Sonya Levien

I was very surprised to stumble upon screenwriter Sonya Levien and learn how extensive her work in silents and talkies were, even winning an Academy award.  Perhaps the reason why she went under my radar was her contract.  She didn't get screen credit for much of her work.  Why that's so when Anita Loos and Frances Marion did, I don't know.  I'll read her biography for more insight.  Oops!  No real biography.  Why not?  From one bit of information it seems that her family didn't want to help any biographers.  It's not easy to reconstruct someone's life with no help from those who knew her.

I consider this a huge loss to film history.

She probably worked on hundreds of films including those for Will Rogers, Charles Farrell and Janet Gaynor, Frank Borzage, and Allan Dwan.  She collaborated with the excellent and prolific S.N. Behrman, worked on Curly Top starring Shirley Temple and was there for Charlie Chan.  In other words some of the finest entertainment to come out of Hollywood.

Hollywood is the way it is now because talents like Sonya Levien have passed. 

Double Harness--Screenplay by Jane Murfin

It was not unusual in the early decades of film making for screenwriters to be women.  That became unusual later  in the century and even now it's still quite rare for a woman to write a movie that's produced.  They're writing them.  I wrote them.  Hollywood doesn't want that kind of product now.

Jane Murfin was very talented, wrote for stage and screen and wrote and produced movies starring her dog Strongheart.  She wrote many notable films including 1932's What Price Hollywood starring Constance Bennett, Neil Hamilton and Lowell Sherman (also multi-talented.) 

Douglas Fairbanks Jr.

It must have been difficult, at least in his early years, living in his father's shadow.  Douglas Fairbanks was an amazing athlete and bursting with life.  To see him in Black Pirate doing all his own stunt work

it's simply extraordinary in any era.
 


But Douglas Fairbanks Jr. was extraordinary in his own right.  Beyond being a good actor, he was a thoughtful, intelligent man, a decorated Naval officer with many years of service to his country, well after WWII.  His two volume biography Salad Days is definitely worth reading, written by himself, his good humor and wisdom shines through.

He was also a fine looking man as proven in this George Hurrell portrait.

Welcome to Old Hollywood