Social Register Locator & Observer

Winter 2019 58 SOCIAL REGISTER OBSERVER WINTER 2019 Social Register Icon and Silent Star Still Speaking

The Life of Colleen Moore, the World’s Most Famous Flapper

By Pippa Biddle

ocial Register, arguably all that trouble.” It is true that after insisted that she was born in 1902. Like the most provocative movie breaking out of the “nice girl” mold, much that is lost to time, we will prob- of 1934, declared on its Colleen was cast as a troublemaker. ably never know which account is true. posters that “High society Whether embodying the flapper or The young Kathleen moved fre- wasn’t high enough for this orchestrating a raucous gag, she always quently. She lived in Atlanta and Schorus girl!” Colleen Moore plays the had a thing for stealing scenes and get- Pennsylvania before her parents set- role of Patsy Shaw, a wild working-class ting laughs. But the Colleen Moore seen tled her, and her brother Cleeve, in girl who upsets the stuffy social order in theaters across America was not, she Tampa, FL, in 1911. In Tampa, the when a spoiled son falls in love with her said, the whole her. From the beginning, young girl grew into an aspiring actress. – to the great frustration of his family. Colleen Moore was a business run by a She would go to the Bijou Theater on Chaos, expectedly, ensues. What remains young girl, then woman, named Kathleen Fridays after school and the Strand of the film is as mesmerizing as her life. Morrison, who at the height of her career Theater, which would later premiere On the front flap of her memoir, earned a million dollars a year from her the movie, Social Register, on Saturday Silent Star: Colleen Moore Talks about films on the eve of the Depression. afternoons. When she wasn’t watching Her Hollywood (1968), author F. Scott Colleen Moore was born Kathleen the newest films, she was writing fan Fitzgerald is quoted as writing, “I was Morrison on August 19 in Port Huron, letters and building scrapbooks full of the spark that lit up Flaming Youth. MI, to Agnes Kelly Morrison and Charles cutout pictures of Mary Pickford and Colleen Moore was the torch. What Morrison. We know, as did all of her fans, J. Warren Karrigan, dreaming about get- little things we are to have caused that she was born with heterochromia, ting in front of the camera herself. one blue eye and one brown eye, because It was an exciting time for film. By they remained that way her entire life. 1915, production companies had flocked Left: Original and rare “Social Register” (1934), movie window card with Strand Theatre premiere Her birth year, however, is an unknown. to Southern California for its reliable sun dates. From Social Register archives. While census records show a girl with and mellow weather after trying Florida her name, born to parents with her par- and Cuba, but discovering hurricane ent’s names, on August 19, 1899, Colleen season. “Hollywood” was forming—not

WINTER 2019 SOCIAL REGISTER OBSERVER 59 would attract strong crowds. “Moore,” because it would fit on a marquee. With a new name and a contract, the newly dubbed “Colleen” packed her bags and boarded a train with her grandmother, who would stay with her in Hollywood, and mother, who would remain just long enough for her to settle in. Her parents had decided that a big family move wasn’t necessary. Her school was to send her coursework, and in six months she’d be home in her own bed. They had yet to realize that the little girl who wanted to be on the silver screen had just taken her first steps on the road to stardom. In many ways, the first few years of Colleen’s career are a typical stardom story, at least for the time. Girl wants to act, girl gets a break through family connections, and she manages to make the most of it. Most of the actresses she worked alongside had followed a similar trajectory. The number of people there as a favor to someone else, she remem- bered, was astonishing. It was as if all of Hollywood was stocked with powerful people’s favorite nieces. As the fresh young faces without experience but with contracts to fulfill, it was normal for actresses like Colleen to be assigned roles without having any say in the process. And so, she accumulated bit parts and spent all day at the studio even if she didn’t have a job, just in case Above: Original autographed letter reaching out to Kathleen arrived in Hollywood in they’d need her for something. Gradu- a theatre owner, and signed by Colleen Moore, on 1917, but her big break had nothing to ally, she was picked for bigger parts in December 17, 1924, on her personal stationery. From Social Register archives. do with her acting. As she would later which she was able to build her acting say, it was one of two gifts from her uncle, chops and hone her comedic timing, Chicago newspaperman Walter Howey. something she would become known for just the place, but the fantasy, too. Bigger In exchange for pulling political even when playing dramatic roles. movie houses fought for the spare change strings on behalf of D.W. Griffith, Howey It was an era when machines in working-class people’s pockets, push- got his beloved niece a six-month movie ran, conveyor belts turned, and stars ing out small theaters. Movies were contract with Griffith’s Triangle Film were manufactured more often than silent, of course, but they came out con- Corporation. As a parting gift, he gave discovered. stantly and in enormous volume, always the young Kathleen Morrison one more The road had bumps, of course. offering a fresh face and a new romantic thing—a stage name: Colleen Moore. Hollywood was new and production lead to swoon over. “Colleen,” because a good Irish name companies had a propensity to be

