Publicity Spot for D.W. Griffith
(Vanity Fair, 1919)
A thumbnail biography of the celebrated silent film director,D.W. Griffith
Hollywood History
Carl Sandburg on Charlie Chaplin
(Vanity Fair Magazine, 1922)
This poem was submitted to the Vanity Fair editors by an obscure film critic named Carl Sandburg (1878 – 1967):
The room is dark. The door opens. It is Charlie
playing for his friends after dinner, ‘the marvel-
ous urchin, the little genius of the screen…’
Between the years 1920 – 1928, Sandburg served as the film critic for the Chicago Daily News.
Douglas Fairbanks on Hollywood
(Vanity Fair, 1918)
Attached is a very funny article written by the great matinee idol Douglas Fairbanks (1883 – 1939) concerning the predictability of silent films:
Whether eastern or western, the villain is never without a big black cigar. On the screen a big black cigar represents villainy; on the stage it represents General Grant.
Click here to read magazine articles about D.W. Griffith.
Douglas Fairbanks on the Writers of Silent Movies…
(Vanity Fair, 1918)
Yet another article from the dusty, moldy magazines of yore that illustrate how the silent film actor Douglas Fairbanks (1883 – 1939) would, time and again, bite that hand that fed him so generously: this is one more example in which Fairbanks points out the all-too predictable story lines of American silent movies.
A Sweep at the Oscars
(Newsweek Magazine, 1940)
On February 29, at the Academy’s twelfth annual dinner at the Ambassador Hotel in Hollywood, Gone with the Wind surpassed [1934’s ‘It Happened One Night’] by winning eight out of sixteen possible prizes and garnering two special awards for good measure.
Diana Barrymore: Wild Thing
(Confidential Magazine, 1954)
The gum-shoe reporters at Confidential Magazine were on the job as soon as it became clear to all that her wayward lifestyle could no longer be ignored.
Diana Barrymore: Wild Thing
(Confidential Magazine, 1954)
The gum-shoe reporters at Confidential Magazine were on the job as soon as it became clear to all that her wayward lifestyle could no longer be ignored.
Diana Barrymore: Wild Thing
(Confidential Magazine, 1954)
The gum-shoe reporters at Confidential Magazine were on the job as soon as it became clear to all that her wayward lifestyle could no longer be ignored.
Clark Gable: Cad
(Confidential Magazine, 1955)
We all know that there are two sides to every story, but not in this article. If the utterances of Clark Gable’s first wife (Josephine Dillon, 1884 – 1971) are true, then we have no choice but to believe that Gable was a real stinker.
When Miss Dillon left for Hollywood, he followed. A year later they were married in Los Angeles by gospel minister A.C. Smithers. Josephine traded the Dillon name to become Mrs. Clark Gable.
It didn’t take her long to discover quite a bit about her new young husband. He didn’t even have a grammar school education. He knew nothing about acting. And he was penniless. They lived in the money Josephine made as a dramatic coach. There wasn’t much of it, because her best pupil was her big-eared husband; his lessons were ‘on the house’. He sopped up what she knew like a sponge.