Ode to the Trade Paper Introduction of Lina Basquette

"Little nine-year-old Lena Baskette"--
a fetching beauty, dark of hair and eyes,
a charming girl who loved to pirouette,
a star pupil Pavlova would have prized.
Your life would be a tempest, and your heart
would burst and knit and never be fulfilled;
despite all your hard work, one single role -
The Godless Girl - would be your lasting art,
forever known best by that one DeMille
and off-screen storms that you could not control.

Lina Basquette

My inspiration: the Motion Picture Studio Directory and Trade Annual from Oct 21 1916.
Click to enlarge.

Lightning Flyer

She was Dot sometimes, or Little Alabam',
Started a Scandal up there on the stage,
When in her cups, her friends called her Slam,
At MGM, all the rage.

A beauty just brimming with humor and fun,
Her joie de vivre showed in her face, in her carriage,
She mended the stone face and heart of someone,
In spite of his marriage.

Forever supporting, rarely the lead,
The role didn't matter -- her presence shone stronger.
A daughter of silents who vanished with speed...
Wish you'd stayed longer.

Dorothy Sebastian

Silent Stanzas From the Silent Era

In lieu of my own work this week, I thought I'd share some of what I've come across on the Media History Digital Library website.  Fan magazines, especially the early ones, contain some well-written and downright  lovely poetry!  Here are two of my favorite pieces.  The first one is a terrific example of the complete infatuation and amazement that early film audiences felt, seeing such larger-than-life beauty for the first time:

"My Shadow Girl" by George Wildey, Motion Picture Story, December 1913

Whate'er of dreams from mem'ry's store
May come unbid to thee
I only dream of crimson lips
That were not meant for me.
More blest than I, the heedless cup
May drink its fill of wine,
While I must ever thirst in vain
For lips not meant for mine.

The ruse whose perfume greets the day
At night may quaff the dew;
For thee the kindly God of Love
A draught of bliss may brew;
The sparkling wine may freely flow
To cheer the cup supine,
While I must ever thirst in vain
For lips not meant for mine.

The kine may seek the limpid stream
That threads the meadow green;
The fount of youth may purl for thee
Whose smile illumes the screen;
The hero in the Photoplay
May cull the bloom from thine,
While I must gaze thereon athirst
For lips not meant for mine.

The second just plain cracks me up.  Motion Picture Story had a section (with the long-winded title of "Appreciation and Criticisms of Popular Plays and Players by Our Readers") where one could submit their attempts, and Louise Vaughn did just that in the February 1914 issue:

I've always been a bachelor-maid,
Quite heart-whole and quite free,
For never have I met a man
Who really pleased me.

I could not love a man who's fat
(Apologies, Mr Bunny),
And yet--alas! the old men
Are the only men with money.

But I have seen a face and form--
They've made of me a slave;
Sometimes he is a lover bold.
Sometimes a hero brave.

I think that I am destined
To fall in love, it seems,
With handsome Carlyle Blackwell,
The ideal of my dreams.

Mr Blackwell, for the uninitiated.  (We've met him here before.) 
One wonders if she spent her remaining years mooning over this picture:

Believe me, there'll be more of these in the future -- they are too fun to pass up!

A Universal Jewel

At nineteen months, the precious Peggy-Jean

Began the climb to immortality;

one of the biggest draws upon the screen,

a Captain steering through a star-filled sea.

Success was short: financial ruin loomed,

and dropped this pearl into the bitter cup

of being spent yet hardly having bloomed.

“How does it feel, sixteen and all washed up?”

Then from the silvered ashes she did rise,

rechristened with a name from hallowed myth;

adversity had honed her, made her wise,

and forged a bright and talented wordsmith…

Diana Serra Cary, pioneer:

the proof that good comes when you persevere.

Diana Serra Cary, the former Baby Peggy Montgomery

(still with us!)

A Riddle

A little something different today!  This star started in silents and became a household name:

The curtain is dusky, a desert sun red;
will Charles be performing, or will he instead?
The stage was big business back in his time
(you can ask him yourself, just drop in a dime
and call straight from the book, in the Ls, not the Js.)
He'd be happy to speak of his music hall days.


Can you guess who?

EDIT: Ruby answered correctly on the FF + SS Facebook page:  It's Stan Laurel! 

