WEBVTT

1
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How did your husband start in films? Was he interested in the Edison invention?

2
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No, he was interested in the theater. And that's what he tried to do. And drifted into this.

3
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Now I was reading the Chaplin autobiography and he mentions his meeting with your husband on the West Coast.

4
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And what a fine man he was. And this must have been around 1915.

5
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And he estimated that your husband was by then around his late 30s or early 40s. Is that correct?

6
00:00:40.440 --> 00:00:41.000
No, he was younger.

7
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He was younger than that. Tell me this then. You met Mr. Anderson where? Where did you...

8
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In Los Angeles.

9
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In Los Angeles. And what was he doing in Los Angeles?

10
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He had brought a company out with him and was making one of the short films. They didn't make long films then.

11
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But they were making them in Westlake Park here.

12
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In Westlake Park?

13
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Yes.

14
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Most interesting.

15
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And I think it was...there was a theatrical man here named Dick Ferris who was a friend of his and his family was friends with him.

16
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I was introduced to him here. And we saw a little bit of each other. I went back east and to Chicago. I didn't live in Chicago.

17
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I see.

18
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But I, in my own way, was a millinery designer.

19
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Very good. And where had you learned this now?

20
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Well, I came from Minnesota.

21
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From Minnesota. Excellent. And what did your father do in Minnesota?

22
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My father died when I was a child. He was a professor in Europe. And I never knew him.

23
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What part of Europe had your family come from?

24
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I think in Germany.

25
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In Germany. And your mother then raised you?

26
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Yes. And she married again. And I had a couple of half-sisters and a half-brother.

27
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But I drifted out of Minnesota. I had taken up a course in millinery designing in St. Paul.

28
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Very good.

29
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And from there I went to Chicago. And the firm there sent me out here. And that's where I met Mr. Anis.

30
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Now were you designing fabrics then?

31
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No. Millinery. Hats.

32
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In hats, yes, of course. Which is a very fine and difficult profession. My father-in-law is in that.

33
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Really? Well, it was much more difficult then because here the smaller stores used to make their own hats.

34
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They used to make their own hats?

35
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They used to buy models.

36
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I see.

37
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And copy them. And sell them. You see. But I worked for the wholesale designing place first. And that's where I learned it.

38
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I see.

39
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I went there to learn it.

40
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But that would be very interesting.

41
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Yes it is. It's very interesting from the standpoint of all things, all the times.

42
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Now what I would like to hear from you is something about Bronco Billy, Mr. Anderson. What kind of a person was he? Can you give me an evaluation?

43
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It would be a bit difficult.

44
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Well, I know this. There are a lot of personal feelings involved and so on.

45
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No.

46
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Well, then give me an objective sort of view of Mr. Anis.

47
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Well, he was the worst businessman I think I ever knew. Had no sense of business at all.

48
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In what respect?

49
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He could be overly generous on some sort of thing he thought required it. And then he could be so tight that everything took on so tight.

50
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And could be?

51
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And he could be so tight on something that was of no importance at all. It was just that kind of a character.

52
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Yes. Tell me this. Was he the one who contracted then for Chaplin?

53
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Yes, he did.

54
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I see.

55
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He brought Chaplin to SNA.

56
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Was this not with George K. Spore?

57
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Yes. No, he wasn't. He brought Chaplin to me from Los Angeles.

58
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Tell me about this meeting.

59
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Well, I'll tell you. He found Chaplin here. I don't know how, but he was making pictures here.

60
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Yes, he was.

61
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And he met Chaplin. And Chaplin was doing secondary work. Had had no recognition of greatness.

62
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He brought, I met him at the station a Christmas morning. And he had this little fellow with him.

63
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Well, you really, I couldn't describe him because it sounds as if I were trying to be funny. But I'm not.

64
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He didn't have a handbag with him. He had a little roll of something rolled up. He didn't have a suit of clothes with him.

65
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He didn't have an oval coat with him. And it was winter. This was Christmas.

