Tweet PICTURES OF SILENT STARS IN THEIR LAST YEARS

the plot:

Jethro gets a job as a paperboy, and on the papers he delivers, the Clampetts see that one of their favorite silent movie stars, Gloria Swanson, is auctioning her belongings and selling her house. The clan thinks that she has fallen on hard times, and since they are huge fans, they decide to help. They visit her home and meet her. But what the Clampetts don’t know is that she wants to do this. Gloria is doing extremely well, only selling her home and belongings to donate the money to the Actors’ Relief Fund, while her home is part of a golf course deal, and she herself is moving back East. To help their idol out, the Clampetts decide to make a new silent movie with Gloria in it. Passion’s Plaything premieres at the Bijou Theatre in Bugtussle, where she is and forever will be the Queen of the Movies.

[Danny Burk]

Out of curiosity, I checked IMDB to see whether "Passion's Plaything" might come up. No, but there really is PLAYTHINGS OF PASSION (1919), directed by Wallace Worsley.

[silentfilm]

Kitty Gordon, Mahlon Hamilton, and Lawson Butt in Playthings of Passion (1919)

Granny was right, Milton Sills IS the definition of male pulchritude.

I guess Paul Henning was a silent film buff. Whenever anybody on The Beverly Hillbillies, Petticoat Junction, or Green Acres ever mentioned their favorite movie stars it was always someone along the lines of Milton Sills, Richard Dix or Bull Montana. Maybe they just thought that mentioning those names was good for a laugh, but they also conveyed a genuine sense of affection for the old timers. The Gloria Swanson episode certainly gave that impression.

I was fascinated by that episode of Petticoat Junction where Richard Arlen and Buddy Rogers appeared as themselves, attending the "premiere" of Wings. I was just becoming interested in silent movies at the time and had no idea those guys were still alive. They looked pretty good for their age too, and of course Buddy was around for many years afterward.

the plot:

Jethro gets a job as a paperboy, and on the papers he delivers, the Clampetts see that one of their favorite silent movie stars, Gloria Swanson, is auctioning her belongings and selling her house. The clan thinks that she has fallen on hard times, and since they are huge fans, they decide to help. They visit her home and meet her. But what the Clampetts don’t know is that she wants to do this. Gloria is doing extremely well, only selling her home and belongings to donate the money to the Actors’ Relief Fund, while her home is part of a golf course deal, and she herself is moving back East. To help their idol out, the Clampetts decide to make a new silent movie with Gloria in it. Passion’s Plaything premieres at the Bijou Theatre in Bugtussle, where she is and forever will be the Queen of the Movies.

The plot was recyled, almost verbatim on a Lucy Show episode where Lucy, Vivian & Mr. Mooney stumble across Joan Crawford cleaning her own house and, thinking she has fallen upon hard times, put on a show around her to get her back into the limelight.

It's a 20s-era romp with Lucy, Viv & Joan as flappers and Mr. Mooney as a bootlegger. Thus, 40 years after the fact, we see our dancing daughter Charleston again.

The story goes that Lucy was unhappy with Joan during the episode and put out feelers to see if Gloria was interested in stepping in.

I sure don't remember the Joan Crawford episode.... Sounds like fun

Apparently Blanche Sweet made her last appearance on the old Dobie Gillis show....

Mrs. Trumble , actress Elizabeth Patterson appeared in many silent films before gaining infamy as part of the cast of I LOVE LUCY.

Elizabeth Patterson appeared in two silent films in 1926.

the plot:

Jethro gets a job as a paperboy, and on the papers he delivers, the Clampetts see that one of their favorite silent movie stars, Gloria Swanson, is auctioning her belongings and selling her house. The clan thinks that she has fallen on hard times, and since they are huge fans, they decide to help. They visit her home and meet her. But what the Clampetts don’t know is that she wants to do this. Gloria is doing extremely well, only selling her home and belongings to donate the money to the Actors’ Relief Fund, while her home is part of a golf course deal, and she herself is moving back East. To help their idol out, the Clampetts decide to make a new silent movie with Gloria in it. Passion’s Plaything premieres at the Bijou Theatre in Bugtussle, where she is and forever will be the Queen of the Movies.

There's also another excellent silent movie parody within an episode in THE HEDDA HOPPER STORY. Hopper learns that the backlot of the movie studio Jed Clampett owns is to be demolished and she meets with him urging him to perserve this movie location where Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, John Barrymore, Tom Mix, and others filmed some of their great triumphs. Hedda inspires the Clampetts to revive that golden era of film and they make a hilarious silent movie with the Hillbillies rechanneling Mix (Jed), Mary (Elly May), Valentino (Jethro), Theda Bara (Miss Jane), and the stock silent movie characters of the sweet frail old grandma (Granny) and the mustauched villain (Mr. Drysdale).

There's also a wonderful early episode in which The Clampetts take visiting Cousin Pearl to see the L.A. sites and they pass by the famed Silent Movie Theatre which must have not been that old in 1963 and later Jed deciding to fix "the mess" several silent stars have left outside Graumann's Chinese Theatre with leaving their footprints and signatures in cement by filling it all in. Another episode has Pearl playing piano for the silent movie house back home in Bugtussle with clips from THE EAGLE with Valentino and Vilma Banky.

Gloria Swanson alas was the only silent star who appeared on the show although many names were dropped over the years. I kind of wonder if Mary Pickford herself might have consented to an appearance had she been asked as she was reportedly a huge fan of the show.

