charliechaplinfan wrote:Your book on Theda Bara is not only well written but it is absolutely packed with lovely pictures of her. As someone who looks at the print type and pictures before buying anything from a bookshop I often wonder why more authors don't put as many pictures in to illustrate their work. Is it a cost issue?
The other thing to note about the pictures of Theda are that in some she is so beautiful but there is a picture in the book of a Liberty Bond rally that doesn't flatter her face at all. You've included both, it warms the soul to know that perhaps all of us have a little bit of film star in us
I also remember reading your Silent Stars book when I started getting interested about silent stars. I never knew about Max Linder's tragic end until I read your book. You got to interview Maud Linder. Did she ever give you any reason as to why he would end his life like that?
$$$! It costs a fortune to get photo publication rights, and the publisher
never pays. I think photos are very important in nonfiction, and it annoys me no end when I find an otherwise interesting book with a lack of photos. My biggest expense for any book is photos--I like to have at least 60 (publishers usually whine, as coated-stock paper is also very expensive). Much of the fun for me is photo research, hunting down just the right ones, not only of the subject, but of other characters in the book (for the Castles, their manager, music arranger, sheet music, contemporary newspaper cartoons of them, their rivals, etc.). I figure even if people don't like my writing, they will like the photos!
There was one photo of Irene Castle and Clifton Webb dancing, ca. mid-1930s. The stock photo house wanted
$800 for it! I told them, "for $800, I expect Irene Castle and Clifton Webb to come back from the grave and
blow me." [Am I allowed to say that?]
Theda Bara was
not a classic beauty, by any means. She had a heavy jaw, and smiling made it stick out more. I like the fact that Theda--like Sarah Jessica Parker--is an unattractive woman who became a sex symbol! There's hope for all of us.
Well, all of us under 40, anyway.
Maud Linder says she has no idea why her father killed himself and has no desire to investigate that. I wonder how enthusiastic his very young wife was in the "suicide pact" . . . I recommend Maud Linder's documentary
The Man in the Silk Hat--it was released on video; I don't know if it's on DVD. Great clips of Max, with English-language narration by Maud.
Whoops, I am sorry! I thought that you had written a book on Pola Negri! OK, could you perhaps tell us who some of your favorite Silent Stars and films are. Those indispensible titles that come to mind? 
Thank you so much for gracing this board with your presence here! As you have written a book on Pola Negri I am quite sure that unlike the vast majority of us, you have seen Ernst Lubitsch FORBIDDEN PARADISE (1924).!
