Silent Movies, Wyatt Earp and Shakespeare

• The Prohibition Amendment is ratified.
• Dial telephones are introduced.
• Influenza epidemic takes between 20 and 40 million lives.
• Einstein's Theory of Relativity confirmed.
• Chicago White Sox throw World Series.
• National Negro Baseball League is formed.
• The 19th Amendment, giving the vote to women, is ratified.
• First radio broadcasts are heard.
• Sinclair Lewis publishes Main Street.
• First organized professional football league is formed.
• Speakeasies open around the country and the flapper age is born.
• Eight Chicago White Sox are indicted for fixing the Series.

In the early Hollywood years the major show business magazine was Variety. And during the first five years Variety's Movie Section reviewed a total of four Hollywood films Birth of a Nation, Intolerance and Judith of Bethulia all D.W. Griffith films, along with a John Ford film called Hell Bent.

Variety apparently took notice of Hollywood's growing importance to the entertainment industry and during the next three years doubled their total review output to eight. Camille, Broken Blossoms, Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, The Kid, Little Lord Fauntleroy, The Sheik, The Three Musketeers, and Way Down East.

That group of films not only indicates the quality of work coming out of Hollywood, but it also gives more recognition to the actors performing in the films.

Then as if to emphasize the point three of the major stars and one pioneer producer formed United Artist Films in order to maintain some control over their work. Charles Chaplin, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks and D.W. Griffith were members of that group and the top films of that time gives immediate credibility to their newly formed United Artist Film Company.

• Broken Blossoms, a D.W. Griffith film cast included Lillian Gish, Donald Crisp, and Richard Barthelmess.
• Camille, a Metro Film; scenario by June Mathis; heading the cast were Nazimova and Rudolph Valentino.
• The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, a Metro Film; scenario by June Mathis; cast members included Rudolph Valentino, Alice Terry, Alan Hale, and Wallace Beery.
• The Kid, a Charles Chaplin/United Artist Film; cast Charles Chaplin and child actor Jackie Coogan.
• Little Lord Fauntleroy a Pickford/United Artist Film starring Mary Pickford.
• The Sheik, a Paramount Picture; cast members include Agnes Ayers, Rudolph Valentino, Adolph Menjou and Walter Long.
• The Three Musketeers a Fairbanks/United Artist Film; cast included Douglas Fairbanks and Adolph Menjou.
• Way Down East, a Griffith/United Artist Film; cast members included Lillian Gish, Richard Barthelmess and Lowell Sherman.

Hollywood did not thrive on just a few screen stars there were others hard working actors that were gaining, almost stealthily, public recognition and support. Among that group of actors were Mable Normand, Frank Lloyd and Buster Keaton.

Mable Normand was the daughter of a vaudeville musician and grew up around show business.She worked at Biograph with Mack Sennett and later moved to California with Sennett and became a big part of his Keystone organization. Normand became very popular with the public and worked both in front of and behind the camera. Normand worked with and directed several of the Keystone stars including Charlie Chaplin and Fatty Arbuckle.

Frank Lloyd was born in Burchard, Nebraska and grew up working in the local theater. When he later moved to California he first worked with the old Edison Motion Picture Company alongside fellow struggling actor and director Hal Roach.

Lloyd eventually earned recognition and worked in scores of silent films. In most of his films Lloyd had some kind of thrill sequence written into the story and he did many of the dangerous stunts himself. Harold Lloyd was not flashy but you can judge his success by comparing his box office figures to those of Charlie Chaplin. Over the years Lloyd's films made $15.7 million to $10.5 million for Chaplin.

Buster Keaton was born into a vaudeville family. His Father owned a traveling show that featured Harry Houdini.

Keaton began working early in silent films and his trademark was physical comedy with a consistently stoic, deadpan expression, earning him the nickname 'The Great Stone Face.'
Keaton was also a director and his work in front of and behind the camera won applause not only from the public but from the film community as well.

While Hollywood gins up for a new decade -- scandal looms on the horizon.
(To be continued.)
 
'Doc Holliday's Road to Tombstone' Excerpt
Spicer Hearing: 'Defense call your first witness.'

Wednesday, November 16th...

There was a dull quiet in the courtroom as the first defense witness was sworn and took the stand.

"My name is Wyatt S. Earp. I was thirty-two years old the nineteenth of last March. Born at Monmouth, Warren County, Illinois...I reside in Tombstone, Cochise County, Arizona and have resided here since December 1st, 1879 and at present am a saloon keeper, also have been deputy sheriff and detective."

The gawky Price unlimbered. "I object to the witness reading from a prepared statement, Your Honor."

"You're overruled, Mr. Price. The statute is very broad and court feels the accused can make any statement he pleases, whether previously prepared or not." Judge Spicer then turned to Wyatt. "Go ahead with your testimony."

Wyatt sat for a moment glaring at Ike Clanton. "First thing I'd like to do is contest Ike Clanton's big lie stating that this whole tragedy stemmed from a scheme on the part of the Earps to assassinate him and thereby bury the, confessions we were supposed to have made about, 'Piping away coin from Wells Fargo shipments.' There's not a shred of truth in that story.

Price objected. Spicer overruled.

Wyatt then calmly said, "A little over a year ago I followed Frank and Tom McLowry and two other parties who had stolen six government mules from Camp Rucker. Myself, Virge and Morgan Earp and Marshall Williams, Captain Hurst and four soldiers. We traced those mules to McLowry's ranch--.”

"Your Honor," the district attorney said, "I must respectfully move to strike the above as irrelevant. It has absolutely nothing to do with the case."

"Overruled," Judge Spicer snapped, "Continue Mr. Earp.”

(To be continued.)

Writers Notebook:

Great artist’s and writer’s plumb experience from their subconscious. Mark Twain confided to the world on many occasions that he never worked a day in his life. All his humor and writings were due to the fact that he tapped the inexhaustible reservoir of his subconscious mind.

Shakespeare might not have been aware of the subconscious, but he put it this way. ‘Your thoughts write on the inside, which performs experience on the outside.’

Hemingway goes a step farther in his little book ‘A Moveable Feast’ as he writes about his life in Paris during the 1920’s. ‘… It was in that room that I learned not to think about anything that I was writing from the time I stopped writing until I started again the next day. That way my subconscious mind would be working on it.’

About the Author

Tom Barnes -- Actor, Writer and Hurricane Hunter.
Check out my website for books, blogs, western legends, a literary icon, reviews and interviews. Also my novels The Goring Collection and Doc Holliday’s Road to Tombstone along with a non fiction remembrance of The Hurricane Hunters and Lost in the Bermuda Triangle.
Www.tombarnes39.com
www.RocktheTower.com
http://thehurricanehunter.blogspot.com