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3 January 2008

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MARION!

TCM is honoring our favorite star with an all day Birthday tribute on January 3rd! Tune in and catch (in order), THE RED MILL, SHOW PEOPLE, MARIANNE, THE FLORODORA GIRL, Peg'O MY HEART and the TCM/Timeline original production, CAPTURED ON FILM - THE TRUE STORY OF MARION DAVIES. Let's see if you're eyes are quick enough to catch my screen credit at the end!

Remember that TCM UK is up and running and they CAN show Marion's IT'S A WISE CHILD. If you want to help, please email TCM UK at tcmmailuk@turner.com and request IT'S A WISE CHILD. TCM Canada also has the ability to show the film, but at this point I haven't found an appropriate address for them. If you find one pass it on to me please. More bad news for this fight in the US, I was able to contact TCM directly about this matter and was told that it's completely up to the Warner Legal Department. Again I have to admit that it looks bleak that Warner Brothers will ever do anything about this issue. The best we can hope for it for someone else to buy Warners out who might be more sympathetic. Too bad there weren't more of us, we could just boycott them! And speaking of the subject, I just got a not so cordial note from TCM about WISE CHILD, and it doesn't look like anyone is going to attempt to do anything about it at this point. Keep fighting people!


There is going to be aW.R. Hearst exhibit in LA in 2008, which will mark the Castle's 50th year open to the public. I've been getting a trickle of news about this project as they've contacted me a few times because of the page. If I get any concrete or juicy bits I'll be sure to pass them on. The California History Museum has a wonderful San Simeon Exhibit in Sacramento, even has the original 35mm motion picture projector from the Castle.

Wise Child in DC!

"On Friday March 11, 2005, Nick Langdon was in Washington DC for the Library of Congress screening of the "lost" Marion Davies film IT'S A
WISE CHILD.

This Marion Davies rarity was shown in the Mary Pickford Theater which
is located on the third floor of the Madison Building on Capitol Hill.
The Madison Building is adjacent to the US Capitol and the original
Library of Congress building. The Pickford Theater is a comfortable
albeit diminutive venue, with seating for about 60 movies fans.

I arrived about an hour beforehand. There was someone else already
outside of the theater. And after some chitchat, I realized that this
fellow was Nick Langdon, the most notable global crusader for Marion.

I was fortunate enough to have a few minutes to talk with Nick before
the show. Nick is a wonderfully engaging person, full of fascinating
information and good humor. Even in the very few minutes which I had to
chat with him, I learned quite a number of new facts about Marion. For
example, did you know that Marion was a grandmother [Note from Nick: actually I said she COULD have been a Grandmother], and that some of
her descendants are friends of Nick?

Time flies when you're having fun, and soon Nick was whisked away for
a briefing by theater manager Christel Schmidt, the woman responsible
for bringing IT'S A WISE CHILD to the Pickford. Shortly thereafter the
doors opened, and I and the rest of the throng filed in. Looking around
the packed house, I saw that Nick was holding court with those seated
around his front row center seat.

And then scanning the crowd, who to my amazement did I see among us,
none other than Tom Shales, the Pulitzer Prize recipient and nationally
known media critic for the Washington Post. That's a pretty impressive
guest for what some might regard as an obscure event. But then again,
Shales has always known how to pick 'em.

Tom Shales was an early supporter of TCM, and I remember his column
from a decade ago praising TCM as one of the true gems of cable
television. Perhaps Nick should talk with Shales. Maybe Mr. Shales could
use his position to "go to bat" for IT'S A WISE CHILD, and exert some
media pressure on TCM.

Before the screening, Christel, suffering from a nasty cold, bravely
took to the podium and offered her thoughts on the film. The screening
of the Davies movie was part of her Women in Film series. The previous
week she had screened two Davies silent movies, GETTING MARY MARRIED and BEAUTY'S WORTH which also played before a completely packed house.

While I hold the highest regard for Christel, my impression is that she
is more of a film scholar than an out and out fan of early classics. To
hear her scholarly introduction for IT'S A WISE CHILD one would have
expected to see a crude scratched up old curio, of interest mainly to
Marion completists. This of course turned out to be anything but the case.

Christel deserves a HUGE round of thanks from all of us for scheduling
this film. Thank you Christel! You have provided a rare magic moment.

After her introductory comments, Nick was invited to the podium as the
guest speaker for the evening. Nick held the audience's attention as he
regaled us for several minutes with his personal experience in striving
to liberate this film, offering some insights into why IT'S A WISE CHILD
has been treated like a redheaded stepchild. After a round of grateful
applause for his talk, it was on with the show.

The full house shook with laughter for the duration. Not only was Marion
at the top of her form but supporting players were all perfectly cast
as well. James Gleason stood out as a rascally iceman sporting the
mellifluous moniker "Cool Kelly".

My way of briefly describing IT'S A WISE CHILD is to say it is a screwball comedy which has something of the atmosphere of NOT SO DUMB combined with comic situations which foreshadow themes found in the 1939 Ginger Rogers comedy BACHELOR MOTHER.


IT'S A WISE CHILD is comedy about gossip and mistaken identity, and what transpires if good girls are thought to go bad. Despite some of the
contemporaneous trade blurbs, there is nothing smutty or gratuitously
risque about this movie. It is all good clean fun, a comedy of mix-ups
which someone like Shakespeare himself could have enjoyed.

