Starts Thursday!: Introducing Alice Calhoun

Starts Thursday!: Introducing Alice Calhoun: "It is my great pleasure to introduce Susann Gilbert, biographer and cousin (!) of silent star Alice Calhoun. Though her filmography lists m..."

The above link will take you to "Starts Thursday!" a beautiful site dedicated to the Art and History of Motion Picture Coming Attraction Slides. Yours truly is this week's guest commentator.

"The Last Silent Picture Show" by William M. Drew

”This book details the fate of an entire art form the silent cine in the United States during the 1930s and how it managed to survive the onslaught of sound.”

The story of silent films didn’t end with the “Jazz Singer” back in 1927, silent movies continued to be produced long after. “And though talkies would overtake the industry and the public's demand soon enough, the silent motion picture did not disappear immediately.”

Film historian William M. Drew has written a brilliant book on the changeover. Anyone with an interest in the silent films needs this book as the research source from this point forward it is going to be necessary as a tool for study of the switch.

This outstanding history has been thoroughly research using existing records; this is a neglected period in movie history which will be of interested to everyone who has ever wondered about the revolution.

William M. Drew, whose interest in films and literature began when he was eight years old, has been co-director and lecturer for numerous college film series, and editor and film reviewer for an entertainment quarterly. His articles on film history have appeared in various journals. He is the author of: D W Griffith, Intolerance: its Genius and its Vision (McFarland,1986); Speaking of Silents: First Ladies of the Screen (Vestal Press,1990) and At the Center of the Frame: Leading Ladies of the Twenties and Thirties (Vestal Press,1999).

“The Last Silent Picture Show” can be purchased via Amazon or directly from Scarecrow Press. Click on the links below:

Amazon: The Last Silent Picture Show: Silent Films on American Screens
by William M. Drew
Scarecrow Press: The Last Silent Picture Show: Silent Films on American Screens
by William M. Drew


The Last Silent Picture Show: Silent Films on American Screens
by William M. Drew
Pub Date: Aug 2010
268 pages
# ISBN-10: 0810876809
# ISBN-13: 978-0810876804

References: http://looking-for-mabel.webs.com/lastsilentpictureshow.htm

Film Preservation and Public Access: Part Two

Just as a falling tree makes no sound if no one is around to hear it, preserving a film makes no sense if no one is allowed to see it. *

On November 13, 2010,Kevin Brownlow received an Academy Honorary Award at the 2nd Annual Governors Awards given by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Brownlow, born on 2 June 1938, Crowborough, Sussex is a filmmaker, film historian, television documentary-maker, author, and now, an Academy Award recipient. Brownlow is best known for his work documenting the history of the silent era. Brownlow became interested in silent film at the age of eleven. This interest grew into a career spent documenting and restoring film. He has rescued many silent films and their history. His initiative in interviewing many largely forgotten, elderly film pioneers in the 1960s and 1970s preserved a legacy of cinema.

In 1968 Brownlow's first book on silent film, The Parade's Gone By..., was published. The book had many interviews with the leading actors and directors of the silent era and began his career as a film historian. Brownlow subsequently has published nine more books, written countless articles and made 18 documentaries on the topic of the history of film.

Brownlow's documentary series Hollywood: A Celebration of American Silent Film was an entertaining, informative masterpiece in 13 parts. Unfortunately,it was met with legal entanglements of copyright issues and clip clearances, and pulled from distribution.

Brownlow also spent many years getting support for the restoration of Abel Gance's 1927 French classic, Napoléon, a 'lost' epic film that used an early example of split screen or widescreen triptych form that Gance called Polyvision which was similar to the later Cinerama. Brownlow's championing of the film succeeded and the restored, re-scored version was shown in London and New York in 1980 and 1981. Gance lived to see the acclaim for his restored film.

However, a previous version of the Napoléon film was produced by Francis Ford Coppola’s Zoetrope Studios (which was shorter in length than Brownlow’s 1980 version due to Coppola-supervised editing), and featured an original music score by Carmine Coppola. Coppola’s exclusive contract protecting his 1981 version prevents Brownlow from showing his 1980 version in American theaters or from releasing that edition on home video in the US.

Brownlow's frustration at the red tape of copyright issues that has hampered public access of his preservation efforts is understandable. The irony is that Brownlow was honored along with Coppola at the Governor's Awards at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences on November 13, 2010. The following is a portion of his speech when he accepted his Oscar:

"Have you ever wondered what the reflected glory looks like, this is it? On behalf of all those film historians and preservationists and film collectors I heard an intake of breath...My God, your predecessor did a terrible job of preserving the silent era; historian David Pierce is about to reveal 73% has been destroyed; that is like a publisher taking Trotsky, Dickens, Scott Fitzgerald de-pulping every copy and you can’t even see the manuscript because they have burned that as well.

