books of Our Time: 1901—1925 (New York: H. W. Wilson, 1931); Samuel Marx to ASB (I), Feb. 24, 1984; Contract books of the Goldwyn Company; Muriel Elwood, Pauline Frederick: On and Off the Stage (Chicago: A. Kroch, 1940), pp. 77—86; SG, Behind the Screen, pp. 139—41; Leon Barsacq, Caligari’s Cabinet and Other Grand Illusions (Boston: New York Graphic Society, 1976), pp. 197—98, 200—1; Lasky, Jr., Whatever Happened, pp. 10—11; Miriam Sesonske to ASB (I), June 8, 1984; Stephen Sesonske to ASB (I), June 8, 1984; Neill Lehr to ASB (I), July 13, 1983.
MARKETING GOLDWYN FILMS: SG to staff (unpub. bulletin), c. summer 1917.
WORLD WAR I: Ramsaye, Million and One Nights, p, 781; Sgt. Herbert H. Brin, The Longhorn, newspaper, Camp Walters, Tex., Dec. 29, 1944, p. 1; SG, “What America Means to Me,” American Weekly, Jan. 27, 1952, p. 23; Kevin Brownlow, The War, the West and the Wilderness (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1979), p. 116; the quip from Edgar Selwyn appears in Hopper, Under My Hat, p. 100.
GOLDWYN FILMS DURING WAR; COPING WITH SHORTAGES: Various unsourced clippings, Lincoln Center Library—“ Goldwyn Surmounts Difficulty,” March 10, 1918; “‘The Floor Below’ Delightful Film,” n.d.; “Pleasing Personalities in Human Domestic Comedy. Grab It,” Oct. 13, 1918; “Dissolving Title Used in Kennedy’s Latest,” n.d.; Tallulah Bankhead, Tallulah, My Autobiography (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1952), pp. 54, 62—3; Harry Alexander to ASB (I), Aug. 2, 1980.
LOUELLA PARSONS: Louella O. Parsons, The Gay Illiterate (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Doran, 1944), pp, 9, 29—30, 65—6; SG, (UN) (ghostwritten by George Slaff) for Life, Aug. 24, 1962.
SECOND YEAR OF GOLDWYN: SG, unpub. pamphlet for Goldwyn managers, c. summer 1918; Ramsaye, Million and One Nights, pp. 789—92; Arthur Mayer to ASB, Aug. 2, 1980.
NEAR-DEMISE OF GOLDWYN COMPANY: William Hebert to Roger Butterfield, Sept. 30, 1947; SG, Behind the Screen, pp. 110—18; Frances Marion, Off with Their Heads! (New York: Macmillan, 1972), p. 88; Anita Loos, in Fussell, Mabel, p. 114; Madge Kennedy to ASB (I), Feb. 6, 1980; Harry Alexander to ASB (I), Feb. 15, 1980; David Rose to ASB (I), Feb. 21, 1980; Johnston, Great Goldwyn, pp. 52—3.
SG CHANGES NAME: Court order, “In the Matter of the Application of SAMUEL GOLDFISH,” Dec. 19, 1918; SGJ to ASB (I), Jan. 5, 1979; RGC to ASB (I), Oct. 13, 1979.
7 THE BUSINESS OF AMERICA
WILL ROGERS: Bryan B. Sterling and Frances N. Sterling, Will Rogers in Hollywood (New York: Crown Publishers, 1984), pp. 2—8, 17; Will Rogers, The Autobiography of Will Rogers, ed. Donald Day (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1949), pp. 58—68; Betty Rogers, Will Rogers: His Wife’s Story (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1941, 1979), pp. 143—44; Charles Higham, Ziegfeld (Chicago: Henry Regnery, 1972), pp. 108—9; contract books of the Goldwyn Company (“Rogers”).
BUILDING OF THE STUDIOS: Marc Wanamaker, “Before Hollywood Was Hollywood,” Los Angeles Times, “Calendar,” Aug. 31, 1980, pp. 62—4; Wanamaker, “Historic Hollywood Movie Studios,” American Cinematographer, Mar., Apr., and May 1976; Wanamaker, “Thomas H. Ince: Father of the Western,” The Movie (London), no. 109, 1982, pp. 2170—72; Lloyd Morris, Not So Long Ago (New York: Random House, 1949), p. 132; Drinkwater, Laemmle, pp. 170—71; contract books of the Goldwyn Company; Madge Kennedy to ASB (I), Feb. 6, 1980; Will Rogers, in Sterling, Will Rogers, p. 6.
