Born Today April 15: Heinrich Kley (Not So Silent Edition)

1863-1945?

German illustrator and artist Heinrich Kley was born on this day in Karlsruhe, Germany.  He studied what was known as Practical Arts in his home town, finishing his art education in Munich.  His first works of art spanned a wide breadth of subjects.  He settled into the use of watercolors and oils and began producing what people called "industrial art."  He was also a biting cartoon editorialist.  It was these works that gained a big fan in Walt Disney.  He was such a big fan, that it is thought his collection of Kley's work was by far the largest in the world.  As a result of that, Dover issued a book of Kley's art that became popular amongst admirers of Disney, and this is the reason that the U.S. is really the only place that he is remembered today.  In his native Germany, he has all but been forgotten.  This reason for his inclusion here, comes from just 1 film from the late 1920's.  He is credited with "Art Director" on one of Rex Ingram's films The Three Passions, which was a very early talkie from 1928.  There is some confusion as to when Kley died.  Most sources cite the 2nd of August or 8th of February in 1945 at the age of 81; but there is enough doubt to seriously question that year, others claim the 8th February in 1952, in which case he would be been a very old man for the time.  What is known, is that he died in Munich.  Obviously, with this amount of confusion as to death year, it goes without saying that no one knows how his remains were handled after his death.

One of Kley's editorial cartoons on the subject of Napoleon.

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Born Today April 14: Adna R. Chaffee

 1842-1914

Major General of the United States Army Adna Romanza Chaffee  was born on this day in Orwell, Ohio.  Chaffee started his military service by enlisting in the Union Army at the start of the Civil War.  He was soon promoted to Sergeant; and by 1863, just two years after his enlistment, was made First Lieutenant.  He served in several conflicts, both domestically and abroad.  He is mainly remembered for being the Chief of Staff of the United States Army between the years of 1904 and 1906.  He is also the father of Adna R. Chaffee Jr., who also rose to the rank of Major General.  The reason for his inclusion here is his appearance in one documentary short from 1901.  The War In China was produced by American Mutoscope & Biograph, and was actually shot in China.  It is the only documentary film that Chaffee ever appeared in.  After his retirement from the military, he moved to Los Angeles became a civil servant, being appointed president of the Board of Public Works.  Chaffee died on the 1st of November 1914, he was 74 years of age. He is interred in Arlington National Cemetery.

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Born Today April 13: David Christie Murray

1846-1907

British journalist, lecturer and writer David Christie Murray was born on this date in West Bronwich, England. He was educated in his hometown and in Spoon Lane until the age of twelve.  At that time he was withdrawn from school and put to work in his father's print shop.  At the age of 18, he was sent to London to further study printmaking, but he wound up enlisting in the army instead.  After his military service, he became a journalist.  At first he struggled with his new found writing career, but managed to land a deal to travel abroad and cover the Russo-Turkish War.  After successfully covering the war, he then went a lecture circuit, first in England, then, after some years of living in France and Belgium, principally in Australia; this turned out to be a very big success.  In 1890 he seemingly disappeared and was missing for 5 months, when he cabled to say that he had be working in Samoa and was a guest of fellow writer Robert Louis Stevenson.  He also had decided to devout his writing full time to producing works of fiction, abandoning journalism.  When he was in Australia, he also successfully assisted in several theatrical productions.  Only two films have been produced from his works, and both of them were in the silent era.  The first of these was In His Grip; the second was The Penniless Millionaire.  Both films were British productions and both were released in 1921.  Murray suffered some sort of long illness at the end of his life and died of an aneurysm on the 1st of August in 1907 at the relatively young age of 60.  He is buried in Hampstead, England. 

