INFORMATION to USERS the Most Advanced Technology Has Been Used to Photo Graph and Reproduce This Manuscript from the Microfilm Master

Home , Alice Joyce, Alice Lake, Alma Rubens, Anders Randolf, Antonio Moreno, A Chapter in Her Life

INFORMATION TO USERS The most advanced technology has been used to photo graph and reproduce this manuscript from the microfilm master. UMI films the text directly from the original or copy submitted. Thus, some thesis and dissertation copies are in typewriter face, while others may be from any type of computer printer. The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. Broken or indistinct print, colored or poor quality illustrations and photographs, print bleedthrough, substandard margins, and improper alignment can adversely affect reproduction. In the unlikely event that the author did not send UMI a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if unauthorized copyright material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion.

Oversize materials (e.g., maps, drawings, charts) are re produced by sectioning the original, beginning at the upper left-hand corner and continuing from left to right in equal sections with small overlaps. Each original is also photographed in one exposure and is included in reduced form at the back of the book. These are also available as one exposure on a standard 35mm slide or as a 17" x 23" black and white photographic print for an additional charge.

Photographs included in the original manuscript have been reproduced xerographically in this copy. Higher quality 6" x 9" black and white photographic prints are available for any photographs or illustrations appearing in this copy for an additional charge. Contact UMI directly to order.

University Microfilms International A Bell & Howell Information Company 300 North Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 USA 313/761-4700 800/521-0600

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Reproduced with with permission permission of the of copyright the copyright owner. owner.Further reproduction Further reproduction prohibited without prohibited permission. without permission. Order Number 1338131

That her soul may remain pure: Women in American silent film

Steidel, Debra Eve, M.A.

The American University, 1989

UMI 300 N. ZecbRd. Ann Arbor, MI 48106

IN AMERICAN SILENT FILM

Debra Eve Steidel

submitted to the

Faculty of the College of Arts and Sciences

of The American University

in Partial Fulfillment of

the Requirements for the Degree of

Master of Arts

Film and Video

Signatures of Committee: ___

Chair: 7 (I'tfl y

Jean off the College 11 September 1989 Date

1989

The American University ~lO}[p Washington, D.C. 20016

THE AMERICAN UNIVERSITY LIBRARY

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. C COPYRIGHT

DEBRA EVE STEIDEL

1989

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. To The Memory of My Grandmother

Anna "Jimmy" Donovan Steidel

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. THAT HER SOUL MAY REMAIN PURE: WOMEN

IN AMERICAN SILENT FILM

Debra Eve Steidel

ABSTRACT

The grappling for a definition of women's roles

during the era of American silent film, 1895 through 1930,

reflected changes occuring in mass morality. The earliest

silents portraying women as second-class citizens were soon

joined by valiant heroines and social problem films

offering a more balanced picture of the capabilities and

concerns of womanhood.

As the blossoming "new morality" generated

apprehension, a Victorian dichotomy emerged between the

"pure" women of D.W. Griffith and Mary Pickford who were

rewarded with marriage and family, and the sexually

perverse vampire like Theda Bara who caused destruction and

death. But by the 1920s the films of Cecil B. DeMille,

Clara Bow and Greta Garbo displayed the emancipated new

wives, flappers and sophisticates in full-force.

Yet underlying these impeccably modern women was an

affirmation of traditional morality. By insisting that a

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. woman's soul did indeed remain pure, films reflected a

widespread desire to cling to rapidly decaying values.

iii

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. TABLE OF CONTENTS

ABSTRACT ...... ii

INTRODUCTION ...... 1

CHAPTER 1. THE EARLIEST SILENT FILMS . . . 5

CHAPTER 2. SOCIAL PROBLEM FILMS: WHITE SLAVERY, BIRTH CONTROL, SUFFRAGE . . . 25

White Slavery . . . . 25

Birth Control . . . . 29

Suffrage ..... 33

CHAPTER 3. THE SERIAL QUEENS .... 39

CHAPTER 4. MACK SENNETT'S KEYSTONE COMEDIES . 46

CHAPTER 5. VICTORIAN VALUES: D.W. GRIFFITH AND LILLIAN GISH .... 71

CHAPTER 6. MARY PICKFORD ..... 85

CHAPTER 7. THE COMICS: CHARLES CHAPLIN AND BUSTER KEATON ...... 106

Charles Chaplin .... 106

Buster Keaton . . . . 117

CHAPTER 8. THE VAMPIRE . . . . . 12 7

CHAPTER 9. THE JAZZ AGE: THE NEW WOMAN AND NEW MOVIES . . . . . 138

The New Woman . . . . 140

1. The Political Sphere . 141 2. Economics . . . 142 3. Social Changes . . . 14 6

The New Movies . . . . 156

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. CHAPTER 10. CECIL B. DEMILLE AND MODERN MARRIAGE . . . . 172

CHAPTER 11. FLAPPERS, WORKING GIRLS, AND CINDERELLAS ...... 199

The Modern Flapper . . . 199

Working Girls . . . . 217

Hollywood Cinderellas . . 225

CHAPTER 12. THE EUROPEAN INFLUENCE . . . 232

Erich Von Stroheim . . . 232 Greta Garbo and the Worldly Woman . . . . 244

CHAPTER 13. THE FEMALE GAZE: WOMEN IN THE FILM INDUSTRY . . . . 256

Directors . . . . . 257

Screenwriters .... 274

CONCLUSION ...... 281

BIBLIOGRAPHY ...... 285

FILMOGRAPHY 295

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. INTRODUCTION

When the first female dancer flickered across a

hastily strung up bedsheet at Koster and Bial's Music Hall

less than one century ago, few in that initial film

audience could predict the enormous impact the moving

picture would have on American society. The movies soon

became more than simple entertainment; they became a

cultural depository, a way to define existence, to

interpret the fantasies, dreams and commonly-held values of

the American public.

The silent film period, from 1895 through 193 0, was

one of immense social change in the United States.

Nineteenth century traditional order, already damaged by

the burgeoning Industrial Revolution, was forever

transformed by the first World War. The 1920s jazz age,

fast-paced and frenzied, offered a drastically revised

moral code.

The role of women in society also underwent great

change. Women who began the new century chained to home

and motherhood asserted their rights to political and

economic equality and independence; they most often

expressed their new-found freedoms by throwing off the

fetters of conservative Victorian morality and adopting the

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2

modern manners and morals of the independent, sexually-

liberated "new woman."

Unfortunately, the silent film is today a dead art.

Only a fraction of films from Hollywood's most prolific era

have survived time and irregular archival preservation.

The original silent films were tinted and toned in

brilliant hues of pink, blue, gold and green to convey both

mood and time of day. They were accompanied by piano,

organ or even elaborate orchestra scores, and were often

exhibited in lavish, opulent theaters. Few modern

audiences are lucky enough to enjoy this experience;

instead they see deteriorating prints projected at the

wrong speed in a classroom, and regard these works of art

as quaint relics of a time gone by.

The silent film, then, must be examined in the

context of its own time. This thesis approaches silent

films as literary works, focusing on plot and women's

acting over camera technique, for two reasons. First, in

the silent film era, technology and style evolved so

rapidly that a comparison of visual style is not always an

accurate measure of a film's intended message. Second,

silent film audiences, often unsophisticated and unused to

film language, concentrated overwhelmingly on the messages

imparted by the storyline and the image and behavior of the

women on the screen.

Within ten years of the birth of the movie industry,

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 3

films had become deeply ingrained in the cultural psyche,

and movie theaters became secular temples of America1s

daydreams, goals and values. As the original mass medium of the arts, films were tied to commercial considerations

as no other art form. To survive financially, films had to

conform to mass morality while also providing an outlet for

vicarious fantasy.

The grappling for a definition of women's roles in

silent film, then, reflects the changes occuring in that

mass morality. A progression of the silent film heroine in

these 35 years is evident. The earliest silent films

portraying women as second class citizens bound by male

domination were soon joined by works offering a more

balanced picture of the strength, capabilities and concerns

of womanhood. The valiant movie serial queens, Sennett's

plucky heroines, and social problem films concentrating on

prostitution, birth control and suffrage indicate a new

recognition of the increasingly assertive position of

women.

As the women's movement and the "new morality" both

gained momentum and generated apprehension, a film retreat

to Victorian values occured. A dichotomy was drawn between

the "pure" women of Griffith and Pickford who were rewarded

with marriage and family and the sexually perverse female

vampire who both caused and suffered destruction and death.

By the 192 0s, with such values regarded as simplistic and

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 4

archaic, the socially and sexually emancipated new woman

emerged full-force on the movie screen as modern wives,

flirty flappers and sophisticated women of the world.

By glorifying these cosmopolitan creatures, films

allowed women to fantasize about a new and daring

lifestyle. Yet, underlying these films of impeccably

modern women was an affirmation of the traditional morality

espoused by earlier motion pictures. By insisting that a

woman's soul did indeed remain pure, films reflected a

widespread desire to cling to the rapidly decaying values

of the past.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. CHAPTER ONE

THE EARLIEST SILENT FILMS

The earliest silent films, from 1895 through the

middle teens, offered sexist, stereotypical portrayals of

women. Cheesecake moving pictures, among the earliest of

films, depicted women as sex objects of voyeuristic male

pleasure; correspondingly, a great many early silent films

satirized and ridiculed unattractive women. As narrative

film grew, women were most often presented as second-class

citizens, subject to male possession and protection; they

were witless, fickle and incompetent, and rarely enjoyed

intelligence or autonomy. Such demeaning representations

were due, in part, to the simplicity of characterization

and vaudeville roots of early film, for as the motion

picture progressed to a more subtle art form by the end of

the first decade of the twentieth century, a more complex

and balanced picture of female behavior emerged.

Quite fittingly, the father of the American film,

Thomas Alva Edison, was not an artist but a businessman and

inventor; he accorded his film development little support,

pursuing it only as a complement to his phonograph, and

delegated the responsibility to his assistant, William

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Laurie Kennedy Dickinson.1 His machine, the Kinetoscope, a

viewing peep show, was first exhibited at the 1893 World's

Fair in Chicago; within a year the first Kinetoscope parlor

was opened in an old shoe store on Broadway, and others

appeared all over the United States.2

Once the problem of projection was solved, with

Edison buying rights to inventor Thomas Armat's projector,

the first public projection of Edison's Vitascope occurred

on April 23, 1896, as part of the vaudeville bill at Koster

and Bial's Music Hall in New York. The New York Times

called the Vitascope the "ingenious inventor's latest toy,"

and the films "wonderfully real and singularly

exhilarating." "So enthusiastic was the appreciation of

the crowd," continued the paper, "that long before the

extraordinary exhibition was finished vociferous cheering

was heard."3

Soon, short motion pictures became a regular feature

of vaudeville shows, which enjoyed an average weekly

audience of over one million viewers.4 Unlike most forms

•^Gerald Mast, A Short History of the Movies. 4th ed., (New York: Macmillan Publishing Company, 1986), 14. Edison was so unimpressed by the moving pictures that he refused to spend $150 to extend his patent rights to Europe.

2David A. Cook, A History of Narrative Film (New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 1981), 7.

3"Edison's Vitascope Cheered," New York Times. 24 April 1896.

4Robert C. Allen, Vaudeville and Film. 1895-1915: A Study in Media Interaction (New York: Arno Press, 1980), 9.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 7

of popular culture, movies grew in popularity "from the

bottom up," earning crucial initial support from the lower

and middle classes. In the 1890s, when working class

leisure was limited to bars, roller rinks, dance halls,

shooting galleries and the more expensive amusement parks

and major league baseball games, large screen projection

marked a turning point in mass entertainment. For the

first time, literacy or even the knowledge of English were

unnecessary to gain access to American popular culture.

As the popularity of the "flickers" soared, dozens

of production companies popped up in the U.S. The American

Mutoscope and Biograph Company was founded by Dickinson,

who had left Edison; its major competitor, Vitagraph, was

founded by J. Stuart Blackton, an Englishman who copied

Edison's machine. Other companies, like George Klein's

Kalem, George Spoor's Essanay, Selig, and Lubin, challenged them as well.5

These earliest peep show and vaudeville films were

short - no more than 90 seconds - unedited and simple,

usually with an action or view performed in front of a

stationery camera. Over 80 per cent were documentary in

nature, offering the scholar a fascinating glimpse of turn-

of-the century history. Simple views - of parades, oceans,

mountains, ships and trains - showed audiences sights they

had never seen before. Camera crews roved the globe,

5Mast, 28-30.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 8

bringing home exotic films like Arrival of Tokyo Train

(1902), Capuchin Monks. Rome (1903), Canton River Scene

(1898), Panorama of Eiffel Tower (1900), Shanghai River

Scene (1900), and Water Buffalo. Manila (1903). Early

newsreels included titles like Burial of "Maine11 Victims

(1898) , The Great Fire Ruins. Cor.ev Island (1903) , McKinley

Funeral on Wav to Church (1903) and President Roosevelt's

Fourth of July Oration (1903).

The chief image of women in these films emerges in

the spate of popular cheesecake movies. Although the films

are silly and sophomoric, and reveal very little of the

female body, they present women as the voyeuristic objects

of male pleasure. Films like What Demoralized the

Barbershop (1901) featured groups of men gleeful over

forbidden glimpses of female body parts, in this case a

woman's bare ankles. Others, like Neptune's Daughters

(1903), Flag Dance (1903) and Her Morning Exercise (1902)

presented women in leotards, nightgowns or skimpy dresses

dancing, stretching or otherwise "performing" for the

camera. The voyeuristic element is emphasized in films

like As Seen on the Curtain (1904), where a woman undresses

in silhouette, or Behind the Screen (1904), where a

surprised bathing woman is accidentally exposed to the

audience. Even the frequently filmed vaudeville acts

emphasize women displaying their bodies for male fantasy:

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 9

acts like Girls Dancing Can-Can (1902) and Gordon Sisters

Boxing (1901) were especially popular.6

Eventually, however, the novelty of these simple views and sophomoric cheesecakes diminished; 1897 through

1901 is often labeled the "chaser era," when films were

shown at the end of a vaudeville performance to clear

customers from the hall. To reverse that trend, film

companies searched for something new and exciting, and

settled upon the magic or trick film.7

By the turn of the century, the magician reigned as

the highly skilled and popular undisputed king of the

vaudeville stage. Recognizing the unique magical

capabilities and properties available through the motion

picture, stage magicians clamored for opportunities to

trade in the foot lights for the camera.8

The best-known film magician remains Georges Melies,

a frenchman whose Star Film Company made over 500

6What Demoralized the Barber Shop. Edison Company, 1898; Neptune’s Daughter. American Mutoscope and Biograph Company (AM&B), 1903; Flag Dance. AM&B, 1903; Her Morning Exercise. AM&B, 1902; As Seen on the Curtain. AM&B, 1904; Behind the Screen. AM&B, 1904; Girls Dancing Can-Can. AM&B, 1902; Gordon Sisters Boxing. Edison Company, 1901. Paper Print Collection, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

7Allen, 151.

8Erik Barnouw, The Magician and the Cinema (New York: Oxford University Press, 1981), 3. Stage magicians like Emile and Vincent Isola, Felicien Trewey, David Devant, Carl Hertz, Phillip Anderson, Alexander Victor and Walter Booth began making films. D.W. Griffith's cameraman, Billy Bitzer, was obsessed with magic, and Harry Houdini made magical escape films fcr Pathe.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1 0

delightful and popular trick films between 1897 and 1913.9

An accomplished showman, Melies knew the business potential

of including scantily clad young women in his films. For

him, women function as objects of decoration. They are

passive, subject to the whims and trickery of the magician,

their male master. In films like The Vanishing Ladv

(1896), Apparitions Fugitives (1904), Extraordinarv

Illusions (1903), Ten Ladies in an Umbrella (1903),10 The

Ballet Master's Dream (1903) and The Clock Maker's Dream

(1904),11 he conjures women out of thin air, dismisses them

in a puff of smoke, and converts them into household

objects. Melies' most famous work, the filmically advanced

Trip to the Moon (1903) features a line of chorus girls,

dressed in tight shorts and blouses, with no narrative

9Mast, 27. Melies made such major film innovations as the fade-in and fade-out, lap dissolves and stop-motion photography. Owner of the prestigious Theatre Robert- Houdin in Paris, Melies lost his audience and film studio by 1914 because he could not compete with the speed and efficiency of the factories of Gaumont and Pathe. Only 140 of his films survive. A poverty-stricken Melies sold the remaining 400 to the French Army in 1917 to be melted down for boot heels. He spent the remainder of his life selling toys and candy at a kiosk on the Gare Montparnasse.

10Georges Melies, Complete Catalogue of Genuine and Original Star Films (New York: Georges Melies, 1905) .

1J-The Ballet Master's Dream. Star Film Company, directed by Georges Melies, 1903; The Clock Maker's Dream. Ibid., 1904. Paper Print Collection, Library of Congress.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1 1

function; they are pure decorative frosting on his movie

cake.12

American trick films presented women in a similar

fashion. Edison's Mystic Swing (1900) features a vanishing

woman in a sheer nightgown, while Biograph's Pierrot's

Problem (1902) centers on a male magician attempting to

multiply a pretty young lady in a tight-fitting leotard.13

Such frivolity, while demeaning to women portrayed as de

humanized objects, was harmless in comparison with a

chillingly violent trend that symbolically dismembered and

mutilated women. Tricks titled "Rod through Body," "Dagger

Chest," "Shooting a Woman out of a Cannon," "Sawing a Woman

in Half," "Shooting through a Woman," and "the Electric

Chair" were almost uniformly performed on the courageous

female assistant.14

Shortly behind the trick film emerged the comic and

dramatic narrative motion pictures. These films usually

involved a tragedy averted by the heroics of a protagonist,

usually male, or a series of comic mishaps eventually

resolved. Films began to get longer, and developed their

12Trip to the Moon. Ibid., 1903. Wechsler Theater, The American University, Washington, D.C.

13The Mystic Swing. Edison Company, filmed by Edwin S. Porter, 1900; Pierrot's Problem. AM&B, 1902. Paper Print Collection, Library of Congress.

14Lucy Fischer, "The Lady Vanishes: Women, Magic and the Movies," in John Fell, ed., Film Before Griffith (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1983), 346.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 12

own system of language separate from the act of simply

recording a staged event from a single fixed camera

position.

As films became longer, better and more and more

popular, storefront theaters - offering exclusively movie

programs - appeared in America's cities. In 1905 in

Pittsburgh a theater - more comfortable and including piano

accompaniment - opened, charging a nickel. The age of the

nickelodeon had dawned. Within four years, over 5,000

nickelodeons operated in the U.S., and drew a weekly

audience of over 80 million people - quite significant

since the American population numbered 100 million.15 In

1908, over 600 nickel theaters in greater New York City

alone served a daily audience of 400,000, and collected

annual gross receipts of over six million dollars.16 By

1908, with narrative plots totalling 96 per cent of all

films and popularity mounting daily, movies had clearly

surpassed the stage of fad. The motion picture, according

to one writer, had become "both a clubhouse and an academy

for the working man,"17 and was firmly implanted as a

genuinely unique form of popular culture.

15Mast, 43.

16Robert Sklar, Movie Made America: A Cultural History of American Movies (New York: Vintage Books, 1976), 19.

17Lucy France Pierce, "The Nickelodeon," Views and Film Index, 24 October 1908, 4.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1 3

These films, visual fragments of society, depicted

women in a sexist, stereotypical manner. Woman was

subservient, fickle, incompetent, and an object of male

pleasure and possession. An important emphasis of the new

narrative was placed on romance; yet, what emerged was not

a relationship based on equality and mutual respect, but

one where the woman was viewed as a possession, a prize

awarded in the male game of sexual prowess. Many films

centered on the competition of two men over one woman, the

future bride. In 1905, Fight For A Bride sees two men

boxing, with the young woman in question "won" by the

victor. She apparently enjoys no choice in the matter.

Similarly, two men in An Affair of Hearts (1910) battle

over actress Florence Barker; it never occurs to them that

she already has a fiancee. In The Engagement Ring (1912)

Mabel Normand's future will not be decided by love, but by

which of her two suitors can pay for an engagement ring

first. Similarly, in A Modern Atalanta (1912), actress

Edith Storey, not eager to wed, challenges her suitors to a

footrace; if either can outrun the athletic young woman,

she will marry that man. Neither manages to, but a third

young man does beat her, but only through trickery. True

to her word, the reluctant girl agrees to marry him.18

18Fight for a Bride. AM&B, 1905; An Affair of Hearts, Biograph Company, 1910; The Engagement Ring. Biograph, 1912. Paper Print Collection, Library of Congress. A Modern Atalanta. Vitagraph, 1912. Facets Multimedia, Inc., Chicago, Illinois.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1 4

The concept of women as property reached its most

distasteful level in the Tom Mix western Roping a Bride

(1915), where two men vie for Vera, "a sweet patootie of

the golden west." They agree that whoever can rope her

first may "put his brand on her and keep her for life." A *

competition ensues, and the woman is actually roped and

dragged on the ground by the men on horseback. By 1915,

however, the woman at least indicates that such a barbaric

attitude is unacceptable. "I wouldn't marry either of you

unless I were a calf — or a donkey,'1 she yells. "I'm

going to marry a human being!" But, her concerns are

dismissed as fickle, and the two men are relieved they

avoided marriage to an "ornery female."19

The idea of a woman as a male possession is

continued in the many films that deal with elopement.

Again, the woman's personal preferences are immaterial, and

she must outwit and outrun her incensed father to marry the

man of her choice. In most films, like Elopement on

Horseback (1898), The Elopement (1907), The Will-Be Weds

(1913), An Interrupted Elopement (1912) and An Assisted

Elopement (1912), the couple manages to escape pursuing

parents and marry. In others, like The Elopement (1903)

and Elopers Who Didn't Elope (1904), verbal and physical

19Ropina a Bride. Selig Company, 1915. Library of Congress.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1 5

violence on the part of parents prevents the wedding.20

Significantly, in no film does the male eloper have to

climb out of his window or run away from his own parents;

it is the woman who passes from one pair of protective and

possessive hands to another.

That the final, desired closure for most of these

romance plots was marriage is somewhat ironic, given the

oppressive, unhappy portrayal of domesticity offered by

early films. Wives were depicted as nagging shrews. In

The Henpecked Husband (1905), a wife harasses her husband

to the point of suicide. But, his attempts fail, and the

man, in bandages and casts, finally falls over dead from

his wife's incessant complaining. The couple in Blessed is

the Peacemaker (1903) comes to blows because of the wife's

harangues, and in Trial Marriages (1907), a young man

swears off marriage because his various trial wives have

sent him to the hospital with bruises and broken bones.21

Wives were also portrayed as jealous, fickle and

easily deceived. Infidelity, on the part of both husband

and, to a lesser extent, the wife, was a common theme.

20Elopement on Horseback. Edison, 1898; The Elopement. AM&B, 1907; The Will-Be Weds. Essanay, 1913; An Interrupted Elopement. Biograph, 1912; An Assisted Elopement. Selig, 1912; The Elopement. AM&B, 1903; Elopers Who Didn't Elope. AM&B, 1904. Paper Print Collection, Library of Congress.

21The Henpecked Husband. AM&B, 1905; Blessed is the Peacemaker. AM&B, 1903; Trial Marriages. AM&B, 1907. Paper Print Collection, Library of Congress.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1 6

Usually, as in Wifev Away. Hubbv at Plav (1909), the

unfaithfulness remains undetected and harmless. Sometimes,

the wife fights back: in The Wrath of a Jealous Wife

(1903), the husband is beaten by his angry wife, while in

Winning Back His Love (1910), a wronged wife pretends to

date her husband's best friend to win back her wandering

spouse. Occasionally, the infidelity is treated in a more

serious and tragic manner: The Unfaithful Wife, a 1903

three-part film, ends with the couple's murder-suicide; The

Doctor's Bride (1909) shows an abandoned wife and baby

collapsed in a snowbank; and in The Impalement (1910), a

guilt-ridden husband dies when he believes his affair

caused his wife's apparent death.22

Not surprisingly, then, divorce also appeared in

early motion pictures. As early as 1900, in Why Mrs. Jones

Got A Divorce, an irate wife kicks out her errant husband.

A three-part series, The Divorce (1903), features a woman

hiring detectives to trap her unfaithful husband and obtain

a divorce. A 1910 film, Playing at Divorce, lays the blame

squarely on the wife who is "not a very good mother, but a

successful club woman." The couple plans to separate until

they realize the effect a divorce will have on their young

22wifev Awav. Hubbv at Plav. Lubin Manufacturing Company, 1909; The Wrath of a Jealous Wife. AM&B, 1903; Winning Back His Love. Biograph, 1910; The Unfaithful Wife (Parts 1-3), AM&B, 1903; The Doctor's Bride. Lubin, 1909; The Impalement. Biograph, 1910. Paper Print Collection, Library of Congress.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1 7

children. They reconcile, and the wife vows to become a

good mother. Thus, while the wife must sacrifice her

outside interests, the husband makes no concessions;

woman's duty is clearly in the realm of the home.23

Of course, campy cheesecake highlighting the

feminine form remained a staple of the comic narrative

fare. These films, regarded as naughty glimpses of the

forbidden, reflected an immature attitude toward women and

sex, not an open acceptance of the human body. Naturally,

no male cheesecake counterpart existed. Filmed vaudeville

acts, like Betsy Ross Dance (1903) and Latina. The

Contortionist (1905) paraded the scantily-clad female body.

Fun-loving, pretty young girls remained this type of film's

dominant image: pranks played in Boarding School Girls

(1905) feature nubile teenagers prancing about in

nightgowns, while in The Sleepy Soubrette (1905) , chorus

girls expose their sleeping friend's bare legs for the

camera. Peeping Tom in the Dressing Room (1905) includes a

boy who peeks through a keyhole to watch a buxom woman

undress; he is discovered, though, before he or the

audience sees much, and is beaten with the chorus girl's

powder puff. Other women were less concerned about their

modesty and virtue: in Soubrettes in a Bachelor's Flat

(1903), three partially undressed women drink and giggle

23Whv Mrs. Jones Got a Divorce. Edison, 1900; The Divorce (Parts 1-3), AM&B, 1903; Playing at Divorce. Vitagraph, 1910. Paper Print Collection, Library of Congress.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1 8

with a man; when police arrive at the door, they quickly

change into demure Salvation Army costumes, complete with

tambourines. In The Chorus Girl and the Salvation Army

Lassie (1903), a showgirl, angered by the Salvation Army

girl's moralizing about her drinking and smoking, chases

the girl from her dressing room. And, in Wine. Women and

Song (1906), a maid drinks with and kisses her employer, a

monk.24

With such importance placed on beauty, unattractive

women were often ridiculed in early motion pictures. She

Fell Fainting Into His Arms (1903) ridicules a huge woman

who faints at the sight of a toy mouse, crushing her tiny

husband, while Airy Fairy Lillian Tries on Her New Corsets

(1905) features an obese woman attempting to get dressed.

And, in The Fat Girl's Love Affair (1905), the mammoth

heroine loses her boyfriend because he cannot stretch his

arms wide enough to embrace her. In The Old Maid's Picture

(1903), an older, sour-looking woman literally shatters a camera with her unpleasant image. In Her Face Was Her

Fortune (1909) a man forced to wed flees from his ugly

24Betsv Ross Dance. 1903; Latina. The Contortionist. 1905; Boarding School Girls. 1905; The Sleepy Soubrette. 1905; Peeping Tom in the Dressing Room. 1905; Soubrettes in a Bachelor's Flat. 1903; The Chorus Girl and the Salvation Armv Lassie. 1903; Wine. Women and Song. 1906. All AM&B. Paper Print Collection, Library of Congress.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1 9

bride, finally hoisting her up a telephone pole and

escaping with friends.25

The disturbing importance of physical beauty to a

romance is seen in The Wav of Man (1909) as Mary Pickford,

whose face has been disfigured by an accident, loses her

beloved fiancee to her attractive cousin. Mary, though, is

consoled by her new life as a nursemaid in the "Bide-A-Wee"

children's home.26

While many of these early short films are demeaning

in their portrayal of women as fickle, helpless objects of

male subservience, another more sympathetic and independent

image of women did exist; surprisingly, it came most often

from David Wark Griffith, widely regarded as a sentimental

moralist who portrayed women as sweet, virginal, passive

Victorian valentines. While such a conclusion is

overwhelmingly true of his later feature works, it wavers

when one examines his corpus of Biograph shorts, made

between 1908 and 1913.

Born in 1875 to Confederate genteel poverty,

Griffith was not a man of science or technology but a

gentleman rooted in the world of honor, chivalry and the

25She Fell Fainting Into His Arms. AM&B, 1903? Airy Fairy Lillian Tries on Her New Corsets. AM&B, 1905; The Fat Girl's Love Affair. AM&B, 1905; The Old Maid's Picture. AM&B, 1903; Her Face Was Her Fortune. Lubin, 1909. Paper Print Collection, Library of Congress.

26The Wav of Man. Biograph, 1909. Paper Print Collection, Library of Congress.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 20

moral code of the antebellum American South.27 An actor

and writer who became a director by chance, Griffith

initially followed the conventions of 1908 directing, but

soon began extending the artistic and technical boundaries

of filmmaking that would immortalize him in film history.

He built up an extraordinary acting ensemble that

included such luminaries as Mary Pickford, Lionel

Barrymore, Mae Marsh, Lillian and Dorothy Gish, Blance

Sweet and Henry B. Walthall, and began experimenting and

innovating with techniques - like electric lighting,

refined acting, flashbacks, composition in depth,

dissolves, fades, matte shots, split screens, camera

movement, close up photography, cross-cutting and motivated

editing - that took motion pictures from simple

entertaining plots to complex work of art able to

communicate suspense, motivation and social statements.

With this new sophistication of storytelling,

characters were portrayed with greater depth and

complexity; accordingly, a wider range of feminine behavior

and roles emerged. Griffith's later sentimental heroine of

course appears in his Biograph shorts, in films like The

Lonely Villa (1909) or The Girls and Daddv (1909), where

frail helpless women and girls are imperiled by the evil

male world and then rescued by heroic men. But, this type

of heroine existed side by side with a stronger,

27Sklar, 51.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 21

resourceful woman who displays cleverness, self-dependence and even an appealing heady courage.28

Griffith was especially concerned with the effects

of alcoholism upon the family. In film's like The

Drunkard's Reformation (1909), What Drink Did (1909), The

Day After (1909) and Effecting A Cure (1910), he

sympathizes with unhappy wives suffering at the hands of

husbands' dissoluteness. These women, stoic and noble, are

usually able to reform their husbands and overcome their

tragic situations through moral strength and personal

courage.29

Similarly, Griffith mocked upright moralists who

harshly judge his female characters. In The New York Hat

(1912), one of Anita Loos' first screenplays, Griffith

condemns haughty town gossips who wrongly suspect Mary

Pickford of having an improper relationship with a

preacher. The Dancing Girl of Butte (1910) concerns the

relationship between a dance hall girl and a man whose

hypocritically self righteous friends object to her

questionable past. The film ends with the couple

disregarding unwarranted and unsolicited opinions,

28The Lonely Villa. Biograph, directed by D.W. Griffith, 1909; The Girls and Daddv. Ibid. Paper Print Collection, Library of Congress.

29The Drunkard's Reformation. Biograph, directed by D.W. Griffith, 1909; What Drink Did. Ibid.; The Day After. Ibid.; Effecting A Cure. Ibid., 1910. Paper Print Collection, Library of Congress.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 22

marrying, and pushing a baby pram through the park. In

other works, like Eloping With Auntie (1909) and

Eradicating Auntie (1909), Griffith sides with innocent puppy love over zealous chaperons.30

Griffith's women are not dim-witted little troupers

easily tricked by superior men. Choosing A Husband (1909)

features a young woman besieged by potential fiancees. To

test their sincerity, she hides in a closet while her

attractive friend entices four of the suitors to kisses and

hugs. Finally, a fifth man, faithful, wins her love and

trust. A similar predicament occurs in The Gibson Goddess

(1909); a stunningly beautiful Marion Leonard on holiday at

the beach is pestered by hordes of eager young sailors. To

get some peace, she adds padding to her figure, then

reveals her surprising girth on the beach to the men, who

laugh derisively and walk away. One less handsome, older

man doesn't mind her appearance, and the two become

friends. The film ends as Marion, back in her original

appealing state, promenades along the boardwalk with her

plain companion to the dismay of the shocked sailors. And

both His Wife's Visitor (1909) and Taming A Husband (1909)

30The New York Hat. Biograph, directed by D.W. Griffith, 1912; The Dancing Girl of Butte. Ibid., 1910; Eloping With Auntie. Ibid., 1909; Eradicating Auntie. Ibid. Paper Print Collection, Library of Congress.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 23

revolve around a neglected wife who captures her husband's

affection by feigning the attentions of other men.31

These women are not frail flowers helpless against

the perils of the world, either. One young woman in Her

Father's Pride (1910) saves her family from eviction by

paying off their debt. And, the heroines of The Lonedale

Operator (1911) and The Girl and Her Trust (1912) triumph

over great physical danger. Both are telegraph operators

entrusted with a large sum of money that villains attempt

to steal. These resourceful women are not only capable of

protecting their own safety - by locking out the thieves,

sending for authorities on the telegraph and using a hammer

to shoot bullets through a keyhole - they pursue the

criminals as well, outwitting and capturing them by

pretending a concealed wrench handle is a gun.32

Griffith's first longer film, the three-reel Judith

of Bethulia. a production which cost nearly $40,000, is a

surprisingly pro-feminist film. When the Assyrian army, led by its general, Holofernes, captures the town of

Bethulia, a wealthy Bethulian widow, Judith (Blanche

31Choosincf A Husband. Biograph, directed by D.W. Griffith, 1909; The Gibson Goddess. Ibid.; His Wife's Visitor. Ibid.; Taming A Husband. Ibid. Paper Print Collection, Library of Congress.

32Her Father's Pride. Biograph, directed by D.W. Griffith, 1910; The Girl and Her Trust. Ibid., 1912. Paper Print Collection, Library of Congress. The Lonedale Operator. Ibid., 1911. Wechsler Theater, The American University.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 4

Sweet)33 seduces Holofernes; despite truthfully falling in

love with him, she decapitates her lover to save her

people. The image of Judith was one that would not again

appear in a Griffith film: dark, powerful, older, and

definitely not frail or passive, this sympathetic womanly

heroine displayed an overt sexuality.34

Thus, while the earliest silent films drew women as

cartoonish figures of ridicule and sexist stereotype, they

were eventually accompanied by motion pictures offering a

more complex and self-determining vision of the

capabilities and concerns of women. Griffith's portrayal

of determined, autonomous women and girls was reflected in

the films of his contemporaries, and resurfaced in a

modified form in the adventurous serial queen, Mack

Sennett's tough comedy heroines, and Mary Pickford's plucky

little girls.

33DeWitt Bodeen, "Blance Sweet," Films in Review 16,9 (November 1965): 549-70. Blanche Sweet, born in Chicago in 1896, had been an actress since the age of eighteen months. In addition to The Lonedale Operator and Judith of Bethulia. she frequently played strong, determined women for Griffith: in The Making of a Man (1911) she sympathetically portrays an unwed mother; in Blind Love (1912) she is a small-town girl who runs away with a boyfriend; in Pirate's Gold Sweet is the only female member of a crew hunting down pirates; in Oil and Water (1913) she plays a dancer who deserts her husband and child to return to the stage; The Sentimental Sister (1914) casts her as a girl who runs away from a strict father to avoid life in a convent; and in For Her Father's Sins (1914). Sweet opposes her father's sweatshop practices and saves a young worker from starvation.

34Judith of Bethulia. Biograph, directed by D.W. Griffith, 1913. Paper Print Collection, Library of Congress.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. CHAPTER TWO

SOCIAL PROBLEM FILMS: WHITE SLAVERY,

BIRTH CONTROL, SUFFRAGE

As the already enormous need for film material grew,

small film companies often turned to the day's newspaper

headlines for inspiration. Muckraking journalists and

Progressive politics frequently provided movie storylines

that focused on the everyday problems of urban America.

Politically-oriented films, dealing with such social dilemmas as greedy corporations, negligent landlords,

corrupt politicians, labor strikes, alcoholism and child-

labor practices, were distributed to mainstream theaters

and proved as popular as less socially conscious

entertainment. While all of these issues affected women,

three others - prostitution, birth control and suffrage -

are particularly indicative of the goals and position of

women during the silent film era.

White Slavery

The so-called "white slavery" films, dealing with

the forced prostitution of kidnapped women, reflected an

overriding concern for the preservation of the family and

women's tradition role in the face of rapidly changing

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 26

mores. Although the Rockefeller Commission on Vice's

report of 1911 propelled white slavery to a virtual

national obsession,1 films detailing the sexual perils

confronting women who ventured from the home existed since

the early 1900s. In 1904, Decoved contained a young woman,

alone and new to the big city, who is kidnapped by a

sinister man who forces her to work on the streets.

Luckily, before the girl's virtue has been compromised, a

dashing male hero rescues her and wallops the captor.2 The

heroine in The White Slave (1907) was less lucky; she

escaped her misfortune only through death. Usually, as in

The Fatal Hour (1908) and Chinatown Slavery (1909), it is

foreign, evil men who abduct and pimp the young girls,

presenting prostitution as a problem not inherent to the American system.3

Usually, return to home and marriage restored a

woman's tarnished purity. To Save Her Soul (1909), a

Griffith short, features Mary Pickford as a minister's

sweetheart who is lured by a dishonest man to become a

vaudeville singer. Dismayed to find her dancing on tables,

drinking and leading a "loose" life - which presumably

•^Kay Sloan, The Loud Silents: Origins of the Social Problem Film (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1988), 82.

2Decoved, produced in Great Britain by the Hepworth Company, released in the U.S. by AM&B as Lost. Stolen or Strayed. 1904. Paper Print Collection, Library of Congress.

3Sloan, 81.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 7

includes sexual compromise - the minister, aiming a gun at

Mary's head, "crazed by jealous love, would kill her that

her soul may remain pure." She is redeemed, though, by

retreating to the security of home and church.4

By 1913, as the national hysteria over white slavery

reached its peak, Universal released A Traffic in Souls,

the year's most sensational and successful film. Costing

only $5,000 to produce, it earned $450,000 in one year, and

in New York city, the film ran simultaneously in 20

different theaters.5 Focusing on a prostitution ring run

by the town's most upright citizen, A Traffic in Souls did

much to fuel audience anxieties. Innocent immigrant and

naive country girls are swept off the streets and

imprisoned in a brothel, while newspaper headlines shout

that 50,000 girls a year disappear into white slavery.

Even the youngest Barton daughter (Ethel Grandin), tricked

by a male stranger who invites her to dinner, falls into

the trap. Her sister Mary (Jane Gail), who has been fired

from her job "on account of her sister's disgrace,"

cleverly nabs the culprits using a recording device her

invalid father has invented. She gives the evidence to

police who raid the bordello, reject bribery attempts, and

save Mary's sister before her honor has been sullied. The

4To Save Her Soul. Biograph, directed by D.W. Griffith, 1909. Paper Print Collection, Library of Congress.

5Sloan, 84.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 28

film's final shot - of the Barton girls under their

father’s protective arms - firmly returns the fallen woman

to the boundaries of the home.6

After the success of A Traffic in Souls, a series of

white slavery films, like The Inside of the White Slave

Traffic (1914), Damaged Goods (1914), The Governor's Ghost

(1914) and The Governor's Boss (1916), appeared.7 White

slavery films apparently appealed to a sexually repressed

audience; innocent young girls in sexual peril allowed

fantasies of sexual desirability, sex without guilt and

compelling tragedy. And, that they ultimately reinforced

traditional morality by bringing a woman back within the

confines of family - or punishing her with death if she was

too tainted - only increased their acceptance by a

fantasizing but conservative audience. Interestingly, the

blame was almost always laid on foreign and black pimps and

madames, and indirectly on naive young girls who foolishly

venture too far from the protection of family; no mention

was made of the white American male clients of these

unwilling victims. Although men are relieved of that

nefarious responsibility in the films, studies indicate

that in the first decade of the twentieth century, between

6A Traffic in Souls. Universal Film Manufacturing Company, directed by George Loane Tucker, 1913. Library of Congress.

7Sloan, 84.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 9

50 and 75 per cent of all married men patronized

prostitutes.8

By World War I, as audiences grew more sophisticated,

the appeal of white slavery films began to diminish; the

realization that social and economic inequality, not evil

foreigners lurking on street corners, drove women to sell

their bodies added a sobering element that films and

audiences chose to disregard.

Birth Control

As interest in white slavery waned, a new topic of

sexual politics, birth control, inflamed public debate.

Margaret Sanger, a radical Socialist and New York City slum

nurse, balked at the ignorance and inequality perpetuated against poor women by the U.S. legal system. Over one

million illegal abortions were performed annually in the

United States by the turn of the century, and another

50,000 women a year died from botched surgeries, yet the

dissemination of contraceptive information was illegal.

Sanger founded the American Birth Control League and

embarked on a decade of fervent political activity. Recognizing the mass appeal and propaganda potential

of the motion picture, Sanger in 1917 made the largely

autobiographical film Birth Control. Juxtaposing small,

healthy upper class families with large poor ones, Birth

8Marjorie Rosen, Popcorn Venus: Women. Movies and the American Dream (New York: Avon, 1973), 30.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 30

Control opens with a poor, sick mother who has just

delivered the latest of many children. When a doctor tells

her another pregnancy would result in her death, the woman

begs for contraceptive information, but the doctor refuses

to divulge any because doing so is illegal. When the woman

becomes pregnant again, she performs her own coat hanger

abortion and dies.

Sanger, as the nurse who attends the dying woman, is

so overwhelmed she vows to help similar poor women avoid

such a horrible fate. She distributes birth control

information, is arrested and convicted, and goes to jail.

The film's closing title, "No matter what happens, the work

shall go on," indicates the depth of her commitment.9

Although Birth Control ultimately upheld the

sanctity of family and motherhood, courts, citing the

potential of inciting "class hatred," refused to allow its

distribution. When that ruling was overturned, exhibitors

refused to book the film.10

9Edward de Grazia and Roger K. Newman, Banned Films: Movies. Censors and the First Amendment (New York: R.R. Bowker Company, 1982), 186.

10Sloan, 88. Although Birth Control was censored in 1917, by 1921 the March issue of Photoplay carried this advertisement for Sanger's book, Woman and the New Race: "This is a delicate subject to put before the public. But consider the frightful results of over-population, the misery of women worn out with continued child-bearing, the sad fate of babies that aren't wanted. Consider that poverty, crime, insanity, and prostitution are the direct result of lack of information about birth control" (88).

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 31

Those actions seem to be more a censure of Sanger

than of her movie, for a year earlier, female director Lois

Weber successfully released a similar film, Where Are Mv

Children? The film juxtaposes childless society women with

poor, overburdened mothers of large families. When a

physician is arrested for distributing birth control

information in the ghettos, he cautions the judge to look

more closely at his own wife and her friends: they,

apparently, are childless because of repeated illegal abortions.

Although Weber's film daringly acknowledges abortion

as a common alternative to unwanted pregnancy and exhibits

the same elements of class antagonism that felled Sanger's

film, it escaped censorship, most likely due to a lengthy

opening placard that read:

The question of birth control is now being generally discussed. All intelligent people know that birth control is a subject of serious public interest. Newspapers, magazines, and books have treated different phases of this question. Can a subject thus dealt with on the printed page be denied careful dramatization on the motion picture screen? The Universal Film Mfg. Company believes not. The Universal Film Mfg. Company, does believe, however, that the question of birth control should not be presented before children. In producing this picture the intention is to place a serious drama before adult audiences, to whom no suggestion of a fact of which they are ignorant is conveyed. It believes that children should not be admitted to see this picture unaccompanied by adults, but if you bring them it will do them an immeasurable amount of good.1*

•^Where Are Mv Children. Universal Film Manufacturing Company, directed by Lois Weber, 1916. Library of Congress.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 32

The film, arguing the necessity of both motherhood

and reliable birth control, opened to critical acclaim and

respectable box office receipts.12

A year later, Weber released The Hand That Rocks The

Cradle (1917), a lightly fictionalized biography of

Margaret Sanger. In the film, Weber plays the wife of a

doctor who won't illegally distribute contraceptive

information. Weber gives out the information herself and

goes to jail. At her trial, a judge, in words attributed

to a real Chicago judge, laments:

To my mind, there is no controversy about birth control, except insofar as how and by whom it should be exercised. When a poor woman appears before me with her sickly, underfed, unwashed brood of nine children and says she does not want to take back her drunken husband because it will mean another child added to her burden in a few months, my heart and soul cry aloud for a law that will permit a doctor to tell her openly what he has told rich women in secret.

Although the family again functions as the hero,

Weber's film faced censorship and harsh criticism. Why

this unlucky fate when Where Are Mv Children? had enjoyed

success and acclaim only a year earlier? Many critics

viewed the film as opportunistic - exploiting Sanger's

current legal predicament - and inflammatory. It was

deemed unfit for family theaters and withdrawn from

exhibition.13

12Sloan, 91.

13Ibid., 93.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 33

Thus, while these birth control films affirmed the

right of a woman to choose when and how many children to

bear, and even admitted abortion as a common alternative,

they ultimately confirmed traditional morality by keeping

women in the realm of home, marriage and motherhood. The

object of the birth control campaign was social, economic

and physical well-being for all classes, not free sex for

unmarried girls. Given the prevailing moral atmosphere,

then, preserving the sanctity of motherhood seems a

pragmatic, acceptable solution while emphasizing the need

for birth control. Yet, the dismal fate of two of the

three films indicates that the American public - or at

least the American court system - was unable and unwilling

to accept even this small threat to traditional values.

Suffrage

Films spawned by the campaign for women's suffrage

reveal much about male society's attitude toward women's

equality. As America's moral code expanded to include a

stronger, more equal female counterpart, films reflected an

intense fear for the new, unforeseeable future.

From the earliest years of the moving image

filmmakers found a wealth of material in ridiculing

feminists. In 1898, The Lady Barber featured a militant

suffragette who invades a male bastion (the barbershop) and

begins snipping male hair, symbolically emasculating the

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 3 4

men.14 Similarly, short film jokes aimed at suffragette

and prohibitionist Carrie Nation emerged. In Why Mr.

Nation Wants A Divorce (1901), Carrie's husband is left

home tending rambunctious children; when she catches him

taking refuge in the bottle, she beats and spanks him.

And, in The Kansas Saloon Smashers (1901), Nation runs

amuck and demolishes a saloon and everyone in it.15

This anti-suffrage trend continued through the early

teens. Some films, like Oh! You Suffragette (1911) portray

feminists as falsely bravado women whose experiences (in

this case, with mice) outside the home send them scurrying

back to safety. Many others, like When Women Win (1909) ,

Will It Ever Come To This? (1911), For the Cause of

Suffrage (1909) and Was He A Suffragette? (1912), reflect

male fears of a new society run by incompetent vengeful

women who victimize hapless men. The Suffragette's Revenge

(1914) sees women dressing men in diapers, while The

Suffragette Sheriff (1914) features suffragettes who

pretend to hang their unenlightened husbands.16

Other more insidious films depicted suffragettes as

frumpish man-hating women in tweed who endeavor to destroy

the romantic attachments of their younger, attractive

14Ibid., 99.

15Whv Mr. Nation Wants A Divorce. Edison, 1901; The Kansas Saloon Smashers. Ibid. Paper Print Collection, Library of Congress.

16Sloan, 107.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 3 5

followers. The sexual preference of older feminists was

often questioned, and as a whole, suffragettes were

regarded on film as inferior wives, mothers and girlfriends.

Charlie Chaplin dons a dress and bonnet to play a

mannish suffragette in A Busy Dav (1914). She disrupts a

parade, battles police, and when realizing her boyfriend

has thrown her over for a prettier woman, rolls up her

sleeves to fight. The man pushes her off a pier, though,

and the suffragette drowns because no one will come to her

rescue.

How They Got The Vote (1913) includes a militant

suffragette who objects to her daughter's boyfriend. The

young man enlists the help of a magician to secure the vote

for women, and wins the mother's approval. In addition to

presenting the suffragette as a ghoul who terrorizes

cowering men with her "Votes for Women" banner, How They

Got The Vote asserts that it would require supernatural

intervention for women to be granted the franchise.

The unfitness of suffragettes as women and mothers

is emphasized by A Cure for Suffragettes (1912) , as a group

of suffragettes abandons their babies in carriages on the

street to attend a rally. Although the film scoffs at

feminists, it does at least offer this more sympathetic

title: "But even a suffragette can be a mother."17

17Ibid., 103-105.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 3 6

Recognizing the public relation value of motion

pictures, feminists responded to continued attack by

producing their own films that depicted suffragettes as

deeply moral, attractive women, eager for both political

reform and a happy marriage and family. The National

American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) and the Women's

Political Union (WPU) produced three melodramas and one

comedy between 1912 and 1914, distributed both to

mainstream movie houses and employed in state campaigns.18

NAWSA's Votes For Women (1912), co-produced with

Reliance Film, stars real-life suffrage leaders Jane Addams

and Anna Howard Shaw in conflict with corrupt politicians.

