(11) Maxine, Mrs Anderson, Part I and II

William Grisham interviews Molly and Maxine Anderson, wife and daughter of Essanay co-founder and film star G.M. "Broncho Billy" Anderson.

Side 1:

William Grisham: 00:02
How did your husband start in films? Was he interested in the Edison invention? And…

Molly Anderson: 00:08
No, he has, was interested in the theater and that's what he tried to do, and drifted into this.

William Grisham: 00:17
Now, I was reading the Chaplin autobiography and he mentions his meeting with your husband on the west coast. And what a fine man he was. And this must have been around 1915. And he estimated that your husband was by then around thirties or early forties. Is that correct? 

Molly Anderson: 00:41
No, he was younger. 

William Grisham: 00:42
He was, he was younger than that. Tell me this then. You met, you met Mr. Anderson. Where, where did you—

Molly Anderson: 00:54
In Los Angeles. 

William Grisham: 00:55
In Los Angeles. And what was he doing in Los Angeles?

Molly Anderson: 00:58
He had brought a company out with him and was making one of the short films. They didn't make long, but they were making them in Westlake Park here. 

William Grisham: 01:10
In Westlake Park? 

Molly Anderson: 1:10
Yes.

William Grisham: 1:12
Most interesting. 

Molly Anderson: 01:16
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. 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, but I, in my own way, was a millinery designer.

William Grisham: 02:00
Very good. And where had you learned this now?

Molly Anderson: 02:03
Well, I came from Minnesota. 

William Grisham: 02:05
From Minnesota. Excellent. And what did, what was your, what did your father do in Minnesota?

Molly Anderson: 02:10
My father died when I was a child. He was a professor in Europe and I never knew him. 

William Grisham: 02:20
What part of Europe did your family come from?

Molly Anderson: 02:23
I think in Germany.

William Grisham: 02:25
In Germany. And your mother then raised you?

Molly Anderson: 02:29
Yes. And she married again and I had a couple of half-sisters and a half-brother, but I drifted out of Minnesota. I had taken up of course in millinery designing in St. Paul. 

William Grisham: 02:52
Very good. 

Molly Anderson: 02:53
And from there I went to Chicago and from there sent me out here and that's where I met Mr. Dennis.

William Grisham: 03:02
Now, were you designing fabrics then? Or how was…

Molly Anderson: 03:05
No, millinery. Hats. 

William Grisham: 03:08
In hats? Yes, of course. Which is a very fine and difficult profession. My father-in-law is in that, you know. 

Molly Anderson: 03:20
What would do us much more difficult then, because here the smaller stores used to make their own hats.

William Grisham: 03:30
They used to make their own hats. 

Molly Anderson: 03:31
They used to buy models. 

William Grisham: 03:33
I see.

Molly Anderson: 03:34
And copy them and sell them. You'll see it. But I worked for the wholesale designing place first and that's where I learned it. 

William Grisham: 03:46
I see. 

Molly Anderson: 03:48
I went there to learn it. 

William Grisham: 03:49
Let's just pause.

[Inaudible]
William Grisham: 03:52
Yes, it is. It's very interesting from the standpoint of, you know, the, the times now the, 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 or is it…

Molly Anderson: 04:13
It’s gonna be a bit difficult. 

William Grisham: 04:15
Well, I know this, you know, you, there are a lot of personal feelings involved and so on. 

Molly Anderson: 04:18
No.

William Grisham: 04:19
Well then give me an objective sort of view of Mr. Anderson.

Molly Anderson: 04:25
Well, he was the worst businessman I think I ever knew. Had no sense of business at all.

William Grisham: 04:35
In what respect?

Molly Anderson: 04:38
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 some…

William Grisham: 04:55
And could be...

Molly Anderson: 04:56
So tight on something that was of no importance at all. It was just that kind of a character?

William Grisham: 05:07
Yes. Tell me this. Did he, was he the one who contracted then? For Chaplin?

Molly Anderson: 05:20
Yes, he did. 

