#25 THE YOUNGEST SON--Part 2
Marshall
was the youngest of the three Farnum brothers. Why he was called “Ding” is unknown, but the
nickname is prominent on his gravestone.
Marshall
was born on December 19, 1879 in Natick, Massachusetts. As his parents were
often away with their touring theatre companies, Marshall spent much of his boyhood in
Bucksport Maine and was raised by his maternal grandparents, Stover and Nancy LaGros.
On her death, Nancy (1838-1904) left her three grandsons her books and
pictures, each a bed with its pillows and bedding, and her homestead (“to
provide a home in succession and the hope they will keep and maintain it as
such”). To Marshall, specifically, she left her mahogany chamber set and silk
quilt. In Maine, Marshall developed a love of baseball and the outdoors.
Marshall
married vaudeville actress/singer, Louise A Lewis (1877-) in 1903. They
divorced and in 1912, Marshall married, and was survived by, Canadian-born
actress, Helena M Scott (1881-1943).
Marshall began his theatrical career when only 4 years old. Early Broadway performances included Women in Wine (1900—69 performances), Superstition of Sue (1904 8 performances), Prince of India (1906 73 performances) Society and the Bulldog (1908 17 performances). By age 18, he was on stage with the Handon Stock Company, then joined other stock companies, and made appearances in various Shakespearean roles. The three Farnum brothers often played alongside each other. In 1903, the Boston Globe advertised the Farnum brothers as “acrobatic comedians in a novel act”. In 1904, it was written that comedy work of Marshall F was the "cause of frequent and unexpected laughter and applause". In 1905, critics were remarking on Marshall’s talent. “Since the opening of the season, he has been cast for every part from an old man to a young boy and from tragedy to comedy and he has always shown his ability to handle any line of character with intelligence. Marshall Farnum has been one of the big matinee idols of the season.” In 1907 he played the role of Cardinal Richelieu in The Three Musketeers with brother William.
In 1909, he was on stage in The Virginian. "This sterling drama of the far West always draws crowded houses...it is a strong play, full of interesting situations...it depicts life among the ranchers and through it runs a delightful love story." Critics said that “Marshall Farnum…gave an artistic and forceful characterization of the reckless, jealous cowpuncher, gambler and cattle thief…his acting showed again his versatility.” Marshall later became producing director for his brother William in stock companies in Buffalo, Providence, Denver, Portland, and Ottawa.
The Littlest Rebel opened in New York in Nov 1911 and closed after 55 performances. In 1912 Marshall joined the travelling company of The Littlest Rebel. For two seasons, Marshall, simultaneously with brother Dustin in one company and brother William in another, played the leading role in The Littlest Rebel. He founded and directed various stock companies in Iowa. Sioux City, Duluth.
“With a story that is wholly different from other war plays The “Littlest Rebel” proved an enjoyable treat. It is a gripping story which calls for the best of acting, all of which was well done by the presenting company headed by Marshall Farnum as the confederate scout. It is highly dramatic throughout and is strong enough to hold everyone in the audience. It is safe to say that there wasn’t a dry eye in the audience…during the scenes in which the little girl and her father are entrapped by the northern soldiers…You feel all the better after being moved by the pitiable plight of this little girl, her good father and the big-hearted northern colonel who risks his own life to save and spare the child. ..the men are real soldiers in appearance and action. The battle scene is most realistic…the four acts are packed with action and abound in thrills. Mr. Farnum is a finished actor, a good-looking fellow and the equal of his brothers.
Short, rudimentary silent movies were made in the late 19th century, but improvements to the cameras, projectors and transparent celluloid film made the years from 1910 to late 1920s the height of the silent era. Marshall was one of the pioneers of this age. Three-point lighting, the close-up, long shot, panning, and continuity editing were major innovations. The term “silent film” is a misnomer as these films were almost always accompanied by live sounds—a pianist, organist or even a small orchestra would play, either from sheet music or improvisation, and adjusted to “fit” the mood or “action” of the film. Various plot elements (such as setting or era) or key lines of dialogue, might be conveyed by title cards. Most early motion pictures are considered lost because the nitrate film used in that era was unstable and flammable; also many films were deliberately destroyed because they had negligible financial value. It is estimated that perhaps 75% of all silent movies produced in the US have been lost.
the musicians
Marshall’s foray into the silent movie industry was as managing director of the Prescott, Arizona plant of the Selig Polyscope Company. He then became producing manager of the 101 Ranch where he produced more than 20 four- and five-reel movies. He was hired as a director for the Fox Film Corporation where his best productions were Wormwood and Lady Audley’s Secret (which starred international star Theda Barr and for which Farnum’s careful and artistic staging effects were praised.) He produced for the Ocean Film Corporation.