66
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And where was this that you met?

67
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At the station. I went to pick them up.

68
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In Chicago?

69
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Yes, in Chicago. I lived there.

70
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Now tell me about, then what happened? How did he?

71
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And he brought him to my apartment in Chicago. And I said, well, what is this? He says, this chap, I find him clever and amusing.

72
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And he said, I think this could be a great comedian. And he's being wasted in Los Angeles.

73
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Well, Chaplin said he really liked your father. They came back on the train. He talks about the trip with your, rather with your husband, G.M. Anderson.

74
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And then who bought him the overcoat? Spore claimed that he bought him an overcoat. Was it?

75
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No, he didn't.

76
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Yeah, it was Bronco Billy who did that.

77
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This was Christmas time. And then of course came New Year's. And we had reservations to go out New Year's Eve. And Charlie hadn't anything to put on.

78
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But I dared say no anything because after all it wasn't up to me. But I did speak to G.M. and said, well, he said, well, we'll fix him up somehow.

79
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In the meantime, Charlie is living in my apartment. There is a child there with a nurse and two maids.

80
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And I am so embarrassed for him. When he got up in the morning, he had on a shirt without a collar and no tie.

81
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He didn't get up for breakfast. He got up in the middle of the morning and didn't have a comb. He had curly hair, you know, not a comb through his hair.

82
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And came out for breakfast. Well, you can imagine, I absolutely, well, I was a young person myself. I had never seen anything quite like that.

83
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What did you advise? What did you do?

84
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Well, then I called G.M. and said, look, if you, this was Christmas now. This I must tell you, and that has always remained with me.

85
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The day Charlie came in, he walked around the apartment. There was a Christmas tree there, all trimmed and full, and a child walking around.

86
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And he walked, he was so impressed with that. He had never been in a home. I don't think he had ever been in a house that was livable.

87
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No, he had a very, very tough childhood.

88
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Yes, no childhood really.

89
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No, not at all.

90
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His mother was a mental case.

91
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Yes, she was in and out of sanitariums, wasn't it?

92
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And the only fondness he ever showed was for his brother, Sidney.

93
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Sidney, yes.

94
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But Charlie this morning sees a Christmas tree, and he sees a child in the house. And he walks around, there's a Christmas tree, Christmas tree, and a baby child here. It's wonderful.

95
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He was so impressed. You'd think it never happened before.

96
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In the meantime, he hadn't run a comb through his hair. He has curly hair. There are two maids in the house. He hasn't had a thing to eat. He hasn't apologized for keeping them waiting with his breakfast until almost noon.

97
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And I had to say, Charlie, go back and put a comb through your hair and get yourself a little presentable, and we'll have breakfast.

98
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He hardly knew what it meant.

99
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That's unusual. Well, then he stayed on in Chicago and did one film.

100
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Then GM took him to the studio.

101
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Yes.

102
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And introduced him to Spoor, of course, and to a place around there.

103
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And then it was decided that he was to make a picture there.

104
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In the meantime, New Year's Eve was coming up, and we always went out New Year's Eve.

105
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So, of course, Charlie had to come too. He hasn't got a collar, I mean a laundered collar, shirt collar, or a tie.

106
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And we have to get, and I have to run around and find cufflinks and a shirt and get something for him because we were going down to the college inn.

107
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And at least you have to be a little presentable, you see.

108
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And I did all this shopping, never thought of a muffler.

109
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And as we get into the car to go downtown, he has the trousers of his pajamas wrapped around his neck.

110
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It was amazing.

111
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Going downtown for New Year's Eve celebration.

112
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It was amazing.

113
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Was it very, very cold that day?

114
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Yes.

115
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Because you know what Chicago is like.

116
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Yes, it was a very cold night.

117
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The car, of course, was closed, but everybody had on winter clothes.

118
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Yes.

119
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Well, I made him take the pants off around his neck of his pajamas and fished around and got him a muffler.

120
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But a nice thing happened in the college inn that night.

