Showing posts with label
Intolerance: Love's Struggle Throughout The Ages (1916).
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Showing posts with label
Intolerance: Love's Struggle Throughout The Ages (1916).
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1893-1920
Young but extremely prolific actor Robert Emmett Harron was born on this day in New York City. Affectionately known as "Bobby" he was the second of nine children in a large metropolitan Irish American family. Half of his younger siblings became child actors in the first studio system in the New York/Fort Lee area. When he was just fourteen he was hired at Biograph (home of D.W. Griffith); there he was both a set runner ("errand boy") and an extra in pictures. He is listed as "Boy at Door" in the 1907 Wallace McCutcheon comedy Dr. Skinum (the only other person credited in the short is veteran Irish born actor Anthony O'Sullivan--who is playing a part as a woman). He stayed a principle actor with McCutcheon until falling under the influence of director Griffith in mid-1908 (many of the McCutcheon films in which he appeared, were actually penned by Griffith and a couple also feature Griffith as an actor as well). His first turn under Griffith's direction came in the short comedy written by Griffith A Calamitous Elopement (1908). After this, his short lived career was very closely tied to Griffith and his ever expanding since of film. Along the way, Harron acted with a number of actors who already were, or became, stars. They included: Florence Lawrence (with whom he appeared often), Mary Pickford (and even her brother Jack), Mack Sennett, Marion Leonard, Owen Moore, Kate Bruce, Dell Henderson, Mabel Normand, Christy Cabanne, Lillian Gish (and sister Dorothy), Lionel Barrymore, Harry Carey, and Griffith's own wife at the time Linda Arvidson. It took until 1914 before his appeared in a film not directed by Griffith; when he appeared in one Christy Cabanne's earlier directorial efforts The Great Leap: Until Death Do Us Part with Irene Hunt and Donald Crisp. By the time he went back to appearing in Griffith films, he had appeared in several pictures that were over an hour long (what we generally call "features" today). His first feature with Griffith came in the gothic adaptation of Poe (by Griffith) in what is considered an "silent horror" today--The Avenging Conscience: or "Thou Shalt Not Kill" (1914)--even though the concept of horror films didn't really exist at that time. He would spend his time between features appearing in a series of shorts; until he was cast in probably his most famous--and infamous--role as Tod in Griffith's shameful (and record breakingly long) The Birth of a Nation in 1915. It is this, and his role as "The Boy" in Griffith's supposed apology for Birth, Intolerance: Love's Struggle Through the Ages that Harron is remembered for almost exclusively today. In his short career, however, he actually appeared in well over 200 films. After Intolerance he appeared in just 13 films between 1916 and 1921. By the dawn of the new decade he was actively trying to move on from Griffith's world, having since relocated to Hollywood. He appeared no films that were actually released in 1920. He landed a contract with Metro and appeared in the comedy Coincidence, which was in the can in by August of 1920 and a spiffy "preview" (ie: trailer) was produced for showcase in theaters in the large metropolitan cities. Harron and a friend traveled all the way from Los Angeles to New York expressly for the premiere of Griffith's latest: Way Down East (a film you may remember for it's infamous icy, wet and very dangerous outdoor shoots) in September of that year. The preview for Coincidence was shown at that premiere and apparently didn't go over terribly well with the audience--according to Harron himself (additional to this, he was reported to have been upset by not landing the lead in Way Down East, a report that seemed wholly fabricated by the press). In any case, upon returning to his hotel room, a gun he had in his packing trunk went off and struck him in the lung. Not thinking he was badly hurt, he called down to the desk and asked the hotel clerk for some help. It took some time to convince Harron allow an ambulance to be called. By the time he was removed from the hotel, he had reportedly lost a considerable amount of blood. While in hospital, he was arrested for being in possession of a firearm without a permit--a serious crime in the state of New York at the time. His arrest occasioned his being moved to the hospital's prison ward--which could not have helped his situation. However, he did appear to be on the mend, when four days after the incident, he took a turn for the worse (possibly due to an infection setting in) and died suddenly on the 5th of September. He was only 27 years old. A devout Catholic and a serious teetotaler (and also basically the sole income for his family-who resided with him in Los Angeles), there is almost zero evidence that he was trying to commit suicide. That, and the fact that he was both in good spirits and extremely apologetic with the hotel staff that attended him after his call for help, would lead anyone to conclude that this was nothing more than a tragic accident--an account that he himself repeated several times before his death. He also explained to the police that he brought the gun with him to keep his younger brother from finding it in their home while he was away. Upon his return to California, he was set to begin filming with young director Elmer Clifton (it is possible that film was Down to the Sea in Ships). Harron was, instead, buried at Calvary Cemetery in Queens, New York.
