HOLLYWOOD IS A WOMAN'S TOWN

Yesterday we saw journalist Helen Louise Walker's informative article on Boris Karloff from 1932. We also saw an article from a film fan magazine later that year in which Miss Walker declares "Hollywood is a Woman's Town" and gives her reasons why.

She returned to the subject at least twice more; Her comments on the topic were discussed in Stephen Sharot's February 15, 2022 essay "Hollywood is a Woman's Town’: Masculinity and the Leading Man in American Fan Magazines of the 1930s", published at the Wiley Online Library:

Helen Louise Walker provided evidence that Hollywood was a woman's town from interviews with male stars. Gable is quoted as saying that the differences in salaries say it all: ‘feminine glamor, appeal, whatever you choose to call it, is worth more at the box office than anything a man can offer. Nearly all of the well-known women in Hollywood earn more money, per week, than men do’, and in a town where women earn more money than men ‘things get all topsy-turvy’. An unnamed ‘leading man’ under contract to MGM complained that a man's reward for achieving a big following at the box office was that he was ‘allowed to support one of the important women stars!’ Somewhat circumscribed statements of the female influence were provided by Errol Flynn who stated that, ‘there is probably no other place where men discuss their business and professional affairs with women as freely and as fully as they do here’, and by Humphrey Bogart who mumbled that the men let the women think that they control them. Walker's conclusion was that ‘women rule Hollywood pretty conclusively—and that men like it’.

The following images were taken by Ray Jones, probably in the early 1930s, and show Walker with actor John Boles. The snipe on the back of each photo reads: "Miss Helen Louise Walker, on the staff of Motion Pictures Publications, interviews John Boles, Universal's singing star" [Source: eBay]. Mainly a portrait photographer, Jones was the head of Universal's stills department in the 1920s into the early 1930s (he later worked for Paramount) and was the uncredited stills photographer for THE MUMMY.

MODERN SCREEN February 1937 "Is Hollywood a Woman's Town?" by Helen Louise Walker:

SILVER SCREEN October 1939 "How Women Rule the Men in Hollywood" by Helen Louise Walker:

WAS IT A GHOST?

Descended from Austrian aristocracy, popular Hollywood actress, Elissa Landi was level-headed and not known for hyperbole. When this article was published in MODERN SCREEN's October 1932 issue people nevertheless had to wonder.

At the time of the incident described in the story, Landi was playing on the London stage in THE CONSTANT NYMPH. One warm evening, she and her husband-to-be John Lawrence went for a drive to get some air and at one point, stopped off the road and parked near what looked like a deserted house. What happened next can only be described as a ghostly encounter. As with any tale of this type, you be the judge if it was real or not!

REMEMBERING LON CHANEY

Lon Chaney was Hollywood's first major horror star, but he didn't come by it easily. Years of dedication and hard work payed off and he became world-famous after his roles in THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME (1923) and THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA (1925). Known by his fans and the media as "The Man of a Thousand Faces", a legendary story cemented his fame as a great actor and make-up artist: in the 1920's, director Marshall Neiland warned a studio workman who was about ready to crush a spider under his boot with the phrase, "Don't step on it: it may be Lon Chaney".

Many of the makeups that Chaney devised for his roles were painful, but frighteningly realistic. Speaking about his character in THE PENALTY (1920), he said, "Every moment before the camera was one of excruciating agony, yet I must not let it show in my face. I had to be the character I was portraying, and disregard the pain. I could only wear the harness 10 minutes at a time, as the pain soon became intolerable, but after a brief rest I'd put it on again and go on with the scene. I've never gotten over the strain that I was put to in this picture. In fact, every grotesque character I've played on the screen has taken its toll of me, physically."

Orson Welles said that "Chaney was a great deal more than a make-up artist. He was an actor of great power." Ray Bradbury commented that "Chaney acted out our psyches: he somehow got into the shadows inside our bodies. He was able to nail down some of our secret fears and put them on the screen."

This collection of articles from various film magazines of the day pay tribute to "The Man of a Thousand Faces".

From MOTION PICTURE, August 24, 1924:

From MOTION PICTURE CLASSIC, March 1929:

From TALKING SCREEN, March 1930:

From SCREENLAND, November 1930:

From THE MODERN SCREEN, Vol. 1 No.1, November 1930:

A WITCH'S BREW OF HUBBA-HUBBA AND HOCUS-POCUS

Actress Veronica Lake (born Constance Frances Marie Ockelman; November 14, 1922 – July 7, 1973) was known as the "Peek-A-Boo Girl" after the way she wore her long, blonde hair that covered one eye. She is most remembered for her numerous sultry roles in film noir moves of the 1940's.

