Monthly Archives: August 2013

Silent Sunday – Handbill for “Civilization’s Child” With Anna Lehr

Year of Ann Dvorak: Day 223

As I discusses last week, one of the byproducts of collecting on Ann Dvorak is the small collection of items I have accumulated relating to her mother, Anna Lehr.

Here is a handbill I bought at some point for the 1916 Triangle feature Civilization’s Child directed by Thomas Ince. Anna Lehr is quite prominent on this piece and appears in the two circular photos above, as well as the one on the bottom left. She also appears on the cover.

Once upon a time, I had the luxury of spending hours on eBay doing searches for all of Ann Dvorak and Anna Lehr’s film titles, which is how I came across this piece. Those days are long gone, so I am glad I was able to do some Anna Lehr fishing while I had the chance.

“The Long Night” on TCM

Year of Ann Dvorak: Day 222

The Long Night is going to air on Turner Classic Movies on Sunday, August 11th at 3:00am PST, as part of Henry Fonda’s Summer Under the Stars Day.

Go here to see my previous comments about The Long Night.

Ann Dvorak is Well Represented in the “Blind Alley” Lobby Card Set

Year of Ann Dvorak: Day 221

I have had this Blind Alley lobby card set for so long, that I have come to take it for granted. I look at the title card every day because it’s hanging in the hall on the way to the bathroom. Sometimes I stop for a split second and think, “hey, that’s a pretty cool card,” but most of the time it does not register.

However, in revisiting them here today, I have to admit it’s a pretty great set. Ann Dvorak is in six of the eight cards (well, technically she’s in all eight of you count the border art), and the portrait card with her and Chester Morris is downright stunning.

Heck, even the ones without her are pretty cool. Just look at Ralph Bellamy sizing up Chester Morris and trying to figure out when he can start using the powers of psychology to slowly drive him insane.

And how about Joan Perry conveying sheer terror in the name of publicity?

I bought most of these at a London shop in 2002. They had the whole set for sale and at the time I already had two of the cards, including the title card. They guy at the shop was really cool and had no problem letting me break up the set. He charged me ten pounds for each card with Ann on it, which was like 15 American dollars, quite reasonable. For the two without Ann, he only asked five pounds a piece, which is why I went ahead and bought them.

Blind Alley was the first film of any merit Ann Dvorak made after becoming a freelancer. Sure, the film is a bit hoaky, but it’s a good yarn with a solid cast and Ann gets to be a hard-nosed dame while looking stunning. And – she showed up on most of the lobby cards.

Free E-book Copy of “Ann Dvorak, Hollywood’s Forgotten Rebel” (With a Hardcover Purchase)

Year of Ann Dvorak: Day 220

Yesterday, the University Press of Kentucky, aka my publisher, announced they will be offering a free e-book of any hardcover purchased. One just needs to send them a photo of oneself with the book, and they’ll “ship” out the e-book.

I have yet to embrace e-books, particularly for non-fiction. I read one a few years back on a first generation Kindle and was not impressed with the graphics. I’m sure they have improved considerably, but I also like having that hardcover to refer back to. However, now that I live in a three person household, space is at a premium so I may need to make the e-book plunge. In the meantime, UPK’s program is providing the best of both worlds – a beautiful hardcover that you don’t need to lug on an airplane.

For Ann Dvorak, Hollywood’s Forgotten Rebel, I made the decision to have the photos placed throughout the text, rather than as a glossy insert. I did this specifically with the e-book in mind, so I hope it works out. In looking over the proofs the last couple of weeks, I think this was the right decision. The quality of the photos will be slightly diminished because they’re not printed on glossy paper, but they still look great and it’s nice having them accompany the relevant text.

So, come November, get you cameras and best smiles ready for a photo op with Ann Dvorak. You never know, there might be some special prizes coming your way from this site as well…

Full details on UPK’s new e-book loyalty program is on their blog.

How Being a Librarian Helped Me Write a Book on Ann Dvorak

Year of Ann Dvorak: Day 219

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Yesterday, I briefly tapped into how my chosen profession of librarianship lead to my Ann Dvorak book having a finely crafted index. As I was writing that post, I started to think about how being a librarian aided my Ann-D research in general.