Marshall’s
view about the new media of motion pictures was stated in a 1915 interview and
from his own experience he was able to comment on the difference between the
spoken stage and silent screen. “The difference between stage and screen is
very real to me. In the first place with the new art of the photoplay, there
has arisen…a demand for realism which the stage never called forth. The reason
was obvious. Certain unnatural effects
and acting were glossed over because they had become matters of hide-bound
tradition. For instance, the villain of any society play, in almost every case,
had a distinctive method of taking off his gloves or smoking a cigarette that
stamped him at once as a villain. Villains in real life are not to be thus
distinguished; but on the stage it was accepted because it “has always been
done.” So it was with a hundred glaring faults. But the screen has changed all
that. It is not too much to say that the
photoplay has to a great extent remodeled the spoken stage. This is noticeably so in several ultra-modern
dramas which utilize the screen with cutback with great effect.”
Marshall was busy, focused and hard-working. He was in a New York studio directing a new photoplay when he fell ill; he had a cot placed in the studio, and during his last week there, he would stage one act, then lie down until another set was ready. He returned to Arizona to try to recover in a sanitorium for but “five months of game struggling against the fatal disease came to an end when he breathed his last in a wistful laugh over a witticism directed to his physician. Marshall died on February 18, 1917 of tuberculosis, aged 37 years old. His wife could not be summoned from the East in time.” His body was taken to Los Angeles for a funeral and then, per his wishes, his body was cremated, and the ashes buried in the family plot in Bucksport, Maine.
Marshall
was producing silent movies for only four years before he died so young. A real talent was lost.
Here are
Marshal’s best-known silent movies. I love the dramatic story lines.
.
Wolf of
the City (1913—2 reels)
Synopsis: Mark Haggarty, a police reporter, is known as "the wolf of the city" by reason of his pen. At the police station he manages to photograph Stanley Vandon, a fashionable society man, who has been speeding in his auto with an adventuress, Mme. Verdane. The city editor of the paper sees a big scoop in Haggarty's article. The reporter takes the photograph to Vandon 's apartment and shows it to the wife, who, while admitting that they are alienated, believes that she can win back her husband, and begs the reporter not to publish the photo. As she is talking with him the sleeve of her garment blows back, disclosing bruises that have been made by her husband. This determines the good-natured reporter not to print the photo, and as he is leaving the apartment to go to the drawing room to call up the city editor, the wife falls into the arms of her maid, fainting from excitement. After conversing with the city editor and refusing to write up the affair, Haggarty meets Vandon, who has returned home. He offers Haggarty a large sum of money to keep the affair from the eyes of the public. Haggarty refuses by throwing the money in the face of Vandon, who flies into a rage and attempts to strike the reporter with his cane. But Haggarty manages to get hold of the stick and breaks it. Exhausted from the "physical exercise," Vandon sinks into a chair, and Haggarty shows him evidence of his perfidy and urges him into the bedroom, where his wife lies in a semi-conscious state. Slowly her senses return to her and she sees her husband kneeling beside the bed. She forgives him. The two men leave the room and Vandon makes pathetic appeals to Haggarty to destroy the evidence of his faithlessness. For the wife's sake he does, and later he meets a reporter who has been ordered to go after him. In the office he destroys the negative and refuses to write the article, for which he is fired.