BLANCHE LASKY’S REMARRIAGE AND RGC: Blanche Sweet to ASB (I), Apr. 2, 1983; Jesse Lasky, Jr., Whatever Happened to Hollywood? (New York: Funk & Wagnalls, 1975), p. 14; Jesse Lasky, Jr., to ASB (I), Sept. 8, 1980; George Edwin Joseph to Gabriel Hess, Dec. 22, 1919; Appeal No. 5414, Blanche Goldfish v. Samuel Goldfish, Supreme Court, Appellate Division, First Department, New York, October 1920; Nathan Burkan to George Edwin Joseph, Dec. 20, 1919; George Edwin Joseph to SG, Dec. 9, 22, 1919; Gabriel Hess to SG, March 21, April 2, 1919; Ruth Lasky to SG, May 1, 1919; Ruth Lasky to SG, May 3, 1919; Ruth Lasky to SG, n.d. [prob. summer 1919]; SG to Ruth Goldwyn, May 13, 26, June 16, July 22, Nov. 11, 1919.
ZUKOR, UNITED ARTISTS, AND LOEW: Ramsaye, Million and One Nights, pp. 793—95; Tino Balio, United Artists: The Company Built by the Stars (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1976), pp. 27—9; Bosley Crowther, The Lion’s Share (New York: E. P. Dutton, 1957), pp. 50—2.
SG AND EMINENT AUTHORS: Harry Alexander to ASB (I), Feb. 15, 1980; Arthur Mayer to ASB (I), Aug. 2, 1980; contract books of the Goldwyn Company (“Atherton,” “Beach,” “King,” “Scott,”
“Rinehart,” “Morris,” “Hughes,” “Eminent Authors”); Rupert Hughes, “My Adventures in Pictureland,” Photoplay, Nov. 1919, pp. 72—3, 121; SG’s “Statement of Assets and Liabilities,” July 24, 1919; Felix F. Feist, open letter from Goldwyn Distributing Corporation to the trade, June 18, 1919; Felix Feist to resident managers, July 10, 1919; Goldwyn Distributing Corporation to All Managers, confidential letter, June 17, 1919.
GOLDWYN STARS: Contract books of the Goldwyn Company (“Farrar,” “Frederick,” “Kennedy,” “Moore,” “Normand,” “Pickford, Jack,” “Rogers”); Goldwyn, Behind the Screen, pp. 150—57; AL to SG, February 18, 1919; Elwood, Pauline Frederick, pp. 99—113; SG to AL, Feb. 11, 1919; Irene Mayer Selznick to ASB (I), May 31, 1985; Sennett, King, pp. 211—13, 218—22; Harry Alexander to ASB (I), Feb. 15, 1980; Sterling, Will Rogers, pp, 3, 35, 38; Clarence Badger’s “Reminiscences” appear in ibid., pp. 8—16; Rogers, Autobiography, pp. 62—3; Will Rogers to SG (T), Oct. 17, 1919; Elmer Rice, Minority Report (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1963), pp. 170—85; Rudy Behlmer and Tony Thomas, Hollywood’s Hollywood (Secaucus, N.J.: Citadel Press, 1975), p. 104; New York Times, Oct. 24, 1921; “Report on Rogers” (c. late 1920].
EMINENT AUTHORS: Mary Roberts Rinehart, My Story (New York: Farrar and Rinehart, 1931), pp. 291—97; Gertrude Atherton, Adventures of a Novelist (New York: Liveright, 1932), pp. 543—44; Rex Beach, Personal Exposures (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1940), pp. 186—206; Mayer, Colossal, pp. 34—5.
EXPANDING OF GOLDWYN PICTURES CORP.: AL to SG, May 17, 1919; contract book
s of the Goldwyn Company (“Lehr”); SG to AL, June 9, 1919; Frank Joseph Godsol is referred to in Mayer, Colossal, pp. 39—44; Messmore Kendall, Never Let the Weather Interfere (New York: Farrar, Straus, 1946), p. 272; contract books of the Goldwyn Company (“Godsol”); Harry Alexander to ASB (I), July 27, 1988; Kevin Lewis and Arnold Lewis, “Include Me Out: Samuel Goldwyn and Joe Godsol,” Film History, June/July, 1988, pp. 133—53. The du Pont fortunes are described in Gerald Colby Zilg, Du Pont: Behind the Nylon Curtain (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1974), pp. 168—70; Max Dorian, The Du Ponts: From Gunpowder to Nylon (Boston: Little, Brown, 1962), pp. 186—94; William S. Dutton, Du Pont: One Hundred and Forty Years (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1951), pp. 246—51; SG to AL, Dec. 30, 1919; SG to AL, Dec. 17, 1919; SG, Annual Message to Goldwyn Managers and Salesmen [c. summer 1920]; the Goldwyn lot is described in “Application of Goldwyn Pictures Corporation to the Committee on Stock List, New York Stock Exchange,” Aug. 30, 1922, p. 3.