I first conceived of writing a book on Ann back in 1997 or ’98 and for the next few years, my research mainly consisted of collecting memorabilia on Ann and her films. I started researching in earnest around 2003, after I enrolled in graduate school to earn my MLIS and had learned some of the finer points of information retrieval. Once I actually became a librarian in 2005, the research really took off and didn’t slow down until last year as I was finishing up the writing.

There are a few obvious reasons why being a librarian can be an advantage. It’s my job to know where to find information and to provide access to it. The library I work at subscribes to databases with digitized historical newspapers, genealogical information, biographical resources, and Sanborn Maps, all of which I used extensively while researching Ann, but I became familiar with these resources because it’s what  I am paid to do. I am also supposed to know about “traditional” research sources like print indexes and what neighboring institutions have relevant collections.

Being a librarian in the know is great, but I was also at an extreme advantage because I work at Central Library which has deep collections relating to Los Angeles history. Before I ever worked there, a regular patron would come in and pull microfilm for every Los Angeles area newspaper, of which there were many in the 1920s-1950s. This fella would look at every issue and create indexes of films actors which he then sold to researchers. Amazingly, he compiled an index on Ann Dvorak, which a friend of mine had and gave me a copy of. When I first saw it, I had no clue what the cryptic abbreviations stood for. EHE, LAX, HCN, LAR meant nothing to me, so I filed this index away. It took me about two days of working at Central Library to realize I had a key to unlock the contents of the Evening Herald and Express, Los Angeles Examiner, Hollywood Citizen News, and Los Angeles Record – newspapers from Ann’s time which still have not been digitized. For the first six months I worked At Central, I spent every lunch hour on the microfilm machines, looking at each and every last entry in that index, which is something I may not have taken the time to do otherwise.

Working at a place with amazing collections also afforded me the ability to wander up to the Literature Department where the biographies of film actors are (don’t ask) and just browse, looking for books on Ann’s co-stars. If I found a reference indexed in Google books, but not scanned, I could usually find the actual book in our collections. I once spent my lunch breaks for a few weeks browsing the Highland Park Herald newspaper, just because Ann went to private school there. I found a couple of useful things doing that. Accessing old periodicals for film reviews – not a problem. Figure out a new lead? The materials were usually at my fingertips. In need of images of Ann fighting Warner Bros. in court or getting a divorce? Bingo! I am fairly certain that if I did not have such easy access to all these materials, I would not have dug so deep.

Another advantage to being a librarian is that if there was something I did not know, there was usually a colleague who did. A librarian in the department with the legal collection helped me dig up a case relating to Ann and her third husband which went to the California Court of Appeals. He also helped me figure out the whereabouts of their lawyer who I contacted and interviewed for the book. Another librarian in the Business Department helped me get the filing documents for a company Ann and her third husband ran. Had I not worked with these talented people, I may not have even known these materials existed.

Then there are all the fantastic people I came across while working at a public desk. It was a patron who turned me on to Scrivener, the software I used to write the Dvorak book, which was a vital tool. Another fellow posted about Ann on a message board on my behalf, which led to the discovery that a British short she made during the War still existed. One of the editors of Los Angeles Magazine  regularly taps into our librarian brains for various stories. When they put together a cinema issue, he was impressed enough with my Ann Dvorak obsession that Ann and I got the double page spread posted above, which is probably the best photo that will ever be taken of me.

While being a librarian enabled me to do a hell of a lot of deep Ann Dvorak research, I also owe a debt to Ann. The amount of research I have done to uncover the life of Ann and her parents has in turn made me an excellent librarian.

Biography Progress Report #26: What’s in an Index?

Year of Ann Dvorak: Day 218

Working with the University Press of Kentucky has been fantastic. They provided editorial guidance early on, which helped get me pointed in the right direction for the duration of writing the book. Since turning in the finished manuscript, they paired me with an awesome copy editor, allowed me to make significant last minute changes based on newly obtained materials, and assigned the book to talented designers for the cover and interior. The one thing they did not provide was an indexer.

I am not sure if putting the burden of the index on the author is traditional or a new development in the world of publishing. I knew early on that this was going to be my responsibility, and had been dreading it for months. Sure, I had the option of hiring someone, but generally don’t have a spare $3,000 for such things. Fortunately, making my living as a librarian means I hang out with other librarians, and one of my closest friends happens to be a cataloger. For those of you not familiar with the profession, there are many different paths librarians can follow in their careers and not everyone can be a cataloger. I certainly never could. I don’t have the patience and attention span to analyze an item, describe it, and assigned one, or many, classifications to it. As it turns out, a person with a mindset for cataloging, is also well suited for compiling an index.

