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Movie Profiles & Premiums Newsletter Vol.4 #5
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Cliff Aliperti
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May 15, 2006 23:02 PDT
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Movie Profiles & Premiums Volume 4, Number 5. May 15, 2006
Brought to you by http://www.things-and-other-stuff.com
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This is the plain text version of the newsletter. Read this online in
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Hi all and happy belated Mother's Day to all of the Mom's. Busy as
usual here, even with slower sales, actually all the more reason to be
busy! The weather's warming up here on Long Island, but it has been
very wet, as has most of the East Coast -- I only mention this because I
thought it may help sales some, but not really, things are about the
same as this time last year, which is still okay.
All this means, if you're a collector, is that it's a good time to buy!
I managed an hour or so detour on eBay myself before coming back to put
the finishing touches on this issue. I've been finding a lot of good
Buy-it-Now deals lately, and wouldn't you know it, I just dropped $60
over there now!
As for my own items up for sale I've now got my Movie Collectibles store
category up to 229 items. Mostly cards, some stills and other odds and
ends. I still have some old stock hanging around waiting to be
relisted, but I've been trying to get some fresh movie listings up at
least once per week -- for tonight, I've just broke a recently purchased
set of 1917 Kromo Gravure cards, the "No Borders" variety, and have
listed half of the set at auction to end next Monday night, May 22. I
hope to get the other half up as "Buy it Now" items available for
immediate sale before the auction listings end.
http://stores.ebay.com/Collecting-Old-Magazines_Movie-Collectibles_W0QQcolZ4QQdirZ1QQfsubZ8QQftidZ2QQtZkm?refid=store
It's a mostly mid to high-grade group, EX to EX-MT. Several are
actually quite sharp, but I noticed some light spots of age toning on
the reverse side of most of the cards and also on the front when I was
tilting them under high light. There are high-res scans included with
each listing, so you should get a pretty good idea.
This particular box of Kromo Gravure "No Border" cards also included
several that were missing from the checklist on the main Kromo Gravure
page, so I've added those as I came across them and while I was at it
also created a separate page that includes scans of each of the fifty
cards from this latest set. (If you go to that page please do allow it
time to load, 50 scans may take a moment depending upon your
connection!).
Main Kromo Page:
http://things-and-other-stuff.com/movies/trading-cards/1917-kromo-gravure.htm
New "No Border" Page:
http://things-and-other-stuff.com/movies/trading-cards/1917-kromo-gravure-no-borders.htm
As promised last issue, I've also updated the Photo ID Guide for the
1925 Rothman's "Cinema Stars" set of 25. The new guide includes a
checklist and scans of each of the 25 cards in the set (Note: Most, if
not all of these cards, are currently available for immediate purchase
in my eBay Store!)
http://things-and-other-stuff.com/movies/trading-cards/1925-rothmans-large.htm
And a final note regarding collectibles, the 1939 Wizard of Oz Card Game
singles honestly did not move as I had expected them to move. I ended
the auctions for the second batch of eleven cards before any sold and
put the set back together. The listing ends tomorrow (May 16), but U.S.
buyers can currently pick up the entire set from me for $319 postpaid.
I don't see these sets come up much, and while I obviously paid less for
this one I have bid as high as $400 for this set before myself...and
lost. So I think it's a fair deal.
http://cgi.ebay.com/1939-The-Wizard-of-Oz-Card-Game-Set-of-44-Grades-NM_W0QQitemZ7618260966QQcategoryZ197QQcmdZViewItem
But, if you just want to look at all of the colorful cards, once again
here's a link to the Photo ID Guide:
http://things-and-other-stuff.com/movies/ephemera/1939-wizard-of-oz-card-game.htm
Profile: Tammy Stone returns this issue and so we go way back to the
teens and twenties for The Silent Collection. Read it on
things-and-other-stuff.com at the following link, or see Tammy's entire
piece near the bottom of this issue.
Corinne Griffith in The Silent Collection by Tammy Stone
http://things-and-other-stuff.com/movies/profiles/corinne-griffith.htm
This is another instance where poor planning cost me tons of old
collectible scans, so there is no Slide Show for Corinne Griffith, but I
did manage to find four pics to use on the profile page on the main
site.
Speaking of the main site, I do believe I finished "phase one" of my
site update. So now all of the profile pages should link to any
mentioned film reviews and movie collectible pages; film reviews to
profiles and Photo ID Guides, and Photo ID Guides to profiles and
reviews. As I've said before, my goal here was to better bring together
the three elements of the site and hopefully with everything laid out as
it is now anyone who's interested in doing so can really get lost deep
within the site without ever even returning to the home page.
