Four For Friday - Lost To History - Old Hollywood
Lost was how she put it. Lost as a person and lost to history. Her career in film no one would ever see again because of tragedy that cost hundreds if not thousands of careers to be lost to history. Lost to history as one of the creators of a part of one of film's greatest trilogies. Her story was set to be told. She wanted it told. She wrote a manuscript. Apparently the manuscript still exists in a library at that northern California castle.
The manuscript was initially discarded as the ravings of someone who had lost her mind. In it though, she also talks about the early days of Hollywood and in great detail discusses one of the greatest directors of all time. I mean everyone knows his name even though you might not have known he was a director. Permanent A++ list. Also, the center of every dispute she had. He stole many of her ideas but only managed to have to admit it once. After that time, he had her blacklisted. So, she wrote down everything he had ever done to anyone. She wrote about the rapes and assaults. She wrote about his drug use and his part in arranging violence and even killings of those he considered rivals.
The list of misdeeds is extensive. The original editors thought she was discussing Jesus or God, but she was using it as symbolism in regards to some of his greatest known works of the time. Several people in the last decade have read the manuscript and it is a masterpiece. The problem is no one knows how to sell it or market it. So, it stays there with all of its glorious gossip waiting to be seen.
The manuscript was initially discarded as the ravings of someone who had lost her mind. In it though, she also talks about the early days of Hollywood and in great detail discusses one of the greatest directors of all time. I mean everyone knows his name even though you might not have known he was a director. Permanent A++ list. Also, the center of every dispute she had. He stole many of her ideas but only managed to have to admit it once. After that time, he had her blacklisted. So, she wrote down everything he had ever done to anyone. She wrote about the rapes and assaults. She wrote about his drug use and his part in arranging violence and even killings of those he considered rivals.
The list of misdeeds is extensive. The original editors thought she was discussing Jesus or God, but she was using it as symbolism in regards to some of his greatest known works of the time. Several people in the last decade have read the manuscript and it is a masterpiece. The problem is no one knows how to sell it or market it. So, it stays there with all of its glorious gossip waiting to be seen.
Howard Hughes?
ReplyDeleteHe directed
/Faith Domarge
DeleteHoward Hughes and Terry Moore?
ReplyDeleteHedy Lamarr and Howard Hughes??
ReplyDeleteMaybe Hughes first wife Ella wanted to act she was the only one he married who didn't act.
ReplyDeleteWR Hearst and kept at Hearst castle?
ReplyDeleteWas the tragedy some sort of fire that burned all old B&W movies like the 1937 Fox Vault Fire?
ReplyDeleteMy question is on a more Existential level- is this blind supposed to be equal to four blinds? Or there are 4 blinds hidden in this? Can anyone answer this? Will this ever be answered?
ReplyDeleteI the early days of CDaN, there were 4 seperate one-paragraph blinds, but now it's usually just one. He keeps using the old title.
DeleteIt sound likes Enty is alluding to Hearst Castle, but Hearst Castle is not in NorCal. It's probably closer to Santa Barbara.
ReplyDeleteValeska Surratt?
ReplyDelete"Suratt tried to sell her life story to one of William Randolph Hearst's newspapers. A reporter who read Suratt's manuscript later said that Suratt wrote that she was the Virgin Mary and was the mother of God.[12] Suratt never revived her career on the stage or in films and fell out of public view"
Hearst Castle is between LA and SF.
ReplyDeleteIt looks like Montana has it
ReplyDeleteOr maybe Theda Bara?
ReplyDelete"Films lost to the fire include pictures starring Theda Bara, Shirley Mason, William Farnum, and many others."
@Montana Marriott,good job.
ReplyDelete@Alf, I know where Hearst Castle is. I've been there. No one who lives in CA would say that San Simeon is in Northern California. Monterey is considered the Central Coast. San Simeon is waaaay south of that. Go look at a map.
