hollywood

Hollywood was an attractive place for the early filmmakers to settle, full of good weather, orange and lemon trees. For producers who owed money on borrowed camera equipment if a creditor came after them, they could hide among the trees. It was a hard business full of causalities and took a pirate’s mentality to survive. Most of the studio heads were from poor backgrounds, with limited English skills and never forgot their childhood or a personal slight. Included were Jack, Harry, Albert and Sam, the four Warner Brothers from Youngstown, Ohio. They had begun with showing movies off the side of a tent in Youngstown, borrowing all the chairs from the local undertaker. Every time there was a funeral in Youngstown, they had to give all the chairs back and the film patrons were forced to stand.

As a boy Jack Warner wished to be a singer and a comedian. His brothers, recognizing his lack of talent instructed him to sing in the tent when they wanted the audience to leave. He was later advised that the money was not in performing, it was in paying performers. Among the stars that would be under contract to him would be Betty Davis, James Cagney, Humphrey Bogart and Errol Flynn.

The silent days were a struggle for Warner Bros. Rin Tin Tin, a German shepherd that according to his publicity was born in a foxhole in World War I, was their biggest star. Heroic as he might have been on the screen, he proved to be, like many stars, cantankerous in person. Jack Warner took the dog on a publicity tour. As he introduced him to the crowd, his ungrateful employee bit him on the behind, leading to the dog’s dismissal. It proved to be a prelude to Warner’s many future battles with stars.

Trying to make a name for themselves, the four brothers got great publicity by announcing that the renowned opera tenor Caruso would be arriving from Italy to make a film for them. They paid him 25,000 dollars and then put him in a silent movie.

The movie studios had the technology to make talking films years before they made them. One of the reasons why they resisted the idea was that they didn’t want to risk losing their overseas market. Stars like Charlie Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford rarely ever had a flop as their films were shown around the world and knew no language barriers. But in 1926 the silent films faced their biggest competition with a new device called the radio. As movie attendance dwindled the studio heads shut their eyes and pretended the radio was not there. But the Warners lead by the ambitious Sam, decided to push the envelope and try to save their sinking studio by experimenting with movie sound.

Sam purchased an experimental sound system called Vita-phone. They then acquired the rights to The Jazz Singer, a popular play about a young man who had a beautiful voice and is offered a Broadway career against the wishes of his Old World Jewish father. In the play the son gave in to his father but the Warner’s, wishing to reach a wider audience, Americanized the story by having the son follow his own dreams. Star Al Jolson adlibbed the dialogue,” Wait a minute, wait a minute you ain’t heard nothing, yet!” The Warner’s were only intending singing but at the last minute they impulsively kept the line in the film. The Jazz Singer received a standing ovation when it premiered in New York in 1927 and went on to make three and half million dollars at a time when admission costs 20 cents. The sound revolution was under way!

Movie audiences had often been loud and noisy while watching silent films. Now the theater’s got quiet as people strained to hear every word. Movie Theater’s had to be rewired for sound, costing major studios like Paramount and Fox millions of dollars. Movies now had to film mostly at night as any passing truck noise could ruin a sound recording. ” How boring!” said Mary Pickford. “At first we moved! Now everyone is standing around talking!” One enterprising actor was hired for one day’s work. When the director wasn’t looking he let a bunch of crickets loose on the set. It was five days before the crew could round up the chirping crickets, and the actor kept on hold received five times the paycheck.

About The Author

Stephen Schochet is the author and narrator of the audiobooks Fascinating Walt Disney and Tales Of Hollywood. The Saint Louis Post Dispatch says,” these two elaborate productions are exceptionally entertaining.” Hear realaudio samples of these great, unique gifts at www.hollywoodstories.com.

orgofhlly@aol.com

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Ever pick up a dusty book or piece of antique that you
thought to be unimportant, only to discover its inherent
value? That’s how naughty history can be sometimes.
There’s never a dull moment when one rediscovers pieces
of history. I can just imagine how Italian humanists felt just
before they nurtured the Renaissance in Europe.

Canadians are not generally regarded as a people attached
to their heritage, so the opportunity to dust off pieces of
Canadian history is there for us to discover. Indeed, we have
seen this with the Heritage Series vignettes aired on
television, highlighting Canadian historical achievements
and contributions.

I recently stumbled upon one of those lost relics of
Canadiana I never knew existed; which surprised me since I
do take an active interest in this country’s past. Reading
about Canadian history has introduced me to the innovative
spirit of Canadians through the years. In the realm of
Hollywood, Canadians were rugged individualists who
roamed the continent giving unique Canadian imprints to
the North American film experience.

What was supposed to be a night researching Buster
Keaton led to the discovery of several Canadian pioneers in
early Hollywood. While going through the list of Canadian
names on various web sites dedicated to the silent film era,
the one thing that caught my attention was how this
presence and influence seemed disproportionate to
Canada’s tiny population, which grew from 7 million in 1910
to 10 million in 1930. It was like discovering a long lost
relative.

