It's All About Hollywood
Berlyn: [referring to Joan Crawford] Someone said that she could discuss the arts with a Phi Beta Kappa.::Bette Davis: The tarts?
Berlyn: Rasputin couldn't write until he was an adult, but by the latter part of his life he was giving advice to the Tsarina on strategy for World War I.::Bette Davis: Who did he think he was, George Cukor?
Berlyn: I was developing the white face and undereye circles of a movie geek. But as Sam Goldwyn said of Ronald Colman, "He looks better when he's a little dissipated."
Berlyn: It occurred to me that in many ways Rasputin, the advisor and friend to the last Empress of Russia, resembled Joan Crawford.
Berlyn: As Camille said: "They say that in Russia, it's what you do not see which counts."
Berlyn: In this town secrecy always heightens the intensity of something.
Bette Davis: As I said to Jill Bennett on "The Nanny," always make love to your props.
Plot
Legendary writer Ambrose Bierce was known to be brilliant, cantankerous and romantic in all his life's passions, and was revered as one of the top storytellers of the late 19th Century. In 1890, he presented his recently published collection of Civil War Stories to novelist Gertrude Atherton and fledgling young publisher William Randolph Hearst during an infamous meeting in Sonol, California. This meeting sets the forum for the presentation of three of Bierce's most popular stories including "One Kind Of Officer", "Story Of A Conscience" and "An Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge." This acclaimed collection features epic battle sequences, deeply conflicted drama and the signature "surprise endings" that characterized most of the short stories by Ambrose Bierce.
Keywords: 1890s, alabama, ambush, american-civil-war, army, artillery, based-on-short-stories, battle, battle-of-chickamauga, battlefield
A country divided, one man at a time.
Plot
Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa (Antonio Banderas) finds himself without adequate funding to finance his war against the military-run government. He also finds himself at odds with the Americans because of the Hearst media empire's press campaign against him. To counter both of these, he sends emissaries to movie producers to convince them to pay to film his progress and the actual battles. Producer D.W. Griffith (Colm Feore) becomes interested and sends Frank Thayer (Eion Bailey) with a film crew to develop film reels. Thayer becomes horrified and fascinated by the bandit. He finds an enigmatic individual that is both ghoulishly brutal and charmingly captivating. The resulting film became the first feature length movie, introducing scores of Americans to the true horrors of war that they had never personally seen. Thayer sold the studios on making the film despite their concerns that no one would sit through a movie longer than 1 hour by convincing them that they could raise the price of movies to ten cents, doubling the going price at that time.
Keywords: actor, actress, ambush, assassination, bandit, bare-breasts, battle, battlefield, blood, blood-spatter
Lights. Camera. Revolution.
Sam Drebben: Another day, another dollar.
D.W. Griffith: [on Pancho Villa] He's the James Boys, he's Billy the Kid, he's Napoleon all in one.
Pancho Villa: [after hearing a gunshot] Sometimes justice can be loud.
Frank Thayer: [Frank Thayer and Teddy Sampson are lying inside a tent after having sex] I've had this scene written in my head from the moment I first lay eyes on you.::Teddy Sampson: Did I do OK? Do you want to try one more take?::Frank Thayer: You sure its not too late?::Teddy Sampson: Ooh, I'm sure not! [Frank lays on top of her and they continue to have sex]::Frank Thayer: Onward and upward, thats the ticket. [kisses Frank] That's what mom told me.
Pancho Villa: [to Frank, in spanish] Cover my ass.
Plot
Coming to Hollywood as a celebrated boy genius featuring a spectacular career arc in New York including his "War of the Worlds" radio hoax, Orson Welles is stymied on the subject for his first film. After a dinner party at Hearst Castle, during which he has a verbal altercation with Hearst, Welles decides to do a movie about Hearst. It takes him some time to convince co-writer Herman Mankiewicz and the studio, but Welles eventually gets the script and the green light, keeping the subject very hush-hush with the press. When a rough cut is screened, Hearst gets wind of the movie's theme and begins a campaign to see that it is not only never publicly screened, but destroyed.
Keywords: 1940s, actress, anti-semitism, bankruptcy, based-on-documentary, based-on-true-story, censorship, director, film-director, film-industry
Welles's Mother: Orson, come into the light. Never stand in the shadows -- you were made for the light. Always remember that.
[last lines]::Herman J. 'Mank' Mankiewicz: All stars burn out, Orson. It's the flame that counts.::Orson Welles: [toasts] To the flame.::Herman J. 'Mank' Mankiewicz: To the flame.
William Randolph Hearst: There is nothing to understand. Only this: I am a man who could have been great, but was not.