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Born Today April 12: Aleksandr Ostrovskiy

1823-1886

Russian writer Aleksandr (Alexander) Nikolayevich Ostrovsky was born on this day in Moscow to a prominent lawyer.  The ethnicity of the family has been a topic of debate for years: whether the family was indeed Russian or from Polish and Belorussian ancestry cannot be settled since the records that would answer that question were destroyed in a fire.  After his mother died in his childhood, his father remarried a Baroness of Russian and Swedish ancestry; among other household changes that she made, she charged herself to see that her step children got first rate educations.  In 1840 Ostrovskiy graduated from the private school (Gymnasium) in Moscow and enrolled in the University of Moscow with the intent to study the law.  He a several prominent tutors there.  When the family moved into a riverside country house, Ostrovskiy began to write poetry.  He quickly moved on to writing sketches and plays.  He soon found himself a huge theater enthusiast--spending more and more time at the Moscow Petrovsky Theater; it became such a passion that it caused him to fail his Roman Law exams (the equivalent of the Bar exam her in the U.S.)--as a result, he left the university and accepted a clerks job in the Court of Consciousness.  He bounced around the courts system for several years; the experience provided subject matter for his first big plays.  In 1851, he decided to devote his life completely to a writing career.  He had already had a staged debut of one of his works in 1847.  From this time forward he found great success as a playwright and would go on to influence the next generation of Russian writers, amongst them Turgenev.  Several of his works were even adapted into opera--a high-brow form of musical. Many films have been made using his plays as source material, most them either Russian or German; but only two of them came in the silent era.  The first was Na boykom meste (1911); and the second was The Busy Inn (1916), based on the same work.  The first sound film made from his work came in 1934 with the Soviet made Thunderstorm.  The most recent film of his work was released in 2014 with the French made La forét.  Ostrovskiy died at the age of 63 on the 14th of June in Schelykovo, Russia.  He had been buried there in a private cemetery near his mansion, his remains were subsequently moved to a more public location.

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Born Today April 11: Claude Tillier

1801-1844

French writer Claude Tillier was born on this date in Clamecy, Névre, France.  He was a prominent pamphleteer who also penned novels.  He was born to a locksmith, but was able to attend formal studies at the Lycee de Bourges thanks to a grant given to him by his hometown.  He graduated in 1820 and continued on to study at the college of Soissons, and later in Paris.  He was a keen student of rhetoric, and after his education, became a translator of Greek and Latin.  He spent a brief period in the French army and returned to his hometown upon his release.  There he became a teacher.  Not satisfied with the curriculum given to him to teach, he quit and founded his own private school.  At the same time he also started his own newspaper.  The last job that he held in life was that of a editor of a democratic newspaper in Nevers.  Five films have been made from his most famous novel Mon oncle Benjamin. One of them in 1924.  My Uncle Benjamin was a French production of the Pathe' Consortium Cinéma.  It is the only film made from his book during the silent era. The first sound era production of the book came in the French television series Le théâtre de la jeunesse in 1963.  The most recent film produced from this work was released in 1973, Mein Onkel Benjamin is a German made for television film.  While he was in military service he contracted tuberculosis, and it would be that disease that would cut his life short at the age of 43, when he died in his hometown on the 12th of October.  He is buried in the Jean-Gautherin Cemetery.

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Born Today April 10: Lew Wallace