That same year, WPU released a film satirizing a man who

rejects his womanly fiancee because she is a suffragette,

Suffrage and the Man. The heroine eventually regains her

man, votes are won for women, and her father muses, "My

butler and my bootblack may vote, why not my wife and

daughter?11

Two more suffrage leaders, Emmeline Pankhurst and

Harriet Stanton Blatch, appeared in WPU's 1913 Eighty

Million Women Want - ? The film features a moral,

attractive heroine who reforms her lover, a politically

corrupt lawyer, and drives crooked city bosses from office.

18Ibid., 99.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 3 7

To allay any fears generated by this determined woman, the

film ends with her lovingly gazing at a marriage license.19

Your Girl and Mine (1914), a melodrama about a

wealthy woman, Olive Wyndham, victimized by her abusive

husband, was produced by NAWSA and Lewis J. Selznick's

World Film Company. "I am absolute master here," gloats

the husband, "under the law your money is also mine." When

he dies, the husband bequeaths his two young daughters to

his father, who puts them to work in a sweatshop.

Fortunately, Olive's Aunt Jane is a feminist, and secures a

court ruling that returns Olive's daughters. The film ends

with the governor signing suffrage legislation. A

disagreement between NAWSA and Selznick limited the film to

private screenings and occasional showings in the state

campaigns. Your Girl and Mine was the final major feminist

film of the 192 0s, unfortunate since ratification of the

Nineteenth Amendment was still five years away.20

Some later commercial films supportive of suffrage

efforts, like Thanhouser's The Woman in Politics (1916),

Abramson's One Law For Both (1917) and Maurice Tourneur's

Woman (1918) did exist, but the majority of silent era

suffrage films ridiculed feminist aspirations for the vote.

By satirizing suffragettes, films stripped them of their

dignity, power and credibility, and allowed suffrage

19Rosen, 33.

20Ibid., 34.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 38

opponents to dismiss these activists as silly,

nonthreatening women. Like other social problem films,

suffrage movies placated a public - fearful of a shifting

moral code - by keeping women in the traditional realm of

marriage, motherhood and home.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. CHAPTER THREE

THE SERIAL QUEENS

In the mid teens, the film industry slowly

relinquished short one or two-reel pictures for longer,

feature-length works; movie serials, inexpensively produced

films made up of many short installments, helped bridge

that transition. In these serials, an entirely new

representation of womanhood emerged: decidedly pro-feminist

in content, these films featured bold and adventurous

female daredevils who capably combatted both evil

adversaries and fearsome predicaments.

In August 1912, the Ladies World magazine published

a short, unfinished tale about Mary, a young girl who runs

away from her adoptive father rather than yield to an

arranged marriage. One hundred dollars was offered to the

first reader who could predict what would happen in the

next twenty minutes. The contest was extremely popular,

and the Ladies World approached Edison's Kinetoscope

Company about filming each month's installment, timed, of

course, to coincide with the magazine's publication.

Edison agreed, and oast the athletic actress Mary Fuller in

the title role of What Happened to Mary? (1913) . Mary, an

attractive young girl, is propelled on an exotic series of 39

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 40

adventures through Broadway, Wall Street, London and the

depths of the underworld in search of her missing

inheritance. Her escapades, peculiar and dangerous, were

made more difficult by the evil villain Billy Peart

(William Wadsworth), who plans to murder Mary and claim her

money.1 In one chapter, The Wav to the Underworld. Mary

climbs out of a seven story window to safety with a rope

she fashioned out of bedsheets.2

What Happened To Mary? proved so successful - for

both Edison and the magazine - that they collaborated on a

second, six-chapter version titled Who Will Marry Marv?

(1913). Again, Mary is a brave heroine who battles

dastardly villains to regain her money and marry her true

love. Soon, the Chicago Tribune and the Selig Polyscope

Company released their own more violent and action-filled

serial, The Adventures of Kathlvn (1913), starring Kathlyn

Williams. Kathlyn, too, courageously and successfully

faces danger and death to retrieve a lost inheritance from

the evil, foreign Umballah (Charles Clary).3

Raymond William Stedman, The Serials: Suspense and Drama by Installment (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1977), 3-6. Serials differed from series in that serials utilized a running story line with cliffhanger endings, while series were self-contained chapters united by common characters and situations, much like a current television sitcoms and dramas.

2The Wav to the Underworld, installment of What Happened to Marv. Edison, directed by Walter Edwin, 1913. Facets Multimedia.

3Stedman, 8.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 4 1

With the substantial success of this third serial -

the Tribune1s circulation jumped by ten per cent and the

film played to sell-out crowds - other film companies

rushed to produce their own versions, with or without

newspaper and magazine collaboration. 1914 saw a burst of

serials, all featuring dauntless young heroines facing

perilous trials. Edison's The Active Life of Dolly of the

Dailies cast Mary Fuller as a girl-reporter; the adventures

come as she gamely investigates dangerous stories and woos

a fellow male reporter. Universal's Lucille Love. Girl of

Mystery. a spy drama set in the Pacific, introduced the

serial's first and most popular team, Grace Cunard and

Francis Ford.4 When the Thanhouser Company and the Chicago

Tribune collaborated on the 23-chapter The Million Dollar

Mystery and made $500,000 on a $125,000 investment, serials

became even more attractive to film companies that released

successful bids like The Beloved Adventurer. The Trev O'

Hearts. The Master Key and The 20 Million Dollar Mystery.5

The most well-known serial today, The Perils of

Pauline, was released in March 1914 by the Hearst newspaper

corporation and the Pathe Film Company. Starring Pearl

White as Pauline, the film's storyline - again, a lost

4Cunard and Ford appeared together in other successful serials like The Broken Coin (1915), The Adventures of Peg O' the Ring (1916) and The Purple Mask (1916).

5Ibid., 9-14.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 4 2

inheritance - carries brave and daring Pauline all over the

globe. She handily defeats her nemesis Koerner (Paul

Panzer) and retrieves her money; but significantly, in the

final episode, Pauline is reunited with the work's hero

(Harry Marvin), and agrees to give up her life of

excitement to become Mrs. Crane Wilbur.6

Despite the traditional ending of The Perils of

Pauline, most serials are unwittingly or not radically

feminist in outlook. They are overwhelmingly based on an

intrepid female heroine, really just an average, normal

American girl thrust into some wild, dangerous adventure by

the trickery and deceit of a greedy male relative. Rather

than surrender to an unfair fate, the valiant young woman

vows to do battle, usually involving a sinister, predatory,

frequently foreign male nemesis. Facing a daunting gallery

of perils like water, fire, height, depth, speed and sharp-

edged tools, the lionhearted girl proves more than equal to

her nefarious adversary. She jumps - off and on trains,

cars and buildings - she climbs - up walls, out windows,

down trees - and she crawls out of her treacherous

predicaments, often rescuing her male companion in the

process. Ultimately, she captures the villain, reclaims

6Ibid., 11. Born in Missouri in 1889, Pearl White fabricated a fantastic studio biography. It is known, though, that she left home at 18 to tour with a stock company, joined the Powers Film Company in 1910, and worked for Lubin, Pathe and Crystal before becoming America's favorite serial queen.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 4 3

her stolen money, and exits with honor and virtue intact, if a little bruised.

Between 1915 and 1917, serials reached an

unprecedented peak in popularity. All major film companies

(American, Edison, Lubin, Kalem, Universal, Pathe,

Thanhouser, Vitagraph, Reliance) save Biograph released

successful serials.7 Titles like The Exploits of Elaine

(1915), The New Exploits of Elaine (1915), The Romance of

Elaine (1915), - all Pearl White vehicles - Runaway Jane (1915), The Girl and the Game (1915), and The Ventures of

Marguerite (1915) were filmed at low cost and reaped huge

profits. The number of chapters making up each serial

increased as well; The Diamond from the Skv (1915) with

Lottie Pickford offered 30 installments. In 1916, 10 film

companies released a total of 20 serials. A stage serial

version, Gloria's Romance, starring Billie Burke, was

performed on Broadway, and a serial parody, The Fates and

Flora Fourflush or the 10 Billion Dollar Vitaaraoh Mvsterv

Serial (1915) even appeared in movie theaters.8

The films' top stars, like Mary Fuller, Pearl White,

Kathlyn Williams, Grace Cunard, Ruth Roland, Helen Holmes

and Helen Gibson, became known as "serial queens." Popular

7Kalton C. Lahue, Continued Next Week: A History of the Moving Picture Serial (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1964), 4. Intended as purely profitable and mass- produced entertainment, serials utilized sets and costumes already used by the movie companies to keep costs down.

8Stedman, 35-36.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 44

with audiences and fan magazines, most of these actresses

(except Ruth Roland) performed their own dangerous stunts,

risking and occasionally suffering serious physical damage.

Pearl White was such an accomplished stuntwoman she was

referred to as "The Lady Daredevil of the Fillums." Fan

magazines, enamored of these colorful, exciting actresses,

glorified the physical strength and daring escapades of the

serial queens. Photoplay wrote in 1912 about Helen Gibson:

Helen is a very pretty and charming young lady. She wears pretty gowns and is very proud of the fact that she can burst the sleeves of any of them by doubling up her biceps. Helen "shows her muscle" and zip-p-p goes the dress goods. That's from hanging from bridges and swinging onto passing cabooses.9

With the first World War, serials, now enjoying

higher budgets and production values and calling themselves

"preparedness serials," concentrated on patriotic war

themes. Liberty, a Daughter of the U.S.A (1916), Pearl of

the Army (1916), A Daughter of Uncle Sam (1918), Wolves of

Kultur (1918) and A Woman in a Web (1918) varied somewhat

from pre-war serials. The motivation for daring pursuits

comes not from lost money but from attempts to aid the war

effort, like breaking up a spy ring or saving the Panama

Canal from destruction; villains, too, become almost

uniformly German or Asian. Yet, the main element - the

9Alan Burden, "The Girl Who Keeps a Railroad," Photoplay. July 1915, 89-94.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 4 5

dazzling adventures of a brave female protagonist - remain intact.10

By the end of World War I, with an increase of

audience sophistication, serials had slumped in popularity;

the novelty of serials as a promotional gimmick had worn

off, and feature-length productions soon edged them out at

the box office. In 1922, with both Pearl White and Ruth

Roland retiring from serials to embark on more serious film

work, the era of the feminine serial drama drew to a close;

only one female newcomer, Allene Ray, was able to enter the

serials. In the 1920s, an era of such real-life heroes

like Charles Lindbergh, Babe Ruth and Jack Dempsey, males

began to dominate the serial film. The Perils of Pauline

graciously gave way to Tarzan of the Anes (1918).11

But, while they lasted, serial films presented a

strong, independent image of women refreshing after a

decade largely made up of silly, helpless females. The

serial queen's popularity - evidenced by faithful weekly

viewers - indicates that she fulfilled the fantasies of

women fascinated by her exotic journeys and conquests. And

her popularity - based on an ability to successfully fend

for both herself and for others - points to a larger

readiness of society to accept a new, more independent role

for women as a whole.

10Stedman, 40.

i:LLahue, Continued Next Week. 76.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. CHAPTER FOUR

MACK SENNETT'S KEYSTONE COMEDIES

Some critics contend that silent comedy, a

predominantly male bastion, operates out of a strongly

misogynist basis: through ridicule and physical violence,

society's convention and order, traditionally presided over

by women, are undermined, even obliterated. For this

reason, critics say, women have never participated or

responded with great warmth to slapstick comedy.1 Such an

analysis discounts both the talented contributions of such

physical comediennes as Colleen Moore, Bea Lillie, Marie

Dressier, Mabel Normand, Bebe Daniels, Clara Bow and Marion

Davies, and the phenomenal popularity of Sennett, Chaplin and Keaton comedies among both males and females. A more

reasoned interpretation is that silent comedy portrayed

women with the same ambivalence evident in other film

genres as well as in society. Frequently, Sennett depicted

his women as silly, incompetent girls, displayed their

bodies as objects of male pleasure, and ridiculed older,

unattractive women as loud, overblown dodos; at other

■^Haskell, 91. 46

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 4 7

times, he offered a quite feminist outlook in the strength,

daring and capability of his women.

Widely regarded as the first "King of American

Comedy," Mack Sennett was born Michael Sinnott in Quebec,

Canada in 1880. His family eventually moved to

Northampton, Massachusetts, where longing to be an opera

star, the young man convinced the family lawyer - Calvin

Coolidge - to write him a letter of introduction to Marie

Dressier, a respected stage actress performing Lady Slavery

in the area. Dressier, in turn, sent Sennett on to

theatrical producer David Belasco, who politely suggested

burlesque as a starting point. Sennett worked in

vaudeville and burlesque for 10 years, and in 1907 joined

the Biograph ensemble. There, Sennett observed the style

of director D.W. Griffith, gained recognition as an actor,

and eventually made a name for himself writing scripts and

directing shorts.2

His first full-reel comedy, Comrades. was produced

in 1911; by 1912, Sennett headed his own profitable unit at

Biograph, and developed a tightly-knit ensemble of actors

that included Eddie Dillon, Vivian Prescott, Mabel Normand,

Fred Mace, and Ford Sterling. In August of the same year,

Sennett, backed by New York ex-bookies Adam Kessel and

2Kalton C. Lahue and Terry Brewer, Kops and Custard: The Legend of Keystone Films (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1968), 3-13. Sennett wrote the script for The Lonely Villa, an early Griffith work starring young Mary Pickford.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 4 8

Charles Bauman, formed the Keystone Film Company and moved

his operations west to California.3

Between 1913 and 1935, Sennett produced thousands of

one or two reelers and hundreds of features, giving birth

to and defining a new screen genre: the silent slapstick

comedy. Influenced by the circus, vaudeville, burlesque,

pantomime, comic strips and the chase films of French actor

Max Linder, Sennett's works were furiously frenzied,

sacrificing narrative nuances and character logic for

blatantly physical and visual comedy. His films were

violent yet harmless, and satirized every aspect of human

society. Frequently, if not always, authority and social

control - in the form of policemen, teachers, marriage, and

bourgeois manners - were subverted in favor of his lower-

class characters. Inevitably, traditional order prevailed,

but not before convention and respectability were cut down

to size? not surprisingly, this formula appealed enormously

to the American working middle class audience.4

3Ibid., 21-24.

4Sklar, 105. Sennett made three unforgettable contributions to silent comedy. The first, his Keystone Kops - a group of bungling, bumbling, incompetent policemen - made their debut in December, 1912 in Hoffmever's Legacy. They went on to symbolize both an institution and an era, as well as comedy's iconoclastic attitude toward it. Second, Sennett converted the film chase into a high-speed, high-precision car and train romp parodying Griffith’s fantastic last-minute rescues. Third, a treasured hallmark of silent humor, the pie in the face, was first hurled in a Keystone comedy; fittingly, Mabel Normand threw the custard-filled pie at Fatty Arbuckle in July, 1913 in A Noise From The Deep. Sennett is also guilty of a fourth,

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 4 9

One Keystone image of women and romantic and

domestic relationships was very similar to the attitudes

expressed in the earliest silent films. Frequently, a

woman is treated as chattel, the romantic prize offered to

two competing men regardless of her own plans and desires.

Sometimes, as in The Rent Jumpers (1915), money and

personality play a role, but this being physical comedy,

too often the contest degenerates into violence: in Fatty1s

Faithful Fido (1915), Fatty Arbuckle and A1 St. John

instigate a gigantic brawl over Minta Durfee; in Hogan1s

Romance Upset (1915) Charles Murray sinks a rowboat to win

Billie Brockwell from Bobby Dunn, and the pair ends up in

the boxing ring; and, in Those Bitter Sweets (1915), Dell

Henderson is spurned by Mae Busch and actually poisons a

box of chocolates in revenge. Only rarely does the female

object play a role in her romantic fate when two men

compete for her charms: in Do-Re-Mi-Boom1 (1915) Rosemary

Thelby rejects Chester Conklin for placing a bomb in his

rival's piano, and in A Human Hound's Triumph (1915) Mae

Busch and Harry McCoy outwit and outrun an overzealous

suitor to elope.5

less glorious innovation; a confirmed rogue, the creator of film slapstick heartily enjoyed the benefits of the casting couch.

5The Rent Jumpers. Keystone Pictures, directed by Mack Sennett, 1915; Fatty's Faithful Fido. Ibid.; Hogan's Romance Upset. Ibid.; Those Bitter Sweets. Ibid.; Do-Re-Mi- Boom! . Ibid.; A Human Hound's Triumph. Ibid. Paper Print Collection, Library of Congress.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 5 0

Often, the young heroine's father - accustomed to

viewing his daughter as his property and alarmed at her

blossoming sexuality - attempts to thwart her romantic

pursuits. When pitted against her father, the female seems

more able and willing to assert her own will. Colored

Villainy, a 1915 production done in blackface, features Mae Busch outwitting her strict father. In Curses 1 They

Remarked (1915) Norma Nichols plays a young heiress whose

guardian wants her to marry his already-wed son, Conklin.

Rather than lose her fortune to a man she can't stand,

Norma elopes with her true sweetheart, Edward Kennedy. A

similar plot unfolds in Hash House Mashers (1915), as

Vivian Edwards elopes with Charles Chase to avoid marriage

with the distasteful man of her father's choice. A less

clear message is delivered in When Love Took Wings (1915),

a short that has Estelle Allen in love with Joe Bordeaux

while her father (Frank Hayes) demands she marry either

Arbuckle or St. John. Estelle runs away with Arbuckle in

an airplane (making for interesting airborne stunts), but

at their wedding, Arbuckle learns she is wearing a wig to

hide sparse hair and runs away. St. John arrives to take

his place, but he too escapes at the sight of her head;

finally, Hayes forces Bordeaux to wed his daughter. Thus,

Estelle's original desire was carried out, but with little

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 5 1

effort on her part and only through her father's

desperation to find her a groom.6

The element of possessiveness found in these

romantic comedies takes an ominous tone in a spate of

Keystone films that revolves around simply kidnapping the

woman of one's choice. Happily, if the attack isn't

prevented, the woman is either rescued by her true love, or

the plot is foiled by the abduction of the wrong woman. In

Ambrose's Lofty Perch (1915), a king (Mack Swain) prevents

an old suitor from stealing his queen, Louise Fazenda. In

The Cannon Ball (1915) Rosemary Thelby is rescued from

Chester Conklin by her sweetheart, and in Love in Armor

(1915) Charles Chase saves his abducted girlfriend, Mae

Busch. Mae Busch is again the object in peril in For

Better - But Worse (1915), but avoids harm as Harry McCoy

mistakenly kidnaps his own unwanted wife. Similarly,

Beating Hearts and Carpets (1915) features Charles Murray

accidentally kidnapping a frumpy Billie Bennett instead of

her pretty daughter (Peggy Pearce), who then marries her

real boyfriend (Harry McCoy). Still more threatening are

kidnappings based on foul play rather than romantic

interest: Fatty's Plucky Pup (1915) sees Arbuckle rescuing

his girl Josephine Stevens from con men who have rigged a

6Colored Villainy. Keystone Pictures, directed by Mack Sennett, 1915; Curses 1 They Remarked. Ibid.; Hash House Mashers. Ibid.; When Love Took Wings. Ibid. Paper Print Collection, Library of Congress.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 5 2

gun to kill her; in Love. Loot and Crash (1915) Dora Rogers

is stolen by burglars in an elopement mixup; and in A

Versatile Villain (1915) Louise Fazenda plays a sheriff's

daughter kidnapped by crooks who attach her to sticks of

burning dynamite. As expected, the heroine is saved by a

dashing young man.7

Although a great many Keystone plots center on

romantic goals, marriage is presented as unappealing and

troublesome. Unfaithfulness runs rampant, and although

indiscretion peaks at innocuous flirting and occasional cuddling, the ready breach of fidelity and trust is

unsettling. In many Keystone shorts, like Droppington1s

Family Tree (1915) the faithful wife remains blissfully

unaware of her husband's wandering eye. But in other films

like Ambrose's Furv (1915) , Fatty's Chance Acquaintance

(1915) and His Luckless Love (1915) the husband suffers the

mighty wrath of his wronged wife, being beaten and scolded

before earning forgiveness. In at least one short -

Settled at the Seaside (1915) - the husband chooses to

7Ambrose's Lofty Perch. Keystone Pictures, directed by Mack Sennett, 1915; The Cannon Ball. Ibid.; Love in Armor. Ibid.; For Better - But Worse. Ibid.; Beating Hearts and Carpets. Ibid.; Fatty's Plucky Pup. Ibid.; Love. Loot and Crash. Ibid.; A Versatile Villain. Ibid. Paper Print Collection, Library of Congress.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 5 3

escape from his incensed wife rather than face the consequences.8

Thus, as in early films by other companies,

stereotypical, sexist portrayals of women exist in many

Keystone comedies. Women emerge as fickle, inconsistent

and troublesome creatures, not as intelligent beings or

equal partners to men. They are objects of male possession

that rarely insist on their own desires and goals.

Sennett's female characters are of three essential

types: the innocent, pretty ingenue, the overbearing and

oafish matron, and the pretty but vacant bathing beauty.

Relying on time-tested standards of burlesque, Keystone

leading ladies offer a shocking physical contrast to the

men they were paired with. Whether it is lovely young

girls doting on ugly old men or huge domineering wives

pushing around timid, tiny husbands, the incongruous serves

the humor. Significantly, while the overwhelming majority

of Keystone actresses are attractive, very few of the

actors qualify as handsome. In Sennett's frenzied world of

the unexpected and the double standard, a bloated baby-man

like Fatty Arbuckle easily attracts the ladies, while any

woman who does not fulfill the usual requirements of

8Droppinqton's Family Tree. Keystone Pictures, directed by Mack Sennett, 1915; Ambrose1s Fury. Ibid.; Fatty's Chance Acquaintance. Ibid.; His Luckless Love, ibid.; Settled at the Seaside. Ibid. Paper Print Collection, Library of Congress.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 5 4

feminine beauty is relegated to the position of unwanted battle-axe.

Sennett soon developed a formidable female acting ensemble that divided into young lovelies (Minta Durfee,

Alice Davenport, Louise Fazenda, Mae Busch, Cecile Arnold,

Alice Lake, Ora Caren, Fay Tincher, Juanita Hansen) and old uglies (Polly Moran, Phyllis Allen). His most valuable

female, though, may have been stuntwoman Aileen Allen, a

superb athlete who doubled for many actresses in scenes

involving danger.9

Sennett's most popular and enduring leading lady,

however, remains Mabel Normand, a woman regarded by many

critics as a comic genius who functions as a female

counterpart to Charlie Chaplin. Born in 1894 to a

vaudeville piano player and his dancing wife, Mabel worked

in New York as a teen-age model. After a few roles in

Vitagraph films, she defected in 1911 to Biograph, where

she became close friends with Sennett. She left for

California with him a year later, and starring in most of

his comedies, soon became enormously popular as "Keystone

Mabel." Normand and Sennett sustained a romantic

relationship throughout their Keystone days; after its

9Lahue and Brewer, 105. Although Allen stood in for most stunts, the grueling system at Keystone took its physical toll on actresses; Minta Durfee crushed her hand in a laundry mangle, Dot Hagart fractured both wrists falling off a horse, and Mabel Normand was hospitalized after catching Arbuckle's quite substantial boot in the head.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 5 5

demise, she continued working for him, with contractual

freedom to choose her own writer, director and script. In

1916, Sennett formed the Mabel Normand Feature Film

Company.10

Small, pretty and delicate-looking, dark-haired

Normand epitomized the Keystone female. Often paired with

enormous Roscoe Fatty Arbuckle, Normand's giddy heroines

possessed a giggling joy for life that occasionally

bordered on Rabelaisian gusto. An alternative to the

Griffith pale Victorian child-women gaining popularity,

Normand was a talented and athletic comedienne who both

dished out and received a great deal of roughhousing in the

serial queen tradition. In an article he wrote for Motion

Picture Classic. Sennett discussed his ambivalent code of

female activity:

. . . movie fans do not like to see pretty girls smeared up with pastry. Shetland ponies and pretty girls are immune .... The immunity of pretty girls doesn't go quite as far as the immunity of the Shetland pony, however. You can put a pretty girl in a shower bath. You can have her fall into mud puddles. They

10Ibid., 30-35. Sennett and Normand were to be married in 1915, but Mabel called the wedding off when she came upon her commitment-shy fiancee in a compromising situation with her best friend. In 1917 she signed a 5 year contract with Samuel Goldwyn, and enjoyed success until her entanglement in the 1921 William Desmond Taylor murder scandal. Although cleared immediately of any wrong doing, she was blacklisted from Hays Office Hollywood and worked only sporadically until her alleged drug overdose death in 193 0.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 5 6

will laugh at that. But the spectacle of a girl dripping with pie is displeasing.11

Thus, while Normand was allowed to engage in brisk physical

escapades, she displayed a certain level of feminine, lady

like behavior. Apparently, she successfully maintained

that balance, for a 1914 Motion Picture World article

described her as "a woman with a sense of humor . . .

always original and full of clever inventions," going on to say:

Her versatility and daring, her compelling type of beauty, and, most of all, her sympathetic understanding of what the average man or woman regards as humorous, have made Miss Normand one of the most fascinating of actresses, either in pictures or the legitimate. . . . She rides like a centaur, swims like a fish, and, with muscles as strong and springy as cold rolled steel, is well qualified to hold up her end in any of the Keystones, which are noted for their strenuous action.12

In her many Sennett comedies, Normand reflected the

ambivalence to the changing roles of women that was evident

in society. In some roles, she displayed tentative

assertiveness through her physical actions - a woman was

capable of aggression, and could endure hardships without

11Mack Sennett, "The Psychology of Film Comedy," Motion Picture Classic. November 1918, 70.

12"Mabel Normand, Key to Many Laughs in Keystone Comedies," Motion Picture World. 11 July 1914, 239. Praise for women who employed their strength was not as rare as might be expected; an admiring article in the New York Times on June 14, 1914 read: "Insurance adjusters beware! Here is a girl who makes her living by being knocked down by automobiles, falling in front of moving trains, and being rolled by the fenders of street cars. . . . Her name is Jean DeKay, and she is a moving picture actress."

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 5 7

collapsing and without losing her femininity or interest in

romance; in others, she remained within the boundaries of

silly, fickle, incompetent womanhood.

In Fatty and Mabel Adrift (1915), Normand plays a

sweet farm girl enamored of the rotund and child-like

Arbuckle. From the very first shot of her plump face

framed by a heart, Normand displays an earthy but endearing

combination of shyness and playfulness. She coyly teases a

futile suitor, furtively stealing his apple and heartily

stuffing it into her face. But, when he becomes a bit too

amorous, Mabel swiftly topples the romeo from his fence-top

perch. She survives intact when her rejected suitor tries to strangle the apple from her pretty throat, and when

after their wedding, Fatty lifts her in a rough bear hug

and tosses diminutive Mabel into a car.

Once married, Mabel keeps house happily but poorly.

Her rock-hard biscuits shatter dinner plates. She laughs

about it until Fatty tries to eat them; his unspoken

disapproval provokes tears and apologies. Aiming to

please, Fatty surreptitiously smashes a biscuit and feeds

it to their dog Teddy, restoring Mabel's shaken confidence.

The rest of Fatty and Mabel Adrift unfolds as

Mabel1s spurned suitor engages the thug Brutus Bombastic to

send the little cottage floating out to sea. Mabel and

Fatty awake, flail about uselessly, and send Teddy swimming

for help. Eventually, a combined force of bumbling

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 5 8

Keystone Kops and Mabel's parents tow in the sinking

structure; "love in a cottage" has been restored.13

In Mabel Lost and Won (1915) Normand plays a young

girl who finally becomes engaged to her suitor, Owen Moore.

The happiness does not last long, for an older,

sophisticated woman (Dora Rogers) manages to draw Owen's

attentions. Rather than fighting for her fiancee, as one

would expect from feisty Mabel, she is easily influenced by

her disapproving mother and quietly breaks the engagement.

Then, when the older woman's husband and four children come

to reclaim her, Owen scurries back to Mabel. Without a

peep of complaint or retribution, Mabel takes her

unfaithful sweetheart back.14

Fatty and Mabel's Simple Life (1915) features a much

more assertive Mabel. Perfectly happy living on a farm

among the cows and boyfriend Fatty Arbuckle, Mabel rebels

when her father promises her hand to a rich man's son (A1

St. John) in exchange for mortgage payments. Mabel fights

with her father, kicks St. John in the shins, and tries to

elope with Fatty; during their escape Mabel hangs upside

down from the car door, and gets propelled through the air

into tree tops. She outwits her pursuers so that they are

13Fattv and Mabel Adrift. Keystone Pictures, directed by Mack Sennett, 1915. Facets Multimedia.

14Mabel Lost and Won. Keystone Pictures, directed by Mack Sennett, 1915. Paper Print Collection, Library of Congress.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 5 9

trapped in the tree, and hurriedly marries Fatty while the men struggle to escape.15

Then, in some marriage comedies - like Mabel. Fattv

and the Law (1915) and Mabel and Fattv's Washdav (1915) -

Mabel too indulges in extramarital wanderings. In the

first, Mabel slaps and punches Fatty for flirting with the

maid, but then herself "mashes" with a married man in the

park. The unfortunate Fatty is arrested for his public

"spooning," and suffers more physical abuse from an irate

Mabel. She, though, has escaped without legal punishment,

and Fatty remains unaware of her transgressions. In the

latter, Mabel plays a "wife who works while hubby sleeps."

Discontent with husband Harry McCoy's laziness, she pours a

bucket of washwater over his head and begins to flirt with

Fatty, "her fat neighbor who also has troubles." When

McCoy scolds Mabel for flirting, she handily knocks him

down, then repents and kisses him. Later though, she and

Fatty meet at a cafe; they are soon discovered by Mabel's

husband and Fatty's domineering mother, and a brawl

ensues.16

The ambivalence continues in other works as well.

In Mabel and Fattv's Married Life (1915), an organ grinder

15Fattv and Mabel's Simple Life. Keystone Pictures, directed by Mack Sennett, 1915. Paper Print Collection, Library of Congress, 16Mabel. Fattv and the Law. Keystone Pictures, directed by Mack Sennett, 1915; Mabel and Fattv's Washdav. Ibid. Paper Print Collection, Library of Congress.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 6 0

takes an "oath of vengeance" against Mabel and Fatty

because they accidentally set free his monkey. Alone at

home, Mabel hears someone trying to enter. Rather than

panic, she shoots a gun through the door; the intruder

however turns out to be terrified Fatty, and Mabel finally

faints from fear. Later, the organ grinder does come for

revenge, and Mabel holds him off until the police arrive by

throwing household objects at him. In The Little Teacher

(1915), Mabel saves two drowning students by executing a

daring dive into a river, and in Mabel at the Wheel (1915)

she expertly takes over and wins an auto race while her

racecar driver boyfriend, in a bit of sex stereotype

reversal, is tied up by criminals; yet, in Mabel's Wilful

Way, a grown-up Mabel receives a spanking from her parents

for going off to an amusement park with Fatty.17

Thus, Sennett also presented his women as brave,

capable and clever characters. Although Normand's roles

were not uniformly ones of strength and daring, they do

acknowledge the physical and mental potential of women as

equal to that of men.

The alternate type of Sennett female is the

antithesis of Normand's appealing, spunky heroine; loud,

huge and ugly, she is the object of venomous ridicule.

17Mabel and Fattv's Married Life. Keystone Pictures, directed by Mack Sennett, 1915; The Little Teacher. Ibid.; Mabel at the Wheel. Ibid.; Mabel's Wilful Wav. Ibid. Paper Print Collection, Library of Congress.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 61

Paired with small, meek men, these gargoyles appear

frequently in Sennett comedies. A lumbering Polly Moran,

in The Beauty Buncrlers (1915) and Their Social Splash

(1915), wreaks havoc in a beauty parlor and joins in a

brawl at a fancy party, respectively. An inebriated Fatty

Arbuckle is beaten and locked in his room by manly wife

Beverly Griffith in Fatty's Reckless Fling (1915).

Usually, the cow-like wife beats and scolds her husband for

flirting with a pretty young woman: in Caught in the Park

(1915), Phyllis Allen is an unattractive matron who snores

on a park bench, then attacks her husband Sydney Chaplin

(Charlie's brother) for noticing another woman; and in

Caught in the Act (1915), Charles Murray receives a broom-

beating from wife Polly Moran for posing as an artist to

glimpse pretty naked bodies. Indeed, the bulk of Syd

Chaplin's highly physical "Gussle" series, including Gussle

Rivals Jonah (1915), Gussle Tied to Trouble (1915),

Gussle's Day of Rest (1915), Gussle's Wayward Path (1915)

and A Lover's Lost Control (1915), revolves around a

robust, matronly Phyllis Allen manhandling her befuddled

husband. Wives are not the only object of Sennett satire:

in Fattv's Tintype Tangle (1915), Norma Nichols plays an

insufferable mother-in-law, and Miss Fattv's Seaside Lovers

(1915) features the spectacle of Arbuckle in drag, an

enormous, ridiculous coquette who flirts with equally

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 6 2

idiotic "lounge lizards."18 Sexual stereotypes are further

upended in A Rascal of Wolfish Wavs (1915), when a stout

and manly Mae Busch rescues Fritz Schade from certain death

on the railroad tracks.19

Such satirizing comes both from a demeaning attitude

toward women who do not fit within the "normal" frame of

femininity and attractiveness, and from the extreme

characterizations required by Sennett's style of physical

comedy. Sennett continued that ridiculing in a 1914 film

that teamed Charlie Chaplin, Mabel Normand and Marie

Dressier; Tillie's Punctured Romance, a screen adaptation

of Dressier's successful play Tillie's Nightmare, reached

an unprecedented length (6 reels) for a comedy, and took 14 weeks to shoot. Although it was an enormous box office

smash and firmly implanted Chaplin as a screen success20,

Chaplin, given to more subtle, sensitive portrayals of

18The Beauty Bunglers. Keystone Pictures, directed by Mack Sennett, 1915; Their Social Splash. Ibid.; Fattv's Reckless Fling. Ibid.; Caught in the Park. Ibid.; Caught in the Act. Ibid.; Gussle Rivals Jonah. Ibid.; Gussle Tied to Trouble. Ibid.; Gussle's Day of Rest. Ibid.; Gussle's Wayward Path. Ibid.; A Lover's Lost Control. Ibid.; Fattv's Tintype Tangle. Ibid.; Miss Fattv's Seaside Lovers. Ibid. Paper Print Collection, Library of Congress.

19Lahue and Brewer, photograph plates and captions.

20Paul Rotha, The Film Till Now; A Survey of World Cinema (New York: Twayne Publishers, 1949), 166.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 6 3

women, refers to the movie only once in his autobiography,

and in passing.21

In the film, Dressier plays an enormous and simple

farm girl deceived by Chaplin's slick city con-man. Her

hardy figure and incessant mugging offer a sharp contrast

to Chaplin's slight form and poker-straight face. The work

revolves around Chaplin's attempts to marry naive Tillie

who will soon inherit millions of dollars. Its humor

relies simply on the abusive physical humiliation inflicted

upon Dressier. Clumsy and oafish, pathetic Tillie is quite

taken with Charlie. Her cartoonish dress, huge floppy bow,

and hat resembling a potted plant topped with a plastic

duck add to her physical debasement. The comedy's nadir

comes, however, when Charlie plies Tillie with drink; she

turns into a giant lumbering elephant tripping, tumbling

and belching her way through the big city. Abandoned by

Chaplin, Tillie seeks employment as a waitress; waddling

among the nymph-like girls, Dressier is the proverbial bull

in a china shop.

In Tillie's Punctured Romance. Normand portrays her

usual Sennett heroine role; as Charlie's city girlfriend,

she is thin, graceful, and mimics the buffoon Tillie. With

little hesitation, she agrees to help swindle poor Tillie.

21Charles Chaplin, Mv Autobiography (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1964), 158. "Mabel and I starred in a feature with Marie Dressier," he wrote. "It was pleasant working with Marie but I did not think the picture had much merit."

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 6 4

When Charlie actually marries the overblown oaf, though,

Normand heads to Tillie's mansion in hot pursuit of her

man. Confronted with the truth, Tillie goes on a berserk

shooting rampage. It takes a force of Keystone Kops to

dump Tillie off a dock, finally prompting her to give

Charlie back his ring. In an odd show of sisterhood, given

the film's predominantly misogynist tone, sympathetic Mabel

hugs a disconsolate Tillie.

The sight gags in Tillie's Punctured Romance are

funny in a mean-spirited sort of way. There is something

quite disturbing about seeing Tillie, especially when

played by the talented Dressier, degraded so cruelly. It

was a pattern that Dressier would fall into for the rest of

her career; although she excelled in serious roles in such

films as Anna Christie (1930) and Min and Bill (1931) most

often she played the older dowdy matron suffering satire

and ridicule. Normand also receives her share of backside

kicks in Tillie. and large male comedians such as Eric

Campbell, Mack Swain and Chester Conklin often functioned

as giant buffoons in other Keystone films, but Sennett's

Tillie's Punctured Romance reveals a common and alarming

trend of vicious physical abuse to unattractive women in

silent comedy.22

22Tillie's Punctured Romance. Keystone Pictures, directed by Mack Sennett, 1914. Facets Multimedia.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 6 5

Sennett, discovering early on that pretty girls

augmented both his films and their advertising potential,

began in 1915 to surround his male comedians with a swarm

of young women clad only in swimsuits. Newspapers were

more apt to use these cheesecake publicity stills, and thus

the Sennett Bathing Beauties were born. Wearing daring

bathing suits cut one or two inches shorter than the

prevailing norm, these aquatic chorus girls were paid $12 a

week to frolic and cavort for the cameras. They had no

narrative or dramatic purpose - they were purely

decorative. Some, though not many, bathing belles -

including Mary Thurman, Marie Prevost, Juanita Hansen and

Bebe Daniels - were able to transcend the beach bevy and

earn feature roles.23 By unabashedly displaying the female

body in a risque fashion, Sennett was acknowledging

changing mores that would eventually lead to greater sexual

openness; yet, he was clearly exploiting a pretty female

body in the hopes that such voyeuristic pleasure would

entice a larger audience.

The most famous Bathing Beauty remains Gloria

Swanson, who posed for bathing suit photos but balked at

joining the chorus line. Born in 1899, Swanson spent her

childhood as a well-dressed army brat; in her teens she

visited Essanay studios with her aunt, unwittingly

launching an acting career. Despite regarding the moving

23Lahue and Brewer, 122-126.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 66

pictures as vulgar entertainment, she worked as an extra at

Essanay for several months, playing sophisticated and

elegant women at dinner parties. Ironically, when Essanay

tried to pair her with newcomer Charlie Chaplin, Swanson

rejected his style of wit:

He reminded me of a pixie from some other world altogether, and for the life of me I couldn't get the feel of his frisky little skits. All morning I felt like a cow trying to dance with a toy poodle. . . . I would have been mortified if anybody I knew had ever seen me get kicked in the pants or hit with a revolving plank by an odd sprite in a hobo outfit.24

In 1915, Swanson moved to California and began

working for Mack Sennett; earning $100 a week, she enjoyed playing girls her own age and adapted well to the freestyle

improvisational atmosphere at Keystone. Teamed with

director Clarence Badger and actor Bobby Vernon, Swanson

avoided the Keystone chaos and instead made what she called

"sweet, homespun comedies"25 in which Vernon, the errant,

misguided boyfriend, comprehends true love when he finds

his sweet, real girlfriend in some lethal danger.26 Their

series of films - Hearts and Sparks (1916), A Social Club

(1916), The Danger Girl (1916), Love on Skates (1916),

Haystacks and Steeples (1916), Dancers of a Bride (1917)

24Gloria Swanson, Swanson on Swanson (New York: Random House, 1980), 40.

25Swanson, 77.

26Lahue and Brewer, 123.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 6 7

and The Sultan's Wife (1917) - made Swanson a well-known

and popular actress.27

The usual formula prevails in Teddv at the Throttle,

a 1917 comedy short directed by Badger. Swanson and Vernon

play country sweethearts whose idyllic courtship is

threatened by outside forces of evil. Wallace Beery, as

the lumbering villain, manipulates Bobby into dropping

Gloria for a rich society girl. Not surprisingly, the

wealthy woman is large, clumsy and distastefully

aggressive. She handily drags slender Bobby through a

fierce rainstorm, and insists upon immediate marriage.

Swanson is no Victorian martyr either - this woman intends

to fight for her man. She furiously pounds her fist

through a locked door in pursuit of Bobby, and readily

skirmishes with the fat society girl. Significantly, a

befuddled Bobby does very little right in trying to fix the

situation.

Badger soon parodies both Griffith plots and last-

minute cross-cut rescues. Evil Beery, trying to thwart

Gloria, ties her to railroad tracks; Swanson brilliantly

sends her faithful dog Teddy to Bobby with a rescue note.28

27James Robert Parish, The Paramount Pretties (New Rochelle, N.Y.: Arlington House, 1972), 18.

28Teddy was the second dog to perform at Keystone; the first, aptly named Fido, was paired with Arbuckle. Teddy became so beloved to fans that when he died, Keystone hid the fact and went through three more great Danes (Lahue and Brewer, 123).

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 68

Good sense finally returns to her fumbling boyfriend, who

deserts the society girl and comes to Gloria1s hilariously

drawn out rescue. With innocent love restored and evil

vanquished, the two engage in a bit of innocuous cuddling

on the train's cowcatcher.29

When Sennett sold out to Triangle in 1919, Swanson

was the sole player he retained; as rumors flew that

Swanson was slated to be a Sennett star, she feared:

It meant . . . that I would be playing a dumb little cutie serving as a foil to the broadest slapstick comedians in the world, Sennett's stock in trade men like Chester Conklin and Mack Swain. . . . The female stars who made such pictures, like Mabel Normand and Teddy Sampson, spent all of their time having their skirts lifted and dodging flying bricks. . . . Becoming a Sennett star meant becoming one of those hyperactive giggly girls.30

She submitted to "ridiculous cheesecake publicity pictures

with the Sennett Bathing girls"31 but eventually prevailed

and kept making more sophisticated Triangle pictures under

the direction of Jack Conway. Bankrupt, Triangle released

her in a year to Cecil B. DeMille at Famous Players-Lasky,

where she completed her transformation from sweet, dippy

teenager to elegant, modern sophisticate.32

29Teddv at the Throttle. Keystone/Triangle, directed by Clarence Badger, 1917. Library of Congress.

3 °Swanson, 75-78.

31Ibid., 78.

32Ibid., 89-94.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 6 9

Apparently, Swanson's rejection of Sennett's

physical buffoonery reflected a more widespread trend. As

middle class America flooded the theaters, the grotesquely

cartoonish comedian was being replaced by more normal human

beings in everyday situations. Accordingly, Sennett toned

down his act, gradually refining his comedies to the 1918-

1919 Paramount-Sennett variety.33 Greater difficulties

loomed ahead though, and the advent of sound stunned the

veteran movie maker. Since most of his comedians were

suitable only for physical silent humor, Sennett developed

new stars like W.C. Fields and Bing Crosby. Already

devastated by the stock market crash in 1929 - losing

between 5 and 8 million dollars - Sennett received the

biggest blow from animated cartoons, especially Disney's

Mickey Mouse. A new age of comedy had arrived, and Sennett

was left behind.34

The Sennett comedies, then, reflected the trends,

themes and ambivalence to women evident in the film

industry. He depicted some women as dippy young girls,

oafish old maids and objects of sexual pleasure, while at

the same time attributing to others qualities of strength,

independence and intelligence. His demise, which began as

films - especially those of Griffith - drew more complex,

33Lahue and Brewer, 105 and 124.

34Lewis Jacobs, The Rise of the American Film; A Critical History (New York: Teachers College Press, 1968), 213.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 7 0

balanced pictures of both men and women, indicates both a

shift of audience taste and a new, more ethereal and

idealized version of the screen female.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. CHAPTER FIVE

VICTORIAN VALUES: D.W. GRIFFITH AND LILLIAN GISH

D.W. Griffith's later heroines weren't ridiculed,

satirized or viewed as objects of male titillation as in

the earliest moving pictures, nor did they exhibit the

strength and daring seen in his Biograph shorts or the

movie serials. From 1914 on, he offered a passive and

traditional screen female that, while reflecting the most

sexually conservative Victorian attitudes, did not grow out

of the existing film representation of women. Instead, his

inspiration was rooted in the sentimental, melodramatic

world of stage producer David Belasco, and in the Victorian

literature of Charles Dickens and the Bronte sisters.

By 1913, Griffith was adamant in his desire to make

longer, more expensive pictures. When Biograph, unwilling

to incur unneeded expenses, "promoted" him to an

administrative position, Griffith left to work for Harry

Aitken's Mutual Film Company, taking along cameraman Billy

Bitzer and his entire company of actors. Griffith's Mutual

contract stipulated that in addition to directing several

films of Mutual's choice, Griffith would be allowed full

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 7 2

artistic and financial control over one picture a year.1

With these highly personal projects, Griffith was able to

present more complex works that revealed his own moral

ideology.

Griffith's Victorian moral system was based on a

contradiction of the two poles of gentleness and violence.

Gentleness, traditional social order, harmony, motherhood

and the family were threatened by the breakup of social

mores, war and sexual license. To represent his positive

values on screen, Griffith employed the diminutive child-

woman, a demure, sweet, pure and chaste valentine embodying

motherly sacrifice, sexual purity and shy submissiveness.

Accordingly, these women represented his sentimental ideal,

and could not function as complex and morally ambiguous living creatures. And, to symbolize the violent male

world, Griffith relied on what he viewed as the ultimate

violence against his hallowed women, rape and sexual

compromise.

His actresses played passive, modest young girls.

They were usually blonde and fair-skinned, and wore

concealing rags and pinafores that deemphasized their

blossoming sexuality. Their fluttery movements - a finger

slipped into tiny lips, petite hands twisting

handkerchiefs, girlish bouncing up and down - conveyed a

fleeting impression of their fragility. That Griffith

l-Mast, 62.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 7 3

viewed them as living symbols not flesh-and-blood women is

evident through the diminutive titles he conferred on them:

The Waif, Little Sister, Dear One, Brown Eyes, The

Friendless One, The Little Disturber, The Child.

In addition, Griffith fanatically insisted that a

puritanical moral atmosphere prevail on his sets and

studio. Flirting and profanity were prohibited, and no one

was referred to by first name. Griffith even once intended

to insert a title during a romantic sequence that said the

actress' mother had chaperoned the scene.2

Griffith found the perfect incarnation of his values

in his foremost female player, Lillian Gish. Gish and her

younger sister Dorothy had been stage actresses from early

childhood, toddling through the theater circuit with their

widowed mother, always one step ahead of debilitating

poverty. The girls, still intent on careers on the

legitimate stage, were introduced to Griffith by a

childhood friend who had "made it big" - Gladys Smith, now

2Anita Loos, A Girl Like I (New York: Viking Press, 1966), 122. Despite rumors that Griffith was in love with Lillian Gish, no documentation of any affair exists; Loos asserts that their relationship was one of deep friendship and professional respect. Griffith inspired awe in his young actresses, despite indications that his directing techniques were manipulative and crafty. He often frightened his actresses into realistic performances. Lillian Gish reports that he chased her and her younger sister around the studio with a gun to see how they would react before the camera, and a magazine article ("Actresses Must Be Young," Moving Picture World. 27 December 1913, 1556) related that Griffith fired a gun near Mae Marsh's head to elicit an appropriately terrified performance.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 7 4

known as Mary Pickford - and immediately obtained work and a steady income as Biograph actresses.3

Tall, lithe and reserved, Gish possessed a refined

sexuality that was often overlooked. Scenarist Anita Loos wrote:

That Lillian was never recognized by the general public as a sex symbol is because her appeal isn't the least bit vulgar and is certainly not to be measured by Hollywood standards. But in real life she has always been more desireable to men than all the publicized movie vamps, the Clara Bows, Jean Harlows and Kim Novaks.4

Another screenwriter, Frances Marion, asserted that Gish

also possessed a strength and seriousness of purpose not

revealed by Griffith's films:

She might look fragile, but physically and spiritually she was as fragile as a steel rod. . . . With a Botticelli face, she had the mind of a good Queen Bess, dictating her carefully thought-out policies and ruling justly, if firmly.5

Regardless, Griffith starred Gish as his passive,

suffering heroine in nearly all of his major films. Their

most famous work, The Birth of a Nation, was the most

expensive ($120,000) and lengthiest (two and a half hours)

3Lillian Gish, Lillian Gish: The Movies. Mr. Griffith and Me (Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, Inc., 1969), 25-33. Gish was born in 1896 in Springfield, Ohio. The family resorted to acting after being deserted periodically by Mr. Gish, who soon died.

4Lo o s , 94.

