The First King of Hollywood

Starred review from November 2, 2015
Exuberant, athletic actor Douglas Fairbanks was one of early Hollywood's most recognized personalities, but since his death in 1939 at age 56, his star has faded. First-time author Goessel puts the silent film actor back in the spotlight where he rightly belongs with this salient and comprehensive biography. Drawing on eight years of extensive research and newly available materialsâincluding a stash of love letters from Fairbanks to Mary Pickford, his wife and fellow starâthe book meticulously chronicles Fairbanks's life and career. It's obvious that the author admires her subject, but her evenhanded approach allows a clear-eyed assessment of his rise and fall. Nonetheless, readers will be impressed by Fairbanks's many accomplishments, including co-founding United Artists with Pickford, Charlie Chaplin, and D.W. Griffith; pioneering the use of Technicolor film; and serving as the first president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. At the heart of this sizable biography is the love affair between "the King of Hollywood" and "America's Sweetheart," the celebrity power couple of their day. Their marriage eventually ended, but their very public romance has remained the stuff of Hollywood legend and is the cornerstone of Fairbanks's remarkable life, as laid bare in this terrific account.

July 15, 2015
A lively biography of a lauded actor. Douglas Fairbanks (1883-1939) and his wife Mary Pickford (1892-1979) reigned as Hollywood royalty in the 1920s, when she was "America's Sweetheart," and he, the "top male star of his generation," was featured in dozens of movies, notably Robin Hood and The Mark of Zorro. Although film historians have largely ignored Fairbanks, Goessel, in this hefty, well-researched biography, defends Fairbanks' reputation as one of the most significant stars of his time. Besides a prolific acting, directing, and producing career, he co-founded the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and United Artists; "innovative, fearless, and deep pocketed," he was an early backer of Technicolor. Goessel chronicles his ardent romance with Pickford and his "bromance" with Charlie Chaplin, who was such a close friend that he had his own bedroom at the couple's estate, Pickfair. Though he traded on his suave looks and athleticism, Fairbanks was also hardworking and quickly achieved success, attracting crowds of fans wherever he appeared. When he and Mary arrived in Copenhagen, for example, they were greeted by mobs so large that they disrupted tramway service. In 1927, though, dogged by rumors of infidelity, their marriage began to unravel. Each had affairs, and they reunited, separated, and finally divorced in 1936. By then, however, Fairbanks' fame had plummeted; neither he nor Mary flourished in the age of talkies, whose advent Goessel examines in detail. For Fairbanks, talkies ended "the romance of motion picture making." Partly, Goessel argues, the fault lay with the studios, which did not know what to do with the new technology nor how to incorporate sound to enhance actors' performances and plot. Fairbanks married English model and socialite Sylvia Ashley, but, Goessel believes, loved, and longed for, Mary. He died of a heart attack in 1939. Mary, who had been an alcoholic even during their marriage, deteriorated over the next four decades. An informative, engaging life of a film icon.

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September 15, 2015

Mary Pickford, the "girl with the curls," sweetheart of the silent silver screen, and Douglas Fairbanks, with "worlds of personality," grace, and natural athletic ability, were Hollywood's original power couple. Wherever they went, pandemonium followed; their mansion "Pickfair" was the scene of legendary dinner parties that defined Hollywood's first golden age. This is a comprehensive biography of the public and private life of an actor who combined charm and agility to play Zorro, Robin Hood, the Black Pirate, and the Thief of Bagdad, drawing millions to movie theaters. Fairbanks was free-spending, intensely jealous, and narcissistic, but he also had a farsighted view of the future of motion pictures, using his fame to sell war bonds; joining Pickford, Charlie Chaplin, and director D.W. Griffith to create United Artists; and cofounding the Motion Picture Academy of Arts and Sciences. He and Pickford were temperamental opposites, and their relationship foundered on Fairbanks's passion for travel (which Pickford hated), plus his declining interest in moviemaking after the advent of sound. VERDICT The author draws on the actor's voluminous speeches and public statements, as well as a cache of love letters between Doug and Mary. Sadly, many Fairbanks films have been lost, but this highly recommended book illuminates a vanished era of American film.--Stephen Rees, formerly with Levittown Lib., PA

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