Silent Players: A Biographical and Autobiographical Study of 100 Silent Film Actors and Actresses

William Bakewell

WILLIAM BAKEWELL Billy Bakewell, as everyone called him, was one of the few actors and actresses from the silent era to have been born in Hollywood-on May 2,1908. He was a star-struck teenager who frequented the studios, watching production and seeking work as an extra. In January 1928, Central Casting listed him as one of the 29 extras who had graduated to featured roles on screen, and he was making $75 a week. (Sue Carol, Sally Eilers, James Murray, and David Rollins were also mentioned.) Billy never lost his fascination with the film industry, and even after retiring from films and embarking on a new career as a Beverly Hills realtor, he would still assure us that he was available for any role, directing all enquiries to his agent who now resided at forest Lawn. Billy was a dear, gentle-spoken man, with a great sense of humor, who always had time for a friendly conversation . He walked down the street as if he was leading a band: he would start a story with "Don't stop me if you've heard this-I'm going to enjoy hearing this one myself." He and his wife, Diane, lived in an elegant townhouse adjacent to the Mormon Temple in West Los Angeles. Pride of place was given to the "iron mask" from Billy's last silent film, The Iron Mask (1929), in which he had played the crucial role of Louis XIV and his twin, and was privileged to work with his hero, Douglas fairbanks Sr. "As a kid growing up in Hollywood, Douglas fairbanks was my idol. He was the idol of every boy in America. They used to work on Saturdays in those days, and on days offofschool. I'd go down to formosa [the site of the Pickfordfairbanks studios] and look through the wire fence and watch Doug fairbanks shooting Robin Hood [1922] and The Thief of Bagdad [1924]. Then years later, one day my agent called me: you've got a great part in The Iron Mask. It was the greatest thrill of my life. I had fencing lessons. I had horseback riding lessons. It was a great experience. Itwas the heyday of Pickfair, the Buckingham Palace of the picture business, and I was always invited. It was a great thrill." Billy's first film appearance, as a trainbearer, was in the Raymond Griffith comedy, Hesa Prince, a parody on the life of the Prince of Wales, released in October 1925. In a role somewhat more prominent but still uncredited, he played the historical naval figure, James McDonnaugh, in Old Ironsides (1926). Bakewell played Norma Shearer's younger brother in two MGM romantic comedies, The Waning Sex, released in September 1926, and The Latest from Paris, released in february 1928. In 1927, Billy went on location for the first time, to play the roommate of William Haines in West Point. Because Haines was homosexual, MGM nervously arranged for Billy's mother to accompany him to the military academy. 12 William Bakewell She had no understanding of what the problem might be. from West Point. Bakewell moved on to the U.S. Naval Academy for Annapolis (1928). He was a typical college kid in Harold Teen (1928) and was featured as a juvenile in two of D.W. Griffith's last silent films. The Battle of the Sexes (1928) and Lady of the Pavements (1929). In all. Billy can be seen in nineteen silent feature films and three short subjects for fox: "In the silent days you did learn the lines that you were supposed to speak, but technique-wise. before you spoke an important line. it was important that you register the expression. the thought. in advance. because the cutter then could have a clean cut in which to inject the subtitle. In other words. you had to time it. to register enough ahead before you spoke so that it would fit in. They would see the expression. which is good. because you're supposed to think before you speak anyway. "It was not uncommon for two companies to be working on opposite ends of the same stage. Silence wasn't necessary. and a sort of fraternal camaraderie developed very often. They used to have Cooper-Hewitt lights overhead that cast a kind of pea-green. thickly green glow between shots. If you weren't working at the moment and you had...