William Grisham: 05:21
I see.

Molly Anderson: 05:22
He brought Chaplin to Essanay 

William Grisham: 05:23
Was this, this was not with George K. Spoor then. 

Molly Anderson: 05:27
No, he wasn't. He brought Chaplin to me from SAC, from Los Angeles.

William Grisham: 05:33
Tell me about this meeting.

Molly Anderson: 05:34
Well, I'll tell you, he found Chaplin here. I don't know how, but he was, he was making pictures here. 

William Grisham: 05:40
Yes, he was. 

Molly Anderson: 05:41
And he met Chaplin and Chaplin was doing secondary work. Had no recognition of greatness. He brought—I met him at the station a Christmas morning and he had this little fellow with him. Well, you really, I couldn't describe him. Cause if it sounds as if I were trying to be funny, but I'm not, he didn't have a handbag with him. He had a little roll of something with rolled up. It didn't have a suit of clothes with him. He didn't have an overcoat with him and it was winter. This is Christmas. 

William Grisham: 06:35
And where was this that you met…

Molly Anderson: 06:36
At the station. I went to pick them up. 

William Grisham: 06:39
In Chicago? Was this in…

Molly Anderson: 06:40
Yes, in Chicago. I lived there. 

William Grisham: 06:42
Now tell me about, then what happened? How did he…

Molly Anderson: 06:45
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.” And he said, “I think this could be a great comedian. And he's being wasted in Los Angeles.”

William Grisham: 07:09
Well, Chaplin said he really liked your father. They came back on the train and he talks about the trip with your, rather with your husband, G.M. Anderson. And then who bought him, the overcoats? Spoor claimed that he bought him the overcoat. Was it…

Molly Anderson: 07:23
No, he didn’t. 

William Grisham: 07:24
Was Bronco Billy—who did that?

Molly Anderson: 07:26
We, this was, this was Christmas time. Yeah. And then of course came new year's and we had reservations to go out New Year's Eve and chatty hadn't anything to put on, but I dare say no anything because after all it wasn't up to me, but I did speak to GM and said, well, he said, well, we’ll fix him up somehow. In the meantime, Charlie's living in my apartment. There is a child there with a nurse and two maids, and I am so embarrassed for him. When he got up in the morning, he had on a shirt without collar and no tie. He didn't get up for breakfast, [inaudible], got up the middle of the morning, didn't have a comb. He had curly hair, you know, not a comb through his hair, and came out for breakfast. You could imagine. I absolutely. Well, I was a young person myself. I had never seen anything quite like that.

William Grisham: 08:44
But what did you advise? What did you do? 

Molly Anderson: 08:45
Well, then I called GM and said, look, if this was Christmas now— This I must tell you, and that has always remained with me. The day Charlie came in, he walked around the apartment. There was a Christmas tree there, all trimmed in the fall and a child walking around. And he walked, he was so impressed with that. He had never been in a home. He had—I don't think he had ever been in a house livable. 

William Grisham: 09:26
No, he had a very, very tough childhood. 

Molly Anderson: 09:27
Very, yes. No childhood really. 

William Grisham: 09:30
No, not at all.

Molly Anderson: 09:31
His mother was a mental case. 

William Grisham: 09:34
Yes, she was in and out of a, a sanitorium.

Molly Anderson: 09:37
Yes, and the only soundness he ever showed was for his brother Sydney. But Charlie, this morning sees a Christmas tree and he sees a child in the house and he walks around this Christmas tree, Christmas tree and a baby shouting, “It's wonderful.” He was so impressed. You would think it never happened before. In the meantime, he hadn't run a comb through his hair and he has curly hair. There were 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. 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.” He hardly knew what it meant.

William Grisham: 10:36
Well, then he stayed on in Chicago and did one film. 

Molly Anderson: 10:39
Then GM took him to the studio.

William Grisham: 10:41
Yes.