Gloria Swanson in her later life was a sculptress and in the 1980's (I think it would have been) she was in the UK presenting an exhibition of her works. She was interviewed on the "Parkinson" chat show. One of the other "Show Business Personalities" also interviewed was "Dame Edna Everage" (Barry Humphries). For the most part Ms. Swanson didn't seem to have any idea of what was going on, but it was fascinating to see her. It was made more memorable by Dame Edna announcing that she had "never had a silent period".

The Dick Cavett Show: Rock Icons DVD set has several film stars of the 1920s and 30s on it.

Gloria Swanson appears on the August 3, 1970 show (along with Janis Joplin and Margot Kidder).

Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. appears with Raquel Welch and Joplin on the June 25, 1970 show.

Elsa Lanchester and Tex Ritter appear on the Stevie Wonder episode of August 11, 1970.

Joe Moore

Gloria Swanson was as sharp as a tack on several 1980-81 television interviews I have on audio - The Tomorrow Show with Tom Snyder, Good Morning America with Joan Lunden, and Over Easy with Hugh Downs. She's supposed to be promoting her best-selling autobiography but she as ever doesn't want to talk movies and especially "the past" but goes on about nutrition, age discrimation, health care, world events, the future of "today's" children, etc. Also have her a clip of her on Entertainment Tonight in San Francisco from 1982 and she looks quite lovely for her years, she died the following year reportedly in the planning stages for another return to Broadway.

The principal director of "The Beverly Hillbillies" was Joseph Depew, child actor in silent pictures and adopted son of director Sidney Olcott (Joe's birth parents were vaudevillians who died in a boarding house fire). He obviously grew up around the great film names of the 1920s and when they were used in episodes of his television program, he certainly knew who they were and perhaps had known them personally.

David S

The plot was recyled, almost verbatim on a Lucy Show episode where Lucy, Vivian & Mr. Mooney stumble across Joan Crawford cleaning her own house and, thinking she has fallen upon hard times, put on a show around her to get her back into the limelight.

It's a 20s-era romp with Lucy, Viv & Joan as flappers and Mr. Mooney as a bootlegger. Thus, 40 years after the fact, we see our dancing daughter Charleston again.

The story goes that Lucy was unhappy with Joan during the episode and put out feelers to see if Gloria was interested in stepping in.

The episode with Joan Craword is available on Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/results?search_q ... 4.74.1.1.0.

One night I was watching about a year or so ago, I caught an episode of YOU BET YOUR LIFE with Groucho and one of the contestants was Laura LaPlante. She looked wonderful (of course this was the 1950's)--she donated her winnings to charity.

The Dick Cavett Show: Rock Icons DVD set has several film stars of the 1920s and 30s on it.

Gloria Swanson appears on the August 3, 1970 show (along with Janis Joplin and Margot Kidder).

In retrospect, the mind boggles. Swanson, Joplin, and Kidder? What exactly did they have in common? "Free spirits"?


Jim

James Cagney, at fundraiser or birthday party, 1983
http://www.corbisimages.com/stock-photo ... s-birthday

There's an episode of The Beverly Hillbillies where (if memory serves) Mr. Drysdale is trying to convince Jed Clampett that Jed is the equivalent of a great Hollywood producer.

I'm paraphrasing here, but Drysdale tells him, "The people are calling you a Zukor! A Zanuck! A Roach!" Jed responds something like, "Now why would they call me all those horrible names...they don't even know me?"

Minta Durfee was a central subject on "To Tell the Truth" in 1971, as Raymond Rohauer was the previous year.

-Harold

Bwaaaaaaaah-HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

Fred, whether or not you realize it, that pretty much sounds like the vocalized pause Rohauer made in real life - whenever he was nervous!

The Dick Cavett Show: Rock Icons DVD set has several film stars of the 1920s and 30s on it.

Gloria Swanson appears on the August 3, 1970 show (along with Janis Joplin and Margot Kidder).

Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. appears with Raquel Welch and Joplin on the June 25, 1970 show.

Elsa Lanchester and Tex Ritter appear on the Stevie Wonder episode of August 11, 1970.

Joe Moore

I have seen these shows and the trio of Doug Jr. Janis Joplin, and Raquel Welch is even more mid boggling. But what's really wonderful about watching these shows is that they are nothing like a talk show of today in either content or style. The guests sit in a semi circle in swivel chairs with Cavett in the middle, more as a discussion moderator than the boss/ dismal questioner host we get today. No guest leaves, or moves down a couch to simply nod and smile - all are part of the conversation. Janis talks directly to Doug Jr. and Gloria, and Raquel. With all the ink from the time about "The Generation Gap", it's touching to see the respect and genuine interest these guests give each other.

Cavett also had Walter Kerr on when The Silent Clowns was out, I seem to remember the whole show was spent discussing silent comedy.

Cavett always struggled in the ratings but he had some great shows.

James Cagney, at fundraiser or birthday party, 1983
http://www.corbisimages.com/stock-photo ... s-birthday" target="_blank

my word, it got away from me the thread topic though Cagney was on the Broadway stage in the 20s. He however doesn't belong on this thread.[;)]

Taking the thread tile literally, the two still pictures below are of Mary Miles Minter as a luminous star of the silent film and of her sometime in the 1980s. Both photos are screen captures from a story dealing with the Wlliam Desmond Taylor murder that was on the July 8, 1986 episode of the NBC news magazine "1986."

mary miles minter - young.jpg (28.52 KiB) Viewed 269 times

mary miles minter - old.jpg (25.07 KiB) Viewed 269 times