121
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I think this would be interesting if you thought so too.

122
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We were all seated in the college inn and there was a table and everything waiting.

123
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And do you remember that, or you wouldn't remember them, but you must have heard of the Howard Brothers, the comedians?

124
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Yes.

125
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Well, you know how funny that little Howard man was.

126
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He recognized Charlie at our table.

127
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Is this from the Vaudeville Circuit he had recognized?

128
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Yes, he must have seen him somewhere.

129
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Of course, yes.

130
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And he came over, of course he knew my husband, and he wished him a Happy New Year and so forth.

131
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And he recognized Charlie and he took him by the nap of the neck and stood him up and made him stand on a chair.

132
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And he addressed the whole audience in this restaurant.

133
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And he said, ladies and gentlemen, your attention, please.

134
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But I want to introduce to you the funniest man in motion pictures.

135
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He apparently had seen him do something out here and thought he was great because Charlie had never been in Chicago before.

136
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I mean in the picture world.

137
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He had been in Vaudeville maybe.

138
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And he had been in pictures on the West Coast, but not for long.

139
00:14:18.520 --> 00:14:19.680
Yes, yes, not for long.

140
00:14:19.920 --> 00:14:23.440
But he wasn't an outstanding performer.

141
00:14:23.500 --> 00:14:24.500
No, he was not.

142
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Well, this went off all right.

143
00:14:29.500 --> 00:14:37.400
And a few minutes later, a man came over to our table bristling, furious.

144
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He says, what did that Howard Chap mean when he introduced this boy as the funniest man in moving pictures?

145
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He said, what was his name?

146
00:14:51.920 --> 00:14:53.340
The big fat comedian?

147
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Oh, John Bunney.

148
00:14:57.620 --> 00:15:00.700
John Bunney is in this audience tonight.

149
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And you know he has always been considered the funniest man in moving pictures since he has been in pictures.

150
00:15:09.020 --> 00:15:11.640
And came back the funny little man.

151
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He said, did John Bunney say he thought he was the funniest man in moving pictures?

152
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Or did you say that?

153
00:15:20.340 --> 00:15:22.140
He says, well, we both said that.

154
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This man said, he said, well, you go back and tell John Bunney that's the first laugh he ever handed me.

155
00:15:33.140 --> 00:15:34.280
Don't you think that's funny?

156
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That's beautiful, yes.

157
00:15:36.100 --> 00:15:37.000
That's just great.

158
00:15:40.180 --> 00:15:46.120
Now, in other words, Chaplin really didn't know how much he was truly earning then.

159
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Oh, no.

160
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This to him was fairy tale.

161
00:15:50.320 --> 00:15:51.000
Yeah.

162
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Did you get to meet his brother at all?

163
00:15:54.960 --> 00:15:55.960
Yes, I met Sid.

164
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I met him in Europe two years later.

165
00:15:59.200 --> 00:16:01.720
But Sid was a good manager of money, was he not?

166
00:16:01.780 --> 00:16:02.560
Because I know that Chaplin...

167
00:16:02.560 --> 00:16:04.160
He saved his money, I think.

168
00:16:04.300 --> 00:16:05.240
Yes, very much.

169
00:16:05.360 --> 00:16:07.840
Well, Charlie didn't throw his away.

170
00:16:08.260 --> 00:16:08.740
Hardly.

171
00:16:12.700 --> 00:16:15.660
I bet you looked very hot, Charlie.

172
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He has the first nickel he earned in his pocket.

173
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His little wife may have taught him a lot of things now on his children, but that's kidding.

174
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175
00:16:27.760 --> 00:16:29.600
When did you first meet Wallace Beery?

176
00:16:30.200 --> 00:16:31.720
Oh, well, I didn't meet him.

177
00:16:31.780 --> 00:16:32.080
You didn't?

178
00:16:32.180 --> 00:16:34.900
I never went to the studios or anything.

179
00:16:34.940 --> 00:16:36.260
I just knew of him.