CAPITOL THEATRE: Kendall, Weather, pp. 264—71; Ben M. Hall, The Best Remaining Seats (New York: Bramhall House, 1961), pp. 57—69; Naylor, Picture Palaces, p. 44; Journal of the American Society of Heating and Uentilating Engineers [n.d., n.p.—prob. 1920]; misc. unmarked clippings, Lincoln Center Library—“The Goldwyn Company” (1919 and 1920).
MAETERLINCK: Contract books for the Goldwyn Company (“Tarkington,” “Maeterlinck,” “Eminent Authors”); Dietz, Dancing, pp. 55—9; “Press Release—1920,” reporting SG speech to exhibitors; Johnston, Great Goldwyn, pp. 60—4; SG, Behind the Screen, pp. 249—56; Mayer, Colossal, p. 36; Arthur Mayer to ASB (I), Aug. 2, 1980; Harry Alexander to ASB (I), Feb. 15, 1980.
SG TO EUROPE: SG to AL, Mar. 18, 1920; SG, Behind the Screen, pp. 236—60; Dietz, Dancing, p. 59; Mayer, Colossal, p. 10.
GOLDWYN COMPANY’S NEW MODE OF BUSINESS: SG to W. W. Laird, July 23, 1920; SG to AL, Jan. 13, 1920; Harry Alexander to ASB (I), Feb. 15, 1980; SG to AL, Mar. 19, 1920 (dated Mar. 18, 1920); SG to AL, Mar. 22, 1920; SG to AL, Mar. 24, 1920; F. J. Godsol to SG (T), Jan. 1, 2, 5, 1920; SG to F. A. Gudger (T), Feb. 13, 1920; AL to SG, May 24, 1920; Mayer, Colossal, p. 37.
SG RESIGNS AND RE-SIGNS: “Synopsis of Minutes of Board Meetings—1920”; SG to AL (NL), Sepc. 3, 1920; SG to AL, Sept. 9, 1920; Crowther, Lion’s Share, p. 68; Kendall, Weather, pp. 273—74; Harry Alexander to ASB (I), Feb. 15, 1980; Minutes of Sales Department Conference, Mar. 22, 1920; AL to SG, Apr. 11, 1921; SG to F. J. Godsol, May 18, 1921.
SG AS LAME DUCK PRESIDENT: Minutes of Board Meeting, Oct. 22, 1920; F. J. Godsol to SG, Jan. 7, 1921; Arthur Mayer to ASB (I), Aug. 2, 1980; SG to AL, Feb. 15, 24, 1921; AL to SG, May 5, Oct. 13, 1921; Rae Lipnick to SG, Jan. 8, 1921; Richard Griffith, Samuel Goldwyn: The Producer and His Films (New York: Museum of Modern Art Film Library, 1956), p. 11; Carl Sandburg, “The (Chicago) Daily News,” May 12, 1921, reprinted in Harry M. Geduld (editor), Authors on Film (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1972), pp. 47—9.
SG’S “BREAKDOWN”: Rae Lipnick to Mabel Normand (T), May 10, 1921; Rae Lipnick to AL (T), May 11, 1921; AL to Rae Lipnick (T), May 12, 1921; SG to AL (T), May 13, 1921; SG to Mabel Normand (NL), May 13, 1921; AL to SG (T), May 17, 1921.