Hearts of Men (1914—1 reel)
Synopsis: John Gaunt,
called "outlaw," not a bad man, a victim of circumstances, is discovered
on the edge of a desert, armed with a revolver and a water canteen slung over
his shoulder. The placard at the Sheriff's office describes: "John Gaunt,
wanted by the law, dead or alive." Justice or injustice, he shows the
hunted man in every move. Far out over the desert he sees a man on horseback,
recognizing him as Billy Stark, the man hunter. Suddenly the rider in the
desert starts, stares, sees the figure in the shadow of the rock and guesses it
is Gaunt. The men drift deeper into the desert. Stark leaves his horse and
rifle in the shade, and stalks cautiously, revolver in hand. Gaunt fires and
runs under cover. Then begins a running fight with both men firing. Gaunt takes
a drink from his canteen and shows he has his last cartridge. In the interim,
Stark has been almost overcome by desert thirst. Gaunt wings Stark with a shot
in the leg, but the latter is game and covers the former's hiding-place with
his gun. Finally Gaunt waves a truce flag, and shouts, "I will trade you a
drink for a dozen cartridges." Stark accedes the request. He drains the
canteen, and Gaunt, having refilled his belt, the men are about to part,
realizing that they have played the game fair. Suddenly Gaunt picks up a
picture that Billy has dropped on the sand, and Billy tells him that if he
lives she is to be his wife. Gaunt then reaches into his own shirt pocket and
pulls out a photograph. It is the portrait of a sweet-faced woman sitting with
a boy and a curly-haired girl at her knees. Both the men stare at the picture,
and Gaunt tells Billy it is his wife and babies. These grim, sunburnt sons of
the desert who have fought to a truce push their revolvers into their holsters;
Gaunt staggers on through the desert carrying the wounded Billy. Finally they
see men and horses coming. Gaunt buries himself in a trench and escapes while
Billy engages the attention of the men, and they take him away with them. Five
years later shows Gaunt in the joy of a new life with his wife and children. A
"dissolve" shows Billy Stark telling his own little boy of the escape
in the desert. Honors are even for the two brave men.
Angel
Paradise (1914-1
reel)
Synopsis: Lonesome Linthicum and Bill Jernigan, a
pair of cowboys, have been up all night, playing the tiger in an Arizona
saloon. Ordinarily firm friends, they are now irritable from loss of sleep and
too much drink, and have drawn guns over some trivial matter. A tragedy seems
imminent when a little baby girl appears upon the scene. The other men of the
room have taken to their hands and knees on the floor, and are hiding behind
tables and chairs, waiting for the expected fusillade. When the child breaks
upon the scene she thinks they are playing "I spy." She calls up all
the big men and the two fighters sink into chairs in wonderment. She soon has
all the big sobered ones playing "London Bridge is falling down."
They stand her upon the chair and give her lemonade. Suddenly her father rushes
in, and is greatly alarmed at seeing his child surrounded by these
rough-looking men. It appears that her parents are traveling for the mother's
health, and the little one had wandered away. One of the big miners lifts the
baby on his shoulder and then the procession forms as the cowboys fall into
line and take her to the mother. The Eastern family drive away to the train,
and the little girl has the satisfaction of having averted a tragedy, as the
two fighting cowboys, now sobered and softened by the influence of innocent
childhood, are shaking hands.
Lady Audley’s Secret (1915—5 reels)
Review: There are five parts…each of the
five acts is dominated by the subtle artistry and intense emotional realism of
Theda Bara, the distinguished Parisian actress, the famed vampire woman with
the most wickedly beautiful face in the world, the satanic siren of the shadow
stage, a star supreme at the height of her weird powers…Nothing has been spared
of brains, money, time or talent to make this picture version of Lady Audley’s
Secret the masterpiece de luxe of the year.
The production was made under the direction of Marshall Farnum..one of
the ablest stage directors engaged in the drama of the screen….
Synopsis: After her husband George leaves suddenly for Australia to find work, Helen Talboys, unaware of his whereabouts, assumes that he has deserted her and marries an aristocrat to become Lady Audley. When her look-alike maid dies, Lady Audley conveniently passes off the corpse as Helen Talboys to avoid any possible bigamy charges. After having made his fortune in gold, George returns from Australia and by accident meets up with his wife at her stepson's villa. Determined to reclaim her, he begins to struggle with her. In the ensuing tussle, Lady Audley throws George down a well and, believing that he is dead, flees. Fearful that her stepson will expose her, Lady Audley breaks into his apartment and steals some incriminating love letters that she had written to George. As her guilty conscience grows, her acts become more desperate until George, who was rescued from the well by the coachman, makes a timely appearance and causes her to fall dead from fright.
