Maria, my fellow research assistant, and I work for a professor we affectionately like to call, "crazy Jane" or CJ for short. CJ is very disorganized and Maria and I often consider quitting. But I think we like writing about silent film too much to actually give notice.
Doing editorial work and research on a book about silent film era women who worked behind the camera may not seem like the most fascinating thing, but really, it's like playing six degrees of separation--SOAP OPERA STYLE!
Everyone is connected to everyone else! And even in early Hollywood everyone was slutty and sleeping around! Jane Murfin (the subject of my first article) was a writer, who in the sound era would go on to co-write such films as Pride and Prejudice and The Women (both 1939) but during the silent era, she was most famous for writing films about a dog named Strongheart, who was co-owned by her lover (note: NOT husband) director, Larry Trimble. Trimble was very handsome and a bit of a ladies man--he also had a serious thing for writers. When Murfin dumped him he married writer Marian Blackton. Marian was the daughter of the founder of Vitagraph Studios, J. Stuart Blackton. Nepotism was (and clearly still is) how you get ahead in Hollywood, and while J. Stuart ran the studio, Marian always had a job as her father's script supervisor or screenwriter. One of the first films she wrote (which her father, of course, directed) was The Redeeming Sin, starring Alla Nazimova. Nazimova was a notorious bi-sexual (as well as Nancy Reagan's godmother!?!?!) who had affairs primarily with women, including the brilliant, successful (and very butch) director, Dorothy Arzner. Arzner started as a editor on the now lost, Too Much Mustard (1919), a film directed by Donald Crisp. Crisp is much better known as an actor in such films as National Velvet and How Green Was My Valley. He was also married for a long time to the very place we started: Jane Murfin.
And that's not the half of it. Sex scandals! Abortions! Lesbians! Murder! Yep the silent era had it all.
Now you know why Maria and have such a hard time actually quitting.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
5 comments:
interesting article, could you site your sources on larry and jane
Is this kind of like working at Kristi & Jo's, where the non-tangible benefits were the only thing keeping you there? Because I can totally get that.
Could you please site your sources on Larry & Jane. She was married to Crisp from 1932-1944. I had my doubts they were actually married. Thank you.
Dear Searchforkin: Julie is absoutely right that Laurence Trimble & Jane Murfin weree never married. Trimble's first wife only divorced him in 1940 & he married Marian Constance Blackton in 1941. The second marriage for them both & a very happy one. The fact that Murfin & he were "living in sin" upset J.Allen Boone who persuaded Murfin to get rid of Larry. Hence the horrible bust-up in 1925 of Trimble-Murfin productions. Larry lost any money the four films he directed with Strongheart had made & he was forbidden ever to see the dog again. The dog was of course then useles as only Larry copuld make him perform. I cotrresponed for ten years with Marian, & I can tell you Julie Buck is the ONLY one on the entire Internet with the truch Trimble & Murfin were NEVER married! Everyone else has it wrong! She diD marry money in the shape of Donald Crisp later. John L. Matthew (Researching shepherds like Strongheart) jlaurenceg@gmail.com
Dear Jane: Do you have any clippings or references to Jane Murfin's behaviour? Crisp even agreed she was a BITCH!>John
Post a Comment