COLLAPSE OF COMPANY: “Analysis of Disbursements and Receipts for 1921”; SG to AL (DL), May 19, 1921; Harry Alexander to ASB (I), Feb. 15, 1980; SG to AL, June 4, 1921; SG to AL (DL), June 6, 1921; SG to AL, June 9, 1921; AL to SG, June 10, 1921; SG to F. J. Godsol (T), July 31, 1921; SG to F. J. Godsol, July 11, 1921; SG to F. J. Godsol (NL), July 22, 1921; SG to F. J. Godsol (NL), July 28, 1921; George P. Bissell to SG, Aug. 3, 1921; AL to SG, Oct. 25, 1921; SG to AL, Oct. 3, 1921; AL to SG, Nov. 4, 1921; AL to SG, Nov. 16, 1921; SG to AL, Nov. 28, 1921; AL to SG(T), Feb. 14, 1922; SG to F. J. Godsol (T), Feb. 15, 1922; SG to AL, Mar 1, 1922; ”Application of Goldwyn Pictures corporation to committee on Stock List of New York Stock Exchange,“ Aug. 30, 1922, p. 6; Mayer, Colossal, pp. 39—40.
8 ELBA
HOLLYWOOD AND ITS SCANDALS: Ramsaye, Million and One Nightr, p. 815; C. B. DeMille, Autobiography, pp. 237—38; SG, Behind the Screen, pp. 247—48; Elinor Glyn, Romantic Adventure (New York: E. P. Dutton, 1937), pp. 150—51, 304—6; Ina Claire to ASB (I), Mar. 11, 1980; King Vidor, random notes, 1965; Madge Kennedy to ASB (I), Feb. 6, 1980; CC, Autobiography, pp. 265—66; Kevin Brownlow, Hollywood (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1979), p. 157; Anita Loos, A Girl Like I (New York: Viking Press, 1966), p. 121; Adela Rogers St. John, Love, Laughter and Tears: My Hollyurood Story (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1978), p. 6; David Rose to ASB (I), Feb. 21, 1980; Marion, Off with Their Heads!, pp. 92—3; Carmel Myers to ASB (I), May 21, 1980; Lasky, I Blow, pp. 153—58; C. B. DeMille, Autobiography, pp. 238—39; King Vidor to ASB (I), June 11, 1980; “Sex on the Rampage,” This Week, Los Angeles Times, Dec. 12, 1943, p. 5.
CLEANING HOUSE: Ramsaye, Million and One Nights, pp. 809—15, 820—21; Will H. Hays, The Memoirs of Will H. Hays (Garden City, N.Y: Doubleday, 1955), pp. 323—27, 329—30, 344—45; Mabel Normand’s writing to SG is referred to in a letter, AL to SG, June 6, 1922; a copy of the round-robin letter to Will Hays of December 2, 1921, appears in Ramsaye, Million and One Nights, between pp. 816 and 817.
REACTION TO SG’S OUSTER: SGJ to ASB (I), Oct. 11, 1983; SG to F. J. Godsol (NL), Feb. 15, 1922; AL to SG (T), Feb. 15, 1922; F. J. Godsol to SG, Mar. 9, 1922; SG to AL, Mar. 14, 1922; Arthur Mayer to SG, Mar. 9, 1922; George E. Kann to SG, Mar. 10, 1922; Howard Dietz to SG, Mar. 13, 1922; Rupert Hughes to SG (T), Mar. 12, 1922; SG to Rupert Hughes, (NL), Mar. 13, 1922; Goldwyn Studios Organization to SG (T), Mar. 13, 1922; SG to AL (T), c. Mar. 14, 1922; SG, Behind the Screen, p. 261.
SG SPRINGS BACK INTO ACTION: SG to AL, Apr. 10, 1922; Edward Wise to SG, Mar. 7, 1922; Blanche Sweet to ASB (I), Apr. 2, 1983; SG on two types of producers, quoted in Providence Evening Bulletin, Nov. 27, 1935; Neil S. McCarthy to SG (T), Mar. 29, 1922; the rights to Ben-Hur are discussed in Crowther, Lion’s Share, pp. 92—3; SG to Halle & Stieglitz, Apr. 19, 1922; AL to SG, June 6, 1922; SG to AL, June 24, 1922; SG to AL, Apr. 10, 1922; SG to AL, May 26, 1922; AL to SG, May 16, 1922; AL to SG, June 30, 1922; SG to AL, July 12, 1922; AL to SG, Oct. 13, 1922; AL to SG, June 6, 1922.
SG “WRITES” MEMOIRS: SG to AL, May 26, 1922; Johnston, Great Goldwyn, p. 81; Arthur T. Vance of Pictorial Review to SG, June 5, 1922; Arthur Vance to SG, June 9, 1922; Arthur Vance to Paul Block, June 9, 1922; Arthur Vance to SG, June 5 and 12, 1922; AL to SG, June 6, 1922; SG to AL, May 26, 1922; AL to SG, July 11, 1922; AL to SG, July 12, 1922; SG, Behind the Screen, pp. v, vii, 23, 24, 106, 107, 183—84, 262—63; Dennis F. O‘Brien to Arthur Vance, Oct. 14, 1922; AL to SG, July 12, 1922; AL to SG, Aug. 11, 1922.