The beautiful Miss Lake is known to us genre fans for her role in I MARRIED A WITCH (1942) opposite Fredric "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" March. She was also in a 1952 episode of the TV series, TALES OF TOMORROW. Her last film role was as Dr. Elaine Frederick in the embarrassing FLESH FEAST (1970).

The image below is a personality poster issued by Paramount pictures in 1944 and was painted by master artist, Robert Soubie. Following are more photos of the angelic Veronica Lake.

Image by the famous portrait photographer George Hurrell.

Various promotional photos by Paramount.

Pages from SHOWMAN'S TRADE REVIEW October 24, 1952.

A one-page feature from MODERN SCREEN August, 1941.

An article from MODERN SCREEN May, 1941.

KARLOFF AND LUGOSI ON THE SET OF 'THE BLACK CAT'

It's hard to say for certain exactly how Karloff and Lugosi really felt about their filmic "friendly rivalry". I'd like to believe that, considering the nature of their personalities, they felt a warmness to each other, despite the fact that Karloff had the upper hand in popularity -- and more importantly -- finances. Karloff was grateful, Lugosi was proud, and together they made beautiful movies together.

One of those was Universal's 1934 classic story of Satanism and murder, THE BLACK CAT. The July 1934 issue of MODERN SCREEN showed a picture of Karloff and Lugosi on the set of their first film together, hyped with the promise to out-Frankenstein FRANKENSTIEN and out-Dracula DRACULA!

 

 

WHEN FAY WRAY HAD "ONE OF THE BEST FIGURES IN HOLLYWOOD"

Fay Wray had just finished filming the thriller, THE MOST DANGEROUS GAME, when this photo appeared in MODERN SCREENs October 1932 issue. and announces that her next film will be "Kong". In just a few sentences it lists her celebrity vitals, including the statements that she has "one of the best figures in Hollywood", "likes sunbathing", and "has great physical courage". She'd need it to make it through the filming of KING KONG. The photo is by Ernest A. Bachrach, RKOs staff photographer.

BONUS! A page from FILM DAILY Wednesday, December 28 1932 shows a full-page ad for THE VAMPIRE BAT, a film Fay Wray made with Lionel Atwill, Melvyn Douglas and Dwight Frye that would be released the following January 21 1933.

 

 

A FRIEND OF KARLOFF

In IT'S ALIVE! THE CLASSIC CINEMA SAGA OF FRANKENSTEIN (A.S. Barnes $ Co,/Tantivity Press, 1981), Gregory William Manks mentions that several of Boris Karloff's closest friends were frequent visitors to his "little farm" located at 2320 Bowmont Drive in L.A.'s Coldwater Canyon. Karloff bought the property that had been previously owned by Katherine Hepburn, claiming (of course!) that the place was haunted. All this was possible as a result of the overwhelming success of FRANKENSTEIN and his subsequent contract with Universal. The film studio didn't always remunerate the actors that were responsible to fill their coffers (ex. the often snubbed Bela Lugosi), but Karloff was one they didn't want to lose.

One of Karloff's good friends was Robert Armstrong. Armstrong was also enjoying fame for his breakout role as adventurer and filmmaker, Carl Denham in RKO's KING KONG. The property, complete with gardens, farm animals, a swimming pool and barbecue, and, haunted or not, was sure to have been a welcome surcease from the rigors of Hollywood.

Above is a photo of Armstrong from the Spanish film fan magazine CINE-MUNDIAL (September 1932) and below is a dramatic shot in the April 1932 issue of MODERN SCREEN. Both shots were taken when Armstrong was poised to bring back to civilization Kong, The Eighth Wonder of the World!

LON CHANEY JR.'S FIRST HORROR FILM MISFIRE

Lon Chaney was adamant about keeping his son out of the movie business. He had seen enough of it to know their were nobler vocations, such as his desire to see young Creighton master the art of the plumbing business instead of acting.

Nevertheless, Chaney the Younger was attracted by the Hollywood of his father and began his acting career in 1932.

In this snipe from "The Hollywood Times" March section of the April 1932 issue of MODERN SCREEN, Chaney is said to be under contract with RKO. The report is that his first talkie role would be a horror story by Edgar Wallace.

The "horror" story never materialized on screen. The announcement was most likely a result of over-enthusiastic publicists who wanted to, 1) capitalize on the fame of Lon Chaney, Sr., and, 2) also drop the name of Edgar Wallace, who was a very popular writer of mystery/thrillers at the time.

Appearing in a number of Westerns, Chaney would have to wait almost 10 more years to star in is first monster movie, when he claimed a role vacated by Boris Karloff in MAN MADE MONSTER (Universal, 1941).