Hollywood ‘Takes One More Look’: Early Histories of Silent Hollywood and the Fallen Star Biography, 1932–1937
2006; Routledge; Volume: 26; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1080/01439680600691701
ISSN1465-3451
Autores Tópico(s)Shakespeare, Adaptation, and Literary Criticism
ResumoClick to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Notes Notes 1 For a recent assessment of the case and its effect on Bow's career, see David Stenn, Clara Bow: runnin’ wild (New York, Doubleday, 1988), pp. 209–234. 2 Teletype to RKO in New York, March 4, 1932, in Memo from David O. Selznick, ed. Rudy Behlmer (New York, Viking Press, 1972), p. 45. 3 Benjamin Hampton, History of the American Film Industry from Its Beginnings to 1931 [1931] (New York, Dover, 1970), pp. 244–250; David Thomson, Showman: the life of David O. Selznick (New York, Knopf, 1992). 4 See Selznick's comments on Howard Estabrook's scripts, The Conquerors, story file, RKO Collection, UCLA Arts Special Collections. 5 See Hampton, pp. 385, 393–398 for the earliest published recognition of the silent era as a historical abstraction. 6 While the connections between Norman Maine and John Gilbert, John Barrymore, and John Bowers were publicly noted back in 1937 and restated more recently by Gene D. Philips (Films in Review, XL, 8–9 (August–September 1989), 445) and David L. Smith, (John Bowers: this is the Real Norman Maine, Films of the Golden Age, 35 (winter 2003-4), 68–77), critics have been silent on Selznick's documented interest in these other film-makers. 7 For a view of classical Hollywood's tendency toward heroic biography and mythic historical discourses, see George F. Custen, Biopics: how Hollywood constructed public history (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1992). 8 Critical analyses of Hollywood's films about the film industry have never examined these films as historical views of Hollywood; instead, they characterize the pre-Sunset Boulevard (1950) productions as naïve, modern-day, ‘film as mirror’ clichés embedded with the mythic discourses of ‘Cinderella’. See Patrick D. Anderson, In its Own Image: the cinematic vision of Hollywood (New York, Arno, 1978); James Robert Parish and Michael R. Pitts, Hollywood on Hollywood (Metuchen, NJ, Scarecrow Press, 1978); Christoper Ames, Movies About the Movies: Hollywood reflected (Lexington, University Press of Kentucky, 1997). 9 Robert E. Sherwood, Hollywood, in The Best Moving Pictures of 1922–1923 (Boston: Small, Maynard and Company, 1923), 78–85. 10 Frederick James Smith in Photoplay, June 1923, 65. 11 Frank Thompson, Lost Films: important movies that disappeared (New York, Citadel, 1996), 104–113. 12 Welford Beaton, Show People, in The Film Spectator, January 5, 1929, 8. 13 Hollwood script files, AMPAS; Hall, New York Times, July 30, 1932, 11:4. 14 Studio typescript, box 195, March 3, 1932, 69 pp., RKO Collection, UCLA Special Arts Collections. 15 Terry Ramsaye, A Million and One Nights (New York, Simon & Schuster, 1926) and Benjamin Hampton, A History of the Movies (New York, Covici-Friede, 1931). 16 Ben-Allah, Rudolph Valentino: his romantic life and death (Hollywood, 1926); David Bret, Valentino: a dream of desire (London, Robson, 1998); Emily Leider, Dark Lover: the life and death of Rudolph Valentino (New York, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2002). 17 My Life Story, Clara Bow as told to Adela Rogers St. Johns, Photoplay (February, March, and April 1928). 18 Stenn, 122. 19 St. Johns, The Truth About Hollywood, 32. 20 Photoplay, August 1932, 51. See also Variety, July 19, 1932, 24. 21 Rush, Variety, August 16, 1932, 13. 22 Benjamin Hampton, History of the American Film Industry [1931] (New York, Dover, 1970), 388–389, 405–407. Robert Allen (1985) and Donald Crafton (1997) would also point this out later. 23 Anne Edwards, A Remarkable Woman: a biography of Katharine Hepburn (New York, William Morrow & Co., 1985), pp. 105–106. 24 Robert Wagner, Rob Wagner's Script, September 2, 1933, pp. 9–10. 25 Bombshell, Story Report, October 25, 1932, MGM Script Collection, AMPAS. 26 Bombshell, Treatments, January 23, 1933; January 30, 1933, MGM Script Collection, AMPAS, pp. 1–4. 27 Johnsrud, January 30, 1933, 2; Graham Baker and Gene Towne, treatment, March 8, 1933, 18. Famed Hollywood designer Max Adrian is mentioned as a character in the script. 28 Mahin and Furthman, preliminary script, July 8, 1933, AMPAS. 29 Mahin and Furthman, script, July 25, 1933, 33. Fleming was also assigned at one point to direct, but was replaced for unknown reasons. 30 Stromberg, Production Notes, January 25–June 29, 1933, 85 pp., MGM Collection, USC. 31 Stromberg, notes, April 7, 1933. 32 Stromberg, notes, April 8, 1933. 33 Stromberg, notes, May 25, 1933. 34 Hollywood Boulevard, final script, A5–A7, box 1095, UCLA Arts Special Collections. 35 DOS to Brown, September 28, 1936, in Memo, 105. 36 DOS to Daniel O'Shea, deposition June 28, 1938, box 2499, David O. Selznick Collection, Harry Ransome Research Center, University of Texas, Austin. 37 Quoted in Ronald Haver, David O. Selznick's Hollywood, (New York: Bonanza Books, 1985), 192. 38 Carson and Wellman, September 18, 1936, box 1053, David O. Selznick Collection, Harry Ransome Research Center. 39 Carson and Wellman, It Happened in Hollywood, July 22, 1936, 17, ibid. 40 January 12, 1937, box 513, ibid. 41 Unmarked press clippings, Janet Gaynor Collection, Boston University. 42 Variety, obit., January 15, 1936. 43 As if there weren't enough Hollywood ironies in the script, Selznick had Owen Moore play the director, Casey. Moore was a notorious drunk, the has-been ex-husband of Mary Pickford, who was more suited to play Maine than one criticizing Maine's thirst. 44 Report by Cohen, Cole, Weiss & Wharton of New York City, particularly Memorandum B, 20 pp., box 2500, David O. Selznick Collection, HRC. 45 Final script, October 16, 1936, Robert Carson Collection, Boston University, makes provision for her looking at Norman Maine's slab, but not the other real stars. The shots were obviously added in later at Wellman or Selznick's request. 46 See press book, Lilly Library, Indiana University. 47 Jean Harlow died June 7, 1937; A Star Is Born premiered April 20, 1937 at Grauman's Chinese Theatre. 48 Final script, 42, Boston University. 49 Both Cooper and Harlow owed their early recognition as extras to Clara Bow. 50 Unmarked press clipping Gaynor scrapbook, Gaynor Collection, Boston University. 51 Frederick L. Collins, Where are Those Second Mary Pickfords?, 20–21, 113–114, unmarked press clipping, Gaynor scrapbook, Gaynor Collection, Boston University. 52 Haver, 191. 53 Unmarked review, Gaynor scrapbook, Gaynor Collection, Boston University. 54 Final script, 110.
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