Some quotes from The Grove Book of Hollywood anthology
edited by Christopher Silvester helps to put things in
historical perspective. Dancer and choreographer Agnes
DeMille (niece of Cecil B. DeMille) once said “Hollywood
was merely a country town, like many in the East, with
palms instead of maples and chestnuts. The hills, though
steep, were plain colored. The people were just ordinary.”
She even described how there were still cowboys who, “kept
largely to themselves.”

British actress Constance Collier added “Hollywood was
still a village, with farms that had not yet been built over, and
the surly farmers were furious at the advent of the picture
folk.” In a similar vain, screenwriter Lenore Coffee wrote “In
1919 Hollywood was a village. Hollywood Boulevard could
have been any Main Street in America.”

With this, Hollywood was hardly a romantic and opulent
place in its infancy. Such was the character of Hollywood in
its formative years. There were no agents and it was normal
for employees to offer their insights to the director. What
Hollywood lacked in panache it made up in the family
surroundings it fostered. In many ways, this unassuming
and humble reality resonated well with a Canadian mindset.

And so it is with DeMille’s ,Collier’s and Coffee’s Hollywood,
Canadians were poised to leave their mark; earn their stars
they did.

Notable figures during this time included the tragic lives of
Marie Pr

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As long as actors stay sober on the set, movie studios will generally put up with their off screen behavior. Colin Farell often showed up at six in the morning to work on Swat (2003) so hung over from an all night bender that his bodyguards would carry the nearly unconscious Irishman into his trailer. His co-star Sam Jackson was constantly amazed that the young actor was on time, knew all his lines and was totally professional.

In earlier days before drug testing made it difficult for studios to insure actors like Robert Downey Jr.( known to be just as professional on movie sets as Farrel) the film industry had more tolerance for drunkards. During the making of Abbott And Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948), Director Charles Barton put up with Costello’s antics which included starting a pie fight with Dracula (Bela Lugosi), putting a leash around the Werewolf (Lon Chaney Jr.) and walking him around Universal Studios, and pelting ad-libs at Frankenstein’s Monster (Glenn Strange) so the creature kept laughing and ruining takes. A bigger concern was Bud Abbott who would get so sloshed by 2pm that he was incapable of shooting for the rest of the day. Abbott later explained that when he was young, a doctor told him that if he didn’t stop drinking he’d be dead by the age of thirty. The straight man was so worried about the diagnosis he stayed drunk for the next forty years.

Another classic alcoholic was the British actor Robert Newton (1905-1956) who once got so inebriated he showed up to the wrong movie set. The happy producer put the big star in four scenes until people from the movie he was really supposed to be in came to haul him off. His reputation eventually made it difficult for him to find work. Producer Mike Todd interviewed Newton for the film Around The World In Eighty Days (1956). “Your friend David Niven says you are a big drunk.” “My friend Niven is a master of understatement.” Newton agreed to stay sober during filming and kept his promise.

If you give up drinking you can get something in return. When Lucille Ball was negotiating with CBS to turn her radio show into I Love Lucy (1951-1957) she was surprised to get a call from a character actor she knew named William Frawley. “I hear you need someone to play your landlord.” Lucy was in a quandary. She was from the old school where you help your fellow actors out if they are down on their luck. But Frawley was a well known drunk. She suggested he talk to her husband Desi Arnaz Frawley promised Desi he’d never miss time due to drinking. But could Frawley who was an avid baseball fan have time off if the Yankees made it to the World Series? Desi later regretted giving in to Frawley’s wishes, in the fifties the Yankees made it to the Series almost every year.

Sometimes a director could turn an actor’s drunken behavior against him. When John Huston was ready to shoot the first scene in Heaven Knows Mr. Allison (1957), on location in the South Seas island of Tobago, he sent an assistant director to get star Robert Mitchum out of his tent. Mitchum showed up four hours later explaining that he and the AD had got started drinking scotch and the poor man was unconscious back in the tent. Huston smiled,” That’s ok Bob. Now let’s shoot the scene where your character, the marine floats into the island unconscious on the raft.” Mitchum spent the next four hours suffering in the blazing tropical sun as Huston sitting comfortably in the shade ordered retake after retake. The actor was on time from then on.

But who was the most notorious drinker of all? The Swarm (1978), a disaster film about killer bees, featured Michael Caine, Henry Fonda, Ben Johnson, Slim Pickens and Fred MacMurray, definitely some guys who knew something about putting them down. One day they were joined for lunch at the Warner Brothers commissary by the quiet Olivia de Havilland. There were complaints that no booze was being served. “That’s because of Errol Flynn (1909-1959)”, said de Havilland. “He used to get so drunk he couldn’t work so Mister Warner said no more booze.” The men wanted to hear more about the famous swashbuckler. “Oh my God, Errol was something. Do you know he once got so drunk he wagered a film crew $500 that he’d have his way with me.” The men could see she was a lady and the incident must have been embarrassing for her. Olivia grinned mischievously “Oh it was, it was. And you see that table over there. That’s where he won his bet!”

About The Author

Stephen Schochet is the author and narrator of the audiobooks Fascinating Walt Disney and Tales Of Hollywood. The Saint Louis Post Dispatch says,” these two elaborate productions are exceptionally entertaining.” Hear realaudio samples of these great, unique gifts at http://www.hollywoodstories.com.

orgofhlly@aol.com

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