Tweet MILTON SILLS--RENAISSANCE MAN

Milton Sills was philosopher, professor, pianist, actor, horticulturist, labor leader, all rolled up into one. Here's my post about him from this week's Daily Mirror blog:
http://ladailymirror.com/2012/01/09/mar ... ton-sills/

Milton Sills was philosopher, professor, pianist, actor, horticulturist, labor leader, all rolled up into one. Here's my post about him from this week's Daily Mirror blog:
http://ladailymirror.com/2012/01/09/mar ... ton-sills/" target="_blank" target="_blank

Also "hunk of burning love."

[silentfilm]

Corinne Griffith and Milton Sills in Single Wives (1924)


Sills and wife Doris Kenyon in Hawk's Nest (1928)

Thanks for the stills. But Bruce, that's Corinne Griffith with Milton Sills in SINGLE WIVES isn't it? Not Constance Talmadge? Boy, Doris Kenyon sure has big hair plus in that photo!

Yes that's Corinne Griffith

Milton Sills was philosopher, professor, pianist, actor, horticulturist, labor leader, all rolled up into one. Here's my post about him from this week's Daily Mirror blog:
http://ladailymirror.com/2012/01/09/mar ... ton-sills/" target="_blank

also from a rich family, he could have easily sat back and enjoyed the wealth, fast women, fast cars and the like. But he up and did something with his life. He seems to have been, like Ronald Colman, one of those rare people loved by all.

[silentfilm]

Yes, it's Corinne Griffith. That's what I get for posting in a hurry before I run out the door.

Yes, it's Corinne Griffith. That's what I get for posting in a hurry before I run out the door.

It's OK. I wasn't looking at either of the two females.

Here's a family picture:


My favorite films with Sills:


shown with Enid Bennett and Lloyd Hughes


with Betty Compson


with Lois Wilson in Miss Lulu Bett (though this film doesn't give Sills much to do; it is a showcase for Wilson)

I wonder is their son still with us?
I think he was born about 1927, so he'd be 84.

And there'd probably be Sill/Kenyon grandchildren.

Stills had a daughter from a previous marriage.

I wonder is their son still with us?
I think he was born about 1927, so he'd be 84.

And there'd probably be Sill/Kenyon grandchildren.

Stills had a daughter from a previous marriage.

Kenyon Sills died in 1971. I don't know if Dorothy Sills Lindsley is still living (she'd be 100), but she did provide reminisces of her famous family to the Silents Majority:
http://web.archive.org/web/20020215205741/http://www.mdle.com/ClassicFilms/AITF/sills.htm

-HA

Kenyon Sills died in 1971. I don't know if Dorothy Sills Lindsley is still living (she'd be 100), but she did provide reminisces of her famous family to the Silents Majority:
http://web.archive.org/web/20020215205741/http://www.mdle.com/ClassicFilms/AITF/sills.htm

-HA

Harold

Thanks for the link, fascinating. Mary did a beautiful job with her piece on Sills. Like Derek, I absolutely LOVE Sills in The Sea Hawk. I also enjoyed him in Valley of the Giants. He's also good and a bit of a baddie in Eyes of Youth. I need to see The Barker.

Derek,

Wow, those stills are terrific. I never saw the lobby-card before either. I just assumed that Betty Compson's hair was lighter in THE BARKER, the same as it is THE DOCKS OF NEW YORK? Today is Kyle Lundy's Birthday and he loves Betty. He will appreciate seeing this rare still.

Thanks for the compliment, Donna! Harold, I'm having trouble getting the link to open, all it says is that it's trying to find something closest to that date.

Archive.org can be horribly wonky at times, so the link will work erratically. The article has a copyright notice so I really shouldn't just toss it out on the board, but if anyone wants to read it just PM me and I'll send you a copy.

-HA

Archive.org can be horribly wonky at times, so the link will work erratically. The article has a copyright notice so I really shouldn't just toss it out on the board, but if anyone wants to read it just PM me and I'll send you a copy.

-HA

Somebody should really set up a proper archive of the articles on The Silents Majority. It's probably ten years since that site shut down, and I'm still mourning it.

I also enjoyed him in Valley of the Giants.

