The Rise and fall of Matinee Idol John Gilbert
This is one of the outstanding books I have read about an early Hollywood star John Gilbert. This book not only gives us the story behind his meteoric rise in the American film industry but also narrates a brief history of how the studios came into existence in Southern California. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book; it is an effortless reading and the material flows flawlessly and keeps you highly engaged from start to finish. Strongly recommended to readers interested in the history of Hollywood, career of John Gilbert and the stories behind the top movies he made in 1920s.
A brief summary of this book would illustrate the life of John Gilbert, as charmingly written by author Eve Golden: Gilbert was the screen’s hottest heartthrob, the top male sex symbol of 1920s and one of MGM’s box-office champions. He was handsome, mercurial, and very talented. He dated some of the most beautiful women in Hollywood, which included Greta Garbo, Virginia Bruce, Marlene Dietrich, Barbara La Marr, Mae Murray, Lila Lee, Bebe Daniels and some of his co-stars. Some of the notable films of Gilbert include; The Merry Widow, The Big Parade, Flesh and the Devil, and Love. When talkies started in 1928, Gilbert panicked since he did not have microphone experience and also his squeaky and ineffective voice sent his career into a tailspin. This was compounded by his souring relationship with MGM executives. MGM head Louis B. Mayer is known have made unpleasant comments about his upcoming wedding with Greta Garbo that may have led to fist fight. Some eye-witnesses discount this. But in short this episode did not help his contract with MGM. In the meantime, his drinking, womanizing, and his larger than life personality made a target for moralizers and journalists out for a scoop. Gilbert would soon find himself unemployable and insufficient for talkies of the early 1930s.
His childhood had its own ups and downs. His mother was an actress and his father was a manager of a stock company. After his parents were divorced, John Gilbert and his mom traveled across the country and he pretty much grew up on the road. Life was tough but he began to understand the world at a much younger age. At one time, he was left in the care of his mother’s friend in Manhattan, a seamstress who ran an escort service with her daughter. Men coming and going out of the tiny apartment was not uncommon, and he had similar experience while living with his mother Ida Gilbert. She would bring men into the house when she was not in a married relationship.
The man who brought John Gilbert to Hollywood was studio executive Thomas Ince. By 1912 Thomas Ince purchased an 18,000 acre ranch in Pacific Palisades Highlands stretching 7.5 miles of Santa Ynez Canyon between Santa Monica and Malibu in California. He built his own studio, named "Inceville". The studio was the first of its kind which featured stages, offices, labs, commissaries (large enough to serve lunch to hundreds of workers), dressing rooms, props houses, elaborate sets, and other necessities in one location. The streets were lined with many types of structures, from humble cottages to mansions, mimicking the style and architecture of different countries. Extensive outdoor western sets were built and used on the site for several years. From 1915, John Gilbert performed in minor roles. In 1916, he appeared in three movies of William Hart. Several studios were operating in late 1910s and Gilbert kept himself busy with several small projects for various studios. In 1920s several major studios began to form by the unification of smaller studios. MGM Studios was one of the major studio to be created from the acquisition of Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures, and Louis B. Mayer Pictures, and it began to dominate the film making industry. Gilbert entered into a very lucrative contract with MGM and his career had blossomed beyond his imagination.
There is a fairly extensive description of story behind the making of “The Merry Widow” with Mae Murray with controversial director, Eric von Stroheim. There were constant bickering between von Stroheim, and Gilbert and Murray: She was often a peace maker. Von Stroheim was also notorious for outrunning the MGM budget and kept the executives off stage. Years later Mae Murray gave several interviews and spoke about behind the scene anecdotes. The stories were not always coherent and several historians have looked into these stories and give different versions. The author is sensitive enough to the curiosity of the readers and give all versions so that the veracity of historical facts may be determined by the readers themselves. There are also interesting stories behind his other successful movies like “Big Parade,” which is one of my favorite movies, “Flesh and Devil” and “Love.”
Kenneth Anger’s book “Hollywood Babylon” gave salacious story of John Gilbert and actress Marie Prevost who tried to drown their troubles in bourbon. They staged a drink-to-death race in 1936. But author Eve Golden has not substantiated this story in this book. By 1935, alcoholism had severely damaged Gilbert's health and he passed away at the age of 36 at his Bel Air home on January 9, 1936. His movies on TCM cable channel is always entertaining to his fans like me, but it is also a constant reminder of a soul lost in a purely material world.
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