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| [photo: TomDuse] |
1897-1984
Silent film actress Jewel Carmen was born Florence Lavina Quick in Danville, Kentucky (this despite her death certificate vaguely stating that she was simply born in Oregon) on this date most probably in 1897. Quick/Carmen's career in Hollywood was fraught with troubles and scandals from the get-go. She went be a surprising number "stage" names for someone so young in the business. Her first appearance in a film came in 1912 in The Will Of Destiny in a rare American Méliès Co. production under the name "Florence L Vinci;" presumably she would have been 15 years of age. This is probably correct, but things get a bit twisted up here in regards to biography. In 1913, she started appearing in films produced by Keystone--the first of which is The Professor's Daughter under the name Evelyn Quick--things quickly got out of hand. On the 30 of April of that year, she filed a complaint to the police that two car salesmen had forced her into non-payment debt (listed on the report as delinquency) and reported that she was only 15. Investigations into the matter quickly got sorted, as it turned up evidence of blackmail and "white slavery" (sex trafficking) ring in which she was involved under the name "Evelyn Quick." Though no Keystone people were ever named in the case; disturbingly, a very large number of their actors and directors fled to Mexico because of the investigation. It was later "determined" that "Evelyn Quick" was actually 23 years of age and the case was dropped. All the Keystone people returned promptly after. What is equally disturbing is that they felt they needed to flee in such numbers in the first place; and also, though it's not out of the question that Quick could have lied about her age--she did live a very long life eventually dying from lymphoma at the age of 86 (if she had been born in 1897)--adding 7 more years to age, meant that she would be been 93 at death. That seems unlikely given that she retired from acting before the end of the silent era. Also, given the number alias' that she seemed to have, it does seem likely that something very wrong was taking place. Where there's smoke, there is usually fire. Carmen, also would not remain a stranger to legal suits either. In 1917, she signed a contract with Fox, after spending a stint at Fine Arts Film Company, where the name Jewel Carmen was credited (she also had a very, very small part in D. W. Griffith's Intolerance in 1916). Her first film for Fox was A Tale Of Two Cities, based on the Dickens novel. She found the deal personally unacceptable to herself, so, without breaking the contract, she entered into a contract at Keeney Corp. two years later in 1918. Fox promptly sent Keeney a sort "cease & desist" letter--warning them of her existing contract with them, and warning them of a pending suit against them if they assisted her in breaking her Fox contract. Carmen responded by filing two personal law suits against Fox: 1) to essentially break her contract with them, 2) attempt to essentially "counter sue" them for attempting to interfere in her contract with Keeney--though Fox had not actually filed any suit of it's own against the rival company. A lot of legal gobbly-gook took place with her having only a partial victory, ending up with a legal loophole that let her walk away from Fox free and clear. She never did make a film for Keeney. The first film that she appeared in after this legal mess was The Silver Lining (1921), directed by Roland West, whom she had married in 1918 (he would go on to marry Lola Lane). She would go on to appear in just three more films, two of them associated with her husband. The last film that she appeared is one of my personal favorites, The Bat in 1926 based on a play by Avery Hopwood. Though she had retired from acting, scandal was not done with her. Her then estranged husband had an affair with Thelma Todd with whom he was also a business partner in the 1930's. On the 16th of December 1935, Todd was found dead in her garage. Though the death was eventually ruled accidental (with possible suicidal tendencies) by carbon monoxide, with the detectives concluding she likely was trying to stay warm on a very cold night after having been locked out of her current abode. There was, however a murder investigation as Todd had no reason to commit suicide and--owed to the fact that gangsters frequented Todd's restaurant--there were also no lack of suspects with real motives. One of them was Carmen herself, who once reportedly threatened to kill Todd after Carmen's personal investment in her restaurant began to lose money. Carmen did not stay under suspicion for long, but her husband Roland West did, as he was a partner in the venture. No one was ever charged, but persistent gossip about the death drove Carmen into personal seclusion thereafter. She died, probably at the age of 86 in San Diego, California on the 4th of March 1984. She was cremated, and her ashes were scattered.
