Fragment #25: The Vitagraph Girl

Florence Turner (1887–1946), one of the most popular performers at the Vitagraph Studio in its early years, made her debut in 1907 and was soon starring opposite Maurice Costello. She soon be- came known as “The Vitagraph Girl” and was the subject of a song. Turner left Vitagraph in 1913 to make films in England with Larry Trimble. She was Buster Keaton’s mother in College (1927).

“The Vitagraph Girl” is a 1910 song by J. A. Leggett (words) and Henry Frantzen (music), the first song about a movie star. When audiences began asking for pictures starring “The Vitagraph Girl,” the studio commissioned this song as a pro- motional gimmick. It became popular as a sing- along when Turner introduced it theaters. The lyrics ask, “Who hasn’t been to a picture show and gazed with surprise and delight at scenes that are happy and sad?” and go on to say that the “great- est feast for the eyes is the Vitagraph girl. I’m in love with the Vitagraph girl, the sweet little Vita- graph girl.”

Ken Wlaschin, The Silent Cinema in Song, 1896 – 1929 (McFarland, 2009)

[Click on any image for a larger view, and to read lyrics.]

  

Fragment #24: The Invention of Godzilla

[In this extract from his book Eiji Tsuburaya: Master of Monsters, August Ragone describes the development of the eponymous monster for the original Japanese Gojira (1954), better known to international audiences as Godzilla.]

“They … wanted the film to reverberate with current geopolitical, national, and social concerns, as well as evoking the spectre of the Tokyo Fire Raids and the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. They agreed they should approach the film in earnest, treating it as they would any serious, real-life subject, rather than as a ‘monster movie’. The monster’s attack on Tokyo could be seen as an incarnation of war itself, and [executive producer, Iwao] Mori thought the creature should carry the physical scars of H-bomb tests.

Originally, [Eiji] Tsuburaya wanted to bring the nuclear nightmare to life using stop-motion effects, as King Kong had been made. When asked how long it would take to produce such effects, Tsuburaya told Mori it would take seven years to shoot all of the effects required by the screenplay, based on the current staff and infrastructure at Toho. Of course this was out of the question – the film had to be in theatres by the end of the year. Tsuburaya decided that his department’s considerable expertise in miniature building and visual effects photography could accommodate working with a live actor in a monster costume instead of using stop-motion techniques. Mori and Tanaka agreed and gave him the green light to proceed with planning and construction.

Planning was a painstaking process. To ensure that things would run smoothly, [director Ishiro] Honda and [writer Takeo Murata] would present scene ideas to Tsuburaya, who would tell them whether his team could pull them off. (More often than not, he told them he could.) Problematic scenes or shots were rooted out during the extensive storyboarding process, helping prevent costly mistakes during shooting.

[...] To design the creature, Kayama suggested popular mangaka (comic book artist) Wasuke Abe, who had illustrated several of Kayama’s juvenile adventure stories and worked for numerous publishers and in many genres. Abe’s most famous work was Kenya Boy (Shonen Keniya), written by his brother, whose pen name was Shoji Yamagawa. The story, about an orphaned Japanese youth lost in Africa, was more Lost World than Tarzan, set in a land alive with prehistoric creatures. When Abe conferred with the Godzilla staff, he brought with him the current edition of Kenya Boy, which featured an encounter with a Tyrannosaurus Rex. This would prove to have a decisive influence on the production design of Godzilla. While Abe’s designs were ultimately rejected – they were more abstract and humanoid than animal, and the beast’s head was rendered like a mushroom cloud – he was retained to help draw the hundreds of storyboards required for the film.

Tanaka, Tsuburaya, and Honda decided to focus on an original dinosaur of their own design. Inspired by a Life magazine pictorial on prehistoric times featuring paintings by Rudolph Zallinger and by the celebrated Czech dinosaur artist Zdenek Burian, production designer Akira Watanabe combined attributes of the Tyrannosaurus Rex and the Iguanodon, and added the plates of the Stegosaurus. To bring Watanabe’s drawings to life, Tsuburaya contacted his old colleague from The War at Sea From Hawaii to Malaya, Teizo Toshimitsu. Toshimitsu took Watanabe’s drawings and began to render the creature in clay. After experimenting with scaly, warty, and alligator-skin textures, the staff agreed on the alligator version.

Toshimitsu and the staff of the visual-effects department began construction of a Godzilla suit for an actor to wear. The first version of the suit was built over a cloth-and-wire frame and layered with hot rubber, which was melted in a steel drum and applied in layers over the frame. This resulted in a heavy and immobile costume in which the actor could barely move, and so it was scrapped.