60 SOCIAL REGISTER OBSERVER WINTER 2019 short-lived. Money flooded in and then up, but embodying dried up, and Colleen often had to get the flapper aesthetic creative, especially after her six-month that she would help contract was terminated early as Grif- to popularize took a fith’s business began to go under. Her bit longer. When, in first starring role, the titular character a 1922 interview for in Little Orphant Annie (1918), an early Motion Picture Maga- version of the iconic Annie film and play, zine, reporter Gordon wasn’t even for Griffith’s Triangle Film Gassaway asked if she Corporation, but for Selig Polyscope. was a flapper, already a Selig would itself become insolvent burgeoning movement shortly before Little Orphant Annie was among women her released. It was absorbed by the Film Fox age, her answer was Corporation, and the cogs of Hollywood straightforward. kept on turning. All Colleen could do “Well, I don’t roll was continue taking one step at a time, a my stockies, I don’t reel of film tucked under her arm. swear—much, and I do The Victorian Era had ended in 1901 not smoke cigarettes and the Edwardian period had been cut or a pipe or anything. short by the outbreak of World War I, I don’t drink cock- but the strict constraints both periods tails, and you know my put on women took longer to slough off. mother won’t let me By 1920, young women across the coun- bob my hair, so I guess try were sick of the long hair and longer I don’t qualify.” hemlines older generations demanded, She had started and the scissors started coming out. tucking her long hair Since age 16, Colleen had been under, though, mimicking the short Above: “The Perfect Flapper” (1924). Starring Colleen Moore with her iconic Flapper bobbed playing adult romantic roles, but her hairstyle that, according to a June 27, hairstyle. perceived (and, according to her, real) 1920, New York Times article, had a innocence is what they were trying to way of making women more “kittenish, bottle up and sell, even as she approached playful”—it granted freedom. would play on repeat throughout their and hit her twenties. As society was shift- It was in 1923 that Colleen signed seven-year marriage. ing, she was still portraying an ideal of her contract with First National as one And, with her mom’s encourage- womanhood that was rapidly being left of eight leading players. She had already ment, a quick turnaround from her 1922 behind. earned respect on set for her comedic insistence that she was against short hair, In that vacuum, the flapper girl work, but now she would have more say Moore bit the bullet and chopped off her emerged. The term “flapper” originated in what she worked on, what was filmed, long curls before a screen test for Flaming in Great Britain as young women began and what ended up on the cutting room Youth. Whereas before she’d be feign- wearing rubber galoshes left open to flap floor—a power amplified by the fact that ing the look of the time, now she was as they walked. Flapper girls deviated scripts in the silent film era were mostly embracing it. “I felt as if I’d been emanci- from society’s norm, dressing in their own rough outlines with huge opportunities pated,” she later wrote. “It was becoming. style, including short dresses and bobbed for improvisation. More important, it worked.” haircuts, their faces heavily made up with She also married John McCormick The 1923 film Flaming Youth would lipstick, rouge, and mascara. They smoked that year. A few months earlier he’d transform Colleen into the rebellious and danced to Jazz Age music, not caring shown hints of the chaos to come, but flapper girl the country would fall in in the least about society’s expectations of passing out on their floor on their wed- love with. And, as if she’d forgotten young women at the time. ding night signaled a pattern of binge shrugging off the flapper trend just a By 1923, Colleen was ready to grow drinking and disappearances that year earlier, she was ready for it. “After