Here's a lobby card:


Another of his surviving silents:

Burning Daylight, shown with Jane Winton.

A cute still for a lost silent:

with Betty Bronson.

I watched Milton Sills in "Miss Lulu Bett" just the other day. I thought he was bit wooden - in one scene he appeared to not be too confident in what he was doing and looked at the camera momentarily. Perhaps I will one day see some more of his pictures and he might be a bit better in them

I watched Milton Sills in "Miss Lulu Bett" just the other day. I thought he was bit wooden - in one scene he appeared to not be too confident in what he was doing and looked at the camera momentarily. Perhaps I will one day see some more of his pictures and he might be a bit better in them

If all you've seen is Sills's performance in Miss Lulu Bett, then your opinion of him will be skewed. That was the first of his film I saw, too, and I found him pallid and uninteresting. Then I saw The Sea Hawk, Burning Daylight, The Barker, and...and...that big tree film...and realized that he was anything but pallid and uninteresting. He was an actor, so he'd cut his cloth to fit the suit.

I watched Milton Sills in "Miss Lulu Bett" just the other day. I thought he was bit wooden - in one scene he appeared to not be too confident in what he was doing and looked at the camera momentarily. Perhaps I will one day see some more of his pictures and he might be a bit better in them

If all you've seen is Sills's performance in Miss Lulu Bett, then your opinion of him will be skewed. That was the first of his film I saw, too, and I found him pallid and uninteresting. Then I saw The Sea Hawk, Burning Daylight, The Barker, and...and...that big tree film...and realized that he was anything but pallid and uninteresting. He was an actor, so he'd cut his cloth to fit the suit.

Yes, between Miss Lulu Bett and Eyes of Youth, i just thought of him as a funny-looking stuffed shirt with a classic "silent movie actor" sounding name. But then he blew me away in The Sea Hawk and i realized he was a terrific actor who could play big, flamboyant roles as well as the smaller, more intimate ones. Now i see his performances in those earlier films with different eyes. I don't find him handsome, but he's certainly compelling, and i always look forward to his films (and really sorry i missed The Sea Wolf at Cinecon last year).

Too bad, in Paradise i see that they passed up a chance to have at least a third film with Sills sporting earrings. He carries them off rather well.

greta

He was powerful and scary in THE SEA WOLF. He is definitely an intense actor, as his roles in THE BARKER and THE SEA HAWK attest, but he could play thoughtful too.

I agree. Sills was terrific in The Seahawk and Burning Daylight. Have yet to see The Barker.

A review of Milton Sills' picture MEN OF STEEL in the August 7, 1926 of Liberty, includes a lot of biography while casting a bit of doubt. Still, the picture sounds fascinating -- does anybody know if it still exists?

DISCOVERED!
Fair Film Fans Elect a New Idol in Sills

A Movie Review of MEN OF STEEL
by Frederick James Smith

Milton Sills as Jan Bokak, the hero in MEN OF STEEL, which affords him some of his best screen moments since THE SEA HAWK, is a film oddity. Sills is well into his forties. He is not the usual cheery celluloid personality. He depends upon neither athletics nor a rampant charm. In fact, it is difficult to describe his box-office appeal.

Sills is a Chicagoan and a graduate of the University of Chicago. It is said that he left the job of professor of psychology to enter the profession graced by John Barrymore. That story was invented by a press agent back in the palmy days when yarns were yarns. Remember the tales of Theda Bara and how she was born in the shadow of the Pyramids?

Sills played on the speaking stage for years, and he first tried pictures in 1914. He was married in London four years before that. It was a long time before he got a star contract. It isn't easy for a leading man to achieve stardom. Being cast opposite high-strung feminine stars does not provide many camera opportunites. The feminine stars see to that.

Sills played a lot of he-men with a dour sort of earnestness, but he was lacking in what directors call sex appeal. His fan mail was just so-so. Then Sills did THE SEA HAWK, a Sabatini story of pirate and swashbuckling days. As a galley slave, Sills wore an exceedingly brief costume plus a jar of heavy tan grease paint. Result: an avalanche of mail! Flappers in Kansas and points west discovered Sills. He was made.