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| Carmen in The Bat (1926) |
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1819-1892
Famed American poet Walter Whitman was born on this date on Long Island, New York. When Whitman was four years of age, his family moved into the city, settling in Brooklyn. He generally didn't experience a happy childhood; as the family was greatly unsettled both financially and in housing due to a series of bad investments that Walter Whitman Sr. had made. By just he age of eleven, he had concluded his formal schooling, and was forced to seek employment to help supplement the family income (he was the second oldest of 9 children). He started out as an office boy for a very small law firm, and then moved on to apprentice in the printing business for a Long Island Newspaper. He was taken with the typesetting. It is around this time that is thought that he was also allowed to write bits as filler for a few issues. A year later, he got another job at another printer, this time in Brooklyn. In the spring of the following year he landed a job at a local Whig newspaper there called the Long-Island Star; it was at this time that he became a frequent visitor to the local library and discovered the theater. He also published his first poems in the New-York Mirror, albeit anonymously. He moved further into the city, taking a job in Manhattan as a compositor--an advanced type-setting job. He returned to Long Island in 1836, where he took various local teaching positions--a profession he did not enjoy. In Huntingdon, New York, tired of teaching, he founded his own newspaper the Long Islander. For the longest of times, it was basically a one man operation. After just ten months, he sold the operation and went back to type-setting in Jamaica, Queens; but left shortly after--taking up more teaching positions. During this period of time he published a series of editorials: "Sun-Down-Papers--From The Desk of a Schoolmaster." After this, he returned to New York City to take up a lower level position at New World; he also continued to work in various capacities at newspapers working his way up to editor. Through the 1840's he worked also as free-lance fiction and poetry writer. By 1852, he was penning as serialized novel Life and Adventures of Jack Engle: An Autobiography: A Story of New York at the Present Time in which the Reader Will Find Some Familiar Characters. He then published, under the pen-name Mose Velsor the curiosity that is Manly Health and Training. This is when he decided to take up poetry seriously and devote his life to the writing of it. By the early 1850's he was working on pieces that would become his most famous work Leaves Of Grass. Though Whitman's portrait appears on the front piece of the first edition, the work was published without a name attached to it. Despite high praise from Ralph Waldo Emerson, the book caused a sensation. A second edition was almost not released--all through out the 1850's Whitman would continue to have financial difficulties--keeping him working hard in the newspaper business. The coming of the extreme violence of the Civil War had a profoundly negative impact on Whitman, at one point he left for Washington D.C., with no intention of returning to New York. In D.C., a friend of his helped him to secure a part-time job at the army's paymaster office, leaving Whitman time to work as a nurse at army hospitals in the area. Family woes also plagued him at this time, with one brother having been captured by the Confederates, another dying from consumption, and yet another that he personally have to have committed to a mental facility. Nonetheless, he managed to find a full time, well paying job the Bureau of Indian Affairs in the Department of the Interior. He was abruptly fired from this job by the new Secretary of the Department--a former Senator from Iowa. In Whitman's case, it is thought that he was fired because the Senator had found a copy of the 1960 publication of Leaves Of Grass. He was then transferred to Attorney General's office, where he spent time interviewing former confederate soldiers for presidential pardon, and found many of them "real characters." All through this time, he had continued to publish poems sparsely and a variety of subjects, including one of the death the President Abraham Lincoln. Whitman remained at the Attorney General's office until 1873, when he suffered a stroke that left him partially paralyzed. He then retired to the home of one of his brother's in Camden, N.J. He remained there until 1884, suffering bouts of depression, until he could purchase his own home in the town. By this time, he was almost completely bedridden; though he was able to continue to work from bed editing various editions of Leaves of Grass. He had a live in housekeeper who had a menagerie of animals and lived with him rent free in exchange for work. While working on what he called his "deathbed edition" of Leaves, he commissioned a granite mausoleum shaped as a house, overseeing it's construction was the last real work of his life. Walt Whitman finally gave up the ghost on the 26th of March 1892 at the age of 72. An autopsy revealed him to have been suffering from a myriad of afflictions, any one of which would have taken a person's life. A public viewing of his body was held in his home and four days later, he was placed in his self designed tomb located at Harleigh Cemetery in Camden. Very few films have used Whitman's writing as source material--and the most that have are either shorts or episodic art television. However the very first use of his work comes in a doozy of a silent film. A section of D. W. Griffith's 3 hour and 20 minute sprawling epic Intolerance: Love's Struggle Throughout The Ages, which dates from 1916, used Whitman's poem "Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking." His work would not be used again until 1954 in the television series Your Favorite Story. The most recent use of his work for film source material came in an animated video short Manahatta which was made in 2011.
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