So it is up to us to do our damndest to find the films that your predecessor destroyed and bring them back into the canon, an awful lot is being done as you know the recent find in New Zealand and the recent generosity from Russia but when I think of some of the titles that are gone it is really heartbreaking.

Now, I was told when I started this business that silent films were a complete waste of time. They were jerky, flickery, ludicrously badly acted and appalling photographed, and I couldn’t understand it as I was already a film collector, and what I saw were in beautiful prints, although sometimes abridged, were a stroke by freshness, vitality, the inventiveness and the exquisite photography. Oh, I really do regret the loss of black and white it was a beautiful medium…It called upon, you to do some work, like silent film itself; you had to supply the voices and sound effects, and with black and white you supply everything the film suggested and therefore you become part of the creative process and it means that much more.

…Now, it is amazing what is turning up and if you would only relax your copyright laws where silent films are concerned, you would see an awful lot more suddenly appear that has been one of the worst chains on this whole affair of ours to try and rescue the past of the cinema…"**

___________________________________________

I, myself, believe that Mr. Brownlow showed great restraint in his frustration. In my own research into Alice Calhoun, I have met with roadblocks by collectors who buy and sell memorabilia and film and then hide it away in their private vaults. While it is within their rights, it is also hoarding, and absolutely maddening to a researcher.

_________________________________

In conclusion of the topic of Film Preservation and Public Access, I concede to the experts; that is, the perfect words in the statement of The Committee For Film Preservation and Public Access:


Our position is simple. We strongly support the creation of a national policy to preserve our motion picture heritage. At the same time, that program will be incomplete -- utterly pointless -- unless there is a guarantee of access to the films that are being preserved at public expense.

– from the Summary of Statement by The Committee For Film Preservation and Public Access, 1993. Members include motion picture screenwriters, directors, producers, distributors, historians and journalists: Joe Dante, William K. Everson, Robert A. Harris, Ed Hulse, Richard T. Jameson, G. William Jones, Ph.D., Robert King, Timothy Lucas, Gregory Luce, Leonard Maltin, Steven Newark, L. Ray Patterson, Samuel A. Peeples, David Pierce, Fred Olen Ray, Michael V. Rotello, Bonnie Rowan, Anthony Slide, George Turner, Bill Warren, Matthew Weisman.

__________________________________________
(c) Susann Disbro Gilbert

References:
* Also from the Summary of Statement by The Committee For Film Preservation and Public Access. http://www.cinemaweb.com/access/pre_stmt.htm
** Thank you to Marilyn Slater for the photo of Mr. and Mrs. Brownlow and her transcription of Kevin Brownlow's acceptance speech. It can be read, in its entirety at http://looking-for-mabel.webs.com/brownlow2010award.htm

Film Preservation and Public Access: Part One

The Other Woman's Story (1925)

Audiences love happy endings, or at least a plot with enough jokes to lighten the mood of heavy-handed topics. Viewers often have an aversion to tragic tales, considering them as taboo when not treated with satire and/or absurdity to make them palatable.

Also invariably, fans dislike actors playing against type, although any actor wanting to express their versatility and talent welcomes the opportunity to “stretch their wings” and take on a role that is the complete antithesis of that which they have become strongly identified. This is especially true for frustrated “B-list” actors who have made a career playing a particular “type” and attempt to escape the typecasting by seeking out a role that plays against their norm.

Such is the case of actress Alice Calhoun in 1925’s The Other Woman’s Story. Having recently completed one of the longest studio contracts on record with the now-defunct Vitagraph Studios, Alice was one of the first motion picture actresses to attempt to free-lance and seek out diverse roles, instead of accepting the saccharine parts that had been assigned to her for years and were continuing to come her way. As an actress who was known for playing “good girl” roles, in The Other Woman’s Story, the script called for her to portray a faithless wife and scheming murderess who pins the blame on her husband but in the end, pays the ultimate price for her crime: death. Told in a series of flashbacks while he sits on death row, actor Robert Frazier’s character of Alice's husband recalled the events that led up to his precarious situation.

But the producers of The Other Woman’s Story, B.P. Schulberg Productions, felt that the public’s aversion to the idea of a woman, even a guilty one, being executed would not be acceptable. They then changed the ending to an implausible one, with a prostitute who knew the truth all along coming clean at the eleventh hour, and Alice’s character being released into the custody of her husband.

