Publicity photo of Clark Gable and Jean Harlow in the film Hold Your Man (1933). Wikimedia explains that the photo is in the public domain because it was published between 1931 and 1977 without a copyright notice.
When I think of the so-called heyday of Hollywood, I think of the power of illusion. That’s because the Hollywood glitterati always looked so happy, and now we know they seldom were. In spite of the deception that continues today, we remain intrigued about the secret inner workings of the place. And at a museum in Los Angeles, we can see how Hollywood fans have preserved it all.
In a January article at the Los Angeles Times, Mary McNamara wrote about “a small and simple structure, standing near the corner of Selma and Vine, which Cecil B. DeMille leased after he, Jesse Lasky, Samuel Goldwyn (then Goldfish) and Arthur Friend decided that their first choice of Flagstaff, Ariz., was too cold and dark to shoot an adaptation of the play The Squaw Man.
“In 1913, the barn became home to the Jesse L. Lasky Feature Play Co. The Squaw Man, Hollywood’s first feature film, co-directed by DeMille, was released the following year.
“It is astonishing to think that everything we now know as ‘Hollywood’ … began under a cedar-shingled roof where DeMille set up in a tiny corner office and actors changed costumes in horse stalls.
“ ‘We’ve got the barn, we’ve got the talent — hey, kids, let’s put on a show’ is not just a tagline from all those Judy Garland/Mickey Rooney films; it’s the literal backbone of every cinematic story you’ve ever watched. …
“Even more astonishing, given Los Angeles’ reputation for razing or abandoning its history, is the fact that the Lasky-DeMille Barn remains open for business, home now to the Hollywood Heritage Museum. …
“ ‘Although motion pictures have furnished a means of livelihood to thousands,’ Lasky wrote in a 1926 edition of the Hollywood News that is part of the museum’s archives, ‘probably the greatest advantage they have given Southern California [is advertising.] No words, no amount of expensive magazine advertising could achieve the results that have been obtained through motion pictures. Our marvelous climate, our industries, our state’s unequaled advantages as a place for homes, as the ideal spot in which to raise families, all have been brought daily and nightly before hundreds of millions of persons throughout the world.’
“The Hollywood Heritage Museum, which celebrated its 40th anniversary in December, is, in many ways, the antithesis of the 4-year-old Academy Museum of Motion Pictures. … But while the Academy Museum offers exhibits that honor Old Hollywood, the nonprofit, mostly self-supporting Hollywood Heritage Museum is Old Hollywood, preserved and tended to with great care, an enduring reminder that most of humanity’s greatest endeavors began in small, unlikely, jerry-rigged spaces. …
“DeMille’s office has been re-created with personal items (including the director’s shoes and boots) donated by Paramount Pictures, and various exhibits detail the making of DeMille’s The Squaw Man, The Ten Commandments, The Greatest Show on Earth … and other films, and offer glimpses into early Hollywood with a collection of props, costumes, cameras, projectors and memorabilia.
“Screenings of silent films, hosted by the Hollywood Heritage’s Silent Society and often accompanied by live music, play here amid a changing palette of special exhibits, curated from the museum’s collection and the contributions of private collectors. (A recent celebration of pioneering leading ladies included a scarf that belonged to Carole Lombard; it was found in a suitcase that survived the plane crash in which she died. If you think I did not cry when I saw it, you would be wrong.) …
“The museum’s dedicated and all-volunteer staff, including museum director Angie Schneider and board president Margot Gerber, have a voluminous archive at their fingertips and know everything there is to know about early Hollywood, the industry and the neighborhood.
“There are no gleaming marble floors, touch-screen activated holograms or digital-age wizardry. Just old-fashioned storytelling. And that’s the whole point. …
“Remember that once upon a time, not that long ago, a few people took a big chance on the wild and crazy idea that moving pictures were the future.” More at the LA Times, via Yahoo, here.
And for a fascinating book on Hollywood’s earliest days, read Robin Cutler’s history of one of the first female scriptwriters, Such Mad Fun. I loved it.
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