[Addressing the RKO shareholders]::Orson Welles: Good afternoon. Today a man from Germany invaded Greece. He's already swallowed Poland, Denmark, Norway, and Belgium. He's bombing London as I speak. Everywhere this man goes he crushes the life and the freedom of his subjects. He sews yellow stars on their lapels, he takes their voices. In this country, we still have our voices. We can argue with them, and we can sing, and we can be heard because we are, for the moment, free. No one can tell us what to say or how to say it, can they? Gentlemen, I am one voice; that is all. My picture is one voice, one view, one opinion, nothing more. Men are dying in Europe now, and Americans soon will be so that we can surmount the tyrants and the dictators. Will you send a message across America that one man can take away our voices? So, who is Mr. Hearst, and who is Mr. Welles? Well, Mr. Hearst built a palace of brick and mortar, and little wars and corpses piled high. Mr. Welles built a palace of illusion. It's a, what we call a matte painting, it's a camera trick, it's nothing. Nothing but a dream. Today you have the chance to let the dream triumph. Thank you.
Orson Welles: Everything I am, everything I could be is in that picture.
Orson Welles: I expected better of you, Mank.::Herman J. 'Mank' Mankiewicz: Me too, but I got used to it.
Herman J. 'Mank' Mankiewicz: What about Marion?::Orson Welles: Another animal in his zoo.::Herman J. 'Mank' Mankiewicz: That is love to him. "I love you, I built you a beautiful cage."
Herman J. 'Mank' Mankiewicz: Every man loves, Orson. Or has loved.
William Randolph Hearst: My battle with the world is almost over. Yours is just beginning.::Orson Welles: Kane would've taken the tickets.
[In the lobby, opening night]::Herman J. 'Mank' Mankiewicz: Rosebud's a sled! Rosebud's a sled.
Plot
Biopic of the controversial muckraking journalist Walter Winchell. After spending 12 years in vaudeville, Winchell began writing a column in the New York Mirror. Part gossip, part half-truths, the reporting focused on well-known or prominent individuals and their dalliances. Winchell grew in popularity, particularly when he started his weekly Sunday night radio show. His reporting became more political in the late 1930s when he railed against Hitler. His star began to fall in the 1950's when Josephine Baker was refused service at the Stork Club and Winchell allegedly refused to do anything about it. The end came with his support of Sen. Joseph McCarthy and his own rabid anti-communism. Following McCarthy's style, Winchell accused anyone who stood in his way of being a communist. Soon, he found himself facing lawsuits, a failed attempt at a television show and eventually, the cancellation of his radio show.
Keywords: 1930s, 1940s, 1950s, archive-footage, based-on-book, blackmail, career, career-criminal, celebrity, columnist
He didn't report the news ... he made it.
Sex, scandal, Sensationalism. He was the first of his kind ... but certainly not the last.
Franklin D. Roosevelt: I've got a scoop for you, Walter. Senator Taft is a horse's aft.
Franklin D. Roosevelt: The face of fear is coming. And when it comes, Walter, you'll answer to no one, not even me.
Herman Klurfeld: But he's HITLER! You're only Walter Winchell.::Walter Winchell: That's where you're wrong. I'm Walter Winchell, he's only Hitler.
Walter Winchell: Hitler hates me. He hates me!::Newstand Operator: Yeah, well, Joe Stalin hasn't sent me a Christmas card either.
Walter Winchell: Mr. Mayor, my column gave you this office, and it can take it away.
Walter Winchell: Good evening, Mr. and Mrs. North and South America and all the ships at sea! Let's go to press!
Plot
In 1898 the US government decided to intervene on the side of the Cuban rebels in their struggle against Spanish rule. Assistant Navy Secretary Theodore Roosevelt decides to experience the war first hand by promoting and joining a volunteer cavalry regiment. The regiment, later known as the Rough Riders, brings together volunteers from all corners of the nation and all walks of life. When Roosevelt and his men finally land on Cuba, they face ambush, intense enemy fire, and a desperate, outnumbered charge up a defended hill.
Keywords: 1890s, 19th-century, american-history, american-soldier, americana, apache, artist, battle, battlefield, behind-enemy-lines
Henry Bardshar: A man's gotta do what he has to do, Sara.::Sara Bardshar: Yeah, and a woman's got to do everything else.
Hearst's Man: Are you Mr. Hearst?::William Randolph Hearst: Of course I'm Hearst.::Hearst's Man: An urgent dispatch, sir - from Washington.::William Randolph Hearst: [reads it closely, and his face goes wide with excitement] WAR! [Hearst and his entourage rush inside]
Wadsworth Sr.: Life is hunger. Life is anger. Life is pain and dirt. Your grandfather knew life. He didn't recommend it. That's why we're rich.
