Lon Chaney

Hidden Hollywood: F. Scott Fitzgerald, Politically Incorrect in Hollywood

July 13, 2016 by Robert J. Avrech 7 Comments

Patsy Ruth Miller in “Painting the Town,” 1927. Photo by Jack Freulich. Miller shot to stardom when she co starred opposite Lon Chaney as Esmerelda in “The Hunchback of Notre Dame.” ('23) — Patsy Ruth Miller in “Painting the Town,” 1927.
Photo by Jack Freulich.

In 1924 while shooting a film in New York, actress Patsy Ruth Miller (1904-1995) developed a close friendship with author F. Scott Fitzgerald and his wife Zelda. Frequently, Fitzgerald and Patsy Ruth would go out for dinner while Zelda remained home pleading fatigue. Patsy Ruth eventually realized that Zelda’s fatigue was acute alcoholism.

Observes Patsy Ruth:

It didn’t seem to me that Scott drank more than most of the men I knew. He seemed intoxicated on words, and sometimes we would sit, our after-dinner coffee growing cold, while Scott tried to make me see some fine point of writing, or understand why an emotion had been ill or well portrayed. But often I had the feeling that he was unsure of himself as a writer, that he was afraid of that one day he’d have nothing left to say, and I also had the impression that Zelda did little to build his confidence, even sometimes, in a perverse way, seemed to enjoy his battle with self-doubt.

Fitzgerald’s agonies of self-doubt are common among writers. The fear of having nothing left to say will, inevitably, be paralyzing. And a non-supportive spouse can act as a fatal poison to a vulnerable writer. Most witnesses observe that Fitzgerald was a heavy drinker as a student in Princeton. There is no doubt that by the time he landed in Hollywood he was a hopeless drunk. It’s a measure of how common was alcoholism in early Hollywood that Patsy Ruth didn’t think Fitzgerald’s intake was all that unusual.

Friday Photos: Mood Board

January 23, 2015 by Robert J. Avrech 19 Comments

In shul this morning, a guy sitting next to me said: “Hey, your techeles matches your shoes!” — In shul, a guy sitting next to me said: “Hey, your techeles matches your shoes!”

This morning, after Daf Yomi, my friend turned to me and said: “Some week, huh?”

I said: “It seems that every week is some week.”

“Yeah.”

On that downer, let’s try and alter the mood with some photos and stories.

Silent Star Esther Ralston: Why Do All My Husbands Want to Kill Me? Part I

July 3, 2014 by Robert J. Avrech 14 Comments

Esther Ralston, at the height of her Hollywood stardom in the 1920's. — Esther Ralston, at the height of her Hollywood stardom in the 1920’s.

They called her, the American Venus.

She lived in a Hollywood mansion with a staff of servants. Her chauffeur drove a limited edition limousine. But she ended her days in a trailer park in Ventura, California.

Movie Posters: Hollywood’s Golden Age

May 17, 2012 by Robert J. Avrech 13 Comments

The Yellow Ticket — Fantastic poster for a 1931 film that hints at menace in the form of a mysterious yellow ticket. What the poster doesn't tell you is the ticket was a pass issued to Jewish women allowing them to travel out of the Pale of Settlement where the Jews were confined by order of the Jew-hating Tzar. But only prostitutes were eligible. An obscure film starring Laurence Olivier, Lionel Barrymore and Elissa Landry.

Have you looked at a movie poster recently and said to yourself: I really have to see that film.

Doubtful.

In the digital era movie posters are barely there, a minor and frequently mediocre—tedious star shots dominate—element in the white-noise media that is dominated by an ever-shifting social media.

There was a time, however, when movie posters were the dominant element by which audiences were lured to the movies.

Here are just a few samples of ordinary posters cranked out by the Hollywood studios; all are characterized by bold graphics and unusual fonts. These are posters that artfully promise action, mystery and romance.