Born Today January 4: Marion Morgan

 

[Photo by Arnold Genthe]

1881-1971

 

Famed and extremely talented choreographer and early screenwriter Marion Morgan was born Marion Cahill on this day in Paterson, New Jersey. Not yet twenty, she married Matthew Morgan in 1900, hence her professional surname. By 1910, her and her young son were on their own, relocated to Long Beach, California and Marion found work at a Los Angeles area high school, later landing a summer job as a dance instructor at the University of California at Berkeley. It was the first in a long line of dance work for Morgan. She thereafter formed her own all-female vaudeville troupe.  It was truly a one of a kind outfit; all members were required to study classical literature because the group performed in costumes and style deliberately reminiscent of Egyptian and Greco/Roman themes (at one point all of the member were required to be practicing Christian Scientists and, at all times, the troupe was strictly vegetarian).  They toured the country extensively and soon became infamous, if not famous. They were certainly always a crowd draw. In 1921, director/writer Allen Holubar hired her to work on his independently produced domestic drama Man-Woman-Marriage; the film was to contain flashbacks to various ancient times, including Ancient Roman scenes. She was the obvious choice for choreographing said scenes. Far more important in film history was not her first film credit, but the fact that she met one Dorothy Arzner on the set of this film.

 

They formed a personal relationship and would be one of the longest relationships in Hollywood history. They also had a business relationship, but they would not actually work together on a film until 1927. In the meantime, Morgan would continue to work at her new found work: choreography for films. She provided choreographical work on both Rocking Moon (specifically the native dance routine) and Don Juan--both were released in 1926, and in both her work went without a credit. She is also said to have worked on a number of other films in 1926 and 1927; the two most well known being Paris at Midnight (1926) a Jetta Goudal/Lionel Barrymore film, and Up in Mabel's Room (1927) with Marie Prevost and Harrison Ford. 

 

Her first work on one of Arzner's film was in the capacity of both the choreographer and an editor. Fashions For Women was Arzner's professional directorial debut; it was a light-hearted melodrama centered around the fashion industry starring Esther Ralston. The culmination of the film was a fashion show which Morgan choreographed.  She then moved on to choreograph Azner's Ten Modern Commandments, also a 1927 production, which also starred Ralston in the lead. 

 

 

She is next credited with a "tableaux" in Azner's  American abroad comedy Get Your Man starring Clara Bow. The tableau in question was was a staged dance routine set inside a wax museum. More than one review listed it as the high point of the film; and the dancers in question were drawn from her own troupe. The film exists in an incomplete form (missing two reels) at the Library of Congress.

From Get Your Man [Source: Library of Congress, via WSJ]

Her last choreographic work in an Arzner silent came in the prologue story of Manhattan Cocktail which again features an ancient Greek  frame story, theme and costume; Morgan's dance specialty.  Filmed as a partial silent, it appears that a silent version also existed; it's unclear in the "part-talkie" version if the dance sequence featured music. The film is today listed as almost totally lost, save for a small snippet of the monatage snippet of "Manhattan Skyline" by Serbian born cinematic artist Slavko Vorkapich. 

Arzner continued to make films, but Morgan did not work with her again in any official capacity. Tragically in late 1929, her 28 year old son died in Los Angeles. Despite that she moved in with Arzner into a house they jokingly called "Armor" (after famous Pickford/Fairbanks "Pickfair") she did not work again at all for a time; choosing instead to put her energy into getting a degree--which she did from the drama school at Yale. It was another five years before she worked in film again. She came back to help pen two Mae West films based on stories she co-wrote with George Dowell, which West herself wrote the screenplays for: Goin' to Town (1935) and Klondike Annie (1936).  She and Arzner had a forty year relationship and co-habitation; while not flaunting their sexual orientation, they didn't hide it either--highly unusual for the times. Morgan passed away in Los Angeles on the 10th  of November in 1971 at the age of 90. She wished to be interred with her son, whom she had interred with her own mother, at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale. Her ashes were added to their niche, but her presence there remains unmarked. Her dance archives are preserved at the New York Public Library.