WINTER 2019 SOCIAL REGISTER OBSERVER 61 six years of treacle,” she wrote, “it was heaven to be given a little spice.” The film was a massive success. Even greater a badge of honor than the new bob hair- cut that would remain her signature look for the rest of her life, was news that the film was banned in Boston. The good girl image was gone. If the flapper look was short hair, short hemlines, and unbuckled galoshes, the flapper girl was now globally person- ified by Colleen Moore. But while Colleen Moore the actress was growing to be a symbol for sexual freedom and the transformation of

Left: Colleen Moore playing Christmas Carols, 1920s.

Below: “The Power and the Glory” (1933), with Spencer Tracey and Colleen Moore, based upon an original screenplay by Preston Sturges. (SR member).

62 SOCIAL REGISTER OBSERVER WINTER 2019 societal expectations, Kathleen the influentials. “For an industry whose very woman was still treated like a kid. livelihood depended on giving the public Reviews infantilized her, continuing to what it wanted,” Colleen remembered, refer to her as a child well into her adult- “we in Hollywood not only underes- hood, a constant reminder that growing timated the public where sound was stardom and the astronomical paychecks concerned, we didn’t understand it.” to match guaranteed neither equality nor Indeed, sound seemed overwhelm- respect. ing, as though it would trigger a sensory Her husband, John McCormick, overload, canceling out every enjoyable spoke for her, represented her, and reg- aspect of going to the movies. Even in ularly claimed credit for her success. In 1929, after Colleen’s first talking picture 1927, Colleen was frustrated when she was released, President Hoover would was not invited to participate in the first hold strong to the belief that watch- organizational event of the International ing talkies was too demanding—if you Academy of Motion Picture Arts and weren’t feeling it, you couldn’t just take Sciences. She would only later learn that a nap anymore! she was, in fact, invited, and was even But before Colleen could appear in Above: “Social Register” sheet music “Why Not?” (1933) sung by Ramona. From Social Register listed as a founding member, but McCor- her first “talkie,” she would have to prove archives. mick—perhaps chaffing under his wife’s that she wasn’t mute. She had been the successes—had decided not to pass on biggest box office draw in America for Below: “Social Register” (1934), with Colleen the information. two years running, but could she keep Moore as Patsy Shaw, and Alexander Kirkland as In spite of these headwinds, Colleen it up? Charlie Breen. continued to demonstrate unusual finan- cial savvy. She reached out directly to theatre owners encouraging them to see her movies and soliciting their ideas for successful films. In a letter to Mr. B.G. Thatcher, Capitol Theatre, Logan, UT, promoting her 1924 movie, So Big, Col- leen explains “I want to make the sort of pictures that you and your patrons like – those that make money for you.” The late 1920s was a period of tur- moil in Colleen’s life and in Hollywood. While the creation of the Academy entrenched those already in positions of power, new developments in technology were already threatening to completely upturn the industry. By 1928, sound was not yet synced up, but it was being recorded—mostly as musical accom- paniment—and was beginning to be distributed to theaters nationwide along with the film reels. There was a buzz in the air, but this excitement among the nation’s movie- goers was struggling to get through to many of the newly ensconced Hollywood