Wormwood (1915—5 reels released by William Fox)
Review: Movie
“Wormwood” is heavy and melodramatic; besides telling an interesting and
fascinating story, it point a strong moral lesson against the use of absinthe,
the green-eyes monster that snaps the life-blood, enfeebles the mind, drives
its devotee to an early grave or worse still to the mad house. Wormwood
directed by Marshall Farnum..photographic details are a prominent feature,
story is intensely dramatic…Numerous double exposure shots used to create the
effect of drug-induced hallucinations.
Synopsis: By order of his family, Gaston Beauvais becomes engaged to Pauline DeChamilles, who loves Silvion Guidel, Gaston's best friend. Shortly before their wedding, Pauline confesses her feelings about Silvion, and although he is hurt, Gaston assures her that he will marry her anyway. The news drives him to indulge in absinthe, however, and as the couple stands at the altar, he denounces his bride in a drug-induced stupor. Spurned by both her fiancé and her father, Pauline takes to the streets of Paris, while Gaston falls deeper into his absinthe addiction. Upon meeting Silvion on a bridge some months later, a deluded Gaston beats up his rival and then hurls his body into the Seine. After bragging about his fatal deed to her, Gaston drives Pauline to drown herself in the river, and then insane with grief, he finally succumbs to the absinthe and dies.
House of Mirrors (1916)
Synopsis: When Blanche Probert, a neglected wife, reminds her husband Fred of their theater engagement one evening, he insists that he must work, and she invites his friend Edward Martindale to take his place. Later that night, Edward tries to kiss Blanche just as Fred returns home, and although she is innocent of any wrongdoing, her outraged husband divorces her. Fred rears his son, Fred, Jr., while Blanche takes custody of little Edith, and there is no contact between them for fourteen years. Having run out of money, Blanche is forced to become the proprietor of an elegant gambling establishment, "The House of Mirrors," which is frequented by Fred, Jr., as well as Edward's son, Tom Martindale. The young men are introduced to Edith as "Mr. Brown and Mr. Jones," and soon, both are in love with her. When Fred asks Blanche for Edith's hand, she recognizes his ring as the one she had given her husband years before. Fred visits Blanche, who still maintains her innocence, and after Edward confirms her story, the Probert family is reconciled, and Edith becomes engaged to Tom.
Driftwood (1916)
Review: shot in Yonkers, New York
Synopsis: When Lawrence Grove crashes his car and is knocked unconscious for several days, his fiancée Helen Warner thinks that he has deserted her. In need of money, she finds work as a secretary for James Wayne and, unaware that he is married to her sister Alice, she gives in to his advances. Then, after two years of searching, Lawrence finds Helen and proposes once again. Helen says that she is unworthy of him, however, since she is having an affair with another man, whom Lawrence vows to kill should he ever find him. Helen and James then discover that they are in-laws, after which James urges her to marry Lawrence, and even threatens to reveal his identity to him if she refuses, thereby guaranteeing his own death. Thinking of Alice's happiness, and still in love with Lawrence, Helen finally agrees to marry him.
The Tides of Fate/Creeping Tide (1917—5 reels)
Review: shot in Cuba
Fanny Lawson falls in love with Stephen King, the man who pulled her from the river after her runaway horse plunged into the icy waters. Foresaking the love of Canadian Mounted Policeman John Cross, Fanny marries Stephen and moves to the city. King turns out to be an experienced counterfeiter, who soon tires of Fanny and leaves her. When government agents later search her apartment, they discover King's plates and send Fanny to jail as an accomplice. Meanwhile John Cross, court-martialed for alleged cowardice, enlists in the United States Army for service in the Philippines. Redeeming his honor in war, he returns to New York wounded, where he again meets Fanny and the two fall in love. When King reappears, he becomes insanely jealous, starts trouble and is fatally shot by the police during a melee. Before he dies, he clears Fanny's name, thus freeing her to marry Cross.
Who knows what he might have produced if he had lived vs
ReplyDeleteA life well lived.
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