Damsels and Divas

European Stardom in Silent Hollywood

Agata Frymus

• Publisher: Rutgers University Press
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781978806108
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: Performing Arts

Damsels and Divas investigates the meanings of Europeanness in Hollywood during the 1920s by charting professional trajectories of three movie stars: Pola Negri, Vilma Bánky and Jetta Goudal. It combines the investigation of American fan magazines with the analysis of studio documents, and the examination of the narratives of their films, to develop a thorough understanding of the ways in which Negri, Bánky and Goudal were understood within the realm of their contemporary American culture. This discussion places their star personae in the context of whiteness, femininity and Americanization. Every age has its heroines, and they reveal a lot about prevailing attitudes towards women in their respective eras. In the United States, where the stories of rags-to-riches were especially potent, stars could offer models of successful cultural integration.

CHAPTER 1

Pola Negri and Romance

“AH LOVE! IT’S NOT FOR ME”

William K. Everson points out that the acquisition of European filmmakers and actors was one of the ways in which Hollywood set about strengthening its image as an international cultural center at the beginning of the 1920s.¹ Pola Negri was one of the first continental stars recruited through Hollywood’s fascination with Europe. She came to the United States in late 1922 at the invitation of Adolph Zukor, a producer who recognized the artistic and, most significantly, financial advantages that Negri’s star appeal could generate for his company. From the start of Negri’s career in Hollywood, fan magazine discourse established her in the context of what was viewed as her exotic disposition. “Pola Negri is highly emotional in private life as well as on the screen. She never spares herself,” declared an article in May 1922.² Negri’s publicity painted a portrait of carnal vitality and intensity that could befit only a continental star. In the words of one columnist, the star “walked into Hollywood with the hauteur of an empress.”³

By populating the pages of the fan press, numerous romantic endeavors worked to increase Negri’s star value while concurrently enhancing her connection to the notion of a European diva. In keeping with Diane Negra’s argument, the romantic relationships in which Negri engaged formed the most important extratextual source of her stardom, since they “literalized the myth of the vamp.”⁴ Liaisons with the most influential people in the industry came hand in hand with a critical commentary depicting the star as a passionate diva; indeed, one of the earliest mentions of her antics in the American fan press referenced her alleged romantic involvement with Charlie Chaplin, whom she met during his visit to Europe.⁵ Negri’s career undulated alongside a series of affairs with the most desirable actors of the era: after her stint with Chaplin, she was briefly linked with Rod La Rocque and, most notably, with Rudolph Valentino. Those affairs, however, placed her beyond the spectrum of respectable femininity, eventually restricting her professional prospects. As a female foreign celebrity, Negri was forced to negotiate some of the most trenchant ideological assumptions of the period about what was acceptable in terms of the performance of ethnic and gender identity in America.

Because the dominant Western discourses equate love with the most intimate aspect of one’s personal identity, and because the private lives of movie players are constituted as a site of truth, romance can be seen as the most truthful locus of star identity.⁶ As a result, fans’ acknowledgment of the manufactured nature of star images was partial, often not extending to the romantic relationships of their idols. To the readers of Photoplay and Motion Picture Classic, Negri was at her most authentic in seduction, courtship, and heartbreak. This chapter examines the ways in which Negri’s exuberant love life blurred the lines between cinematic diegesis and public discourse. It argues that Negri’s romantic endeavors connected her to the vamps she portrayed on screen, simultaneously validating her eastern European ethnicity. As a woman who was—to use Negra’s term—“off-white,” Negri became synonymous with an unsuppressed female desire that stood in stark opposition to ideas of white virtuousness.⁷ In a period of increased interest in tabloid journalism, Negri’s off-screen conduct gave credibility to the characters she created in her work, and the compatibility between these two types of representation effectively turned her into a hazardous commodity. She was, as such, caught between the “old” and the “new” world, an outsider who had infiltrated and worked her way inside the American nation.⁸

CHARLIE CHAPLIN

In order to examine how Negri’s love life was articulated, I briefly outline some concerns that correspond to film magazines’ initial handling, and eventual commodification, of such matters. Upon their emergence in the early 1910s, the first film-oriented publications paid little attention to the off-screen lives of movie players, largely limiting their discussion to upcoming productions and casting decisions. From 1914 onward the leading periodical of this type at the time, Photoplay, started to extend its gossip pages to include business matters, such as lawsuits, studio finances and star salaries, although it still managed to steer away from writing about the intimate relations of the major movie players.⁹ More overt acknowledgment of star couplings dates back to 1917, the year in which Photoplay published its eponymously titled spread “Who Is Married to Who.”¹⁰

Gradually, the focus of fan press shifted to circulating private information relating to extrafilmic personalities, and revealing personal likes and dislikes of the stars, as well as their prospective fiancées and spouses. In providing a steady supply of what they presented as fascinating private details of stars’ lives, these magazines secured the loyalty of their readership. In its heyday, the studio system focused on off-screen star personae to a greater degree than European modes of film promotion; the Hollywood publicity machine was invested in endorsing its leading players as people who had interesting private lives.¹¹ By the mid-1920s, fan magazines were adept in disclosing not only who was married to whom but also—to quote Martha Gever—“who is dating and maybe sleeping with whom.”¹²

In February 1922, when Negri arrived in Hollywood, Chaplin was at the height of his artistic success, having recently directed The Kid (1921), his first full-length feature. In the book detailing his trip to Europe, My Trip Abroad (published in 1922), the English comedian recounted his first meeting with Negri at the Palais Heinorth in Berlin, calling her “divine” and “the loveliest thing he has seen in Europe.”¹³