Back when I was first grumbling about the impending task of indexing the Ann Dvorak book, my cataloger friend, Kim, said she would help me. “Helping” me has actually translated into doing the whole thing, and I now feel as if I owe Kim a life debt even though she frequently thanks me for letting her tackle the index. I have had many people asked why I just can’t have some sort of computer software do it. I suppose I could have, though the publisher discouraged it because these software programs do not catch everything and sometimes make spelling corrections which are not necessary.

Yesterday, Kim sent me the index she has been compiling the past two weeks which is now about 90% complete.  It is truly a document of beauty and made me realize another reason why it’s really necessary to employ a human for this task. While a computer might be able to compile word repetitions, it’s not going to be able to identify concepts and cross-referencing. Ideas like Ann’s relationship with her mother, failed writing projects, attitudes towards film roles, etc are not going to be conceptualized by a machine, nor will a computer be able to cross-reference film titles or personal names that have been changed. I recently looked at a film bio published last year with an index that appeared to have been compiled with a software program. It was noticeably minimal and not particularly useful. Maybe this in-depth sort of indexing is not important to everyone, especially in this day of keyword searching, but as a researcher and a librarian, I still find a finely crafted index to be of value and am proud to have one included in my book.

So, this November when Ann Dvorak, Hollywood’s Forgotten Rebel is unleashed on the world, be sure to thumb through the impressive index and give a silent word of thanks to Kim, the librarian who put it together.

“Murder in the Clouds” Lobby Card

Year of Ann Dvorak: Day 217

Ann Dvorak made A LOT of movies in 1934. After walking out on her contract for 9 months in 1932/33, Warner Bros. made her stew for a few months, but then seemed ready to make up for lost time and put her to work. Overall, the roles she got were supporting ones and she usually wasn’t prominently displayed on the poster art. An exception was Murder in the Clouds co-starring Lyle Talbot. A while back, we took a look at the one-sheet which features a gorgeous image of Ann and Lyle. Today is a lobby card from the film, which includes Ann, even if she’s not too prominent.

Curiously, this is the only lobby card I have seen from this film, so I am not sure if she was heavily utilized on the others.

Silent Sunday: Anna Lehr and Will Rogers in “Laughing Bill Hyde”

Year of Ann Dvorak: Day 216

While amassing a massive Ann Dvorak collection since 1998, I have also managed to put together a respectable amount of items relating to her mother, Anna Lehr, who was a silent film actress from 1912 though the mid 1920s. Since Lehr’s career is limited to early silents, it’s not easy to memorabilia from her films, so I am rather proud of what I have been able to scrounge up.

Lehr’s most notable film is probably Laughing Bill Hyde, which was Will Rogers’ film debut. My understanding is that this is a “lost” film, so all that remains are photos like this one.

Ann Dvorak & David Manners in “Stranger in Town”

Year of Ann Dvorak: Day 215

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I’m in the home stretch of proofing the book for a second time, so I’m taking the easy way out again.

Stranger in Town may not be much of a movie, but this portrait of Ann Dvorak & David Manners is one of the most beautiful photos I own.

Enjoy!

Happy Birthday Ann Dvorak!

Year of Ann Dvorak: Day 214

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Today marks what would have been the 102nd birthday of Ann Dvorak, who was born on August 2, 1911 in New York City.

Over the years, Ann’s birth year has frequently been listed as 1912, but here is definitive proof that she was born one year earlier. I present – her birth certificate.

Those of you who have been following this blog for a least the last couple of months might recall that I recently happened upon some of Ann’s personal possessions. Included in that stash was a copy of her birth certificate, which is cool because I had not been able to get a copy previously. Please note that there is only a space here for Father’s Occupation, because, you know, no self respecting woman would have a career in those days. Had there been a place for Anna Lehr to fill in her occupation, it would have read “theatre,” the same as Edwin McKim.

If you’re able, pull up a chair, throw Three on a Match in the DVD player, and raise a glass to the Divine Ms. D!