WINTER 2019 SOCIAL REGISTER OBSERVER 63 Above: “Social Register” (1934), starring Colleen film she spoke in, with Smiling Irish the 12-year-long Great Depression that Moore , and Charles Winninger. (second from right) Eyes (1929) having the honor of being plunged the nation into the depths of her first. It could hardly be called a some of its darkest and most desperate Even actors with stage experience grand debut. “It was surely the longest, days. weren’t ready for the peculiar acous- slowest, dullest picture I ever made,” Colleen, at the height of her career, tics of early talkies. One by one, stars Colleen recalled in her memoir, Silent withdrew from the spotlight. She would had their voices tested. Those deemed Star. It was, in effect, a silent film with not return to the screen for four years, “recordable” underwent intensive vocal voices, the pantomime and all, and where co-starring in The Power and the Glory coaching. Only select silent stars would these exaggerated movements and grand (1933), with Spencer Tracy. First, though, make this cut or survive the reviews of gesticulations had once been necessary she filed for divorce on April 15, 1930, their first talking films. The problem when conveying a story without sound, citing mental cruelty. McCormick was was that the actors and directors didn’t they abruptly appeared unnatural. That an emotionally abusive alcoholic with a realize that there was more to making a wasn’t how anyone actually talked, and habit of disappearing for days at a time. talkie than mere talking. Acting itself now that the stars could speak, audiences While he’d bolstered Colleen’s career had to shift, and the pantomime that had expected them to act like it! early on, he’d become a liability for her, made Colleen famous would quickly be The development was to be the first for those around them, and for himself, deemed heavy-handed, awkward, and of many ill tidings for the flourishing so she cut him loose. even uncomfortable to watch. Where film industry. The year of the release of The marriage was over quickly, and once there had been no capacity for Smiling Irish Eyes, Colleen’s marriage McCormick wallowed in depression subtlety, now there was no room for was crumbling, and the stock market and drink. A few years later, he would communicative physicality. plummeted in the Wall Street Crash attempt suicide by swimming out to Colleen soon negotiated an extra of 1929 — the infamous Black Thurs- sea. He was rescued by friends and, in $25,000 from First National for each day of October 24th would soon set off true Hollywood fashion, the story was

64 SOCIAL REGISTER OBSERVER WINTER 2019 incorporated into the original screenplay for the 1937 film A Star is Born, about an aspiring actress and the fading actor who helps launch her career. The film would be remade in 1954 (starring Judy Gar- land and James Mason), 1976 (Barbara Streisand and Kris Kristofferson), and its latest iteration came out in the fall of 2018, starring Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper. A fine testimony to Hollywood’s perpetual proclivity for remakes. Throughout the divorce and the messy aftermath, Colleen worked to keep McCormick from bringing her down with him. With no film to distract her, she needed something else to sink her teeth into. The whimsical answer came to her while relaxing with her father on the deck of a yacht: together, they would build a dollhouse. The idea had roots deep in Colleen’s childhood. When she was two, her par- ents had built her a dollhouse from cigar boxes. She couldn’t take it with her when the family moved, but after settling down in Florida, she built a paper dollhouse from wallpaper samples and pictures of furniture cut out of her parents’ maga- zines. Like many children, a dollhouse gave her a space to control and a means of escape. The shrinking down of the adult world to a manageable child’s size helped her come to terms with all of the crazy things “grown-ups” do. Nothing, no matter how daunting, is as intimidat- ing when it’s tiny. Colleen had been collecting miniatures encouraged her interest in investing. She Above: Colleen Moore in the comedy “Sally” (1925), co-starring Lloyd Hughes and Leon Errol. for years, and as all of this rushed back to returned to film, appearing in her last her on the deck of that yacht, she turned to four films, all talkies, between 1933 and her father for his assistance. He ran with 1934. She divorced Scott in 1934 as well, with solid gold chandeliers, diamond-en- the idea, quickly appointing himself “chief and decided she’d retire from acting for crusted chairs, and hand-painted frescos. engineer” of the project. It would have to be good. But, through it all, she worked The theme, dreamed up by decorator on a grand scale, lavish, but, most impor- on the dollhouse, which would soon be Harold Grieve, is “Early Fairie,” a style tantly, still portable. He didn’t want her to called the Fairy Castle. typified by tiny treasures that the castle’s ever have to leave it behind. Over 100 artisans worked on the residents would have collected from It wouldn’t be completed until 1935. nine-foot square castle, built on a 12:1 antique stores in fairyland. During that time, Colleen would marry scale, before it was complete. The cas- In order to pull off the project, master her second husband, Albert P. Scott, who tle’s sumptuous rooms were decorated plumbers installed tiny pipes that carried

