In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

244 C H a p t e r 1 5 The Crash witH THE TRESPASSER, swanson sUCCessfUlly made tHe transition to sound. She had a host of new opportunities to explore, including theater and the singing career that had been her childhood dream. However, the end of her thirtieth year also found her separated from her third husband and humiliated by a romantic rival. Swanson’s affair with Joe Kennedy was finally losing steam; the financial problems he had pledged to solve had not been improved by their association. Queen฀Kelly, the film they had made together, was still a shambles, and The฀Trespasser, a critical and popular hit, was more her baby than theirs. Once again, Gloria took stock as she headed from New York to California, away from Henri and Joe and toward a promising but uncertain future. On the way, she and Virginia Bowker attended the Chicago premiere of The฀Trespasser. Aside from her father’s funeral six years earlier, Swanson had spent no time in her hometown since becoming a star. She visited her childhood home and got a chuckle when she learned that the current occupants were using the room where she was born for smoking hams. Gloria visited her mother and saw for herself that Adelaide was happily married. She put aside her hurt feelings, rejoicing in Addie’s good fortune. She and Virginia made a sentimental trip to Essanay, remembering when they had shared a tiny dressing room and pretended to be older than they were. They screened a print of The฀Fable฀of฀Elvira,฀ Farina฀and฀the฀Meal฀Ticket, the short that was Swanson’s first screen credit , and Gloria collapsed into uncontrollable laughter. Fifteen years had passed; she was now a world-famous movie actress, on top of the heap and wondering how long she could balance there. The Chicago opening of The฀Trespasser was another success, as were the Los Angeles and San Francisco premieres. The film filled theaters wherever it played, and Gloria received dozens of congratulatory letters from friends and colleagues. Condé Nast wrote; so did Elinor Glyn t H e C r a s H 245 and Jane West, who said her mother had cried hearing Gloria sing on the BBC. Even Swanson’s Queen฀Kelly nemesis Barney Glazer offered his “sincerest compliments and congratulations”: “I always knew you were good, Gloria, but [had] not expected to find a speaking actress of such exquisite poise and finish.”1 All too soon it was time to return to Queen฀Kelly, to see what could be done to salvage the film for exhibition. Eddie Goulding hoped that he, Kennedy, and Swanson might form a small unit and continue making pictures together; he had another script almost ready for Gloria. However, Goulding, who read his contracts quickly when he read them at all, had carelessly agreed to work on The฀Trespasser on a straight salary , week-by-week basis. Now he was the writer-director of a hit movie and the composer of a hit song and had nothing much to show for it. At least Kennedy had promised him a $10,000 bonus as well as a share in the royalties for “Love, Your Magic Spell is Everywhere.” Yet when Eddie’s lawyer approached Joe about these payments, Kennedy flatly rejected the claim, calling Goulding a “bum” whom he had rescued from unemployment.2 Only when Kennedy turned back to the neglected Queen฀Kelly did he make Goulding an offer: if Eddie would direct a sound version of the picture, he could have his bonus and the share in The฀Trespasser’s song profits. Goulding took one look at the new script and turned Joe down as decisively as Kennedy had refused him.3 “Kennedy felt a little number like The฀Trespasser was not worthy of his consideration,” said Bill Dufty.4 Now the shoe was on the other foot, as Goulding once again declared Joe Kennedy’s “important picture” unsalvageable. Nonetheless, in early December Kennedy assembled as many members of the original cast as possible. They planned to spend nineteen days filming a restructured script by Lawrence Eyre and Laura Hope Crews under the direction of Richard Boleslavsky, a Polish émigré actor and theater director. Queen฀Kelly was now to be a part-talkie, with some dialogue synthetically synchronized. This kind of dubbing was (in theory) less expensive than having to reshoot large sections of the picture. They would capitalize on the leading lady’s singing ability this...

Share