MEN OF STEEL, this new First National production, directed by George Archainbaud, was adapted from a short story by Sills himself. Yet the star did not write the whole thing for himself, in the usual actor fashion.

It sees there are two girls, sisters without knowing it. One lives in a mine town; the other is the great steel magnate's daughter. Sills, or rather Jan Bokak, loves the poor girl, Mary, and as he climbs the social ladder, is loved by the other, Clare.

The steel magnate, quaintly called Cinder Pitt, is a diverting character. A warm heart beats beneath his steel exterior, as a subtitle points out.

There's a half-wit who is not really Mary's brother, although she thinks so until the last reel. When he dies by falling into a ladle of molten iron, the whole mill has a holiday while they bury the ladle.

Doris Kenyon plays the poor girl, and May Allison is the wealthy Clare. It is good to see Miss Allison back in screen prominence. Both Miss Kenyon and Miss Allison have starred, so you will realize the expensiveness of the cast.

MEN OF STEEL is a special, Sills' first since the highly successful SEA HAWK. The whole cast was sent to Birmingham, Alabama, where through the co-operation of the United States Steel Corporation, a mill of the Tennessee Coal and Iron Company became an impromptu studio.

The production stretched into months. Finally the company returned to New York, where the remainder of the scenes were to be filmed. A sequence involving something like $60,000 worth of miniature stuff was shot -- and discarded. The company went back to Birmingham and did the miniature sequence over at the steel mill.

The picture is reported to have cost something like $600,000. It is a safe bet that it will make a lot of money. It has the splendidly photographed background of a big steel mill in operation; it has loads of action; and Mr. Sills has his best role since THE SEA HAWK. Watch for the scene where the reputed professor of psychology, as the hungry Jan Bokak, steals a plate of food from an annoyed dog.

Sills now gets $2,500 a week, and has a lot to say about his productions, as befits one of our first ten male cinema idols. He is enjoying popularity and a suit for divorce. The world is his.

A review of Milton Sills' picture MEN OF STEEL in the August 7, 1926 of Liberty, includes a lot of biography while casting a bit of doubt. Still, it sounds like a fascinating picture -- does anybody know if it still exists?

(snip)

Sills now get $2,500 a week, and has a lot to say about his productions, as befits one of our first ten male cinema idols. He is enjoying popularity and a suit for divorce. The world is his.[/b]

Wow. Speaking of snark.

A review of Milton Sills' picture MEN OF STEEL in the August 7, 1926 of Liberty, includes a lot of biography while casting a bit of doubt. Still, the picture sounds fascinating -- does anybody know if it still exists?

I checked the FIAF database but, unfortunately, there were no hits for Men of Steel either under the film's title or among the surviving films of Milton Sills.

Getting back to the piece from Liberty, it's notable that in 1926 someone is already referring to the "palmy days" of Theda Bara, circa 9 or 10 years earlier. That reminds me of Show People, a late silent which reveals a surprising nostalgia for the Keystone era. It's as if on some level they knew that the silent era wasn't going to last much longer.

I checked the FIAF database but, unfortunately, there were no hits for Men of Steel either under the film's title or among the surviving films of Milton Sills.

If you have the chance sometime, would you be willing to post the entire FIAF results for Milton Sills? I suspect that the FN period isn't going to be wonderful in terms of survival, but there can always be surprises.

Today is the 130th anniversary of the naissance of this Renaissance man, BTW.

-HA

If you have the chance sometime, would you be willing to post the entire FIAF results for Milton Sills? I suspect that the FN period isn't going to be wonderful in terms of survival, but there can always be surprises.

Today is the 130th anniversary of the naissance of this Renaissance man, BTW.