Even with the amended conclusion, the reaction by audiences to Alice’s character was shocking, especially to her loyal fans. Infidelity, divorce, murder, and a trial were not the usual theme of films starring Miss Calhoun, and seeing her in the role of an evil, manipulative woman was certainly not de rigueur. And even as trite as the re-written ending was, however, Alice’s portrayal of a wicked woman was spot-on convincing.

The status of this highly unusual film in the anthology of Alice Calhoun’s body of work is that The Other Woman’s Story is in a two-part copy, stored in the nitrate vaults at the UCLA Motion Picture Collection. Part one of the film is approx. 1 reel of 35 mm. nitrate print, owned by the Producers Library (Footage.net), and an additional 5 reels stored in the same location (owner unknown). The exact condition of these prints of The Other Women’s Story are unknown at the time of this writing, but there is a good possibility that an attempt to salvage and preserve a copy of it will be made in the near future. Other considerations would be the expenses involved in saving the film, and copyright considerations in regard to future public access.

"Preservation" of film, such as The Other Woman’s Story, refers to physical storage of nitrate film in a climate-controlled vault, and hopefully, eventual repair and copying the actual film elements. The first and foremost pressing consideration of preservation of a film such as The Other Woman’s Story is the critical issue of film decay because it is a nitrate film. Movies made in the first half of the 20th century were filmed on an unstable, highly flammable cellulose nitrate film base, which requires careful storage to slow its inevitable process of decomposition over time. This also includes "orphan" films, such as documentaries and home movies.

But Alice Calhoun’s controversial character in The Other Woman’s Story was such a departure from the trite and true parts normally portrayed by her, that it makes a good argument for preservation of the film as an important piece of the fractional remaining body of work of this pioneering film actress. The UCLA Motion Picture copy being the only “known” reproduction of this film makes the case for pursuing preservation of it instrumental in facilitating the cause of keeping the history of film alive, as well.

Let's hope that happy ending occurs soon, because nitrate won't wait!

(c) Susann Disbro Gilbert

Garden of Girls: 1925

Jazz Age / Art Deco Era photos taken by Ziegfeld Follies photographer Edwin Bower Hesser at his Hotel des Artistes studio in New York City.

Edwin Bower Hesser (1893-1962) was a prominent photographer who worked in New York and Los Angeles during the golden age of Hollywood. Hesser belonged to the generation of photographers who saw the marriage of image and performance as the future of the art. He was drawn to the world of movies and worked as a contract photographer for numbers of silent stars based in New York. He began to make regular trips to the west coast for photographic sessions with Hollywood stars, and finally moved his base of operations to the West Coast.

A fire in 1922 destroyed all of his negatives. In starting over, Hesser realized that the real money in photography lay in periodical publication, not in the service of film publicity offices or stage PR men. He saw a particular opportunity in the subject which the 1920s stage explored with great daring, but the screen, even in pre-code days, could not pursue: female nudity.

Throughout the late 1920s, he published EDWIN BOWER HESSER'S ARTS MONTHLY, exploiting the association betweens art and nudity, and sold it to an anonymous readership of 'art students.' The magazine also featured the work of Ziegfeld Follies photographer Alfred Cheney Johnston, along with John De Mirjian, George DeBarron and Strand Studios.

Interestingly, the famous beauties of the day eagerly flocked to his studios to be artistically photographed in various stages of undress, and these included a number of famous actresses: Marion Davies, Anna Wong, Louise Brooks, Corrine Griffith, Bessie Love, and Alice Calhoun, were among the many who willingly posed for ‘artistic’ photos by Hesser.

Hesser also developed his own color photography system known as Hessercolor, that intrigued magazine publishers, but did not prevail in the marketplace . But his experiments with color photographic processes and his experience with mass reproduction of imagery made him attractive in the eyes of the New York Times, who hired him as a technician.



(c) Susann Disbro Gilbert

References:
Dr. David S. Shields, McClintock Professor at the University of South Carolina;
UCLA Special Collections;
Trouble in Paradise: Edwin Bower Hesser precodecinemablogspot.com

Who in the World are the EGOTs? !

EGOT [ee-goht] –noun, plural: EGOTs.
1. (noun)(Alternatively: Igot) is Filipino slang term derived from the word igorot. Igorot refers to the mountainous peoples of the Philippines. It seems a derogatory term.
2. (noun) Philip Michael Thomas invented the phrase "EGOT", meaning "Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Tony", in reference to his plans for winning all four. (Note: Philip Michael Thomas played "Ricardo Tubbs" in the 1980s TV series Miami Vice. Thomas achieved a People's Choice Award and a Golden Globe nomination but lacked even a nomination for any of the aforementioned awards.
3. (noun/plot device) Bling worn by comedian Tracy Morgan on the NBC television show 30 Rock, playing the character "Tracy Jordan", a caricature of himself.
4. (noun), the Eosinophil Granule Ontogeny Transcript non-protein coding gene which encodes a long noncoding RNA molecule.