Molly Anderson: 10:44
And introduced him to Spoor, of course, and to the place around there. And then it was decided that he was to make a picture there. Let me tell you that New Year’s Eve was coming out and we always, went out New Year’s Eve. So of course, Charlie had to come too. He hasn't got a collar, I mean, laundry collar shirt, collar, or a tie. And we have to get, and I have to run around, find cufflinks and shirt and get something for him because we were going down to the college and at least you have to be a little presentable, you see. And I did all of this shopping, never thought of a muffler. And as we get into the car to go downtown, he has the trousers of his pajamas wrapped around his neck.

William Grisham: 12:03
Amazing.

Molly Anderson: 12:04
Going downtown for New Year’s Eve celebration. 

William Grisham: 12:11
Was it very, very cold that day? 

Molly Anderson: 12:13
Yes. 

William Grisham: 12:14
Because you know what Chicago is like.

Molly Anderson: 12:16
Yes, it was a very cold night. Car, of course, was closed, but everybody had on winter clothes. 

William Grisham: 12:23
Yes.

Molly Anderson: 12:24
We, well, I made him take the pants off around his neck, of his pajamas, and fished around and got him a muffler. I, but a nice thing happened in the college in that night. I think this would be interesting if you thought so too. We were all seated in the college and, and there was a table and everything waiting. And you remember that or you, you wouldn't remember them, but you must have heard of the Howard brothers, the comedians. 

William Grisham: 13:02
Yes, yes.

Molly Anderson: 13:05
Well, you know how funny that little Howard man was, he recognized Charlie at our table.

Molly Anderson: 13:14
And was this from the vaudeville circuit? He had recognized us. Yes. He must've seen him somewhere as a vocal circuit. And he came over. Of course, he knew my husband and he wished him a happy new year and so forth. And then he recognized Charlie. And, he took him by the nape of the neck and stood him up and made him stand on a chair. And he addressed the whole audience in this restaurant. And he said, ladies and gentlemen, your attention please. But I want to introduce to you the funniest man in motion pictures. He apparently had seen him do something out here and thought he was great because Charlie had never been in Chicago before. I mean, in the picture world.

William Grisham: 14:12
He had been

Molly Anderson: 14:13
Been in vaudeville maybe.

William Grisham: 14:15
And he had been in pictures in the west coast, but not too long. 

Molly Anderson: 14:17
Yes, yes. Not for long. 

William Grisham: 14:19
Yes.

Molly Anderson: 14:20
But he wasn't an outstanding performer. 

William Grisham: 14:23
No, he was not. 

Molly Anderson: 14:25
Well, this went off. All right. And a few minutes later, a man came over to our table, bristling, furious. He says, what did that Howard chap mean when he introduced this boy as the funniest man in moving pictures, he said. What was his name? The big fat comedian?

William Grisham: 14:53
Oh, John, John Bunny. 

Molly Anderson: 14:55
He says… John Bunny is in [inaudible]. And you know, he has always been considered the funniest man in moving pictures since he has been in pictures. And, came back the funny little man. He said, did John Bunny say, he thought he was the funniest man in moving pictures? Or did you say that? He says, well, we both said that, this man said. He said, well, you go back and tell John bunny, this is the first laugh he ever handed me. Don't you think that’s beautiful? 

William Grisham: 15:34
Huh, that’s beautiful. Yeah. That's just great. Now. In other words, Chaplin really didn't know how much he was truly earning then.

Molly Anderson: 15:46
Oh no. This to him was a fairy tale.

William Grisham: 15:52
Yeah. Did you get to meet his brother at all?

Molly Anderson: 15:55
Yes. I met Sid. I met him in Europe two years later. 

William Grisham: 15:59
But Sid was a good manager of money, was he not? Because I know that Chaplin—

Molly Anderson: 16:02
He saved his money, I think. 

William Grisham: 16:04
Yes, very much. 

Molly Anderson: 16:05
Charlie didn't throw his away. 

William Grisham: 16:07
Hardly. 