-HA

I'm happy to do it, especially on the man's birthday. (You can count me among the fans of The Sea Hawk.) Here are the 26 titles listed in the database:


1.
ADAM'S RIB DeMille, Cecil B. United States of America 1923
George Eastman House (Rochester) [USR]

2.
AT THE END OF THE WORLD Stanlaws, Penrhyn United States of America 1921
Gosfilmofond of Russia (Moscow) [RUR]

3.
BARKER, THE Fitzmaurice, George United States of America 1928
Museum of Modern Art (New York) [USM]

4.
BURNING DAYLIGHT Brabin, Charles J. United States of America 1928
Library of Congress (Washington) [USW]

5.
FLAMING YOUTH Dillon, John Francis (Jack) United States of America 1923
Library of Congress (Washington) [USW]

6.
HIS CAPTIVE WOMAN Fitzmaurice, George United States of America 1929
Library of Congress (Washington) [USW]

7.
HUSHED HOUR, THE Mortimer, Edmund United States of America 1919
Library of Congress (Washington) [USW]

8.
I WANT MY MAN (TRAILER) Hillyer, Lambert United States of America 1925
Library of Congress (Washington) [USW]

9.
KNOCKOUT (TRAILER), THE Hillyer, Lambert United States of America 1925
Library of Congress (Washington) [USW]

10.
LOVE AND THE DEVIL Korda, Alexander (Sándor) United States of America 1929
Cineteca Italiana (Milano) [ITC]

11.
MISS LULU BETT DeMille, William C. United States of America 1921
Cinémathèque Royale (Bruxelles) [BEB]

12.
ONE CLEAR CALL Stahl, John M. United States of America 1922
George Eastman House (Rochester) [USR]

13.
PATRIA. CHAPTER 01, LAST OF THE FIGHTING CHANNINGS Wharton, Theodore K. United States of America 1917
Museum of Modern Art (New York) [USM]

14.
PATRIA. CHAPTER 02, TREASURE Wharton, Theodore K. United States of America 1917
Museum of Modern Art (New York) [USM]

15.
PATRIA. CHAPTER 03, WINGED MILLIONS Wharton, Theodore K. United States of America 1917
Museum of Modern Art (New York) [USM]

16.
PATRIA. CHAPTER 04, DOUBLE CROSSED Wharton, Theodore K. United States of America 1917
Museum of Modern Art (New York) [USM]

17.
PATRIA. CHAPTER 10, WAR IN THE DOORYARD Wharton, Theodore K. United States of America 1917
Museum of Modern Art (New York) [USM]

18.
SATAN JUNIOR Blaché, Herbert United States of America 1919
bfi/National Film and Television Archive (London) [GBB]

19.
SEA HAWK, THE Lloyd, Frank United States of America 1924
George Eastman House (Rochester) [USR]

20.
SHADOWS Barker, Reginald United States of America 1919
Library of Congress (Washington) [USW]

21.
SILENT LOVER, THE Archainbaud, George United States of America 1926
bfi/National Film and Television Archive (London) [GBB]

22.
SKIN DEEP Hillyer, Lambert United States of America 1922
Library of Congress (Washington) [USW]

23.
SPOILERS, THE Hillyer, Lambert United States of America 1923
Gosfilmofond of Russia (Moscow) [RUR]

24.
VALLEY OF THE GIANTS, THE Brabin, Charles J. United States of America 1927
Library of Congress (Washington) [USW]

25.
WHAT A WIFE LEARNED Wray, John Griffith United States of America 1923
Gosfilmofond of Russia (Moscow) [RUR]

26.
WOMAN WHO WALKED ALONE, THE Melford, George H. United States of America 1922
Gosfilmofond of Russia (Moscow) [RUR]

Thanks! I think I've also seen on AMS that Behold My Wife (1920) is still around, and UCLA has Man Trouble (1930). Eyes of Youth (1919) is at several archives, and The Sea Wolf (1930) was run at Cinecon a couple of years ago. He also had a cameo in Souls for Sale (1923), but I don't recall if it appears in the surviving print.

If one counts Patria as a single, incomplete work and doesn't count the fragments/trailers, Milton Sills tentatively has 24 films extant of 85 he appeared in (28%). We don't know the full nature of all the FIAF holdings and some of the above may not be complete, but his showing is still a little better than I thought it would be.

-HA

Harold,

Do you know how much footage of THE SPOILERS survives? Is it complete or just a fragment? The film had a great cast.

18.
SATAN JUNIOR Blaché, Herbert United States of America 1919
bfi/National Film and Television Archive (London) [GBB]

OMG. Does anyone know anything about this piece? The mind positively reels at the thought.

Dare we hope for interpretive dancing in this?