5Frances Marion, Off With Their Heads 1 A Serio-Comic Tale of Hollywood (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1972), 79. Marion often worked with Gish on her post-Griffith films.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 7 5

film yet produced. Based on Thomas W. Dixon's novel The

Clansmen. Griffith's movie ridicules black aspirations and

is appallingly racist;6 yet, it is a perfect showcase for

Griffith's treatment of women and their vulnerable virtue.

Set during the Civil War, the epic reveals the sexual

threat freed black slaves represent to white women.

"Better dead than dishonored" is Griffith's maxim, as young

Flora Cameron (Mae Marsh) hurls herself from a cliff rather

than submit to the disgrace of being raped by a black man:

"For her who had learned the stern lesson of honor, we

should not grieve," moralizes Griffith. Another young

beauty, Elsie Stoneman, (Gish) is saved from rape by a

dramatic last-minute rescue by the hooded Ku Klux Klan.

The only unchaste woman in the work - Lydia the mulatto

housekeeper who seduces her white boss - is neither white

nor honorable.7

Griffith followed The Birth of a Nation with

Intolerance (1916) a similarly moralizing tale of virtue

6Sumiko Higashi, Virgins. Vamps and Flappers: The American Silent Movie Heroine (Montreal: Eden Press Women's Publications, 1978), 6. The film provoked protests, lawsuits, and riots in Chicago and Atlanta, where it was directly responsible for an upsurge of membership in the Ku Klux Klan. Griffith cut out nearly 600 feet - which supposedly included white women being raped by black men and an epilogue suggesting slaves be deported to Africa - to appease the NAACP and censorship boards, but politicians and censors across the United States reviled the film. Not surprisingly, in its first year of release, The Birth of a Nation was seen by over three million viewers.

7The Birth of a Nation. Epoch Producing Corporation, directed by D.W. Griffith, 1915. Library of Congress.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 7 6

and downfall. The complex, confusing and unpleasant film,

which could not live up to its predecessor, was a huge

financial disaster. Its pacifist statement was unappealing

to an audience preparing for entry into the first World

War.8

It was that war, and its effect on America's social

code, that shifted audiences away from Griffith's

simplistic moral tales. In her autobiography The Movies.

Mr. Griffith and M e . Gish writes of Griffith:

The essence of virginity - purity and goodness, with nobility of mind, heart, soul, and body - is the stuff of which, under his prompting, I created heroines. He made me understand that only governments and boundaries change, that the human race remains the same.9

Yet, the human race, or at least its taste in movies, had

indeed changed. By the postwar period, Griffith's sweet,

pastoral tales and antiquated value messages were obsolete.

Unwilling or unable to abandon the formula that had served

him so well, Griffith continued to manufacture simple

Victorian morality yarns defending the old, rapidly

diminishing order.

8Mast, 73.

9Gish, 102. In another book by Gish, Dorothy and Lillian Gish (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1973), she states that her one attempt at playing a vamp, in Diane of the Follies (1916), was a refreshing experience: "Virgins are the hardest roles to play. Those dear little girls - to make them interesting takes great vitality, but a fallen woman or a vampi - 75 per cent of your work is already done" (69).

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 77

In 1919 Griffith produced and directed True Heart

Susie, a film that reaffirms Gish's 19th century womanhood

yet introduces the modern woman as her quite formidable

rival. Gish's Susie is a plain, naive country girl who

skips happily along with the boy next door, William (Robert

Harron), always hoping for the impossible, a kiss.

William, the simple farm boy, dreams of going away to

college in the "great outside world," so Susie,

disregarding any personal hardship in her quest to "marry a

smart man," sells the family cow and anonymously sends the

tuition money to William.

After William graduates, Susie's matrimonial hopes

soar. She takes his offhand analysis of city girls - "You

see those two painted and flowered? Men flirt with that

kind, but they marry the plain and simple ones" - entirely

too seriously. William, now the town minister, becomes

smitten with flashy Bettina, a visiting city girl who

sports short skirts, makeup and bobbed hair. Susie, all

braids, gawkiness and desperation, prepares "for a battle

against the paint and powder brigade" by awkwardly donning

silk stocking and dusting cornstarch on her face.

Ultimately, Victorian common sense prevents the new

improved Susie from being unveiled; Susie's true goodness

would be enough to win William's affections.

Eventually, though, William and Bettina get married,

and we see the real shallowness of the modern woman.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 78

Bettina scoffs "Oh, he's only a punk country minister - but

I'm tired of working, haven't a cent left. I've got to

marry somebody," and turns out to be a bad wife, an even

worse cook, and a true shrew. Shots of her screeching "Eat

it and like it" and "I hate this damn place" are juxtaposed

with those of the capable Susie sewing, cooking and

attending to other wifely and virtuous matters.

One night, Bettina sneaks out with a group of

friends to drink and dance the night away. Caught in a

rainstorm and locked out of her house, she turns to Susie

for refuge. Falling ill, Bettina explains to William that

she was out in the rain running an errand for him; upon her

death, William vows never to enjoy another love because his

wife died in loyalty to him. Susie, ever noble and self-

denying, refuses to divulge the truth surrounding Bettina's

death and William's tuition money.

Good finally triumphs, William learns the truth, and

realizes he has loved Susie all along. True virtue, that

of the 19th century Victorian ideals over shallow flapper

frivolity, has won out. Bettina, in her fancy, revealing

dresses, is exposed as inferior to the plain but true

Susie, even in her high-necked, ugly plaid dresses and

prissy bonnets. The film ends with a flashback to Susie

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 7 9

and William walking down their childhood path, an obviously nostalgic message from Griffith.10

Reviewers recognized that Griffith's films, in

contrast to the new society and bedroom melodramas,

brought, according to the New York Times, more "meaningful

humanity to the screen, more nearly pure (and) less mixed

with artificiality"11 but also that Griffith looked at the

world with increasingly outmoded Victorian eyes. The

review continued:

Susie is not perfect. A little worldly wisdom, without sophistication, would have saved her much suffering. . . . The boy is not heartless. It is natural that he should love the physically attractive Betty rather than the plain Susie.12

Even Gish herself recognized the futility of such dated

movies and antiquated females:

Each of the rural films was sympathetically received by reviewers, simply because Mr. Griffith had made them. But obviously they were expecting more from him, and I suspected that he was expecting more from himself.13

Despite mediocre reviews and box office returns,

Griffith persevered with stilted pre-war stories like Hearts of the World. (1917), Orphans of the Storm (1921),

and The White Rose (1923). No longer interested in the art

of filmmaking, Griffith's increased regard for financial

10True Heart Susie. Artcraft Company, directed by D.W. Griffith, 1919. Library of Congress.

13-New York Times. 2 June 1919.

12Ibid.

13Gish, 209.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 80

success did not enable him to keep up with the changing

times; he merely exploited his personality and reputation

to finance projects and draw loyal audiences.14

Yet, when Griffith did produce a compelling,

artistic work, like Broken Blossoms (1919), audiences and

reviewers responded with warmth. Broken Blossoms is the

heart-wrenching tale of Lucy (Gish), a 12 year old girl of

London's Limehouse district brutally abused by her boxer

father, Battling Burrows (Donald Crisp). Finally, the

gentle, Buddhist "yellow man," (Richard Barthelmess) a

Chinese immigrant who finds "solace in her beauty,"

befriends Lucy and shows her "the first gentleness she has

known." Although their "love remains a pure and holy

thing," Lucy's father beats his "dishonored" daughter to

death. The passive Buddhist, driven to despair, murders

Burrows and kills himself. Although the film presented the

same themes - the goodness inherent in women exposed to the

threat of male violence - as Griffith's other works, Broken

Blossoms was a financial and artistic success.15

14Jacobs, 384.

15Broken Blossoms. United Artists, directed by D.W. Griffith, 1919. Library of Congress. With its low-key lighting and glowing pastel tints, Broken Blossoms is a remarkably beautiful film. Gish, in a videotaped interview for Thames Television's silent film series, related that Adolph Zukor told Griffith, "You may as well put your hand in my pocket and steal the money , . . everybody in it dies - it isn't commercial."

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 81

After reading the screenplay for one "horse and

buggy melodrama," Wav Down East (1920), Gish thought

Griffith had "lost his mind. . . . I could hardly keep from

laughing."16 Wav Down East, subtitled "a simple story of

plain people," chronicles the perils of Anna Moore, an

innocent New England country girl who is tricked into a

mock marriage in the big city by the rich playboy

Sanderson. Crushed by the deception, the pregnant Anna

goes away to have her illegitimate baby, who dies. Anna

finds a housekeeping job with a staunchly moral country

family, and all goes well until she falls in love with

their son and then discovers that Sanderson lives across

the street. Soon, the Squire learns Anna's secret; after a dramatic fight, during which the Squire says, "Oh, it's

different for a man. He's supposed to sow his wild oats,"

Anna is evicted into a horrible snowstorm. Before leaving,

Anna shows far more backbone than Susie in True Heart Susie

and reveals the evil trick that Sanderson had perpetrated.

Forgiven, the noble Anna is rescued from certain death on

an ice flow, and the movie ends with marriage.

Wav Down East turned out to be Griffith's last

somewhat successful effort, but failed to satisfy popular

tastes for glamorous and sensual visual entertainment.

After her wedding, Anna spends more time kissing her

mother-in-law than her husband. A brief condemning glimpse

16Gish, 229.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 82

of a bridge party in the city does not compensate for

Anna's plain clothes and home, or the staid moral tone that permeated the film. "Someday," according to Cecil B.

DeMille, the man who would replace Griffith as Hollywood's

premiere director, "Griffith will take a hard bump due to

his refusal to take ideas from the trend of the day;"17

after Wav Down East, that day seemed closer.18

Frustrated, Gish finally left Griffith and made a

series of successful films - The White Sister (1923),

Romola (1925), La Boheme (1926), The Scarlet Letter (1926),

Anna Laurie (1926) and The Wind (1928) - for MGM, but asked

to be released from her contract after her first sound

picture, One Romantic Night (1930) . Apparently, MGM had

pressured high-priced Gish to leave, worried about her

stately Victorian image in an age of flashy flappers.

Indeed, producer Irving Thalberg once offered to

manufacture a scandal for Gish to pique interest in her

films.19 She politely declined and regained her name as a

legitimate stage star, returning to Hollywood as a

respected actress in later years. Louise Brooks, a well-

known flapper actress and writer, claiming that Gish was

martyred by power-hungry studio executives, wrote

17Jacobs, 391.

18Wav Down East. United Artists, directed by D.W. Griffith, 1920. Lauinger Library, Georgetown University. 19Edward Wagenknecht, Stars of the Silents (Metuchen, N.J.: The Scarecrow Press, Inc., 1987), 90.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 83

"stigmatized as a grasping, silly sexless antique, at the

age of 31, the great Lillian Gish left Hollywood forever,

without a head turned to mark her departure.20

Unfortunately, Griffith did not have the same good

sense. His alliance with Gish ruptured, Griffith turned to

actress Carol Dempster in an effort to forge a new image.

Dempster - dark, athletic, and boyishly attractive -

starred in 11 Griffith films. Some, like The Love Flower

(1920), and Dream Street (1921) were mere showcases for her

athletic hyperactivity. Others like Isn't Life Wonderful

(1924) allowed her to portray more serious and dignified

women. Yet, Griffith's romantic feelings for Dempster

caused him to mistake her boyishness for flapper charm; she was, in fact, a horrible actress, and Wav Down East

remained Griffith's last profitable film.21

After a grim period flopping back and forth between

studios in an attempt at a brilliant comeback, Griffith

suffered an insurmountable blow with the advent of sound

film. By 1931, the father of American movies was evicted

from the film industry and remained bitter and cynical

until his death in 1948.22 Perhaps the most accurate

analysis of his demise is offered by DeMille:

20Louise Brooks, Lulu in Hollywood (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1982), 90.

21Rosen, 54.

22Jacobs, 384.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 84

Griffith had the defects of his qualities. He was a brilliant artist, but a poor businessman. . . . Griffith could never adapt himself successfully to the commercial necessities of picture making. That is perhaps to the credit of his integrity; but it resulted in depriving the motion picture industry and the world of his talents for the last 16 years of his life.23

Thus, Griffith, Hollywood's first real "women's

director," offered a vision of womanhood that neglected the

full potential of her capacity. At first, Griffith's films

succeeded on their artistic merit, and only secondarily on

their representation of women; when the quality of his

films diminished, Griffith found that his Victorian themes

and portrayal of passive heroines could not hold the

interest of an audience endorsing the new woman and

morality of the 192 0s.

23Cecil B. DeMille, The Autobiography of Cecil B. DeMille (Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, Inc., 1959), 125.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. CHAPTER SIX

MARY PICKFORD

"America's Sweetheart," Mary Pickford, was perhaps

the nation's most beloved silent star. A pioneer and

driving force in the industry she helped consolidate,

Pickford remains the most important woman ever to have been

part of the American film industry; ironically, she

achieved that power playing sweet little girls. Pickford

is often categorized as a demure, passive, Griffith-style

heroine, but beyond her surface sweetness exists a

decidedly powerful, spunky, headstrong, even mildly wicked

character that pointed to the potential independence and strength inherent in all women.

Pickford was born in Toronto, Canada in 1893 as

Gladys Smith; when she was very young, her father died,

leaving his family mired in poverty. To eke out a living,

the entire Smith family - mother Charlotte and younger

siblings Lottie and Jack included - sought jobs on the

stage. Five year old Gladys, who couldn't even yet read

the long parts she played, was often separated from her

family for seasons at a time by the requirements of touring

with an acting company. "Baby Gladys" became Mary

Pickford, achieved a measure of success, and by age 13 was

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 86

hired by David Belasco to appear in his Broadway production of The Warrens of Virginia.

Although as an actress of the "legitimate" theater

Pickford scoffed at motion pictures, the threat of poverty

separating her family convinced her to join the Biograph

Company in 1909.2 In short films like Her First Biscuits

(1909), The Violin Maker of Cremona (1909), Ramona. Lena

and the Geese. Artful Kate and Little Red Riding Hood (all

1910), Pickford earned great popularity as "Goldielocks,"

"The Girl With The Curl," "The Biograph Girl," and "Little

Mary." For Biograph, Pickford played a great variety of

roles, often appearing as a young wife or Mexican or Indian woman; she would not concentrate solely on child roles

until signing with Adolph Zukor in 1913.

Through those child-woman roles, Pickford achieved a

popularity hitherto unaccorded to a movie personality. The

vast majority of her films were enormously successful,

making at least a 100 per cent profit. The public adored

Little Mary, and her 1918 Liberty Bonds campaign raised

-'-Mary Pickford, Sunshine and Shadow (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday and Company, Inc., 1955), 50-93. The Warrens of Virginia was written by William DeMille, whose brother Cecil was also part of the cast.

2Pickford, 102. When applying for a job at Biograph, Pickford was greeted by a man who said, "You're too little and too fat, but I may give you a chance. My name's Griffith, what's yours?" Pickford did not share other actresses' awe-inspiring respect for Griffith; throughout her autobiography, she alludes to her stormy relationship with Griffith and to his manipulative directing techniques that often bordered on physical abuse.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 8 7

millions of dollars for the war effort.3 When she divorced

husband Owen Moore and quickly married recently-divorced

star Douglas Fairbanks Sr. in 1920, any whisper of scandal

was quickly drowned out by America's sheer delight at

having its Cinderella marry its Prince Charming, its

sweetheart find happiness with the boy-next-door. On their

honeymoon tour of Europe, Fairbanks and Pickford received

such a tumultuous welcome that in one dramatic and

storybook-chivalrous instance, Douglas had to hoist Mary

onto his shoulders to save her from crushing crowds.4 Back

in the states, the Fairbankses reigned as Hollywood's

unofficial royalty, with their mansion, Pickfair, its

undisputed capitol. Luminaries like Jack Dempsey, Albert

Einstein, Amelia Earhart, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Henry Ford,

H.G. Wells, Babe Ruth and the Duke of York (later King

George VI) lined up for invitations to dine with America's

- indeed the world's - favorite couple.5 Imitators

3Booton Herndon, Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks: The Most Popular Couple The World Has Ever Known (New York: W.W. Norton and Company, Inc., 1977), 172 and 227.

4Ibid., 187 and 5. Pickford had eloped with Owen Moore, an actor with limited talent and a serious drinking problem, in 1911, but the couple lived separately for most of their ill-fated marriage. Pickford was forced to pay Moore to avoid unnecessary publicity, but her quick Nevada divorce was closely scrutinized by newspapers and the courts; finally, in 1922 the Nevada Supreme Court upheld the divorce.

5Charles Lockwood, Dream Palaces: Hollywood at Home (New York: Viking Press, 1981), 117.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 88

proliferated - Mary Miles Minter, Marguerite Clark, May

McAvoy, Vivian Martin, Jewel Carmen, June Caprice and

Gladys Leslie among them - but could not even approach

Pickford's staggering popularity.

Unique among early generation actors, Pickford was

able initially to pick her own roles and therefore shape

her own image. "I was forced to live far beyond my years

when just a child," she told reporters, "now I have

reversed the order and I intend to remain young

indefinitely.1,6 Accordingly, she chose to play sweet,

sunny, elfin-like creatures, and her movies' major themes

reflected the fears and fantasies of the child-world:

orphaning, adoption, wicked step-parents, the drama of

instant wealth or poverty, and an impulse to run away from

home.

Pickford and her bouncing golden curls portrayed

good girls. She represented an all-encompassing Pollyanna

who brought sunshine and happiness to all in her life. Her

major consistent message seemed clear enough: contentment

with one's lot makes for genuine and enduring happiness,

while riches cannot buy peace of mind and often bring only despair.

Pickford took extraordinary measures to maintain her

child image. She kept two separate wardrobes - a

^Marianne Sinclair, Hollywood Lolitas: The Nvmohet Syndrome in the Movies (New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1988), 40.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 8 9

sophisticated private one, and a young, pre-teen collection

for public appearances - and her sets were built oversize

to emphasize her diminutive stature. Pickford even went so

far as to cast larger than average supporting actors to

preserve the impression of her youth.7 The illusion

apparently succeeded, for a 1915 Photoplay article

described 22 year old Pickford as "though married . . .

just a grown-up child."8

Yet, there was a harder edge to this woman who,

tired of playing "wishy-washy heroines"9 as she wrote in

her autobiography Sunshine and Shadow, left Griffith

because he "always wanted to have me running round trees

and pointing at rabbits."10

Pickford-style little girls are mischievous,

devious, deliciously spunky characters. They cry out at

injustice and attempt to bring joy and happiness to others.

Little Mary, invariably alone in the world, exhibits a

strong streak of self-reliance, yet showers her even

younger companions with maternal love, affection, and

guidance. Her resourceful and adventurous nature

undoubtedly appealed to the fantasies of a generation of

7Pickford, 241.

8Julian Johnson, "Mary Pickford: Herself and Her Career," Photoplay. November 1915, 53-62.

9Pickford, 119.

10Sinclair, 37.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 9 0

women raised to be dependent upon men. Especially during

the early 1920s, when that class of older women felt

displaced and alienated by the modern flapper, Pickford

functioned as an independent yet unthreatening role model.

Pickford’s immense popularity, especially among the working

class, demonstrates that her conflicting sense of dependency and refusal to grow up were shared by a large

portion of her audience.

The romantic aspect of Pickford's films appealed as

well; as a prepubescent waif, Mary's innocent courtships

were free, from cumbersome sexual implications. Her films

usually ended with her on the brink of womanhood and

engaged to an older, kind protector. If Pickford, as a

tomboy-turned-princess, married a wealthy, cultured man,

she fulfilled the Cinderella fantasies of her audience; if

she married a poor but noble sweetheart, she was regarded

as loyal to her own class.

Tess of the Storm County (1914), "the tale of a

woman's courage," earned Pickford the appellation

"America's Sweetheart."11 Playing Tess Porter, a grubby,

poor squatter, Pickford is left alone in the world because

her father has been wrongfully jailed for murder. This

prepubescent girl is not helpless, though: she breaks

unjust ordinances to fish from the only available beach,

11Pickford, 377. Pop Grauman, father of theater mogul Sid, put "America's Sweetheart" in lights on his New York City theater marquis, and the nickname stuck.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 9 1

fights with the millionaire Deacon Graves who is crusading

to remove the squatters, and eventually organizes the

entire squatter colony to public disobedience. Tess, who

turns out to be quite pretty when she keeps clean, draws

the infatuation of Frederick, the Deacon's handsome son.

When his sister Teola secretly gives birth to an

illegitimate baby, good-hearted Tess agrees to raise it. Fred, thinking the baby is hers, refuses to speak to Tess,

but soon a dying Teola confesses the truth. Consumed by

guilt and a new-found tolerance, the Deacon takes in the

child, agrees to Tess and Fred's romance, and even allows

the squatters to remain on his land. The happiness of

plucky, unassuming Tess is complete when her father is

released from prison.12

Similar themes of an independent young girl who

experiences a Cinderella transformation surface in The

Little Princess (1917). Pickford plays 10 year old Sara

Crewe, the adored daughter of a widowed British sea captain

who sends her from their home in Bombay to a proper London

boarding school. At school, Sara becomes the unofficial

leader, and is kind to the chubby crybaby nobody likes and

to Becky (Zasu Pitts), the school's mistreated servant

girl. Unfortunately, news soon arrives that Captain Crewe

has died penniless, apparently cheated by a best friend who

12Tess of the Storm County. Famous Players Company, directed by Edwin S. Porter, 1914. Library of Congress.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 9 2

invested his money; forced to become a servant like Becky,

an under-fed Sara lives in a freezing attic garret and

slaves from dawn till nightfall. Still, Sara remains

stoically optimistic, wreaking mischief in the school and

keeping up the spirits of downtrodden Becky. Luckily, Sara

discovers that the school1s new neighbor is her father1s

best friend, who has been searching for Sara for months to

give her an enormous fortune from the investments. The

friend adopts Sara and Becky, and the film closes with a

Christmas party for London's pauper children. Once again,

the heroine's stamina, spunk and faith have been rewarded

with a splendidly happy ending.13

In Rebecca of Sunnvbrook Farm (1917), Pickford plays

a poor young girl sent by her widowed mother from her home

to live with two old, wealthy and finicky aunts. Rebecca

displays a considerably resilient character: she uses black

shoe polish to hide a hole in her old stockings, beats up

the preacher's uppity daughter Minnie Smellie, sells

Smith's Superba Soap to buy the Simpsons, a poor local

family, a banquet lamp, and pays off her mother's mortgage

debt by selling rhymes to magazines. In front of a

parent's day audience at school, Rebecca has the courage to

improvise this poem:

13A Little Princess. Artcraft Company, directed by Marshall Neilan, 1917. Library of Congress.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 9 3

Of all the girls that are so mean there's none like Minnie Smellie: And when I catch her out of school, I'll pound her into - jelly!

Her continual pranks and concern for others endear

her to Adam Ladd, a rich, gentle man who agrees to hire Mr.

Simpson as a stable hand. Grateful for his kindness, young

Rebecca impulsively gushes "You're so nice, Mr. Adam. I-I

have decided to marry you when I grow up." Three years

later, when Rebecca returns from boarding school a

blossoming young woman, Adam asks if she remembers her

promise. "I am grown up now, Mr. Adam," she giggles, then

scampers off into the forest. Mary's sexuality was so

abstractly pure, evidently, that even a closing embrace was

avoided in favor of a girlish antic.14

The formula varies somewhat in Poor Little Rich Girl

(1917) as Pickford plays Gwendolyn, a neglected child who

has "everything her heart could wish" except loving

parents. Her father is devoted to work, and when her

mother, "whose social duties seem more important than the

happiness of her child," gives Gwen a birthday party, the

guests include only socially prominent adults. Gwen's

escapades, then, seem as much a cry for affection as a

display of spunk. She invites an organ grinder to tea,

engages neighborhood urchins in a mudfight, makes nasty

playmate Susie sit on a plate of gooey cookies, and, rather

14Rebecca of Sunnvbrook Farm. Artcraft Company, direcced by Marshall Neilan, 1917. Library of Congress.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 9 4

than allow Susie to wear her best lace dress, throws all of

her expensive clothes out of the window.

Only when Gwen is accidentally poisoned and narrowly

escapes death do her parents realize their errors. The

atoned family decides to move to the country and live a

modest, honest lifestyle. Again, it takes the stoic

perseverance of a mistreated young girl to teach the

important lesson, in this case that riches cannot replace

love.15

In 1919 Pickford starred in Daddv Long Legs, another

orphan to princess tale. The plot revolves around Judy, a

cheerfully imperturbable orphan who enlivens the orphanage

with her songs, practical tricks and prune-strikes. Always

in trouble because of her spirited nature, Judy contrasts

sharply with Angelina, the cruel, selfish little child of

culture and wealth who visits the home. In one scene, Judy

risks inevitable punishment by borrowing nasty Angelina’s

doll to comfort a dying child; the poor are portrayed as

noble, loving and virtuous, while the rich are haughty,

mean and uncaring. Judy emphasizes this point by saying to

an orphanage patron, "We are grateful - but you have robbed

us of the joys of childhood by your charity without

kindness."

15Poor Little Rich Girl. Artcraft Company, directed by Maurice Tourneur, 1917. Library of Congress.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 9 5

A rich trustee decides the intelligent diamond-in-

the-rough Judy must attend college. Since the man's

identity remains a secret, Judy dubs him "Daddy Long Legs"

and sends him frequent, unanswered letters reporting her

success at school. In time, the Head Cupid prepares a love

affair for Judy, but the bumbling cupid dispatched by Cupid

Headquarters strikes two men, who both mount intense

campaigns for her affections. The Head Cupid laments,

"You've probably started another of those darn triangle

things that will end in the divorce court."

Judy, always loyal and industrious, is preoccupied

with repaying the mysterious Daddy Long Legs for her

tuition. Her first publishing effort, The Tragedy of Love:

A Novel of Real Life, is rejected. Her second literary

attempt, an inspired account of life at an orphanage "run on the principles of slave labor" earns her $1,000 to send

to Daddy Long Legs. Her benefactor, though, ignores her

invitation to attend graduation. When the day arrives,

poor Judy stands alone watching her classmates and their

families celebrate.

Meanwhile, the romantic wooing escalates. The rich

older man that Judy truly loves, Jarvis Pendleton,

proposes, but Judy, embarrassed to reveal her humble past,

flees. Judy's younger beau, Jimmie McBride, seizes his

opportunity to propose, but he too is rejected. Confused

and upset, Judy finally visits Daddy Longs Legs, and is

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 9 6

shocked to discover that Jarvis had been her benefactor.

Initially outraged, Judy is forced into an embrace,

submits, and the movie ends happily ever after. Through

her suffering, sacrifice and dignity, good-natured Judy has

earned her fairy-tale happiness.16

Yet, under those bouncing banana curls and wide,

innocent eyes lived a very shrewd and intelligent business

woman. Hired by Biograph at age 16 at a salary five times

higher than any regular player, Pickford had successfully

negotiated another raise by the end of her first work day;

in less than 10 years she became Hollywood's highest paid

star, earning a million dollars a year.17 From her

father's death, when four-year old Gladys asked her mother,

"Have you got next month's rent and money for the coal?"

earning and saving money became Pickford's preoccupation.

Her occasional shuffling between studios reflected a well

orchestrated attempt to earn more money, and Adolph Zukor

once commented that he didn't need to diet - just

negotiating with teenage Mary took off 10 pounds. In 1919,

Pickford - who had virtually selected, written, produced

and directed many of her own films - formed her own

production and distribution company, United Artists, with

Fairbanks, Charlie Chaplin and D.W. Griffith. Although on

16Paddv Long Legs. Pickford Corporation for First National Exhibitors, directed by Marshall A. Neilan, 1919. Library of Congress.

17Gish, 65.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 9 7

that occasion, an industry head snipped "so the lunatics

have taken over the asylum,1'18 United Artists grew into a

powerhouse company that, although in modified form, exists

today. Pickford retained a one-third interest in United

Artists until 1956,19 carefully invested in oil and land,

and left an estate valued at $50 million.20

Pickford's business sense also led her to realize

the dangers awaiting an aging actress typecast in sweet

little girl roles, and she began to seek a vehicle to

expand her talents without jeopardizing her popularity or

the untarnished, wholesome image upon which it was based.

The public had already made it clear it didn't welcome Mary

in immoral or adult roles; it rejected her 1915 production

of Madame Butterfly, and reserved the same cool reception

for a slave girl sequence in A Little Princess which

featured an exotic Pickford in a belly dancer costume.21

Despite the film's overwhelmingly patriotic theme, the

public again disapproved of Pickford in Cecil B. DeMille's

wartime production The Little American (1917) because it

18Herndon, 181.

19J.Y. Smith, "Film Star Mary Pickford, 'America's Sweetheart," Dies," Washington Post. 3 0 May 1979, C4.

20Elizabeth Peer, "America's Sweetheart," Newsweek. 11 June 1979, 72.

21Rosen, 40.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 9 8

featured Mary as a grown woman subject to sexual perils and

desires.22

Nevertheless, Pickford sought to expand her acting

repertoire, an opportunity that came in 1918 with the film

Stella Maris. Directed by Marshall Neilan, the movie

allowed Pickford to play the dual roles of Stella, a

paralyzed, wealthy little girl, and Unity Blake, the "ugly

duckling of a London orphanage." Stella, barricaded from

the world's harsh reality by a sign over her door reading

"The Court of Stella Maris - All Unhappiness and World

Wisdom Leave Outside. Those Without Smiles Need Not Enter"

is juxtaposed sharply with the crude Unity, who smelling a

flower for the first time exclaims "Blime me - it stinks elergant!"

Soon, Unity is adopted by Louisa Risca, the

alcoholic wife of Stella's friendly cousin John Risca.

Unity's hopes for a true family shatter when she learns

Louisa wants only a housekeeper. Bad goes to worse as

scenes of Louisa nearly beating Unity to death are intercut

with soft-focus images of Stella giggling at a May Day

display as she snuggles with kittens, puppies and rabbits.

With his wife in jail, John adopts Unity to atone

for her sins. The pair move into Stella's household, and

all goes well until Unity stumbles into Stella's fantasy

22The Little American. Artcraft Company, directed by Cecil B. DeMille, 1917. Facets Multimedia.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 9 9

chamber. The family shudders - "What if that poor creature

had spoken to Stella Maris . . . of life - as she knows

it?" Unity is bundled off to another relative's house

where, under John's care and warmth, she responds to love

for the first time.

Three years later, the impossible occurs and Stella

finally walks. Unfortunately, "little by little life is

revealed to Stella as one tremendous conflict;" she watches

soldiers march off to war, meets beggars, and even her

little dog runs away. Her faith remains steady in the

untainted John, and in time they confess their love.

Stella, however, is soon horribly devastated to learn John

already has a wife, now out of prison and wasting away in

his old home. She abandons any possibility of happiness.

Unity, in love with John herself, pities the tragic

couple; she makes the ultimate sacrifice by shooting John's

wife and then committing suicide so that John and Stella

may be happy together.

Thus, Stella Maris, although unique in that Pickford

ventured into untread territory with her portrayal of grim,

unattractive Unity, maintains more cheerful sunshine ideals

than other Pickford movies. Females, even the ugly

orphaned ones, carry true morality in their virtuous souls,

can take care of themselves but are eventually sheltered by

men, and are ultimately fulfilled through sacrifice and

self-denial. This film's only difference occurs as good is

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 100

preserved by divorcing it from the bad, protecting

Pickford's image and popularity.23

As time wore on, although Pickford worried more

about adapting to the new spirit of Hollywood movies, she continued playing adorable child-women in sweet, romantic,

funny films. In 1921, at the age of 29, Pickford was so

trapped by her nebulous sexuality that she successfully portrayed a pre-teen boy in Little Lord Fauntlerov; her

frustration reached its peak with the extremely sweet,

sentimental character of Pollvanna (1919). She wrote:

I got so sick of Pollyanna . . . I finally rebelled. I was appalled at the prospect of unrelieved goodness. . . . I caught a fly on the table, scooped it up and said, "Little fly, do you want to go to heaven?" With that I smacked my two hands together and said, "You have!" The fly in the ointments of Pollyanna's purity . . . remained in the picture. Sickening as I found Pollyanna, the public did not agree with me.24

Yet, by the 192 0s, the public did tire of such

mawkish stories. Clearly, as post-war audience preferences

changed, the saving factor in Pickford movies was Mary

herself. The New York Times review of Daddv Long Legs

attributed completely filled Strand Theatre showings to

"the popularity of the story and the star," and while

lambasting the story as "coated and permeated with

23Stella Maris. Artcraft Company, directed by Marshall Neilan, 1918. Library of Congress.

24Pickford, 191.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 101

sentiment" showed respect for the star because "photoplay

would not be what it is without Miss Pickford."25

An experienced and mature actress, Pickford chafed

at her stifling roles and attempted to play more

sophisticated women in Ernst Lubitsch's Rosita (1923) and

Dorothy Vernon of Hadden Hall (1924). Stunned by

disappointing audience and critical reaction, Pickford

sponsored a 1925 contest in Photoplay asking for popular

input on future roles. The immediate deluge of letters

held a common mandate: over 25,000 fans begged her to

remain sweet and young. The top five suggested roles were

ominous: Cinderella, Anne of Green Gables, Alice in

Wonderland, Heidi, and the Little Colonel.26 Pickford

capitulated and filmed Little Annie Rooney in 1925. The

absurdity of a 32 year old superstar forced to play a 12

year old girl proved overwhelming.27

Symbolically, the line was drawn in 1929 as Pickford

traded in her long ringlets for a sleek bob and filmed her

first sound picture, Cocruette. "You would have thought I

had murdered someone, and perhaps I had," she wrote of her

decision, "but only to give her successor a chance to

live."28 By shearing those curls, Pickford had done more

25New York Times. 12 May 1919.

26Herndon, 228.

27Rosen, 41.

28Pickford, 294.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 102

than kill her stereotype; she had abandoned the hopes,

dreams and faith of her fans. It was only a matter of time

before they would abandon her.

Set in the American South, Cocruette is the story of

Norma Besant (Mary Pickford), a wealthy, flitty young girl

besieged by eligible suitors. Sophisticated hair, skimpy

dress and cooing baby-talk reveal a new Pickford? no longer

jumping, grimacing and whistling across the screen, she now

saunters, dances sensually and says things like, "He said I

was nothing but a silly little coquette, and you thrashed

him for it - just ado-able of ya." Norma soon finds true

love, and promises "I'm gonna be so good to you - I'll keep

house and I'll cook and I'll scrub." However, the object

of her affection, lower class Michael Jeffery (John Mack

Brown), draws violent objection from Norma's pompous and

self-righteous father (John St. Polis); unwilling to give

her up, Michael vows to go away for a year and earn enough

money to marry Norma. Scruffy but gallant, Michael says:

"I won't kiss you. I've seen all the others doing that. I

won't kiss you till I come back to marry you."

Flirtatious Norma has turned over a new leaf,

spurning dates and dances, and is overjoyed when Michael

comes to visit. The two escape to an empty cabin until

four in the morning; although Norma's obnoxious brother

Jimmy (William Janney) covers for her he accuses "Jiminy!

You musta been necking overtime - I would never marry a

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1 0 3

girl like that." Soon, Norma's father learns the two spent

the night alone. Outraged, he scoffs at their declaration

of love and intent to wed, and protecting the family honor,

shoots and kills Michael.

Norma, devastated, eventually agrees to perjure

herself to save her father, despite the pain and anguish he

has inflicted upon her. On the witness stand, as Norma

testifies that Michael raped her, her father boldly

confesses his stupidity. After a touching reconciliation

with his daughter, Dr. Besant grabs Exhibit A and shoots

himself. The story ends with Norma gazing into the

distance, murmuring "I'm right proud of my Daddy."

Cocruette delivered the same moral messages as other

flapper films of the 1920s: sexual decadence leads to

disaster. And, like those other films, it relied on

scintillating the audience with that very decadence to sell

tickets. No longer romping about orphanages and farm

fields, Pickford traded in the romantic, sweet child-life

for glamour, sex and riches.29

The film was received as a mediocre, unimaginative

work with according to the New York Times "poorly conceived

melodramatic moments"30 and forced Southern accents.

Again, the personality of its star, despite her advancing

29Cocmette. Pickford Corporation, distributed by United Artists, directed by Sam Taylor, 1929. Library of Congress.

30New York Times. 6 April 1929.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1 0 4

age, saved the picture: the review went on to assert that

Pickford appeared

a trifle too mature and too wise for the part of a young impetuous girl. Miss Pickford's bobbed hair improves her looks. . . . occasionally, one perceives in her walk the shy steps of the Mary with curls.31

Although Pickford won the almost obligatory 1929 Academy

Award as Best Actress for her role as Norma, the movie did

not win box office plaudits.32

In a 1971 interview, Pickford claimed "I always said

I would retire when I couldn't play little girls anymore,

when I couldn't do what I wanted."33 Yet, in an earlier,

more candid interview, she admitted:

I left the screen because I didn't want what happened to Chaplin to happen to me. When he discarded the little tramp, the little tramp turned around and killed him. The little girl made me. I wasn't waiting for the little girl to kill me. I'd already been pigeonholed.34

Paradoxically, the viewing audience demanded more

sophistication and sexuality, but it would not allow its most treasured leading lady to grow up and adapt to the new

morality. There was still a place for the little girl in

late twenties and early thirties films - Janet Gaynor

depicted child women in Sunrise (1927) and Seventh Heaven

31Ibid.

32Rosen, 41.

33Aljean Harmetz, '"America's Sweetheart' Lives," New York Times. 28 March 1971, D15.

34Ibid.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1 0 5

(1927), and ironically, Shirley Temple entered the movies

the same year Pickford exited; there was just not room for

Mary Pickford to play the them. She made a few more

unacclaimed sound films - Taming of the Shrew (193 0), Kiki

(1931) and Secrets (1933) - then retired from Hollywood.

Divorced from Fairbanks in 1936, she married actor Charles

"Buddy" Rogers in 1937, adopted two children, and spent the

remainder of her years living in semi-seclusion. Pickford

died in 1979. 35

Thus, while Pickford initially represented

independence and self-reliance to movie audiences, she was

ultimately regarded as reflecting archaic, old-fashioned values. That her popularity continued throughout the

1920s, a decade of rapidly changing images and behavior,

indicates a good many of her viewers retreated to her films

out of nostalgia for the vanishing traditional way of life.

And although Mary tried to adapt to the new style of films,

she embodied the little girl with such totality that any

change was impossible.

35Larry Cantwell, "First Filmland Superstar, Mary Pickford," Rocky Mountain News (Denver), 3 April 1975. Pickford drank heavily toward the end of her Hollywood years. At one point, she intended to destroy the negatives of all her films, but her husband and Lillian Gish persuaded her to donate them to the Library of Congress instead.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. CHAPTER SEVEN

THE COMICS: CHARLES CHAPLIN AND BUSTER KEATON

As comic crassness having roots in burlesque and

vaudeville gave way to more cosmopolitan and bourgeois

comic narrative, the feminine ideal in comedy underwent a

similar analysis and evolution. Charles Chaplin idealized

his women with grace and sentiment, much like Griffith, but

allowed them greater moral complexity and ambiguity. As

representatives of the world from which he was excluded,

they cause him great pain, and often symbolize the

emptiness of the values of the society he so desperately

wishes to join. The action of a Buster Keaton film also

revolved around romantic pursuits; yet Keaton, more in the

tradition of Sennett, consistently satirized his female

leads as simpleminded and incompetent, and subjected them

to continual physical torment.

Charles Chaplin

The man who would become one of the world's most

beloved comedians was born in 1889 in London in

excruciating poverty and crisis. In his extraordinary

autobiography, Chaplin recounts tales of misery that easily

106

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1 0 7

rival any Dickensian horror story.1 His father, a modestly

successful music hall singer, deserted the family early;

his mother, a music hall soubrette, suffered from poor

health and even worse mental stability. Five year old

Charlie first appeared on the stage as a result of her

illness; when she collapsed on stage, he ran out front and

performed an old Coster song "Jack Jones." The enthralled

audience was further delighted when the ever-frugal Charlie

interrupted his performance to collect coins thrown on

stage.2 In 1898 he joined for a year the "Eight Lancashire

Lads," a troupe of child entertainers. After Chaplin, his

mother and brother Sydney spent time at the Lambeth

Workhouse and the Hanwell Schools for Orphans and Destitute

Children, Chaplin's mother was finally committed to an

asylum. Alone, 13 year old Charlie managed to win a few

stage roles, and by 1905 worked as an established young

actor. In 1907 he was hired by music hall impresario Fred

Karno, and began playing lead roles. It was from Karno,

according to fellow comedian Stan Laurel, that Chaplin

learned the value of adding pathos to laughter: "Keep it

wistful, gentlemen . . . that's hard to do but we want

sympathy with the laughter. Wistful!"3

1Chaplin, 12.

2Jacobs, 227.

3David Robinson, Chaplin: The Mirror of Opinion (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1984), 7-11.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1 0 8

With the Karno organization, Chaplin toured the

United States in 1910 and again in 1912; on the second trip

he was noticed as a comic drunk in A Nicrht in a London Club

either by Keystone owner Adam Kessell, Mabel Normand or

Sennett himself.4 Ironically, when a telegram reached

Karno asking "Is there a man named Chaffin in your company

or something like that stop If so will he communicate with

Kessell and Bauman," Chaplin remembered tales of a rich

aunt in the States and envisioned a huge inheritance.5

For $150 a week, Chaplin signed on with Sennett, and

made 35 short films at Keystone - about one a week - plus

the feature Tillie's Punctured Romance.6 Tension soon

developed between Sennett and Chaplin, who wanted to

individualize his characters and disliked what he termed

the Sennett "crude melange of rough and tumble"7 frantic

comedy:

However, a pretty, dark-eyed girl named Mabel Normand, who was quite charming, weaved in and out of them, and justified their existence. . . . I was not terribly enthusiastic about the Keystone type of comedy, but I realized their publicity value. . . . "I want to do something with merit, not just to be bounced around and fall off streetcars. I'm not getting a hundred and fifty dollars a week just for that."®

4Mast, 84.

5Chaplin, 137.

6Robinson, Chaplin. 25.

7Chaplin, 138.

8Ibid., 138 and 148.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1 0 9

When Chaplin's contract expired in 1915, he left

Keystone for Essanay at $75,000 annually. This huge salary

jump signified Chaplin's phenomenal popularity, and

magazines began heralding "Chaplinitis."9 By 1916, Chaplin

was earning $670,000 a year with the Mutual Corporation; in

1917 he contracted with First National and joined Mary

Pickford in becoming the first two screen stars worth a

million dollars a year. Along with financial success,

Chaplin obtained creative independence to write, direct,

produce and own the rights to his films. With this

freedom, he evolved the tramp character, more realistically

drawn women and filmic canon that he had begun formulating

at Keystone.10

While for Sennett comedy functioned as its own end,

Chaplin looked to comedy as a method of exploring a world

of human desires and restrictive societal structures. His

Little Tramp is a tiny, ragged man wearing a Max Linder

bowler hat, Ford Sterling's floppy boat-size shoes and

Fatty Arbuckle's enormous trousers.11 Chaplin described

him:

You know this fellow is many-sided, a tramp, a gentlemen, a poet, a dreamer, a lonely fellow, always hopeful of a romance and adventure. . . . However, he is not above picking up cigarette butts or robbing a baby of its candy. And, of course, if

^Robinson, Chaplin. 35.

10Mast, 85.

1]-Ibid.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 110

the occasion warrants it, he will kick a lady in the rear - but only in extreme anger!12

Always excluded from the beautiful, happy life, the Tramp

longs desperately to become part of that society and gain

money, love, legitimacy. His failure to achieve these

goals draws pathos, yet reveals the paradoxically worthless

virtues of wealth:

I found poverty neither attractive or edifying. It taught me nothing but a distortion of values, an overrating of the rich and so-called better classes. . . . Wealth and celebrity, on the contrary, taught me to view the world in proper perspective, to discover that men of eminence, when I came close to them, were as deficient in their way as the rest of us.13

Chaplin's female characters are more central to his

story and art than those at Keystone. He developed a new

romantic pathos more akin to Griffith's Victorianism than

to the spunky, cheeky Mabel Normands of Sennett. For his

first post-Sennett leading lady he chose an inexperienced

actress, ex-stenographer Edna Purviance. Tall, blond and

pristinely sensuous, she offered a remarkable visual

contrast to Chaplin's slight, dark frame. She starred in

35 Chaplin films in seven years; when, growing matronly,

she became unsuitable for, according to Chaplin, the

"feminine confection necessary for . . . future

12Chaplin, 144.

13Ibid., 271.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. I l l

pictures,1,14 he eventually tried to launch her independent

career with A Woman of Paris.

In their pictures together, Purviance portrays a

kind, mild woman who recognizes the wayward Tramp's

inherent goodness. A sentimental character, she represents

womanhood at its purest, free from the stains of social,

physical and material corruption. Even when Purviance's

roles display an element of the fallen woman, her moral

purity emanates unquestionably from within. By uniting

with this earthly angel against forces that can do him

greater material good, the Tramp reveals his own propensity

for goodness.

Edna's glowing warmth is evident in Chaplin's short

The Immigrant (1918). Charlie and Edna portray fellow

immigrants making the grueling steerage voyage to the

United States. As the ship heaves to and fro, Chaplin

catches sight of sweet, innocent Edna and is immediately

enchanted; his bout with seasickness, however, obstructs

their meeting. They eventually become friends, and Edna

does not seem perturbed by Chaplin's worn appearance.

Later, shipboard thieves steal the money Edna's mother has

saved for their new life. Charlie unwittingly wins the

cash in a card game, and when he realizes this, quietly

slips the money into distraught Edna's pocket. The little

Tramp is not so idealistic, however, that he doesn't keep a

14Ibid., 296.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 112

few bills for himself. Once in America, Edna and Charlie

are reunited at a restaurant; the movie ends as Charlie

carries a demure and shy but tentatively acquiescent Edna

into his flat.15

That Chaplin afforded his women greater moral

ambiguity than most other films of the period is evident in

his feature The Kid (1921). Purviance plays a sympathetic,

unmarried woman "whose only sin was motherhood." She gives

up her child, who mistakenly ends up in the Tramp's care.

The woman, now a great actress, atones for her lost child

by performing charity work in the slums. Eventually, she

finds her young son with Chaplin and reclaims him, a happy

ending rarely bestowed on such a "fallen" women.16

Edna's acting style is passive and subtle. Her

plump face radiates innocence and goodness, and inspires

Charlie to his intermittent flights of moral

rehabilitation. One cannot imagine this fragile yet

earthly creature being subject to the bumps and torments of

Mabel Normand or Marie Dressier. Despite their derailed

love affair, Chaplin and Purviance stayed close friends;

15The Immigrant. Guaranteed Pictures, directed by Charles Chaplin, 1918. Bender Library, The American University.

16The Kid. United Artists, directed by Charles Chaplin, 1921. Facets Multimedia.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1 1 3

after her retirement in the 192 0s, Purviance remained on

the Chaplin payroll until her death in 1958.17

The film that Chaplin conceived especially for

Purviance, A Woman of Paris (1923), is a complex work of moral ambivalence. Purviance plays Mary, a French farm

girl who, unable to elope with the farmboy she truly loves,

flees to Paris and becomes a wealthy mistress. Like her

gold digging friend Fifi, Mary smokes, wears fancy clothes

and "lives giddily," but clearly does not belong to the

wild life in which she is trapped. Soon, Mary is reunited

with her true love, John, who begs her to "marry me and

begin a new life." Mary agrees, but John's mother and

Mary's lover prevent the union; in desperation, John kills

himself. John's mother, prepared to murder Mary in

revenge, comes upon her sobbing over John's body. The two

reconcile, and retreat to the countryside; the film's last

shot, of Mary and a child riding on the back of a hay wagon

while Mary's Parisian lover speeds by in a car in the

opposite direction, confirms that Mary has relinquished the

fast life for the true life.18

Like Chaplin's other fallen women, Mary is a

sympathetic character subservient to the "drama of fate"

17Robinson, Chaplin. 28.

18A Woman of Paris. Regent Film Company, directed by Charles Chaplin, 1923. Library of Congress. The copy of A Woman of Paris held in the Library of Congress contains only Bulgarian titles; a written English translation is included with the print.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1 1 4

and the influence of circumstances. While society's

arbitrary standards deem her unfit, Chaplin declares that

such a woman actually possesses greater moral worth,

character, self-awareness and honor than her accusers. She

must be judged by her own standards, not by society's

imposed and hypocritical rules. Chaplin's consistently

unconventional and empathetic portrayal of such "disgraced"

women may stem from his own mother's lifestyle: "To gauge

the morals of our family by commonplace standards," he

wrote, "would be as erroneous as putting a thermometer in

boiling water. 1,19 Yet, the film was reviled by critics as

immoral? stung by harsh criticism, Chaplin withdrew A Woman

of Paris, refusing to release it until 1976.20

In 1925, Chaplin released The Gold Rush, an

enormously popular comedy that possessed, according to the

New York Times "streaks of poetry, pathos and tenderness,

linked with brusqueness and boisterousness."21 In the

film, Chaplin's Tramp is a gold prospector in the icy north

who becomes enamored of Georgia (Hale), a bored and

hardened inhabitant of the mining town. Hale offers a

tougher, calloused and more tarnished version of Chaplin's

feminine ideal, although she is still the object of his

ardent sentimentality. The Tramp first meets "the little

19Chaplin, 19.

