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Reconstructing American Historical Cinema This page intentionally left blank RECONSTRUCTING American Historical Cinema From Cimarron to Citizen Kane J. E. Smyth THE UNIVERSITY PRESS OF KENTUCKY Publication of this volume was made possible in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Copyright © 2006 by The University Press of Kentucky Scholarly publisher for the Commonwealth, serving Bellarmine University, Berea College, Centre College of Kentucky, Eastern Kentucky University, The Filson Historical Society, Georgetown College, Kentucky Historical Society, Kentucky State University, Morehead State University, Murray State University, Northern Kentucky University, Transylvania University, University of Kentucky, University of Louisville, and Western Kentucky University. All rights reserved. Editorial and Sales Offices: The University Press of Kentucky 663 South Limestone Street, Lexington, Kentucky 40508-4008 www.kentuckypress.com 10 09 08 07 06 5 4 3 2 1 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Smyth, J. E., 1977- Reconstructing American historical cinema : from Cimarron to Citizen Kane / J. E. Smyth. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN-13: 978-0-8131-2406-3 (alk. paper) ISBN-10: 0-8131-2406-9 (alk. paper) 1. Historical films--United States--History and criticism. 2. Motion pictures and history. I. Title. PN1995.9.H5S57 2006 791.43’658--dc22 2006020064 This book is printed on acid-free recycled paper meeting the requirements of the American National Standard for Permanence in Paper for Printed Library Materials. Manufactured in the United States of America. Member of the Association of American University Presses For Evelyn M. Smyth and Peter B. Smyth and for K. H. and C. G. You might say that we grew up together. This page intentionally left blank There’s a lot of words we haven’t covered yet. For instance, do you know what this means, “I’ll get you on the Ameche”? Of course not! An Ameche is the telephone, on account of he invented it. Like, you know, in the movies. —Sugarpuss O’Shea (Barbara Stanwyck) in Ball of Fire, 1941 This page intentionally left blank Contents List of Illustrations . xi Acknowledgments . xiii Introduction: Toward a Filmic Writing of History in Classical Hollywood . 1 One: Traditional and Modern American History 1. The New American History: Cimarron, 1931 . 27 2. Contemporary History in the Age of Scarface, 1932 . 57 Two: Resolving Westward Expansion 3. Competing Frontiers, 1933–1938 . 89 4. The Return of Our Epic America, 1938–1941 . 115 Three: Civil War and Reconstruction 5. Jezebels and Rebels, Cavaliers and Compromise, 1930–1939 . 141 6. The Lives and Deaths of Abraham Lincoln, 1930–1941 . 167 Four: Veterans of Different Wars 7. War in the Roaring Twenties, 1932–1939 . 197 8. The Last of the Long Hunters, 1938–1941 . 225 Five: Hollywood History 9. Stars Born and Lost, 1932–1937 . 251 10. A Hollywood Cavalcade, 1939–1942 . 279 Conclusion: From Land of Liberty to the Decline and Fall of Citizen Kane . 307 Appendixes . 341 Notes . 367 Selected Bibliography . 413 Index . 435 This page intentionally left blank Illustrations Cimarron’s multiethnic, racial, and gendered West . 36 Estabrook’s projected text titles . 38 A white merchant-pioneer tells the Indians to get out . 39 Estabrook’s annotated copy of Cimarron . 40 The vulture’s eye view . 43 Sabra’s frontier rhetoric elicits a sad smile from Yancey . 46 LeBaron, Ree, and Estabrook receive Academy Awards . 50 Darryl F. Zanuck at Warner Brothers, ca. 1930 . 58 Rico alters the clock . 64 Small-time crook Rico reads the headlines for Diamond Pete . 67 Little Caesar makes the headlines . 67 Rico checks his press coverage . 67 Establishing the period in The Public Enemy, 1931 . 69 Documentary shots of Chicago: State Street . 70 The Union Stockyards . 70 War is declared, but Tom and Matt are oblivious . 70 Mummifying the gangster . 72 Al Capone handles the commissioner . 75 Who killed Big Jim in 1920? . 79 Courting “press-tige” . 79 Writing history with a new instrument—the machine gun . 79 Happy Valentine’s Day from Tony Camonte . 81 Mae West in She Done Him Wrong, 1933 . 94 Text foreword for The Last of the Mohicans, 1936 . 101 Twentieth Century–Fox research library, ca. 1939 . 102 DeMille’s historical staff in the late 1930s . 109 Close-up of Geronimo . 123 The final chase in Stagecoach . 124 Opening credits of The Plainsman . 132 Julie and her maid share a similar taste in dresses . 155 The color of the dress is red, but what is the color of the heroine? . 157 Julie sings with “her children” . 157 The politics of race and dress . 159 xi xii Illustrations Scarlett and the South rise again . 161 The oath . 161 “Reconstructed” southern woman . 161 Trotti’s foreword for Young Mr. Lincoln, 1939 . 177 An uncertain hero’s first speech . 180 Mastering Blackstone’s Commentaries and the common laws of Poor Richard’s Almanac . 184 Raymond Massey’s swearing in . 