The entire Schulberg-Jaffe family, complete with entourage, Father’s pals, Mother’s young assistant Charley Feldman, Maurice, Leon Becker and Elaine, one great happy-and-not-so-happy family, were at the old Santa Fe station to see me off. I had a suitcase full of current novels and the resolve to read two a day until I got to New York. Fearful of what lay ahead, I was already homesick for Malibu and Lorraine.
But as the train began to pull out and I leaned from the Pullman platform to wave and keep waving, I could see Mother standing to one side with Sonya and Stuart, Father standing apart, waving his cigar, and I knew that never again would there be a home in Windsor Square or a Malibu beach house where all of us would be living together. I watched the group, all thirty of them, my loving, envious, conflicted extended family, fall away, as seen through the lens of a camera slowly irising down to a small circle, a dot, to nothing.
The eastern border of the orange groves had always marked the boundary between my homeland and the outside world. When I reached it I picked up my diary and wrote, as if sending myself a telegram, “Goodbye to Home Sweet Hollywood. New page ahead…”
Edwin S. Porter, the director of The Great Train Robbery, gave B.P. Schulberg his first film job. Porter is seen here with an early version of the film projector.
In front of the Santa Fe Chief (c. 1925). At the far left is Pat Powers, an early motion picture boss; stepping just a bit forward to be noticed is mogul Adolf Zukor; next to him, a bit back of course, Mrs. Zukor; and Al Kaufman, Zukor’s son-in-law, who along with B.P. Schulberg was offered $500 a week for life in 1914, when money was money. At the far right is B.P.
Ad and B.P. and an old crony of his, Joe Roche.
The crown princes of Hollywood were not beyond a bit of fun. Here we see Jerry Mayer (brother of L.B. Mayer) and B.P. Schulberg patting the head of a lion badly in need of a hairdresser. The picture was taken c. 1922 at the old Mayer-Schulberg studio, which was attached to the Selig Zoo. This picture, in fact, was the genesis of the idea for an MGM lion.
The moguls of early Hollywood lived well, but few pictures exist of the interiors of their homes. This is the Schulberg library which was catalogued and its volumes numbered by a professional librarian. Ad’s first career was as a librarian. B.P. was extremely fond of rare books, and on Sundays he would read to his family from the classics.
Jackie Coogan’s tenth birthday party (1924). Coogan is in front at the center. At his left and right are Marjorie Lesser and Julian “Buddy” Lesser, whose father, Sol Lesser, made a fortune on Tarzan pictures. Budd Schulberg is in military academy uniform on the first step at the extreme right. To his left is his sister, Sonya.
B.P. Schulberg, Ad, and baby Budd
In the back row: Leon Errol, comedian; an unidentified person; Al Kaufman; Buddy Rogers; and just below him, Jack Oakie. In the front row: Jesse Lasky of Famous-Players-Lasky, one of the early moguls; B.P. Schulberg in a characteristic stance; actor Clive Brook; Ruth Chatterton; a mystery couple (possibly visiting Romanian nobility or a bogus Bulgarian prince); director Eddie Goulding; comedian Harry Green; and Mike Levee, studio executive and later one of the leading agents.
The Mayer-Schulberg studio, which was carved out of the old Selig Studio and Zoo north of downtown Los Angeles. It was then a rural neighborhood that featured an alligator and ostrich farm. The building is typical of the flamboyant stucco architecture of the day. The operating partnership was ruptured when Mayer became head of MGM in 1924.
B.P. Schulberg (again in his characteristic stance) and Ad, circa 1927, on a family trip through the Panama Canal
Budd thinks this is the patio of Marion Davies’ bungalow on the MGM lot, and Sonya thinks it is the patio at the rear of their own home in Windsor Square. Hollywood Moorish architecture was very popular at the time. From the left: Margaret LeVino, screenwriter; Ad; Robert Z. Leonard, director of many MGM and Paramount features; Judge Ben Lindsay (author of the then scandalous book Companionate Marriage),who moved from Denver to the more appropriate location of Los Angeles; Marion Davies; and Harry Rapf, an MGM producer who then ranked just below L.B. Mayer and Irving Thalberg in the studio hierarchy.
Ad and her three children, circa 1925. Budd was 11, Sonya 7, Stuart 3.
Ad on the Schulberg court—the first at Malibu—circa 1928
A 1928 autographed photo of Elinor Glyn, a popular novelist of the time who created “It” and dubbed Clara Bow the “It” girl. Note the “Mr.” in front of B.P. Schulberg’s misspelled name. Today Miss Glyn is best known for the frequent appearance of her name in crossword puzzles.
Budd Schulberg, age 8, pseudo-contemplative, with his right arm posed “naturally,” as was the custom of the photographers of the time.