29Jacobs, 241.

21Mordaunt Hall, New York Times. 17 August 1925.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1 1 5

spitfire" in a music hall, where she dances with him to

fluster her bullying boyfriend Jack. That Chaplin has

entered the flapper era and surrendered Purviance's

Victorian sweetheart is evident through Georgia1s low-cut

sequined dress, fluffy skirt and bobbed and tightly curled black hair.

The Tramp worships this woman and keeps her

photograph under his pillow; that she and her friends agree

to have New Year's Eve dinner with him sends the little man

scurrying to earn money to buy a chicken and gifts for his

love. The utter joy of the Oceana Roll dream sequence - in

which Charlie imagines the glorious evening to come - gives

way to heartbreaking pathos when the little Tramp realizes

Georgia has stood him up. Back with her domineering

boyfriend, Georgia goes up to Charlie's cabin to "have some

fun with him." She does, eventually, realize what has

happened, but the harm has already been inflicted. The two

do not meet again until the film's end, when Charlie has

become rich after finally finding gold. Unaware of his

wealth, Georgia is overjoyed to see Charlie, who introduces

her to newspapermen as his fiancee. The outsider Tramp,

then, has actually achieved his goal of money and love,

because he is able to see through Georgia's misguided lust

for wealth and perceive her true inner beauty. Yet, we are

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1 1 6

left wondering if the haughty Georgia is actually worthy of

Charlie's love.22

Chaplin continued making enormously popular comedies

in the 1930s and 1940s, dealing successfully with the

advent of sound by simply ignoring it. In later Chaplin

films, a progression from idealization to hatred can be

seen in his heroines. In City Lights (1931). with Virginia

Cherrill, and in Modern Times (1936) and The Great Dictator (1940), both with Paulette Godard, relationships

approximating sexual equality exist. But, in Monsieur

Verdoux (1947), Chaplin plays a man who marries and then

murders rich widows to support his crippled wife and child.

A definite streak of misogyny can be detected in Chaplin's

treatment of Martha Raye as the vulgar woman soon to be

murdered.23

22The Gold Rush. United Artists, directed by Charles Chaplin, 1925. Bender Library, The American University.

23New York Times. 26 December 1977. Chaplin's misogyny may be well founded, if misplaced. Although he claimed that sex "meant the loss of a good day's work at the studio," the great comedian indulged in a private life that was considered scandalous and messy. His first marriage, to 16 year old, pregnant Mildred Harris ended in 1920 with a bitter divorce case. His 1924 marriage to another pregnant 16 year old, Lita Grey, ended after three years with another stinging scandal. In 193 6, he married actress Paulette Godard; their 1942 divorce occurred without public scandal. The same year, teenage actress Joan Barry brought a paternity suit against Chaplin; although blood tests proved Chaplin's complete innocence, a jury ordered him to make child support payments. A year later, 54 year old Chaplin married Oona O'Neill, the 18 year old daughter of writer Eugene O'Neill. The two had eight children and remained married until Chaplin's 1977 death.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1 1 7

In 1953, during the paranoia of the Cold War,

Chaplin and his family left the United States for the

London opening of his Limelight; the State Department

announced he would be denied re-entry unless he faced a

board of inquiry on charges of political and moral

turpitude. Once America's most beloved star, Chaplin chose

exile, spending the rest of his life in England and

Switzerland; he returned to the United States only once

before his death, to receive a special Academy Award in

1972.24

Buster Keaton

Joseph "Buster" Keaton, the only silent comedian

able to rival Chaplin's phenomenal popularity and talent,

was born in 1895 to a vaudeville family. On the stage from

age three, young Buster provided a unique element to the

family act; father Joe routinely tossed his baby son at

surprised hecklers in the audience. Baby Buster

experienced all sorts of physical dangers and mishaps - he

nearly suffocated in a costume trunk, was once picked up by

a twister and carried safely out his bedroom window to the

street below, and, after a particularly spectacular fall,

earned his life-long nickname from fellow vaudevillian

Harry Houdini: "That's some buster your baby took!"25

24Cook, 202.

25Rud.i Blesh, Keaton (New York: The Macmillan Company, 196-3), 4.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1 1 8

Soon, Buster became the focus of his parents' stage

routine, and was considered a star player by his twenty

second birthday. In 1917, after both the act and his

parents' marriage dissolved, Buster joined Fatty Arbuckle's

Comicque Studios as a supporting player; his work in 14

two-reelers like The Butchers (1917) and The Garage (1919)

drew acclaim. After serving in France during World War I,

where his antics made him an instant success with soldiers

and villagers, he returned to the U.S. to marry Natalie

Talmadge, sister of actresses Norma and Constance. In

1919, his brother-in-law, producer Joseph Schenck, formed

Buster Keaton Productions to make 2 reel comedy shorts.

Given complete creative freedom in writing and directing

and $1,000 a week (plus 25% of the profits), Keaton

produced 20 shorts between 1920 and 1923. Although doomed

to eternal comparison with Chaplin, Keaton's superior

directing skills made such shorts as One Week (1920), The

Boat (1921), Co p s (1922) and Balloonatics (1923) silent

comedy classics. By 1923, as audiences demanded more

feature length films, Schenck altered the Keaton output

from eight shorts to two features a year. Earning $2500 a

week plus 25% of the profits,26 Keaton embarked on his

greatest period of productivity and creativity, assembling

works that remain fresh and funny decades later.

26Cook, 203-204.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1 1 9

Unlike Chaplin's outcast Tramp, Keaton's characters

do not yearn for life's better rewards? guileless and

unaffected, they simply desire to go about their business.

More middle class and naive than Chaplin, Keaton is

constantly and unwittingly thrust into bizarre and fearsome

challenges. Consistently maintaining that comedy must be

funny without lapsing into ludicrousness, Keaton adhered

scrupulously to narrative logic; his physical gags

corresponded readily to plot, drama and characterization.

His characters, rarely outsiders, desire to restore

societal order in the face of chaos and false judgments.

Unlike Chaplin, the "Great Stone Face" played a variety of

characters. What remains consistent is the basic thread of

his plot: Keaton, as the vulnerable but determined hero, is

confronted with some vast and enormous obstacle, usually involving objects and machines that are formidable both in

quality and quantity.

The impetus for this conflict is usually provided by

Keaton's more socially respectable and monied sweetheart or

sweetheart-to-be. Misunderstanding some basic event, she

rejects Keaton and propels him to prove himself in the face

of societal scorn, eventually winning his woman.

Significantly, while women are central to the plot and

action, they are rarely developed as individuals; instead

of possessing names they are frequently labeled "The Girl."

No Chaplinesque sentimentalist, Keaton hardly idealized his

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 120

screen women. Finicky, prissy and incompetent, they are

ruthlessly satirized and subject to continual physical

abuse. Unlike the Sennett heroines, who good-naturedly

both accept and dish out their lumps, or the Chaplin women

who remain, for the most part, physically untouched,

Keaton's women are more often than not victims of subtle,

but very real, violence.

Our Hospitality (1923), a classic comedy from,

according to the New York Times. the "man who never seems

to change his expression, let alone crack a smile,"27 is

heralded for its mise-en-scene, visual beauty, attention to

period details and costumes, and elaborate long takes as is

it for its humor. The story revolves around Willie McKay

(Keaton), a New York City man returning to his Western town

and, unwittingly, to a decades old family feud. On the

train journey, McKay falls in love with "The Girl" (Natalie

Talmadge), the daughter of his adversary. In Keaton tradition, "The Girl" runs late for the train, gets ash

smeared over her face, slides down a rushing river, and

dangles precipitously over a waterfall. Sweet and pretty,

she seems oblivious to the fierce family battle unfolding

around, and because, of her.

Keaton's film makes other curious comments on the

irrationality of women. In one scene, McKay frees a wife

being beaten by her vicious husband; the wife, in turn,

27New York Times 10 December 1923.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 121

attacks McKay for confronting her husband. In a later

episode, McKay walks by the same woman suffering the same

beating? he considers helping her, but she runs after and

kicks him before he has the chance. Similarly, Keaton

makes a subverted statement about his estimation of female

worth by propping the dress he wore to outwit pursuers

upright on a horse's hind quarters.

Keaton manages to win his sweetheart's hand by

saving her from sure death. Their marriage finally quells

the long-standing family rivalry? the female, then,

functions both as a cause of inane violence and as a force

of love and peace, ignorant of the petty jealousy and

violent predilections of men.28

In 1924 Keaton applied his formula to the popular

Sherlock Jr. Keaton plays a projectionist who asks "The

Girl" (Kathryn McGuire) to marry him? the scene is

endearing as the girl examines the minuscule diamond ring

with a magnifying glass and the two tentatively hold hands.

But bliss is soon interrupted as Keaton is accused of theft

by his fiancee's father (Joe Keaton), and the disappointed

girl sadly gives him back the engagement ring. Dejected,

Keaton goes back to work, where he absent-mindedly slides

into the light beam and projects himself into the movie on

the screen. In the ensuing imaginary scene, Sherlock Jr.

280ur Hospitality. Joseph M. Schenck, Buster Keaton Productions, directed by Buster Keaton and Jack Blystone, 1923. Wechsler Theater, The American University.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 122

brilliantly saves his girlfriend from "The Lounge Lizard,"

solves the crime, and clears his own name. Although the

girl is, as usual, subject to all sorts of physical mishap,

it is she who takes it upon herself to go to a pawnshop to

solve the crime, while her boyfriend sits meekly at work.

Keaton's ambivalence is clear: although the woman capably

clears Keaton's name, her silliness and short-sightedness

caused all the fuss in the first place.

Sherlock Jr. also contains interesting pokes at the

illusion on screen. A reference to editing occurs as a

confused Keaton stumbles through different backgrounds on

screen. In "real life" the sweet girlfriend, with her bows

and banana curls, looks like Mary Pickford; when she is

projected in the theater, the girl turns into a bobbed

haired, sophisticated flapper residing in a lavish mansion

more akin to the world of DeMille than of Keaton. The last

scene, in which Keaton refers to the lovemaking on screen

for instruction on how to romance his flesh and blood

sweetheart, seemed to validate the fears of censorship

advocates. These worriers might have breathed easier,

though, had they noticed that the long passionate screen

kiss turns into an innocent peck, and that shots of babies

on screen draws a puzzled scratch of the head.29

29Sherlock Jr.. Joseph M. Schenck, Buster Keaton Productions, directed by Buster Keaton, 1924. Wechsler Theater, The American University.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1 2 3

Keaton's masterpiece, The General (1927), revolves

around Johnny Gray, a Southern railroad engineer courting a

wealthy young woman, Annabelle Lee. When the Civil War

erupts, she demands that he enlist; rejected by authorities

because he will serve more good by maintaining his trains

as a civilian, Gray is haughtily spurned by his love:

"Don't speak to me until you are in uniform!" Gray gets to

demonstrate his worth as Union soldiers steal his beloved

train; in the course of trying to retrieve his train, The

General, Gray inadvertently saves Annabelle from Union

soldiers and wins a heroic victory for the Confederacy.

In The General. Annabelle Lee receives a great deal

of physical punishment. In addition to being abducted by

Union soldiers, she is stuffed into a burlap bag, smothered

by bags of feed, caught in a metal bear trap, drenched by a

water tower, and hit with pieces of flying wood. Keaton

also demonstrates her fickle stupidity: she helplessly

attempts to obstruct the Union army by tying a thin rope

across the train tracks, throws twigs on the train engine's

fire (then sweeps up), mindlessly drops a flame on gas-

doused wood, and actually thinks Gray underwent this

superhuman feat just to rescue her, when, to the contrary,

The General is his priority. Keaton's vision of womanhood

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1 2 4

can be summed up by the scene where, exasperated, he starts

to strangle Annabelle, then reconsiders and kisses her.30

Thus, for Keaton, women are desirable, yet offer

only heartache and trouble; by demeaning and abusing them

in his films, he attempts to reassert his own will over

them. No wonder that The General - faithful, reliable and

malleable - remains Keaton's true love.

Keaton made two more independent features before his

studio was swallowed by the MGM conglomerate: in College

(1927), Keaton plays a quiet bookworm who tries to win the

vacuous campus queen by demonstrating his rather limited

athletic ability; in Steamboat Bill Jr. (1928) he is a meek

college graduate who returns home and tries to woo the

daughter of his burly father's rival. Under the MGM

factory system Keaton's creativity and productivity waned,

and The Cameraman (1928) remains his last great portrayal.

Critics agree that Keaton could have survived and

flourished in the sound era - indeed, his last silent

picture, Spite Marriage (1929), achieved wild success

despite its release at the zenith of the talking picture

craze. Instead, Keaton made seven more mediocre MGM

30The General. Joseph M. Schenck, Buster Keaton Productions, directed by Buster Keaton and Clyde Bruckman, 192 6. Bender Library, The American University.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1 2 5

movies, then was fired in 1933 because of his advanced

alcoholism.31

During the era of Chaplin's and Keaton's dominance,

the ideal of womanhood was undergoing radical changes both

on screen and in society. The grappling for a definition

of women's roles in silent comedy reflected the effects of

those changes; Sennett relied on blunt and broad slapstick

techniques, while Chaplin and Keaton searched for more

grace and precision. The women, for their part, covered a

vast array of characters and stereotypes, but were rarely

realistic sexual partners. Either beautiful creatures from

another world or shallow, troublesome females, the feminine

romantic leads in silent comedy often led only to

disappointment and heartbreak, pointing to a perceived

narcissim on the part of all women. By idealizing his

women yet portraying them as morally complex characters,

Chaplin acknowledged and seemingly accepted a changing

morality. Keaton, by subduing and demeaning women,

reflected a widespread fear of the new woman. This love-

3^Blesh, 337. Keaton declined into a humiliating cycle of drinking and periodic rehabilitation that finally abated in the 1940s, and he intermittently reappeared on the screen for several decades after; his most notable performance, as a "waxwork" in Sunset Boulevard (1950), was supplemented by roles in films like Beach Blanket Bingo (1965), How To Stuff a Wild Bikini (1965), It's a Mad. Mad. Mad. Mad World (1963), over 70 guest appearances on television shows, and a spate of commercials for products like Colgate, Alka-Seltzer, Milky Way, Ford and Budweiser. Although Keaton remained fixed in the public imagination, his stellar career was effectively concluded by 1929.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1 2 6

hate relationship, so pronounced in silent comedy, was

evident in all forms of silent films as well.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. CHAPTER EIGHT

THE VAMPIRE

In the mid-teens, a new screen image of womanhood

emerged: not a sweet Victorian or spunky child, but a man-

eating, sex-crazed demon, the female vampire offered

perhaps the first indication of America's changing morality

and tastes in films. The vamp character acknowledged

female sexuality, yet neutralized that aggressiveness by

placing it in the realm of the foreign, the inhuman, and

the supernatural; by doing so, her films instituted sex and

passion, as opposed to romance and marriage, as acceptable

topics for the motion pictures.

The predatory vamp, given to depravity and wanton

lust, drove otherwise noble men to drink, infidelity and

ruin. She was an alluring yet cruel and merciless creature

who lived only for luxury and sensual pleasure. Sex was

her sport, men were her pawns. Although her evil designs

were always vanquished in the end, her sinful

transgressions were met with great fascination. Because

her sexuality was blatantly overblown and unnatural, the

vampire did not represent a threat to traditional morality;

she was a cartoon-like exaggeration.

127

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1 2 8

Such a character could not be played by just any

actress; had Lillian Gish or Mary Pickford imbued such a

role with any nuance of reality or sympathy, public

astonishment and outrage would explode. Instead, the Fox

Corporation chose an unknown actress to play the first

screen vamp for three reasons: to avoid public discomfort

with a familiar actress attempting such antics, to easily

fabricate a fantastically exotic background for their vamp,

and, being a small "poverty row" company, to avoid paying

her a large salary. The woman they chose, Theda Bara, was

billed as the "Daughter of Egypt" and "The Wickedest Woman in the World."1 Bara, whose new name (her own innovation)

was an anagram for "arab" and "death," was born on the

Nile, audiences were told, the illegitimate daughter of a

French artist and an Arab sheik. She was a star, they

learned, of the Parisian horror show, the Grand Guignol,

and hieroglyphics found in an ancient Egyptian tomb had

forecasted her birth. Publicity stills showing Bara

surrounded by snakes, bats, mummies, ravens, skulls,

skeletons and other paraphernalia of the nether-world

flooded fan magazines and newspapers.2 With her long black

hair, darkly-lined eyes and exotic makeup and costumes,

Borman Zierold, Sex Goddesses of the Silent Screen (Chicago: Henry Regnery Company, 1973), 5.

2Douglas Heyes, "Theda Bara: She-Demon," in Danny Peary, ed., Close-Ups: Intimate Profiles of Movie Stars by their Co-Stars. Directors. Screenwriters and Friends (New York: Workman Publishing, 1978), 125.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1 2 9

Bara became the first actress whose persona was tailored

specifically to sell movie tickets.3

Bara was born Theodosia Goodman in Cincinnati, the

meek but friendly and intelligent daughter of a Jewish

tailor.4 She became a stage actress under the name

Theodosia DeCoppet, and dyed her long blond hair jet black

to attract attention; the ploy failed, and Bara's career

stalled in minor roles. She originally scoffed at film

offers, but the ensuing poverty changed her mind; she

accepted Fox's contract, planning to work hard for five

years and retire with the windfall.5

Bara herself laughed at the preposterous hype

surrounding her career, making a sport of reading the

latest concoction with her sister over breakfast: "Some of

them were so wild we didn't think they would be printed, or

that, if they were printed, they would be believed."6 But

they were printed, and they were believed. To maintain the

charade, Bara was forced to play her role on screen and

off, with her contract specifying her obligations clearly:

she could not marry for three years, could not use public

3Mary Ryan, "The Projection of a New Womanhood: The Movie Moderns in the 1920s," in Lois Scharf and Joan M. Jensen, Decades of Discontent: The Women's Movement 1920- 1940 (Westport, C.T.: Greenwood Press, 1983), 115.

4Lockwood, 57.

5DeWitt Bodeen, "Theda Bara," Films in Review 19,5 (May 1968): 266-287.

6Ibid., 267.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1 3 0

transportation, appear in the theater, attend Turkish baths

or pose for snapshots, had to appear in public heavily-

veiled, draw the curtains of her limousine windows, and go

out only at night. At times, of course, Bara slipped. In

one early appearance, reporters demanded to know exactly

where on the banks of the Nile she had been born: "The Left

Bank," she replied, while Fox agents scurried to add, "In

the shadow of the Sphinx."7

The public willingly swallowed the Bara myth. The

writer of a September 1915 Photoplay article declared he

didn't wish to believe "the fact that Theda Bara is a home-

buster only during working hours, and in others is a

slightly melancholy, even gentle creature . . ."8 while

Bara herself wrote in Forum in 1919: "What difference does

it make where I was born? . . . Why deny an intrigue of

such delicate satire?"9 So, the extravagant rumors went

unchallenged, and Bara's popularity soared. Her Liberty Bond campaign was a smashing success, and in 1915 she

received over 200 fan letters a day, 1,329 offers of

marriage among them.10 Fox hired additional vamps, like

Valeska Suratt, Madlaine Traverse and Virginia Pearson,

7Heyes, 125.

8Wallace Franklin, "Purgatory's Ivory Angel," Photoplay September 1915, 70.

9Theda Bara, "How I Became a Film Vampire," Forum 61 (June 1919), 717.

10Zierold, 25.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1 3 1

while Louise Glaum, Dorothy Dalton, Lya de Putti, Betty

Blythe and Olga Petrova drew big paychecks vamping for

other studios.11

Not everyone was so enamored of her vamp, though,

and the line between cinema illusion and reality blurred

even further. Ferocious hate mail increased, and one young

man who murdered his mother-in-law blamed Bara's film

Clemenceau Case (1915) for his lapse of judgement.12 Once,

when she stopped on a New York street to play with a baby,

the mother ran away screaming, "Save him!"13 And, Bara

often spoke of an incident when she handed a young girl an

apple: "Her eyes fell on my face, and a look of terror came

into hers. 'It's the Vampire!' She ran. . . . I went home

and sobbed."14

Bara made her screen debut in 1915 in A Fool There

Was. Between 1915 and 1918, she made 39 films on the

torrid vamp theme, ranging from the standard Sin (1915),

The Serpent (1916), The Vixen (1916) and The She-Devil

(1918) to historically fantastic characterizations of

Camille, Salome, Cleopatra, Carmen and Madame DuBarry.

In A Fool There Was. Bara plays an evil vampire

woman who whimsically decides to add happily married and

11Bodeen, "Theda Bara," 271.

12Ibid., 15. The man was convicted.

13Lockwood, 57.

14Franklin, 70.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1 3 2

respectable businessman John Schuyler (Edward Jose) to her

long list of love victims. She captivates him with exotic

outfits and smoky stares, and soon Schuyler loses his wife,

child, and job, and becomes addicted to drugs and alcohol.

He begs Bara for peace, but she cruelly demands, "Kiss me,

my fool." He does, and dies.

A Fool There Was equates women with sex, and thus,

with sin and trouble. Some view the vamp as a feminist

model who avenges the cruelty men have inflicted on the

weaker sex for ages. Yet, by exercising her supernatural,

irresistible force over men, the vamp also exonerates them

of the responsibility of abandoning home, family, and the

respectable life.15 Although A Fool There Was is the only

one of Bara's Fox films to survive intact, descriptions of her other films reveal that they follow the same pattern:

ruthless woman, innocent man, and death and despair for all

who flaunt traditional morality.

Bara, it seems, grew tired of her one-dimensional

character and begged for better roles. "I want to play a

kind-hearted, lovable, human woman. Won't someone write me

such a part?" Photoplay quoted her as saying.16 Fox acquiesced, but two pictures in which she played

sympathetic roles - Lady Audrey's Secret (1915) and The Two

15A Fool There Was, William Fox Vaudeville Company, directed by Frank Powell, 1915. Facets Multimedia.

16Franklin, 72.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1 3 3

Orphans (1915) - both flopped miserably. And, in Kathleen

Mavourneen (1919), the spectacle of a miscast vampire as a

sweet Irish colleen actually incited riots in some cities.17

By 1918, the evil, foreign vamp lost her

plausibility in the eyes of more sophisticated post-war

audiences. When audiences began to laugh at Bara's

melodramatics, Fox chose not to renew her contract. In

1921, the screen's most notorious home-wrecker married

Charles Brabin, her director for Romeo and Juliet, and

became a respected Hollywood hostess, often mocking her

vamp characters at dinner parties. She attempted a

comeback in 1925 with Unchastened Woman, burlesqued her

vamp in a few Sennett and Hal Roach comedies, and

occasionally appeared on the vaudeville stage. She

remained happily married until her death in 1955.18

Although the most extreme version of the vamp

disappeared by 192 0, Bara's successors played vamps that

fell closer to the human realm and accordingly, lasted

longer. The modified vamp, still unredeemable by love but

depicted as a real (but still evil and foreign) woman,

continued well into the 192 0s. One, Nita Naldi, labeled

herself the "Queen of the Vampires" and earned notoriety

opposite Rudolph Valentino in Blood and Sand (1922) , A

17Bodeen, "Theda Bara," 275.

18Ibid, 283.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1 3 4

Sainted Devil (1924) and Cobra (1925).19 Like Bara, Naldi

underwent a grand publicity campaign that billed her as the

wicked daughter of an Italian diplomat, but she too was a

fraud: born in New York as Irish Donna Dooley, the convent- educated Naldi danced in New York's Winter Garden Theater

until John Barrymore cast her in a small role as a Spanish

dancer in Dr. Jekvll and Mr. Hvde (1920) . Other offers

arrived, and soon Naldi became a full-fledged vampire.20

In Blood and Sand. Naldi plays Dona Sol, the amorous

widow of a Spanish ambassador who lusts for Juan Gallardo

(Valentino), a handsome, recently married young

bullfighter. Because "men were Dona Sol's hobby . . . a

bullfighter was a new experience," she ruthlessly pursues

him and Gallardo succumbs to her overwhelming passion,

forgetting both his wife and his duty to the bullring.

Although Gallardo intermittently attempts to break

off the destructive affair, clearly Naldi's sexual lure is

a force against which he has no protection. We are told

"woman was created for the happiness of man, but instead

she destroyed the tranquility of the world." The black

haired, dark-skinned Dona Sol wears exotic gowns and smokes

cigarettes as she devours married men, while the golden

haired wife Carmen (Lila Lee) sits at home quietly praying.

-*-9Rosen, 61.

20Kalton C. Lahue, Ladies in Distress (New York: A.S. Barnes and Company, 1971), 204-209.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1 3 5

In one surprising scene, Naldi purrs to Valentino the

remarkable phrase, "Someday you will beat me with those

strong hands! I should like to know what it feels like!"

before sinking her teeth into his hand. Revolted, he

heaves her voluptuous, laughing body to the floor. And, in

the tinted version of the film, the vamp's passionate

scenes pulsate in garish tones of magenta and red, while

the wife shimmers in pale yellow.

Eventually, Gallardo's simple and honest wife

reclaims her husband, who, as the sexual transgressor, is fatally wounded in the bullring. Although the man is

relieved of the moral responsibility of deserting his wife

for the vamp's wild charms, he is punished. Significantly,

Dona Sol does not die or suffer any retribution in this

film: our last glimpse is of her laughing and retouching

her makeup as the dying Gallardo is carried past her out of

the arena. Accordingly, she is a hateful character.21

Naldi plays a similarly devilish vamp in Cobra. As

Elise Vanzile, "New York's most prominent and unsuccessful

husband hunter," sensual Naldi covets Rodrigo (Valentino),

an Italian playboy who resists her temptation in favor of

Mary Drake (Gertrude Olmstead), "the one pure, clean love

he has ever known." Spurned by Rodrigo, Elise invites one

of her other lovers to spend the night in a hotel;

21Blood and Sand. Famous Players-Lasky, distributed by Paramount Pictures, directed by Fred Niblo, 1922. Library of Congress.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1 3 6

unredeemably wanton, Elise's only acceptable fate is death

in a horrible hotel fire.22

Another actress, Russian import Alla Nazimova, also

played vamp-like characters. Tired of the frivolity of her

American films, Nazimova personally produced, directed and

financed a screen version of Salome (1922), which tells the

Biblical story of the death of John the Baptist.23

Nazimova's Salome is the beautiful, spoiled young princess

who tempts the prophet; when he refuses her advances, she

demands his head on a silver platter. Disgusted by Salome

triumphantly kissing the bloody head, King Herod orders the

nymph's own guards to kill her.

Artistic but bizarre and surreal, Salome features

Nazimova's wiry dancer's body clothed in revealing,

clinging stretch fabric; her erotic dance scene reduces

male observers to orgasmic ecstasy. Although the film

followed vamp themes - an unredeemable, sexual woman

punished by death for her transgressions - Salome was

unpalatable to audiences and signalled professional suicide

for Nazimova.24

22Cobra. Famous Players-Lasky, distributted by Paramount Pictures, directed by Joseph Henry, 1925. Library of Congress.

23DeWitt Bodeen, "Alla Nazimova," Films in Review 23,10 (December 1972); 577-604.

24Salome. Nazimova Productions, directed by Charles Bryant, 1922. Library of Congress. Salome, with a reputedly all-gay cast in tribute to Oscar Wilde, horrified censors by, among other things, showing a homosexual relationship

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1 3 7

Thus, although the most extreme and absurd version

of the vamp had died by the twenties, the sexually

aggressive, wanton woman continued to appear in movies

throughout the decade.25 Her initial presence represented

the first films that dealt with overt sex as a primary

theme; her continued but modified existence revealed

society's punishing attitudes to women who recognized and

flaunted their sexuality. The vamp did more than just

perpetuate the myth of the devouring woman, though? by

introducing an element later refined and reinterpreted as

sex appeal, she presaged the sophisticated, worldly woman

who candidly admitted her desires and rights to sex, love,

and luxury.

between two Syrian soldiers.

25Indeed, in Murnau's Sunrise, a flapper-vamp functions as the irresistible "other woman" who convinces her lover to drown his wife. Sunrise. Fox Film Corporation, directed by F.W. Murnau, 1927. The American University, Wechsler Theater.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. CHAPTER NINE

THE JAZZ AGE: NEW WOMEN AND NEW MOVIES

The 1920s was a decade of immense social change in

the United States. World War I victory and its prosperous

post-war economy - Coolidge's "Golden Glow" - became the

central reality of the period, challenging hard work and

honesty as the American way to success, and turning the

market place into a consumer's heaven.1 Advances in

science and technology transformed the home and workplace,

while increasing urbanization and industrialization

continued to threaten traditional rural values. Bored with

Victorian conventionality, Americans wanted to shock and be

shocked. From Freudian theory, Ford's Model A, A1 Capone

and jazz to Charles Lindbergh, Mah Jong, Ouija boards,

Florida and nudist colonies, fads and sensations enjoyed

unparalleled vogue.2 The popularity of speakeasies and

alcohol soared as Prohibition declared the nation dry, and

a new breed of criminal, the notorious but legendary

gangster, emerged to threaten community values. Even the

■’■Dorothy Brown, Setting A Course: American Women in the 1920s (Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1987), 6.

2Geoffrey Perrett, America in the Twenties: A History (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1982), 149.

138

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1 3 9

automobile symbolized the fierce velocity and accelerating

pace of the jazz era.

By the 1920s, the ideal of femininity had changed so

radically that contemporaries began speaking of an entirely

"new woman" and "new morality." No longer content to sit

idly at home, many women liberated by the 19th Amendment

translated their new found status to social rights and

freedom. Politically and economically, some women fought

hard for meager results; only in the area of manners and

morals did women make any major strides. Women, at least

in appearance and image, were finally emancipated. Yet,

traditional morality, although cloaked in fancy clothes,

provocative dancing and bravado sexuality, remained the

strong foundation of the new morality.

This feminine revolution coincided with, and was

hastened by, the birth and consolidation of the movie

industry. Since movies are made primarily with an

intention of profit, they can be regarded as a somewhat

accurate barometer of society's values and tastes.3 A

definite change is vividly evident in popular films of the

decade; the dichotomy of chaste Victorian heroines and dark

foreign vamps gave way to modern wives, reckless flappers

and worldly women, and thus to bolder themes and behavior

3Hortense Powdermaker, Strancrer and Friend: The Wav of An Anthropologist (London: Seeker and Warburg, 1967), 214. (An excerpt and explanation of her earlier work, Hollywood: The Dream Factory)

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1 4 0

in movies. While movies reflected the changing ideals of

womanhood, they also helped translate those ideals to

social attitudes and behavior. Yet, like the twenties

themselves, popular films challenged traditional social

codes and represented the new morality, while ultimately

reaffirming conservative social and sexual behavior.

The New Woman

On August 2 6th, 1920, the Nineteenth Amendment was

added to the U.S. Constitution, guaranteeing the right of

franchise to American women. With this victory many

feminist leaders optimistically predicted an unparalleled

transformation of the political, economic and social

conditions of American women. Women were so different from

men, they reasoned, that female votes would radically alter

their own political and social position as well as

instrument the passage of social welfare, consumer

protection, child-labor and economic anti-discrimination

legislation.4 Initially, it seems that a real feminine

revolution had in fact occurred; closer examination of the

political, economic and social realms reveals that gains

made in these areas were far less extraordinary than

predicted.

4William Henry Chafe, The American Woman: Her Chancrincf Social. Economic and Political Roles. 1920-1970 (New York: Oxford University Press), 25.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1 4 1

The Political Sphere

Politically, the key plum offered by feminists was

that women, driven by distinctive set of values, would vote

as a monolithic bloc; the challenge was issued by Elizabeth

Fraser, a delegate to the 1920 Republican Convention, in a

Good Housekeeping article entitled "Here We Are - Use Us."5

Politicians eagerly jockeyed to mobilize this new mass of

support: polling places were transferred from barber shops

and bars to schools and churches, and initial legislative

victories, all supported by the Women's Joint Congressional

Committee, seemed to indicate that women had indeed become

a formidable political force.6

However, by mid-decade it became increasingly clear that lacking a dramatic female issue, women failed to vote

as a bloc, and initial political wooing of the female

electorate dipped quickly. Significantly, the Child Labor

Amendment, which had passed in Congress in 1924, was never

accepted by the states.7 Women voted like their husbands,

5Brown, 67.

6Nancy Woloch, Women and the American Experience (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1984), 35. The Sheppard- Towner Bill, appropriating $1,250,000 annually for maternity education, was passed in May 1921, as a stream of state legislation legalized female jurors and implemented protective laws. That same year, consumer protection was bolstered by the Packers and Stockyards Bill; in 1922 the Cable Act reformed citizenship requirements for married women, and in 1923 the Lehlbach Act upgraded the civil service merit system.

7Chafe, 28.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1 4 2

if they voted at all, recognized little correlation between

their vote and public policy, and were generally too

apathetic, ignorant, or in the case of immigrant and

uneducated women, embarrassed to vote.8 Office holding for

women remained primarily a "widow's game."9 What the early

feminists had failed to anticipate was that women, in the

absence of a galvanizing issue and actively mobilized

support, were too diverse and socially stratified to form a

monolithic voting bloc. Even more alarming, veteran

feminists were unable to inspire the rising generation of

young women who took suffrage for granted and remained

indifferent to feminist causes.10

Economics

Feminists regarded a job or career as a critical

step on the path to independence from men, and indeed at

first view, women seem to have made great strides in the

economic arena. The 192 0 census reported that eight

million females were employed in 437 different occupations,

with the female labor force growing by 26 percent, to over

8Ibid., 29.

9Ibid., 38.

10Woloch, 357. After 30 years of combat, feminist leaders were finally free to break rank? under the prompting of Catt, the National Woman Suffrage Association disbanded and set up the League of Women Voters to encourage women to employ their new-found rights. But the League of Women Voters had few real members and performed little work among women.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1 4 3

10 and a half million, by 1930. The character of female

labor shifted also; daughters of the poor and working class

had traditionally worked in factories and in the fields,

but by 1930 almost two million middle class women were

employed in clerical jobs, and another 700,000 worked as

salesgirls.11

This increase of female employment is discussed in

Middletown: A Study in Contemporary American Culture, an

in-depth sociological survey of a small American city -

Muncie, Indiana - deemed representative of small U.S.

cities in the 1920s. In Middletown, of the 43 of every 100

citizens who worked for a living, one of every five

laborers was female. One newspaper advertisement for a

women's magazine read:

What has become of the useful maiden aunt? She isn't darning anybody's stockings, not even her own. She is a draftsman or an author, a photographer or a real estate agent . . . she is the new phenomenon in everyday life.12

This new figure generated a fair amount of apprehension in

Middletown, however. One State Factory Inspector wrote in 1900:

It is a sad comment on our civilization when young women prefer to be employed where they are compelled to mingle with partially clad men, doing the work of men and boys . . . (one fears) the loss of all maidenly

11Chafe, 49-50.

12Robert S. and Helen Merrell Lynd, Middletown: A Study in Contemporary American Culture (New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1929), 25.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1 4 4

modesty and those qualities which are so highly prized by the true man.13

Regardless, by 1924, 89 percent of the 446 girls in the

three upper classes of the Middletown high school reported

their intentions to work after graduation.14

One must be careful, however, not to overstate the

extent of economic gain experienced by women in the 1920s.

Women generally remained in menial occupations, received

inadequate salaries, and suffered from the economic

discrimination of "bossism." Although young middle class

women were entering the clerical and sales fields, most

women worked in traditional female spheres like factory

work, nursing, textiles, food processing, social work and

teaching, and held little hope of meaningful advancement.15

Sex discrimination continued as a major problem; the 192 0

American Medical Association Directory listed only 40 out

of 482 hospitals as accepting female interns, Harvard and

Columbia law schools refused female students, and the New

York Bar Association excluded females from membership until

13Ibid.

14Ibid., 26.

15Chafe, 51. Those women who entered the work world during World War I merely served as temporary replacements for male soldiers. Only five percent of the female labor force entered employment for the first time during the war, with 95 percent transferring from lower level jobs to which they returned after the crisis passed; indeed, the greatest upsurge in female employment coincided directly with America's industrial revolution from 1880 to 1920.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1 4 5

1937.16 For women in professional fields, the outlook

seemed better: 450,000 women had professional careers,

another 100,000 worked in business in 1920, and between

1900 and 1920 female enrollment in college increased by

over 1,000 percent, raising feminist hopes that this new

educated elite would invade man's traditional economic

domain. Yet, professionals, too, were relegated, to

"female” jobs, suffered poor treatment, and rarely attained

top-level positions. In the 1920s attending college became

an act of conformity instead of defiance, and the feminist

atmosphere of special purpose disappeared in a cloud of

parties, dances and husband-hunting.17

Public opinion continued to play its role,

validating the "patriarchal employer" conception of the

husband, the idea that women working for "pin money" took

jobs away from worthy men, and the notion that the traits

useful to getting a job were not those conducive to getting

a man. In reality, most working women who were married

were over 30, and worked primarily to help feed their

families. According to a Women's Bureau investigation in

the 1920s and 1930s, over half of all industrial workers

earned less than a subsistence-level salary, 90 percent of

all employed females suffered a real economic need, and one

of every four working women acted as principal wage earner

16Ibid., 60. 17Ibid., 89-92.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1 4 6

in her household.18 Middletown surveys reflected popular

notions that working women displaced male workers,

neglected their children or avoided the responsibility of

child-bearing, and were more vulnerable to divorce than

their unemployed counterparts.19

Social Changes

If women remained second-class political and

economic citizens, they shattered conventional barriers in

the social world. Before World War I, women could be

arrested for smoking in public, swearing, for appearing on

public beaches without stockings, for driving cars alone,

for wearing outlandish attire or for not wearing corsets.

Less than a decade later these laws were uniformly repealed

as absurd and futile; outwardly, at least, the role and

status of women had been drastically transformed.20

Church, books, magazines, schools, and parents alike

railed against a "revolution in manners and morals"21

sweeping the country. Despite calls for women to resume

their traditional role as protectors and conservators of

society's status quo, the long-term breakup of Victorian

mores, hastened by the war and the 19th Amendment,

18Ibid., 55-62.

19Lynd, 26.

20Perrett, 157.

21Brown, 167.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1 4 7

continued? by the 1920s although such behavior still drew

controversy it was regarded as the norm not the

exception.22

What was this new morality? As birth control

movements and the sexual revolution broke from their

radical roots, new middle class views toward sex emerged

and revolutionized behavior, attitudes, dress, leisure

activities and marriage. Sex was viewed in a less sinful

light, female sexuality became accepted in its own right,

popular discussion of sexual topics and themes reached

unprecedented levels, looser moral and behavioral standards

prevailed, and new norms governed sexual behavior.23

Through the writings of Swedish commentator Ellen

Key who advocated motherhood without marriage and free

sexual expression and Freud whose theories of dream

analysis and sexual repression reached cult status, sex

assumed a primary role in the lives of "new" men and women.

Between 1910 and 1930, the number of articles and short

stories dwelling on sex, marital infidelity, birth control,

prostitution and divorce soared. Where there was smoke

there was fire, it seems; surveys indicate that sexual

activity for unmarried women had indeed increased. Lewis

Terman, who studied 777 middle class females in 1938,

asserted that of those born between 1890 and 19 00, more

22Woloch, 396.

23Ibid.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1 4 8

than 74 percent remained virgins until marriage; their

daughters, born after 1910, were more than twice as likely

to have engaged in premarital sex. A more broad-ranging

survey by Alfred Kinsey drew the same conclusion.

Extramarital sex increased within the same time frame,

disproving the commonly held assumption that this new

morality was a youthful fad that would end with the

assumption of family responsibilities.24 Although surveys

reveal that sex in the twenties remained fairly standard,

with little fellatio, cunnilingus, sodomy or experimenting

with positions, they also indicate an increasing level of

lesbianism and masturbation among college women. Not

surprisingly, a spectacular decline in prostitution

accompanied this new sexual liberation.25

A major achievement in the sexual emancipation of

women for, not from sex was provided, somewhat unwittingly,

by Margaret Sanger and her birth control activism. By the

end of the 1920s, Sanger's mission had been largely

realized, but in a way she had not envisioned. What

started as a radical attempt to aid poor women trapped in a

cycle of unwanted maternity and misery concluded as a

fashionable movement benefiting largely upper and middle

class women. And among the middle class, birth control had

an overwhelming success; surveys of college educated

24Chafe, 94-95.

25Perrett, 152.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1 4 9

couples in the late twenties showed that 90 percent

practiced some form of birth control.26 Middletown studies

indicate that while traditional taboos against birth

control lifted somewhat, its use could be viewed in a

pyramid-like fashion. All of the 27 business class wives

questioned believed in birth control, while only 34 of 77

working class wives employed any methods, with 14 of the 3 4

using "primitive" methods. Working class wives who shunned

birth control made such statements as "Abortion is murder

and birth control is just as bad," "I'd like a small family

but it1s not good for a person to do anything to prevent

having children," and "Men will not stand for the use of

things to prevent having children - this is one cause of

divorce."27 Thus, at least among middle and upper class

women, new information and available means of birth control

removed some of the dangers of premarital sexual

experimentation, released the companionate aspect of

marriage because sex and procreation were finally

separated, and legitimized female sexuality, contributing

heavily to the social and sexual upheaval of the decade.

Celebrated by the young and alternately derided,

envied or imitated by the older, this new morality offered

the flapper as the new vision of womanhood. Dubbed

flappers by writer H.L. Mencken in 1915 for their frenzied,

26Ibid., 160-165.

27Lynd, 124.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1 5 0

bird-like dance moves, these women were largely young,

urban, of the upper middle class, boyish pals and sports on

one hand and provocative temptresses who exuded sex appeal

and challenged male authority on the other.28 Feminism

rapidly lost its appeal and "feminist" became a term of

opprobrium conjuring visions of dour, mannish frumps. The

interests of many young females turned from civic affairs

to private concerns like job, love life and family. The

flapper's self-indulgent independence signaled for some an

abandonment of the struggle for political and economic

equality to one for social and sexual liberation. She

voiced her demand for equality by adopting the privileges

and liberties once reserved for men.

The flapper also functioned as a vital economic

symbol, for she was identified by the goods and services

she was able and willing to purchase. Silk stockings,

bobbed hair, polished nails and painted faces, jazz

records, short skirts, revealing dresses, cigarettes,

automobiles, speakeasies - all characterized the new woman

to whom freedom meant lingerie parties on yachts, hip

flasks, furs, milk baths and flirting with married men.29

28Woloch, 400.

29Woloch, 401 and Haskell, 76.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1 5 1

Indeed, skirt lengths rose nine inches between 1919 and

1927, inflicting serious damage on the textile industry.30

With these outer trappings of liberation went

dramatically revised action. Youth as a whole shifted

moral gears and accepted more sophisticated attitudes to

sex and marriage. Courtship experienced major innovation:

Going out on dates supplanted calls paid at home by a male

suitor. With adult supervision effectively banished by the

automobile, "petting," a term for sexual activity short of

actual intercourse, became a common activity.31 Yet, even

in light of phenomenal changes in sexual norms, the flapper

appeared only superficially uninhibited; promiscuity was

not condoned, and marriage and secure family life remained

the goal of dating.32 Sexual means, not ends, had changed.

The new woman emerged in many guises, including that

of the campus coed. By the 1920s, half of all young people

were enrolled in some sort of educational system; college

campuses provided informal access between the sexes, a new

sense of sexual equality, and helped fuse new and

traditional female roles. Female students at large

universities, like females as a whole, assumed the role of

sweetheart and buddy to their male counterparts. Not

30David Robinson, Hollywood in the Twenties (New York: A.S. Barnes and Company, 1968), 20.

31Woloch, 404.

32Ryan, 119 and Haskell, 79.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1 5 2

surprisingly, females began to view each other as

challengers in the competition for dates and husbands, and

female friendship and sisterhood found itself relegated as

a supportive by-product of more important love relationships.

Cartoonist John Held labeled these college students,

who rapidly became cultural role models for high school

students, "sheiks and shebas." Sheiks, campus big-men who

wore Fair Isle sweaters, argyle socks and racoon-skin

coats, drove their shebas, bob-haired, cigarette-smoking,

leg-baring coeds, to the Big Game on Saturday afternoon in

their topless Model T's.33 These shebas displayed none of

the defiance and social conscience borne by their

predecessors; like youth as a whole, their interest focused

on femininity, not feminism, and preparing for marriage and

the home.34

While marriage remained the new morality's end goal,

the institution itself underwent radical change. By 1900

the middle class home had lost its productive functions and

became a unit of consumption managed by the homemaker. As

families became smaller, with only 3.56 children per woman

in 1900, marriage's companionate aspect was released, and

the term housewife grew associated with less drudgery and

33Perrett, 151.

34Chafe, 103.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1 5 3

better health.35 Correspondingly, marriages increased

sharply by turn of the century; the 192 0 census reported

that 60 percent of all women over 15 were married.36

The relationship on which marriage itself was based

also underwent a transformation to a sexual union

emphasizing male-female relations over the family unit.

The role of the wife became that of sexual partner and

agreeable companion, an extension of those qualities

cultivated during courtship. The new woman demanded more

from marriage, too. She expected to be satisfied in her

role as lover and companion, and to experience more

freedom, equality and honesty within the marriage.3^

Yet, the responsibility of keeping romance and

friendship alive fell invariably upon the wife. While men

spoke of their wives as creatures purer and morally

superior, they tended to regard them as "relatively

impractical, emotional, unstable, given to prejudice,

easily hurt, and largely incapable of facing facts or doing

hard thinking."38 Women seemed to accept this designation:

a Middletown women’s club employed the motto "Men are God’s

trees; women are his flowers’’39 while a female politician

35Woloch, 270.

36Brown, 102.

37Woloch, 406.

38Lynd, 117.

39Ibid., 118.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1 5 4

asserted, "Women have to be morally better than men. It is

they who pull men up or cause their downfall."40 The

importance of good looks, charm and fashionable dress to a

wife in her new role as family social pacesetter was

undeniable. Dorothy Dix, a syndicated columnist of the

era, wrote:

Good looks are a girl's trump card. Much can be done without natural beauty if you dress well and thereby appear 50 percent better-looking than you are. . . . make yourself charming and cultivate bridge and dancing, the ability to play jazz and a few outdoor sports.

Woman makes the family's social status. . . . the old idea used to be that the way for a woman to help her husband was by being thrifty and industrious . . . but the woman who makes of herself nothing but a domestic drudge . . . is not a help to her husband. She is a hindrance . . . and . . . a man's wife is the show window where he exhibits the measure of his achievement.41

The message rang clear: women would have to work, and work

hard, to maintain their husbands' love, attention and

support.

Despite this new ideal of marriage, or more likely

because of it, divorce reached unprecedented heights in the

1920s. In 1890 one of every 17 marriages ended in the

divorce court; by the late 1920s, one of every six couples

divorced, prompting birth of the term "serial monogamy."

The problem appeared especially acute for young childless

couples; while comprising only 16 percent of all marriages,

40Ibid.

41Ibid., 116-117.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1 5 5

they accounted for over 75 percent of all divorces.

Critics lamented this growing "divorce wave," while Nevada

virtually turned divorce into the state's cottage

industry.42 Even in Middletown the traditional taboo

against divorce began to lift, increasing by 87 percent

between 1890 and 1920. Significantly, 75 percent of all

divorces were sought by women, usually on the broad grounds

of non-support or cruel treatment. Researchers pointed to

the increased financial confidence of working women as a

prime cause for divorce, while Dorothy Dix cited more

broad-ranging social change:

The reason there are more divorces is that people are demanding more of life than they used to. . . . I n former times . . . they expected to settle down to a life of hard work . . . and to putting up with each other. A divorced woman was a disgraced woman. . . . But now we view the matter differently. We see that no good purpose is achieved by keeping two people together who have come to hate each other.42

Thus, by the 1920s, a major revolution had occurred

in manners and morals. Although far from a completely

thoroughgoing transformation of Victorian conservatism,

this new morality lifted traditional restraint on attitudes

to sex, marriage and divorce, and allowed a new brand of

young women to emerge and challenge the conventional domain

of men. Sexual sophistication existed largely as a

willingness to display sexual attraction and knowledge, not

42Perrett, 159.

43Lynd, 128.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1 5 6

as constant readiness to acquiesce to physical desires;

yet, given the extreme sexual repression of the preceding

decades, the sexual and social liberation exhibited in the

192 0s is truly phenomenal. But, despite this outward

emancipation, women in the twenties remained subject to the

fetters of traditional morality and antiquated ideas.

