Without Lying Down. Cari Beauchamp
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his father and then served as the studio manager for Norma Talmadge; by the time he signed Elsie Janis, he already had Olive Thomas and several other stars under exclusive contracts and was determined to put the name of Selznick back in lights.29
Frances quietly supported the young Selznick and respected him for his intense desire to succeed. At the World studios, she had watched Myron work in the film examining room starting at seven in the morning making five dollars a week and move on to other departments, learning every aspect of the business the hard way. And she sympathized with his father, whom she saw as another “victim of overconfidence or treachery.”30
Frances wrote The Flapper for Olive Thomas and continued to comb the theaters of New York for plays that would be appropriate for Marion Davies to film. With over seventy legitimate theaters, Frances saw a variety of possibilities, but Hearst preferred her to peruse the stories he had already purchased for Cosmopolitan magazine.
She agreed to write Everybody’s Sweetheart for Elsie’s first film for Selznick, but the name was soon changed to A Regular Girl to capitalize on Elsie’s well-known nickname. Frances brought in a new friend, Eddie Goulding, to help write the story, and she shared the screen credit with him. She had met the Englishman through Anita Loos and they both adored the witty young man who had acted and written for the British stage before serving in the war. When Goulding arrived in New York anxious to work in American films, Frances knew Elsie wouldn’t mind if she used A Regular Girl to give him his first break.31
Once the Armistice had been declared, “Kill the Hun” movies were dead at the box office. In fact, almost anything having to do with war was an anathema. When Frances adapted the play Billeted for Billie Burke, it was immediately retitled The Misleading Widow and the publicity was careful to spell out that the “farce comedy, contrary to what might be expected from the title of the original play, is about as far removed from war as can be imagined.”
The studio heads were convinced that romance and laughter were all audiences were interested in. New villains were appearing in shades of red and anti-Bolshevik themes became the rage, but it was films like Don’t Change Your Wife, Choosing a Wife, and Getting Mary Married that were packing the theaters.32
Elsie and Frances shared the frustration that the very real problems confronted by soldiers returning home were not being dealt with or even discussed. Anita Loos and John Emerson’s last Famous Players Lasky film Oh You Women was a satire about men back from war to find women in their jobs and the ads featured one petite woman and another grossly fat one, both dressed as men in suits, complete with false mustaches, giving the eye to a sheepish-looking soldier in uniform. The studio promoted the fact that there was a purpose behind the comedy: “It drives home the point that while it was all very fine indeed for a woman to take a man’s place while he went to war, it is all wrong to consider keeping it when he comes home.”33
Frances and Elsie tried to deliver their message in a story about a girl from high society who is inspired by patriotism to serve as a nurse overseas. When she returns home, she realizes her former life is meaningless and secretly goes to work in a boardinghouse helping former servicemen find jobs. Her employment bureau for “the boys” is a huge success; she is fulfilled as she never was in the social world and reunites with her old boyfriend with the understanding that she will continue her mission.
They used as many ex-servicemen in the cast as possible and the filming often turned into a party. The director James Young would find Elsie singing with the soldiers or down on her knees in a crap game, but she and Frances took seriously their attempt to remind people in a comedic way that soldiers had a transition to go through. Their memories of what they had seen in France filled the film with realistic details and “between us,” Elsie said, “we put everything in the picture but the delousing station.”
Elsie never considered herself a film actress. She thought she was “too fast” for the camera, looking and acting “like a Semitic jumping jack” on the screen, but making movies was fun, the money was better than she could earn anywhere else, and besides, an Equity strike had closed down the Broadway theaters.34
Anita and John Emerson returned from their European honeymoon and he became deeply involved in the fight to unionize Broadway actors. Anita, however, was not very enamored of the theater and preferred, when she wasn’t churning out another film for Constance Talmadge, to dine with new friends like George Jean Nathan or H. L. Mencken. Mencken was a dedicated bachelor living in Baltimore who came to New York for a day or two at a time and Anita adored him. He was to become yet another in what would be a string of love affairs of the mind, jousting with one-liners and all-night philosophical discussions, but they were rarely the intimate liaisons Anita might have hoped for. Mencken’s intellect and wit represented what she had hoped to find in Emerson, but once she had “landed” the formerly unattainable man as a husband, it became amazingly clear how little they really had in common.
Anita and Frances genuinely enjoyed the company of smart, entertaining, and accomplished women who did not take themselves too seriously. Anita particularly relished spending the evening with Marion Davies, Justine Johnston, and the Talmadge sisters when they were away from their men, free to talk without the need to impress or adore. Frances occasionally joined the regular Tuesday night group in what they called their “cat nights,” usually gathering at the apartment at the Beaux Arts building Hearst kept for Marion.35
United Artists was finally a reality and while Doug had already brought out a picture, Mary Pickford was just completing her contract with First National. Experienced as Mary was, she wanted her best friend at her side for her first United Artists film and Frances made immediate arrangements with Hearst to be “loaned.” To further ensure success, she and Mary chose a well-known story about a young orphan girl: Pollyanna.36
Frances and Mary didn’t realize until they were too far along that they had been spoiled by stories with some depth and challenges, such as Stella Maris. They had reverted to a formula that was almost a caricature of Mary’s previous “little girl” films and found the syrupy sweet Pollyanna frankly insidious; “I hated writing it and Mary hated playing it.”
With the nickname of “The Glad Girl,” Pollyanna dedicates herself to finding something good in everyone and everything. Frances admitted that “in spite of our indifference” she managed to “edge in some amusing scenes” and her titles at times verge on hilarious. When confronted with her mean Aunt Polly, Mary seems at a loss for a positive retort, but then brightly comes up with “I’m glad . . . she’s not twins.” Still, they took few risks and were more relieved than satisfied when filming was completed.37
In October of 1919, Frances finally received word that after organizing the Allied Games and setting a world record for the grenade throw, Fred was coming home. Mary told her to leave for New York immediately and she and Charlotte would follow as soon as the negatives were developed. Frances arrived only a few days before Fred’s ship docked, but her excitement was now tinged with doubts.
It had been eight long months since they had seen each other and they had known each other only a little more than a year. During that absence, it had been Mary’s turn to advise against a relationship: “Fred would have to give up the work which had meant so much to him; in some ways the tenets of the Presbyterian church were as rigid as the Catholic church and it would destroy a preacher’s strong position to marry a divorced woman. What would Fred’s future be? Could she give up her career? Many professional women had made these promises while in love, but if a career is in their blood, they rarely settled down for long.”
This time their heart-to-heart discussions brought Mary and Frances “even closer” and in a temporary burst of puritanical resolve, they both decided “we must renounce our loves.” Mary’s determination evaporated the next time she saw Doug, but Frances now “bitterly regretted my two marital indiscretions.” She also harbored the concern that her success might intimidate Fred.38
After a joyous reunion, she confronted Fred with all her fears, but he was adamant. Yes, he had loved preaching and had thought that was what he wanted to do with