[Source: Detroit Public Library]

[Source: New York Public Library]

[Source: Museum of the City of New York]

[Photo: Arnold Genthe]

[Photo: Arnold Genthe]

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[source: Kathy Salazar (Find a Grave)]

 

Born Today January 3: Dorothy Arzner

Arzner on the set (photo credit unknown)

1897-1979

One the most important directors of the 20th century Dorothy Emma Arzner was born on this date in San Francisco.  Though born in San Francisco, she grew up in Los Angeles, where her father owned a resturant popular with Hollywood celebrities.  To look at her body of work as a director, on the page, it would not suggest her importance to the history of cinema; the fact is, that not only is she one of the most important directors to come out of the U.S., she was also responsible for launching the careers of a whole host of strong minded and seriously talented actresses (the list is impressive and includes Katherin Hepburne and Lucille Ball).  She was the first woman to become a hired gun at any major studio; and her work with women of the silent era is equally of import.  She is also a a very important inspiration to filmmakers in the LGBT community.  She broke barriers when the cost doing so was more than sky-high. 

Azner's original plan for a career was to become a doctor; she spent two years in a pre-med program at the University of Southern California; she even spent time working as an ambulance corp in World War I.  The experience made he realize that becoming a physician was not what she wanted to do in life.  Around the time she returned from the war, she caught the movie bug.  It probably didn't hurt that she had been around people in the business through her father's establishment as she was growing up.  There were obviously some family connections.  She is known to have been introduced to William de Mille, the brother of Cecil, through the owner of the newspaper that she went to work for after returning from the war.  This lead to a job as a stenographer at Famous Players-Lasky, which would shortly become Paramount.  She was exposed to editing rooms and active film sets during her work, intriguing her and piquing her interest in directing.  This also lead to her working on the editing, without formal credit, of the Donald Crisp directed 1919 film Too Much Johnson; working along side one Nan Heron--who curiously as only one credit (this would lead me to believe that the credit for editing of the film should be Arzner's).  She does have full credit on the next Crisp directed film that she edited in 1920: The Six Best Cellars.  Her first experience with directing came with work on the 1922 Valentino film Blood and Sand which Fred Niblo was heading up; she directed additional footage for the film for which she received no credit, and was known to be very much involved with the editing, though again, she was given no credit.  

Her career throughout most of the rest of the 1920's was in the Paramount editing department and as a writer for director James Cruze, one of the film industry's first minority directors at a major studio, who saw in her talent and technique.  Her scenario writing is featured in Inez From Hollywood (1924), one of the only films that she worked on the 1920's that was not a Cruze picture (the director was Alfred Green).  Her work, yet again went uncredited formally, on Cruze's Old Ironsides, but it earned her praise at the studio who knew her contributions to the film (she importantly was the script supervisor for the film); this led to her first real directing job.  She was not just handed this job on merits alone however, she had to fight for it.  In the end, she threatened to move to Columbia and Paramount realized she meant it.  She was then given the reigns to Fashions For Women, which was released in March of 1927.  The film turned out to be quite the financial success, so the brass at the studio had to at least acknowledge in private that they had a talented director on their hands.  She directed two more films in 1927, one of which, Get Your Man, starred Clara Bow.  This is worth pointing out, because in 1929 she would direct Bow in her first talkie The Wild Party.  In the process of making this film, Arzner invented, more or less impromptu, the boom mike--but didn't patent it, and therefore a male employee at Fox or did, gets credit for it's invention.  Arzner deserves all the credit in the history books however.  You also be hard pressed to find a poster for the film that contains Arzner's name, this despite coming in 3rd for earnings that year.  She became the first female director to make an all sound film. In 1927,  Arzner met the woman that she would spend the rest of her life with.  She met Marion Morgan on the set of Fashions (Morgan was credited with editing on the film), who was a choreographer and sometime screenwriter (the two also almost shared the same birthday--Morgan was born on January 4th).

Many hold that her films in the early 1930's--the bulk of her work-during the pre-code days of Hollywood are not just her finest work, but rank as some of the most important pre-code films period.  Arzner would go on to be the the first woman to join the Directors Guild of America in 1936 (a newly formed organization at the time).  Although she lived to the age of 82, she left directing in the 1940's.  The last film that she directed was a war picture for Columbia (the company she had threatened to abscond to in the 1920's while at Paramount).  That film First Comes Courage stars Merle Oberon as a woman risking her life working for the Norwegian underground; the film is definitely a product of the time; however it is an interesting feminist slant on war subjects turned out at the time.  Arzner died passed away in 1979--on 1 October, 8 years after Morgan had died (Dorothy was 16 years younger of her) and she moved to La Quinta afterward.  Par Arzner's wishes, she was cremated and her ashes were scattered.