The New Movies

By the 1920s, motion pictures were recognized as the

most influential and popular medium of culture in the

United States. Although they sugar-coated and romanticized

the plight of American women, post-war films did deal

readily with the issues of social and sexual emancipation

among wives, flappers, college students, working girls and

sophisticated women.

The first World War completed the transformation of

American movies into a billion-dollar mega-business.

Pioneers like George Melies and Thomas Edison dropped out

of the industry, the largest pre-war studio, Biograph,

floundered and expired and the Motion Pictures Patents

Corporation and General Film Exchange wasted away into

oblivion.44 Former nickelodeon owners or low-budget

manufacturers emerged as movie magnates calling themselves

producers. The most famous and influential included

William Fox, Adolph Zukor, Marcus Loew, Samuel Goldwyn,

44Jacobs, 160.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1 5 7

Jesse Lasky, Carl Laemmle and Louis B. Mayer. But

directors, now self-assured and ambitious for national

renown, remained the single-most important factor in

shaping a movie until the mid-twenties. By the end of the

war, as French, German and Italian movie production

atrophied, new U.S. companies like Paramount, Fox, MGM,

Universal, Warner Brothers and United Artists produced 85

percent of films exported throughout the world and 98

percent of those shown at home.45 Films emphasizing

wealth, high society and looser morals supplanted tales of

mundane farm people, and a new formula based on money over

art emerged: standard stories - either society drama,

romance, action, westerns, shockers or comedies - combined

with a big-name star and large-scale advertising campaign

ensured financial success.46

By 1920 mass entertainment had exploded: over 100

million movie viewers a week - a number equal to the entire population - attended the nation's theatres, and spending

on entertainment increased by 300 percent.47 A new class

of viewers demanded an upgraded atmosphere of elegance.

The first building constructed specifically as a movie

theatre, the Regent, opened in New York in 1913 amid an air

of opulence and wealth; by 1920, over 20,000 dream palaces

45Sklar, 46 and Jacobs, 160.

46Jacobs, 160-69 and 203.

47Perrett, 224.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1 5 8

had followed this lead. Ornamental gilt and plaster work,

lavish lobbies, plush carpeting, brass railings, crystal

chandeliers, elaborate fountains, velvet seats and 3 0 piece

orchestras rivaled the fantasy world on screen.48

As the industry expanded, old dilapidated studios in

the Bronx and Flatbush proved inadequate and the center of

filmmaking shifted from New York to Southern California,

wher Hollywood's almost perpetual sunshine, diverse

physical backdrops and the open-shop city of Los Angeles

seemed to offer movie heaven. Thriving studio complexes

like Inceville, Culver City and Universal city battled to

outdo each other in size, scope and big names.

Hollywood became the undisputed mecca of the film

world, and a whole subculture grew around this new center.

Would-be stars and starlets flocked to Hollywood hoping for

discovery and instant fame. Stage actors were abandoned

for a glamorous new breed of screen stars dedicated to

body, beauty and health, and salaries for sufficiently

stellar luminaries skyrocketed. Makeup, hair and fashion

statements defined a star's image, and once that

combination was established, it rarely deviated on screen

or in public. Studio personnel employed virtually

scientific formulas to choose a photogenic face, then

applied a battery of procedures - cutting and dying hair,

tweezing eyebrows, reshaping eyes and lips with corrective

48Perrett, 224, Jacobs, 168, and Sklar, 45.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1 5 9

makeup, capping and bleaching teeth, even advising cosmetic

surgery - to improve that face for the cameras.49 Studio

public relations departments devoted considerable attention

and money to grooming potential stars, and mounted huge

publicity campaigns to keep actors in the public's

imagination.50

Public fascination with the private loves and

exploits of the stars was phenomenal in the post-war

period, in sharp contrast to earlier days when actors'

names were not even billed in the movie credits. Gossip

writers found new outlets in a slew of fan magazines -

notably Photoplay. Motion Picture. Shadowlands. Motion

Picture Classic. Motion Picture Herald, and Modern Screen -

which portrayed stars living as gods and goddesses in

mansions with pools, chauffeured limousines and glamorous

49Alicia Annas, "The Photogenic Formula: Hairstyles and Makeup in Historical Films," in Edward Maeder, Hollywood and History: Costume Design in Film (New York: Thames and Hudson, 1987), 52-54. The history of movie makeup revolves around Max Factor, a young Russian immigrant who had been a wigmaker and makeup artist for the Imperial Russian Court Opera of Tsar Nicholas II. Because the arc lights used in silent films turned red-toned skin, which is the base of most Caucasian skin, black on film, extremely heavy and unnatural-looking makeup was used. In addition, the arc lights created distortions, shadows, and magnified even tiny wrinkles. In 1914, Factor invented Flexible Grease Paint, the first makeup made specifically for the movies, and one which eliminated red tones without sacrificing subtlety; Factor continued to make important innovations in movie makeup into the sound era until his death in 1938.

50Sklar, 62-77.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1 6 0

clothing.51 Studios, eager to preserve the charade, often

subsidized a star's pretenses to fabulous wealth, loaning

ostentatious cars, expensive clothes, even paying for

magnificent homes. Other stars easily maintained their own

lavish lifestyles, revelling in publicity that detailed

their extravagant monthly expenditures.52 Significantly,

in fan magazines stars endorsed beauty aids like shampoo

and soap, while the pages were filled with advertisements

for products guaranteed to get rid of a stammer, unwanted

weight, blackheads, gray hair, even extra-large noses.

The greatest impact of this idol worship fell upon

youth, according to educators and critics, and they soon

made a case for censorship on the ground of protecting

teenagers from insidious movie community morals. In 1919,

a physician testifying before the Chicago Motion Picture

Commission blamed nervousness, harmed vision, loss of sleep

and mental laziness of America's youth on movies; the

charge was echoed in dozens of books and articles in the

religious press and popular magazines.53 A four year, 12-

volume scholarly study of motion pictures and youth by the

Payne Fund put forth only negative assumptions, as did

51Jacobs, 282.

52Lockwood, 191. While many stars raced to outperform each other in well-orchestrated shows of extravagance, cowboy actor Tom Mix transcended all others by erecting a huge neon sign that read "TM" on his roof.

53Sklar, 124-125.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1 6 1

Henry James Forman in his popular criticism, Our Movie Made

Children.54

Undeniably, movies did affect the attitudes and

behaviors of viewers, especially the young and

impressionable. In the twenties, due to intense audience

identification with the star, superstars provided more of a

role model to youth than businessmen, politicians and

artists combined, and movies became more effective than

literature in shaping the values and behavior of a huge

young audience. Movies provided the most up to date

available sex education for children of straight-laced parents who often avoided the topic, and young people gave

close attention to the star's appearance and behavior,

learning how to dress, kiss, and deal with the opposite sex in the process.

The extent to which films had become a part of daily

popular culture can be seen in Middletown. In 1929, a

total of nine theatres operated from 1-11 p.m. daily,

showing 22 different programs in 300 performances a week.

In the "valley" month of July, about 2 and 3/4 of the

city's entire population attended the movies, and in the

peak month, December, the figure rose to 4 and 1/2. Of the

852 students in grades 10-12, 70 percent of the boys and 61

percent of the girls attended at least once a week, with

54Ibid., 135-137.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1 6 2

the majority attending at least twice, usually without

their parents.55

Advertisements for movies like "Girls! You will

learn how to handle 'em!"56 and press accounts that read

It was a real exhibition of love-making and the youths and maidens of Middletown who thought that they knew something about the art found that they still had a great deal to learn57

would not go unnoticed by anxious right-minded citizens.

That fan magazines like Motion Picture Classic carried

mail-order forms for books like Sexual Knowledge - one

dollar for "what every young man and every young woman

should know," mailed in a plain brown wrapper - only

exacerbated the fears.58 While one working class mother

welcomed movies as a "good safe way"59 for her daughter to

learn about the ways of the world, others disagreed. Most

students in the upper three grades selected the number of

times they go out and curfew as the highest source of

conflict with their parents; over half reported that they

spent less than four evenings a week at home. High school

teachers decried the early sophistication of their

students, while a juvenile court judge listed movies, with

55Lynd, 263-265.

56Ibid., 267.

57Ibid.

58Motion Picture Classic. March 1921, 92.

59Lynd, 267.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1 6 3

their long chances and happy endings, as one of the "Big

Four" causes of local delinquency.60

An especially fearsome worry was that of early

sexual sophistication. In 1890, a couple was effectively

prohibited from sitting alone in the dark; with the advent

of the automobile and movies, the restriction became absurd

and futile. Now, as traditional restrictions relaxed, 88

percent of the boys and 78 percent of the girls in grades

10-12 signified that they had taken part in "petting

parties."61 Times were changing, and some people just

didn't approve. Interestingly, in Middletown, the blame

seems to fall exclusively upon the city's young women:

"Girls aren't so modest nowadays; they dress differently,"

said one mother, and another added, "We can't keep our boys

decent when girls dress that way." Others said, "Girls

have more nowadays - look at their clothes!" and "When I

was a girl, a girl who painted was a bad girl - but now

look at the daughters of our best families!"62

This rapid shift in morality was "stimulated in

part, probably, by the constant public watching of love

making on the screen"63 and naturally generated a

reassertion of established community standards. Local

60Ibid., 134 and 267.

61Ibid., 138.

62Ibid., 140.

63Ibid., 139.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1 6 4

women1s clubs and ministerial associations made weak

attempts to "clean up the movies" and halt Sunday showings,

but soon were compelled to yield to Middletown popular

opinion that movies were "a darned good show" and to

disregard their educational and habit-forming functions.64

Given the powerful spell this new medium could cast,

censorship movements aimed at protecting vulnerable young

minds and bodies surfaced. As movies grew in popularity

and focused on the wealthy and fast-moving, traditional

protectors of middle class values found they were losing

ground in the struggle to maintain small town, rural values

in the face of increasing industrialization, urbanization, and ethnic diversity. Movie makers were able to circumvent

censorship through friendships, bribes and trickery. In

the six years after the 1915 Supreme Court ruling upholding

prior restraint and the rights of states to determine

censorship guidelines, only Maryland passed any restrictive

laws, and efforts to push through national legislation

failed.65 The movies indeed functioned as a cultural force

that operated outside the traditional boundaries and

restraints of mass American culture.

In 1921, however, a series of industry scandals

brought renewed wrath upon the movie business. In

September 1920, Olive Thomas, an ex-Ziegfeld girl, fashion

64Ibid., 269.

65Sklar, 127-130.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1 6 5

model for Vogue, star of a few light comedies and recent

wife of Jack Pickford, committed suicide in a Paris hotel

room by swallowing an overdose of bichloride of mercury

tablets. The suicide of a young starlet who seemed to have

everything made headlines around the world, and soon

stories claiming that both Jack Pickford and Olive Thomas

were heroine addicts were published and accepted as fact.

A few weeks later, Robert Harron, the young "Boy" in

Intolerance and True Heart Susie shot himself in a New York

City hotel room on the eve of the premiere of Wav Down

East, a Griffith film in which he had been denied a role.66

These scandals offered just a prelude, though, to

what would erupt a year later; in September 1921, Roscoe

"Fatty" Arbuckle, the popular star of Sennett comedies, was

arrested for the rape and manslaughter of Virginia Rappe, a

brunette starlet who had worked at Keystone and was put

under contract to William Fox.67 Rappe had died after a

wild Labor Day party at Arbuckle's suite at the St. Francis hotel in San Francisco; witnesses alleged that Arbuckle had

crushed her with his enormous weight and raped her with a

Coke bottle. Public outrage exploded; newspapers went wild

printing unfounded rumors about the "bottle party,"

theaters across the nation immediately withdrew Arbuckle

66Kenneth Anger, Hollywood Babvlon (New York: Dell Publishing Company, 1975), 15-18.

67Ibid, 21. Rappe was best known as the model on the cover of the "Let Me Call You Sweetheart" sheet music.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1 6 6

pictures, and he was effectively banned from Hollywood. In

Thermopolis, Wyoming, 150 cowboys shot up a screen showing

an Arbuckle comedy; although the action was a publicity

stunt designed by the theater owner, it clearly echoed

popular sentiment.68 Arbuckle was tried three times: the

first two juries ended 10-2 for acquittal, and the third

finally acquitted him in six minutes. Although it became

obvious that Arbuckle was the victim of a zealous district

attorney and that Rappe had died of peritonitis, an

unforgiving public and industry refused to readmit him.69

Although Arbuckle directed a few films under the sarcastic

name Will B. Good, his career in Hollywood was over and he

died alone and forgotten in New York in 1933.

Then, in February 1922, while Fatty was still on

trial, director William Desmond Taylor (Tom Sawyer. 1919,

Huckleberry Finn. 192 0) was found murdered at his home,

launching a scandal that reeked of illicit love triangles

and drug trafficking. Suspicion centered on girlfriends

Mabel Normana and Mary Miles Minter, and on Minter's mother

Charlotte Selby; love notes to Taylor from Normand and

Minter were found70, as well as lingerie bearing the

68Blesh, 180.

69Murray Schumach The Face on the Cutting Room Floor: The Story of Movie and Television Censorship (New York: William Morrow and Company, 1964), 22-24.

70Ibid., 25. The Taylor scandal heightened accusations of Hollywood immorality when newspapers reported that a collection of over 500 pairs of female

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1 6 7

initials MMM, and the press eagerly printed rumors that

Normand was a cocaine addict with a $2,000 a month habit.71

Although Normand and Minter were cleared of the murder and

no Normand drug connection was proven, the taint of scandal

was enough to end their careers. Normand starred in two

more Sennett films and several Hal Roach comedies

throughout the twenties, but never regained her original

popularity. Minter's last film, Drums of Fate (1923), was

a box office disaster.

In quick succession, suicides, drug overdoses,

affairs, divorces, quick remarriages and an anonymous book

The Sins of Hollywood compounded Hollywood's already

tarnished image. New censorship efforts marked a changed

attitude; no longer focused solely on themes and plots,

public interest and indignation now centered on stars and

their "lurid" private lives. Movie stars were undoubtedly

more real to audiences than the roles they played.

Although the drop in movie attendance in 1921 is mostly

attributed to the closing of storefront theatres and new

modes of entertainment like commercial radio and

automobiles, moralists quickly pointed to the immorality of

the Hollywood clan as the prime cause.72

panties, tagged with the name of the original owner and date of removal, were discovered in Taylor's closet.

71Sinclair, 29.

72Sklar, 79-82.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1 6 8

In an effort to stave off regulatory groups,

producers formed in 1922 a new trade organization, the

Motion Picture Producers and Distributors Association,

superseding earlier, weaker attempts at industry-wide

unity. They offered $50,000 a year to Will H. Hays, former

chair of the Republican National Committee, Presbyterian

elder, Harding's postmaster general and all around

representative of good clean American values, to head the

group. The Hays Office banned nearly 200 people from

working in films because of drug or alcohol abuse or

promiscuity, removed prostitutes who had managed to join

the actors' register, limited screen kisses to seven feet of film, inserted morals clauses into contracts, and

demanded that the sanctity of the home and marriage be

respected.73 Its issued code read:

Be it further resolved that those things which are included in the following list shall not appear in pictures produced by the members of this Association, irrespective of the manner in which they are treated: 1. Pointed profanity - by either title or lip - this includes the words, God, Lord, Jesus, Christ (unless they be used reverently in connection with proper religious ceremonies), Hell, S.O.B., damn, Gawd, and every other profane and vulgar expression however it may be spelled; 2. Any licentious or suggestive nudity - in fact or silhouette; and any lecherous or licentious notice thereof by other characters in the picture; 3. The illegal traffic in drugs; 4. Any inference of sex perversion; 5. White slavery; 6. Miscegenation (sex relationships between the white and black races); 7. Sex hygiene and venereal diseases;

73Perrett, 226.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 8. Scenes of actual childbirth - in fact or in silhouette; 9. Children's sex organs; 10. Ridicule of the clergy; 11. Willful offense to any nation, race or creed. . . .

Although the Hays Office attempted to implement a

wide degree of self-censorship, it by no means squelched

the scandals on which the press now thrived. In January 1923, handsome idol Wallace Reid died while trying to cure

himself of morphine addiction, furthering the image of

Hollywood as an evil place straining to devour good clean

men and women.75 Charlie Chaplin's two marriages and

subsequent divorces to pregnant teenagers damaged his

career without ending it, indicative of the double standard

which fell upon Mabel Normand and Mary Miles Minter.

Industry pioneer Thomas Ince died mysteriously in 1924 -

papers suggested that he had been shot by William Randolph

Hearst in a love dispute over Marion Davies.76 Clara Bow

soon caused enough scandals to keep Paramount's legal

department busy for years77, while promising starlets like

Barbara LaMarr, Alma Rubens and Juanita Hansen lost either

their lives or their careers to drug addictions.78 What

Hays did manage to do was impose an aura of dignity, of

74Swanson, 300.

75Schumach, 29.

76Lockwood, 165.

77Schumach, 30.

78Anger, 63.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1 7 0

moral propriety, of rigorous self-regulation that, while

not silencing critics or easing industry dissent, allowed

the private lives of the stars to continue while assuaging

the financial fears of the producers and the moral worries

of the public.

The Hays Office also became the focus of organized

industry grievances. As his tenure wore on, it became

clear that the movie industry had been transformed from and

individual but cooperative pioneer industry to a huge

corporate enterprise with ties to banks and brokers, and a

hierarchy of salary, billing, and regulated job

classification replacing old open camaraderie. By the end

of the 1920s, public fascination with the lifestyles of the

famous continued, while calls for moral purity diminished

to a negligible number.79

Thus, by the 1920s, the film industry had solidified

to the point where it fulfilled three major roles: that of

society's mirror, society's shaper, and society's escape

valve. Traditional values had undoubtedly changed by post

war America; the films of Griffith and Mary Pickford in

contrast to those of Cecil B. DeMille, Clara Bow, Erich Von

Stroheim and Greta Garbo serve to illustrate the vast

79Sklar, 82-85. Ironically, Hays himself could not avoid the stain of wrongdoing: in 1928 it emerged that he had been involved in the Teapot Dome scandal, and in 1930 he was caught paying expense money, honoraria and salaries - in effect, bribes - to moral leaders who evaluated film acceptability for religious and civil groups. (Anger, 43.)

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1 7 1

philosophical chasm between the old and new generation of

movie makers and society as a whole.

Movie-going in the twenties provided the opportunity

for Americans to vicariously revel in a glamorous, sexually

decadent fantasy world, and then, usually, enabled them

collectively to reaffirm comfortable traditional values by

nobly repudiating those dastardly morals on the screen.

Naturally, one of the primary objectives of filmmaking is

box-office financial success, so the Hollywood movie

scintillated, while ultimately reinforcing cultural

beliefs, assuring the audience that values were secure.

Yet, merely setting up social values in terms of conflict

raises doubts about the security of those values, even if

the film ends with heroes protecting defenseless people,

villains suffering defeat, and love conquering all. The

changing image of women as seen in 1920s films reveals this

ambivalence toward women and their new emancipation; while

movie women were allowed to flex their moral prerogative

more than ever before, the movies ultimately brought them

home deep within the realm of traditional morality.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. CHAPTER TEN

CECIL B. DEMILLE AND MODERN MARRIAGE

Cecil B. DeMille, Hollywood's most influential

director from 1919-1930, is credited with modernizing and

homogenizing screen sex for public consumption, and

infusing movie marriage with wit, style and sex. With his

open-necked shirts, puttees, Louis XV hat, knee pants and

enormous drooping pipe, DeMille directed 29 superficial yet

spectacular and enormously successful films between 1921

and 1930. In real life dramas, divorce was caused by such

serious problems as financial worries, alcoholism and

physical cruelty, but DeMille purposely bypassed such

grimness. Instead, he placed his marriage melodramas in a

world where divorce hinged upon an unthinking husband or a

dowdy-looking wife. And, while such an outlook may be seen

as irresponsible or frivolous, it did acknowledge the fact

that women, as well as men, now expected and demanded more

from marriage.

Born to a family of playwrights, DeMille graduated

from the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in 1900.

Drifting and uncommitted, he considered joining the Mexican

172

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1 7 3

Revolution - "any revolution would have done,"1 he wrote in

The Autobiography of Cecil B. DeMille - but instead teamed

up with friend Jesse Lasky and Lasky's brother-in-law

Samuel Goldfish (later changed to Goldwyn) to make a movie. Their first shoe-string film, The Scruaw Man (1913)

succeeded, their careers skyrocketed, and by 1920 DeMille

had directed 37 films.2 Those like Carmen (1915) and Joan

The Woman (1917) indicated his predilection for the epic;

The Cheat (1915) foreshadowed later society dramas; pro-

Ally propaganda like The Little American (1917) and Till I

Come Back To You (1918) demonstrated his ability to adapt

to rapidly changing consumer tastes.3

During World War I, DeMille again sensed a change in

the temper of the times, and released three test films to

see what genre would most appeal to post-war audiences.

The first, a romantic outdoor film entitled Nan of Music

Mountain (1916) failed. The second, an exotic spectacle

called The Woman God Forgot (1917) achieved moderate

•'•DeMille, p. 68.

2Charles Higham, Cecil B. DeMille (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1973), p. 30 DeMille's career nearly ended before it began; someone, most likely agents from the Trust, sabotaged DeMille's negatives, shot at him on his way to work, and sent death threats through the mail. When The Squaw Man was finally completed and projected, the images refused to remain fixed on the screen. It seems DeMille and his inexperienced partners had used several incompatible cameras and film stocks for filming, and the sprocket holes did not line up. The problem was easily corrected by a bemused Sigmund Lubin.

3Jacobs, pp. 336-337.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1 7 4

success. The third, a wildly successful domestic society

extravaganza, The Devil Stone (1917), provided the answer.4 Clearly, audiences, tired of Griffith-style pastoral

sweetness and jaded by the war, demanded glamorous, sexy,

upper class society melodramas.

Initially, DeMille was reluctant to capitulate to

this trend. As evident in his autobiography, DeMille's

private life differed enormously from the atmosphere

portrayed in his movies and rampant in Hollywood in

general. A devout Episcopalian, DeMille grew up listening

to a chapter each of the Old and New Testaments a night.5

A reverent respect for his parents, adoring fidelity for

his wife, loving attention to his four children (three of

whom where adopted) and entirely wholesome and respectful

behavior to his female stars and colleagues seem genuine.

And, DeMille exhibited respect for the female intelligence

in the film business; his film editor, Annie Bauchens,

remained with him throughout his long career, Jeanie

Macpherson wrote a great many DeMille scripts, and many

women were employed in most aspects of DeMille's work.6

Nevertheless, the consummate showman recognized the changing demands of the time;

4Ibid., pp. 337-338.

5Higham, p. 5.

6Rosen, p. 66.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1 7 5

We could not know that 1913 was the end of one era and the beginning of another for the world no less than for ourselves. . . . the morals and manners of the civilized world were still largely Victorian; and there was, in Sir Winston Churchill's phrase, a tranquil glory about that last glorious Indian summer twilight of the Victorian age, which still looked to us like high noon.7

There was a sickness in Hollywood, but it was a sickness that infected the whole post-war world. . . . There was throughout the world a crumbling of standards, aggravated in America, I have always believed, by the 18th Amendment and the Volstead Act. . . . But the germ of that sickness was older than Prohibition, older than World War I. Theologians call it original sin.8

Between 1918 and 1924, DeMille directed a series of spicy

morality tales dealing with marriage, extramarital

temptation, divorce, and the sexual exploits of the rich

and famous. The first, Old Wives For New (1918), recounts

how a sloppy, shabby wife drives her husband to another

woman, then tries to win him back by adopting the manners

and morals of the new woman. Although DeMille reports that

the final print was nearly shelved because of "disgusting

debauchery (and). . . most immoral episodes,"9 public

reaction was intensely favorable, and DeMille's series of

films, described accurately by their titles, quickly

followed: Male and Female (1919), Don't Change Your Husband

(1919), For Better of For Worse (1919), Why Change Your

Wife (1920), Something to Think About (1920), Forbidden

7DeMille, p. 67.

8Ibid., p. 238.

9Ibid., p. 209.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1 7 6

Fruit (1921), The Affairs of Anatol (1921), Saturday Night

(1922), Manslaughter (1922), and Fool1s Paradise (1922).

DeMille's formula movies held much in common. They

overwhelmingly focused on the upper middle class and

wealthy, affording middle and lower class America a

titillating glimpse of how the rich ostensibly lived.

Materialism was allowed full reign; money was no longer a

necessity for survival but a means to power, luxury, a full

life, social importance or even as an end in itself.

DeMille projects boasted up-to-date style: he sought out

leading dress makers, hair stylists, makeup artists and set

designers, and employed a huge costume department which

designed or hunted for uniquely lavish lingerie, furs,

gowns, hats and accessories. Almost all DeMille films were

set in sumptuous mansions, depicting opulent parties and

decadent leisure pursuits. Under DeMille's tutelage,

Hollywood came to rival Paris as an influential fashion

center.10

DeMille, through lingerie and bathroom scenes,

flimsy costumes and plunging necklines, exhibited the

female body on screen in an unprecedented manner. Sex,

though, was more associated with apparel, makeup and

perfume than with the body itself. The bathroom and

bedroom obtained respect as lavish sanctums of sexuality;

indeed, a Photoplay article promised that "A Beautiful

lOperrett, p. 228.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1 7 7

Bedroom Means a Beautiful Life," and counseled how to "use

the motion picture as an aid to furnishing your home."11

Ornaments of eroticism like furs, jewels, bubble baths and

huge, luxurious beds helped keep sexuality within

traditional boundaries while releasing materialism full

force.

The overriding characteristic of DeMille's early

1920s motion pictures remains his treatment of marriage.

As matrimonial bonds loosened, the sanctity of the home and

women's place of unquestioning duty within it diminished.

While DeMille did not deny marriage as an institution, he

inflamed it with sex appeal; if a married woman, who was by

now as sexually knowledgeable and desirable as a young party girl, was denied love, romance and companionship by

an ignorant husband, she had every right to seek affection

elsewhere. The same, evidently, stood for husbands,

although it was emphasized less. Infidelity, though, was

represented solely as an act of desperation, a way to

retrieve a lost spouse or enliven a spiceless marriage; in

all of DeMille's works, the wife rarely failed to reconcile

with her husband in the final reel. These domestic dramas,

masquerading as cautionary tales with titles like Don't

Change Your Husband sought to instruct women on how to act,

11Charles D. Chapman, "A Beautiful Bedroom Means a Beautiful Life," Photoplay. April 1926, pp. 64-65. Ironically, DeMille himself lived in a modest $27,893 home that boasted only a conventional bathroom.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1 7 8

dress, win and keep a husband. Ultimately, they allowed

women to indulge momentarily in a vicarious sex and

possession dream world they simultaneously felt noble and

moral in rejecting.

DeMille's predilection for marriage-in-trouble tales

can be seen as early as 1915 in The Cheat, the story of

Edith Hardy (Fannie Ward), a rich society "butterfly"

annoyed at her husband Richard's devotion to his stock

market job. Although the couple is facing financial ruin,

Edith complains "Dick, you're working too hard over this

deal - don't forget you have a wife," and refuses to cut

down her extravagant spending: "If you want me to give up

my friends and social position - well I won't!" Soon,

Edith takes matters into her own hands by using the $10,000

a charity fund has entrusted her with to invest in United

Copper; Edith loses the money, and confides in Arakau

(Sessue Hayakawa), a wealthy Asian moving in her "Long

Island smart set."

Arakau loans Edith the money on the condition of

sexual repayment; in despair, Edith agrees, but soon her

husband becomes a rich man again. Although Edith can now

repay the money, Arakau refuses; in an extraordinary brutal

scene, Arakau attempts to rape her, and brands her with a

hot iron bearing his name. Edith shoots and wounds him,

but her husband, now knowing the truth, gallantly accepts

the blame.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. When her husband is found guilty of attempted

murder, Edith exposes her brand-mark and screams her story

to the court, which dismisses all charges. As an

infuriated mob corners Arakau, Edith and Richard walk arm-

in-arm out of the courtroom, as if repeating their wedding march.12

Fannie Ward, the actress in The Cheat, was a

Paramount leading lady from 1913 to 1919. Born in St.

Louis in 1872, Ward entered the theater at an early age,

prompting her father to disown her; after two successful

decades on Broadway, Ward joined Jesse Lasky's Feature Film

Company where she played many varied roles but excelled in

dramas. Part of her success, no doubt, came from appearing

a good 25 years younger than her actual age.13 DeMille

cast Ward hoping that her proximity to London society and

culture would bring a sense of authenticity to her role,14 and intensified her elegant appearance with glamorous

hairstyles, fashionable clothes and furs and stately

surroundings.

12The Cheat. Lasky Corporation, directed by Cecil B. DeMille, 1915. Wechsler Theater, The American University. Unflattering portrayals of Asians as evil, sly and criminal can be seen throughout silent film, from the earliest dramas and comedies through the "yellow menace" of serials and 1920s dramas. Indeed, in The Cheat a title tells us "East is East and West is West, and never the twain shall meet.

13Lahue, Ladies in Distress, pp. 310-313.

14Higham, p. 44.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1 8 0

Ward was replaced as the ultimate DeMille clothes

horse and ice queen by Gloria Swanson, who starred in most

of DeMille's marriage productions. Swanson, though, played

only the wife, while the vixenish role of "the other woman"

frequently went to Bebe Daniels.15 In addition to becoming

a phenomenally popular and talented actress, Swanson was a

shrewd and capable businesswoman who successfully

negotiated multi-million dollar contracts herself without benefit of an agent. More of a showman than even DeMille,

Swanson represented a new class of star; carefully

orchestrated publicity depicted her as arrogant, haughty, extravagant and temperamental, and as the first star to

live like one. Fans devoured stories of her palatial

Beverly Hills mansion complete with black marble bathroom

and gold tub, while papers gleefully printed her yearly

expenditures; a $50,000 bill for gowns, $9,000 for hosiery,

$10,000 for lingerie, and $6,000 for perfume. Indeed, the

most enduring sentiment about Swanson labels her "the

15DeWitt Bodeen, "Bebe Daniels," Films in Review 15,7 (August-September 1964): 413-30. Daniels, born in Dallas in 1901, was a versatile actress who began a stage career at age four and a screen career at age seven. After several years of playing child roles for Imp, Pathe, Kalem and Ince, she appeared as Harold Lloyd's leading lady in the Lonesome Luke comedy series. In 1919 Daniels joined Paramount and remained one of their most successful stars until 1928; one of her popular Paramount comedies, She's A Sheik, reverses the sexual order of desert dramas as Daniels abducts the man of her desires. Although Daniels possessed a good speaking and singing voice, Paramount did not renew her contract for sound; she went on to do musicals for RKO and Warner Brothers, including 42nd Street (1933).

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1 8 1

second woman in Hollywood to make a million, and the first

to spend it."16 When Swanson became the first Hollywood

star to marry royalty (Henri, Marquise de la Falaise de la

Coudraye), her return from a European honeymoon was

witnessed by hundreds of thousands of cheering fans.17

Acutely aware of the inequality of men and women in business, quotes reflecting Swanson's feminist sensibility

are sprinkled throughout her autobiography, Swanson on

Swanson. "The world of 1916 was a man's world . . . In

America it was business as usual, which I now understood to

mean business run entirely by men," she wrote of her career

and personal frustrations, concluding, "The greatest

compensation a woman could have for not being a man was

being able to have babies."18 Jaded by husbands and lovers

who either tried to run or undermine her career, Swanson

stated that "I not only believe in divorce, I sometimes

think I don't believe in marriage at all,"19 and that her

epitaph should read "She Paid The Bills."20 What angered

her most though, was that after leaving Paramount in 192 6

16DeWitt Bodeen, "Gloria Swanson," Films in Review 16,4 (April 1965): 193-216.

17Lockwood, pp. 124-128.

18Swanson, p. 63 and p. 69.

19Parish, p. 23.

20Bodeen, "Gloria Swanson," p. 2 09.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1 8 2

to produce her own films at United Artists, men refused to

take her seriously simply because she was a woman.21

Swanson also wrote bitterly and candidly about the

power and fear exerted over Hollywood by the Hays Office.

Her producers pressured her not to divorce one husband, and

later, when two months pregnant on the day of her wedding,

Swanson reluctantly underwent an illegal, near-fatal abortion to avoid a morals clause and sensational publicity

that would end her career.22

But Swanson's career did go on. With the advent of

sound, she left Hollywood for the stage, television and

Broadway, then made a stunning, Oscar-nominated comeback in

Billy Wilder's Sunset Boulevard in 1950.23 Unfortunately,

it is as the crazed, bitter, forgotten star Norma Desmond

that Swanson is remembered, not as the versatile, talented

and capable actress she was.

In Don't Change Your Husband (1919), Swanson plays a

pretty young wife who has an affair because her overweight,

thoughtless husband neglects her. The two get divorced,

and while Swanson remarries, her ex-husband spends hours at

the gym shaping up. Faced with a man renewed in both body

21Swanson, p. 309.

22Ibid., p. 232.

23Ibid., p. 385.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1 8 3

and romantic spirit, Swanson reconsiders and marries her

original husband.24

Why Change Your Wife? (1920) opens with a title that

places the blame for this film's spoiled marriage squarely

on the woman: "Angels are often dead husbands, but husbands

are seldom live angels. Wives know this, but they can't

seem to get used to it." Gloria Swanson, as Beth Gordon,

is a dour, serious, nagging wife: she pesters her husband

Robert (Thomas Meighan) while he shaves, moralizes about

his wine cellar while Europeans are starving, dislikes his

dog and cigarettes, refuses to join him at the Follies in

favor of a violin concert, wears glasses and modest clothing, refuses his suggestion to dance the fox trot

together and won't put on the provocative lingerie he has

bought for her.

While musing "the strange difference between his

wife and the girl he married," Robert becomes involved with

Sally Clark (Bebe Daniels), a lingerie model who doesn't

mind Robert's smoking, drinking, or dog, and readily joins

him in merriment. When Beth discovers Robert's infidelity,

he accuses "All you do to make me happy is to improve my

mind .... I married a woman, not a governess!" They

divorce, and Robert marries Sally; "wives will be wives,"

though, and Sally turns out to be more unbearable than

Beth.

24Higashi, p. 134.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1 8 4

In the meantime, Beth overhears gossip that her

matronly appearance and attitude drove her husband away;

ordering her clothes be sewn "sleeveless, backless,

transparent, indecent - go the limit!" Beth undergoes and

abrupt personality transformation, and becomes a sexy,

glamorous siren clad in daring gowns and expensive jewelry.

When she accidentally meets her husband again in Atlantic

City, the two realize their true love, but honor prevents

them from running away together. Fate takes over, though,

and Robert ends up bed-ridden by an accident in Beth's

home. An angry Sally comes to reclaim her husband, and a

vicious cat-fight that has the women rolling on the ground,

tearing each other's hair, and throwing acid ensues.

Eventually, Sally surrenders, goes through Robert's trouser

pockets for money, and leaves with the words "There's only one good thing about marriage anyway - and that's alimony."

The film ends with Beth, in a sexy nightgown,

placing a fox trot on the phonograph and having the servants push two twin beds together. DeMille's final

title counsels wives:

And now you know what every husband knows: that a man would rather have his wife for his sweetheart than any other woman - but ladies, if you would be your husband's sweetheart, you simply must learn to forget that you are his wife.

Clearly, a sexual double standard exists in Why

Change Your Wife? It is the wife's responsibility to make

her husband happy, to yield to his desires, to make herself

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1 8 5

an attractive object of pleasure. The husband, on the

other hand, makes no attempt to join any of his wife's

interests and exhibits a great deal of insensitivity; she

must ultimately change and please, while he can remain the

same and enjoy.25

Another DeMille domestic melodrama, The Affairs of Anatol (1921) chronicles the sexual mishaps of Anatol

DeWitt Spencer (Wallace Reid), a chivalrous society patron

who spends his time "saving ladies from real, or imagined,

difficulties" while neglecting his beautiful, pampered wife

Vivian (Gloria Swanson). Anatol plays savior to first to

Emilie Dixon (Wanda Hawley), a high school sweetheart who

has been corrupted by flapper morality. In a night club,

she begs him, "Don't hate me - help me. I'm straight and

decent - but I'm playing a losing game! You are so big and

strong - you could take me out of it all!" Anatol

consents, and a steaming Vivian leaves with Anatol's friend

as a singer croons "You gotta keep your temper if you want

to keep your husband." Anatol's infatuation with the

dancing, smoking, drinking "brainless cabbage" continues

until he realized she is merely a gold-digging party girl.

He returns to his virtuous wife, saying "Let's go to some

clean sweet place in the country where people are honest

and decent - and find ourselves again."

25Whv Change Your Wife?. Famous Players-Lasky, distributed by Paramount Pictures, directed by Cecil B. DeMille, 1920. Facets Multimedia.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1 8 6

The couple retreats to the countryside, and rescues

Annie (Agnes Ayres) a poor farmer's wife who has attempted

suicide. Anatol, ever unfaithful, kisses Annie, and Vivian

sees. Enraged, she returns to the city and writes in her

diary, "Have decided to leave Anatol - Thank goodness I

haven't any children." Vivian goes out on the town,

searching for the same kind of fun in which her husband

readily indulges. Anatol, meanwhile, has fallen in with

Satan Synne (Bebe Daniels), a vamp-like showgirl after his

money. By morning, contrite Anatol "realizes that the

bitterest draught a man can drink is his own medicine" and

returns to Vivian. Almost ready to forgive, Vivian becomes

furious with Anatol's distrust and questioning; only when

Anatol agrees to trust her fidelity do the two reconcile.

Thus, The Affairs of Anatol represents a typical

DeMille marriage story; the errant husband, only a little

unfaithful, is shocked into recognizing his wife's beauty

and desirability. Infidelity, or even its mere suggestion,

has saved another marriage. Swanson, with her skimpy

lingerie and leg-baring nightclub antics, functions as a

sexual centerpiece. As usual, the film's sets - from the

Spencer's luxurious home to Satan Synne's exotically

extravagant bedroom - set a tone of undiluted materialism.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1 8 7

Somewhere in here lies DeMille's moral message: married

people should be faithful.26

DeMille varied his formula somewhat for the 1921

picture Forbidden Fruit. This Cinderella-tale explores

what it advances in its first caption:

What does "For Better or For Worse" mean to you? Does "worse" include a husband who lives like a parasite on his wife's energy and loyalty? Do you think a wife has the right to turn from this man to a strong, efficient male - whose love can raise her out of the depths? Or should she drag on "Till Death Do Us Part?"

The poor woman trapped in a loveless marriage, Mary Maddock

(Agnes Ayres), a seamstress for the rich Mallory couple

(Kathlyn Williams and Theodore Roberts), reluctantly

undergoes complete transformation to help her employers

lure a handsome, rich client, Nelson Rogers (Forrest

Stanley). Mary, weary of her grim existence, caves in to

Mrs. Mallory's promise:

Throw off your worries just for tonight, Mary - and trust your fairy godmother. You'll be gowned by Poiret - perfumed by Coty -jewelled by Tiffany - think how Cinderella would envy you!

Once the new Mary is unveiled, DeMille tantalizes his

audiences with his placards: "Clothes may or may not make

the man - but they go a long way toward making the woman. . . . Adam would never had eaten if Eve had not been a feast

for the eye."

26The Affairs of Anatol. Famous Players-Lasky, distributed by Paramount Pictures, directed be Cecil B. DeMille, 1921. Library of Congress.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1 8 8

The evening goes well, and Mary, angered by her

husband's laziness and violence, leaves him to assume her

profitable play-role full time. A glitch develops,

however, as Mary and Nelson fall in love, and Nelson

proposes marriage: "Forbidden fruit is a dangerous diet.

And after three golden days, Mary realizes that she is

enmeshed in a love which she dare not accept - and cannot

deny."

Mary's cruel, criminal husband Steve (Clarence

Burton) soon learns the truth about his wife's

disappearance, and she agrees to return home. Nelson

pleads "There's no law of God or Man which forces a wife to

stand by a husband who offers her only degradation ....

and deny the man who offers her Honor and Love!" Duty

calls, however, and Mary trudges back to her dreary life.

Fate finally takes control: Steve's partner in petty crime

mortally shoots him, and as Nelson rejoices to Mary,

"Destiny has set you free!"

Another spectacle of luxury, consumption, and

physical display, Forbidden Fruit fulfilled the Cinderella

fantasies of many middle and lower class women.

Significantly, for this marriage, which no threat of

infidelity could possibly render happy, death, not divorce,

remains the only acceptable solution. Despite seemingly

progressive pronouncements, traditional marriage vows of

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1 8 9

"for better or worse, until death do us part" stand

strong.27

Although DeMille focused on sex, sin, the female

body and materialism in films that dealt with topics

besides marital woes, those films were very similar to the

marriage dramas. Set in high society and exposing the

leading lady's physical charms, these films relied on

sensational treatments and the habit of half-heartedly

condemning what is being glorified on the screen. Indeed,

a favorite DeMille advertising slogan was "see you favorite

stars committing your favorite sins."28

DeMille's films did not always center on marriage,

but did rely on romantic plots and high-society settings.

One DeMille society drama, Male and Female (1919) , marked a

true turning point in cinema style; released the same year

as Griffith's antiquated True Heart Susie, it grossed an

unheard of one and a quarter million dollars, ensuring that

sex appeal and partial nudity would remain a cinematic

staple of the 1920s. Male and Female tells the story of a

rich mistress, Lady Mary Lasenby (Gloria Swanson) and her

mistreated servants. The movie opens with spoiled Mary

barking at her servants, frolicking around her opulent

bathtub, and revealing quite a bit of skin once settled in

27Forbidden Fruit. Famous Players-Lasky, distributed by Paramount, directed by Cecil B. DeMille, 1921. Library of Congress.

28Lockwood, p. 50.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1 9 0

that tub. Mary’s snobbery is evident as, horrified, she

admonishes her socialite friend to abandon the man she

loves - a chauffeur - and marry "kind to kind."

Soon, however, Mary's self-righteousness is

squelched: on a yachting jaunt with her rich family and

friends, her father's incompetence and irresponsibility

causes a shipwreck. Stranded on an isolated island, the

hapless group is saved by the butler Brockelhurst (Robert

Cain) whose strength and intelligence reverse the past

hierarchical order; soon, the once maltreated servant

reigns as king of the island. He and his former boss fall

in love, but their bliss is interrupted by rescue and

return to England. Brockelhurst ends up marrying the

adoring maid, Tweeny (Lila Lee), and departing for the United States, while Mary weds a social and financial

equal.

Male and Female gives in whole-heartedly to

materialism: Mary lives in a lavish mansion, surrounded by

flowers, rare books, marbled bathrooms, servants, furs,

yachts and fancy cars. The bathing scene, shots of Mary's

nearly-bared breasts after the shipwreck, her lengthy kiss

with Brockelhurst, and an elaborate Babylonian he-man

sequence display Swanson's robust form and a new brand of

movie sexuality. The story's moral message - that riches

are not the true measure of man and that all humans are

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1 9 1

prone to exploiting power - is muted by sheer sensual

display.29

By 1922, DeMille struck a far more moralizing pose

in his Manslaughter. The plot revolves around hard-

drinking, fast-living Lydia Thorne (Leatrice Joyce),30

'•neither vicious nor criminal - simply speed mad and geared

too high - her proud boast is that life has never stopped

her." We meet her at a raucous New Year's Eve party with

her rich "excitement-eating friends." Lydia flits across

the drunken crowd, spraying seltzer in a trombone and

giving away her jewelry as the partiers bounce on

pogosticks, watch two girls box, and imitate a Bacchanalian

orgy. The upright District Attorney, Daniel J. O'Bannon

(Thomas Meighan) who loves Lydia "for the girl she could be

but not the girl she is," is horrified at the decadent

crowd:

29Male and Female. Famous Players-Lasky, distributed by Paramount Pictures, directed by Cecil B. DeMille, 1919. Museum of Modern Art. An 18 year old unknown, Walt Disney, did the sketches and advertisements for Male and Female.

30Lahue, Ladies in Distress, pp. 139-148. Leatrice Joy, born in 1897 in New Orleans, joined a stock theater company after high school, and acted for several minor film companies before being hired by Paramount in 1921. She enjoyed a long and varied career but is most remembered for her DeMille films in which she alternately played a mannish businesswoman who scorns the love of a man, or a selfish rich girl; for both types of women, it took near-disaster to soften the callous exterior to true love. Briefly married in 1919 to popular idol Jack Gilbert, who was unable to accept his wife's greater success, Joy made a few talking pictures then retired.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1 9 2

Real rose-leaves! Real champagne! Everything real - but the men and women! . . . Don't you think you'd better put on the brakes before life does it for you?

Lydia retorts "Whose little gloom are you, Dan? Modern

girls don't sit by the fire and knit!"

The next morning, Lydia's poor maid Evans (Lois

Wilson), distraught over her dying sen, steals Lydia's ring

to send him to California. The maid gets caught, but

O'Bannon finally convinces Lydia to ask for clemency. On

the morning of the hearing, however, Lydia sleeps off a

hangover and Evans gets sent to prison. Guilty, Lydia

dispatches the sick child to California in a private car.

But, DeMille notes "buying your way through life

exacts interest . . . (and) the Great Auditor begins to

balance Lydia's account." While trying to outrun a highway

cop, Lydia accidentally causes the officer's death.

Arrested, she flippantly says, "See my attorneys, they'll

take care of everything." The good D.A. won't give in,

however, and vowing to save Lydia from hell, rails against

her young, careless society in an elaborately ridiculous

pillage of Rome sequence:

The overcivilized, mad young set of wasters must be stopped! Or they will destroy the nation as Rome was destroyed when drunkenness and pleasure drugged the conscience of its young!

An astonished Lydia is sentenced to three to seven years in

jail, where she meets up with her old maid. The charitable

maid teaches Lydia to cherish "love and service," and the

two, pardoned for good behavior, vow to help those less

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1 9 3

fortunate. The next New Year's Eve finds them handing out

doughnuts and coffee to the city's poor, and they finally

find O'Bannon, now a drunken vagrant.

Lydia swears her resolve to O'Bannon: "In prison - I

learned that keeping time to a human heart beat is far more

important than keeping time to a saxophone!" With Lydia's

love, O'Bannon raises himself from despair, and runs for

the governorship. The power of love is affirmed at the

film's end, when O'Bannon resigns his candidacy rather than

lose his ex-convict fiance.

Manslaughter. like all DeMille melodramas, is a

display of sex and indulgent wealth masquerading as a

cautionary morality tale. While DeMille's moral indictment

of careless modern men and women resounds more loudly in

this film than in any of his others of the early 192 0s, it

relies on those very careless antics for its popularity.

Normal everyday people with their normal, boring everyday

lives swallowed up these DeMille offerings with voracity; fantasies of naughtiness sold tickets.31

Advertised as "typical DeMille productions -

audacious, glittering, intriguing, superlatively elegant,

and quite without heart,"32 DeMille movies and their

accompanying barrage of publicity earned DeMille renown as

3^-Manslaughter. Famous Players-Lasky, distributed by Paramount Pictures, directed by Cecil B. DeMille, 1922. Library of Congress.

32Jacobs, p. 338.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1 9 4

a producer/director of provocative and daring bedroom

spectacles. For awhile, this novelty was enough to carry

the pictures to popular and financial success.33

Artistically, DeMille's films were considered

inconsequential, with little use of the camera or editing

except for trick effects, and critics freely lambasted the

triviality of DeMille's movies. The Rochester Post Express

said of one picture: "The silly weak story it told did not

justify such expenditure - in other words, there was much

ado about nothing."34 It was backed up by The News

Sentinel of Fort Wayne, Indiana: "A star example of the

kind of thing which made intelligent people laugh at the

motion pictures."35 Other critics complained DeMille made

"little or no attempt to produce first rate shadow

plays,"36 and that his stories were "far-fetched, the

situations forced and full of glaring inconsistencies, his

characters unlife-like and mere puppets on a string

manipulated rather adroitly."37 The New York Times.

33Ibid.

34Ibid. 35Stanley Hochman, ed., American Film Directors: A Library of Film Criticism (New York: Frederick Ungar Publishing Company, 1974), p. 83.

36Tamar Lane, What's Wrong With the Movies (Waverly: n.p., 1923), pp. 64-65.

37Ibid.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1 9 5

though, recognized that DeMille fulfilled an important

function to those movie-goers devoted to him:

Here is Cecil B. Demille at his best. Whether or not you will like it is another matter. If you like a glorified movie that you can take as a movie and are not asked to take as a genuinely human photoplay you will find enjoyment in Anatol and his innocent escapades. . . . For this reason, the matrimonial homilies which he delivered . . . were false and tiresome, except to those people who like moralizing guaranteed to produce no moral effect upon them.38

The paper's review of Forbidden Fruit agreed that DeMille's

popularity rested on his ability to exploit the dreams and

hopes of American middle and lower classes:

DeMille can set them in such surroundings as no one ever really lived in, but exactly such as the many people really living in city flats and Main Street imagine they would like to live in . . . too much magnificent artificiality.39

Regardless of their inherent artistic worth or

meaningful social value, DeMille's films had a huge impact

upon the industry and the country at large. His

innovations in production values and content were soon

reinforced by hundreds of imitation domestic dramas, all

emphasizing the importance of love in a marriage, a wife's

right to seek affection elsewhere, and the necessity of a woman keeping up her good looks.40

Very few films of the era recognized that a woman

might be discontented with her traditional lot, and opt for

38New York Times. 12 September 1921.

