Moira , Jeanne Eagels is one of those people another author has dibs on. I don't know if his book will ever be written or if it will be any good, but one doesn't step on another writer's toes. Isn't that Letter clip bizarre? "Rubber--rubber--rubber-- rubber! " Well, I am off for tonight--...

Gagman , silents--sadly--do not sell. It is so expensive to remaster and score them, and package and promote them, and there is such a small audience. When I was writing about the Castles, I tried to get their delightful 1914 "musical," The Whirl of Life , released on DVD--no luck. The Co...

Christy , I think "Mawia Wiva" has "I Want to be Mommy Syndrome," also suffered by wannabe actresses Liane Carrera (Anna Held's daughter), Christina Crawford, B.D. Hyman. You'll note that movie-star daughters who had no acting ambition tend to write fair, unbiased books about th...

Moira , Jack did not have a great voice. It was passable--as good as Gable's, Cagney's, Haines's. But he was no Ronald Colman. His voice would not have proven a problem if he had not burned so many bridges, and had loyal friends at MGM willing to go to bat for him. He was nervous, and in his earlie...

Christy , I think by 1933 the Garbo/Gilbert relationship had calmed down to a brother/sister friendship. It was nice of Garbo to get him the part, and despite her occasional nasty cracks about him, I think she recalled what a good acting coach he had been (it wasn't till their work on Love , I thin...

Moira , I think by 1934 Jack was drinking pretty much continuously--his alcoholism had really gotten out of hand by then, and he was in terrible health for more than a year before he died. As for him and women . . . he could fall in love--and did--at the drop of a hat. When people ask who is great ...

Enjoying my visit! I will excuse myself from time to time to work on two book proposals, and if any celebrity dies this weekend, I have to get an obit off to my photo archive's media clients. I have offsite access, so Death takes no Holiday.

And it is the weekend: naps must be attended to.

Christy , I'm glad you liked my Harlow book, too! I agree that Jack's personality made him a good actor--he felt very deeply and over-thought everything. Which made for great performances, but boy was it exhausting to be John Gilbert. Choosing a subject is agonizing: it has to be someone I can &quo...

Oops, sorry, Mr. Hayworth!

Jack , he had so many friends, male and female--he was a charmer, and he genuinely liked people and was interested in them. Particularly writers. He basked at the Algonquin Round Table, and good-naturedly took their ribbing. I think what surprised me--happily--was how self-aware he was. He knew he ...

Moira , Jack wanted to work --acting, directing, writing, whatever. He told Gladys Hall in the early '30s that he could sit in his lovely home atop the hills and listen to opera records and read and garden and go golfing, and that he would go mad very quickly. He had to be out doing something. He d...

Gagman , I tried to get Warner Home Video to put out a John Gilbert Collection, and when I finally reached the right person, he said, " Ha -hahahaha, yeah, that's not gonna happen." Oh, well. TCM is doing a whole John Gilbert Day this summer, and they have been kind enough (after much ple...

Mongo , of course I was not there, so all I can do is ferret out what facts we do know, and tell readers "this is what I think happened, and here's why I think so." That 1926 double wedding was blown out of the water by Karen Swenson in her excellent Garbo bio. They had never applied for ...

Miss Hayworth , John Gilbert was never happy with any of his films, except for The Big Parade . He did not think he was a good actor--called himself a ham--and complained endlessly about the writing, direction, casting and even sets and costumes of his films. Queen Christina was a horrible experien...

Coffeedan , I am so glad you liked the book, esp, as you are an expert on John Gilbert yourself! He really was such a complex character--he didn't understand himself, and no one really understood him. All I could do, really, was sit back and let his quotes, his friends' quotes, and his actions spea...