Genes and Filipinos aside, the question of the day is: "Who are the real EGOTs (recipients of an Emmy/Grammy/Oscar/Tony awards) ?

Of course, the answer isn't simple, but for the sake of space, there are 10 EGOTs - technically 12 - if the rule of competitive awards awarded isn't a prerequisite, and "special" or "honorary" Emmy, Grammy, Oscar or Tony awards are included.

The TEN EGOTs recipients are (drum roll, please):

Richard Rogers / Helen Hayes / Rita Moreno / John Gielgud / Mike Nichols /
/ Audrey Hepburn / Marvin Hamlisch / Jonathan Tunick / Mel Brooks / Whoopi Goldberg

( - APPLAUSE - )

In addition, Rogers and Hamlisch have both won the Pulitzer Prize, as well.

( - STANDING OVATION - )

If special or honorary awards are allowed in the EGOTs list (and why not?!), then we may include Liza Minnelli and Barbra Streisand.

Also, many of the above have won more than one award in each of the categories; Barbara Streisand then places first with 19 overall Emmy/Grammy/Oscar/Tony awards, with Mike Nichols and Richard Rogers coming in second and third, respectively. Composer Jonathan Tunick comes in last with a mere total of 4 - one each of the highest awards given to entertainment persons.

The other superlatives of the EGOT are as follows:

* First Artist to Win — Richard Rodgers in 1962
* Most Recent Artist to Win — Whoopi Goldberg in 2002
* Youngest Artist to Win — Rita Moreno at 46
* Oldest Artist to Win — John Gielgud at age 87
* Artist with Shortest Amount of Time to Win — Rita Moreno at 16 years
* Artist with Longest Amount of Time to Win — Helen Hayes at 44 years

So there is everything you wanted to know about the EGOTs, but were afraid to ask. I think I might be an EGOT...for Halloween!

(c) Susann Disbro Gilbert

Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_persons_who_have_won_Academy,_Emmy,_Grammy,_and_Tony_Awards

So, just what are "Reels"?

It is traditional to discuss the length of theatrical motion pictures in terms of "reels." The standard length of a 35 mm motion picture reel is 1,000 feet (300 m). This length runs approximately 11 minutes at sound speed (24 frames per second) and slightly longer at silent movie speed (which may vary from approximately 16 to 18 frames per second). Most films have visible cues which mark the end of the reel. This allows projectionists running reel-to-reel to change-over to the next reel on the other projector.

A so-called "two-reeler" would have run about 20–24 minutes since the actual short film shipped to a movie theater for exhibition may have had slightly less (but rarely more) than 1000ft (about 305m) on it. Most projectionists today use the term "reel" when referring to a 2,000-foot (610 m) "two-reeler," as modern films are rarely shipped by single 1,000-foot (300 m) reels. A standard Hollywood movie averages about five 2,000-foot (610 m) reels in length.

The "reel" was established as a standard measurement because of considerations in printing motion picture film at a film laboratory, for shipping (especially the film case sizes) and for the size of the physical film magazine attached to the motion picture projector. Had it not been standardized (at 1,000 feet (300 m) of 35 mm film) there would have been many difficulties in the manufacture of the related equipment.

(c) Susann Disbro Gilbert

Reference:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reel

Pampered Youth (1925)

Based on the Pulitzer-prize winning novel The Magnificent Ambersons by Booth Takington, the screenplay for Pampered Youth was written by Jay Pilcher and also co-starred Cullen Landis, Allan Forrest, Wallace MacDonald, young Ben Alexander (who grew up to be Jack Webb’s sidekick in television’s Dragnet), and the lovely Charlotte Merriam, who had also been featured prominently in the prior Code of the Wilderness with Alice.

The Los Angeles Times described Alice as:

…A girl who has played a dope fiend with true realism – who has both murdered and been murdered, called by Sir James Barrie “the ideal Babbie of the screen” in The Little Minister …

Thus, it served as no surprise to anyone that she could convincingly age almost an entire lifetime in her role as Isabel Minafer in Pampered Youth.
Released on February 1, 1925, Pampered Youth is the earliest known example of Alice’s work that exists today, and copies are still available for public resale from various sources, although the film is markedly inferior to the original shown in theatres. A condensed version was released in 1927 and re-titled Two to One, and both are in the archives of the Library of Congress Moving Images Collection. A nitrate version is also preserved at the University of California in Los Angeles library archives.