39New York Times. 24 January 1921.

40Jacobs, pp. 3 39 and 401.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1 9 6

dissolving her marriage. One Paramount film, directed by

Herbert Brenon, surprised movie-goers with its Doll's House

ending. In Dancing Mothers (1926), the story of a rich,

neglected wife, Ethel Westcourt (Alice Joyce), her straying

husband Hugh (Norman Trevor) and spoiled flapper daughter

Kittens (Clara Bow), sympathy rest entirely with the

mistreated mother. The condescending husband says things

like, "Has my little stay-at-home wife been lonely without

us?" and spends his evenings with his mistresses at

speakeasies.

Frustrated, Ethel decides to join in the fun: "I'm

going to live!" She befriends the rich playboy Gerald

Naughton (Conway Tearle) in an effort to end his affair with her daughter; Naughton promptly falls in love with

Ethel, claiming that Kittens means nothing to him. Not

realizing that the two are mother and daughter, Naughton

begins wooing Ethel, and eventually Kittens and Ethel meet

at Naughton's house. Ethel, finally aware of her true

situation, refuses to marry Naughton and decides to leave

her selfish family: "You've given me my freedom. My duty

now is to myself."41 Such films were extremely rare.

Always looking ahead, DeMille, by mid-decade, sensed

a slight reaction to the loose morals his films offered.

The ultimate businessman, he now outwardly took a new

41Pancing Mothers. Famous Players-Lasky, distributed by Paramount Pictures, directed by Herbert Brenon, 192 6. Library of Congress.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1 9 7

attitude to the morals he had been inadvertently condoning,

and made a series of fire and brimstone morality movies all

relying on the same glitz and sex to bring success. The

1924 The Ten Commandments, prefaced with the subtitle 11 You

do not break the commandments, they break you," was quickly

followed by other sex-and-sin morality tales like Feet of

Clav (1924), Triumph (1925), The Golden Bed (1925), The

Road To Yesterday (1926), and The Volga Boatmen (1927).42

By the late twenties, as public fascination with the

novelty of sexual display waned, DeMille was threatened by

young directors who offered similar themes with greater wit

and effectiveness. He attempted to reassert his dominance

with sound films - The Godless Girl (1929), Dynamite (1929)

and Madame Satan (1929) - and indeed remained a major

director through the 1950s, but by the 1930s and the advent

of Depression-era realism, was no longer the leading

director in Hollywood.43

In a Films in Review article, Joseph and Mary Feldman observed:

For more than 25 years the work of Cecil B. DeMille has been violently attacked by the critics. "Empty, pretentious, puerile, gaudy, tasteless, hypocritical, theatrical, ignorant of film technique," and "negligible as contributions to the development of the medium.1,44

42Jacobs, pp. 340-341.

43Ibid.

44Joseph and Mary Feldman, Films in Review 1,4 (December 1950): 1-2.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1 9 8

Yet, they argued, he knew what America wanted to see and

hear:

Nothing, at any rate, can explain the inability of the critics to recognize what motion picture audiences have long known - namely that Cecil B. DeMille is one of the greatest masters of the screen.45

Thus, DeMille presented a new image of marriage and

women's role within it. Wives were now viewed as

desirable, sexy women who deserved their husbands' love and

affection. While the partnership was not equal, it was a

partnership that required respect and honesty. DeMille's

popularity rested on his thoroughly modern maxims, which,

by ultimately reaffirming the traditional values of

marriage, motherhood and the honest life, calmed

apprehension generated by the changing moral code. It is

not unlikely that this showman who gave the public what it

so desperately wanted to see both affected and reflected

the way his audience viewed marriage - both the one on

screen and its own.

45Ibid.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. CHAPTER ELEVEN

FLAPPERS, WORKING GIRLS AND CINDERELLAS

The Modern Flapper

By 1923, the modern marriage drama had been joined

by, or even supplanted by, films detailing the exploits and

antics of the most visible new woman, the flapper. The

first really influential flapper film, Flaming Youth (192 3)

presented a vivacious, independent, bubbly girl who leaves

her hometown sweetheart to go on an exciting yachting party

to the tropics with a rich playboy. Its star, Colleen

Moore, created a mania for bobbed hair and short, slim

flapper-style dresses.1 Born in Tampa, Florida as Kathleen

Morrison, Moore fantasized like many other young girls of

becoming an actress. Her Uncle Walter Howey, a Hearst

editor who had helped Birth of a Nation and Intolerance

slip by censors in Chicago, convinced D.W. Griffith to give

her a six month contract in 1917. Undaunted by her status

as a "payoff," 15 year old Moore hurried to Hollywood where

she played in small parts for Griffith, Selig and Ince.

Although hired by Marshall Neilan Studios for $750 a week,

Moore remained a minor star, apparently because she did not

^osen, 77.

199

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 200

fit the sweet blonde image required by her roles. With her

brown hair, brown eyes and somewhat plain tomboy-next-door looks, Moore realized her strength lay in comically

portraying "real" girls:

I shared their restlessness, understood their determination to rid themselves of the Victorian shackles of the pre-World War I era and find out for themselves what life was all about.2

After playing such a modern woman in Flaming Youth.

Moore went on to portray similar characters in flapper and

working girl Cinderella tales like The Perfect Flapper

(1924), Painted People (1924), Irene (1926) and Ella

Cinders (1926). Eventually earning $10,000 a week, Moore

was voted in both 1926 and 1927 as the number one box-

office attraction in the United States by the trade journal

Exhibitor's Herald.3

The success of Flaming Youth led to an onslaught of

flapper movies; some popular stars and titles include

Louise Brooks in It's The Old Army Game (1926), Vilma Banky

in This is Heaven (1929), Gloria Swanson in Stage Struck

(1924) and Manhandled (1924), Norma Shearer in Main Street

(1923), The Saturday Night Kid (1929), Joan Crawford in Our

Dancing Daughters (1928) and Our Blushing Brides (1930),

Bebe Daniels in Stranded in Paris (1926) and Bertha The

2Colleen Moore, Silent Star (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday and Company, 1968), 11-77, 128.

3Ibid., 176-188.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 201

Sewing Machine Girl (1926), and Madge Bellamy in Ankles

Preferred (1926) .

All these movies held common elements: a new

permissiveness in displaying the female body, as carried

out through the usual bathtub and lingerie scenes; a new

spirit of physical vitality and freedom from parental

interference, with phenomenal energy characterizing the new

slam-bang kid who contrasted sharply with Griffith's

fragile heroines; nearly universal employment in jobs like

as salesgirls, secretaries and actresses, which usually

terminated with marriage; an invasion of the world once

restricted to men, as the flapper burst into the work

force, college and social circles sealed to her in the

past; a flourishing cult of youth and its beauty and an

accompanying mean-spirited ridiculing of older, dowdy

women; and finally, a morality similar to that of Griffith

and DeMille. While the flapper, like DeMille's modern

wives, played by new and flashy rules, the object of the

game was the same - snag that husband. But, flapper

morality was more rhetoric than substance; she may flirt

and wiggle around, but a mere kiss from a suitor drew rage.

Even Colleen Moore recognized that her character in Flaming

Youth was a tease: "Actually, all she did was drink a

cocktail and smoke a cigarette in public. Underneath she

was a good girl."4

4Rosen, 77.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 202

These flapper films embraced the same social

mobility that real-life young women were experiencing.

While the flapper began as an elite phenomenon, mass-

produced clothing and makeup made it a style that even the

poorest young girl could adopt. Significantly, middle and

upper class flappers, frequently played by Gloria Swanson, Eleanor Boardman, Colleen Moore and Constance Talmadge,

flaunted no advantage over the smart working girls of lower

class background. If these young femme fatales used their

feminine charm intelligently and scrupulously, they had no

problem winning the heart of the rich boss or the poor but

handsome and promising hero.

Although film heroines eagerly pursued men and

marriage, one can't help but wonder why. In the 1920s,

screen males functioned as weakly developed objects of

distrust whose main job was to display puppy-lovesickness

and be manipulated into marriage. The prevailing cynicism

surrounding marriage was succinctly expressed by Gloria

Swanson in Why Change Your Wife? - "The more I see of men,

the better I like dogs" - and threw considerable doubt on

the quality of the relationship after the happy ending. As

male-female love and female competition for husbands became

the primary focus of movies, female friendship and

sisterhood deteriorated to the status of a supportive by

product of romantic relationships. This competition was

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 0 3

expressed by a preoccupation with beauty, petty personal

attacks, and most tastelessly, the female "cat fight."

Clara Bow, with her heart-shaped face, flaming red

curls and Betty Boop figure, epitomized the flirtatious

flapper. Born in Brooklyn in 1905, Bow lived a private

life more fantastic and heart-breaking than any Hollywood screenwriter's or publicity department's concoction. Her

childhood was filled with misery, poverty and beatings.

Her mentally ill mother locked young Clara in a closet

while she resorted to prostitution when abandoned

periodically by her husband; she frequently attacked Clara,

and once tried to stab her to obstruct her film career.

Her alcoholic father, who withdrew Bow from school in the

eight grade, sexually abused his daughter after his wife's

early death. No wonder, then, that the grubby, unloved

urchin found refuge in the local movie palace, and

desperately dreamed of escaping to Hollywood.5

Fittingly, "A Dream Come True" was the title Motion

Picture Classic used to introduce Bow as the winner of its

1922 "Fame and Fortune" contest. Appearing in the fan

magazine alongside her long-time idols Gloria Swanson,

Harold Lloyd and Wallace Reid, Bow was described:

Her general appearance is the alluring little "flapper" type, but the range and quality of her emotional expression bespeak a maturity of depth and feeling that

5David Stenn, Clara Bow: Runnin' Wild (New York: Doubleday, 1988), 3-15.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 0 4

only an artist - whatever her age - could achieve. . . . She is plastic, quick, alert, young and lovely . . .6

Bow won the contest because she acted like herself, not

some dramatic movie queen or demure heroine, a tactic that

earned her a role in Christy Cabanne's Bevond the Rainbow

(1922). Unfortunately, a devastated Clara was edited out

of the film, and went on to play small roles in a number of

minor pictures.7

Finally, B.P. Schulberg, a partner of Preferred

Pictures, an independent production and distribution

company based in Hollywood, hired her for $50 a week;

Schulberg, who exploited his uneducated, trusting starlet

throughout her career, loaned to her other companies where

she had small roles in movies like Black Oxen (1924),

Painted People (1924) and Daughters of Pleasure (1924).8

Bow made the most of these roles, though, and in

1924 was named a prestigious WAMPAS (Western Association of

Motion Picture Advertisers) Baby Star.9 Her next film, The

Plastic Age (1925), "dedicated to the youth of the world -

whether in the cloistered college halls or in the greater

university of life," features Bow handling both men and

6,1 A Dream Come True," Motion Picture Classic. January 1922, 63.

7Stenn, 21. They include Down to the Sea in Ships (1922), Enemies of Women (1923) , and The Daring Years (1923) .

8Ibid., 39-41.

9Ibid., 42.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 0 5

school with equal aplomb and, according to the New York

Times, exuding an air of "elfin sensuousness."10 She plays

Cynthia Day, a vivacious, sought-after and hard-living

sorority sister chastened by the love of freshman football

hero Hugh Carver.11 Although followed quickly by more loan

outs, The Plastic Age made Bow a star. Soon, Paramount

Pictures swallowed Preferred, and Bow was given the second

lead in its Dancing Mothers (1926). In the film, Bow makes

even spoiled, selfish flapper daughter Kittens Westcourt a

sympathetic, if misguided, figure, and easily steals the

show from experienced leading lady Alice Joyce.12

Bow further cemented her new-found success in

Mantrap. a 192 6 production directed by Victor Fleming. In

Mantrap. Bow plays Alverna, a modern, city-girl manicurist

who marries Joe Easter (Ernest Torrence), a trading company

owner who brings her to his isolated wilderness home. Fun-

loving Alverna, bored with nature and her staid neighbors,

begins flirting with Ralph Prescott (Percy Marmont), Joe's

wealthy, visiting lawyer-friend. Ralph attempts to escape

from the captivating Alverna, but fed-up with the rough

life, Alverna forces him to take her back to the city.

10New York Times. 19 July 1926.

11The Plastic Age. B.P. Schulberg Productions, directed by Wesley Ruggles, 1925. Incomplete. Library of Congress.

12Pancing Mothers. Famous Players-Lasky, distributed by Paramount Pictures, directed by Herbert Brenon, 192 6. Library of Congress.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 206

After several days of braving hardships in the

forest, Ralph realizes that Alverna is more than "just a

butterfly” (although she conscientiously adjusts her

stockings and reapplies lipstick in the wilderness) and

falls in love with her. Soon, a heart-broken Joe catches

up with the pair, and Joe and Ralph begin fighting over

Alverna. Angry, Alverna steals Joe's motorboat, shouting

"I'm my own boss now, and you two birds can fly south -

winter or summer - for all I care!” When Joe yells

"Remember, you still bear my name!" Alverna retorts "So

does your old man!" Eventually, Alverna and Joe reunite,

but Alverna is by no means immune from the charms of other

men, particularly a handsome mountie. "Hang on to me Joe,"

she smiles, "I'm slipping just a little."

Bow's Alverna is similar to her other characters;

pretty, young, impeccably modern, fast-living and

flirtatious, she captivates men with ease. That she is

somewhat irresponsible and occasionally hurts other people

does not give pause - it is merely a symbol of her new

freedom.13

Bow maintains the same capable aura in Paramount's Kid Boots (1926) , a truly comical film directed by Frank

Tuttle and starring Eddie Cantor as Samuel Kid Boots. Bow

plays Clara McCoy, a swimming instructor who falls for Kid

13Mantrap. Famous Players-Lasky, distributed by Paramount Pictures, directed by Victor Fleming, 1926. Library of Congress.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 0 7

Boots, a bumbling yet gold-hearted tailor. Throughout the

plot's complex intricacies - which revolve around Clara

and Kid Boots helping a friend, Tom Sterling (Lawrence

Gray) outwit a scheming ex-wife-to-be - Bow exhibits her

considerable athletic talents and flair for physical,

slapstick comedy. Clara and Kid Boots belt each other with

swinging doors, gallop on horses over rugged mountains,

fall off a cliff and swing in mid-air, suspended only by a

thin rope, and parachute on top of a court house. Even in

the final scene, of Clara and Kid Boots repeating wedding

vows while trotting behind the minister's car, the two flop

ungracefully into a ditch. Bow's physical charms are

shown off too in this movie, as she frolics in a bathing

suit and has half her skirt torn off by the klutzy Kid Boots.

In Kid Boots. Bow wins her man and escapes from the

grim work world. Female relationships, too, are

nonexistent, except for the telling line "There's always

one girl at a mountain resort who makes the other girls wish they had gone to the seashore."14

Kid Boots was followed by Hula (1927), in which Bow

plays Hula Calhoun, an impetuous young girl living on a

Hawaiian island - "a land of singing seas and swinging hips

-where volcanoes are often active - and maidens always

14Kid Boots. Famous Players-Lasky, distributed by Paramount Pictures, directed by Frank Tuttle, 192 6. Library of Congress.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 0 8

are." Bow's body - from the opening sequence of her

bathing naked in a stream, to shots of her full form

spilling from skimpy clothes and underwear - is

concentrated on lovingly by the camera. And again, Bow's

heroine is straightforward in her attitudes toward men: she

meets Anthony Haldane (Clive Brook), an older, wealthy

Londoner working on an irrigation project, and immediately

informs him, "Anthony, you're a beautiful man . . . I've

decided two things - that I love you - and that I won't

share you." When Hula discovers that Anthony is embroiled

in a loveless marriage, it only furthers her resolve: "I'll

make him notice me if I have to die," she says, and

purposely falls off her horse so he will have to hold her.

When Anthony refuses to leave his wife because such

behavior is "unsporting," Hula taunts him with wild

behavior and an erotic hula dance; finally, he agrees to

leave his wife. Mrs. Haldane, however, arrives in Hawaii

ready to fight the divorce to retain her husband's money.

A quick-thinking Hula blows up Anthony's dam, inducing the

wife to agree to divorce so she is not responsible for the

financial disaster; fortunately, Hula only faked the

destruction, saying "But if it hadn't worked, I would have

blown up the dam' dam!"

In addition, female relations are petty and

competitive; Hula and Mrs. Banes, a middle aged widow

enamored of Anthony, engage in protracted insults and

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 0 9

spats. Mrs. Haldane, for her part, is a dreary, cold shrew

interested only in her husband's money. Hula's breezy,

off-hand sexuality and feminine coyness easily wins the

man.15

By 1927, Bow had reached unprecedented popularity as

America's favorite flapper. Although the Hollywood

establishment scoffed at her crudeness and naivete, the

American public adored Clara - who roared around Hollywood

in a red Kissel convertible with seven chow dogs dyed to

match her hair - and her wild, youthful, exuberant image.16

Fan magazines publicized her series of affairs (and

continual and overlapping engagements) with men like

director Victor Fleming, actors Gary Cooper, John Gilbert,

Norman Kerry, Bela Lugosi, Warren Burke, and Eddie Cantor,

Broadway star Harry Richman, and even the entire University

of Southern California football team's starting line-up, including a young John Wayne.17

Keeping with her image as a flapper of the twenties,

Bow often made spontaneous, modern pronouncements to reporters. About marriage she said:

Marriage ain't a woman's only job no more. . . . A girl who's worked hard and earned her place ain't gonna be satisfied as a wife. I know this. I wouldn't give up

15Hula. Famous Players-Lasky, distributed by Paramount Pictures, directed by Victor Fleming, 1927. Library of Congress.

16Zierold, 170.

17Stenn, 74-173.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 210

my work for marriage. I think a modern girl's capable of keepin1 a job and a husband.18

Indeed, another looming symbol of the jazz era, F. Scott

Fitzgerald, wrote:

Clara Bow is the quintessence of what the term "flapper" signifies as a definite description: pretty, impudent, superbly assured, as worldly-wise, briefly clad and "hard-berled" as possible. There were hundreds of them, her prototypes. Now, completing the circle, there as hundreds more, patterning themselves after her. . . . They are just girls, all sorts of girls, their one common trait being that they are young things with a splendid talent for living.19

For awhile, Bow had been promoted as the Brooklyn

Bomber, but soon that title was replaced forever with "The

It Girl." Bow's most famous vehicle, the 1927 It, based on

an Elinor Glyn Cosmopolitan article, starts off: "IT is

that quality possessed by some which draws all others with

its magnetic force. With IT you win all men if you are a

woman -and all women if you are a man. IT can be a quality

of the mind as well as a physical attraction." Bow,

blessed with this sex appeal plays Betty Lou, a lingerie

salesgirl smitten with the rich department store owner,

Cyrus Waltham (Antonio Moreno): "Sweet Santa Claus, give me

him!" Determined to woo this handsome fellow, Betty Lou

begins to date his good-hearted friend Monty (William

Austin) and eventually catches her target's eye. After a

18Dorothy Manners, "What Do Men Want," magazine and month unknown, 1927, cited in Stenn, 105.

19F . Scott Fitzgerald, "Has the Flapper Changed?" Motion Picture. July 1927, 85.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 211

series of misunderstandings and mishaps, the two, not

surprisingly, find true love and happiness.

What is most striking about Betty Lou is her

aggressiveness and incredible energy. Giggling, cuddling

and prancing across the screen, Bow is the picture of

perpetual motion; she sprints up stairs, fights with an

unreasonable customer, mugs at a baby, and frolics with

Waltham at Coney Island. Betty Lou is a resourceful and

capable young woman, too; she can turn an everyday dress

into an evening gown in one scene, and gallantly ward off

evil social workers in the next. No man need save Betty

Lou from peril; she can swim to safety, thank you, while Waltham must rescue the demure and helpless society woman.

This flapper may flirt and tease - "It's pretty but

I like diamonds better" - and even reveal glimpses of her

bra, but ultimately remains chaste and virtuous. She slaps

Waltham - the man she has just spent an entire day

captivating - for attempting to kiss her, and becomes

indignantly outraged when she mistakenly believes he wishes

to make her a mistress: "I suppose that's what you men call

love!"

It is one of the few flapper movies that depicts

meaningful friendship between females. When Betty Lou's

unwed roommate and her baby are threatened by nosey social

workers, Betty Lou claims the baby is her own and

financially supports both mother and child. "Don't be

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 212

silly, Molly," she demands, "I won't go back on a pal!"

Still, the overwhelming focus of the movie centers on love

as a male-female pursuit, and as usual, males are regarded

with wary distrust.20

Eventually, Bow desired to play more dramatic roles.

Her 1927 Children of Divorce, a morality tale about divorce

and gold-digging, focuses on three children who grew up in

Paris in "an American divorce colony." Kitty Flanders

(Bow), Jean Waddington (Esther Ralston) and Ted Larrabee

(Gary Cooper) vow that they will never get divorced. As

wealthy adults, Ted courts Jean, and Kitty, pressured by

her mother to marry a rich man, must turn down the proposal

of the man she loves: "Poverty would kill our love, Vico."

A bitter, jealous and self-centered Kitty tricks

Ted into marriage one drunken night, and remembering their

vow against divorce, Jean insists that the marriage stand.

Years later, the unhappy trio meets again in Paris; a

contrite and reformed Kitty commits suicide so that Jean

and Ted may marry and raise Kitty's young daughter. Her

party-girl image tempered by the softer edges of

sophistication, Bow displayed formidable talent as a

20It. Famous Players-Lasky, distributed by Paramount Pictures, directed by Clarence Badger, 1927. Library of Congress.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 1 3

dramatic actress; indeed, her death bed scene is touching

and memorable.21

Bow’s success with Children of Divorce earned her a

role in the dramatic Wings (1929). Playing Mary Preston, a

tomboy-next-door silently in love with soldier Jack Powell

(Charles "Buddy" Rogers) Bow successfully complements

spectacular aviation sequences and a compelling war and

friendship script to help Wings win the first Academy Award

for Best Picture. In the film, Mary follows her beau to

Europe by joining the Women's Motor Corps. While

delivering supplies, good-natured and flirtatious Mary

manages to keep up the morale of the boys in uniform, yet remains true to her sweetheart. When the war ends, Mary

and Jack find love; again, the everywoman flapper wins her

man through sheer determination and stamina.22

Other dramas, like Ladies of the Mob (1928) did less

well, and Clara remained in flapper roles. She possessed

considerable talent as a silent film actress, infusing her

roles with an endearing vitality and warmth. Contrary to

popular legend, Bow's voice proved more than adequate for

sound films; despite a thick Brooklyn accent, her first

sound films like Wild Party (1929) and Dangerous Curves

21Children of Divorce. Famous Players-Lasky, distributed by Paramount Pictures, directed by Frank Lloyd, 1927. Library of Congress.

22Wings, Famous Players-Lasky, distributed by Paramount Pictures, directed by William Wellman, 1929. Library of Congress.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 1 4

(1929) played to sell-out crowds, a 1929 exhibitor's poll

named her the top box-office draw for the second year in a

row, and Paramount even made her sing in the 1929 revue

Paramount on Parade. What did damage Bow's career was a

paralyzing fear of the microphone that made her stammer,

continually shabby scripts and productions from Paramount,

and the fact that the public was losing interest in the

flapper figure.23 But what struck the final blow was a

series of scandals over men, money and gambling that

exacerbated Bow's already fragile mental health. Small

scandals, like a love-crazed suitor who had slashed his

wrists over Clara - only piqued public interest, but others

hurt more. Allegations surfaced that Bow had relinquished

$30,000 to hush up an angry wife, and in 1930 her friend

and private secretary, Daisy DeVoe, was tried for extorting

thousands of dollars from her employer; during the trial, a

vengeful DeVoe divulged many lurid (and often untrue)

details about Bow's admittedly colorful private life.24

Public opinion now turned against Bow. A 19 3 0

Photoplay editorial lamented:

Clara Bow has broken out again. This time it is serious. Clara is probably the last, or at least we hope she is the last, of the type of motion picture actress who disregards all laws of convention, and hopes to get away with it. . . . She has no regard whatever for her responsibility, nor for the interests of her employers. Unmanageable, talented, reckless,

23Stenn, 160 and 182.

24Anger, 137.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 1 5

hard-working, unselfish, tactless . . . she has paid no attention to the modern adage "If you can’t be good, be careful." Clara, we are afraid you are on a toboggan!”25

Bow soon had a nervous breakdown, and by age 25 her

explosive career had ended. Articles described her as

"miserable as a caged tigress. . . . a tired child who has

called to life and heard only her own echo."26 A comeback

attempt in 1932 failed; Bow retired, married actor Rex

Bell, and spent the remainder of her life drifting in and

out of asylums. She died in 1965.

The flapper's legacy was that of a zany, impudent,

willful, joyous girl-next-door. She embodied the more

attractive principles of democratization: no matter from

what social class or economic background she hailed, this

modern woman, with a little effort, common sense and drive,

could achieve parity with richer women in the race to men,

marriage and money. Her popularity rested on the fact that

any girl could look and act like Clara Bow if she bobbed

and banged her hair, donned a short skirt, and adopted

playful, flirty gestures. As Colleen Moore wrote, "Any

plain Jane could become a flapper."27

25James R. Quirk, "Close-Ups and Long Shots," Photoplay. August 1930, 29.

26Lois Shirley, "Empty Hearted," Photoplay. October 1929, 29, 128-29.

27Moore, 135.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 1 6

Yet, the flapper and her declining movie fortunes -

from immense popularity in 1923 to near perversity in 1930

- reflected the growing disillusionment of women trapped in

a cycle of political, economic and social inequality. Bow

herself recognized the darker side of the roaring twenties' glitter. She said in a 1930 Motion Picture article:

All the time the flapper is laughin' and dancin' there's a feeling of tragedy underneath. She's unhappy and disillusioned, and that's what people sense. That's what makes her different.28

Not surprisingly, Bow later expressed a great admiration

and affinity for Marilyn Monroe, who possessed a similar

aura of vulnerability. Bow's statement, "A sex symbol is

always a heavy load to carry, especially when one is very

tired, hurt and bewildered,"29 could have been uttered by

either actress.

To movie audiences, at first the flapper represented

hope and envy; in the end, she engendered bitter resentment

and hostility. Edward Wagenknecht, in a press release for

Paramount, observed that Bow functioned as the public's

symbolic scapegoat: "In rejecting her they were rejecting

everything that was cheapening and degrading young

girls."30 The Depression - in which the flapper who sought

indulgent, hedonistic pleasure constituted a real moral and

28Motion Picture. September 1930, 17.

29Edward Wagenknecht, The Movies in the Age of Innocence (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1962), 83.

30Ibid., 86.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 1 7

civil threat - merely struck a final blow to the already

vanishing screen flapper.

Working Girls

An offshoot of the flapper film emerged in the guise

of the working girl movie. Flapper employment was nearly

always a given, yet work was consistently depicted as a

temporary means of survival until marriage plucked the girl

from the routine and rigid nature of a job. Despite

unprecedented numbers of women entering the workforce and

the fact that employment was a necessary condition for many

married women, a career was rarely depicted on screen as a

fulfilling, acceptable alternative to homemaking. Indeed,

the successful, contented female professional was scorned

as unmarriageable: in Smouldering Fires (1924), for

example, Pauline Frederick plays Jane Vale, the cold, manly

president and general manager of a clothing factory

inherited from her father. When austere Jane finally falls

in love, she loses the man to her youthful, attractive

sister. The seriousness of Jane's purpose as a

businesswoman has made her a failure as a woman.31

Given the Cinderella aspect of romance as an escape

from working girl drudgery, a strong streak of gold digging

in the competition for marriageable men appears in the

twenties. Although the gold digger is usually a secondary

31Higashi, 108.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 1 8

character - an outspoken, frank, fast-living friend who

counsels more naive girls - more subtle gold digging

emerges as the lower class flapper woos and wins a wealthy

husband. Less frequently, a striving flapper gives up her

dreams and settles for a worthy man of her own background.

Not surprisingly, fan magazines stressed the working class

origins of many popular stars, trumpeting how Joan Crawford

worked as a shopgirl and Janet Gaynor clerked in a shoe

store.32

Films detailing the plight of the working girl are

by no means limited to the 1920s, but the treatment of such

stories in the jazz age differed greatly from other

periods. In 1916, Norma Talmadge appeared as Mayme in The

Social Secretary. As an attractive working girl, Mayme

keeps leaving jobs because her various lecherous male

employers expect more than just a hard day's work from her.

While Mayme quits her job to avoid sexual harassment, the

working girl of twenties' films would often encourage and

take advantage of these unique opportunities. When Mayme

notices a help-wanted ad for an ucrlv social secretary,

posted by a wealthy woman who keeps losing her female help

to marriage, she seizes the chance. Arriving for her

interview in glasses, a high-necked somber dress, prim hat

and severely pulled-back hair, Mayme is hired and does and

excellent job. Soon, however, her employee's dashing young

32Ryan, 121.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 1 9

son discovers Mayme's disguise and falls in love with her;

the two get engaged, and Mayme is joyfully "fired" from her

j ob.3 3

Later films, though, glamorized the working girl

while demeaning her attempts at employment. In Irene

(1926), Colleen Moore plays Irene O'Dare, a bubbly but poor

flapper who captivates wealthy Donald Marshall (Lloyd

Hughes) with her exuberant personality, unusual outlook and

flirtatious mannerisms. But, Irene has little luck at her

series of jobs: she loses the laundry she must deliver, and

gets fired from her job bouncing on a bed in a department

store window. Irene envies her friend Cordelia Smith

(Betty Francisco) who "slaved at a glove counter till she

won a big bean man from Lima, Ohio." She does agree to

meet one of Cordelia's wealthy male friends, but flees when he becomes too amorous.

Then, after moving to New York City, Irene meets

Donald the millionaire who gets her a job as a fashion

model; although Irene is no better at this job than any

other, Donald insists that she not be fired. After

overcoming the emotional obstacle of Irene's low birth, the

two confess their love; there is little doubt that after

33The Social Secretary. Fine Arts for Triangle, directed by John Emerson, 1916. Facets Multimedia.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 220

marriage, Irene will gratefully exit the working world for

a life of luxury and ease.34

Similar plots and themes unfold in Manhandled

(1924), a working girl film featuring Gloria Swanson as

Tess McGuire, a department store clerk battered by the

perils of working life. Manhandled warns against the

dangers of gold digging while offering precise instructions

on how to go about it. The opening title reads:

The world lets a girl believe that its pleasures and luxuries may be hers without cost .... that's chivalry. But if she claims them on this basis it sends her a bill in full with no discount .... that's reality.

Splattered by mud, crushed in the subway, and in constant

trouble at work, Tess finds her only joy in her boyfriend

Jimmy, a poor inventor. Jimmy, though, refuses to marry

Tess until he earns some money, and leaves on a trip to

promote his invention; hurt, Tess spends time with her gold

digging friend Pinkie Doran "who believes that heaven will

protect the working girl - and send bracelets enough to

keep her wrists warm." Pinkie, kept by Bippo, the

cigarette king, urges Tess to join her lifestyle and

counsels, "Be kind to boobs like these. You'll ride home

34Irene, First National, directed by Alfred E. Greene, 1926. Library of Congress. Irene is an unusual film because it clearly depicts "Madame" Lucy, the effeminate male owner of a fashion house, as a homosexual. When he yells at Irene, "You are impossible! You walk almost like a man," she retorts, "So do you!" Another unique aspect of Irene is that the fashion show sequence was filmed in an early version of Technicolor.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 221

in a Rolls. But don't fall for 'em - always leave 'em

guessing when you say goodnight."

Tess resists the temptation, though, and instead

gets a job impersonating exiled Romanov nobility at a dress

shop to impress customers; when Jimmy returns, he sees

Tess' new clothes and jewelry, and assumes the worst.

"You're like the goods you hated to sell in Thorndyke's

basement," he accuses, "rumpled - soiled - pawed over -

manhandled!" Finally, Jimmy learns the truth and the pair

gets engaged. Although Tess has settled for her working

class hero, good fortune prevails as Jimmy divulges he has

sold his invention for a million dollars.35

Very few Cinderella films respected the idea of a

woman pursuing a career for its own sake, yet some did

display more feminist sensibilities. The Nickel Hopper

stars Mabel Normand as the pretty daughter of a poverty-

stricken family. To earn money, Mabel works as a 2 1/2

cent dancer at night and takes in laundry by day. Shots of

weary Mabel dancing frantically and being pawed by

lecherous dance partners are followed by shots of her lazy,

drunken father, who in addition to driving the family to

near-starvation, chases away any man interested in Mabel.

Finally unable to withstand any more, Mabel accuses her

father "You're just a lazy, shiftless loafer! You let

35Manhandled. Famous Players-Lasky, distributed by Paramount Pictures, directed by Allan Dwan, 1924. Library of Congress.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 222

mother and me work for you week after week!" and gets

kicked out of her house. Mabel leaves, and soon falls in

love with wealthy, handsome Jimmy Jessup. Although this

film's closure is once again marriage as an escape, it is

more an escape from poverty and mistreatment than an escape

from a job; Mabel's heroine is portrayed with more depth

and sympathy than most other flapper working girls.36

One film, Miss Lulu Bett (1921) recognizes

employment as a positive step to female liberation.

Directed by William DeMille, who favored more naturalism

and realism than his brother Cecil, Miss Lulu Bett stars

Lois Wilson, the first Miss America to head for

Hollywood.37 Although Wilson was an attractive woman,

DeMille preferred to cast her as a plain, suffering

heroine; in addition to Miss Lulu Bett. the pair completed

serious and somber films like What Every Woman Should Know

(1921) and The Lost Romance (1921) together.

Miss Lulu Bett details the awakening conscience of

Lulu, the "spinster" heroine trapped as her family's "beast

of burden," and opens with the title;

The greatest tragedy in the world, because it is the most frequent, is that of a human soul caught in the toils of the commonplace. . . . This happens in many

36The Nickel Hopper. Hal Roach Comedies, n.d. Facets Multimedia, Inc. The Nickel Hopper does not appear in any reference work or list of silent films. It is clearly one of Normand's post-Sennett films, however.

37William S. Collins, "Lois Wilson," Films in Review 24,1 (January 1973): 18-35.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 2 3

homes where family ties, which could be bonds of love, have become iron fetters of dependence.

The frenzied Lulu even agrees to a mock marriage to escape

her harsh existence, but learns the man may still be

married. Humiliated, she returns to her home, and receives

comfort from the handsome, sympathetic school teacher.

Lulu's niece also tries to elope with her boyfriend to

escape her father's tyranny, but is stopped by Lulu: "It

don't pay to marry to get away - I know."

Finally, Lulu can take no more insult and

humiliation, and in a fit of dish-smashing rage leaves and

finds a job working in the village bakery. Soon, she

learns her "husband" is still married; free, she and the

schoolteacher confess their love.

Miss Lulu Bett is unique because it portrays women

outside of glamorous society, and recognizes that they may

be unhappy with their traditional lot. Although Lulu

ultimately finds happiness with a man, she seeks a job for

economic and social emancipation; significantly, Lulu does

not exhibit the fashions, manners and morals of the

flapper.38

The same can be said of the highly feminist film

Hail the Woman (1921) which tells the story of a young girl

Judy who recognizes the gross sexual inequality perpetuated

38Miss Lulu Bett. Famous Players-Lasky, distributed by Paramount Pictures, directed by William C. DeMille, 1921. Library of Congress.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 2 4

in her small town. Her mother "believes whatever her

husband tells her to," and Judy had to drop out of school

to help at home while her brother David attends a theology

school. In answer to Judy's jabs, "He ought to be thankful

he isn't a woman," her pompous father replies: "A woman's

place is in her home -looking after children - if she has

any, and if she hasn't, she should."

Crisis hits this upright family when David's

girlfriend Nan announces she is pregnant; David's father

pays to have Nan, the "scarlet woman," sent away. Seeing

hypocrisy, Judy cries, "But what about David?"

A frustrated Judy meets the town intellectual, and

says, "I was just wondering what God has against women?"

The man encourages Judy by recounting how things are

different in the big city, that women are on the "threshold

of a new world." Heartened, Judy returns home, but because

she was out past ten and seen with an older man, her father

calls her indecent and kicks her out of his home.

Judy flees to New York City, where finding a dying

Nan, she adopts her son. Two years later, a successful and

hardworking designer who has also found a mature and

fulfilling love, Judy decides to return home and correct

past injustices. After a touching reconciliation with her

mother, the two bring young David to the church where his

father is preaching; the minister confesses his sins and

the whole family reunites.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 2 5

Thus, Hail The Woman is a surprisingly feminist

movie for its time. By focusing on Judy's hard-earned

career over her romance, by exhibiting a sisterhood between

Judy and Nan, and by portraying Judy's father as a

tyrannical sexist Hail The Woman draws attention to the

potential of oppressed women. The movie does stay within

some traditional norms, though: Nan and David were secretly

married and thus Nan's child was not conceived out of

wedlock.39

Hollywood Cinderellas

One exciting variation on the working girl theme

concentrated on the Cinderella tale of a young unknown

going to Hollywood and attaining stardom. Fan magazines

and movies alike exhorted young girls to come make their

fortune and fame in the land of the stars. Real life,

albeit romanticized and fictionalized, Cinderella stories

populated the pages of fan magazines, while advertisements

shouting "Be A Cameraman!" and "millions of people can

write stories and photoplays and don11 even know it!" urged

readers to try their luck in Hollywood. "Fame and Fortune"

contests, offering screen roles as prizes, proliferated and

inflamed the dreams of thousands of young men and women.

39Hail The Woman. Thomas H. Ince Productions, distributed by Associated Producers, directed by John Griffith Wray, 1921. Museum of Modern Art.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 226

Yet by the 192 0s, the hordes of star-struck teens,

mostly female, who descended upon Hollywood had become,

according to the New York Times, a pressing "problem for

social and civic workers." The article continued: "Scores

of young girls, movie-struck, are arriving here every week,

most of them with no recommendations beyond flattering

notices in the home-town papers . . ."40

Soon, actresses began to caution their followers.

In 1920, Corinne Griffith wrote:

Each mail brings me many letters enclosing photographs from screen admirers asking me what future the film holds for them. . . . they surely cannot all be stars. Indeed, many of them I am sure are really unfitted for picture work . . . however anything but pictures appears humdrum - for the lure of the screen has them in its grip.41

And in 1923, the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, which had

just announced plans to build a $150,000 YMCA affiliate to

house dozens of homeless starlets-to-be, asked Mary

Pickford to warn away her young fans. She did, and added

that if the lure of Hollywood became to great, girls should

"take mother along; you'll need her."42

Fan magazines added to the clamor. Photoplay, in an

article titled "I Wouldn't Wish It on a Dog," wrote:

40"Hollywood Warns Film-Struck Girls," New York Times, 4 December 1923.

41Little Movie Mirror Books: Corinne Griffith (New York: Ross Publishing Company, 1920), 1-2.

42New York Times. 4 December 1923.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 2 7

For the greater percentage, Hollywood is Heartbreak House. . . . Hollywood stimulates the ambition, but doesn't always satisfy it . . . it is not for the kind of little girls that say their prayers at night.43

Other articles, like "You Are So Pretty - You Should Go

Into Pictures," asked, "But do you ever hear of the girls

who come to Hollywood and do not succeed in becoming

actresses? No! Of course not! Failure has no place in

the bright movie orbit."44

Movies themselves began to focus on the perils

awaiting a young innocent in Hollywood. Although the films

stressed the difficulties and frequent failures of life as

a hopeful, they invariably piqued the hopes of an entire

category of young girls who believed they would become they

brilliant exception to an unpalatable rule.

In The Extra Girl (1923), Mabel Normand plays Sue

Graham, a small-town girl who longs to become a star. When

her father arranges her marriage to unattractive Aaron

Applejohn, Sue sees no option but to run away to Hollywood.

Unfortunately, the studios can't offer her an acting job,

but one manages to find a place for her in the costume

department.

Life in Hollywood is not easy: Sue's parents, who

have joined her, are swindled by a crook, her job is

43Joseph Jackson, "I Wouldn't Wish It on a Dog," Photoplay. January 1926, 31, 108-109.

44Dorothy Spensley, "You Are So Pretty - You Should Go Into Pictures," Photoplay. March 1926, 28-29, 136.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 228

demanding and unglamorous, and is clearly intended as a

statement to young hopefuls. Yet, Sue manages to win back

her money, comes in daily contact with stars like Charlie

Chaplin and Rudolph Valentino, and even earns a screen

test. Although the test reveals that Sue possesses talent

as a comedienne, her boyfriend David, who has joined her in

Hollywood, says, "Give up this foolish idea of a career and

let's get married." Although Sue becomes angry at the

domineering statement, the film ends four years in the

future, with Sue and David projecting the screen test for

their young son. All thoughts of stardom have been happily

pushed aside by the duties of marriage and motherhood.

"Dearest," she sighs, "to hear him call me Mamma means more

than the greatest career I might have had."

Thus, while The Extra Girl ultimately reinforces the

traditional female role of wife and mother over career

woman, it implies that such a conclusion was a matter of

choice. If Sue could have been a star, then why not any

number of girls in the audience? And, if they failed,

marriage was always a viable escape. Significantly,

maintaining both motherhood and career is not even

considered as an option by The Extra Girl.45

Broken Hearts of Broadway (1923), starring Colleen

Moore, is a similar cautionary tale. Moore is Mary Ellis,

45The Extra Girl. Mack Sennet Productions, directed by F. Richard Jones, 1923. Library of Congress.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 2 9

a young actress "possessed of $200 and the rose-colored

dream of bringing Broadway to her feet." In New York, Mary

suffers hunger and rejection. Her gold digging roommate,

Bubbles Revere (Alice Lake) gets her a job in a chorus

line, where she is subject to the unwanted affection of the

boss. Fired because she won't capitulate to his sexual

demands, Mary sacrifices "her dreams for the sake of bread

and butter," and dances in a Chinese restaurant's floor

show; fired from that job for rebuffing a fresh customer,

the "poor little hick," in far over her head, is arrested

for a murder with which she had nothing to do.

The problems and dangers of a young girl alone in

the big city could not have been more explicitly drawn.

Yet, ultimately Mary is cleared of the murder, her

boyfriend George Colton (Johnnie Walker), a struggling

songwriter, writes a play for her based on the incident,

and the two marry and becomes stars together.

Broken Hearts of Broadway, with its Cinderella

ending, is among the more indulgent of the show business

films: while the obstacles to stardom are great, love,

persistence and the strength of a dream could surmount

them.46

An even more romanticized message is delivered in

Ella Cinders (192 6), also starring Colleen Moore. A

46Broken Hearts of Broadway. Irving Cummings Productions, directed by Irving Cummings, 1923. Library of Congress.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 3 0

modern-day Cinderella, Ella Cinders is a poor unwanted

orphan forced to slave on her wicked step-mother and cruel

step-sisters. When a Movie Contest Ball, offering a film

role for the winner, is announced, Ella dreams of winning.

Her boyfriend, Waite Lifter (Lloyd Hughes) spirits her off

to the ball, where she wins the contest with her comedy talents.

Ella heads off to Hollywood, but learns the contest

has been a sham and that the production company moved to

Egypt. Alone and penniless in Hollywood, Ella spends the

day trying to crash a studio gate. Finally, she slips on a

plastic Garbo head and saunters past guards into the

studio; she runs from set to set to avoid pursuing police,

and one director, impressed by her "performance," offers

Ella a role in his next picture. Fame and a long-term

contract follow, but boyfriend Waite, who turns out to be

rich college football hero George Waite incognito, arrives

in Hollywood where he finds Ella scrubbing a floor for the

cameras. "Get yourself a new star to do your scrubbing -

we're going to get married!" he yells to a surprised camera

crew as he tosses Ella onto a passing train heading home.

Although Ella seems disconcerted by this twist of events,

the concern must have been merely temporary; the film fades

out on a shot of George and Ella happily cuddling their

young child.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 3 1

Ella Cinders, then, in which a small-town, plain-

looking girl with no acting experience becomes a star in

one day, inflamed the fantasies and aspirations of other

young girls, yet affirmed traditional order. It told them

that marriage and motherhood clearly took precedent over

their own wishes and needs to pursue a career.47

The flapper, the working girl and the Cinderella

starlet - all represented a new American woman with new

attitudes and behavior, and all ultimately reaffirmed

chastity the traditional feminine sphere of marriage and

motherhood over career. Yet, simply by setting up the

traditional roles in terms of conflict, by acknowledging

female aspirations outside of those boundaries, such films

reflected more widespread social confusion and change, and

loosened the parameters of the socially acceptable ideal of

womanhood.

47Ella Cinders. John McCormick Productions, distributed by First National, directed by Alfred E. Green, 192 6. Library of Congress.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. CHAPTER TWELVE

THE EUROPEAN INFLUENCE

As Hollywood grew as the world's undisputed film

capitol, talent from other countries poured into Southern

California and the American film industry. The European

influx - of directors like Erich Von Stroheim, Ernst

Lubitsch, G.W. Pabst, Jacques Feyder, and Mauritz Stiller,

and stars like Rudolph Valentino, Greta Garbo, Erich Pommer

and Pola Negri - brought greater wit and style to their

films of romantic intrigue, innocents abroad and

philandering nobility. Movie characters emerged as more

sensual, more daring, more decadent, and less black and

white good or bad. Females were not flirty flappers but

sophisticated women who admitted their desires and accepted

responsibility for their sexual actions.

Erich Von Stroheim

Stroheim worked in Hollywood during the period of

DeMille's domination, but was much discussed and respected

as the industry's most inspiring artistic force; where

DeMille was its consummate showman, Stroheim strove to

create arguably great works of art. At first, Stroheim's

nine films - Blind Husbands (1919), The Devil's Passkey

232

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 3 3

(1919), Foolish Wives (1922), Merry Go Round (1923), Greed

(1923), The Merry Widow (1925), The Wedding March (1926-

28), Queen Kelly (1930) and Walking Down Broadway (1932-

33)1 - bore superficial resemblance to DeMille's marriage

and morality tales. These films, though, so sincere and

serious in their conception and production, were far more

complex and less moralistic than DeMille's works. Stroheim

films dealt with similar issues of marriage, infidelity and

wealthy decadence, but offered a wholly uncommon treatment

of them.

Stroheim was born in Vienna in 1885, the son of a

Jewish hatter; yet his strong identification with the

fading glory of the ancien regime led him to manufacture an

early life of wealth and lost nobility. Stroheim received

a military academy education, and then went on to serve as

an army officer, journalist, magazine writer, railroad

laborer, boatman, literary agent, vaudeville trouper and

playwright. He eventually fell upon acting, and emigrated

to Hollywood in 1909 where he worked as an extra and

production assistant to directors that included D.W.

Griffith. Stroheim's Teutonic features served him well

during the era of anti-German war movies - earning him the

nickname "The Man You Love To Hate," - but left him

■^Herman G. Weinberg, Stroheim; A Pictorial Record of His Nine Films (New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 1975), p. 1.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 3 4

unemployed at the war's end.2 Stroheim undertook an

elaborately engineered personal sales campaign, and finally

convinced producer Carl Laemmle to have Universal, which

was then a fledgling company, finance his first directorial

effort, Blind Husbands (1919). The film was an artistic

and financial triumph, and Stroheim set out on a directing

career that would earn him respect as the most artistic,

talented filmmaker of the 1920s.3

Although Stroheim females were sexually more

realistically drawn than those of either Griffith or

DeMille, one detects an oddly ambivalent attitude to women:

on the one hand, he placed them in situations and

attributes to them behavior that is sympathetic and almost

pro-feminist in outlook; on the other, he displayed an

almost perverse disdain for their stupidity and sexual

power, consistently portraying them as weak, foolish and

dangerous. Between and within his women, a dualism of

madonna and whore existed; in one instance, Stroheim earned

a punch and eviction from MGM head Louis B. Mayer for

saying, "You make films about women - well, all women are

whores, anyway."4

2Richard Koszarski, The Man You Loved To Hate: Erich Von Stroheim and Hollywood (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1983), p. 27.

3Ibid., p. 344.

4Samuel Marx, Maver and Thalbero: The Make-Believe Saints (New York: Random House, 1975.), p. 72.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 3 5

Sexual relationships were handled bluntly and

seriously, with none of the DeMille childish pointing and

giggling. Stroheim works were melodramas of lust for

money, youth, love or debauchery; executed with harsh,

unrelenting honesty, they were sordid and mocking,

portraying characters and stories with an individuality and

maturity not yet seen in the American cinema.