A second suit, while still incredibly heavy at 220 pounds, allowed more freedom of movement, and became the final costume. The first suit was cut into two sections and used for scenes requiring only a partial shot of the monster, and Toshimitsu also created a smaller-scale, mechanical, hand-operated puppet that could spray a stream of mist from its maw, to simulate the creature’s nuclear breath in close-ups. A young actor and stuntman, Haruo Nakajima, was given the part of Godzilla (a role he would play a number of times in a long career that found him frequently cast as a monster), alternating with fellow thespian Katsumi Tezuka, which allowed production to continue when Nakajima needed relief from the physicality demanding part.

[...] The first day of shooting miniature photography involved Godzilla’s destruction of the National Diet Building, Japan’s Parliament, which was built in 1/33 scale so that Godzilla would appear to tower over the structure. They decided to let Tezuka play the scene, Nakajima later recalled, but he fell flat and hit his jaw square on the miniature set, ruining the shot and necessitating retakes, this time with Nakajima in tight close-ups because Tsuburaya did not have time to rebuild the set.

The punishing role would bruise and scar both men. Stuffed into the stifling suit, roasting alive under the studio lights, they suffered from heat exhaustion and blackouts, and found themselves breathing fumes from burning rags soaked in kerosene, used to give the impression that Tokyo was ablaze. More than a cup of sweat was poured out of the suit after each scene was shot, and Nakajima ended up losing twenty pounds during the course of the production. On one of his rare days off, Nakajima received word that Tezuka and several crew members had nearly been electrocuted when a live wire fell into the indoor pool set. While using live actors was less time-consuming than tackling stop-motion animation, it was far from an easy shortcut, and involved long, arduous hours, often all-nighters.”

Fragment #23: Rudolf Arnheim on Greta Garbo

“Suddenly, in the middle of an indifferent American society film, in the midst of nothing but actors dressed as people, amongst mustachioed lovers and despots and the polished faces of girls, a young woman descends the stairs, opens the door of her automobile, drops a bouquet of flowers, gazes for a moment with tender attentiveness into the face of the stranger who quickly picks it up, then reaches smiling for the flowers and has climbed in and is gone. And one is struck by a wretched feeling like a horrible shock, as though one had become completely enslaved to this woman. Who is this, for Heaven’s sake? It is Greta Garbo of Sweden.

With silent, swift steps she passes through the fidgety world of the screen, like a brook flows through a meadow; very slender, turning easily, quickly. A man walks down the street, and a soft white strip of fur snuggles to his side as though it were part of him – but it is Greta Garbo. When she stretches out her chin toward her lover, her eyelids and lips sink will-lessly: by giving herself to a man, she surrenders to her own being. Her nose and her upper lip are stretched forward a bit too much, sniffing and thirsting after all the desire the wind carries her – little irregularities on which men get hooked. Above her smile are the arched eyebrows like two circumflexes, meant to show that this smile is always imbued with quiet, sarcastic suffering. It is only when she looks at a man’s mouth that this woman suddenly becomes deadly serious, as though she were enjoying the sight of the sacraments. She starts a bit, lifting her gaze with childishly pious devotion, but also with feverish, breathless tension; we see through the darkly shadowed eyes as though we were gazing miles-deep into the interior of a crater; we witness the lava bubbling. And then she attacks her sustenance with ravenous lips, her long arms wrap themselves around the man’s shoulders, her naked fingers play through his hair, into his mouth, over his neck. Thus she makes an exciting sacrifice to love; thus she celebrates a festive orgy without any illegal undressing or obscenities, but with the usual, proper, boring means of the kiss and the embrace.

On quiet cat’s feet, her coat pulled tightly about her and her hands folded in her lap, Greta Garbo passes censorship. And every evening in the theatre, three hundred men are unfaithful to their wives.”

Rudolf Arnheim (1928) from Film Essays and Criticism. Madison, Wisconsin: The University of Wisconsin Press, 1997. p.216-7.

Fragment #22: “Dear Internet” by Tina Fey

[In this extract from her new memoir Bossypants, Tina Fey responds to some messageboard comments written about her. Fey's comedy is usually very generous, so it's great to see her breaking out the sarcasm and working on some withering put-downs.]

One of my greatest regrets, other than being the Zodiac Killer never learning to tango, is that I don’t always have time to answer the wonderful correspondence I receive. When people care enough to write, the only well-mannered thing to do is to return the gift, so please indulge me as I answer some fans here.

