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The Silent Collection By Tammy Stone Featuring: ELEANOR BOARDMAN |
Eleanor Boardman in My Store or Eleanor Boardman on eBay
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From cover girl to movie star, Eleanor
Boardman led a charmed life. Then again, it’s difficult to gauge all these years
later what life was really like in those hectic days when movies were becoming a
phenomenon of mass popularity, when the studio heads didn’t know quite what they
wanted out of actors and everything was one big experiment. But one thing seems
sure: they liked what they saw the minute Eleanor came into town. While they
didn’t turn her into an instant star a la Mary Pickford,
Clara Bow or Norma Talmadge, they consistently employed Eleanor for her inordinate beauty and utter
ease in front of the cameras. In those heady days, this translated into a very
decent career of 35 films or so – not as prolific as many of her peers, but
enough to garner her attention – and a life among the stars.
Boardman was born in Philadelphia on August 19, 1898, three years after the
movies had become available to the public. Her early family life, however, was
not compatible with the world that the movies were opening up. Her parents were
extremely religious, and believed that films were wicked, and that watching them
was tantamount to a sin. Luckily for us, Eleanor did not at all agree with her
parents, and from the start sought out her own, independent lifestyle.
She was successful at it too. When she was a teenager, she became a model, and
famously so when she signed on with Eastman Kodak to be one of what would be
many “Kodak Girls.” Eleanor seemed to be able to smell out good opportunities,
as this job was no mere modeling gig; Kodak, as we all know, would become the
eminent manufacturer of motion picture film stock. But we jump ahead – first
Eleanor worked her way up the modeling ranks, and when she reached the tender
ages of fifteen and sixteen, she became the official “Kodak Girl.” This
essentially meant that she was their leading model and the most recognizable
face used to sell all Kodak products. (Much like today, we
associate Kate Moss
with Calvin Klein and Cindy Crawford with The Gap.)
For Eleanor, in the very early 1920s, this meant that her face appeared in an ad
displayed all over the country. But she didn’t leave her career ambitions up to
fate, hoping against hope to be discovered by a movie mogul, as happened to so
many would-be stars before and after her. Instead, she packed up her bags and
moved to Hollywood, bent on becoming an actress.
She didn’t have too long to wait. In 1922, the Goldwyn Pictures company signed
her on as a contract player, and they liked her enough to renew her contract two
years later, when they officially became Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. She ultimately
stayed with MGM until 1932. The studio clearly admired her ravishing beauty, but
Eleanor also possessed a rare sophistication not found among all the young
starlets. What’s more, she also had a real knack for acting. All this pretty
much made her a perfect package as a contract player, and the reason for her
lasting success.
She also became the target for romantic affection, and this certainly didn’t
hurt her career. She had eyes for only one, but she sure knew how to pick them.
In 1926, Eleanor married King Vidor, already a well known filmmaker who would,
by the late 1950s, make nearly sixty films, many of them classics. This
extremely talented producer, director, actor and even presenter fell in love
with Eleanor soon after he met her, and the rest, as they say, is history.
But the story only begins here. Before Eleanor and King Vidor were married, he
was already appreciative of her acting abilities, and cast her in some of his
best-remembered films, including “Three Wise Fools” (1923), “Wine of Youth”
(1924), “Wife of the Centaur” (1925), “Proud Flesh” (1925) and “Bardelys the
Magnificent” (1926). She worked with some impressive costars in these films,
from John Gilbert to Johnnie Walker and Harrison Ford (another one!)
Perhaps the greatest work for both of them was 1928’s “The Crowd”, also an MGM
production, in which the famous James Murray starred as an alienated man in a
vast urban jungle. Eleanor starred opposite him as the love interest, and the
film ended up exceeding everyone’s expectations; surprisingly, Eleanor was the
object of the best critical praise, since this was a movie meant to bolster the
James Murray’s career. “The Crowd” did so well that 53 years after its initial
release, it enjoyed a revival in England, where it played to sold out crowds at
1981’s London Film Festival. All that time later, a critic marveled at Eleanor’s
talent: What a superbly controlled performance Eleanor Boardman gives; and what
a sweetness she had, uncloying, instinct with life.” (John Coleman, The New
Statesman).
Of course, with fame comes a price, and in Hollywood, this price is usually
malicious gossip. In Eleanor’s case, rumors started flying among those who love
to label celebrities that Eleanor was “the most outspoken girl in Hollywood.”
(It could have been a lot worse!) The star certainly did have the opportunity to
speak out in a lot of places, given she was on everyone’s guest list for years.
Among her elite hosts were William Randolph Hearst (the notorious newspaper
mogul who inspired “Citizen Kane”) and Marion Davies,
Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford, F. Scott Fitzgerald,
Greta Garbo, Joan Crawford, the Gish sisters and
John Barrymore. In other words, the who’s who of early Hollywood.
Although Eleanor’s film career started late into the silent era, she did survive
the transition to sound, at least for awhile. Between 1927 and 1932 she made
several talkies, but then she left MGM, divorced King Vidor, and went to Spain
to make what be her two last films: 1934’s “It Happened in Spain” and 1935’s
“The Three Cornered Hat” (Henri d’Abbadie d’Arrast directed). D’Arrast and
Eleanor had something in common, as both were now well-known figures in
Hollywood, but trying their luck out overseas. They also got along exceptionally
well, and married soon after they finished the film.
After this, Eleanor lived the life of royalty, dividing her time between the
U.S. and Europe, where the happy couple owned a chateau in the Pyrenees. In
1968, after d’Arrast died, Eleanor decided to move back to her native country,
and settled in Montecito, California. Ever ambitious, she didn’t settle into any
old house, but designed one herself so that she could live out her last days in
comfort in style: exactly as she had lived. And she lived long – she passed away
on December 12, 1991, at the age of 93, perhaps not the most luminescent star in
Hollywood, but one of the most stable, talented and enduring.
#
Tammy Stone is a freelance writer and journalist based in Toronto. Watch for her
regular column on the greats of the Silent Screen in each issue of The Movie
Profiles & Premiums Newsletter.
Tammy invites you to write her at
stonetamar@hotmail.comwith any questions or comments on her column.
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