Hollywood History – Page 6 – Old Magazine Articles

Bad-Boy Errol Flynn
(Sir! Magazine, 1954)

There is no doubt that the Hollywood matinee idol Errol Flynn (1909 – 1959) was the Charlie Sheen of his day, and thanks to the unrelenting press control that the Hollywood studios exercised over the fan magazines of that day, we probably only know about a quarter of his assorted debaucheries. He was a masher and a lush, and the one law suit that the studio executives couldn’t kill was

the great case against him for statutory rape which, had it stuck, would have given him jail for fifty years. For weeks in 1942 it replaced the war news in the headlines.

In 1938, Flynn wrote an article in which he weakly defended the unique moral codes of Hollywood actors; you can read it here.

Gahndi and American Movies
(Photoplay Magazine, 1937)

Roving Photoplay correspondent Cornelius Vanderbilt, Jr. traveled far afield to Yerovila Jail in Poona in order to ask the incarcerated Mahatma Gandhi (1869 – 1948) a question of an entirely trivial nature:

What is your favorite American movie?

The Making of SNOW WHITE and the SEVEN DWARFS
(Photoplay Magazine, 1938)

The attached article is essentially a behind the scenes look at the making of Walt Disney’s 1938 triumph Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs:

• He employed 569 people who worked all day and frequently all night to finish it.

•The film took three and half years to make and cost $1,500,000.00.

•He concocted 1500 different paints to give it unmatched color.

•He spent $70,000.00 developing a brand new camera to give it depth.

•He threw away four times the drawings he made and the film he shot.

•He made over 2,000,000 separate drawings…

Although Disney’s wife, Lilian, was said to have remarked, No one’s ever gonna pay a dime to see a dwarf picture, the movie generated more box office receipts than any other film in 1938.

The Making of SNOW WHITE and the SEVEN DWARFS
(Photoplay Magazine, 1938)

The attached article is essentially a behind the scenes look at the making of Walt Disney’s 1938 triumph Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs:

Although Disney’s wife, Lilian, was said to have remarked, No one’s ever gonna pay a dime to see a dwarf picture, the movie generated more box office receipts than any other film in 1938.

D.W. Griffith: His Minor Masterworks
(Rob Wagner’s Script, 1946)

In 1946 the Museum of Modern Art Film Department decided to exhibit only the most famous films of D.W. Griffith for the retrospective that was being launched to celebrate the famed director. This enormous omission inspired film critic Herb Sterne (1906 – 1995) to think again about the large body of work that the director created and, putting pen to paper, he wrote:

Because of the museum’s lack of judgment, the Griffith collection it has chosen to circulate is woefully incomplete, thereby giving contemporary students of the motion picture a distorted and erroneous impression of the scope of the man’s achievements.

To read a 1924 article regarding Hollywood film executive Irving Thalberg, click here.

William Holden
(Coronet Magazine, 1956)

The attached profile of actor William Holden (1918 – 1981) appeared in print when his stock was about to peak.

When the summer of 1956 rolled around, Holden was already a double nominee for a BAFTA (Picnic), an Oscar (Sunset Boulevard) and was the grateful recipient of an Academy Award for Best Actor one year earlier (Stalag 17). In 1957 his performance in the Bridge on the River Kwai would bring even more pats on the back (although the Best Actor statue would go to Alec Guinness).

This five page interview tells the story of Holden’s initial discovery in Hollywood, his devotion to both the Screen Actor’s Guild and Paramount Pictures. His Hollywood peers held him in especially high-regard:

In a poll of Hollywood reporters recently he was designated ‘the best adjusted and happiest actor around’; by contrast, the same poll identified Humphrey Bogart as a total pain in the keister – click here to read that article.

REVIEWED: Broken Blossoms
(Current Opinion, 1919)

A 1919 film review of Broken Blossoms, directed by D.W. Griffith and starring Lillian Gish and Richard Barthelmess:

Broken Blossoms came to the screen a masterpiece in moving pictures. Bare narration of the story cannot hope even to suggest the power and truth of the tragedy that Mr. Griffith has pictured.

You can read more about Lilian Gish here

Publicity Spot for D.W. Griffith
(Vanity Fair, 1919)

A thumbnail biography of the celebrated silent film director,D.W. Griffith, appears on a page from a fashionable magazine paid for by the publicity office of the film studio. Directors back in the teens had to be fluffed and soothed, too.

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.

Charlie Chaplin Snubs Hollywood and Departs
(Collier’s Magazine, 1948)

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.

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.

D.W. Griffith in the ‘Vanity Fair Hall of Fame’
(Vanity Fair, 1918)

Sweet words of praise were heaped high for the silent film director D.W. Griffith when he was selected by VANITY FAIR magazine to be one of their anointed ones:

Because he was for many years an excellent actor and a leading man on Broadway; because he went into moving pictures as a an actor and emerged from them as a producer;because the greater the magnitude of the task ahead of him the more the prospect pleases him; because he invented the high-priced movies; because he has employed upwards of 5,000 people in a single scene; because he is an excellent musician and wrote the orchestral music for ‘Hearts of the World’, the most sensational moving picture of recent years.film production
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business ethics articles
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business ethics articles
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Where the Stars Dwell: Beverly Hills, California
(Coronet Magazine, 1953)

Times have changed: when this article about Beverly Hills first went to press, that famed little hamlet could support as many as ten bookshops. It is now barely able to support one:

Beverly Hills became famous in 1926 when, in one of the smartest publicity stunts of the century, the movie star Will Rogers was elected honorary mayor. Installed in drizzling rain, Rogers declared that all the budding town needed for progress was a little scandal and a few murders…

This was not a problem.

Beverly Hills Confidential: A Century of Stars, Scandals and Murders

The News from Talkie Town
(Theatre Magazine, 1931)

To a regular cinema-goer in the era of silent films, attendance at the motion-picture playhouse today is a continuously disturbing experience…The discovery that the shadowy images of the screen could be made articulate was as fruitful for exploitation to the captains of the cinema industry as was the realization that women would wear long skirts to the couturiers. …Paramount alone has already announced 243 releases for next season, double the number issued this year, and other companies are following suit.

Click here to read articles about Marilyn Monroe.