180
00:16:37.800 --> 00:16:38.780
I didn't know him.

181
00:16:38.780 --> 00:16:46.480
But I did know what he seemed to be and what I heard, the little gossips here and there.

182
00:16:47.040 --> 00:16:50.360
But I'll tell you about Gloria Swanson.

183
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I suppose if she ever knew I discussed her that way, she'd kick up a row.

184
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But this is the truth.

185
00:16:58.260 --> 00:16:59.240
The truth is what we want.

186
00:16:59.280 --> 00:16:59.940
That's important.

187
00:17:00.140 --> 00:17:01.280
The truth is what we want.

188
00:17:01.280 --> 00:17:01.720
Yes.

189
00:17:01.720 --> 00:17:02.860
This is the truth.

190
00:17:02.860 --> 00:17:14.820
Now, my child's nurse, I took her out of the hospital when I left the hospital when Max was born.

191
00:17:16.000 --> 00:17:19.860
And she happened to be a relative of Gloria Swanson's.

192
00:17:20.600 --> 00:17:23.920
There was a relationship of marriage interwoven in there.

193
00:17:24.160 --> 00:17:28.360
I think it was a cousin or something.

194
00:17:28.440 --> 00:17:30.940
But anyway, they were very close relatives.

195
00:17:32.060 --> 00:17:39.120
And Gloria Swanson was hanging around the studio trying to get into something in the picture business.

196
00:17:41.280 --> 00:17:50.720
And then when Miss Johnson, when she heard that Miss Johnson was taking care of GM's child, she thought this would be a help to her.

197
00:17:53.620 --> 00:18:00.400
So she used, you know, nurses in those days used to take three hours off afternoons.

198
00:18:00.400 --> 00:18:06.900
They didn't take the times, the nurse, they didn't count hours as the nurses do today.

199
00:18:07.900 --> 00:18:10.820
They took a job to take care of a patient.

200
00:18:11.100 --> 00:18:12.820
They were on day and night.

201
00:18:13.180 --> 00:18:14.900
And this was a nursing job.

202
00:18:15.080 --> 00:18:17.940
It wasn't a medical job.

203
00:18:18.580 --> 00:18:20.040
This was a child's nurse.

204
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She was taken out of the hospital.

205
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She was a drain nurse.

206
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But that's what I took her for.

207
00:18:25.760 --> 00:18:37.980
And when Gloria found out that GM had a child and that her cousin was taking care of it, this was good news to her.

208
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Because she was so anxious to get into that studio, she used to hang around there all the time.

209
00:18:45.660 --> 00:18:50.580
So she used to come and Miss Johnson's three hour relief.

210
00:18:50.580 --> 00:18:56.080
Miss Johnson used to take the child out for a walk and they'd go walking for hours.

211
00:18:56.080 --> 00:18:58.380
She realized that this was a good in.

212
00:18:58.940 --> 00:19:05.500
So she used to come and sit on my back stairway until the walking hours came.

213
00:19:06.460 --> 00:19:17.480
And she would accompany Miss Johnson on these walks in this way, bringing herself into some knowledge of the Andersons.

214
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Because, of course, she could in that way perhaps get into.

215
00:19:24.080 --> 00:19:30.560
Well, this went on for quite a while.

216
00:19:32.000 --> 00:19:37.300
And she did get to know some of the people around there and she didn't get a job.

217
00:19:37.980 --> 00:19:43.920
But by this time, my husband had opened a studio out west here.

218
00:19:43.920 --> 00:19:50.080
And they were sending Wallace Berry out here to do some comedies.

219
00:19:51.340 --> 00:19:58.320
And she gets on a train with Wallace Berry and comes out west.

220
00:20:00.600 --> 00:20:02.540
And she marries him out here.

221
00:20:04.260 --> 00:20:09.140
She married him out here instead of in Chicago, as it's claimed.

222
00:20:09.200 --> 00:20:09.780
Yes, yes.