1826-1905

American military man, civil servant, politician and writer Lewis "Lew" Wallace was born on this date in Brookville, Indiana.  His father was an former military man and influential lawyer, who would become Governor of Indiana.  When his father was elected, the family moved to Indianapolis, where the younger Wallace and his many siblings grew up.  Wallace was pretty much a "do everything" sort of man.  He followed in the footsteps of his father in regard to the law and the military, rising to the rank of General. He served in both the Mexican-American war and in the Civil War as a Union officer.  He even did a brief stint in the Mexican army after resigning his military commission in the U.S.  After military service, he was appointed governor of the then New Mexican territories, and he later served the country in the capacity of an ambassador.  So why is general and a civil servant on a silent film blog?  Because, in addition to all of the above, Wallace was also a writer.  In his autobiography, he stated that he started writing as diversion from studying the law, which he found tedious.  While a couple of films in the silent era were made from so-called "lesser novels," all of the rest of the films made from his work come from just one novel, and it's famous one.  Ben-Hur was first published in 1880.  Fans of silent film will at once think of the epic film Ben-Hur: A Tale Of The Christ of 1925, however the book was first filmed in 1907.  Ben Hur (1907) was a 15 minute short produced by Kalem in New York  (the film astoundingly has survived).  A Prince of India, which was shot in Ithaca, New York, came out in 1914; and the Italians took on his work in 1917 with Cuori e sensi.  Everyone who knows anything about major Hollywood blockbusters is very well familiar with the first sound production of his famous work:  Ben-Hur starring Charlton Heston came out in 1959.  The book as since been filmed 4 more times, with two theme being animated.  The most recent of these came with the 2016 remake Ben-Hur.  Ben-Hur has been called the most important and influential Christian book of the nineteenth century.  Wallace continued to write up to the time of his death, which came on the 15th of February in 1905 at the age of 77 in Crawfordsville, Indiana, where he had retired.  He is buried there with pomp and circumstance in Oak Hill Cemetery.

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Born Today April 9 (Not So Silent Edition): Ward Bond

1903-1960

American character actor Ward Bond, birth name Wardell Edwin Bond--was born on this day in Benkelman, Nebraska.  His family later moved to Denver, Co. (this move has lead to some confusion as to when and where he was actually born, but the information above has been corroborated as correct).   Bond grew up in Benkelman; the move to Colorado came in the year 1919, where Ward attended and graduated high school.  He then attended the University of Southern California, where he played football; one Marion Michael Morrison (AKA John Wayne) was also on the team.  Bond would never appear in a fully silent film, and he is often credited with making his movie acting debut in 1929.  However, somewhere along the way, he had gotten into acting as an extra in a couple of Hollywood's biggest films of the late 1920's.  This was probably as a result of his friendship with Wayne, who had been acting in films since 1926.  The first of these was Noah's Ark, a Darryl F. Zanuck written, Michael Curtiz directed multiple time line epic that was an early talkie (sound by Western Electric Apparatus).  He next had a bit part in the 1929 Words And Music, which had both a mono and a silent edition.  His first credited role also came in 1929 with Salute, a film at least partially directed by John Ford.  In fact, the entire  U. of So. Cal. football team was hired for this film--as the film culminates with an Army/Navy football game.  It would be, though the Wayne/Bond/Ford trio who would go on to have serious careers in Hollywood and the three would remain life-long friends.  Having caught the acting bug with these early experiences, he would go on to be one the best character actors of Hollywood's golden age--making a career out of playing hard boiled types, despite the genre.  Though he had roles in earlier blockbusters, such as Gone With The Wind and Sergeant York, he is probably best remembered for his role in the Christmas classic It's A Wonderful Life.  During the 1950's he also got into television work as well, with his last role being Major Seth Adams in Wagon Train--a major character in the show.  Bond died prematurely at the age of 57 from a massive heart attack on the 5th of November in 1960 in Dallas, Texas.  His old friend John Wayne gave the eulogy at his funeral, he was then cremated and his ashes were scattered at sea.

Seen here on the left in It's A Wonderful Life

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Born Today April 8: Alfred Bunn

1796-1860

English songwriter Alfred Bunn was born on this day in London in 1796 or possibly 1797.  He best remembered for being a highly successful theater manager. After making his was up through the theatrical ranks, and finally becoming a stage manager in Drury Lane, he became a keen and frequent promoter of opera.  In 1826 he graduated to management of the Royal Theater in Birmingham, and by 1833, he took on the dual duties of both managing Drury Lane and Covent Garden at the same time.  By the 1840's he was writing a few libretti for opera himself.  He is best remembered in the music world for his lyrical songs.  He even makes a brief appearance in James Joyce's Ulysses, when Leopold Bloom misremembers one of Bunn's lyrics.  In terms of film, his lyrics first made an appearance on screen in title cards in the year 1906 with the song "The Heart Bowed Down" in the short of of the same name.  His lyrics were not used again until the dawn of the talking era in the 1930 in Song o' My Heart.  The most recent use of his music in a movie came in the 2011 horror/mystery The Shadows.  Bunn died on the 2nd of December in Boulogne, France at the age of 63 or 64.  There are currently no details on his burial, but it would have been strange if he were not brought back to England for burial at Covent Garden's St. Paul's.