(photo courtesy Letters From Stan)

 His birth name was Arthur Stanley Jefferson; early in his stage career, as a member of the Karno Troupe, he was an understudy for Charles Chaplin.  His phone number was listed in the 1960s, and he was warm and friendly to any fans who called him for advice or inspiration.  (One such fan was comedian Dick Van Dyke.)  Laurel made his first film, Nuts in May, in 1917, and even did an early short with Oliver Hardy in 1920 -21.  However, it wasn't until 1927 that they were formally paired together -- and the magic began.

An Audience With the Queen

On the passenger side lay my notebook and pencil:
I drove along, lost, by the studio fence, 'til
a blonde girl yelled "Photoplay?"  In her arms she bore
Some scripts.  "For Miss Stanwyck?  Right through this door."

"That's Barbara."  She pointed.  "Some folks call her Missy.
She's down-to-earth, sweet, and not a bit prissy."
I took off my hat and walked over to her.
She sat down and smiled like I already knew her.

"Well, where to start?  When I was born, I was Ruby.
(If I only knew then what life planned to do to me!)
I grew up too quickly, an adult at four;
Mama was killed, then Pop bailed.  We were poor.
My nine-year-old sister watched me and my brother.
When she started to work, we got foster mothers."

She paused, and I offered a Lucky, a light.
She thanked me and exhaled.  "I worshiped Pearl White!
Dreamt only of stardom when I was fourteen.
I felt destined for show biz, the stage and the screen."

"By sixteen, I danced at The Strand and the Follies."
She smirked. "All those phonies, out getting their jollies."
"Those phonies?" I asked as I scribbled a note.
She nodded.  "My focus was different: a meal, a coat,
and working my way up the ladder of fame.
After that came 'The Noose', where I got my new name."

With that, Barbara faltered.  Her eyes glazed with tears.
"My goodness, I haven't thought about that in years.
That's where I met Rex.  May his soul rest in peace."
She regained her composure. "Don't print that, if you please."

"I moved on to pictures from Burlesque, my last play,
I married a friend that I met there - Frank Fay.
That's ended now.  Boy was that all a mistake.
But that's life; you move on.  You don't get a retake."

"And that brings us to now and that brings us to here."
I could tell she was finished.  She called past me.  "Dear!"
The blonde girl came over. "Please get my script, Alice."
(I peeked at the title.  It said "Stella Dallas".)

I stood up and offered my hand, and she took it.
"A pleasure," I told her, and meant it.  She shook it
and smiled at me warmly as I strode away.
A day in my life, for her life in a day.

Barbara Stanwyck

Evelyn, Norma, and Missy

Been running through my DVR backlog, and I'm just about done now.  Caught "The Mating Call", with Thomas Meighan, Evelyn Brent, and a surprisingly charming Renee Adoree.

Cute picture, a bit slow in spots, but I enjoyed it. Without spoiling it for folks who haven't seen it: does anyone else think it really scary and bizarre how Meighan gets a wife?  I was horrified thinking of how many men might've done just that!

Also watched "Kiki", with Norma Talmadge, and I can't recommend that one highly enough.  How much fun is this movie?

A shout out to the LoC, Greta de Groat and all the other wonderful people whose hard work made this just-about-complete print possible.   Norma plays Kiki, a spunky girl who desperately wants to be in show biz; then, one fateful day, she gets her chance -- and changes not only her life, but the lives of everyone she touches (or bumps into, as the case may be).
I can't believe how great a job Norma did at comedy -- why didn't she play against type more often?  She comes across as a loveably klutzy Clara Bow type, fluffing her hair and putting up her dukes and generally being hyper-adorable.  Near the end she performs an extended physical bit that is marvelous in its execution -- and hysterical to boot.   Thanks to "Kiki" I'm now on a Talmadge kick!  I must have more!

Still working on the poem for Barbara Stanwyck.  I keep on getting great ideas (usually at 3 in the morning). Thank goodness for the notebook near my bed!

Don't worry, Missy, I'm not giving up on you!

Another blog mention!

Bebe and her mother catch up on the latest film blogs.

Both Silent Stanzas and Chris Edwards' wonderful blog Silent Volume get a shout-out in this post from The Kid in the Front Row.  Lots of other great blogs to check out as well!

Read it here:

http://www.kidinthefrontrow.com/2010/12/jingle-blogs.html

Silent Stanzas on the LBS!

Thomas Gladysz of the Louise Brooks Society has posted an entry about poetry and film, and highlighted Silent Stanzas - in particular, "Scrubbie's Sonnet".  Click here to read!