After the show, ballots were provided so that the audience could rate the
film, and vote on IT'S A WISE child being included in the National Film
Registry. My vote was a solid "10" and a definite YES for inclusion
in the Registry. Glancing at some of the other completed ballots,
it was obvious I was not alone in my opinion.

Friday was a rainy night in Washington; not wanting to miss my bus
connection back in Virginia I had to skedaddle out of there. I didn't
get a chance to hang around after the show and thank Nick personally.
Let me thank him now. It was wonderful for him to travel all this
way. More importantly he was able to "get the word out" on the red
tape which has ensnared IT'S A WISE CHILD. This will add to mounting
pressure to free this film for enjoyment by all of us. Thanks again Nick,
for all your efforts in keeping Marion before the public eye."

Well, the screening did go over well and it was nice to meet everyone and see that rarest of rare Davies picture.

Marion Davies Chat Room




MARION ON DVD!
Grapevine Video releases LITTLE OLD NEW YORK ON DVD!

Grapevine Video has released LITTLE OLD NEW YORK on DVD. The title can be purchased online from the following link:
http://www.grapevinevideo.com/Little_Old_NY.htm
Grapevine Video
Thanks to David Apolloni for bringing this to our attention!

SHOW PEOPLE & HOLLYWOOD REVUE ON DVD SOON from Warner Brothers!

Late breaking news from Warner Brothers! Apparently they have found the original negatives to SHOW PEOPLE and have meticulously restored the film, including nearly two minutes of footage that hasn't been in the prints we've seen! Hopefully this will fix the sound-sync problem the film has had and we'll be able to see and hear it as never before. The film will be released on DVD by Warner Home Video but don't look for it until late this year or perhaps even early 2006. THE HOLLYWOOD REVUE OF 1929 is also nearing release on Warner Home Video.

Unknown Video out of San Francisco has released a compilation of silent era newsclips and promo films. It's called "Memories of the Silent Stars" and it does feature Marion in an early Cosmopolitan promo film dusting, reading and sweeping her carpet (like Marion EVER cleaned her own house!). The rest of the DVD is a mixed bag, some of the clips are very entertaining but there is a lot there and some of it is not memorable. You can reach Unknown Video at:
www.unknownvideo.com

OCEAN HOUSE RISES FROM ASHES..... SORT OF...
Marion's beloved Ocean front mansion is Santa Monica (or what's left of it) has been borded up and condemned since the Northridge earthquake damaged it in the 80's (this from the Santa Monica website for Ocean House). Thanks to our Santa Monica coorespondant Gerald we have more news and a new link to a site for the project to restore Ocean House. Apparently the construction is already underway and you can see the artists rendition at 415pch.smgov.net. The grounds and the pool will be open to the public (won't that be fun to dive into Marion's pool?) but I don't see the tennis courts anywhere on the drawings so I'm wondering if they're going to remove them? Anyway, thanks Gerald, we really appreciate your news bits and I'll try to keep them posted here as they break.

Marion's bed has been returned to her bedroom in the Hearst Castle! The bed was removed after W.R. died so that the Hearst twins could have twin beds in the room. I go on record stating that I griped and moaned on every visit to the castle (and there have been many) about the bed being missing so it was with a bit of shock on my last visit when I walked into Marion's room and there it was!


Bob Board's added an annex! Below is a shot of Bob holding two new prized possessions, two European movie magazines with Marion on the cover. The odd thing is that they're both from the 40's, which means that someone at the magazine really loved Marion at the time since she stopped making films in 1937. Bob's new annex houses all the miniature movie sets he's built, including FLORODORA GIRL, GOING HOLLYWOOD, OPERATOR 13, SHOW PEOPLE, PAGE MISS GLORY and CAIN AND MABEL. There are also replicas of the main hall of San Simeon (behind Bob in the photo), Grauman's Chinese Theatre and the Coconut Grove.





Marion at the swearing in for President Kennedy, at left with a hanky over her face.

As many of you now know we have a message board. I've been fairly faithful about answering questions when I can and I appreciate others who've helped out as well. You can access the message board at:

http://www.decofilms.com/forum/default.asp

About the mailing list.......

I have now removed even more dead email addresses from the mailing list so if you did not get an update announcement then please click on the link at the top of this page and request to be on the list. We do NOT share the list with anyone, you'll receive no spam, only personal notes from me when the page has been signifgantly updated. People often ask me to change their address on the list, but this is a difficult task the way it's set up, so PLEASE read this and understand. If you need to change your address simply sign up for a new one by clicking on the link above then either drop me email requesting the old one to be deleted or just let it go and I'll automatically remove the old one when it stops working.

Last but not least I posted in the index page that I had found a site that had the Hedda Hopper show featuring Marion. I, of course, forgot to give YOU the link.... sorry about that... you can find it at http://www.atvaudio.com/ata_search.php?keywords=Marion+Davies

 
Until next time....

Nick Langdon

The Marion Davies Home Page

A 1941 European Magazine
with Marion on the cover,
Courtesy of Bob Board

From
The Cardboard Lover

A Note From
Marion

Click on the above
link to read a note
from Marion!

Marion's beloved Ocean House will somewhat rise
again as a public park in Santa Monica!

A shot of Sacramento's Crest Theatre with the opening titles of The Bachelor Father.  Ok, notice there is no one in the theatre....  I superimposed the titles onto a previous photo of the theatre.

The beautiful Crest Theatre
all lit up for the Davies
double feature!









Marion posing for a publicity shot
for PAGE MISS GLORY, at
Warner Brothers, 1935.