No new additions to Cliff's Classic DVD List this month, sorry about
that. Actually there have been a couple of titles added to the list
itself, as I picked up new release Baby Doll (which I have watched
again, but have yet to write-up) and the class Seven Samurai -- which
reminds me, if you missed my blog posting,Amazon.com was running a sale
last week (still on as I write this, but often their sales changeover on
Tuesdays!) on fourteen Criterion DVD Titles including Seven Samurai, new
release Mr. Arkadin, The Third Man, M, Young Mr. Lincoln, and The Grand
Illusion where each title was discounted as much as 45%. Basically
these Criterion titles, usually available for about $40/each are on sale
for about $22-$28. If you're interested, head over to Amazon.com now
before it's all over!
Cliff's Classic DVD List:
http://things-and-other-stuff.com/cliffs-dvd-list.htm
Criterion DVD's on Amazon.com:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect?link_code=ur2&tag=thingsandothe-20&camp=1789&creative=9325&path=external-search%3Fsearch-type=ss%26index=dvd%26keyword=Criterion
Not so much a review, as a brief summary, I did create a page from
Cliff's Movie Book List for the new release Flapper by Joshua Zeitz.
Not really a movie book, but a concise survey of flapperdom, Zeitz's
book does include a large section towards the end covering Colleen
Moore, Louise Brooks, and Clara Bow. Likely recycled information if
you're reading this, but at the same time fitting together nicely with
the other tales of Scott & Zelda, Lipstick, Coco Chanel and others to
paint a pretty accurate portrait of the 1920's.
Cliff's Movie Book List:
http://things-and-other-stuff.com/cliffs-movie-books.htm
Flapper by Joshua Zeitz:
http://things-and-other-stuff.com/movie-books/flapper.htm
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That's all for now. Be sure to read Tammy's piece on Corinne Griffith
following below, check out the links to the new Photo ID Guides above if
you collect, and as always feel free to buy any of my stuff over on
eBay!
The next issue of The Movie Profiles and Premiums Newsletter is
scheduled for June 15 and will include a Golden Age Profile by Susan M.
Kelly. Thanks, and have a great month!
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Corinne Griffith in The Silent Collection
By Tammy Stone
http://things-and-other-stuff.com/movies/profiles/corinne-griffith.htm
From beauty queen to movie star: this was the trajectory for Corinne
Griffith, a silent era starlet lived the dream before it was the dream
of every little girl growing up in later decades. (Maybe not every
little girl, but more and more every generation). So let’s turn back the
clock and see how it all began for the Toast of Hollywood, about whom it
was allegedly said: “There are pretty women and there are beautiful
women and there are witty women. And there is Corinne Griffith.”
Corinne was born in Texarkana – you guessed it, Texas – on November 21,
1894, which isn’t to say there’s no dispute over her year of birth. We
can easily guess that she was a couple of years older than her stated
age, but at least Corinne Griffith was her real name. After a few years
of school, she moved to New Orleans to join the Sacred Heart Convent. We
know she didn’t follow this route to its logical end!
Even while in school, Corinne was starting to get noticed for her
beauty; she was quite the gal about town and once won a Mardi Gras
beauty competition. There was a solid class system in place back then,
and Corinne became established in the society set. In fact, it was at
one gala affair that she met one of the early moving picture directors,
Rolin Sturgeon of the Vitagraph company. She loved the attention and
vied to show him what she was made of. It’s said that he granted her a
picture contract that night. She was still young, and her parents
weren’t sure she should get into the business, but as fate would have
it, the biz beckoned, and Corinne and her mother were soon moving to
California, bypassing the New York film industry altogether, for a time.
1928 Corinne Griffith Wills "Film Favourites" Tobacco CardIt was 1916,
and Corinne was about to make it big. At 5 feet 4 inches and of slender
build, she was a natural beauty. She began with short films in the
Western genre, but it wasn’t long before she was getting leading roles.
After a year in California, Vitagraph decided to move her to New York –
quite a shock to someone accustomed to warmer climes. With many films
being made on location in those days (before the studios beefed up their
in-house sets), she was forced to work in such non-glamorous locales as
the Hudson River and Ashokan Dam – at least a good film came out of it,
1918’s The Girl of Today. Apparently the cold was a little too much for
her; we’re not sure how sick she became, but there were rumors of her
freezing and taking some time off before her next project.