ReplyDeleteIs Enty referring to Coppola's place in Geyserville? It's more a Villa than a castle.
Montana nailed it. Valeska Surrat and Cecil B. De Mille.
ReplyDeleteIf its Valeska Suratt the director might be Cecil B. DeMille, made many silent biblical movies and both silent and sound version on Ten Commandments.
ReplyDeleteHearst's Wyntoon estate?
ReplyDeleteNo one would say it is close to Santa Barbara. It is about 100 miles south of Monterey, but 150 miles north of Santa Barabra.
ReplyDeleteGood Job Montana! "In 1928, Suratt and scholar Mirza Ahmad Sohrab sued Cecil B. DeMille for stealing the scenario for The King of Kings from them."
ReplyDeleteSurrat did successfully sue Demille once.
ReplyDelete“The problem is no one knows how to sell it or market it. So, it stays there with all of its glorious gossip waiting to be seen.”
ReplyDeleteOld school material calls for old school methods Enty.
Photocopy the manuscript like Sebastian's journal in “Cruel Intentions” And distribute it at chruch like it’s 1999.
https://youtu.be/x4PD9k-PQFw 🖤
The blind says "everyone knows his name even though you might not have known he was a director". That sounds more like Howard Hughes than Cecil B. DeMille.
ReplyDeleteI mean DeMille basically known for being a director
My only thought too... I’f you don’t associate DeMille with directing-It’s like saying Cannes occasional has 🛥 Yacht ho’s🤷♀️ Or Jardaahians “sometimes” have plastic surgery lol
DeleteKardashians*
DeleteMontana Marriott got this! It has to be Valeska Suratt and Hearst.
ReplyDeleteWish I could read her story.
(Maybe Enty accidently called Hearst Castle NorCal)
If it is a masterpiece,of course Hollywood isn't interested.
ReplyDeleteOops, I meant to say Suratt and Cecil B. DeMille.
ReplyDeleteTheda Bara?
ReplyDeleteGood point Trisha. Not sure why Enty would say you don't associate him with directing. Hearst isn't associated with directing, but DeMille was the one who blacklisted her.
ReplyDeleteSuratt and Cecile B. De Mille.... oddly Angie was rumored to be buying his old castle in Los Angeles...she would fit that’s early 1900s goth/vamp roll very well, I wonder of the manuscript is really still there, I hope it gets made.
ReplyDeleteI have to admit, I did not know what Cecil B. DeMille did until I googled him just now. Before that I just knew he was a dead guy with an award named after him.
ReplyDeleteLol... There are a few of them ai t there ! Famous line (stilled used in jest ,now is) “I’m ready for my close up ,Mr. DeMille....” actresses known to say it before scenes
DeleteSunset Boulevard is a phenomenal movie
ReplyDeleteThis is an awesome blind, and great sleuthing!😍
If you look at William R.Hearst imdb, it refers to him as writer, director, producer!
So, Valeska Suratt and Hearst!
I want to see this manuscript AND the subsequent movie!!!😁
Ok so the 4 for Friday : the tragedy is the 1937 fox vault fire, the actress is Teleska Suratt, the direct is Cecil B. De Mille and the manuscript was stolen by heart when she tried to sell it to one of his news papers and is in the library of one of MANY of hearts properties (all of which could be considered castles).
ReplyDeletehearst*** sorry autocorrect
DeleteBoth Theda Bara and Valeska Surrat developed the archetype of the "vamp," a sexually aggressive femme fatale.
ReplyDeleteBoth were associated with William Fox, a studio founder and producer. It's a name we all recognize, but he was never a director.
All of Surrat's 11 films were made for Fox, and all are lost. The last was made in 1917. Her lawsuit against Cecil B. DeMille came more than 10 years later, after the release of DeMille's "King of Kings" (1927), so Enty's suggestion that the legal battle forced an end to her acting career doesn't fit the timeline.