On the set of The Spoilers. From the right: the author; Marian Shauer; the director, John Cromwell; Mel Shauer, a Paramount Studio executive; Sonya; Stuart; B.P.; Ad; and her brother Sam Jaffe, the studio manager
In the bathtub, star William Gargan in Living on Love, a B.P. Schulberg production for Paramount. This production still was killed by the Hays Office for nudity. The photograph was clipped across the corner to indicate that it had been killed.
The three Schulberg children dressed up for a formal portrait, circa 1929. Stuart at left, Sonya at right
A rare photo of the entire Schulberg family. At left rear is Budd, and next to him his father and mother. In front are Sonya and Stuart, later the long-time producer of The Today Show. B.P. may be glowering because he has literally been dragged home by Budd from Sylvia Sidney’s nearby beachhouse.
When Budd was at Deerfield Academy he decided to write a book about lynching. He turned for advice to Clarence Darrow, who answered him promptly with a letter suggesting that he get his information from Walter White at the NAACP.
The L.A. High School Tennis Team spring, 1931. Budd Schulberg is kneeling extreme right. Kneeling second from left is Budd’s doubles partner, Yale Katz, who later became a prominent physician and subsequently a suicide.
Budd after he won the Malibu Beach Tennis Tournament from Irwin Gelsey (on the right). The cup was donated by Frank Capra. Gelsey, assistant to Walter Wanger, was Paramount’s Tennis Champion.
Sylvia Sidney with another of B.P.’s discoveries, Cary Grant, in Thirty-Day-Princess
B.P. and Sylvia Sidney, circa 1932
Mrs. Eddie Goulding; her husband, the celebrated British writer-director; and his agent and friend Ad in St. Moritz, when Budd’s parents were separating (1932) and Ad was travelling on her own.
The 1930 wedding of two of Hollywood’s “noble” families: the Mayers and the Selznicks. Mayer’s biographer, Bosley Crowther, described this as a “quiet” wedding—but although L.B. was less than delighted with his newest son-in-law, pride compelled him to make it the nuptial event of the year. The bride is Irene Mayer; the groom is David O. Selznick. To the groom’s right is his brother, Myron, the first important film agent. To the left of the bride is her father, L.B. Behind the bride and groom is Rabbi Edgar F. Magnin, who three years before had expelled Budd from his Temple.
To L.B.’s left is Irene’s sister, Edith, and the man with the glasses in the same row is her husband, William Goetz. In the cluster of people to the right of Myron Selznick, the farthest right is B.P. Schulberg; the second woman to the right is Janet Gaynor, first Academy Award-winning actress. Immediately below this group is another royal couple, Norma Shearer and Irving Thalberg. Above and to the right of the Thalbergs is screenwriter Herman Mankiewicz (Citizen Kane), a B.P. Schulberg import from New York. At the extreme left, the third up from the bottom, is MGM’s hatchet man, Eddie Mannix.
Budd Schulberg at about the time he left for Dartmouth (1932)
Index
A | B | C | D | E
F | G | H | I | J
K | L | M | N | O
P | Q | R | S | T
U | V | W | Y | Z
A.T.&T., 443, 460
Abrams, Hiram, 72-79, 81, 86-87, 95-99
Abrams, Miss (daughter of H
iram), 81-86, 89, 99
Academy Awards, 271, 303
Acord, Art, 223
Ad. See Schulberg, Adeline
Adams, Franklin Pierce (F.P.A.), 6, 15
Alonso, Luis Antonio Damasco del See Roland, Gilbert
American Tragedy, An, 356, 369, 393
“America’s Sweetheart.” See Pickford, Mary
Anderson, Gilbert (stage name). See Bronco Billy
Anderson, Sherwood, 420
Anti-Semitism, 5, 6, 103, 108, 296, 348, 408-9, 421
Arbuckle, Fatty (given name, Roscoe), 150-51
Aronson, Max. See Anderson, Gilbert
Arzner, Dorothy (film editor), 319
Autobiography of a Colored Man, 417-18
Autobiography of Lincoln Steffens, 437-38, 452
Baby Peggy, 161, 470
Baggott, King, 20
Bancroft, George, 241-52, 254-58, 319
Bankhead, Tallulah, 367