As in the case of the other romances conducted by Negri in the years ahead, there seems to be no consensus as to whether the affair grew organically or whether it was simply a matter of clever publicity designed by Famous Players-Lasky as a form of investment in its newest contract player. Notwithstanding, the Negri I analyze here is a constructed persona rather than a biographical entity; it is the type of information that circulated about her that interests me, not whether it was factually accurate.¹⁴ Given Chaplin’s huge international fame, his rumored relationship with Negri inevitably received a lot of media coverage (figure 2). By directing her attention to the nation’s most eligible bachelor, Negri substantially bolstered her market value and was soon commanding headlines herself. Picture Play reported that the king of comedy was reluctant to discuss the nature of his involvement with the European actress. After being asked about Negri by Elza Schallert, a gossip columnist, Chaplin’s face allegedly turned red: “He had met his Waterloo, and he thenceforth became as silent as a sphinx on the subject of feminine pulchritude.”¹⁵

The short-lived affair was conducted in a whirl of speculation, with announcements of engagements quickly followed by supposed quarrels and splits. A press conference held at the Del Monte Lodge on January 28, 1923 was used to announce Chaplin’s plans to wed Negri, although in early March numerous outlets quoted the actor as saying that he was too poor to afford a wedding ceremony. Negri’s publicist, in response, issued a statement declaring that “the happy days are dead” and that “it’s all over.”¹⁶ The subsequent reunion piqued the interest of the fan press, with many commentators painting Negri as highly emotional and therefore incapable of keeping her private affairs to herself.

Figure 2. The pair in the popular press in 1923: Buffalo Enquirer, January 18.

In the account provided by Harry Carr, when Negri planned to end her relationship with Chaplin she decided to use the public media to let the world know of her intentions by paying for an eight-column headline in all the most popular papers.¹⁷ By June, Negri allegedly claimed Chaplin was irreversibly unsuited to matrimony.¹⁸ The promotional aspect of all these actions did not go unnoticed, with Picture Play reporting that “[Chaplin’s] supposed engagement to Pola Negri netted the romantic young couple millions of dollars’ worth of advertising.”¹⁹ These attributions betrayed a sense of extravagance and eccentricity that became entrenched in Negri’s star text, and further framed her in the context of her temperament. In epitomizing a continental, semi-exotic demeanor, the actress “identified with the world of passion, with strong affect.”²⁰ To quote Jeannine Basinger, “The idea was that Pola Negri, a European diva, was out of control, an egomaniac.”²¹ In many ways, this narrative was emblematic of the wider trends in star publicity, with fan magazines actively generating controversy to engage their readers.

ROD LA ROCQUE

Negri’s private antics relied largely on taking an active sexual interest in men, which intersected with aspects of her portrayals on the silver screen. The compulsion to draw her life according to the outlines of her performances surfaces more sharply in the narrative treatment of her character in Forbidden Paradise from 1924. It fed into the tendency to view Negri’s private persona as that of a flirtatious woman interested in sexual conquest. “Pola actually is the Czarina,” contended the Exhibitor’s Trade Review, “and no one will deny it.”²² Here, I analyze the narrative of the film and the way in which its promotion conflated the seductive character of the czarina with Negri’s off-screen qualities.

Early in the film, a group of revolutionaries attempts to topple the monarchy of a fictional Balkan state by assassinating the empress. “Let’s put an end to a [sic] female rule! It’s shameful to have to obey a woman—especially that kind of woman!” proclaims the leader of the revolt in addressing his followers. Luckily, a young officer, Alexei Czerny, witnesses the speech and comes to the czarina’s rescue. She repays him not only by increasing his rank to captain but also by inviting him to spend the night with her. Albeit humorously, the plotline promulgates the assumption that women of power use their influence for the wrong reasons, such as to facilitate their promiscuity. At first, the man is torn between the advances of the powerful and sexually confident czarina and the desire to remain faithful to his fiancée, caring and loyal Anna (Pauline Starke). Soon enough, he trades his initial reluctance toward Negri’s character for passionate love, “only to discover that he is the latest in a long line of royal consorts.”²³ This painful realization is executed in classic tongue-in-cheek fashion for which Ernst Lubitsch’s direction is so celebrated: the empress stages a banquet attended by a number of officers, all of whom wear the same medal she has presented to Alexei after they became lovers. Unable to bear his disgrace, the captain falls into madness and threatens to kill Negri’s character. “All the guards are gone, you are on my mercy,” he declares. The dynamic between the pair is reversed once more due to a dramatic turn of events, with the czarina’s loyal servants getting back to the castle just in time to save her life.

Alexei receives a death sentence for the attempted assassination, bu...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Introduction
• 1. Pola Negri and Romance: “Ah Love! It’s Not for Me”
• 2. Pola Negri as the Vamp: “Temptatious Pola Assailed Picture Citadel by Storm”
• 3. Vilma Bánky and Whiteness: “The Almost Perfect Anglo-Saxon Type, More English Than the English”
• 4. Vilma Bánky as the Leading Lady: “Bedecked in Flowing Gowns … and Layers of Pearls and Jewels”
• 5. Vilma Bánky and Marriage: “My Mother Brought Me Up to Be a Wife”
• 6. Jetta Goudal and Exoticism: “She Looks Like a Beautiful Cossack. She Looks Like an Oriental Princess”
• 7. Jetta Goudal and Mystery: “A Riddle in the City of Eager Autobiographies”
• 8. Jetta Goudal and Temperament: “The Most Temperamental Actress”
• Conclusion
• Acknowledgments
• Notes
• Index
• About the Author