Two major alterations of Pampered Youth from the novel on which it is based are the title itself; and the family name, from the “Ambersons” of the book to the “Minafers” in the film. While the reviews from the time Pampered Youth was released were kind, comparison to other films made at the same period cannot be avoided, especially concerning the camera work, which was credited to David Smith and Stephen Smith, Jr. The photography of Pampered Youth is primitive, featuring fixed, distant camera views which don’t allow for any nuances or subtleties by the actors. Considering some of the cutting-edge film technique that was already in regular use by 1925, this deficiency of skill was undoubtedly due to either lack of imagination or laziness on the part of the director. The result is a glaring flaw in the interpretation of the sweeping saga of Tarkington’s original novel, for which he was awarded the 1919 Pulitzer prize for literature. The core theme of the story is the rejection of modernity by the protagonist, George Minafer (portrayed by Cullen Landis), a spoiled, selfish scion who must eventually lose his family’s fortune, suffer poverty and social shame, and then be redeemed by the story’s end.

But the surviving, snipped versions of Pampered Youth that are commercially available are missing almost one hour of the original film, having been reduced to only 24 minutes, as compared to the original 7 reels of film that was released in 1925. Almost ten full minutes of the surviving, chopped film is taken up by the climatic fire scene, thus eliminating much of the prior plot explanation and making little sense. This makes comparisons to the acclaimed re-make in 1942 by Orson Welles (titled as the novel The Magnificent Ambersons) very difficult to justly contrast or compare. But from the perspective of film preservation and the performances of Alice Calhoun, Cullen Landis, Charlotte Merriam, Wallace McDonald and a very young Ben Alexander, the surviving copies of Pampered Youth are precious, indeed.

(c) Susann Disbro Gilbert

Alice Calhoun: Cover Girl of '22

Clean, pure, and as pretty as a picture, Alice was one of the first celebrity cover girls, providing friendly advice and promoting beauty products on a beauty treatment step-system. “Alice Calhoun Tells How to Care for the Complexion” was the promising headline that ran in a series of ads in national newspapers beginning in June of 1922. As a spokeperson for the line of Hinds, Derwillo Oatmeal Soap, Liska Cold Cream and Beautiful Lavender cologne, her soft smile graced magazines and newspapers, advising young ladies how they, too could obtain a perfect complexion like hers. “The care of the skin and complexion has become a regular hobby with me,” she testified. The skin care beauty products she was touting were “absolutely harmless and contain no bismuth, plaster of Paris or other ingredients that clog the pores.” Alice went on to describe how shocking it was to her that “many girls and women should know better” than to overlook regular beauty cleansing treatments. “To look well is the birthright of every woman” and “a neglected complexion is a drawback to every undertaking.” Her recommended evening and morning ritual included these instructions: “First thing to do is to cleanse your face, hands and arms every night just before retiring with a cleansing cream: for this, I use Liska Cold Cream. In the morning bathe with warm water and Derwillo Oatmeal Soap, then rinse [with] cold water, dry, and before going out, apply Beautiful Lavender, the popular beautifier”. She went on to counsel that “Those who follow my advice are indeed grateful for the wonderful improvement. Just make up your mind to try my system for a few weeks, and if you do, you will agree with me that it is time well spent.”

(c) Susann Disbro Gilbert

Turner Classic Movies
July 4 Sunday 6:00 AM
Short Film: "The Flag: A Story Inspired By the Tradition of Betsy Ross" (1927). A Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) Picture.
In this silent film, George Washington appeals to Betsy Ross to help create a flag for the new United States. Cast: Alice Calhoun, Francis X. Bushman, Doris Kenyon, Enid Bennett. Director: Arthur Maude. Filmed in 2-strip Technicolor. Film score by Vivek Maddala. C-20 mins, TV-G.

Tales of the Flu

It’s late winter, two weeks until spring, and prime time for the flu. I almost squeaked through the season but caught a bug just recently myself. While there has been a lot of worry about swine (or H1N1) flu, in addition to the “seasonal” flu, the one I seem to have contracted is known as a norovirus and/or other “unknown enteric” version. My eldest daughter was suffering with this at the same time I was, although I doubt we contaminated each other because we live four hours apart these days. However, an interesting factor about both of our illnesses was that when we compared symptoms, we also realized that each of us had a pet who was ailing from cold-like symptoms; in my case, my cat; in hers, her dog. We joked about having “feline flu” vs. “canine flu”, but it was easy to laugh about it today because we have both recovered.