It’s hard to say when she did take this time off, because she made an
impressive 35 films between 1916 and 1922; this was by far her most
productive period. Films from this era, some of which have survived,
include: A Fool and His Friend and The Last Man (both 1916); The Stolen
Treaty (1917); Miss Ambition (1918); The Girl Problem (1919); Human
Collateral (1920); Moral Fibre (1921); and Island Wives and A Virgin’s
Sacrifice (both 1922). Westerns, melodramas, morality fables; the movies
were up for all kinds of entertainment, and Corinne wore many of these
heroine hats perfectly.
After 1922, she had caught the attention of the bigwigs, and in 1923,
she made a film with Goldwyn and then another with the infamous David O.
Selznick. She then signed with First National, a big studio at the time.
While she wasn’t nearly as prolific as many of her peers, she did make
approximately 19 films with First National – with one detour: The Garden
of Eden, which she made with United Artists (Fairbanks and Pickford’s
company) in 1928. Her relationship with First National was so strong,
though, that she even executive produced on a number of them. Among her
films from these years, that is, before the coming of sound: The Common
Law (1923); Love’s Wilderness (1924); Infatuation (1925); In Her Kingdom
(1926); The Lady in Corinne Griffith ad in an Irving Theatre Flyer
playing Sep. 17, 1930Ermine (1927); Outcast (1928); Prisoners (1929);
and Back Pay (1930), her third last film.
So who was the woman behind these divas, goddesses and girls-next-door?
Well, Corinne was said to be a workaholic and very diligent in her
craft. She loved watching daily rushes of her films and being involved
in the creative process. Much of the information we have about Corinne
is gleaned from the press of the day, and we all know how spin doctors
(aka publicists) like to work their magic. So little is known for
certain; apparently, Corinne was a virtuous woman who would not smoke or
wear make-up in person; nor did she want to be exposed to things like
dirty jokes. This contributed to her reputation as a lady of dignity and
grace.
We already know she had business savvy, having exec-produced some of her
films; she accumulated a lot of money this way, though she didn’t live
big. She had been in New York for four years, and bought a nice home
when she moved back to California; it wasn’t extravagant, though, and
she wasn’t a partier – perhaps this is why she didn’t make quite as many
films as some of her more legendary peers. Or maybe it was because of
her work ethic. We can only guess all these decades later.
Was Corinne a star of epic proportions? She was petite, beautiful and as
the press had it, endowed with the softest hands. Her looks were admired
more than her acting abilities when her films were reviewed. Her films
did well, though none necessarily stand out. She got press coverage, but
wasn’t a media darling. She was married and divorced twice – first to
filmmaker Webster Campbell of Vitagraph and then to producer Walter
Morosco – while she was at the height of her popularity, but wasn’t
embroiled in juicy gossip and scandal. She was, in 1924, voted sixth top
box-office attraction, tying with Rudolph Valentino. It is noted that
more people were naming their children Corinne after her than other
names of famous stars. But her films didn’t do as well as, say, her peer
Colleen Moore’s – they both worked at First National and there was some
semi-fierce competition between the two.
After her final silent film – The Divine Lady – Corinne made two talkies
with First National, and they didn’t go over too well with the critics,
both because the storylines Corinne Griffith on cover of Colonial
Theater Program Mar. 30, 1924lacked the sophistication no required of
the new sound films and because her performances were weak. Corinne did
what many of her peers did and went to Europe to try again. She made a
film in England for Paramount, 1932’s Lily Christine, and threw in the
towel. She married again, to George Marshall, then-owner of the Boston
Braves – the marriage lasted from 1936 to 1958. During that time, she
started writing, first for newspapers and then a book about her new
relationship with sports. She then wrote several more books, including
"Hollywood Stories" (1962) and "Papa’s Delicate Condition", which was
made into a Jackie Gleason film.
Corinne never quite left the industry, as we’ve seen. She also chaired
The Committee for Honoring Motion Picture Stars for a time, and then
married one final time, at the age of 71 in 1965. Dan Scholl was 33
years younger than her, and the marriage lasted six weeks. This seems
impulsive for a woman known throughout her career to be such a stable
and untainted (by scandal) star. But she was certainly thrifty, because
when she died, on July 13, 1979 in Beverly Hills, she was extremely
wealthy, leaving behind an estate worth around $150 million. A few of
her films remain, including The Garden of Eden, and these bear witness
to the beauty and tenacity of this ever-mysterious starlet-turned-mogul.
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Tammy Stone is a freelance writer and journalist based in Toronto. Watch
for her regular column on the greats of the Silent Screen in each issue
of The Movie Profiles & Premiums Newsletter. Tammy invites you to write
her at tammyst-@yahoo.ca with any questions or comments on her
column.
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