190 Tray full of pawned war medals . 200 The Great War splits the couple in The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle, 1939 . 214 Ginger Rogers as Irene Foote Castle in Patria . 215 Overdetermined images . 219 Mark Hellinger’s modern history . 220 Sergeant York reads The History of the United States . 232 Alvin York: a twentieth-century Lincoln . 232 Revisiting old “texts”: the Daniel Boone connection . 233 Clara Bow in Call Her Savage, 1932 . 252 David O. Selznick with his father, Lewis J. Selznick . 253 A Star Is Born: introducing the “text” . 270 John Gilbert and Greta Garbo in Queen Christina, 1933 . 271 Jean Harlow’s memorial at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre . 273 John Bowers, ca. 1924 . 275 Esther tries stepping into Norman Maine’s footsteps . 276 Esther is stopped in her tracks by the past . 276 Norman Maine’s slab . 276 Facing custard pies from the past . 292 Opening shot: someone else presents George M. Cohan . 302 Independence Day, 1878 . 302 Remembering “Over There” . 302 Remembering the Great War . 328 Kane’s declaration . 329 The “vault” of the Thatcher library . 330 Thompson reads Thatcher’s journal . 331 Reading from the text of history to the cinematic West . 332 Historical completion and “the Union forever” . 332 Acknowledgments Many people assisted in the shaping and production of this book, but none of it would have been possible without the help and patience of dozens of film archivists and librarians. My thanks to the staff at Indiana University’s Lilly Library, the University of Southern California’s Cine- ma-Television Library and Warner Brothers Archive, the Warner Brothers Corporate Archive, UCLA’s Arts Library Special Collections and Special Collections, Yale University, the Huntington Library, Brigham Young University, Boston University, the Harry Ransom Research Center at the University of Texas, and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sci- ences. I am especially grateful to Leith Adams, James D’Arc, Lauren Buis- son, J. C. Johnson, and Jenny Romero. But above all, I want to thank the invaluable Ned Comstock, Noelle Carter, and Barbara Hall. Yale University, the Huntington Library, and Indiana University all supported this project with generous grants and fellowships. I want to thank Dudley Andrew, Charles Musser, Michael Denning, and Alan Trachtenberg for their help when this project was emerging as a doctoral dissertation at Yale. My colleagues and students at the University of Warwick provided me with a new forum for my ideas, and I am grateful for their support and friendship. David Culbert, Peter Rollins, and Robert A. Rosenstone published my early writings on history and film, and some of that work has become part of this book. Robert witnessed my first chal- lenge to mainstream American historiography, and I’ll always be grateful for his rigorous editing and unflagging enthusiasm for Lamar Trotti and Darryl F. Zanuck. I am deeply indebted to my editor, Leila Salisbury, for skillfully guiding this project to completion. Some of the pleasantest days of my life were spent discussing Cecil B. DeMille with Mickey and Patrick Moore. I’ll always remember them with affection and awe. Noel Taylor is another who made my many visits to Los Angeles unforgettable. But I owe five ladies debts for their support and kindness, which I hope someday to repay, if only in part: Olivia de Havilland, Katharine Hepburn, Marsha Hunt, Ann Rutherford, and Janet Leigh. And, as always, my love to Evelyn, Peter, Rose, and Lillie. xiii This page intentionally left blank Introduction Toward a Filmic Writing of History in Classical Hollywood We believe that we have as much right to present the facts of history as we see them . as a Guizot, a Bancroft, a Ferrari, or a Woodrow Wilson has to write these facts in his history. —D. W. Griffith, The Rise and Fall of Free Speech in America, 1916 When D. W. Griffith published his defense of historical filmmaking in 1916, there was little doubt why he believed that filmmaker-historians needed a spokesman. Public controversy had yet to subside over his Civil War and Reconstruction epic The Birth of a Nation (1915). Although Griffith had already filmed eleven southern period pictures, including The Honor of His Family (1909), His Trust (1910), and The Battle (1911), he had never before made such lengthy, complex, and controversial use of American history. Griffith’s decision to venture into major American his- torical filmmaking was undoubtedly prompted by the success of Thomas Ince’s The Battle of Gettysburg (1913), released on the fiftieth anniversary of that engagement.1 However, Griffith not only scripted the heroic sacri- fices of Confederate and Federal soldiers and the national reconciliation of Abraham Lincoln’s leadership; he also pursued American history into the postwar era. The second half of The Birth of a Nation was an adapta- tion of Thomas Dixon’s Reconstruction novel The Clansman (1905).