One of my favorite Hepburn films of the 30's, made in 1933.

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Born Today September 7: Roscoe Karns

Roscoe Karns:  1891-1970

Although he is best known for his rapid fire delivery of lines in comedies and crime films of the 1930's and 1940's, with probably his best known role coming in the Frank Capra directed remarriage comedy The Happened One Night (1934) starring Claudette Colbert and Clark Gable, he was a serious silent era actor with his first film role coming in 1915.  There are a whole host of silent era actors who became serious stars that did not come from the theater that had no chance of making the transition to talkies (Theda Bara comes to mind), Karns was something like the exact opposite!  His first stage appearance came at the age of 15.  As for other notable speaking roles that he very, very entertaining in is in the 1940 produced His Girl Friday, another much more straight forward remarriage comedy, directed by Howard Hawks, starring Cary Grant, Rosalind Russell and Ralph Bellamy.  His rapid fire "reporters banter" as "MuCue" with Hildy (Russell) in the press room of the prison serves as a great balance to the antics of her ex-husband Walter Burns (Grant).  He is also one of the only silent era actors of significant note to make it into the world of television; including one show that he was the star of Rocky King:  Detective 1951-1954.  With his wife Mary, he had two children, one of which, Todd Karns (born 1921) went one to have a serious acting career of his own.  He even appeared with his father in Rocky King.  Roscoe is buried in the Hollywood Forever Cemetery.

Roscoe & Todd Karns

Silent Era Work

Mr. Carlson Of Arizona (1915) (short)

From Champion To Tramp (1915) (short)

A Species Of Mexican Man (1915) (lost short film)

A Western Governor's Humanity (1915) (lost short film)

Know Thy Wife! (1918) (short)

Brides For Two (1919) (short)

Sally's Blighted Career (1919) (short)

Oh, Susie, Be Careful (1919) (short)

Poor Relations (1919)

The Family Honor (1920)

Life Of The Party (1920)

The Man Tamer (1921)

Too Much Married (1921)

Her Own Money (1922)

The Trouper (1922)

Afraid To Fight (1922)

Conquering The Woman (1922)

Other Men's Daughters (1923)

Down To The Ship To See (1923) (A Pal The Dog short)

The Ten Commandments (1923) (famously remade again by DeMille in 1956)

Bluff (1924)

The Midnight Express (1924)

A Foolish Virgin (1924)

The Overland Limited (1925)

Dollar Down (1925) (directed by Tod Browning)

You'd Be Surprised (1926)

Ritzy (1927)

Wings (1927) (silent with original score and sound effects by Western Electric Sound System, this one two of the earliest Oscars.)

Ten Modern Commandments (1927) (directed by Dorothy Arzner, one of the earliest female directors.)

The Jazz Singer (1927)

Beau Sabreur (1928)

The Trail Of '98 (1928) (early talkie silent hybrid, Mono by MovieTone, soundtrack and sound effects by Western.)

Something Always Happens (1928) (haunted house comedy caper)

The Desert Bride (1928)

The Vanishing Pioneer (1928) (lost film)

Warming Up! (1928) (another mono/silent hybrid, but unfortunately also a lost film)

Jazz Mad (1928)

Win That Girl (1928)

Beggars Of Life (1928) (talkie/silent hybrid, talking scenes and score by MovieTone)

Moran Of The Marines (1928)

Object: Alimony (1928)

The Shopworn Angel (1928) (talkie/silent hybrid, talking sequences by Western Electric)

The Flying Fleet (1929) (scored silent, soundtrack and sound effects by MovieTone)

Copy (1929) (early talking short, Mono by MovieTone)

This Thing Called Love (1929) (early talkie sound by RCA, hybrid black and white and color film, with color by both Multicolor and Technicolor, but again it is unfortunately a lost film)

New York Nights (1929) (early talkie, sound by Western Electric)