223
00:20:10.500 --> 00:20:12.980
As far as I knew, she married him here.

224
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Now, I won't...

225
00:20:14.120 --> 00:20:18.480
Why don't you tell me my father wouldn't take her with him because he said it was no place for a young girl.

226
00:20:19.500 --> 00:20:20.760
The picture business was so rough.

227
00:20:20.980 --> 00:20:23.800
Well, I'm not going into that.

228
00:20:23.880 --> 00:20:27.420
I'm just saying that was how she got west.

229
00:20:29.120 --> 00:20:32.240
Well, she married him to get west.

230
00:20:32.400 --> 00:20:33.960
And I'm just wondering if it wasn't though.

231
00:20:34.040 --> 00:20:34.860
It was in Chicago.

232
00:20:34.960 --> 00:20:37.780
She did get married in Chicago in the back lot of SNA with Wallace Berry.

233
00:20:37.780 --> 00:20:41.060
She married him in Chicago so my father wouldn't take her without him.

234
00:20:41.140 --> 00:20:42.220
That's the important point.

235
00:20:42.220 --> 00:20:43.200
Well, that's it then.

236
00:20:44.140 --> 00:20:46.660
I wasn't sure about anything like that.

237
00:20:46.920 --> 00:20:49.780
I only knew that when they got...

238
00:20:49.780 --> 00:20:51.820
You tell me about him now. That's the other thing.

239
00:20:52.200 --> 00:20:53.740
He was a very vulgar man, I guess.

240
00:20:54.100 --> 00:20:55.680
He was a vulgar man when he died.

241
00:20:56.460 --> 00:20:57.800
He never did get any polish, did he?

242
00:20:58.140 --> 00:21:03.000
Very. Well, I don't know what happened to him because he was a rough neck.

243
00:21:03.100 --> 00:21:04.960
He was the kind you didn't know he brought home.

244
00:21:05.180 --> 00:21:05.560
No.

245
00:21:05.560 --> 00:21:07.520
He was a carnival man, really, wasn't he?

246
00:21:07.660 --> 00:21:08.240
Yeah, a very rough guy.

247
00:21:08.860 --> 00:21:11.940
And I never knew it really.

248
00:21:12.860 --> 00:21:17.000
He must have polished down some with a set of different wives later.

249
00:21:17.000 --> 00:21:18.280
Oh, sure, because he left...

250
00:21:18.280 --> 00:21:22.180
Because he built this lovely house in Beverly Hills.

251
00:21:22.940 --> 00:21:24.800
He must have wanted something nice then.

252
00:21:24.800 --> 00:21:25.420
I think so.

253
00:21:25.420 --> 00:21:27.680
But I think everybody was rather shocked that the girl...

254
00:21:27.680 --> 00:21:29.940
Because he was apparently pretty bad for a young girl to marry.

255
00:21:30.120 --> 00:21:33.360
Well, it wasn't shocked at him. They were shocked at the girl.

256
00:21:33.360 --> 00:21:34.280
Yes.

257
00:21:35.000 --> 00:21:37.960
She was in her teens then when she married.

258
00:21:38.220 --> 00:21:39.960
And it was really sort of an opportunist.

259
00:21:39.980 --> 00:21:41.200
That's it. That's it.

260
00:21:41.220 --> 00:21:49.400
And then when she got this far, you see, she was able to get into chorus work in pictures.

261
00:21:51.500 --> 00:21:59.300
And later on, DeMille got interested in her and she went on from there.

262
00:21:59.380 --> 00:22:00.320
Yes, you're right.

263
00:22:01.360 --> 00:22:12.320
He would have never been able to settle down and be the dignified man he could have made of himself

264
00:22:13.100 --> 00:22:17.860
because he had so many good qualities, had a very clean mind.

265
00:22:18.800 --> 00:22:23.480
You know he wouldn't permit anyone to tell me a dirty joke if he was in the room.