It is a fact, however, that the flu can be very serious. I was hospitalized about 20 years ago when I became so ill I was dehydrated and needed serious medical attention. And even if a case of the flu doesn’t require a trip to the emergency room or an appointment with your family physician, we all know that it certainly does require rest, lots of water, and time - enough time that work and daily life are interrupted for a few days to a week in order to recover.

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that in addition to those suffering from seasonal flu, there were also 64,355 cases of H1N1 nationally over this past flu season (which begins Week 40 each year). On average, 36,000 Americans die annually from the seasonal flu. This past year, there were an additional 3,900 who died from the H1N1 virus, and 450 of those were children. This is very serious, and scary. The H1N1 virus has claimed enough lives recently to get our attention, and thank goodness a preventive vaccine exists for those most at risk, for both types of flu. What mainly differentiates H1N1 from seasonal flu is that those most at risk from serious complications are the youngest generation, as opposed to the weak, infirm and elderly who are the normal victims of seasonal flu. But this is not the first time in recent history that an influenza virus has attacked the healthiest and most hearty among us.

The worst flu epidemic the nation has ever known occurred in 1917. The Spanish Flu was first reported in March at a Kansas army hospital. It seemed innocuous at first, with complaints of sore throats, chills, fever and general malaise. But within one week, over 500 men in the same camp had been quarantined. The virus then took off like wildfire, spreading throughout other army barracks and onto naval ships. The degree of severity of the virus became much more serious as young men began suddenly dying by the hundreds. The civilian population became alarmed that it would spread off of military bases and into the general public. Their fears were legitimate. Reports of influenza cases came from Philadelphia, Boston and Washington, D.C. In one single day, 851 persons died in New York City alone. As the strength of the virus spread, victims were succumbing within hours of first exhibiting symptoms. Even more alarming, while the morbidity of flu usually affects children and the elderly, this illness took its toll mainly on young adults, aged 20 to 40. Rumors spread that the Germans had unleashed germs in crowded public places, as a biological warfare tactic of World War I. The crime rate in Chicago dropped significantly – even the hoodlums were too ill to work. Those on the West Coast began to fear for their lives. That fear came true, when San Franciscans began to succumb. Even when the end of World War I came on November 11th, many of those who had danced for joy in the city streets wore face masks for fear of contracting germs. But the preventions did not inhibit the spread of illness as the massive gatherings during parades and celebrations brought on still another wave of the flu.

The statistics were staggering. Millions continued to become infected over the winter, and thousands died. Everyone knew someone who had lost their life to the illness. Overall, more people had perished, worldwide, of the Spanish Flu in one year, than in the four years that the Bubonic Plague had raged through Europe centuries before. More people died world wide than had been killed in the world war. By the time it had run its course, 275,000 Americans had succumbed, or 28% of the entire population of the country. Never before and not since has the world suffered a comparable medical disaster on such a massive scale.

The Birth of Hollywood

Today, the name “Hollywood” signifies that magical place where, for the price of a ticket or twenty-four hour rental, fantasies become seemingly real and we can pack up our troubles and let life’s harsh realities slip away for an hour or two. But in the early days of movies, that state of mind was referred to as “The Shadowlands.” The suburb of Hollywoodland (the “land” was later dropped) had not yet been developed, so the world-famous hilltop sign with the giant letters in Los Angeles county didn’t exist until later in the 1920’s.

Most of the early motion picture studios were located on the east coast of the United States. By 1920, however, the move was on to the west coast for various reasons. Fair weather and varied terrain were highly desirable reasons to relocate the studios in California; but there was also another important influence: money.

A leading innovator of motion picture film inventions was Thomas Edison, and his laboratories were located on the east coast in New Jersey. The further away from Edison’s Menlo Park, New Jersey headquarters meant the more difficult it would be to have to pay royalties for copyright use of Edison’s inventions. While the modern age of as we recognize it was starting - with telephones, packaged foods, airplanes, motor cars and such becoming an ordinary part of life - most communication was still via telegraph and rail, so a lawsuit filed against a party located 3,000 miles away was much more difficult to pursue. The studios knew that and exploited the distance for their onw profits.

But California was hardly the only place where motion picture studios were popping up on every corner, and films were being churned out and potential stars were being groomed to emote and dance. Before World War I, there were huge numbers of movies made all over Europe, and in Russia and Asia, too. For the most part, they were considered to be superior to those produced in the United States. These reasons included exciting avant-garde cinematography techniques, sophisticated plot treatments, and exotic and talented actors.

