[quote="moirafinnie"]Welcome to our May Guest Star
Matthew Kennedy, the author of "Marie Dressler: A Biography" (McFarland), "Edmund Goulding's Dark Victory" (Univ. of Wisconsin Press) & "Joan Blondell: A Life Between Takes" (Univ. of Mississippi Press).
Dear Moira and everyone at the Oasis,
First, thank you very much for this opportunity. Moira's introduction was very generous, and I am genuinely honored at being so graciously hosted. Following Kevin Brownlow, my friend and hero, is humbling. And I'm new to this format, so I hope you'll be patient if I get flummoxed by it or inadvertently violate protocol. (I guess two emoticons are in order -
and
.)
So here we go...
"...or did they choose you?" Good question. That was very much the case with Dressler. I simply fell in love with her - the amazing up and down career, that face, her unique place in film and theater history, her unprecedented popularity. And on top of all that, her great screen magnetism. Nobody, absolutely nobody, has come close to duplicating her.
I knew Goulding by name only when he was suggested as a subject for biography by film historian Mark Vieira. (Thanks, Mark!) Once I began researching his story, I realized that there was a lot there besides the films he made. He was frighteningly versatile, and apparently quite conflicted in his personal life.
As for Blondell, I was an admirer since Here Come the Brides, a tv show I watched religiously when I was in middle school. I met her son, Norman Powell, several years ago when I was interviewed for a documentary he produced. He casually mentioned doing a biography of his mother, and I pounced!
So Marie, Eddie, and Joan all came into my life in different ways.
Doing the research for these books is nearly as challenging as the writing. I came to realize that it must be close to detective work. And once I'm hooked, it becomes very consuming, a happy obsession. I start with obvious sources - film reviews, other people's memoirs, feature articles, and brief bio entries in reference books. Then I seek out people who worked with him/her, and hope they'll agree to an interview.
From there, the trail gets more specific. One thing leads to another as someone might say "did you know there's a special collection of Goulding materials at the AFI Library?" or "so-and-so was a good friend of Joan's, and here's her number." Sometimes it's very much needle-in-a-haystack type work, such as tracing the lives of Marie's loyal maid and butler after she died, or digging up the census records for Eddie's family in Edwardian London. When I find that material, I have to stifle letting out a squeal of delight in some quiet library!
Matthew
Another source had her seating customers at the Ritz in New York, and living off the generosity of her rich society friends. Whatever the anecdote, it's safe to say Marie was pretty close to destitution when Frances Marion came to the rescue.