266
00:22:25.480 --> 00:22:33.380
He never did anything that was offensive when he was in any company, his wife included.

267
00:22:35.000 --> 00:22:35.000


268
00:22:37.980 --> 00:22:44.980
Tell me about the industry then. Was it a fairly cutthroat operation?

269
00:22:45.220 --> 00:22:48.400
In other words, were there a lot of jealousies and so on?

270
00:22:48.420 --> 00:22:50.300
I asked Beverly Bain this too.

271
00:22:50.300 --> 00:22:57.240
Oh well, I wouldn't have known too much about that because I never went into the studio.

272
00:22:57.760 --> 00:23:02.180
Yes. Why didn't you? Did you take, you took no interest in it or did you?

273
00:23:02.180 --> 00:23:08.640
No, I tell you, I always felt that it would make him self-conscious.

274
00:23:09.400 --> 00:23:13.360
I see. And Ada felt the same way.

275
00:23:13.360 --> 00:23:20.420
Because if you knew him at all, there's a very, very self-conscious streak in GM.

276
00:23:22.160 --> 00:23:26.760
That's why he talks so little. He never was a talker.

277
00:23:27.200 --> 00:23:31.640
And he could run out of the room if he heard a dirty joke being told.

278
00:23:32.600 --> 00:23:37.140
I don't know how many he told himself when he wasn't with me. I don't know anything about that.

279
00:23:37.460 --> 00:23:39.220
But he never told me one.

280
00:23:41.920 --> 00:23:47.040
That's what I've heard. Chaplin really admired him. Should I take this out of your way?

281
00:23:48.600 --> 00:23:53.100
No, sirree. I sometimes got kind of cross with him.

282
00:23:54.520 --> 00:23:54.840
Yes, sir.

283
00:23:55.680 --> 00:23:57.680
How could you tell that story in front of my wife?

284
00:23:58.340 --> 00:23:59.220
Yes, he would.

285
00:23:59.220 --> 00:24:05.520
My wife and my sister, and the man said, what's his brother-in-law?

286
00:24:05.640 --> 00:24:11.220
He said, well, your wife is my, your sister is my wife. So excited about it.

287
00:24:14.700 --> 00:24:20.860
What were your impressions of, did you remain then in Chicago when he went out to Niles? May I ask you this?

288
00:24:21.180 --> 00:24:27.380
I used to go back and forth. I lived in Chicago for about five years after that.

289
00:24:27.380 --> 00:24:32.680
I used to come to California for the winters.

290
00:24:34.680 --> 00:24:44.120
You know, I was one of the first residences or residents of the Beverly Hills Hotel. That's how new.

291
00:24:44.140 --> 00:24:45.020
Oh, yes.

292
00:24:45.300 --> 00:24:48.380
Brought a baby out because there was an epidemic in Los Angeles.

293
00:24:49.300 --> 00:24:55.540
I was prepared to stay in Los Angeles when this epidemic was broadcast.

294
00:24:57.000 --> 00:25:03.700
And I went out to look for a remote place and I found the Beverly Hills Hotel. It had been open about six months.

295
00:25:05.300 --> 00:25:07.320
It's a great hotel. It's a beautiful hotel.

296
00:25:07.340 --> 00:25:13.360
And it's grown into such an enormous and well established. Well, it was always well established, Mrs. Anderson.

297
00:25:13.720 --> 00:25:18.980
A woman by the name of Mrs. Anderson was at the head of it. She was no relative of mine. I didn't know her.

298
00:25:19.800 --> 00:25:22.340
But she ran a beautiful hotel.

299
00:25:23.320 --> 00:25:24.220
And it's still a...

300
00:25:24.220 --> 00:25:26.840
Very select people.

301
00:25:28.100 --> 00:25:32.160
And then I understand that you went back. You went to New York to live for a while. Is that right?

302
00:25:33.060 --> 00:25:42.540
I lived in New York. I lived in San Francisco. I lived in Menlo Park. That's out of San Francisco.

