PART VI: BEYOND THE BOOK -- FROM TV DOCUMENTARIES TO FILM PRESERVATION
I thought the Turner people did a tremendous job. They were so concerned about getting it right; they kept sending me drafts of the script saying, "Is this correct? Is this accurate?" I really admired that, because they own the films. So they didn't need me. They could've just gone and done whatever they wanted.
Sharon Stone hosted that show. She was great to work with. Naturally she'd read the book, and she had a lot of questions. I think it was really revelatory for her, because she's so in control of her career and her image -- and Jean Harlow had no control over either. I got the sense that Sharon was very aware of that, had she been working in Jean Harlow's era, she would have faced the same dilemma, and wouldn't have been able to do anything about it. So on one level it makes you grateful you're working today, and on the other it's kind of depressing. Because no current actress gets the material Jean Harlow got. Sharon would say, "Where's my Bombshell? Where's my Red-Headed Woman?"
I also thought A&E Biography did an excellent job. They made a decision to use 'talking heads,' sources I'd found who'd never gone on-camera before: Barbara Brown, Elaine St. Johns, Bill Edmondson, a few others. Peter Jones, who wrote and produced it, is Conrad Nagel's grandson, so he knows Hollywood history firsthand. He grew up in Victor Fleming's house, which I’m sure Jean Harlow visited at some point. Peter does a lot of documentaries for A&E and AMC, and his extensive knowledge of and familiarity with Hollywood history shows.
My only reservation about that show was...me. [LAUGHS] I was uncomfortable appearing on it, because next to all these people, I looked like some young whippersnapper. When I saw the rough cut, I thought, "Who is this guy, and what makes him think he knows all this? He obviously wasn't around." Because I'm just a biographer. I didn't know her. Why would anyone want to see me?
BECAUSE YOU'VE DONE ALL THE DIGGING!
But that doesn't mean you have to watch me! Writers are meant to be read and not seen. That's my attitude.
YOU TOUCHED ON FILM PRESERVATION EARLIER. TALK A LITTLE BIT ABOUT YOUR INVOLVEMENT IN THIS GROWING MOVEMENT.
I’m very committed to it. It’s a real cause for me. So far I’ve funded full preservation on two films: The Saturday Night Kid (1929) with Clara Bow and Jean Harlow and Parisian Love (1925) with Clara Bow. Both are rare titles: there are bootleg 16mm prints of The Saturday Night Kid floating around, but UCLA worked from the sole surviving 35mm original nitrate negative. And Parisian Love was preserved from the only print left, a beautiful 35mm nitrate with five different tints.
My belief is that preservation is paramount, no pun intended. Because without Clara Bow and Jean Harlow's movies, my books about them mean nothing. Imagine a book about Michelangelo without the Sistine Chapel: you just have to take the author's word for what an amazing work of art it was. It's the same with these films. What's the point of reading about Red Dust if you can't see it for yourself? So it's up to us to save them. In a perfect world, the studios would assume responsibility; after all, they own these films. But in the meantime, many are disintegrating or spontaneously combusting. So I don't have time to complain. Like they say, nitrate won't wait.
THANKFULLY, THERE SEEMS TO BE A GROWING AWARENESS OF THIS NEED.
It's wonderful. People really care, plus it's become chic. I mean, now that Scorcese and Spielberg are active, everybody wants to climb on board. And luckily Jean Harlow worked for MGM, which preserved all its films in the early '70s. So most of her films are safe. In addition, UCLA had done Iron Man and Columbia has done Platinum Blonde. I believe they've also preserved Three Wise Girls. In 1989 there was a restoration of Hell's Angels with its original color sequence, which was found in John Wayne's personal vault. And of course that's the only color feature footage ever shot of Jean Harlow.
Clara Bow's films haven't fared as well. All four releases from 1928 -- Red Hair (which opens with a Technicolor reel), The Fleet's In, Ladies of the Mob and Three Weekends -- are all lost, as are several other of her silent films. And most of her sound films await preservation. UCLA has pristine nitrate negatives, sitting in a vault, facing decay...all you benefactors out there, help!
ALONG THE LINES OF PRESERVATION, "BOMBSHELL" IS PRINTED ON ACID-FREE PAPER STOCK. WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT?
I’m glad you brought that up. Publishers don't like to do it, because it sets a precedent -- but authors ought to be forewarned: if you don't want your book to fall apart, get it printed on acid-free paper. I remember at Yale, you'd look at a text that was 500 years old and the paper would be in great shape. Then you'd look at a book that was 50 years old, and it'd be in tatters. That's the difference. They refused me on "Clara Bow: Runnin' Wild," but on "Bombshell" I had more clout. So I told my agent, "This is a dealbreaker," and suddenly I had it in my contract.
ANY NEW BOOK PROJECTS IN THE WORKS?
As you know, I'm primarily a film and television writer-producer. These two books have been the jewels of my professional life, but they're like a relationship: they can consume you. I don't understand how people write about someone like Hitler. Because you get so intensely involved with your subject that you really have to care. I guess in a case like that, you learn to dissociate... And it's lonely. You're alone in a room and it's 1932...'cause when I write a biography, I don't just research Clara Bow or Jean Harlow, I immerse myself in their entire era. So I’m listening to the music, reading the novels, learning the history...and sometimes you walk outside and think, "What's going on? Where am I?"
Sincere thanks and gratitude to David Stenn for the generous amount of time he spent on this project, and for bravely opening himself up to an endless barrage of questions that would, quite frankly, prompt lesser professionals to run away in terror.