Stroheim's maturity of content was complemented by

his technical style. Relying on large close-ups, lavish

mise-en-scene, deep-focus film capturing minute details,

unusual oblique camera angles, and dramatic lighting and

composition, Stroheim films imparted a sense of grandeur

and seriousness of purpose, and possessed an elephantine

quality that added to the sense of style and sophistication

inherent in his characters.

Stroheim's first film, Blind Husbands, bears an

opening title not out of place in a DeMille film:

One of the most frequent reasons for divorce is "alienation of affection." And the reason within the reason is the fact that "the other man" steps in with his sincere (or insincere) attentions just when the husband in his self complacency forgets the wooing wiles of his prenuptial days . . . Guilty! says the world condemning "the other man" . . . but what of the husband?

But the story of Dr. and Mrs. Armstrong (Sam DeGrasse and

Francellia Billington), an American couple vacationing in

Austria, is scathing and ironic where DeMille is flip and

trendy. Mrs. Armstrong, the neglected wife, is

relentlessly pursued by Von Steuben (Stroheim), "an

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 236

Austrian cavalry officer with a keen appreciation of three

things: wine, WOMEN, song," and eventually submits to his

passion. The conflict is resolved on a mountain top, as

Von Steuben plummets to his death after a battle with an

enlightened Dr. Armstrong.

Von Stroheim, then, while seemingly sympathetic to the

lonely, neglected wife, blames her for the tragedy; it is

the female species' fault for proving so irresistible to

men, and Mrs. Armstrong's specific fault for not resisting

temptation enough. Her foolishness has led to death and

disaster.5

Stroheim's third film, Foolish Wives, exhibits a

sophistication and cynicism lacking in snappy and humorous

DeMille and Bow subtitles:

Monte Carlo . . . brine of the Mediterranean . . . breeze from the Alpine snows . . . roulette, trente et quarante, ecarte . . . mondaines and cocottes . . . kings and crooks . . . amours, amours and suicides . . . and waves and waves and waves! . . . Dense marshes, slimy, sombrous, betraying . . . then, night.

The film was preceded by an enormous advertising campaign

drawing attention to Stroheim, who also acted in most of

his films as "the perfect villain . . . even the critics

hated him," and his creation, "the most fascinating

spectacle ever conceived by man."6 Although Foolish Wives

5Blind Husbands. Universal Film Manufacturing Company, directed by Erich Von Stroheim, 1919. Library of Congress.

6Weinberg, p. 37.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 3 7

told the same story of a bored, neglected wife tempted by

extramarital indulgence, the plot contained none of the

hapless characters and harmless antics of The Affairs of

Anatol. In this tale, a sleazy con-man masquerading as a

Russian emigre, Count Karamzin (Stroheim) and his two

accomplice cousins, the "Princesses11 Olga and Vera (Maude

George and Mae Bush) prey upon the new American ambassador

to Monte Carlo, Andrew J. Hughes (Rudolph Christians) and

his naive wife (Patsy Hannen). Women, Stroheim asserts

like DeMille, have the right to sex and affection after marriage, and he shows them in the same opulent and exotic

settings, drinking, swearing and not shying from exhibiting a great deal of skin.

But to Stroheim, women function as tools for men.

The quote "Monte Carlo is quite feminine - charming and

dangerous" reveals Stroheim's ambivalence. While he agrees

to display their appeal, he also needs to subdue and

ridicule them. The two cousins, nearly Karamzin's equal in

their swindling game, consistently back down in the face of

his violence. Karamzin's mistress and maid Marushka (Dale

Fuller) begs for marriage; he demands her life savings to

even consider it. Mrs. Hughes is subject to constant

leering and trickery, and finally gives Karamzin money to

pay off a "promise of honor." Even the poor retarded

daughter of Ventucci (Cesare Gravina), the Madonna carver

who provides Karamzin with counterfeit money, is

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 3 8

vulnerable? feeling frustrated by Mrs. Hughes' denial,

Karamzin decides to rape the unsuspecting girl.

Stroheim does not shy away from unappetizing scenes,

either. We see a live bird used for skeet shooting

practice, a girl on crutches pushed away to make room for

the rich Mrs. Hughes, and a cat killed by an angry

Karamzin. Even the film's denouement leaves an ambivalent

moral air. Although the villains are all killed or

arrested and the Ambassador and his wife are reunited and

have a baby, poor unloved Marushka has committed suicide.

Ventucci, who murdered Karamzin for assaulting his

daughter, is a counterfeiter and a murderer, but we pardon this carver of Madonnas. Ambassador Hughes gets back his

wife's fidelity, but has done nothing to deserve such love.

Even the moral message condemning infidelity is muted:

women have the right to want sex and love, but Stroheim

laughs and calls them foolish when they try: "And thus it

happened that disillusionment came finally to a foolish

wife, who found in her own husband the nobility she had

sought in a counterfeit."7

Stroheim's 1923 Greed remains one of the great

mysteries of film history; originally eight hours long, it

was recut so many times that only a severely truncated

version exists today. While it is perhaps unfair to judge

7Foolish Wives. Universal Film Manufacturing Company, directed by Erich Von Stroheim, 1922. Library of Congress.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 3 9

a work by only a quarter of its parts, Greed. based on the

Frank Norris novel McTeaaue. is a sordid, grim tale that

again depicts women with two distinct voices. Pathetic

Trina (Zasu Pitts),8 the poor young "heroine," stands as a

symbol of female oppression by men: she is "given" by one

boyfriend to his friend, virtually raped on her wedding

night, is continually beaten, has her fingers bitten off

and is eventually murdered by her greedy husband. But

Trina, like all women in the film, is a pitiful, shrewish

animal-like creature; she becomes so obsessed with her

lottery prize that her husband's actions seem almost

justified punishment. The film's tragic ending, with two

men dying because of their greed, is in effect blamed on

Trina's maddening obsession.9

A later Stroheim effort, The Wedding March, carries

the same ambivalence, and again shows both rich and poor

with all their warts and bruises. The film opens as

Vienna's rich but ugly Wildeliebe-Rauffenburg family

awakens; the older married couple (George Fawcett and Maude

George), by now thoroughly disenchanted with their

8Marion, p. 50. Pitts got her start rather inauspiciously: when Mary Pickford and screenwriter Frances Marion were looking for a beautiful child to play opposite Pickford in A Little Princess, a cruel office boy brought in an awkward teenage Pitts as a joke. The pair recognized raw talent, cast her in the film, and began her success, varied and lengthy career. Zasu Pitts is her real name.

9Greed, Metro-Goldwyn Pictures, directed by Erich Von Stroheim, 1923. Wechsler Theater, The American University.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 4 0

marriage, tell their philandering son to seek financial

help elsewhere. "Blow out your brains or marry money!" say

the father, while mother adds, "How much does the hand kiss

cost this morning? Stop your poker and expensive girlies -

or marry money!"

Their son, Prince Niki (Stroheim) agrees to marry

the girl of their choice, as long as she has "mountains of

money," but in the meantime falls in love with Mitzi (Fay

Wray) a working class girl whose parents want her to marry

a man she doesn't love, the "saphead" Schani (Matthew

Betz). As Mitzi and Niki fall headlong in love, and engage

in some extraordinary developed love scenes, happiness

seems to triumph in the face of all this debauchery and

hypocrisy. Niki's father has different plans, though, and

after a night of drunken orgies promises Niki's hand to the

crippled but wealthy Cecilia (Zasu Pitts) in exchange for

one million kronen from her father: "What's a little limp

with 20 million?"

Niki consents to the marriage, while a devastated

and self-sacrificing Mitzi agrees to marry the violent

Schani so he won't kill her beloved Niki. Schani drags

Mitzi to the wedding, and the movie ends with Niki and

Cecilia driving off in their gilded coach as Mitzi sobs,

wails and calls to Niki. Why this unexpected ending to a

movie "dedicated to the true lovers of the world?" As Niki

callously says to his unsuspecting bride, "Marriage is one

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 4 1

thing and love another." Again, while Stroheim points out

the injustices suffered by both heart-broken Mitzi and

despised Cecilia, he refuses to reward their sacrifices and

goodness with anything but despair.10

A similar unkindness of fate emerges in Queen Kelly

(193 0), with Gloria Swanson playing Patricia Kelly, a

young, innocent convent student pursued by the dashing

Prince Wolfram (Stroheim). Although Patricia feels real

love for Wolfram, he readily corrupts her with drink and

romance, then abandons her for the domineering, erotic

Queen Regina. Although two separate endings exist - one

with Patricia killing herself at the convent altar, the

other with her as the madame of an inherited African

whorehouse - each solution is equally cruel.11

The Wedding March was the last Stroheim production

to be distributed; Gloria Swanson and her producer/lover

Joseph P. Kennedy abandoned Queen Kelly calling Stroheim a

"madman."12 Always a potentially explosive filmmaker, by

1928 Stroheim was a pariah in the industry. His arrogant

personality and wasteful and exorbitant production expenses

caused his frequent dismissal; he insisted on painstakingly

10The Wedding March. Paramount Famous Lasky Corporation, directed by Erich Von Stroheim, 1928. Library of Congress. This film was also recut, and several versions exist.

11Queen Kelly. Gloria Swanson Pictures, directed by Erich Von Stroheim, 193 0. Facets Multimedia.

12Swanson, p. 373.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 4 2

recreating Monte Carlo on Universal's back lot for Foolish

Wives. and was actually arrested for counterfeiting French

currency for the gambling scenes. Stroheim demanded that

Greed's Death Valley desert sequence be shot in midsummer

for authenticity, a whim that nearly killed cast and crew

alike. He reportedly staged real orgies for his most

decadent scenes, and even ordered monogrammed silk

underwear (which would never be seen on camera) to create

the proper mood for the Imperial Guard extras in Merry-Go-

Round .13

His uncomfortably daring themes and references to

personal sexual fetishes became too hot for respectable

studios to touch. In addition, no discernible pattern

concerning financial results of his films emerged. Some,

like Foolish Wives, received horrible reviews but enormous

box office success, yet did not save Stroheim from being

branded as dangerous and removed from other financially-

flailing projects, like Merrv Go Round, midway.14 Most

Stroheim films, though, were received with a mix of

curiosity and discomfort.

With the turnover of directors during the sound

revolution and Depression, Stroheim attempted an abortive

comeback, but was hindered by an unforgiving industry:

13Koszarski, Von Stroheim, p. 76, and Anger, p. 117.

14Marx, p. 29.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 4 3

They said I was crazy. Nasty and malicious stories were told about me. I could take no action; they knew I had no money. But I didn't want to anyway; it would mean putting myself on the same level as themselves.15

By 1930, he returned to Europe and achieved considerable

acclaim acting in Frerch films; he is remembered for Jean

Renoir's Grand Illusion (1937) and for Sunset Boulevard

(1950) in which, ironically, he played Gloria Swanson's

former director/ex-husband turned chauffeur, Max.

Fittingly, when Swanson, as Norma Desmond, screens her old

films, the clips seen are from the unreleased Queen Kelly.

Stroheim's artistic impact continued, however, in

the films of Ernst Lubitsch, King Vidor, William K. Howard,

Josef Von Sternberg and Karl Brown. Today he is regarded

as a martyr to the ruthlessly commercial Hollywood system,

a realist during the age when Hollywood endorsed fantasy.

American society was ready to accept modern marriage and

flirty flappers as long as they were shown in clearly moral

cartoon-like images. Stroheim's serious portrayal of sex

and its inequality made people, both male and female,

remember the problems, inconsistencies and dullness of

their own lives. Stroheim's combination of little glamour,

grim and unrelenting predicaments, and drab and

unsympathetic characters was too much for the post-war

cinematic appetite; painful realism did not allow audiences

the artificial merriment of fantasy and escape.

15World Film News. September 1937, p. 115.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 4 4

Greta Garbo and the Worldly Woman

With the European invasion, another new type of

screen heroine, the worldly woman who grew out of the

original defunct vamp character, emerged. This soulful

woman of sophistication and mystery avoided the tragic love

to which she was doomed to succumb; although she takes the

responsibility and punishment for passion, her actions were

more a matter of fate than free choice. In providing an

erotic alternative to the giggly flapper who outwardly

sought pleasure and excitement yet eventually rejected its

excesses, the woman of the world fulfilled the need for a

more profound, self-justifying, independent woman kindled by the superficially liberated wives and flappers.

Greta Garbo, born in Stockholm in 1905 to a poor

working class family, epitomized the ultimate mysterious

woman. Tall, cool and unspeakably beautiful, she got her

start rather inauspiciously, representing the "don'ts of

fashion" for a film advertising campaign of the PUB

department store where she sold hats. Determined to take

up acting, Garbo scraped for a small role in Erik

Petschler's Peter The Tramp, and finally gained acceptance

to the Swedish Royal Dramatic Theatre Academy in 1922.

After graduation, Garbo began her alliance with Russian

emigre director Mauritz Stiller, and earned acclaim in his

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 4 5

Gosta Berliner's Saga (1924).16 While filming Pabst's

Street of Sorrow in Berlin, Garbo met Louis B. Mayer.

Mayer, who sought to sign Stiller, reluctantly agreed to

take the plump Garbo in a package deal, offering her a

three year, $350 a week contract.17

Arriving in Hollywood in September 1925, Garbo

received little attention from MGM, hesitant to waste time

and money on this big-boned, frizzy-haired Swede. Finally,

in 1926, studio head Irving Thalberg cast the awkward

foreigner, who had since undergone the Hollywood treatment

and emerged a thin, glamorous beauty, in her first American

film, The Torrent.18 American audiences were riveted by

this exotic, passionate young newcomer, despite the

lukewarm reaction of her Swedish colleagues: "We thought

her very clumsy, the way she walked and handled herself.

But the Americans found her movement attractive. ’Ah,1 they

said, 'she walks like an animal.1"19

Success soon repeated itself in The Temptress, and

Garbo went on to legendary superstardom in 22 more films

until her retirement in 1941: Flesh and the Devil (1927),

The Divine Woman (1928), The Mysterious Lady (1928), A

16John Bainbridge, Garbo (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday and Company, Inc., 1955), pp. 22-42.

17Marx, p. 64.

18Bainbridge, p. 86.

19Ibid., p. 88.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 246

Woman of Affairs (1928), The Single Standard (1929), Wild

Orchids (1929), The Kiss (1929), Anna Christie (1930), Mata

Hari (1931), Susan Lenox (1931), Grand Hotel (1932), Queen

Christina (1933), The Painted Veil (1934), Anna Karenina

(1935) , Conquest (1937), and Ninotchka (1939) are among her

most famous works.

In most of these works, Garbo portrays a foreign,

sophisticated, worldly woman who represents an updated

version of the man-eating vamp. Cold, aloof and

untouchable, the worldly woman does not seek love - it

comes to her. She does not devour men, but simply draws

them with her magnetic sensuality and passion. Once the

man in question breaks down her considerable resistance,

his love becomes an all-consuming obsession. But, like the

vamp, the worldly woman is punished for her unbridled

sensual transgressions; she nearly always loses her man,

either by death, rejection or forced separation, and is

left with a crushed spirit and scarred soul. For this

woman, passion equals catastrophe and ruin.20

20The same, evidently, was not true for men. Rudolph Valentino, born in Italy in 1895, epitomized the romantic, sensitive, sensual European man. Although he was on the screen for a brief seven years, Valentino earned unequaled popularity as the obsessed "Great Lover" who swept women off their collective feet and into his bed in films like The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1921), The Sheik (1921), Moran of the Ladv Lettv (1922), Beyond the Rocks (1922), Blood and Sand (1922), Cobra (1925), The Eagle (1925) and Son of Sheik (1926). In The Sheik. Valentino plays an Arab who, consumed by love for an unwilling Englishwoman, Diane Mayo (Agnes Ayres), kidnaps her. Diane eventually falls in love with

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 4 7

In her first Hollywood production, The Torrent.

Garbo's passionate Spanish peasant girl, Leonora, is forced

to renounce the man she loves; fate leads the girl to a

notorious life as an opera diva and courtesan. She meets

her original lover years later, but circumstances and honor

demand that she must deny her passions and remain lonely

and unloved. Her second film, The Temptress (1926)

capitalized with a similar theme: Garbo, as sophisticated

Elena, must give up her Argentinian lover, Manuel (Antonio

Moreno), rather than destroy his life and career. A Woman

of Affairs (1928) ordains an even more tragic fate.

Garbo's Diana Merrick cannot marry her true love Neville

Holderness (John Gilbert) because his father rejects the

poor girl. Heartbroken, Diana marries David Furness (John

Mack Brown), an embezzler who commits suicide on their

wedding night to avoid arrest and scandal. To protect her

Valentino, and, despite various predicaments, the two marry. Although Valentino, like Garbo, represented unbridled, foreign passion, he was not punished but rewarded for his sexual exploits. And women could fantasize that like Diane Mayo, they had been forced - utterly against their will - to submit to an appealing yet guilt-free fate. (The Sheik. Famous Players-Lasky, distributed by Paramount, directed by George Melford, 1921. Library of Congress.) When Valentino died unexpectedly in New York in 1926, at the height of his popularity, over 100,000 fans filed past his coffin, and riots erupted in the streets outside. (Alexander Walker, Rudolph Valentino. New York: Stein and Day Publishers, 1976, 116.) Significantly, Valentino's death coincided with the arrival of Garbo, the female counterpart who would continue to fulfill the emotional need created by Valentino's sexually-charged characters, in Hollywood.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 248

brother Jeffrey, who idolized David, Diana lies that David

died for "decency,” and fulfills her new reputation as a

fallen woman by embarking on a series of illicit affairs.

Years later, the truth is uncovered, and Neville, now

married, plans to leave his wife and marry Diana. Fearing

that her ill-fated love will destroy Neville as well, Diana

kills herself by driving into a tree.21

The Kiss. Garbo and MGM's last silent film, reached

new heights of sophistication while chaining Garbo to an

expectedly unhappy fate. Irene, a beautiful, miserable

wife whose older husband refuses to grant a divorce, has

fallen desperately in love with Andre (Conrad Nagel), the

young, handsome lawyer who rejects Irene's plan to run away

together: "Dearest, I can't let you defy convention - it

would bring you too much unhappiness." Irene, bitter,

replies "I know how strong convention is, Andre - I have

been a good wife to a man I don't love."

One evening, one of Irene's many admirers, a young

family friend named Pierre (Lew Ayres) impetuously kisses

her; Guarry (Anders Randolf), the insensitive husband, sees

and beats the boy in a fit of rage. Angry and scared,

Irene shoots and kills her husband with his own gun. After

a lengthy trial, at which Irene's lover acts as her

attorney, the jury decides Guarry has committed suicide.

21Higashi, pp. 89-91.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 4 9

Irene finally admits her guilt to a shocked Andre, who

swears he can forgive her crime.

This movie, directed by Jacques Feyder, contains

many of the same elements as DeMille and Stroheim films:

exotic locations (Lyons, France), spacious art deco homes,

opulent trappings like furs and servants, and a disdain for

married drudgery (a housekeeper at Irene's trial says "I

don't blame her! Half of us women would shoot our husbands

if we only had the nerve!"), and a great fascination with

Garbo's exposed skin are not groundbreaking. Yet, the very

figure of Garbo's worldly woman gives this film

distinction. She is graceful, sensual, and "glide(s) along

instead of jumping,"22 according to the New York Times

review. This woman smokes, frankly admits her sexual

desires, and literally gets away with murder. Her

inevitable punishment is worse than jail, though.

Emotionally devastated, she must live with having murdered

her husband and ruining the lives and faith of two men who

love her.23

Garbo's first talkie, Anna Christie, anxiously

feared and awaited, was a resounding success. Director

Clarence Brown delayed Garbo's entrance until the film's

second reel, introducing her husky voice to the world with

22New York Times. 16 November 1929.

23The Kiss. MGM Pictures, directed by Jacques Feyder, 1929. Library of Congress.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 5 0

the words: "Gimme a visky, with ginger ale on the side.

And don1 be stingy, ba-bee." In Anna Christie. Garbo plays

Anna, a drinking, smoking fallen woman, deserted by her

father, raped by a cousin, and driven to prostitution. She

says "Give you a kick when you're down, that's what men do

. . . a fine father you are . . . I hate men."

This hardened woman visits her father Chris (George

Marion), a barge captain in New York City, and falls in

love with Matt (Charles Bickford), a sea man like her

father. Haunted by her imperfect past, Anna cannot marry

Matt. Mistaking her refusal as an ultimatum from Chris,

Matt fights with Chris over Anna's future. Infuriated,

Anna reveals the truth, and screams, "Go to blazes, both of

youI You'd think I was a piece of furniture. No man can

tell me what to doI" She explains to a revolted Matt that

"he has made (her) clean," and is the only man she has ever

loved. They reconcile, and while Matt and Chris earn money

on a sailing voyage to Capetown, Anna will wait in New York

and make a good home for their return.

Anna falls within the new vamp character; she tries

to repel Matt, but her passion proves too strong. Although

she is not vanquished and punished (life has already done

that), Anna has slipped so far outside conventional morals

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 5 1

that she must be yanked back deep within traditional morality.24

Garbo, unlike the women she played, exerted

considerable influence over the course of her own life.

Shunning publicity, interviews, fans and friends because of

genuine shyness, Garbo's image as reclusive, eccentric

"Mysterious Stranger" added to her allure. Like her

characters, she remained aloof amid countless protestations

of love; Garbo's most famous and destructive affair, with

co-star John Gilbert, helped sell movie tickets but left

her indifferent and independent.25 Refusing to play

"stupid seductresses" or "any more bad womens,"26 Garbo

controlled her own career by rejecting Women Love Diamonds

and engaging in a protracted, eventually victorious, salary

battle with Mayer and MGM.27 Nevertheless, Garbo's films,

especially the silent ones, rarely challenged her ability

as a dramatic actress; finally, in 1940, the studio cast

her in the Two-Faced Woman, a film that tried to forcibly

mold her into an All-American sweater girl. Ultimately,

the timeless Garbo left Hollywood on her own terms while

still at the pinnacle of success. She retired in 1941,

24Anna Christie. MGM Pictures, directed by Clarence Brown, 1930. Lauinger Library, Georgetown University.

25Bainbridge, pp. 100-103.

26Ibid., p. 109.

27Ibid. In 1927, Garbo signed a five-year, $5,000 a week contract with MGM.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 5 2

living a mysterious, reclusive existence in New York that

has fanned an ever-increasing personality cult. Garbo has

never attempted a comeback, although she has reportedly

considered movie proposals that would cast her as Madame

Bovary, Sarah Bernhardt, the Duse, George Sand or St.

Francis of Assisi.28

Although Garbo arrived on the Hollywood scene behind

such sophisticated stars as Pola Negri, Gloria Swanson and

Norma Shearer, within a year she had coopted their success

and become the model for all worldly women roles. Both

Hollywood stars and American females as a whole imitated

her sleek pageboy haircut, thin, arched eyebrows, high

forehead and slinky walk. Sophisticated, elegant women

soon populated the screen.

Pola Negri was another foreign actress popular as a

devastating yet doomed woman of the world. Born in Warsaw

in 1899, the daughter of a Polish political prisoner, Negri

escaped crushing poverty by gaining acceptance to the

Imperial Ballet as a young girl; she soon transferred to

the Warsaw Imperial Academy of Dramatic Arts, and became a

genuine stage star by age 15. She began making motion

pictures in Warsaw, then, with the German occupation of

Poland, worked with Lubitsch at Ufa (Universum Film A.G.)

in Berlin. Arriving in Hollywood in 1919, with a $5,000 a

28John Bainbridge, "Garbo is 65," Look. 8 September 1970, pp. 48-59.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 5 3

week Famous Players - Lasky contract, Negri quickly became

typecast as an exotic, glamorous, modern vamp.29

One of her biggest hits, though, remains the Ufa

version of Madame Du Barrv. released in the United States

in 1919 as Passion. In the film, Negri plays the little

Parisian milliner who became the mistress of King Louis XV

and because of her ill influence upon him, the most hated

woman in all of France. Although she renounces her

scandalous behavior, she causes the death of her childhood

sweetheart and destructive riots in the street of Paris;

accordingly, the only acceptable fate is exile and

ultimately, public execution.30

Negri's Hollywood career, however, was short-lived.

Her temperamental, arrogant attitude, well-publicized,

Paramount-engineered feuds with reigning studio queen

Gloria Swanson, and a pretentious display of grief at Rudolph Valentino's funeral labeled her an affected, smug,

foreign intruder.31 Her films began to fail and Paramount

29Pola Negri, Memoirs of a Star (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday and Company, Inc., 1970), pp. 15-184.

30Passion. Universum Film A.G, Berlin, distributed in the U.S. by Associated First National Pictures, directed by Ernst Lubitsch, 1919. Facets Multimedia.

31Richard Schickel, The Stars (New York: The Dial Press, 1962), p. 51.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 5 4

wanted to cut her $10,000 a week salary, so in 1928 she

retired from the silent screen.32

The new vamp, though, remained in vogue. Garbo's

popularity among American women rested on admiration of her

toughness and frank sexuality, and on the tragic fantasy

world this intelligent, hurting woman represented. Garbo's

talent was too real and portrayals too searing and

authentic to allow her to get away with extreme vamp-like

antics. Accordingly, the culpability of the worldly woman

was tempered by the role fate played; she tried to resist

love for fear of overwhelming passion, yet seemed destined

for obsession. The ability to love was her redeeming

characteristic. Her characters nearly always suffered pain

and defeat, reinforcing the idea that the worldly woman was

as much of a victim of absolute love as the men she

unwittingly destroyed. Although the worldly woman was

allowed greater latitude in actions and appearance than

wives and flappers, she stayed within the accepted rules

and through her demise reflected conservative morality.

Yet, the worldly woman was so sympathetic and appealing a

character that her cruel punishment denounces the world's

injustices and intolerances more than her own actions. It

is in that sense - her right to romantic and sexual

32Negri, p. 322. Negri made one Hollywood talking picture, A Woman Commands, then returned to Europe in 1934 to make films there. World War II brought her back to the U.S., where she retired in San Antonio.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 5 5

fulfillment without guilt - that the worldly woman

represents the biggest changes in society's attitudes to

women and their traditionally accepted morality.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. CHAPTER THIRTEEN

THE FEMALE GAZE: WOMEN IN THE FILM INDUSTRY

The most visible and popularly influential female

connected to any film was of course the star. As the

allure of Hollywood and apparent instant fame and fortune

increased, thousands of star-struck girls flocked to this

mecca. Most, naturally, never gained entrance to the elite

guard of stars; instead, some were channelled into other

venues of the industry, and became dress designers, set

decorators, film cutters, secretaries, clerks or film

processors. Most went back home.

The silent film era, though, constituted a unique period for the motion picture business. Hungry for fresh

talent and material, Hollywood was less able to practice

sexual prejudice; as it promoted from within its own studio

ranks, which were predominantly female, Hollywood was more

receptive to women directors and screenwriters than it ever

would be again.

Feminist criticism argues that women in film often

function as voyeuristic objects of pleasure presented by

and for the male gaze.1 How, then, does this presentation

1Haskell, 91.

256

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 5 7

differ when its gaze is a female one? The question is

difficult to answer for two reasons: first, very few silent

films written and directed by women have survived, and

second, no overriding characteristic or agenda emerges from

such a large and varied group of artists, especially

considering the commercial constraints and concessions

inherent in the film industry. Many female directors,

though, do display a serious concern for social issues that

affect men and women alike.

Directors

Alice Guy Blache represents more than just the first

female director; she is an industry pioneer in her own

right. Born in 1875 in the outskirts of Paris, Alice Guy

became secretary to French film leader Leon Gaumont, who in

1896 allowed her to write, direct and photograph a short film called The Cabbage Fairy. That same year, she was

placed in charge of all Gaumont productions, hired and

trained such later French greats as Louis Feuillade and

Ferdinand Zecca, and in addition to directing every Gaumont

release through 1905, directed over 100 "Chronophone" sound

films in 1906 and 1907. In 1907, Alice Guy married

cameraman Herbert Blache, and the couple moved to New York

to head Gaumont*s American distribution office.2

2Richard Koszarski, Hollywood Directors: 1914-1940 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1976), 7.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 5 8

Initially, Alice Guy Blache stayed at home to raise

two children, but by 1910, bored with domesticity,

organized her own production company, Solax. In complete

charge of every detail, Blache supervised over 300 films

until 1914, and built up a stock acting company that

included Magda Foy, Darwin Karr, Vinnie Burns, Marian

Swayne, Blanche Cornwall, Claire Whitney, Billy Quirk, and Lee Beggs.3

The American industry took note of this hardworking,

no nonsense, professional and successful female novelty.

Photoplay in 1912 wrote:

She quietly moves about the plant, unostentatiously and unobtrusively energetic. . . . Her commands are executed to the letter with dispatch and efficiency, not because she is feared but because she is liked. . . . She is not a woman who is amenable to flattery. Unlike other women in business, she is really the first sometimes too see her own errors and will often, without resentment, admit the justice of criticism. Despite its sly jab at women in business, the article

concluded that Blache was:

. . . a striking example of the modern woman in business who is doing successfully what men are trying to do. She is succeeding in a line of work in which hundreds of men have failed.4

Blache earned popular and financial success with

short films like The Violin Maker of Nuremburq (1911),

Greater Love Hath No Man (1911) , The Detective's Dog

3Anthony Slide, Early Women Directors (New York: A.S. Barnes and Company, 1977), 20.

4H.Z. Levine, "Madame Alice Blache," Photoplay. March 1912, 71.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 5 9

(1912), Canned Harmony (1912), A House Divided (1913) and

Matrimony's Speed Limit (1913). Although few of her films

survive, they are described as reaching an advanced level

of story-telling, made all the more remarkable by a

production schedule of two one or two-reelers a week.

Although her films apparently bore no direct

feminist agenda, they did deal sympathetically with the

predicaments and loves of young girls, and often pointed to

the innocent goodness and youth inherent in young children.

A Child's Sacrifice (1910) concerns an eight year old girl

who sells her beloved doll because her father is on strike

and her mother is ill. The little girl also prevents a

bloody quarrel between strikers with her plaintive

pleading. In Falling Leaves (1911) , a young girl, learning

that her ill sister will die by fall's end, touchingly

glues leaves to a tree by her sister's window. The Violin

Maker of Nuremburg (1911) centers on two apprentice violin

makers who love the master's daughter. The young man who

crafts a superior violin will win her hand. Sympathetic to

the girl's plight, Blache has the better violin maker

secretly give his product to his opponent, whom the girl

really loves.5

In her most feminist and socially concerned attempt,

Blache planned to make a film endorsing the use of birth

5Louise Heck-Rabi, Women Filmmakers: A Critical Reception (Metuchen, N.J.: The Scarecrow Press, Inc., 1984), 8.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 6 0

control. Unfortunately, the studios she approached for

financing wholeheartedly rejected the concept, and the film

was never made.6

Blache made a number of features, often directing

Russian star Olga Petrova in films like The Tigress (1915)

and The Heart of a Painted Woman (1915), but her career

began to decline. She made two last films - The Great

Adventure (1918) and Tarnished Reputations (1920) - for

Pathe, separated from her husband in 1922, and returned to

France where she worked as a translator. Blache soon came

back to the U.S. where she supported herself by organizing

university forums on the feminine psyche in filmmaking.

She died in 1968.7

The most famous and influential female director of

the silent period, Lois Weber, expressed feminist and

social concerns in nearly all her films. She was

especially distressed by how poverty and ignorance

negatively affected her female characters, the wives,

mothers and daughters subject to man's whims and

injustices.

Born in Pennsylvania, Weber became a concert pianist

at age 16, and a soubrette with a road company soon after.

6Ibid., 14. Blache was also ahead of her time in 1917 when she approached Columbia University about establishing a small film university teaching all aspects of filmmaking. Although Columbia supported the idea, no action was taken.

7Slide, 29-30.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 6 1

In 1907, she joined the Gaumont Talking Picture Company

where she wrote, directed and starred in a series of early

sound films with her husband, Phillip Smalley. Although

the couple received co-writing and directing credit, Weber

completed a lionshare of the planning and work alone. They

moved on to Porter's Rex Pictures in 1909, writing, directing, playing in and editing all of their Rex

releases.8

When Rex was swallowed by Universal, the couple was

put in full charge of production, and released two two-

reelers a month between 1913 and 1914. Interestingly, the

stock company they developed - Rupert Julian, Lule

Warrenton, Cleo Madison, Frank Lloyd, Elsie Jane Wilson and

Dorothy Davenport - all became directors themselves. In

1914, the Smalley's left Universal for the Bosworth

Company, and finally, in 1917 Lois Weber Productions opened

its own studio in Hollywood.9

Nearly all of Weber's films dealt with specific

social problems and topical issues. A 1916 Motion Picture

World article noted her affinity for realism:

Her ideal is to bring the screen into a closer relation with life . . . to make true photoplays. Her personality suggests inexhaustible vitality, a clear, active mind and the determination of a woman accustomed

8Ibid., 36.

9Ibid., 36-38.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 262

to dealing with men and beating them at their own game.10

And, in 1915, Photoplay seemed surprised to find such depth

and profundity from a woman. Titled "A Lady General of the

Picture Army, Lois Weber-Smalley, Virile Director," the

article described her as "the handsome woman director who

works like a man, and who turns out photoplays of a

supermasculine virility and 'punch.'" The magazine did

find solace that "at home, she becomes Mrs. Phillip

Smalley, wife of one of the best-known actor-directors in

California." For her part, Weber observed:

I like to direct because I believe a woman, more or less intuitively, brings out many of the emotions that are rarely expressed on the screen. I miss what some of the men get, but I will get other effects that they never thought of. I think there is no particular theme or treatment in a good play which does not appeal with equal force to both sexes.

Weber did appeal to both sexes, while maintaining a

forthright treatment of controversial issues: as discussed

earlier, Where Are Mv Children? (1916) and The Hand That

Rocks The Cradle (1917) deals with birth control and

abortion; The Jew's Christmas (1913) pleads for racial

understanding and tolerance; Jewel (1915) promotes the

Christian Science religion; Ho p s . The Devil's Brew (1915)

crusades against alcoholism; The People Versus John Doe

10"Lois Weber Talks Shop," Motion Picture World. 27 May 1916, 34.

•^L.H. Johnson, "A Lady General of the Picture Army, Lois Weber Smalley, Virile Director," Phc L->piay. June 1915, 42.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 263

(1916) argues against capital punishment; and Shoes (1916)

denounces child labor and poverty.

Weber's Hypocrites (1914) concerns a young priest

dismayed by the false self-righteousness of his proud,

arrogant congregation. Through elaborate flashback

sequences, the priest becomes the medieval Gabriel the

Ascetic who tries to lead his flock from hypocrisy. He is

inspired by the Muse of Truth, a nymph who comes to him in

the forest, and sculpts a statue in her image. When

Gabriel unveils his statue, his people are shocked by "the

nakedness of truth" and run, shielding their eyes. Only

three women - a nun, a child and a young peasant woman -

face the statue, which is soon destroyed by soldiers, a

symbol of male violence and ignorance. In addition to

portraying women as the fonts of wisdom, truth and peace in

a brutal male world, Hypocrites. with its fluid camera

movements, flashbacks, precise dissolves, and special matte

effects, displays Weber's advanced cinematic skills. It

also made her a popular and controversial filmmaker, since

the Muse of Truth appeared as a superimposed nude woman.12

Blot (1921), pitting the mercantile nouveau riche

against unjustly underpaid public servants - teachers and

clergy - illustrates how women suffer from male-created

12Hvpocrites. Bosworth Pictures, distributed by Paramount Pictures, directed by Lois Weber, 1914. Library of Congress. Film historians speculate that Weber herself played the naked Muse of Truth.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 6 4

inequalities. The Griggs family can barely survive on

Professor Griggs' meager salary; daughter Amelia (Claire

Windsor), a hardworking librarian, becomes ill from

undernourishment. Her frantic mother, unable to afford

healthy food, is driven to steal a chicken from her wealthy

and ostentatious neighbors, who own a shoe store. "It

wasn't right, they had too much," she thinks, but returns

the chicken out of honesty. Finally, Amelia's wealthy

suitor, whose father is on the University board of

trustees, realizes societies gross iniquities and persuades

his father to increase teachers' salaries.13

Too Wise Wives (1921) is Weber's more serious

version of a DeMille marriage drama. In it, two wives

approach marriage differently: the first, Mrs. David Graham

(Claire Windsor) slaves to satisfy her insensitive husband,

while the second, Mrs. John Daly (Mona Lisa) is a

calculating, adulterous vamp who pursues David Graham.

Although both couples reunite recognizing their true love, Weber's film acknowledges that fault existed on both the

male and female sides; the rude, inconsiderate husband must

make compromises for his wife's happiness, and the gold

digging wife must forfeit some of her luxuries and find

pleasure in her older, gentle husband. And, Weber's screen

wives are of the more independent variety: they drive, pay

13Blot. Lois Weber Productions, directed by Lois Weber, 1921. Facets Multimedia.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 6 5

for their own clothes, and wage romantic battle against the

backdrop of the "Woman's Social and Political Club"

meeting.14

Blot and Too Wise Wives, however, were popular and

financial failures. In 1917, Weber had told Moving Picture

World:

That the public as a whole is sentimental and that unless you give them what they want you're not going to make any money. And let those who set themselves up as idealists chatter as much as they please about their art, the commercial side cannot be neglected. We're all in business to make money. . . . But in the end I pin my faith to my story . . . and I pin my faith to that story which is a slice of real life.1*

But realizing that her moralizing, serious pictures no

longer appealed to a generation enamored of the morality

she condemned, Weber, earning $5,000 a week by 1918, chose

to sacrifice her social causes for personal financial

security. In 1921 she closed her production company and

worked for other studios.16

A Chapter in Her Life (1923) tells the story of an

adolescent girl sent to live with her wealthy grandfather.

Although the film is basically a weak version of Mary

Pickford-type vehicles, Weber did manage to insert a few

important social points. Little Jewel (Jane Mercer)

14Too Wise Wives. Lois Weber Productions, distributed by Paramount Pictures, directed by Lois Weber, 1921. Library of Congress.

15Arthur Denison, "A Dream in Realization," Moving Picture World. 21 July 1917, 58.

16Koszarski, Hollywood Directors. 49.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 266

informs the mother of a drunkard boy that alcoholism is a

disease that can be treated, and another woman marries her

poor lover instead of a rich man, saying that she plans to

earn her own living.17

Very little of Weber's social conscience appears in

her The Marriacre Clause (1926), the story of a young

actresses turned stage star whose contract specifies that

she cannot marry. While Weber sympathetically portrays the

woman torn between love and stardom, the film ends with the

actress, near death from heartbreak, renouncing her

brilliant career. "Barry, my whole world," she murmurs to

her lover. The option of breaking her contract and

sustaining both love and career with another company, while

making for a far less dramatic movie, is not even

entertained.18

Weber's career would not last much longer. She

directed her last silent film, The Angel of Broadway (1927)

for DeMille; her last sound picture, White Heat (1934) was

well-received, but a tired and defeated Weber retired, and

died in 1939, penniless.19

17A Chapter in Her Life. Universal Film Manufacturing Company, directed by Lois Weber, 1923. Library of Congress.

18The Marriage Clause. Universal Film Manufacturing Company, directed by Lois Weber, 192 6. Library of Congress.

19Slide, 50-51.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 267

The studio for which Weber frequently worked,

Universal, boasted the most female employees in Hollywood.

Under the direction of Carl Laemmle, Universal had at one

point nine female directors working on the lot. These

women directed a wide variety of films, with many focusing

on children's plots and themes. They proceeded with little

hindrance due to their sex, and enjoyed, or rather

suffered, the same success/failure ratio as their male counterparts.

One of the busiest Universal directors, Cleo

Madison, directed and starred in dramatic shorts and

features like A Soul Enslaved (1916). A 1916 Photoplay

pointed out that she was a feminist:

With the lovely but militant Cleo at their head, the suffragettes could capture the vote for their sex and smash down the opposition as easily as shooting fish in a bucket. Cleo Madison is a womanly woman - if she were otherwise she couldn't play sympathetic emotional roles as she does - and yet she is so smart and businesslike that she makes most of the male population of Universal City look like debutantes when it comes right down to brass tacks and affairs.20

Ruth Stonehouse, another Universal actress-turned-

director, focused on little girl stories in her two-reel

comedy Dorothy Dares and her Mary Ann Kelly series. An

older actress, Lule Warrenton, began by directing a series

of children's shorts featuring child actors Clara Horton

and Ernestine Jones. In 1917, she formed her own

20William H. Henry, "Cleo, the Craftswoman," Photoplay. January 1916, 129.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 6 8

production company dedicated to the comedies and dramas of

childhood; her only feature production, A Bit O' Heaven

(1917) was very well received. Elsie Jane Wilson had less

luck with her series featuring child star Zoe Rae; their

films, like Mv Little Bov (1917) and The Silent Ladv (1917)

failed.21

Grace Cunard, Universal*s serial queen, frequently

directed installments, and co-directed a series of shorts

with Francis Ford, including Ladv Raffles Returns, a

feminist detective drama. Some of the studio's other

serials were directed by Ruth Ann Baldwin, who began as a

screenwriter; she directed the Anna Little serial The Black

Box, and a Cleo Madison feature Retribution (1916). Jeanie

Macpherson, DeMille's favorite screenwriter, also directed

at Universal before joining Paramount.22

One of Universal*s most prominent female directors

was the prolific Ida May Park, a former scenario writer who

directed Universal's big star, Dorothy Phillips, in films

like Fires of Rebellion (1917) and The Grand Passion

(1918) . Although, unlike Weber, Park held no pretentions

to art or social purpose,23 she was chosen to write the

film directing entry for a 1920 anthology, Careers for

Women. She wrote:

21Slide, 54-57.

22Ibid., 57-60.

23Ibid., 60.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 6 9

As for the natural equipment of women for the role of director, the superiority of their emotional and imaginative faculties gives them a great advantage. Then, too, the fact that there are only two women directors of note in the field to-day leaves an absolutely open field. But unless you are hardy and determined, the director's role is not for you. Wait until the profession has emerged from its embryonic state and a system has been evolved by which the terrific weight of responsibility can be lifted from one pair of shoulders. When that time comes I believe that women will find no finer calling.24

In addition to Universal, most film companies

(except MGM) employed female directors. Even the earliest

production companies allowed their actresses to direct.

For Kalem, Gene Gauntier directed one film, Grandmother

(1910), and in 1912 founded her own company, which was

responsible for all Kalem scenarios. Kathlyn Williams,

Selig's treasured leading lady, wrote, directed and starred

in a two-reeler, The Leopard's Foundling in 1914. The

Edison Company released a great deal of publicity that

actress Miriam Nesbitt would write, direct and star in A

Close Call in 1915, but the film was never released.

Marguerite Bertsch, head of Vitagraph's scenario

department, directed The Law Decides and The Devil's Prize

in 1916; Mrs. George Randolph Chester, one of Bertsch's

scriptwriters, co-directed at least one film, The Son of

Wallingford (1921), with her actor husband. Lucille McVey,

an actress, began to direct at Metro, and released an Alice

Joyce film, Cousin Kate (1921) through Vitagraph. Nell

24Catherine Filene, ed., Careers for Women (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1920), 139.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 7 0

Shipman, a Vitagraph actress in the teens, directed Back to

God's Country (1919), an ecology-minded film set in the

Canadian wilderness. Paula Blackton, who had produced a

1917 "Country Life" series, released an unsuccessful five- reel feature, The Littlest Scout.25

Margery Wilson, "Brown Eyes" in Griffith's

Intolerance, gained fame playing opposite cowboy William S.

Hart at Ince. In 1921, as a Paramount actress, Wilson

directed That Something, an orphan Cinderella story;

unfortunately, she lost financial control of the film,

which garnered mediocre reviews. Although her two

following features, Insinuation (1922) and The Offenders

(1924), proved successes, a jealous husband forced her to

retire. In the late 1920s, she began writing self-help

books like Your Personality - And God (1938) , The Woman You

Want to Be (1942) and Believe in Yourself (1949).2^

Dorothy Davenport, Wallace Reid's widow, was a

competent writer, director and producer. While many

accused her film campaign against drugs as exploitative of

her husband's death, Davenport's films like Human Wreckage

(1923) were huge hits. In 1925, she formed her own

production company, and filmed The Red Kimono, a work

sympathetically depicting the true story of one girl's

struggle against prostitution. Although critics lambasted

25Slide, 102-108.

26Ibid., 62-72.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 7 1

the film, it was a box-office success, no doubt helped by a

well-publicized lawsuit by the irate actual heroine, whose

real name had been used. Davenport acted in, produced and

directed a number of films through the twenties and

thirties.27 In 1934 Shadowplav discussed her success as a

female director:

She can use the fact that she is a woman to motivate things. That is, to take deliberate advantage of the theory that women must have certain considerations not accorded men. . . . She simply uses the feminine viewpoint for her approach. but she must go from there to masculine attack and execution.28

There were many other female directors in the silent

period: Julia Crawford Ivers (The Call of the Cumberland.

1916 and The White Flower. 1923), Marion Fairfax (The Lying

Fool. 1922), Jane Murfin (Flapper Wives. 1924), May Tully

(The Old Oaken Bucket. 1921 and That Old Gang of Mine.

1925), Lillian Ducey (Enemies of Children. 1923), Vera

McCord (The Good-Bad Wife. 1920), Ruth Bryan Owen (Once

Upon A Time. 1921), and Alice Terry, who often directed for

her husband, Rex Ingram, without credit. Elizabeth

Pickett, who directed Kincr of the Turf (1923), became West

Coast supervisor of Fox's Variety Short, of which she wrote

and directed at least 40.29 Significantly, few of these

careers extended far into the 1920s.

27Ibid., 73-80.

28Ruth Rankin, "Mrs. Wally Reid Comes Back," Shadovplav. December 1934, 69.

29Slide, 110-115.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 7 2

Actress Alla Nazimova usually directed her own

films, although she never accepted screen credit, and it is

often speculated that Mabel Normand directed most, if not

all, of her Keystone releases. In 1920, Griffith placed

his protege Gish in charge of completing construction of

his new studio in Mamaroneck, New York and of directing her

sister Dorothy in the film Remodeling Her Husband. The

story was simple but unusual: a woman, angry at her husband

for calling her dowdy, makes him walk behind her down a

busy street. She draws stares from every passing man by

grimacing and making odd faces. The husband is tricked

into changing his perception of his wife during an era when

DeMille castigated his females to adopt the flashy ways of

the new woman. The movie was completed for an amazingly

low $50,000, and brought in over $460,000. Gish however,

became infuriated with Griffith when he reacted, "I knew

the men would work harder and faster to help a girl. I'm

no fool.”30 Despite her success and obvious talent, Gish

disliked the tedious administrative details of directing,

and never again approached the issue.31

But by 1928, as capital investment in Hollywood grew

to $500,000,000 a year, opportunities for female directors

diminished. As each film venture became a bigger

production, and thus a bigger financial risk, studio heads

30Gish, 223.

31Rosen, 394.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 7 3

felt comfortable trusting only established directors. And,

if they trusted an untested director, their choice was more

than likely to be a man. Only one female director, Dorothy

Arzner, achieved any measure of success in the late

twenties and survived into the sound era. Between 1927 and

1943 she made 17 features like Get Your Man (1927), The

Wild Party (1929), Sarah and Son (1930), Anybody's Woman

(1931), and Christopher Strong (1933). Arzner frequently

downplayed the fact that she was a woman in a male

dominated business. She told the New York World Telegram:

Why should I be pointed out as a strange creature because I happen to be the only woman director? Intelligence has no sex. . . . It puzzles me why more women don't deliberately set out to become directors. . . . In getting where I am, I suffered a good deal. It was not much fun then. . . . I know all I need to know to direct. . . . There is no question that can come up that I will ever have too bluff on . . .32

Arzner, whose social comedies function as mirrors of the

period's lighter feminine pursuits, cared little about the

technical and artistic aspects of filmmaking and even less

about offering a distinctly feminist statement. To

preserve success, one had to play it safe.33

32"Woman Among the Mighty," New York World Telegram. 21 November 193 6, 7.

33Rosen, 397-401. Vito Russo, in his The Celluloid Closet; Homosexuality in the Movies (New York: Harper and Row, 1987) goes as far as to imply that "an obviously lesbian director like Dorothy Arzner" managed to succeed "because she was officially closeted and because it made her "one of the boys."' (50).

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 7 4

Screenwriters

A great many women worked in Hollywood as

screenwriters, shaping a film from its very origin. The

most influential and highest paid, Anita Loos, specialized

in social satires and "women's movies." An industry

personality in her own right, Loos both represented and

wrote about the eternal flapper; indeed, she was closely

identified with gold digging Lorelei Lee, the heroine of

her 1920s work Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. ^

Born in 1888, Loos worked as a child actress on the San

Francisco stage, and was often her family's sole source of

income. She preferred writing to acting, however, and

began to sell limericks and columns to magazines and

newspapers.35 In 1911, at the age of 25 (not, as popular

legend often reports, as a 12 year old), Loos sold her

first script to Biograph, and between 1912 and 1915, 101 of

her original ideas were translated into motion pictures.