From tmz.com

Posted by Sonya in Tx on 4/7/2010, 4:33 P.M.

“When is Tina going to do something about that hideous scar across her cheek??”

Dear Sonya in Tx,

Greetings, Texan friend! (I’m assuming the “Tx” in your screen name stands for Texas and not some rare chromosomal deficiency you have. Hope I’m right about that!)

First of all, my apologies for the delayed response. I was unaware you had written until I went on tmz.com to watch some of their amazing footage of people in L.A. leaving restaurants and I stumbled upon your question.

I’m sure if you and I compare schedules we could find a time to get together and do something about this scar of mine. But the trickier question is What am I going to do? I would love to get your advice, actually. I’m assuming you’re a physician, because you seem really knowledgeable about how the human body works. What do you think I should do about this hideous scar? I guess I could wear a bag on my head, but do I go with linen like the Elephant Man or a simple brown paper like the Unknown Comic? Too many choices, help!

Thank you for your time. You are a credit to Texas and Viking women both.

Yours,

Tina

P.S. Great use of double question marks, by the way. It makes you seem young.

From Dlisted.com

Posted by Centaurious on Monday, 9/21/2009, 2:08 A.M.

“Tina Fey is an ugly, pear-shaped, bitchy, overrated troll.”

Dear Centaurious,

First let me say how inspiring it is that you have learned to use a computer.

I hate for our correspondence to be confrontational, but you have offended me deeply. To say I’m an overrated troll, when you have never even seen me guard a bridge, is patently unfair. I’ll leave it for others to say if I’m the best, but I am certainly one of the most dedicated trolls guarding bridges today. I always ask three questions, at least two of which are riddles.

As for “ugly, pear-shaped, and bitchy”? I prefer the terms “offbeat, business class–assed, and exhausted,” but I’ll take what I can get. There’s no such thing as bad press!

Now go to bed, you crazy night owl! You have to be at NASA early in the morning. So they can look for your penis with the Hubble telescope.

Affectionately,

Tina

From PerezHilton.com

Posted by jerkstore on Wednesday, 1/21/2009, 11:21 P.M.

“In my opinion Tina Fey completely ruined SNL. The only reason she’s celebrated is because she’s a woman and an outspoken liberal. She has not a single funny bone in her body.”

Dear jerkstore,

Huzzah for the Truth Teller! Women in this country have been over-celebrated for too long. Just last night there was a story on my local news about a “missing girl,” and they must have dedicated seven or eight minutes to “where she was last seen” and “how she might have been abducted by a close family friend,” and I thought, “What is this, the News for Chicks?” Then there was some story about Hillary Clinton flying to some country because she’s secretary of state. Why do we keep talking about these dumdums? We are a society that constantly celebrates no one but women and it must stop! I want to hear what the men of the world have been up to. What fun new guns have they invented? What are they raping these days? What’s Michael Bay’s next film going to be?

When I first set out to ruin SNL, I didn’t think anyone would notice, but I persevered because—like you trying to do a nine-piece jigsaw puzzle—it was a labor of love.

I’m not one to toot my own horn, but I feel safe with you, jerkstore, so I’ll say it. Everything you ever hated on SNL was by me, and anything you ever liked was by someone else who did it against my will.

Sincerely,

Tina Fey

P.S. You know who does have a funny bone in her body? Your mom every night for a dollar.

From a bodybuilding forum

Posted by SmarterChild, on 2/24/2008, 2:10 P.M.

“I’d stick it in her tail pipe.”

Dear SmarterChild,

Thank you so much for your interest. Whether you meant it in a sexual way or merely as an act of aggression, I am grateful. As a “woman of a certain age” in this business, I feel incredibly lucky to still be “catching your eye” “with my anus.” You keep me relevant!

Sincerely,

Ms. T. Fey

Fragment #21: Douglas Fairbanks Wants You to Laugh

[In this extract from his inspirational self-help book Laugh and Live, which sets out the rules for a happy, zestful life, Douglas Fairbanks describes, rather emphatically, why laughter will improve your life.]

“Do you ever laugh?

I mean do you ever laugh right out —spontaneously — just as if the police weren’t listening with drawn clubs and a finger on the button connecting with the “hurry-up” wagon? Well, if you don’t, you should. Start off the morning with a laugh and you needn’t worry about the rest of the day.

I like to laugh. It is a tonic. It braces me up — makes me feel fine!—and keeps me in prime mental condition. Laughter is a physiological necessity. The nerve system requires it. The deep, forceful chest movement in itself sets the blood to racing thereby livening up the circulation — which is good for us. Perhaps you hadn’t thought of that? Perhaps you didn’t realize that laughing automatically re-oxygenates the blood — your blood–and keeps it red? It does all of that, and besides, it relieves the tension from your brain.

