This Carbon Based Life

(I’ve had this in the que for a while but couldn’t find a spot between disasters)

By David Glenn Cox

In the wake of yet another Superman movie, it explains and highlights my sojourn into silent films. As a teenager after going through all aspects of popular music. I went looking for something more, something different. I was driving home from work one day in my late twenties when the classic rock station played “Going to California.” I like the song, but I asked myself. Am I going to listen to this music forever? I began listening to blues and blues led me to early rock. Buddy Holly and Eddie Cochran. And when the Stray cats came along, I just laughed.

I grew up watching George Reeves as Superman. I never could figure out why no one ever found Clark Kent’s clothes in a pile. Where does Superman keep his wallet? Dimwitted, Jimmy Olsen and Lois Lane. “Gee Clark, you should have been here! You just missed Superman…again! Gosh, Clark that’s like the 19^th time in a row. And you call yourself a newspaper reporter!”

Modern cinema is aimed at a different demographic. Like the drive in once was, it aims for a younger audience. The all-important demographic of 12 to Nerdy-five. When the 1978, Superman movie premiered. I had an employee ask if he could leave an hour early. So, he and his wife could catch the opening show. I thought he was nuts. A grown man going to see a Superman movie. How wrong I was about American culture. (Looking for culture in America is like looking for brain surgery in Chuck E. Cheese.)

So, most of what Hollywood churns out these days, leaves me cold. I’ve seen enough car chases and watched Steve McQueen in Bullitt. Endless gun battles and mobster movies with almost none reaching the pinnacle of “The Godfather”. I grew up with the late show and the late, late show. Sunset Boulevard, Twelve Angry Men and my personal favorite “The Maltese Falcon.” And I love these films but was looking for something new and different. Something that I hadn’t seen before.

I stumbled across, “The New York Hat” (1912) and fell in love with little Mary Pickford, America’s sweetheart. Now, how silent film differs from talkies was best described by the film “Intolerance” (1916) it is like a stage play, with each scene being one act of the play with dialogue cards in between. They could be very informative. In one scene, a child afraid of being punished, the dialogue card is in a tiny little font. In Little Annie Rooney, A Greek mother yells out the window to her child. And the dialogue card is written in Greek.

The stories are simple and generally sweet. But it is peak into our past. In Johanna Enlists, (1918) A lonely, overworked country girl (Mary Pickford) dreams of meeting a Beau. When an Army regiment camps in their field. But trouble ensues when two soldiers begin to fight over her affections. But these were real Doughboys! Real Army soldiers from 1918 as extras in the film. As a history nerd myself, the clothes and the fashions. The furniture and the attitudes. When Pa hears the soldiers were making love to his daughter. He yells, “where’s my gun!”

Less than ten years later, comes Clara Bow. I just love Clara Bow. I heard a movie historian say the two most captivating women in the history of film were Marilyn Monroe and Clara Bow. And the revolutionary change in America is still amazing to fathom. Mary Pickford wore long curls and wouldn’t let a man hold her hand. She wouldn’t be caught dead with a man in a compromising situation.

Clara Bow would! She’d get into car with a man. She’d go unchaperoned to an amusement park with a man. And if a man tried to kiss her, she would slap him. But later, when she was alone. She was thrilled that he tried. Where Mary was quiet, Clara was boisterous and fun. Such a change in less than ten years.

Clara personified the 1920s. She wore modern clothes and short hair. Wearing short hair was a statement back in the day. Clara wore lipstick and make up! Mary wouldn’t dare. Mary was old-fashioned America. Clara was the new Jazz age roaring twenties America. There’s just something about Clara’s energy. She’s fun and unrepressed. That on screen image of vamping with her eyes led to a lot of ridiculous press and lewd stories. Most of which the studio ignored because it was good for the box office. But remember, They said,  Michael Jackson slept in an oxygen chamber.

In “The Thief of Baghdad,” (1924) Douglas Fairbanks plays the thief. He’s got a thousand tricks up his sleeve. And it’s almost done tongue in cheek, almost breaking the fourth wall. The thief made a rope appear out of a basket and stand straight up. Then climbs the rope to a balcony and then, just for a second, gives the camera a sly smile. Something children would enjoy, and parents could smile at. In the same way as Captain Jack Sparrow. You know he really couldn’t do that. But okay, it’s just for fun.

Fairbanks was married to Mary Pickford and along D.W. Griffith and Charlie Chaplin formed United Artists. In Little Annie Rooney, (1925) an adult Pickford plays a child. Pickford was barely five feet tall. So, they used tall actors and oversized furniture. In “Fanchon the Cricket” (1915) Mary Pickford plays a young woman living in the woods with her Grandmother. Ostracized because they were poor, and the town’s people thought her Grandmother is a witch.

Clara Bow in “The IT Girl” (1927) became the symbol for an entire generation. She wasn’t just a sex symbol; she was a role model. Men wanted to be with her, and women wanted to be just like her. Her films were equally popular with men and women.

Metropolis (1927) is one of the most imitated films of all time. The most expensive silent film ever made in Germany. The Star Wars of 1927. Robots! Evil Scientists! Special Effects! The rich lead an indolent lifestyle while the poor suffered living underground. Simple stories but good, interesting stories.  Buster Keaton’s “The General” (1926) was the most expensive silent film ever made. Today, it is considered a masterpiece. But when it premiered the film lost money. Keaton was known for his fast-paced zany comedy. The General had too much story and not enough fast paced comedy.

These silent films are just a different genre of film making. Many young people are color snobs and won’t watch a black and white film. I sort of feel the same way now. I’ve been a Talkie snob.

These are films portraying their times. Portraying the characters of those times. Living in the houses of those times and wearing the clothes of those times. With flour sifters and samovars. Sewing baskets and lanterns and cars from the 1920’s. Part entertainment and part history lesson. At the end of Johanna Enlists, Mary Pickford appears out of character in an Army uniform. After being named an honorary Colonel in the Regiment. All for the doughboys headed off to fight the Hun. America’s sweetheart! The pin up picture the boys took with them to France in 1918.

And Clara Bow was the girl they wanted when they got back! How are you going to keep them down on the farm, after they’ve seen Clara Bow?