Bara, Theda (stage name), 8, 82, 100, 120, 176-77
Barrymore, John, 30, 31, 50, 364
Becker, Leon (pianist), 472-74
Beery, Wallace, 257, 318, 319
Beetson, Fred (of Hays Office), 314-16
Beldam, George F. See Bell, Rex
Bell, Rex (stage name), 178-81, 183
Ben Hur, 206
Benchley, Robert, 336
Bernhardt, Sarah, 31-33, 34-35
Bickel, Freddie McIntyre. See March, Freddie
Big Parade, The, 204, 205, 224, 268
Bill of Divorcement, 482
Birth of a Nation, The, 13, 38, 40, 206, 365, 419-20
Blue Angel, The, 276
Bow, Clara, 138, 157-66, 168-84, 204, 207, 209-10, 266, 304, 318, 363
Boyden, Frank (Deerfield headmaster), 407-9, 412, 413, 421, 422, 435-36, 437, 440-41, 451-52
Boyden, Mrs., 413-14, 452
Brent, Evelyn, 241, 318
Brick, Elsie (Sunday School teacher), 232-35
Broadway, 28, 31, 59, 67, 100, 176, 278, 392, 399
Bronco Billy, 20-21, 22, 59, 84
Brooks, Geraldine, 278-79
Browning, Tod, 313, 318
Bughouse Fables (author’s screenplay), 436-37, 438, 449, 461
Cantor, Eddie, 22, 169
Canzoneri, Tony, 239
Capra, Frank, 178, 303-4
Carle, Teet (Paramount publicity), 357, 364-65, 370-71
Carnera, Primo, 249, 254, 311
Carroll, Nancy, 444, 465
Cauchoin, Lily. See Colbert, Claudette
Chaney, Lon, 132, 198, 318
Chaplin, Charlie, 8, 11, 21, 36, 51, 76-78, 81, 90, 93, 95-97, 277, 291, 318
Chevalier, Maurice, 475
Chicago, 26-27, 79, 83, 117, 389, 450, 459-61
Cohen, Manny, 486
Cohn, Harry, 25, 258, 358, 360
Cohn, Henrietta, 166, 299
Colbert, Claudette (stage name), 364, 367
Conrad, Joseph, 403
Coogan, Jackie, 205, 347
“Coop.” See Cooper, Gary
Cooper, Gary, 173, 266-68, 270, 363-64, 487-88
Cooper, Jackie, 347
Cop’s Christmas Carol, A (film), 16
Coué, Emile, 45, 62, 332, 360
Crawford, Joan (stage name), 204, 206, 318, 381, 465-66
Crime and Punishment (film), 220, 265, 277
Crosby, Bing, 487
Darrow, Clarence, 418
Dartmouth University, 373, 441-42
Davies, Marion, 54, 150, 212, 483
Deerfield Academy, 373-74, 406-17, 421-24, 433, 435, 451-55
Defender Films, 14, 16
Del Rio, Dolores, 337-39
DeMille, Cecil B., 8, 11, 17, 33, 40, 51, 58-61, 93, 486
Depression, The, 330, 349, 364, 376, 424, 443-44, 453-54, 460, 469, 493
DeSano, Marcel, 136-45
DeVoe, Daisy, 177-81
Dewey, John, 424
Dickens, Charles, 85, 189, 248, 334, 358, 374, 403, 407
Dickson, William Kennedy Laurie (Edison’s assistant), 11
Dietrich, Marlene, 220, 276-79, 291, 355, 475
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. See Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, The
Dostoevsky, Feodor, 248, 263, 265, 374
Dreiser, Theodore, 167, 356, 369, 393, 420
Duffy, Oliveretta. See Thomas, Olive
Edison Company, 6, 18, 20, 29
Edison, Thomas, 11-14, 17, 25, 29, 117
Eisenstein, Sergei, 368-71, 423
Essanay Film Manufacturing Company, 21, 92, 159, 371
Europe, 29, 38, 245-56
Fairbanks, Douglas, 43, 73, 76-77, 81, 95-98, 133
Famous Players Film Company, 8, 29-34, 36-37, 40, 43, 45, 48-50, 53, 57, 59, 61, 64-69, 72-78, 92-93, 96, 101, 117, 187
Faulkner, William F., 3
Fiermonte, Enzio (prize fighter), 311-13
Film Reports, 6, 14-15, 22
Film Trust, 25, 30, 33-36, 38-39, 62, 71, 117. See also Motion Picture Patents Company
First National, 74, 76, 81, 95, 96, 107
Fiske, Minnie Maddern, 30-31, 50
Fitts, Buron (district attorney), 175, 180, 479-80
Fitzgerald, F. Scott, 121, 125, 155
Ford, John, 365
Forman, Tom (director), 121, 132, 224
Fox, Sidney (actress), 467-70, 492
Fox, William F. (producer), 33, 100
Francis, Kay, 444
Freaks, 314
Freud, Sigmund, 55, 100, 155, 166, 216, 402, 424
Frohman, Daniel (Broadway producer), 32, 34
Garbo, Greta, 51, 195, 212, 213, 355, 466
Gasnier, Louis, 121, 126-29, 155
Gelsey, Irwin, 379, 401
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, 17, 318
Gilbert, John (Jack), 177, 195, 212, 213, 215-16
“Girl of a Thousand Faces, The.” See Lawrence, Florence
Girl Who Wouldn’t Work, The, 137-39, 142
Gish, Lillian, 46
Glyn, Elinor, 169-70
Goetz, Billy (producer), 398
Goldfish (later, Goldwyn, q.v.), Sam, 9, 33, 58-61
Goldwyn, Sam, 11, 39, 61, 93, 98, 147, 357.