As of SG’s March 31, 1924, royalty report, Behind the Screen had sold 6, 739 books at $2.50: JAM to SG, July 21, 1924; JAM to AL, Aug. 23, 1924.
SG AT GREAT NECK: Robert W. Mc-Cully (veterinarian) to SG, Mar. 29, 1922; Johnston, Great Goldwyn, pp. 80—1; SG to AL, Aug. 12, 1922; Rupert Hughes to SG, July 16, 1922; SG to AL, July 12, 1922; AL to SG, July 19, 1922; SG to AL, Aug. 12, 1922; AL to SG, Aug. 11, 1922; Douglas Fairbanks to SG, Jan. 10, 1923; Douglas Fairbanks to Jack Coogan, Jan. 10, 1923; David Rose to ASB (I), Feb. 21, 1980; regarding CC, AL to SG (T), Nov. 18, 1922; CC, Autobiography, p. 295; Hilde Berl Halpern to ASB (I), Sept. 7, 1980.
DIRECTORS: KV to ASB (I), June 11, 1980; Byron Haskin, in Brownlow, Hollywood, pp. 204—5; William A. Wellman, A Short Time for Insanity (New York: Hawthorn Books, 1974), pp. 118, 146—49; FG to Richard Griffith, Aug. 16, 1955; King Vidor, A Tree Is a Tree (New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1953), pp. 67—8, 69—70, 71, 106—7; WW to ASB (I), Apr. 1, 1980; Neil S. McCarthy to SG, Nov. 7, 1922.
SG RESUMES PRODUCTION: Montague Glass, “Potash and Perlmutter: Their Origin and Their Originator,” The Glovers’ Review, Feb. 1910, pp. 15—19; SG to Ruth Goldwyn, May 14, 1923; SG, memorandum re The Eternal City, c. Jan. 1923; SGJ to ASB (I), Oct. 11, 1983; Marquis James and Bessie Rowland James, Biography of a Bank: The Story of the Bank of America (New York: Harpe
r & Brothers, 1954), pp. 245—47; Balio, United Artists, p. 52; C. B. DeMille, Autobiography, pp. 242—45; JS to SG, c. Oct. 30, 1931; Griffith, Goldwyn, p. 16; SGJ to ASB (I), Oct. 11, 1983; Henry King to ASB (I), May 28, 1980; Arthur C. Miller’s escape from Italy is recounted in Liz-Anne Bawden, ed., The Oxford Companion to Film (New York and London: Oxford University Press, 1976), p. 468.
SCREENWRITERS: Anita Loos, A Girl, P. 71.
WAITING AT SARANAC LAKE: SG to Ruth Goldwyn, Aug. 13, 1923.
SG PRESENTS HIS FIRST FILMS: New York Times, Sept. 24, 1923, p. 5.
THE MERGER: Crowther, Lion’s Share, pp. 70—4, 79—81; statistics on American business cited in Rebecca Brooks Gruver, An American History (New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1976), p. 895; Upton Sinclair, Upton Sinclair Presents William Fox (Los Angeles: published by the author, 1933), p. 69; accounting (M), probably JAM to SG, “‘The Eternal City,’ February 28, 1925”; SGJ to ASB (I), Oct. 11, 1983.
F. J. Godsol’s death was alluded to in New York Times, May 2, 1935, p. 23. He left $250,000 to his cousin, Mrs. Al H. Woods.
SG often referred to himself as a “lone wolf”; here he is quoted from (UN) for (I) with George Slaff, c. June 1959, in preparation for a five-part series on SG in Los Angeles Times; see also Alvin H. Marill, Samuel Goldwyn Presents (South Brunswick, N.J., and New York: A. S. Barnes, 1976), p. 23.
9 LEADING LADIES
BEAUTY AND STARS: SG quoted in William Fadiman, Hollywood Now (London: Thames and Hudson, 1973), p. 98; Selznick, Private View, pp. 60—1; John Mason Brown, The Worlds of Robert E. Sherwood: Mirror to His Times, 1896—1939 (New York: Harper & Row, 1965), p. 187.
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