What made America suddenly become the leader in motion pictures was that not only the first, but also the second World War were fought overseas, and not on U.S. soil. These were insurmountable setbacks to the foreign film business. So California gained more than a decade total in steadily growing and developing as the world leader of the movie industry, while all the others rebuilt and recovered. Almost seventy years later, no other nation has come close to overtaking Los Angeles, California as the motion picture capital of the world.

Thus, the one-two-three punch of temperate climate, dirty business practices, and two overseas wars combined to favor the west coast as the universally-recognized heart of entertainment that is Hollywood. U.S.A.

1921: The Battle of the Babbies

Today, the Scottish novelist and playwright Sir J.M. (James Matthew) Barrie is best remembered as the author of Peter Pan, but in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century he was wildly popular for all of his works. Upcoming publications were anticipated with the same enthusiasm as the Harry Potter stories are today. Beloved for his melodramatic romances laced with quaintness and fantasy, The Little Minister was not Barrie’s first published work, but it was his first big success. Published as a novel in Great Britain in 1891 and debuted as a play in 1897, the tale quickly crossed the Atlantic and into the hands of American readers. The Little Minister has not withstood the test of time as well as Peter Pan, but for twenty years after its first appearance, The Little Minister was performed hundreds of times in theaters both grand and local, across the pond in the U. S. And while literary critics sneered at the whimsy and droll of Barrie’s writing, audiences loved it.
Colloquialisms such as “Life is a long lesson in humility” and “Temper [is] a weapon that we hold by the blade” were quotes from The Little Minister that readers memorized and embraced as their own personal adages. Another favorite was “The life of every man is a diary in which he means to write one story, and writes another, and his humblest hour is when he compares the volume as it is with what he vowed to make it.”
While the novelization of The Little Minister takes place over a period of ten months, the play timeline is but a day and a night. Set in a small Scottish village, much of the drama contains doses of local flavor and language. But American Anglophiles adored both the romanticism of the Scottish village setting, along with the quaintness of the fanciful tale.
The play was first filmed in 1913 and again in 1915. However, the simultaneous filming in 1921 of The Little Minister by two major Hollywood studios was an uncommon occurrence, indeed. It was just as rare then as it is today.
Most actors resent competition between roles, such as the "best performance" categories in the Academy Awards. This is understandable; one nominee’s role is generally unlike another. To compare one actor’s interpretation of a Shakespearan character to a portrayal of a famous athlete to a performance of a dancing singer in a musical to a fictional protagonist in a dramatic role is like apples to peanuts to pork chops to angel food cake. To be precise, they are not at all the same, defy resemblance, and make for an illogical contest.
As a rule, when two different actors take on roles that are literally of the same character and the productions are completed within weeks or months of each other, distributors have generally taken the tactic of pushing back the date of the film completed last. This is mainly to avoid each canceling out the other by offering too (two) much of a good thing. An example of this is the recent depiction of the same character in two separate films; that of the late Truman Capote. Albeit, the portrayals are offered in two very different screenplays about the author’s life. In 2005’s Capote, the title role was performed by Philip Seymour Hoffman and based on the Gerald Clarke biography of the same title. Have You Heard? is derived from George Plimpton’s collection of interviews in Truman Capote: In Which Various Friends, Enemies, Acquaintances and Detractors Recall His Turbulent Career (Nan A. Talese, 1997). Little wonder that the release of the latter was pushed back after Hoffman won a Best Actor Oscar for his portrayal of Capote. Another case in point is of the modern film adaptations of Choderlos de Laclos’ classic novel Les Liasons Dangereuses; 1988’s Dangerous Liaisons and the following year’s interpretation, Valmont. While the first is well known, very few people have ever heard of the second. It is as if one canceled out the other by their being released too soon in the public memory. This is a predictable outcome, and no one in the film industry would want to make such a foolish move, as the chances for failure are 50/50 and those odds are too high to gamble. Therefore, it is difficult, if not impossible, to find another example in which two films, inspired by the same novel or play, have been produced and released at exactly the same time, as in the case of the Paramount and Vitagraph releases in 1921 of The Little Minister.
And if Paramount and Vitagraph were doing it for publicity, they certainly succeeded. The Paramount version of The Little Minister with Betty Compson starring as the female lead was released one week prior to the Vitagraph adaptation featuring Alice Calhoun, which premiered on January 8, 1922. Newspaper and fanzine articles about the films, comparing and contrasting each of the performances, sets, costumes, editing and subtitles, etc., ran for months after the movie’s debuts. Audience anticipation and expectations were high, and the rivalry was on to see which version was “the best”. Opinions were exchanged and argued over. But since both films sold a similar amount of tickets, neither company suffered any financial losses by daring to use this approach. Theater advertisements in the newspapers made it clear which version was being shown on their silver screen, such as The New York Times listings for “This Week’s Films” :
RIVOLI – “The Little Minister,” directed by Penrhyn Stanlaws, with Betty Compson in the leading role, adapted from Sir James M. Barries’s novel and play by Elfrid Bingham, supervised by Thompson Buchanan, a Paramount picture; “Chums,” a comedy, with Baby Peggy.
PLAZA – Today, “The Little Minister,” with Alice Calhoun, the Vitagraph version of Barrie’s novel and play; …Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday, “Little Lord Fauntelroy,” with Mary Pickford.