She was soon hired full-time by Griffith, who teamed her

with director (and future husband) John Emerson to produce

Douglas Fairbanks films. Their ten film parodies of upper

crust social pretentions, like His Picture in the Papers

34Gary Carey, Anita Loos: A Biography (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1988), 4.

35Lo o s , 38.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 7 5

(1916), became enormous successes, and Loos embarked on an

even more prolific career.36

Loos' scathing pen wrote for Marion Davies, the

actress whose lover and financier, William Randolph Hearst,

ignored her comedic talents and insisted she be featured in

respectable costume dramas and historic epics; Loos

however, put her in a comedy, Getting Marv Married (1919),

which was one of Davies' few successful films.37 Loos also

wrote a series of early flapper comedies for Constance

36Ibid., 101.

37Marion Davies, The Times We Had; Life With William Randolph Hearst (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill Company, Inc., 1975), 1. Davies, born in 1897 in Brooklyn, worked as a Ziegfeld girl before Hearst formed Cosmopolitan Pictures to make his mistress a star. She was straightforward in her autobiography that her career was more a tribute to Hearst's publishing empire than her dramatic talent: ". . . people got so tired of the name Marion Davies that they would actually insult me. W.R. thought he was building up a star. . . . I hope, before he dies, he found out I wasn't. Still, I think he thought I was" (265) . Davies and Hearst set Hollywood's social pace with their lavish parties at their Beverly Hills mansion, Davies' palatial Santa Monica beach house and Hearst's San Simeon enclave. Although Hearst lost $7 million dollars on Marion's career, she invested wisely, and was able to loan him $1 million of her own money when he later faced financial difficulties. He repaid her with a voting majority in the Hearst Corporation after his death in 1951 (Earl Anderson, "Marion Davies," Films in Review 23,6 June- July, 1972: 321-53). It is unfortunate that Davies' is remembered as the untalented, shrieking opera singer in Welles' Hearst-based film Citizen Kane (1941) ; her career would most likely have been much more successful had she been able to pursue her comedy roles.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 276

Talmadge, the Vitagraph tomboy who became a popular

comedienne in the 1920s.38

Loos, darling of the fan magazines, epitomized

flapper style and morality. Among the first to sport

bobbed hair, Loos often lamented that the biggest mistake

made by feminists was letting men learn that women were

smarter. Not surprisingly, the over 200 films of her

career bore the similar stamp of dominant men, women placed

on a pedestal, and happily-married endings. Ironically,

her own marriages were less than happy: her first, a

deliberate attempt to escape parental influence, lasted

less than twenty four hours. Her second husband, director

Emerson, manipulated his talented wife, demanding screen

credit, top-billing and financial reward from her work.

She wrote of her odd subservience to him in her

autobiography, A Girl Like I : "... John treated me in an

offhand manner, appropriated my earnings, and demanded from

me all the services of a hired maid. How could a girl like

I resist him?"39 That Loos did not regard her career as a

manifestation of feminism is evident:

38DeWitt Bodeen, "Constance Talmadge," Film in Review 18,10 (December 1967): 613-30. The Talmadge family produced three actresses of different screen personalities. Constance earned great success in comedies revolving around a "Battle of the Sexes," while Norma, the eldest sister, played more sophisticated, elegant women of the world. She was married to producer Joseph Schenck. Youngest sister Natalie, an unwilling actress who married Buster Keaton, played malleable, sentimental heroines.

39Lo o s , 184.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 277

My problem was that without realizing it, I was on the ground floor of a sex revolution: the twentieth century's breakdown of romantic love between the sexes, and the transfer of female emotions from the boudoir to the marts of trade. . . . And so women's most concrete proof that somebody really wants them lies in a paycheck; they cling to jobs as a source of self esteem, so valuable and sweet that they even seem romantic.40

Another famous and Oscar-winning screenwriter,

Frances Marion, displayed her strength in writing dramatic

films. Born in San Francisco in 1900, she started out as a

poster designer, worked as an actress and assistant for

Lois Weber, as a war correspondent in France during WWI,

and finally, as a typist for director William DeMille.

Within six months she had become an editor, and decided to

try her hand at writing scenarios.41

Although Marion's films, the antithesis of Loos'

works, were void of romance and relied heavily on

naturalism, by 1918 Marion was earning $30,000 and enjoying

success that would last for several decades.42 Well-

respected, she worked for most of the silent era's major

directors, like Maurice Tourneur, Frank Borzage, Victor

Seastrom, Marshall Neilan, Allan Dwan, James Cruze and John

Ford. Marion wrote or adapted most Mary Pickford vehicles

(including The Foundling. Rebecca of Sunnvbrook Farm.

Pollvanna. and The Little Princess), wrote a successful

40Ibid., 68-70.

4Marion, 8-27.

42Rosen, 392.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 7 8

comedy, Little Old New York (1923) for Marion Davies,

adapted Anna Karenina for Greta Garbo, and in the late

twenties and early thirties attained acclaim for such films

as The Scarlet Letter (1926), The Wind (1928), Min and

Bill (1930) and The Big House (1930).43 In 1921 she

directed two Pickford films, Just Around the Corner and The

Love Light, in which Mary actually played an adult, but

both were received coolly by audiences devoted to

Pickford's child-being. Her other directing efforts, like

the 1927 Fashions for Women, were reasonable successes, but

Marion preferred writing to directing.44

Other scenarists contributed to the Hollywood dream mill. Jeanie MacPherson, a Griffith actress hired by

DeMille as a scriptwriter, wrote alone or in collaboration

almost all of DeMille's screenplays until her death in

1948. June Mathis, who wrote The Four Horsemen of the

Apocalypse (1921) and Blood and Sand (1922) for her protege

Valentino, is often unfairly remembered as the person who

mutilated Stroheim's mammoth Greed; her early editing work

for Thomas Ince helped develop and advance film continuity.

Bess Meredyth wrote 90 features between 1917 and 1919;

other screenwriters include Sonya Levien, Lenore Coffee,

43Jacobs, 328.

44Slide, 94. Marion wrote her last film in 1940, directed her last film, First Comes Conwav in 1943, then taught film at UCLA and made Pepsi-Cola television commercials. She died in 1973.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 7 9

Dorothy Parker, Louella 0. Parsons, Clara Beranger, Agnes

Christine Johnson, Olga Printzlau, Josephine Lovett, Ouida

Bergere, Grace Unsell, and Beulah Marie Dix. A special

mention must be made of Elinor Glyn, the 60 year old

British authoress, who, sporting bright orange hair and

leopard skin clothing, swept into Hollywood in the early

twenties determined to add sophistication and refinement to

the film colony. Her scripts, for films like It, The Great

Moment (1921), Three Weeks (1924) and Show People (1928),

oozed sex appeal and glamour.45

Thus, the female directors and screenwriters of the

silent period were a large and varied group; not

surprisingly, their productions covered a range of

messages, styles and social commitments. The feminine

gaze, then, reflected the same ambivalences, fears and

goals exhibited by male film directors. Although an

enormous number of women worked in Hollywood during the

1920s as businesswomen and artists, this was less an

expression of feminism than a reflection of the general

female orientation of the industry and the popularity of

women's themes as a whole. Yet these widely-respected

women, by the simple fact that they pursued successful

careers in a male dominated business, advanced the view of

a female's right to fulfilling employment, and served as

45Joe Morelia and Edward Z. Epstein, The "It" Girl; The Incredible Story of Clara Bow (New York: Delacorte Press, 1976), 80.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 8 0

inspiration for other women both within and outside the film industry.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. CONCLUSION

Clearly, the 1920s saw the birth of a "new woman," even if she remained somewhat restricted and fettered by

traditional mores. And this new woman showed up in

America’s newest and most influential medium of popular

culture, the movies. That she took so many forms

throughout the decade - from Griffith's Victorian

sweetheart, Mary Pickford's baby-woman and Bara's

unrealistic vamp to DeMille's modern wife, Bow's frenzied

flapper, Stroheim's brutal and sordid Europeans and Garbo's

sophisticated woman of mystery - indicates society's fears

and ambivalence to this new woman.

By grappling with her image, Hollywood attempted to

define the essence of the modern woman without offending

the proprietors of middle class values. The best way to do

this and still make money and headlines was to tantalize

viewers with sex and decadence, and then allow them to

repudiate such immorality at the film's end.

Apparently, Hollywood tiptoed across this financial

and sexual tightrope successfully. And, when stars,

directors and producers occasionally slipped from that

precarious position either on film or in their private

281

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 282

lives, cries for censorship and control or box office

failure reminded them of their obligation to public

sensibilities.

Movie moderns, by glamorizing the social options

open to women in the 192 0s, can claim a large

responsibility in molding the modern woman. Films also

mitigated female discontent, and, in effect, reconciled

women to their lot by providing both relief and

reinforcement in the guise of entertainment.

By mid-decade, some reaction to Hollywood's

celluloid indulgences had set in. Films like Von

Stroheim's Greed. Victor Seastrom's The Wind. King Vidor's

The Crowd and Chaplin's social satires condemned

materialism. A rise in nature documentaries and realistic

regional dramas preceded the more socially realistic slant

of Depression era Hollywood. For the time being, though,

the prosperous bull market relegated serious social

criticism to the literary vanguard, and movie studios

continued to outdo each other with rapid advances in sound,

color, special effects and elaborate historical and musical

spectacles.

Films are arguably the most collaborative of any art

form; although it is virtually impossible to dissect and

isolate individual influences and contributions to a movie

project, it has become practice since the Renaissance to

attribute an overall finished product to a single driving

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 8 3

force. This thesis, while focusing on plot and theme,

categorizes films as did the audiences who viewed them.

Movie directors, rightly or not, often receive the primary

credit for the shape of their films. The highly stylized

and individual work of directors like Griffith and DeMille

was readily recognized and labeled by silent film

audiences; to them, Griffith represented one type of film,

DeMille presented an entirely different set of values and

attitudes, Von Stroheim another, and Weber even another.

An audiences' reception of a film was either an affirmation

or rejection of what that director stood for in general as

much as an evaluation of that particular movie. More

often, it was the film's star who defined the message and

values an audience associated with that work. For that

reason, the films of Mary Pickford, Clara Bow and Greta

Garbo are examined in the same manner as the corpus of

works of an individual director.

What remains most in our cultural memory of silent

films are the faces and movie roles of its women. While a

few male stars like Rudolph Valentino, Douglas Fairbanks

and Charlie Chaplin are fixed in the public imagination, it

is the female actresses who collectively weave a broad

tapestry of America's changing social attitudes. One can

speculate about the impact of a star's private persona as

well. Silent audiences, particularly women and young

girls, devoured fan magazine articles. They knew that

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 8 4

popular actresses, regardless of the type of women they

played on screen, began life as regular children who,

through hard work and perseverance, built successful and

fulfilling careers. They knew that a great many of these

women managed to support entire families as children. They

read about female directors who succeeded in a male

dominated industry. And, they saw first-hand the financial

rewards a woman was capable of achieving on her own. Such

independence on the part of America's greatest female role

models was bound to have a subtle effect on the outlook of her movie fans.

The smoking, dancing, flashy new woman was a

shocking creature to Victorian eyes, even though both in

life and in art her sexuality remained more superficial

than serious. That she emerged in films at all, given the

sexual and social repression of only a decade or so

earlier, is truly phenomenal. Both in the movies and in

life, women were taking those first, hesitant post-suffrage

steps to greater political, economic and social equality.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. BIBLIOGRAPHY

Books

Allen, Robert C. Vaudeville and Film 1895-1915: A Study in Media Interaction. New York: Arno Press, 1980.

Anger, Kenneth. Hollywood Babylon. New York: Dell Publishing Company, Inc., 1975

Bainbridge, John. Garbo. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday and Company, Inc., 1955.

Barnouw, Erik. The Magician and the Cinema. New York: Oxford University Press, 1981.

Blesh, Rudi. Keaton. New York: Macmillan and Company, 1966.

Breckenridge, Sophonisba P. Women in the Twentieth Century: A Study of their Political. Social and Economic Activities. New York: Arno Press, 1933.

Brown, Dorothy. Setting A Course: American Women in the 1920s. Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1987.

Brown, Gene, ed. The New York Times Encyclopedia of Film: 1896—1928. New York: Times Books, 1984.

Carey, Gary. Anita Loos: A Biography. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1988.

Chafe, William Henry. The American Woman: Her Changing Social. Economic and Political Roles. 1920-1970. New York: Oxford University Press, 1972.

Cook, David A. A History of Narrative Film. New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 1981.

De Grazia, Edward, and Newman, Roger K. Banned Films: Movies. Censors and the First Amendment. New York: R.R. Bowker Company, 1982.

285

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 8 6

Eckhardt, Joseph P. and Kowall, Linda. Peddler of Dreams: Sictmund Lubin and the Creation of the Motion Picture Industry. Philadelphia: National Museum of American Jewish History, 1984.

Fell, John, ed. Film Before Griffith. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1983.

Harmon, Jim and C4Xut, Donald F, The Great Movie Serials: Their Sound and Furv. Garden City: Doubleday and Company, Inc., 1972.

Haskell, Molly. From Reverence to Rape: The Treatment of Women in the Movies. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1974.

Heck-Rabi, Louise. Women Filmmakers: A Critical Reception. Metuchen, N.J.: The Scarecrow Press, Inc., 1984.

Herndon, Booton. Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks: The Most Popular Couple the World Has Known. New York: W.W. Norton and Company, Inc., 1977.

Higashi, Sumiko. Virgins. Vamps and Flappers: The American Silent Movie Heroine. Montreal: Eden Press Women's Publications, Inc., 1978,

Higham, Charles. Cecil B. DeMille. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1973.

Hochman, Stanley, ed. American Film Directors: A Library of Film Criticism. New York: Frederick Ungar Publishing Company, 1974.

Jacobs, Lewis. The Rise of the American Film: A Critical History. New York: Teachers College Press, 1939.

Johnston, Alva. The Great Goldwvn. New York: Random House, Inc., 1937.

Koszarski, Richard. Hollywood Directors: 1914-40. New York: Oxford University Press, 1976.

______. The Man You Loved to Hate: Erich Von Stroheim and Hollywood. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1983.

Kowalski, Rosemary Ribich. Women and Film: A Bibliography. Metuchen, N.J.: The Scarecrow Press, 1976.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 287

Lahue, Kalton C. Continued Next Week: A History of the Moving Picture Serial. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1964.

______, and Brewer, Terry. Kops and Custards: The Legend of Keystone Films. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1968.

______. Ladies In Distress. New York: A.S. Barnes and Company, 1971.

Lockwood, Charles. Dream Palaces: Hollywood at Home. New York: Viking Press, 1981.

Lynd, Robert S. and Helen Merrell. Middletown: A Study in Contemporary American Culture. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1929.

Maeder, Edward, ed. Hollywood and History: Costume Design in Film. New York: Thames and Hudson, 1987.

Marx, Samuel. Maver and Thalberg: The Make-Believe Saints. New York: Random House, 1975.

Mast, Gerald. A Short History of the Movies. 4th edition. New York: Macmillan Publishing Company, 1986.

Morelia, Joe, and Epstein, Edward Z. The "It11 Girl: The Incredible Story of Clara Bow. New York: Delacorte Press, 1976.

Munden, Kenneth W., ed. The American Film Institute Catalogue of Motion Pictures Produced in the United States: Feature Films 1921-30. New York: R.R. Bowker Company, 1971.

New York Times Film Reviews: 1913-1968. New York: New York Times and Arno Press, 1970.

Niver, Kemp R. Early Motion Pictures: The Paper Print Collection in the Library of Congress. Washington: Library of Congress, 1985.

______. Motion Pictures from the Library of Congress Paper Print Collection: 1894-1912. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1967.

Nye, Russel. The Unembarrassed Muse: The Popular Arts in America. New York: The Dial Press, 1970.

Parish, James Robert. The Paramount Pretties. New Rochelle, N.Y.: Arlington House, 1972.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 8 8

Peary, Danny, ed. Close-Ups: Intimate Profiles of Movie Stars by Their Co-Stars. Directors. Screenwriters and Friends. New York: Workman Publishing, 1978.

Perrett, Geoffrey. America in the Twenties: A History. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1982.

Powdermaker, Hortense. Stranger and Friend: The Wav of an Anthropologist. London: Seeker and Warburg, 1967.

Robinson, David. Chaplin: Mirror of Opinion. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1984.

______. Hollywood in the Twenties. New York: A.S. Barnes and Company, 1968.

Rosen, Marjorie. Popcorn Venus: Women, Movies and the American Dream. New York: Avon, 1973.

Rotha, Paul. The Film Till Now: A Survey of World Cinema. New York: Twayne Publishers, Inc., 1960.

Russo, Vito. The Celluloid Closet: Homosexuality in the Movies. New York: Harper and Row Publishers, 1987.

Scharf, Lois and Jensen, Joan M. Decades of Discontent: The Women's Movement 1920-1940. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1983.

Schickel, Richard. The Stars. New York: The Dial Press, 1962.

Schumach, Murray. The Face on the Cutting Room Floor: The Storv of Movie and Television Censorship. New York: William Morrow and Company, 1964.

Sinclair, Marianne. Hollywood Lolitas: The Nvmphet Syndrome in the Movies. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1988.

Slide, Anthony. Early Women Directors. New York: A.S. Barnes and Company, 1977.

Sloan, Kay. The Loud Silents: The Origins of the Social Problem Film. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1988.

Sklar, Robert. Movie-Made America: A Cultural History of American Movies. New York: Vintage Books, 1976.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 8 9

Stedman, Raymond William. The Serials; Suspense and Drama bv Installment. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1977.

Stenn, David. Clara Bow: Runnin1 Wild, New York: Doubleday and Company, 1988.

Thomson, David. America in the Dark: The Impact of Hollywood Films on American Culture. New York: William Morrow and Company, 1977.

Wagenknecht, Edward. The Movies in the Aae of Innocence. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1962.

______. Stars of the Silents. Metuchen, New Jersey: The Scarecrow Press, 1987.

Walker, Alexander. Rudolph Valentino. New York: Stein and Day Publishers, 1976.

Wead, George, and Lellis, George. Film: Form and Function. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1981.

Weinberg, Herman G. Stroheim: A Pictorial Record of His Nine Films. New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 1975.

Woloch, Nancy. Women and the American Experience. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1984.

Zierold, Norman. Sex Goddesses of the Silent Screen. Chicago: Henry Regnery Company, 1973.

Memoirs

Arvidscn, Linda. When the Movies Were Young. New York: Benjamin Blom, Inc., 1924.

Astor, Mary. A Life on Film. New York: Delacorte Press, 1967.

Brooks, Louise. Lulu in Hollywood. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1982.

Chaplin, Charles. Mv Autobiography. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1964.

Davies, Marion. The Times We Had: Life With William Randolph Hearst. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill Company, Inc., 1975.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 9 0

DeMille, Cecil B. The Autobiography of Cecil B. DeMille. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall, Inc., 1959.

Gish, Lillian. Dorothy and Lillian Gish. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1973.

______. Lillian Gish: The Movies. Mr. Griffith, and Me. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall, Inc., 1969.

Loos, Anita. A Girl Like I . New York: The Viking Press, 1966.

Marion, Frances. Off With Their Heads! A Serio-comic Tale of Hollywood. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1972.

Moore, Colleen. Silent Star. Garden City: Doubleday and Company, 1968.

Negri, Pola. Memoirs of A Star. Garden City: Doubleday and Company, 1970.

Pickford, Mary. Sunshine and Shadows. Garden City: Doubleday and Company, 1955.

Swanson, Gloria. Swanson on Swanson. New York: Random House, 1980.

Newspapers

Axt, Luanne. "Westfield Recalls Its Silent Film Role," Newark Star-Ledger. 3 December 1976.

Cantwell, Larry. "First Filmland Superstar, Mary Pickford," Rocky Mountain News. 3 April 1975.

Carmody, Jay. "Miss Pickford's Mind Changed By Public," Washington Evening Star. 10 January 1964, p. DIO.

Harmetz, Aljean. "'America's Sweetheart' Lives," New York Times, 28 March 1971, p. D15.

"Harold Lloyd, Film Comedian, Is Dead," New York Times 8 March 1970, p. 1.

James, George. "Blanche Sweet, Film Actress," New York Times. 7 September 1986, p. L42.

"Mary Pickford, 86, Dies; Leading Silent Film Star," New York Times. 30 May 1979, p.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 9 1

Peer, Elizabeth. "America's Sweetheart," Newsweek. 11 June 1979, p. 72.

Smith, J.Y. "Film Star Mary Pickford, 'America's Sweetheart,1 Dies," Washington Post. 30 May 1979, p. C4.

Magazines

Ames, Aydelott. "Mary Miles Minter." Films in Review 20,8 (October 1969): 473-95.

Anderson, Earl. "Marion Davies." Films in Review 23,6 (June-July 1972): 321-53.

Bainbridge, John. "Garbo is 65." Look. 8 September 1970.

Bodeen, DeWitt. "Bebe Daniels." Films in Review 15,7 (August-September 1964): 413-30.

______. "Blanche Sweet." Films in Review 16,9 (November 1965): 549-770.

______• "Constance Talmadge." Films in Review 18,10 (December 1967): 613-30.

______. "Dorothy Gish." Films in Review 19,7 (August- September 1968): 393-414.

______. "Gloria Swanson." Films in Review 16,4 (April 1965): 193-216.

______. "Nazimova." Films in Review 2 3,10 (December 1972): 577-604.

______• "Theda Bara." Films in Review 19,5 (May 1968): 266-287.

Brownlow, Kevin. "Lillian Gish." American Film. March 1984.

Carey, Gary. "Written on the Screen: Anita Loos." Film Comment 6,4 (Winter 1970-71): 50-55.

Collins, William S. "Lois Wilson." Films in Review 24,1 (January 1973): 18-35.

Davis, Henry B., Jr. "Clara Kimball Young." Films in Review 12,7 (August-September 1961): 419-25.

Dunham, Harold. "Mae Marsh." Films in Review 9,6 (June-July 1958): 306-21.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 9 2

Erkilla, Betsy. "Greta Garbo: Sailing Beyond the Frame." Critical Incruirv 11 (June 1985): 595-619.

Feldman, Joseph and Mary. "Cecile B. DeMille." Films in Review 1,4 (December 1950): 1-2.

Fisher, Bob. "Restoring Historic Films as a Life Work." American Cinematographer. July 1980.

Lee, Raymond. "Louise Fazenda." Films in Review 13,7 (August-September 1962): 444-46.

Lewis, Gregory. Films in Review 24,2 (February 1973): 123.

Norberg, Carl Eric. "Greta Garbo's Secret." Film Comment 6,2 (Summer 1970): 26-35.

Primary Sources

"Actresses Must Be Young." Moving Picture World. 27 December 1913.

Bara, Theda. "How I Became a Film Vampire." Forum 61 (June 1919): 715-727.

"Beauty and Brains Contest." Photoplay. October 1915.

Burden, Alan. "The Girl Who Keeps a Railroad." Photoplay. July 1915.

Chapman, Charles D. "A Beautiful Bedroom Means a Beautiful Life." Photoplay. April 1926.

Denison, Arthur. "A Dream in Realization." Moving Picture World. 21 July 1917.

Dickinson, W.K.L. and Antonia. "Edison's Invention of the Kineto-Phonograph." Century Magazine. June 1894.

"Dream Come True, A." Motion Picture Classic. January 1922.

"Edison's Marvel Cheered." New York Times. 24 April 189 6.

Filene, Catherine, ed. Careers for Women. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1920.

Fitzgerald, F. Scott. "Has the Flapper Changed?" Motion Picture. July 1927.

Franklin, Wallace. "Purgatory's Ivory Angel." Photoplay. September 1915.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 9 3

Henry, William H. "Cleo, the Craftswoman." Photoplay. January 1916.

"Hollywood Warns Film-Struck Girls," New York Times. 4 December 1923.

Jackson, Joseph. "I Wouldn't Wish It On A Dog." Photoplay. January 1926..

Johnson, Julian. "Mary Pickford: Herself and Her Career." Photoplay. November 1915.

Johnson, L.H. "A Lady General of the Picture Army, Lois Weber-Smalley, Virile Director." Photoplay. June 1915.

Lane, Tamar. What's Wrong with the Movies. Waverly: n.p., 1923.

Levine, H.Z. "Madame Alice Blache." Photoplay. March 1912.

Little Movie Mirror Books: Corinne Griffith. New York: Ross Publishing Company, 1920.

"Lois Weber Talks Shop." Moving Picture World. 27 May 1916.

"Mabel Normand, Key to Many Laughs in Keystone Comedies." Moving Picture World. 11 July 1914. Melies, George. Complete Catalogue of Genuine and Original Star Films. Paris and New York: George Melies, 1905.

Montayne, Lillian. "As By Fire: Nita Naldi." Motion Picture Classic. July 1921.

"Picture Personalities: Miss Florence E. Turner, The Vitagraph Girl." Moving Picture World. 23 July 1910.

Pierce, Lucy France. "The Nickelodeon." Views and Film Index. 24 October 1908.

"Plan Building to Aid Film-Smitten Girls," New York Times. 8 July 1923.

Quirk, James R. "Close-Ups and Long Shots." Photoplay. August 1930.

Rankin, Ruth. "Mrs. Wally Reid Comes Back." Shadowplav. December 1934.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 9 4

Sennett, Mack. "The Psychology of Film Comedy." Motion Picture Classic. November 1918.

Shirley, Lois. "Empty Hearted." Photoplay. October 1929.

Smith, Frederick James. "The Lily Maid from Ohio: Lillian Gish." Motion Picture Classic. November 1921.

Spensley, Dorothy. "You Are So Pretty - You Ought to Be In Pictures." Photoplay. March 1926.

"Woman Among the Mighty." New York World Telearaiu. 21 November 193 6.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. FILMOGRAPHY

Short Films

Adventures of Dollie. The. American Mutoscope and Biograph Company, directed by D.W. Griffith, 1908. Paper Print Collection, Library of Congress.

Affair of Hearts. An. Biograph Company, 1910. Paper Print Collection, Library of Congress.

Airy Fairy Lillian Tries on Her New Corsets. American Mutoscope and Biograph Company, 1905. Paper Print Collection, Library of Congress.

Ambrose's Fury. Keystone Pictures, directed by Mack Sennett, 1915. Paper Print Collection, Library of Congress.

Ambrose's Lofty Perch. Keystone Pictures, directed by Mack Sennett, 1915. Paper Print Collection, Library of Congress.

Arcadian Maid. An. Biograph Company, directed by D.W. Griffith, 1910. Paper Print Collection, Library of Congress.

As Seen on the Curtain. American Mutoscope and Biograph Company, 1904. Paper Print Collection, Library of Congress.

Assisted Elopement. An. Selig Polyscope Company, 1912. Paper Print Collection, Library of Congress.

Balked at the Altar. American Mutoscope and Biograph Company, directed by D.W. Griffith, 1908. Paper Print Collection, Library of Congress.

Ballet Master's Dream. The. Star Film Company, directed by Georges Melies, 1903. Paper Print Collection, Library of Congress.

Beating Hearts and Carpets. Keystone Pictures, directed by Mack Sennett, 1915. Paper Print Collection, Library of Congress.

295

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 9 6

Beauty Buncrlers. The. Keystone Pictures, directed by Mack Sennett, 1915. Paper Print Collection, Library of Congress.

Behind the Screen. American Mutoscope and Biograph Company, 1904. Paper Print Collection, Library of Congress.

Betsy Ross Dance. American Mutoscope and Biograph Company, 1903. Paper Print Collection, Library of Congress.

Blessed Is the Peacemaker. American Mutoscope and Biograph Company, 1903. Paper Print Collection, Library of Congress.

Boarding School Girls. American Mutoscope and Biograph Company, 1905. Paper Print Collection, Library of Congress.

Cannon Ball. The. Keystone Pictures, directed by Mack Sennett, 1915. Paper Print Collection, Library of Congress.

Caught in the Act. Keystone Pictures, directed by Mack Sennett, 1915. Paper Print Collection, Library of Congress.

Caught in the Park. Keystone Pictures, directed by Mack Sennett, 1915. Paper Print Collection, Library of Congress.

Choosing A Husband. Biograph Company, directed by D.W. Griffith, 1909. Paper Print Collection, Library of Congress.

Chorus Girl and the Salvation Army Lassie. The. American Mutoscope and Biograph Company, 1903. Paper Print Collection, Library of Congress.

Clock Maker’s Dream, The. Star Film Company, directed by Georges Melies, 1904. Paper Print Collection, Library of Congress.

Colored Villainy. Keystone Pictures, directed by Mack Sennett, 1915. Paper Print Collection, Library of Congress.

Curses I They Remarked. Keystone Pictures, directed by Mack Sennett, 1915. Paper Print Collection, Library of Congress.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 9 7

Dancing Girl of Butte. The. Biograph Company, directed by D.W. Griffith, 1910. Paper Print Collection, Library of Congress.

Day After. The. Biograph Company, directed by D.W. Griffith, 1909. Paper Print Collection, Library of Congress.

Decoved. Hepworth Company, great Britain, released in the U.S. by American Mutoscope and Biograph. Paper Print Collection, Library of Congress.

Divorce. The (Parts 1-3). American Mutoscope and Biograph Company, 1903. Paper Print Collection, Library of Congress.

Do-Re-Mi-Booml Keystone Pictures, directed by Mack Sennett, 1915. Paper Print Collection, Library of Congress.

Doctor's Bride. The. Lubin Manufacturing Company, 1909. Paper Print Collection, Library of Congress.

Droppington's Family Tree. Keystone Pictures, directed by Mack Sennett, 1915. Paper Print Collection, Library of Congress.

Drunkard's Reformation. The. Biograph Commpany, directed by D.W. Griffith, 1909. Paper Print Collection, Library of Congress.

affecting A Cure. Biograph Company, directed by D.W. Griffith, 1910. Paper Print Collection, Library of Congress.

Elopers Who Didn't Elope. American Mutoscope and Biograph Company, 1903. Paper Print Collection, Library of Congress.

Eloping With Auntie. Biograph Company, directed by D.W. Griffith, 1909. Paper Print Collection, Library of Congress.

Elopement. The. American Mutoscope and Biograph Company, 1903. Paper Print Collection, Library of Congress.

Elopement. The. American Mutoscope and Biograph Company, 1907. Paper Print Collection, Library of Congress.

Elopement on Horseback. Edison Company, 1918. Paper Print Collection, Library of Congress.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 9 8

Engagement Ring. The. Biograph Company, 1912. Paper Print Collection, Library of Congress.

Eradicating Auntie. Biograph Company, directed by D.W. Griffith, 1909. Paper Print Collection, Library of Congress.

Fascinating Mrs. Frances. The. American Mutoscope and Biograph Company, directed by D.W. Griffith, 1909. Paper Print Collection, Library of Congress.

Fat Girl's Love Affair. The. American Mutoscope and Biograph Company, 1905. Paper Print Collection, Library of Congress.

Fattv's Chance Acquaintance. Keystone Pictures, directed by Mack Sennett, 1915. Paper Print Collection, Library of Congress.

Fattv's Faithful Fido. Keystone Pictures, directed by Mack Sennett, 1915. Paper Print Collection, Library of Congress.

Fatty and Mabel Adrift. Keystone Pictures, directed by Mack Sennett, 1915. Facets Multimedia.

Fatty and Mabel's Simple Life. Keystone Pictures, directed by Mack Sennett, 1915. Paper Print Collection, Library of Congress.

Fattv's Plucky Pup. Keystone Pictures, directed by Mack Sennett, 1915. Paper Print Collection, Library of Congress.

Fattv's Reckless Fling. Keystone Pictures, directed by Mack Sennett, 1915. Paper Print Collection, Library of Congress.

Fattv's Tintype Tangle. Keystone Pictures, directed by Mack Sennett, 1915. Paper Print Collection, Library of Congress.

Female of the Species. The. American Mutoscope and Biograph Company, directed by D.W Griffith, 1912. Paper Print Collection, Library of Congress.

Fight for a Bride. American Mutoscope and Biograph Company, 1905. Paper Print Collection, Library of Congress. Flag Dance. American Mutoscope and Biograph Company, 1903. Paper Print Collection, Library of Congress.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 9 9

For Better - But Worse. Keystone Pictures, directed by Mack Sennett, 1915. Paper Print Collection, Library of Congress.

For a Wife's Honor. American Mutoscope and Biograph Company, directed by D.W.Griffith, 1908. Paper Print Collection, Library of Congress.

Gibson Goddess. The. Biograph Company, directed by D.W. Griffith, 1909. Paper Print Collection, Library of Congress.

Girl and Her Trust. The. Biograph Company, directed by D.W. Griffith, 1912. Paper Print Collection, Library of Congress.

Girls and Daddy. The. American Mutoscope and Biograph Company, directed by D.W. Griffith, 1909. Paper Print Collection, Library of Congress.

Girls Dancing Can-Can. American Mutoscope and Biograph Company, 1902. Paper Print Collection, Library of Congress.

Gordon Sisters Boxing. Edison Company, 1901. Paper Print Collection, Library of Congress.

Gussle Rivals Jonah. Keystone Pictures, directed by Mack Sennett, 1915. Paper Print Collection, Library of Congress.

Gussle Tied to Trouble. Keystone Pictures, directed by Mack Sennett, 1915. Paper Print Collection, Library of Congress.

Gussle's Day of Rest. Keystone Pictures, directed by Mack Sennett, 1915. Paper Print Collection, Library of Congress.

Gussle's Wavward Path. Keystone Pictures, directed by Mack Sennett, 1915. Paper Print Collection, Library of Congress.

Hash House Mashers. Keystone Pictures, directed by Mack Sennett, 1915. Paper Print Collection, Library of Congress.

Henpecked Husband. The. American Mutoscope and Biograph Company, 1905. Paper Print Collection, Library of Congress.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 3 0 0

Her Face Was Her Fortune. Lubin Manufacturing Company, 1909. Paper Print Collection, Library of Congress. Her Father's Pride. Biograph Company, directed by D.W. Griffith, 1910. Paper Print Collection, Library of Congress.

Her Morning Exercise. American Mutoscope and Biograph Company, 1902. Paper Print Collection, Library of Congress.

His Luckless Love. Keystone Pictures, directed by Mack Sennett, 1915. Paper Print Collection, Library of Congress.

His Sister-in-Law. Biograph Company, directed by D.W. Griffith, 1910. Paper Print Collection, Library of Congress.

His Wife»s Visitor. Biograph Company, directed by D.W. Griffith, 1909. Paper Print Collection, Library of Congress.

Hocran's Romance Upset. Keystone Pictures, directed by Mack Sennett, 1915. Paper Print Collection, Library of Congress.

Human Hound's Triumph. A . Keystone Pictures, directed by Mack Sennett, 1915. Paper Print Collection, Library of Congress.

Immigrant. The. Guaranteed Pictures, directed by Charles Chaplin, 1918. Bender Library, The American University.

Impalement. The. Biograph, 1910. Paper Print Collection, Library of Congress.

Interrupted Elopement. An. Biograph Company, 1912. Paper Print Collection, Library of Congress.

Just Like A Woman. Biograph Company, directed by D.W. Griffith, 1912. Paper Print Collection, Library of Congress.

Kansas Saloon Smashers. Edison Company, 1901. Paper Print Collection, Library of Congress.

Latina, the Contortionist. American Mutoscope and Biograph Company, 1905. Paper Print Collection, Library of Congress.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 3 0 1

Little Teacher. The. Keystone Pictures, directed by Mack Sennett, 1915. Paper Print Collection, Library of Congress.

Lonedale Operator. The. Biograph Company, directed by D.W. Griffith, 1911. Wechsler Theater, The American University.

Lonely Villa. The. American Mutoscope and Biograph Company, directed by D.W. Griffith, 1909. Paper Print Collection, Library of Congress.

Love in Armor. Keystone Pictures, directed by Mack Sennett, 1915. Paper Print Collection, Library of Congress.

Love, Loot and Crash. Keystone Pictures, directed by Mack Sennett, 1915. Paper Print Collection, Library of Congress.

Lover's Lost Control. A . Keystone Pictures, directed by Mack Sennett, 1915. Paper Print Collection, Library of Congress.

Mabel, Fatty and the Law. Keystone Pictures, directed by Mack Sennett, 1915. Paper Print Collection, Library of Congress.

Mabel and Fattv's Married Life. Keystone Pictures, directed by Mack Sennett, 1915. Paper Print Collection, Library of Congress.

Mabel and Fattv's Washdav. Keystone Pictures, directed by Mack Sennett, 1915. Paper Print Collection, Library of Congress.

Mabel Lost and Won. Keystone Pictures, directed by Mack Sennett, 1915. Paper Print Collection, Library of Congress.

Mabel at the Wheel. Keystone Pictures, directed by Mack Sennett, 1915. Paper Print Collection, Library of Congress.

Mabel's Wilful Wav. Keystone Pictures, directed by Mack Sennett, 1915. Paper Print Collection, Library of Congress.

Miss Fattv's Seaside Lovers. Keystone Pictures, directed by Mack Sennett, 1915. Paper Print Collection, Library of Congress.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 3 0 2

Modern Atalanta. A . Vitagraph Company, 1912. Facets Multimedia.

Mystic Swing, The. Edison Company, filmed by Edwin S. Porter, 1900. Paper Print Collection, Library of Congress.

Neptune's Daughters. American Mutoscope and Biograph Company, 1903. Paper Print Collection, Library of Congress.

New York Hat. The. Biograph Company, directed by D.W. Griffith, 1912. Paper Print Collection, Library of Congress.

Newlyweds. The. Biograph Company, directed by D.W. Griffith, 1910. Paper Print Collection, Library of Congress.

Old Maid's Picture. The. American Mutoscope and Biograph Company, 1903. Paper Print Collection, Library of Congress.

Peepincr Tom in the Dressing Room. American Mutoscope and Biograph Company, 1905. Paper Print Collection, Library of Congress.

Pierrot's Problem. American Mutoscope and Biograph Company, 1902. Paper Print Collection, Library of Congress. Playincf at Divorce. Vitagraph Company, 1910. Paper Print Collection, Library of Congress.

Ramona. Biograph Company, directed by D.W. Griffith, 1910. Paper Print Collection, Library of Congress.

Rent Jumpers. The. Keystone Pictures, directed by Mack Sennett, 1915. Paper Print Collection, Library of Congress.

Roping A Bride. Selig Polyscope Company, 1915. Library of Congress.

Settled at Seaside. Keystone Pictures, directed by Mack Sennett, 1915. Paper Print Collection, Library of Congress.

She Fell Fainting Into His Arms. American Mutoscope and Biograph Company, 1903. Paper Print Collection, Library of Congress.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 3 0 3

Sleepy Soubrette. The. American Mutoscope and Biograph Company, 1905. Paper Print Collection, Library of Congress.

Soubrettes in a Bachelor*s Flat. American Mutoscope and Biograph Company, 1903. Paper Print Collection, Library of Congress.

Taming A Husband. Biograph Company, directed by D.W. Griffith, 1909. Paper Print Collection, Library of Congress.

Teddy at the Throttle. Keystone/Triangle, directed by Clarence Badger, 1917. Library of Congress.

Their Social Splash. Keystone Pictures, directed by Mack Sennett, 1915. Paper Print Collection, Library of Congress.

Those Bitter Sweets. Keystone Pictures, directed by Mack Sennett, 1915. Paper Print Collection, Library of Congress.

To Save Her Soul. Biograph Company, directed by D.W. Griffith, 1909. Paper Print Collection, Library of Congress.

Trial Marriages. American Mutoscope and Biograph Company, 1907. Paper Print Collection, Library of Congress.

Trip to the Moon. Star Film Company, directed by Georges Melies, 1903. Paper Print Collection, Library of Congress.

Unfaithful Wife. The (Parts 1-3). American Mutoscope and Biograph Company, 1903. Paper Print Collection, Library of Congress.

Versatile Villain. A . Keystone Pictures, directed by Mack Sennett, 1915. Paper Print Collection, Library of Congress.

Wav of Man. The. Biograph Company, 1909. Paper Print Collection, Library of Congress.

Wav to the Underword. The, installment of What Happened to Mary? Edison Company, directed by Walter Edwin, 1913. Facets Multimedia.

What Demoralized the Barber Shop. Edison, 1989. Paper Print Collection, Library of Congress.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 3 0 4

What Drink Did. Biograph Company, directed by D.W. Griffith, 1909. Paper Print Collection, Library of Congress.

When Love Took Wings. Keystone Pictures, directed by Mack Sennett, 1915. Paper Print Collection, Library of Congress.

Why Mrs. Jones Got a Divorce. Edison Company, 1900. Paper Print Collection, Library of Congress.

Why Mr. Nation Wants A Divorce. Edisonn Company, 1901. Paper Print Collection, Library of Congress.

Wifev Awav. Hubbv at Play. Lubin Manufacturing Company, 1909. Paper Print Collection, Library of Congress.

Will-Be Weds. The. Essanay Company, 1913. Facets Multimedia.

Wine. Women and Song. American Mutoscope and Biograph Company, 1906. Paper Print Collection, Library of Congress.

Winning Back His Love. Biograph Company, 1910. Paper Print Collection, Library of Congress.

Woman's Wav. A . American Mutoscope and Biograph Company, directed by D.W. Griffith, 1908. Paper Print Collection, Library of Congress.

Wrath of a Jealous Wife. The. American Mutoscope and Biograph Company, 1903. Paper Print Collection, Library of Congress.

Features

Affairs of Anatol. The. Famous Players-Lasky, distributed by Paramount Pictures, directed by Cecil B. DeMille, 1921. Library of Congress.

Anna Christie. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, directed by Clarence Brown, 193 0. Lauinger Library, Georgetown University.

Birth of a Nation. The. Epoch Producing Corporation, directed by D.W. Griffith, 1915. Library of Congress.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 3 0 5

Blind Husbands. Universal Film Manufacturing Company, directed by Erich Von Stroheim, 1919. Library of Congress.

Blood and Sand. Famous Players-Lasky, distributed by Paramount Pictures, directed by Joseph Henry, 1925. Library of Congress.

Blot. Lois Weber Productions, directed by Lois Weber, 1921. Facets Multimedia.

Broken Blossoms. United Artists, directed by D.W. Griffith, 1919. Library of Congress.

Broken Hearts of Broadway. Irving Cummings Productions, directed by Irving Cummings, 1923. Library of Congress.

Chapter in Her Life. A . Universal Film Manufacturing Company, directed by Lois Weber, 1923. Library of Congress.

Cheat. The. Lasky Corporation, directed by Cecil B. DeMille, 1915. Wechsler Theater, The American University.

Children of Divorce. Famous Players-Lasky, distributed by Paramount Pictures, directed by Frank Lloyd, 1927. Library of Congress.

Cobra. Famous Players-Lasky, distributed by Paramount Pictures, directed by Joseph Henry, 1925. Library of Congress.

Coquette. Pickford Corporation, distributed by United Artists, directed by Sam Taylor, 1929. Library of Congress.

Daddv Long Leas. Pickford Corporation for First National Exhibitors, directed by Marshall A. Neilan, 1919. Library of Congress.

Dancing Mothers. Famous Players-Lasky, distributed by Paramount Pictures, directed by Herbert Brenon, 1926. Library of Congress.

Ella Cinders. John McCormick Productions, distributed by First National, directed by Alfred E. Green, 1926. Library of Congress.

Extra Girl. The. Mack Sennett Productions, directed by F. Richard Jones, 1923. Library of Congress.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 306

Fool There Was. A . William Fox Vaudeville Company, directed by Frank Powell, 1915. Facets Multimedia.

Foolish Wives. Universal Film Manufacturing Company, directed by Erich Von Stroheim, 1922. Library of Congress.

Forbidden Fruit. Famous Players - Lasky, distributed by Paramount Pictures, directed by Cecil B. DeMille, 1921. Library of Congress.

General. The. Joseph M. Schenck, Buster Keaton Productions, directed by Buster Keaton and Clyde Bruckman, 1926. Wechsler Theater, The American University.

Gold Rush. The. United Artists, directed by Charles Chaplin, 1925. Bender Library, The American University.

Greed. Metro-Goldwyn Pictures, directed by Erich Von Stroheim, 1923. Wechsler Theater, The American University.

Hail The Woman. Thomas H. Ince Production, distributed by Associated Producers, directed by John Griffith Wray, 1921. Museum of Modern Art.

Hula. Paramount Pictures, directed by Victor Fleming, 1927. Library of Congress.

Hypocrites. Bosworth Pictures, distributed by Paramount Pictures, directed by Lois Weber, 1914. Library of Congress.

Irene. First National, directed by Alfred E. Green, 1926. Library of Congress.

It. Famous Players-Lasky, distributed by Paramount Pictures, directed by Clarence Badger, 1927. Library of Congress.

Judith Of Bethulia. Biograph Company, directed by D.W. Griffith, 1913. Paper Print Collection, Library of Congress.

Kid. The. United Artists, directed by Charles Chaplin, 1921. Facets Multimedia.

Kid Boots. Famous Players-Lasky, distributed by Paramount Pictures, directed by Frank Tuttle, 1926. Library of Congress.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 3 0 7

Kiss. The. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, directed by Jacques Feyder, 1929. Library of Congress.

Little American. The. Artcraft Company, directed by Cecil B. DeMille, 1917. Facets Multimedia.

Little Princess. A . Artcraft Company, directed by Marshall Neilan, 1917. Library of Congress.

Male and Female. Famous Players-Lasky, distributed by Paramount Pictures, directed by Cecil B. DeMille, 1919. Museum of Modern Art.

Manhandled. Famous Players-Lasky, distributed by Paramount Pictures, directed by Allan Dwan, 1924. Library of Congress.

Manslaughter. Famous Players-Lasky, distributed by Paramount Pictures, directed by Cecil B. DeMille, 1922. Library of Congress.

Mantrap. Paramount Pictures, directed by Victor Fleming, 1926. Library of Congress.

Marriage Clause. The. Universal Film Manufacturing Company, directed by Lois Weber, 1926.

Miss Lulu Bett. Famous Players-Lasky, distributed by Paramount Pictures, directed by William C. DeMille, 1921. Library of Congress.

Our Hospitality. Joseph M. Schenck, Buster Keaton Productions, directed by Buster Keaton and Jack Blystone, 1923. Wechsler Theater, The American University.

Passion. Universum Film A.G., Berlin, distributed in the U.S. by Associated First National Pictures, directed by Ernst Lubitsch, 1919. Facets Multimedia.

Plastic Age. The. B.P. Schulberg Productions, directed by Wesley Ruggles, 1925. Incomplete. Library of Congress.

Poor Little Rich Girl. Artcraft Company, directed by Maurice Tourneur, 1917. Library of Congress.

Queen Kelly. Gloria Swanson Pictures, directed by Erich Von Stroheim, 1930. Facets Multimedia.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 308

Rebecca of Sunnvbrook Farm. Artcraft Company, directed by Marshall Neilan, 1917. Library of Congress.

Salome. Nazimova Productions, directed by Charles Bryant, 1922. Library of Congress.

Sheik. The. Famous Players-Lasky, distributed by Paramount Pictures, directed by George Melford, 1921. Library of Congress.

Sherlock Jr. Joseph M. Schenck, Buster Keaton Productions, directed by Buster Keaton, 1924. Wechsler Theater, The American University.

Social Secretary. The. Fine Arts for Triangle, directed by John Emerson, 1916. Facets Multimedia.

Stella Maris. Artcraft Company, directed by Marshall A. Neilan, 1918. Library of Congress.

Sunrise. Fox Film Corporation, directed by F.W. Murnau, 1927. Wechsler Theater, The American University.

Tess of the Storm County. Famous Players Company, directed by Edwin S. Porter, 1914. Library of Congress.

Tillie's Punctured Romance. Keystone Pictures, directed by Mack Sennett, 1914. Facets Multimedia.

Too Wise Wives. Lois Weber Productions, distributed by Paramount Pictures, directed by Lois Weber, 1921. Library of Congress.

Traffic in Souls. A . Universal Film Manufacturing Company, directed by George Loane Tucker, 1913. Library of Congress.

True Heart Susie. Artcraft Company, directed by D.W. Griffith, 1919. Library of Congress.

Wav Down East. United Artists, directed by D.W. Griffith, 1920. Lauinger Library, Georgetown University.

Wedding March. The. Paramount Famous Lasky Corporation, directed by Erich Von Stroheim, 1928. Library of Congress.

Where Are Mv Children? Universal Film Manufacturing Company, directed by Lois Weber, 1916. Library of Congress.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 3 0 9

Why Change Your Wife? Famous Players-Lasky, distributed by Paramount Pictures, directed by Cecil B. DeMille, 1920. Facets Multimedia.

Winers. Paramount Pictures, directed by William Wellman, 1929. Library of Congress.

Woman of Paris. A . Regent Film Company, directed by Charles Chaplin, 1923. Library of Congress.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.