Molly Anderson: 16:11
I bet if you look very hard, Charlie has the first nickel he earned in his pocket. His little wife may have taught him a lot of things, now his children, but I, that's kidding. 

William Grisham: 16:27
Yeah. When did you first meet Wallace Beery [inaudible]?

Molly Anderson: 16:30
I didn't meet him. I never went to the studios or anything. I just knew of him. I didn't know him, but I did know what he seemed to be. And what I heard was a little gossip here and there, but I'll tell you about Gloria Swanson. I suppose if she ever knew I'd discussed her that way, she'd kick up a row, but this is the truth. 

William Grisham: 16:58
The truth is what we want. That's important. The truth is what we want.

Molly Anderson: 17:01
Yes. This is the truth. Now my child's nurse, but I took her out of the hospital. When I left the hospital, when Max was born and she happened to be a relative of Gloria Swanson's, there was a relationship of marriage interwoven in there. I think it was a cousin or something. But anyway, they were very close, like relatives and Lori Swanson was hanging around the studio, trying to get into the, something in the picture business. And then when Ms. Johnson, when she heard that Ms. Johnson was taking care of GM's child, she thought this would be a help to her.

Molly Anderson: 17:53
So, she used, you know, nurses in those days used to take three hours off afternoons. They didn't take the times the nurse, they didn't count hours. As the nurses do today, they took a job to take care of the patient. They were on day and night, and this was a nursing job. It wasn't a medical job. This was a child's nurse. She was taken out of the hospital and she wasn't ready to nurse, but that's what I took her for. 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 because she was so anxious to get into that studio. She used to hang around there all the time.

So, she used to come to Ms. Johnson's three-hour relief, Ms. Johnson used to take the child out for a walk and they'd go walking for hours. She realized that this was a good in. So, she used to come and sit on my back stairway until the walking hours came and she would accompany Ms. Johnson on these walks and this way, bringing herself into some knowledge of the Andersons, because of course she could in that way, perhaps get in too. Well, this went on for quite a while and she did get to know some of the people around there and she, she didn't get a job. But by this time my husband had opened a studio out west here, and they were sending Wallace Beery out here to do some comedies. And she gets on a train with Wallace Berry and comes out west and she marries him out here.

William Grisham: 20:04
She married him out here instead of in Chicago, as is claimed?

Molly Anderson: 20:09
Yes. She married… As far as I knew she married him here. Now I won't…

Maxine Anderson: 20:13
My father wouldn’t take her with him because she said it was no place for a young woman. [Inaudible]

Molly Anderson: 20:18
Well, he, well, it was, I'm not going into that. I'm just saying that was how she got west.

William Grisham: 20:28
Well, she married him. She married him to get west. And I'm just wondering if it wasn't though. 

Maxine Anderson: 20:33
It wasn't Chicago. 

William Grisham: 20:35
And she did get married in Chicago in the back lot of Essanay with Wallace. 

Maxine Anderson: 20:37
That’s right, she married him in Chicago so she could come. My father wouldn't take her without it.

William Grisham: 20:40
That’s, that’s an important point. 

Molly Anderson: 20:42
Well, that's it. Then. I wasn't sure about anything like that. I only knew. I only knew that when they…

William Grisham: 20:49
Tell me about him now, that's the other thing. You did…

Maxine Anderson: 20:52
He was a very vulgar man. I guess that was about it. He was a vulgar man when he died, he never did get any polished, did he? 

Molly Anderson: 20:58
Really? Well, I don't know what happened to him. Cause I never, he was a roughneck…

Maxine Anderson: 21:03
He was a kind and didn't nobody brought home.

William Grisham: 21:05
No, he was a carnival man. Really? Wasn't he?

Maxine Anderson: 21:07
Yeah, really, really rough guy. 

Molly Anderson: 21:08
And I didn't, I never knew it really. 

William Grisham: 21:12
Yes. 

Molly Anderson: 21:13
I, he must have polished down some with several different wives later. 

