YOUR BOOK WAS USED AS THE BASIS FOR TWO TELEVISION DOCUMENTARIES
-- TURNER NETWORK TELEVISION AND A&E BIOGRAPHY. WHAT
WAS YOUR INVOLVEMENT ON EACH?
I was credited Consultant on both. For Turner I was also a paid employee.
A&E Biography had a tiny budget, so I waived a salary and they interviewed
me.
I thought the Turner people did a tremendous job. They were
so concerned about getting it right; they kept sending me drafts
of the script saying, "Is this correct? Is this accurate?" I
really admired that, because they own the films. So they didn't
need me. They could've just gone and done whatever they wanted.
Sharon Stone hosted that show. She was great to work with.
Naturally she'd read the book, and she had a lot of questions.
I think it was really revelatory for her, because she's so
in control of her career and her image -- and Jean Harlow had
no control over either. I got the sense that Sharon was very
aware of that, had she been working in Jean Harlow's era, she
would have faced the same dilemma, and wouldn't have been able
to do anything about it. So on one level it makes you grateful
you're working today, and on the other it's kind of depressing.
Because no current actress gets the material Jean Harlow got.
Sharon would say, "Where's my Bombshell? Where's my Red-Headed
Woman?"
I also thought A&E Biography did an excellent job. They
made a decision to use 'talking heads,' sources I'd found who'd
never gone on-camera before: Barbara Brown, Elaine St. Johns,
Bill Edmondson, a few others. Peter Jones, who wrote and produced
it, is Conrad Nagel's grandson, so he knows Hollywood history
firsthand. He grew up in Victor Fleming's house, which I’m
sure Jean Harlow visited at some point. Peter does a lot of
documentaries for A&E and AMC, and his extensive knowledge
of and familiarity with Hollywood history shows.
My only reservation about that show was...me. [LAUGHS] I was
uncomfortable appearing on it, because next to all these people,
I looked like some young whippersnapper. When I saw the rough
cut, I thought, "Who is this guy, and what makes him think
he knows all this? He obviously wasn't around." Because I'm
just a biographer. I didn't know her. Why would anyone want
to see me?
BECAUSE YOU'VE DONE ALL THE DIGGING!
But that doesn't mean you have to watch me! Writers are meant to be
read and not seen. That's my attitude.
YOU TOUCHED ON FILM PRESERVATION EARLIER. TALK A LITTLE
BIT ABOUT YOUR INVOLVEMENT IN THIS GROWING MOVEMENT.
I’m very committed to it. It’s a real cause for me. So far I’ve
funded full preservation on two films: The Saturday Night Kid (1929)
with Clara Bow and Jean Harlow and Parisian Love (1925) with Clara
Bow. Both are rare titles: there are bootleg 16mm prints of The Saturday
Night Kid floating around, but UCLA worked from the sole surviving 35mm
original nitrate negative. And Parisian Love was preserved from the
only print left, a beautiful 35mm nitrate with five different tints.
My belief is that preservation is paramount, no pun intended.
Because without Clara Bow and Jean Harlow's movies, my books
about them mean nothing. Imagine a book about Michelangelo
without the Sistine Chapel: you just have to take the author's
word for what an amazing work of art it was. It's the same
with these films. What's the point of reading about Red
Dust if you can't see it for yourself? So it's up to us
to save them. In a perfect world, the studios would assume
responsibility; after all, they own these films. But in the
meantime, many are disintegrating or spontaneously combusting.
So I don't have time to complain. Like they say, nitrate won't
wait.
THANKFULLY, THERE SEEMS TO BE A GROWING AWARENESS OF THIS
NEED.
It's wonderful. People really care, plus it's become chic. I mean, now that
Scorcese and Spielberg are active, everybody wants to climb on board. And
luckily Jean Harlow worked for MGM, which preserved all its films in the
early '70s. So most of her films are safe. In addition, UCLA had done Iron
Man and Columbia has done Platinum Blonde. I believe they've also
preserved Three Wise Girls. In 1989 there was a restoration of Hell's
Angels with its original color sequence, which was found in John Wayne's
personal vault. And of course that's the only color feature footage ever
shot of Jean Harlow.
Clara Bow's films haven't fared as well. All four releases
from 1928 -- Red Hair (which opens with a Technicolor
reel), The Fleet's In, Ladies of the Mob and Three
Weekends -- are all lost, as are several other of her silent
films. And most of her sound films await preservation. UCLA
has pristine nitrate negatives, sitting in a vault, facing
decay...all you benefactors out there, help!
ALONG THE LINES OF PRESERVATION, "BOMBSHELL" IS PRINTED
ON ACID-FREE PAPER STOCK. WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT?
I’m glad you brought that up. Publishers don't like to do it, because
it sets a precedent -- but authors ought to be forewarned: if you don't want
your book to fall apart, get it printed on acid-free paper. I remember at
Yale, you'd look at a text that was 500 years old and the paper would be
in great shape. Then you'd look at a book that was 50 years old, and it'd
be in tatters. That's the difference. They refused me on "Clara Bow: Runnin'
Wild," but on "Bombshell" I had more clout. So I told my agent, "This is
a dealbreaker," and suddenly I had it in my contract.
ANY NEW BOOK PROJECTS IN THE WORKS?
As you know, I'm primarily a film and television writer-producer. These two
books have been the jewels of my professional life, but they're like a
relationship: they can consume you. I don't understand how people write
about someone like Hitler. Because you get so intensely involved with your
subject that you really have to care. I guess in a case like that, you
learn to dissociate... And it's lonely. You're alone in a room and it's
1932...'cause when I write a biography, I don't just research Clara Bow
or Jean Harlow, I immerse myself in their entire era. So I’m listening
to the music, reading the novels, learning the history...and sometimes
you walk outside and think, "What's going on? Where am I?"