303
00:25:44.180 --> 00:25:46.360
And then I lived in Europe.

304
00:25:47.520 --> 00:25:48.380
Where did you go to live in Europe?

305
00:25:48.380 --> 00:25:51.060
My daughter was educated in San Francisco and Europe.

306
00:25:51.920 --> 00:25:53.520
We lived in Florence.

307
00:25:54.200 --> 00:25:57.200
Oh, beautiful. How long were you there in Florence?

308
00:25:57.880 --> 00:25:59.920
A year. Child was in school.

309
00:25:59.980 --> 00:26:00.660
Excellent.

310
00:26:01.700 --> 00:26:07.300
We traveled throughout Europe during holidays and different things.

311
00:26:08.580 --> 00:26:15.180
Came back to San Francisco and to Menlo Park, which is out of San Francisco near Stanford.

312
00:26:15.740 --> 00:26:17.260
My daughter went to Stanford.

313
00:26:18.520 --> 00:26:19.460
And her study?

314
00:26:19.460 --> 00:26:20.700
She had her education there.

315
00:26:20.880 --> 00:26:23.040
What were her studies at Stanford?

316
00:26:23.040 --> 00:26:25.600
Just general college courses.

317
00:26:26.780 --> 00:26:27.320
Very good.

318
00:26:27.860 --> 00:26:37.640
And then of course we came back when the crash was announced to us at New Year's.

319
00:26:37.760 --> 00:26:45.440
We were in Florence and we were going away for the Christmas New Year holidays.

320
00:26:45.440 --> 00:26:47.440
We went up to...

321
00:27:00.420 --> 00:27:00.900
Max?

322
00:27:02.860 --> 00:27:03.880
Where did you go then?

323
00:27:04.220 --> 00:27:06.980
Candlestick. That's in Switzerland.

324
00:27:07.080 --> 00:27:08.260
Switzerland. Yes.

325
00:27:09.440 --> 00:27:12.540
That's where we got the good news when the crash came.

326
00:27:12.600 --> 00:27:13.660
When the crash came.

327
00:27:13.660 --> 00:27:17.240
Tell me, was Bronco Belli in the movies then or not?

328
00:27:18.000 --> 00:27:19.160
No, no. He was producing.

329
00:27:19.400 --> 00:27:25.440
He had a theater in New York and two theaters in San Francisco.

330
00:27:26.100 --> 00:27:27.200
Legitimate theaters or were they movies?

331
00:27:27.200 --> 00:27:29.520
The Longacre was a legitimate theater in New York.

332
00:27:30.300 --> 00:27:34.160
He opened that. He bought that when it was first built.

333
00:27:34.200 --> 00:27:35.280
The Longacre Theater.

334
00:27:35.360 --> 00:27:35.900
Yes.

335
00:27:35.900 --> 00:27:36.480
Very good.

336
00:27:36.860 --> 00:27:39.900
And then he owned two theaters in San Francisco.

337
00:27:39.900 --> 00:27:43.280
The casino. He built that.

338
00:27:48.780 --> 00:27:49.980
And the...

339
00:27:49.980 --> 00:27:52.020
I can't remember the name of it.

340
00:27:52.380 --> 00:27:56.300
Then you would say contrary to what Spore...

341
00:27:56.300 --> 00:27:58.580
that Bronco Belli then did manage his money well.

342
00:27:59.200 --> 00:28:07.540
If he had just managed his money, he would have been a very, very rich man today.

343
00:28:07.540 --> 00:28:12.200
Don't you think, Mother, the rather sudden substance of my father's first character

344
00:28:13.400 --> 00:28:17.540
is that when anything was a great success and he had made it a success, he then lost interest in it?

345
00:28:18.260 --> 00:28:18.820
Isn't that amazing?

346
00:28:18.820 --> 00:28:20.520
There are many people like that.

347
00:28:20.600 --> 00:28:21.680
Well, that was it.

348
00:28:22.040 --> 00:28:23.760
He was a great success in the motion picture business.