WINTER 2019 SOCIAL REGISTER OBSERVER 65 Luce asked to have it housed in the cas- tle’s chapel in memory of a daughter, killed in a car accident at the age of 19. Built in the midst of the Great Depression, the castle cost more than $435,000 at the time, or around $7 mil- lion today; perfect for the tiny fairies Colleen imagined living within its cast aluminum walls. Once the castle was completed in 1935, Colleen was presented with a dif- ferent challenge: what to do with it. It had been designed to be transportable, but where would it go? After negotiat- ing a deal with Macy’s in New York, the castle was broken down, loaded onto a private train car with an armed guard, and trucked across the country. Its debut on April 5, 1935, launched a nation-wide tour that would raise more than $500,000 for children’s charities. The castle proved to be a hit and continued traveling until it settled down for good at the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry in 1949. More than a million people visit it each year as part of the museum’s permanent collection. In the Great Hall of the Fairy Castle, there is a staircase that floats upwards, twisting gracefully without railings or bannisters. But why no bannisters? In what could be a metaphor for Moore’s life, you don’t need something to hold Above: In the Great Hall of the Fairy Castle was personally signed by six presidents, onto when you are your own safety net, dollhouse, a “miniature home of fantastic Queen Elizabeth, Prince Philip, Chur- and you don’t need something to catch proportions,” there is a staircase that foats upwards, twisting gracefully without railings or chill, Jawaharlal Nehru, Picasso, and you when you fall. Fairies, after all, can bannisters. Eleanor Roosevelt, before resting on a always fly. shelf in Fairy Castle. Colleen’s life continued, now mostly Colleen furnished the home from her out of the spotlight. She married Homer running water to sinks and ran drop- own collection, including a tiny purple Hargrave in 1937, adopted his two young lets down the branches of the weeping wine glass, once one of a set of six, from children, Judy and Homer Jr., and joined willow. A medical technology company her childhood cigar-box dining room. her husband as an early partner in Mer- made her light bulbs, each the size of a Over the years, the castle started collect- rill Lynch. She called her 1969 book grain of wheat. In the library, books the ing for itself. In the chapel rests a sliver How Women Can Make Money in The

size of postage stamps feature handwrit- of the “true cross,” a gift from Ameri- Stock Market her “graduation thesis.” She LISE HONORÉ-WOLF ten notes from authors including Arthur can author and U.S. Ambassador Clare was only partially joking. Conan Doyle, Agatha Christie, and John Boothe Luce. The fragment was a gift to Homer passed away before the book, Steinbeck. A miniature autograph album Luce from Pope Pius XII. Ambassador and her 1968 memoir, were published.

66 SOCIAL REGISTER OBSERVER WINTER 2019 In 1983, Colleen was married for a fourth time. She would stay with Paul Maginot until her death on January 25, 1988, in Paso Robles, CA. In one memorable scene from Social Register, Colleen’s second to last fi lm, Ramona of Paul Whiteman’s Orches- tra, a well-known singer of the time, is invited to perform while at a high-class party. Colleen is there, as Patsy Shaw, tucked away against a bookcase. But as Ramona’s fi ngers hit the keys, she pulls out of the shadows, leaves her beau’s side, fl oats to the center of the room, and rests her arms on the piano, listening intently as Ramona sings:

Why not? Life is short and love is fl e e t i n g . Why not? Both our hearts are wildly beating. Try not to forget how much I worship you. Why not satisfy romantic hungers? Why not, we grow older never younger? Cry not, I swear I only care for you...

And there, in that moment, beyond the bobbed hair and the made-up face and the knowledge now that it would be one of her last scenes on the silver screen, Colleen Moore is Kathleen Mor- rison, a girl from Tampa who became the HEAR THE SONG ON YOUTUBE! world’s most famous and glamorous fl ap- per, cheered millions of children, helped women manage their own fi nances, and made her wildest dreams come true.

“Why Not” from the movie “Social Register” Top Right: Built in the midst of the Great Depression, the Fairy Castle cost more than (1934) by Ramona – 2:07 min. $435,000 at the time, or around $7 million today. Rare fi lm footage of singer and pianist Ramona The dollhouse can be seen at the Chicago Museum from her Paul Whiteman’s Orchestra years. of Science and Industry. Type the link below into your browser: https://youtu.be/A8zJE1voq3Q TOP: LISE HONORÉ-WOLF LISE TOP:

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