Fragment #20: To The Motion Picture: An Appreciation

Film magazines, it seems, used to publish a lot more poetry than they do today, if this piece from the April 1914 edition of The Famous Players Review is anything to go by:

Marvel of science, mirror of art, product of the ingenuity of man and the inventive power of the mind – we speak to you, the Motion Picture!

Not with the sword, not with the oppression and persecution of cruel might, but with mere human sobs and smiles, you have conquered the world.

You are the struggle and the victory! You are Aspiration and Achievement – Hope and Realisation!

You are King in the Land of Mechanical Wonders, supreme in the domain of daring dreams!

Your silence speaks of the genius of man, the strength of his purpose, the courage of his endeavours, and the wealth and worth of his labours. You are the mute voice of progress, the echo of creative potency, the symbol of constructive force.

You are the soul of skill and the spirit of Service, the essence of energy, and the germ of enterprise. You thrill with the common sympathy of the universe, and throb with the throes and thralls of united humanity.

You translate the world’s sorrows, and delineate life’s joys. You bear the burden of the earth, the load of care and misery and evil, the pathetic definition of futility and fatality; yet you catch the gleam of a sunbeam, the lilt of a song – and we laugh!

YOU TEACH! You distribute knowledge, diffuse the secrets of science and the glories of art; you spread civilisation. You bring light where darkness, and life where is only existence. You banish ignorance; you cheer and comfort.

YOU PREACH! Your pulpit is the hearts of the world, your creed faith and sympathy.

Motion Picture you are great! You are the agent of the age, the messenger of futurity!

You are great – and we are grateful!

Fragment #19: How to Sleep Through a Movie

One of the received wisdoms about the early talkie period (the late 1920s), is that although audiences lapped them up, movie aficionados bemoaned the loss of the elegant, silent cinema, and the clumsy obviousness of the talking pictures. Neatly parodying both sides of the debate is this little item from the May 1929 issue of Photoplay, which reassures readers that the talkies won’t necessarily keep you awake, proving that “the motion picture theatre is still safe for those seeking rest and surcease from the horrors and perplexities of this naughty world.” [Click on the images for a larger view.]

Fragment #18: Would You Like to be a Motion Picture Actress?

I’m enjoying turning up gems like this from old movie magazines, so I hope you won’t mind me posting a few more. It’s often the advertising features in periodicals like Photoplay and Picturegoer that catch my eye, revealing as they do a tight circuit linking fans, stars and media together in a circular exchange of glamour, aspiration and cash. These mags are just packed with beauty products to help fans make themselves over like the silver-screen sylphs that set such an impossible, ethereal standard. But there were also occasional bones thrown to the crowd in the form of competitions to appear in an actual movie. This one, from a 1925 issue of Photoplay, promises a role in Polly of the Ballet, appearing alongside Greta Nissen, taking direction from Cecil B. DeMille. As far as I can tell, this film never got made, so I wonder what happened to the Famous Players-Lasky Corporation‘s guarantee. Any information would be gratefully received.

Fragment #17: How to be a Motion Picture Director

Perhaps you secretly harbour a desire to be a film director. Maybe you’re already working towards your goal and making your own shorts. But don’t take another step until you’ve heard the invaluable advice of Marshall Neilan (1891 – 1958), the prolific actor, writer, director and one-time husband of the magnificent Blanche Sweet. This is taken from July 1925 issue of Photoplay. Just remember: “By no means act normal.”

[Click on the image above for a larger view.]

Fragment #16: Hedda Hopper on the Casting of Vivien Leigh as Scarlett O’Hara in Gone With the Wind

[A lengthy search for the lead role in the adaptation of Margaret Mitchell's blockbuster novel ended on Christmas Day 1938. Over 100 American actresses were considered for the part of Scarlett O'Hara, many suggested to producer David O'Selznick by submissions from the public, but the final shortlist of Paulette Goddard, Joan Bennette, and Jean Arthur were beaten out by Leigh, who had recently moved to the USA to be with Laurence Oliver while he made Wuthering Heights: they shared an agent in Myron Selznick, David's brother. Following the casting, the columnist Hedda Hopper responded furiously to the idea of an English actress in a quintessentially American role. She later regretted this hasty judgement, but her prediction that American audiences would boycott the film is quite spectacularly wide of the mark.]

[Press cutting from The LA Times.]