In initial reviews, critics agreed nearly unanimously that Vitagraph’s James Morrison was perfectly cast as the title character; it was a role the consummate actor was born to play. Reviewers also, more often than not, preferred Alice Calhoun’s performance of Lady Babbie over Betty Compson’s. In the January 22, 1922 issue of The Stevens Point Journal (Wisconsin) the national “Harrison Reports” comparison of the two films was run:
The Vitagraph version is the better of the two. The Vitagraph picture has been produced with more care; its supporting cast has been selected more intelligently, its atmosphere is truer to life, it is better acted, and its continuity is smoother.…
…As to the leading players, the ones in the Vitagraph version are by far the superior. Miss Calhoun is a more refined actress. As a gypsy, she acts the part; as a lady, she looks and acts every bit of it and is better adapted to the role. Miss Compson, the heroine in the Paramount version, on the other hand, is altogether miscast. As to the leading man, James Morrison, the hero in the Vitagraph version, is a real life little minister, is sympathetic and succeeds in making the spectator feel his emotions; while George Hackathorne, the Gavin of the Paramount version, is miscast.

Promotional ads by Vitagraph read “Don’t be fooled”, insinuating that the Vitagraph version was more preferred than the Paramount offering. So confident was Vitagraph in their production that the stakes were upped even more. As part of their publicity for the film, Vitagraph offered a prize of $100 to anyone who could prove that the Paramount production was superior to the Alice Calhoun vehicle.
To her credit, Betty Compson was most certainly a fine and talented actress who appeared in 121 films over the span of her career. At the period of time when both the Paramount and Vitagraph versions of The Little Minister were filmed, both Betty and Alice lived in similar familial circumstances, each residing with their mothers in Hollywood bungalows. Their rise to stardom, their versatile talents, and their wholesome lifestyles are other similarities.
Nor is there any evidence that Alice Calhoun and Betty Compson had any hard feelings about the rivalry created by their respective employers; both artists were simply pawns in a publicity stunt perpetrated by the movie machine. And no one, including the critics, panned Betty’s performance as Lady Barbara/Babbie, either. In fact, she received high praise for her performance. One reviewer called it “her best work” and described her as “perfectly romantic” in the role. Modern day critics, such as AMG’s Janiss Garza personally preferred Compson’s Babbie to Calhoun’s. Although it should be noted that Vitagraph’s The Little Minister is classified as a “lost” film, so it is doubtful that Garza ever actually viewed Alice Calhoun’s role.
Alice herself always felt that the part of Lady Barbara/Babbie was the best role she performed in her career. It was always one of her own favorite films, and one of the few that the humble performer didn’t mind viewing herself . It is most unfortunate that no known copies exist today.
But ultimately, the final word on the “battle of the Babbies” rivalry would be put to rest when the opinion of the author of The Little Minister and creator of Babbie was rendered. It wasn’t until 1925 that he voiced his choice. In the May 17 edition of the Los Angeles Times, it was reported that Sir James Barrie called Alice Calhoun “the ideal Babbie of the screen.”
- (c) Susann Disbro Gilbert 21 Jan 2010

References:
The New York Times pg. 65, December 25, 1921.
The Stevens Point Daily Journal (Wisconsin) January 28, 1922.
…called by Sir James Barrie “the ideal Babbie of the screen”…Los Angeles Times, California May 17, 1925
Author’s note: There is no record of anyone actually claiming the prize of $100 offered by Vitagraph. “Lost” meaning that there are no known public or archived copies.

Final Note:
This is a excerpt from a chapter in "Alice in Hollywoodland: The Life and Times of Silent Screen Actress Alice Calhoun" by Susann Desborough. I chose to put this up on the blog in the hopes of getting some feedback and constructive criticism. One of the issues my editor has with it is that I discuss and compare this unusual circumstance with modern film. I personally found it interesting and more informative, but I'm curious to know what you think. Please share your opinions with me.