Silent Movie History

Fatty Arbuckle Has Something to Say… (Motion Picture News, 1919)

An interview with the famous silent film comedian, Fatty Arbuckle, as it appeared in a forgotten Hollywood trade magazine. Accompanying the interview are eight lines of biographical information pertaining to his Hollywood career as it stood in the year 1916. This short profile first appeared in The Studio Directory of The Motion Picture News and will serve to answer some of the questions readers might have concerning his career, before it took it’s tragic turn.


If you would like to read about the films of the Thirties, click here.
Click here to read about physical perfection during the Golden Age of Hollywood.

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Fast Facts About Hollywood Silent Movies (’47 Magazine, 1947)

A really quick, informative read that will let you know a whole bunch about the earliest days of Hollywood silent film production:



• Silent film production companies averaged three movies per week.

• A good salary for an early Hollywood silent film executive was $50.00 per week

• Silent film extras were paid 1.50 per day.

• There were no stunt doubles.

• The average silent film director was paid $150.00 per week.

• A big-budget production was one that cost $500.00.

• Silent film directors would talk continuously during shooting.


– and much more.


Click here to read articles about Marilyn Monroe.

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When FDR Wrote a Script… (Coronet Magazine, 1947)

Here is an article by one of the foot soldiers of legendary silent movie producer Adolf Zukor, in which she recalled a time in 1923 when the future president of the United States, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, mailed an unsolicited photoplay (ie. script) to their offices in hopes of securing some measure of Hollywood immortality.

Knowing that FDR had tremendous power in both New York and Washington, Zukor instructed her to let him down gently; twenty years later Roosevelt would chuckle about his ambitions with her at a White House party.


President Lincoln had his own dreams and aspirations…

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One Thousand Nasty Remarks About Silent Films (The English Review, 1922)

A much admired theatrical set designer was the author of this column – he was devoted to his craft and believed deeply that movies could only lead society to the lowest place:

The Drama in the Cinema is held to be made ‘of the people, by the people, and for the people’ It is really made by the new school of the same old tyrants, to enslave the mind of the people.

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Silent Film Flapper Colleen Moore (Flapper Magazine, 1922)

By the time this piece first appeared in THE CHICAGO DAILY NEWS (prior to being picked up by the fast crowd at FLAPPER MAGAZINE) Colleen Moore was all of twenty-one years of age with fourteen Hollywood films to her credit. This interview was conducted over lunch by the polished Hollywood reporter Gladys Hall, who no doubt, picked up the check; on that day Miss Moore wanted to talk about flappers.


The wise elders of Hollywood were perfectly fine about casting flappers to play in various movies, but they didn’t always produce films that were sympathetic to their causes; for example, the editors of FLAPPER MAGAZINE hated this movie.


We recommend this book: The Silent Feministsstyle=border:none

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The Birth of Hollywood Filmmaking (America, 1932)

2013 Anno Domini marked the 100th anniversary of the Hollywood film industry. With this in mind it is entirely fitting and proper that we post this thumbnail history that outlines how it all got rolling, as told by the jaded Robert Sherwood, an early film critic who witnessed much of it (although he incorrectly dated the first Hollywood feature film to 1912).

Hollywood history begins with four men: Jesse Lasky, Cecil B. DeMille, Dustin Farnum and a silent film called The Squaw Man…


(The fourth name in Sherwood’s list was that of Samuel Goldwyn – who, in fact, had nothing to do with the production, but whose name in Hollywood had such staying power it seemed difficult to imagine that he didn’t.)


Read a 1951 profile of a future First Lady: the young Nancy Reagan.

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Hollywood Star Condemns the Draft (Photoplay Magazine, 1917)

The silent film actor J. Warren Kerrigan (1882 – 1947; played in such films as Captain Blood, Samson and Delilah and The Covered Wagon) was singled out for ridicule following a poorly conceived remark that all artists should be exempted from military service. The editors of Photoplay Magazine counter-attacked with a short list of the creative souls who have served regardless of their talents to entertain or provoke thought.

Apparently getting skewered in the press had no effect on him; he still wouldn’t register for the draft for another thirteen months.

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Moral Corruption in Hollywood (The Smart Set, 1922)

Appearing in their monthly column, Repitition Generale, H.L. Mencken and George Jean Nathan briefly explored the reoccurring topic regarding Hollywood immorality:


So long as the majority of figures in the field of movies are recruited from the social and aesthetic slums, so long will the smell of Lime house cling to the movie’s scandals.


Speaking of moral corruption, read this article about the actor Errol Flynn…

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Jack Dempsey In Silent Movies (Motion Picture News & Vanity Fair, 1919)

Two articles from two different magazines reported the news that the World Champion Boxer of 1919, Jack Dempseystyle=border:none (1895 – 1983), would soon try his hand at movie acting. The Vanity Fair item is actually a cartoon by that old sentimentalist, John Held, Jrstyle=border:none.(1889-1958).


In the future, other athletes would follow in his steps to Hollywood; his fellow boxer Gene Tunney would follow him out there eight years later (The Fighting Marines). Swimmers Buster Crabbe (Buck Rogers) and Johnny Weissmuller (Tarzan) got the fever and came out during the early days of sound movies.

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