William Grisham: 21:17
Oh sure. Because he loved—

Molly Anderson: 21:18
And the coffee, hey. He built this lovely house in Beverly Hills. He must've wanted something nice then. 

William Grisham: 21:24
I think so.

Maxine Anderson: 21:25
But I think everybody was rather shocked that the girl married him because he was apparently pretty bad for a young girl to marry with. 

Molly Anderson: 21:30
Well, it wasn't shocked to him. They were shocked to the girl.

William Grisham: 21:33
Yes. She was in her teens when she married him and it was really sort of an opportunist.

Molly Anderson: 21:40
That's it. That’s it. And then when she got this far, you see, she was able to get in to chorus work in pictures. 

William Grisham: 21:50
Yes.

Molly Anderson: 21:50
And later on the male got interested in her and she went on from there.

William Grisham: 21:59
Yes, you're right.

Molly Anderson: 22:02
Never been able to settle down and be the dignified man he could have made of himself because he had so many good qualities and a very clean mind. You know, he wouldn't permit anyone to tell me a dirty joke if he was in the room. He never did anything that was offensive in, when he was in any company. His wife included.


William Grisham: 22:37
Tell me about the, the industry then. Was it a fairly cutthroat operation? In other words, were there a lot of jealousies and so on? I asked Beverly Bayne this too.

Molly Anderson: 22:50
Although I wouldn't have known too much about that because I never went into the studio.

William Grisham: 22:59
Yes. Why didn't you, did you take, you took no interest in it or…

Molly Anderson: 23:02
No. I tell you, I always felt that it would make him self-conscious. 

William Grisham: 23:10
I see. And Ada felt the same way. 

Molly Anderson: 23:12
Because if you knew him at all, there's a very, very self-conscious streak in GM. That's why he talked so little. He never was a talker and he could run out of the room if he heard a dirty joke being told, I don't know how many he told himself when he wasn't with me. I don't know anything about that, but he never told me one.

William Grisham: 23:42
That's what I've heard that he was, you know, Chaplin really admired him. Should I take this out?

Molly Anderson: 23:48
No, sorry. I sometimes got kind of crossed with. Yes, I— 

Maxine Anderson; 23:56
[Inaudible]. To tell that story in front of my wife, but he's in—he said, you're my wife and my sister and the man said was that his brother-in-law said, well, your wife is my—your sister's my wife, you know, so excited about it. 

William Grisham: 24:13
What were your impressions of‚—Did you remain then in Chicago? When he went out to Nile, may I ask you this?

Molly Anderson: 24:21
I used to go back and forth. I lived in Chicago for about five years after that, I used to come to California, and for the winters. You know, I was one of the first residences or residents of the Beverly Hills hotel. That's how new. Brought a baby out because there was an epidemic in Los Angeles. I was prepared to stay in Los Angeles. Then this epidemic was broadcast. And I moved, went off to look for a remote place. And I found the Beverly Hills hotel that had been open about six months.

William Grisham: 25:05
It's a great hotel, it’s a beautiful hotel. 

Molly Anderson: 25:06
And it's grown into such an enormous and well-established… Well, it was always well established. Mrs. Anderson, a woman by the name of Mrs. Anderson was at the head of it. She was no real relative of mine. I didn't know her, but she ran a beautiful hotel, very select people.

William Grisham: 25:27
And then I understand that you went back, you went to New York to live for a while. Is that right?

Molly Anderson: 25:33
I lived in New York. I lived in San Francisco. I lived in Menlo park. That's off of San Francisco. And then I lived in Europe. My daughter was educated in San Francisco and Europe. We lived in Florence. 

William Grisham: 25:48
Where did you go to live in Europe?

William Grisham: 25:54
Oh Beautiful. How long were you there in Florence? Oh, yes.

Molly Anderson: 25:57
A year. Child was in school.

William Grisham: 26:00
Excellent.

