Captain of Her Soul: The Life of Marion Davies by Lara Gabrielle

Author:Lara Gabrielle
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: University of California Press

“What Difference Does It Make If You Walk Up to the Altar?”

The 1930s had been challenging for many Hollywood stars, leading to the retirement of most of Marion’s co-stars from the silent era. For some, the pressures and stresses of the new era had even led to their deaths. Karl Dane, a co-star of Marion’s in The Red Mill and a big star in silent Hollywood, spoke limited English and couldn’t rid himself of his thick Danish accent, which destroyed his career when sound came in. His source of income stopped, and he spent the rest of his life living penny to penny on loans from friends, before committing suicide in 1934.

Constance and Norma Talmadge, frequent guests at San Simeon and friends of Marion’s since Zander the Great, had invested wisely and retired when sound came in. Their voices would not have registered well onscreen, they felt, and Constance left the industry almost immediately. After some time trying to perfect the timbre of her voice to preserve her career, Norma also decided not to take the risk.

John Gilbert was a prominent, and tragic, casualty of the coming of sound. When King Vidor and Eleanor Boardman were married at Marion’s Lexington Road home, it had been planned as a double wedding alongside Gilbert and Greta Garbo. According to John Gilbert’s daughter, the film historian Leatrice Gilbert Fountain, at the time that the wedding was supposed to start, everyone was at the house except Greta Garbo. King and Eleanor, sympathetic to Gilbert’s plight, stalled as long as they could. Champagne was served, and still no Garbo. Wedding photos were taken, and still no Garbo. Finally, the priest said that he had to get started, because he had other engagements that evening. King and Eleanor had their wedding, and John Gilbert was left in the dust.

According to Fountain, Louis B. Mayer, who had never been fond of John Gilbert as a person, came up behind him and hit him on the back. A crude remark about Gilbert’s character made all the anger boil up in him. He lost his cool, suddenly grabbing Mayer by the neck and slamming his head against the tile in the wall, sending Mayer’s glasses flying into the air. Eddie Mannix heard the scuffle and ran into the room, retrieving Mayer’s glasses and pushing Gilbert out into the hall. He brought a towel in to wipe Mayer’s face, but Mayer pushed it away and rose from the wall like a cobra. “Gilbert,” he hissed, “you’re through. I’ll destroy you if it costs me a million dollars.”

When talkies came in, Gilbert received consistently poor scripts and experienced a steep decline in his popularity. He became anxious about his future in the industry, and his dependence on alcohol intensified. In 1933, he starred in his most successful talkie, Queen Christina, alongside Greta Garbo. Garbo’s name appeared above the title, but Gilbert’s was below. He retired in 1934 and died of alcoholism in 1936.

Charlie Chaplin stubbornly persisted in making silent films into the 1930s.

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