See also Goldfish, Sam
Gone With the Wind, 13, 241
Goodman, Theodora. See Bara, Theda
Goulding, Eddie (writer-director), 298-99
Grand Hotel, 300, 318, 466
Grant, Cary, 266, 268, 487, 489
Great Train Robbery, The, 14, 28, 32
Greed, 150, 154, 218
Griffith, D. W., 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 17, 38-9, 40, 51, 76, 81, 90, 96-97
Hart, William S., 76, 81, 85, 96
Haver, Phyllis, 91, 274
Headrick, Baby Richard, 127-30
Hearst Syndicate, 17, 150, 290
Hearst, William Randolph, 54, 150-51, 295, 430, 483
Hecht, Ben, 241, 258, 300, 311, 399-400, 461
Hemingway, Ernest, 133
Hepburn, Katharine, 482
Herzbrun, Henry, 487
Hitler, Adolph, 238, 279, 475
Hodkinson, W. W. (theater owner), 71-72
Hollywood, 8, 17, 60, 72, 78-79, 93-94, 113-14, 125, 138, 145, 155, 167-68, 175, 188, 213, 216, 257, 260, 281, 302, 305, 355, 359, 431, 443, 447, 455
Hollywood Reporter, 144, 464, 465, 479
“Hook, The” (author’s unfinished novel), 248
Huston, John, 467
Huston, Walter, 467
Indians, American, 85-86, 425, 461-62
It, 169-70, 180, 266
It Girl, The. See Bow, Clara
Jaffe, David (Uncle Dave), 4, 391, 394, 395
Jaffe, Hannah, 4, 191-2
Jaffe, Max, 4-5, 6, 25, 38, 116, 191-2, 432
Jaffe, Mildred (Aunt Milly), 307-8, 355, 427, 437-38
Jaffe, Rosalind (Roz, cousin), 391, 401
Jaffe, Sam (Uncle Sam), 188, 307, 437-38, 444, 463
James (chauffeur), 188, 285-92
Jannings, Emil, 271-76, 279
Johnson, Cornelius (Co
rny, track star), 477-78
Johnson, James Weldon, 417-18, 419, 420
Judge Lynch (author’s novel), 449, 461, 492
Jungle, The, 421
K.K.K. See Ku Klux Klan
Kaplan, Señor (Paramount representative), 340-42
Katz, Sam, 486
Katz, Stan (theater owner), 376, 488-89
Kaufman, Al, 8, 22, 37, 45, 57, 66, 104, 429
Keaton, Buster, 51
Kennedy, Jeremiah J. (of Film Trust), 25, 33, 35-6
Keystone Kops, 8
Kleptomaniac, The (film), 15
Ku Klux Klan, 39, 348, 419, 420, 421
Laemmle, Carl, 11, 20, 33, 39, 62-63, 292
Laemmle, Rosabelle (daughter of Carl), 398
LaMarr, Barbara, 147
Laseur, Lucille. See Crawford, Joan
Lasky, Bessie, 167, 291
Lasky Feature Play Company, 59-61
Lasky, Jesse, 8, 11, 33, 39, 40, 59-61, 71-72, 188, 196, 265, 268, 270, 376, 486
Last Laugh, The, 272-74
Lawrence, Florence, 46
Leach, Archie. See Grant, Cary
Leiner, Benjamin. See Leonard, Benny
Leonard, Benny (nom de ring), 22, 103-10
Lewis, Sinclair, 420
Lichtman, Al, 22, 32, 45, 57-58, 66, 68, 100-101, 104
Life of an American Fireman (film), 11, 13, 14, 40
Lindbergh, Charles, 267, 440, 451
Lindsay, Judge Ben, 171-72
Lindsay, Vachel, 7
London, Jack, 15, 40
Loos, Anita, 17
Loring, Hope (writer), 132, 188, 268
Los Angeles, 89-94, 95, 113-14, 295, 298, 329. See also Hollywood
Los Angeles High School, 329-32, 343-47, 360, 381
Lubitsch, Ernst, 51, 291
Lyman, Abe (and orchestra), 126-29, 259, 379
Lynching. See Racism
MacArthur, Charlie, 311, 399
MacConaughy, Mac, 414-15, 421, 435, 453
MacDonald, Jeanette, 299, 301
MacDonald, Katherine, 100-101, 121, 125, 157, 196
MacPherson, Aimee Semple, 169, 350
MacPherson, Jeanie, 12