349
00:28:23.800 --> 00:28:24.340
Yes, he was.

350
00:28:24.360 --> 00:28:25.720
But he wanted to get in the legitimate theater.

351
00:28:26.360 --> 00:28:27.540
And then he did open the...

352
00:28:28.100 --> 00:28:29.040
The Longacre Theater.

353
00:28:29.100 --> 00:28:33.180
I know, but then the theaters were affected, were they not, by the crash? Certainly.

354
00:28:33.440 --> 00:28:34.660
That was long before the crash.

355
00:28:34.840 --> 00:28:35.600
It was long before the crash.

356
00:28:35.600 --> 00:28:37.220
Oh, this was long before the crash.

357
00:28:37.500 --> 00:28:41.180
By that time, when the crash came, he was playing with racehorses.

358
00:28:41.180 --> 00:28:43.380
He was playing with racehorses and he had his property in San Francisco.

359
00:28:43.700 --> 00:28:47.400
And he had two theaters and a big piece of property in San Francisco.

360
00:28:47.940 --> 00:28:51.520
But whenever he became very successful, anything he put his hand to,

361
00:28:51.900 --> 00:28:52.540
he got tired of it.

362
00:28:52.660 --> 00:28:53.980
If it was a success, it was it.

363
00:28:54.940 --> 00:28:56.820
There are other people like that.

364
00:28:56.880 --> 00:28:57.360
Yes.

365
00:28:57.900 --> 00:29:00.820
And he never cared for money, for money's sake.

366
00:29:02.260 --> 00:29:04.360
He certainly, yeah, I'm sure he didn't.

367
00:29:04.360 --> 00:29:14.100
In 1916, George K. Spore gave him $900,000 for his share in the S&A Studios.

368
00:29:14.160 --> 00:29:15.260
Is that correct? I have that...

369
00:29:15.260 --> 00:29:17.780
I wouldn't know that exact amount.

370
00:29:18.380 --> 00:29:21.440
Because he never discussed monies with me.

371
00:29:21.440 --> 00:29:23.320
But he did pull out, though.

372
00:29:23.560 --> 00:29:24.860
Yes, but he did pull out.

373
00:29:25.020 --> 00:29:26.440
I see. Very good.

374
00:29:27.840 --> 00:29:28.680
Now, let me just see.

375
00:29:29.180 --> 00:29:30.960
What about Francis X. Bushman, anyway?

376
00:29:30.960 --> 00:29:38.800
He was brought to S&A by, I understand, a director by the name of Baker,

377
00:29:39.980 --> 00:29:42.920
whom he had worked with in the East, was working at S&A.

378
00:29:43.600 --> 00:29:44.720
What kind of a person was he?

379
00:29:44.940 --> 00:29:46.860
I really didn't know him personally.

380
00:29:47.000 --> 00:29:48.920
I knew him to say hello and goodbye.

381
00:29:49.600 --> 00:29:52.740
But I never in any way had any association with him.

382
00:29:53.040 --> 00:29:56.020
You always said you thought he was very...

383
00:29:56.020 --> 00:29:58.560
I thought he was a terribly conceited man.

384
00:29:58.560 --> 00:30:00.620
But she had a right to be, in a way.

385
00:30:01.100 --> 00:30:01.100


386
00:30:02.180 --> 00:30:02.700
But...

387
00:30:02.700 --> 00:30:04.100
He wasn't Mother's Bishop, too.

388
00:30:04.380 --> 00:30:10.660
No, but I wouldn't have had any reason for knowing him very well.

389
00:30:10.860 --> 00:30:12.600
I didn't associate with him very much.

390
00:30:13.260 --> 00:30:18.520
I saw him, oh, I don't imagine, over a half dozen times to speak to.

391
00:30:18.900 --> 00:30:21.560
What about the reputation of actors at that time?

392
00:30:21.660 --> 00:30:25.940
Did people...were people a little bit leery of the media?