This Day in Ann Dvorak History: Suspended!
On October 7, 2013 by Christina Rice With 3 Comments
- This Day in History
Year of Ann Dvorak: Day 280
On Monday, October 7, 1935, Warner Bros. officially suspended Ann Dvorak for being too ill to report to the set of her latest film Backfire. Her husband, Leslie Fenton, had called in sick for her a couple of days, and even though Ann soon claimed she was well enough to come back to work, Warner Bros. didn’t buy it.  They kept her on suspension until she received a clean bill of health from one of their own doctors. Ann refused, so the suspension continued and she was replaced on  the film (eventually released as Boulder Dam) with Patricia Eillis.
When December rolled around with the suspension still in place, Â the Fentons filed a lawsuit against the studio. Ann Dvorak was going to war with Warner Bros.
Was there any precedent for the actions the studio was taking then, with another actor or actress?
Or was this just two sides going through the process of finally ending a ‘sitzkrieg’, or stalemate, taking off the gloves and going to war?
All these questions and many more will be answered on November 4th! 😉
Ha ha! Fair enough.
Interesting to note that “Boulder Dam” would have paired Ann up with Lyle Talbot once again.