Molly Anderson: 26:01
We traveled throughout Europe during the holidays and different things. Came back to San Francisco and to Menlo Park, which is, you know, out of San Francisco, near Stanford. My daughter went to Stanford. Had the rest of her education there. 

William Grisham: 26:21
What were her studies?
S
peaker 2: 26:23
Just general college courses.

William Grisham: 26:26
Very good. 

Molly Anderson: 26:27
And then of course came, we came back when the crash was announced to us at New Year’s. We were in Florence, and we were going away for new year, Christmas, new year holidays. And we went up in wherever—Max—

William Grisham: 27:03
Where did you go then?

Molly Anderson: 27:03
After state that's in Switzerland, Switzerland. And here's the one that's where, that's where we got the good news. When the crash came. 

William Grisham: 27:12
When the crash came, tell me, was Bronco Billy in the movies then or not, or had he…

Molly Anderson: 27:18
No, he had a theater in New York, and two theaters in San Francisco. 

William Grisham: 27:26
Legitimate theaters or movie theaters?

Maxine Anderson: 27:28
It was legitimate. New York. 

Molly Anderson: 27:29
That, he opened that. He bought that when it was first built. 

William Grisham: 27:33
The Longacre theater. Very good. 

Molly Anderson: 27:36
Yes. And then he owned two theaters in San Francisco. The casino, he built that. And the, I can't remember the name of it.

William Grisham: 27:52
Then you would say contrary to, what sport is sport that Bronco Billy then did manage his money well, then, toward the—

Molly Anderson: 27:59
If he had just managed his money, he would have been a very, very rich man today. 

Maxine Anderson: 28:09
Don’t you think, mother, rather the Southern substance of my father's character is that anything was a great success that he admitted to success. He then lost interest in it. 

William Grisham: 28:18
Isn’t that amazing. There are many people like that. 

Maxine Anderson: 28:22
There was something else. Great success in Washington picture business, but he wanted to get them legitimate fit.

William Grisham: 28:26
And then he, he did open the, [inaudible], I know, but then the theaters were affected, were they not, by the crash. Certainly. 

Maxine Anderson: 28:33
Oh, that was long before the crash. 

William Grisham: 28:34
That was long before the crash. 

Molly Anderson: 28:35
Oh, this was long before the crash. By that time, when the crash came, he was playing with the race horses. 

Maxine Anderson: 28:42
Playing with the race horses, and he had his property in San Francisco.

Molly Anderson: 28:43
And he had two theaters and a big piece of property in San Francisco.

Maxine Anderson: 28:48
But whenever—He became crazy, when he became successful, and he think he could put his hand through—a success he was. That was it. I mean, there are other people like that. And he never cared for money as for money's sake. 

William Grisham: 29:02
He certainly, yeah. I'm sure he didn't, in 1916, jars case four gave him $900,000 for his share in the Essanay studios. Is that correct? I have that.

Molly Anderson: 29:15
I wouldn't know that exact amount because he never discussed monies with me. 

William Grisham: 29:22
But he did pull out though. 

Molly Anderson: 29:23
Yes, but he did pull out.

William Grisham: 29:24
I see. Very good. Let me just see, what about Francis X Bushman anyway, did you, he had, he was brought to, um, Essanay by, my understanding, a director by the name of Baker whom he had worked with in the east was working at Essanay. What kind of a person was he?

Molly Anderson: 29:45
I really didn't know him personally. I knew him to say hello and goodbye, but I never, in any way had any association with him. 

Maxine Anderson: 29:53
You always said you didn't, you thought he was? 

Molly Anderson: 29:55
I thought he was kind. I thought he was terribly conceded man, but she had a right to be in a way. Yes. But—

Maxine Anderson: 30:03
It wasn't mother's Bishop too. 

Molly Anderson: 30:04
No, but I wouldn't have had any reason for knowing him very well. I didn't associate with them very much. I saw him. Well, I don't imagine over a half dozen times to speak to.

William Grisham: 30:19
What about the reputation of actors at that time? Did people, were people a little bit leery of the, of a medium.