Many of Theda Bara's films still exist, and while she is not forgotten by silent film buffs, she is best known to the public for still photos of her in outrageous, barely-there costumes from "Cleopatra" (1917, directed by DeMille) and "Salome" (1918). Bara's made only two features after 1919, the last in 1925.
-- Ex-Oligarch
California Castle is Heart's San Simeon.
ReplyDeleteLearned something new today re: Suratt.
Good job!
White Castle?
ReplyDeleteFrancis Farmer ?
ReplyDeleteCharlie Chaplain as the A++ you might not know for directing (better known as an actor, but he directed most of his films).
ReplyDeleteChaplain's "War Trilogy" (which includes "The Great Dictator") as the trilogy referenced in the blind.
Not sure of the actress, though he battled with many.
DeMille doesn't make sense, his is the first name that comes to mind when you say "old Hollywood director."
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteIt's Headly....
😅
DeleteFrances Farmer?
ReplyDeleteWyntoon is the "Castle"
ReplyDeleteMarion Davies
William Randolph Hearst
????
Could the director (also known to be an actor) be Orson Welles ??
ReplyDeleteThe castle could also be Chateau Marmont aka "the castle on the hill." Howard Hughes would fit if so. He stayed there for a really long time. He moved Mitzi Gaynor into his penthouse there in hopes of an affair, but he kicked her out when she hooked up with her talent agent instead. Possibly her?
ReplyDeleteNevermind, I missed the northern CA part. Chateau Marmont is in LA. My bad.
Delete"Early days of Hollywood" - not Hearst, or Hughes. Hollywood existed before the 40's.
ReplyDeleteKaitlyn Houston: Your husband is gay and has been playing hide the sausage in the brown tunnel for months now with Dr. Great.
ReplyDeleteIf he's just bi you may be able to save the marriage, such as it is, but I'd wash that "thing" carefully before using it if I were you.
Going with Chaplin. No one would consider Hughes one of the greatest directors of all time.
ReplyDeleteWas DeMille anything BUT a director?
ReplyDeleteOrson Welles. Actor and one of the greatest directors of all time.
ReplyDeleteWhile Phoebe Hearst's Wyntoon estate was designed similar to a Rhine River castle, it was in Far Northern California, in Siskiyou County, near Mount Shasta. But it burned down in 1929. There are a number of other surviving buildings on the land, which is now owned by the Hearst Corporation & is not open to the public.
ReplyDeleteSo there could be a manuscript in one of the surviving buildings.
Honestly I’m a huge pop culture fan, and know way more then I should about Hollywood lol (sadly) I never associate Cecil B Demille woth directing, I consider him a founding father of Hollywood and a producer/actor I never knew how many pictures he directed. So I’m sticking with my 4 for Friday original guess: Teleska Suratt as the actress, 1937 fox vault fire as the tragedy that all the films were “lost” in, Cecile B Demille as the Director, and Hearst stole the manuscript (after she tried to sell it to one of his newspapers) and it’s in one of his mansion libraries.
ReplyDelete. Suratt has left pictures by the 1920s, she was already making allegations then that C. B. Had stolen her work, which is why he black balled her and she was forced to stop working at around 1918, it wasn’t until the king of kings cake out that she had enough proof to sue him, but he had already had her blacklisted for over a decade. Makes since too that her work that was sent to Hearst was all in religious subtext and how she didn’t sue until the film king of Kong’s which is a biography of Jesus. I’m sticking with my guess.
Sorry for the typos. Autocorrect is a unt with a c.
DeleteOrson Wells, wasn't he supposedly the Black Dahlia killer?
ReplyDeleteThis is definitely Valeska Suratt and Cecil B. DeMille. This whole 'blind' is a condensed version of her wiki page.
ReplyDeleteI have zero idea why anyone would find the story hard to sell and market. After all who does not love salacious Hollywood gossip and there would be no issue in stretching several truths as you can not libel the dead.