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Born Today April 7: William Allan Pinkerton

1846-1923

William Allan (sometimes spelled "Allen") Pinkerton was born into the (in)famous Pinkerton family on this day in Dundee, Illinois.  His father was Allan Pinkerton founder of the Pinkerton Detective Agency.  The younger Pinkerton was educated in both public and private schools and later Notre Dame.  He entered the U. S. Army in 1861 serving throughout the Civil War.  He then went to work at his father's agency and stayed there as a career.  The reason for his inclusion here is a bit of a first.  At some point in his life he wound up in Los Angeles and served as one of the very first film consultants in the history of Hollywood.  He was hired as a technical advisor on the film Voices Of The City (1921), which starred amongst others Lon Chaney.  Pinkerton died there at the age of 77 on the 11th of December.  His remains were shipped back to Illinois, where he is buried in Chicago's Graceland Cemetery.

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Born Today April 6: Aleksandr Herzen

1812-1870

Russian writer Aleksandr Ivanovich Herzen (first name sometimes spelled Alexander) was born on this day according to the New Style Dates in Moscow.  (His Old Style Dates are 25 March 1812--9 January 1870).  He was born out of wedlock, the son of a very wealthy Russian landowner and a young Protestant woman from Stuttgart, Germany.  He is related by blood on his father's side of the family  to the important early Russian photographic pioneer Sergey Lvovich Levitsky, who would take several iconic "portrait" photographs of Herzen.  Neither one of his parents had the surname, but instead, it was supposedly his father who gave him the name Herzen (obviously Germanic in origin) because he was a "child of the heart."  Herzen was born during contentious times for Russia, having been born just after Napoleon invaded.  Owed,  though, to his father's prominence, the family was barely affected, quickly gaining the dictator's approval to relocate in France.  The family returned to Moscow one year later.  As a young man, Herzen attended Moscow University.  But, in 1834, he and a friend were arrested and convicted to attending a festival that anti-Tsarist songs were supposedly sung.  His punishment was that he was exiled.   He remained in exile until the Grand Duke at the time visited him along with prominent poet Zhukovsky; he was then allowed to leave for Vladimir, where he became a newspaper editor.  While there, he married a cousin in secret.  By 1840 his full exile was lifted and he returned with his growing family to Moscow.  Upon his return he was given an important government secretarial job.  He also made the acquaintance literary critic Belinsky.  Despite that upon his father's death, he inherited a large amount of very valuable land, he and his family (his mother included) left Russia for Italy, never to return.  They then went to Paris and finally to Geneva, Switzerland.  By this time Herzen was a pretty well known political writer; but he found European socialist movements woefully lacking--complete failure.  However, by this time his views on Russia, and his call for serious political change there, caused the Tsar to freeze all of his assets.  It took the intervention of Baron Rothschild to negotiate to unfreeze them.  By 1852 his mother, his wife and one of his children had died, so he decided to leave Geneva for London.  While there he founded the Russian Free Press.  He left London in 1864 and headed back to Geneva, and very shortly found himself back in Paris.  He died there from complications due to tuberculosis on the 21st of January (NS), at 57 years of age.  He was originally buried in Paris, but his remains were subsequently re-buried in Nice.  As to his writing, he is by far and away best known for his political writing advancing his complete adherence to socialist ideas; he did, however, also write stories--and it is these that come into play in regards to film.  Only three productions have been made using his stories as source material, and the first of these came in 1920 with Thieving Magpie  which was made in his native Russia.  The first sound film was made by the Soviet owned Mosfilm in 1960 with Soroka-vorovka.  The most recent, and only other, use of his work came as an episode of Spain's Novela, with Almas gemelas.  

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