Wadsworth Sr.: To be wealthy, warm, and well-thought of... that's what a man really wants, if he's honest. And you have it.
General Joe Wheeler: We've got the Yankees on the run!::Lieutenant Wheeler: Spaniards, sir; and they're falling back onto prepared positions.::General Joe Wheeler: Don't spoil it, son.
Indian Bob: What are you thinking about, Craig?::Craig Wadsworth: My father. He gave me some advice, before I joined the regiment.::Indian Bob: Was it good advice?::Craig Wadsworth: Yes.::Indian Bob: Did you follow it?::Craig Wadsworth: No.
Theodore Roosevelt: Will you be so kind, Mr Crane, with your camera, to take a picture of this regiment on this glorious hill, for we will always live in its shadow.
Stephen Crane: You're wounded, sir.::Craig Wadsworth: A red badge of courage... it's not like your book, old man. I would have run if I could have.::Stephen Crane: Why didn't you?::Craig Wadsworth: Because they were watching, my fellows; they didn't run.
[first lines]::Henry Nash: I miss you, boys. Been more that twenty years. My God, we were young. Well, it was a young country then, full of promise and hope. Anything was possible then if you were an American.
[last lines]::Henry Nash: I'll see you boys soon. Adios compadres.
Plot
The true story that shocked 1930's Canada. When a poor rural Ontario family gives birth to quintuplet, the town doctor doesn't waste a second and takes over the family. He helps to take care of the babies but soon turns the babies into a freak show. Not before long the government gets involved and the babies are a multi-million dollar industry. But how can the uneducated couple regain their babies and their lives?
Keywords: 1930s, baby-nurse, birth, canada, childbirth, country-doctor, dionne-quintuplets, doctor, estrangement, expectant-father
Plot
The biography of Charlie Chaplin, filmmaker extraordinaire. From his formative years in England to his highest successes in America, Charlie's life, work, and loves are followed. While his screen characters were extremely hilarious, the man behind "The Little Tramp" was constantly haunted by a sense of loss.
Keywords: 1800s, 1910s, 1920s, 1930s, 1940s, 1960s, 1970s, actor, actor-plays-their-own-ancestor, actress
He made the whole world laugh and cry. He will again.
Everyone has a wild side. Even a legend.
[Chaplin tells Sennett he intends to leave Sennett's employ and open his own studio]::Mack Sennett: Charlie, I've been so rotten to you. I don't know if you can forgive me. I forced you to leave Butte, Montana. I made you accept a hundred and fifty per. You mentioned directing and I stuffed that down your throat too. Now tell me how else Uncle Mack can make it up to you!::Charlie Chaplin: I want to run my own show, Mack.::Mack Sennett: Don't kid yourself, Chaplin. You're not that big.::[spits on the floor, missing the spitoon]::Charlie Chaplin: That's the first time I've ever seen you miss, Mack.
Douglas Fairbanks: Say, are you two still married or what? I find it all very confusing.::Charlie Chaplin: Mmm... it's not at all confusing. You see, when everyone thought we were having an affair, we were married. Now that everyone realizes we're married, we're getting divorced.::Douglas Fairbanks: Man's a wizard with women. No question about it.
Charlie Chaplin: If you want to understand me, watch my movies.
[Sennett is explaining the film industry to Chaplin as Rollie edits a film]::Mack Sennett: Now I know this is all new to ya, but remember something, we're all new. This is not an ancient industry. This whole place here is built around speed. Start the story, start the chase. I get bored easy.::Rollie Totheroh: How much you reckon Mack? Couple yards of Mabel?::Mack Sennett: Hmm, yeah. Nah, make it three. But don't go thinking we sacrifice quality. I never make more than two motion pictures a week, but I'll spend up to a thousand dollars on each of 'em if I have to.
Charlie Chaplin: Nothing quite like it. The feeling of film.
Charlie Chaplin: I'm sorry, I prefer not to shake hands with Nazis.::German Diplomat: What have you got against us, Mr. Chaplin?::Charlie Chaplin: What have you got against everybody else?::Man at party: You'll have to forgive him. He's a Jew!::German Diplomat: Really.::Charlie Chaplin: I'm afraid I DON'T have that honor! Excuse me.::Woman at party: [to Chaplin as he leaves] Shame on you!
Paulette: Did you lose your other wives this way?::Charlie Chaplin: I think so. But you'd have to ask them.
Charlie Chaplin: Syd, I love this country. I owe it everything. That's why I *can* make fun of it!
[about Hetty Kelly]::George Hayden: But you didn't even kiss her!::Charlie Chaplin: Don't you think I know that?
Douglas Fairbanks: Charles, you're a foreigner; you're still an outsider. You've never understood this country.::Charlie Chaplin: It's a good country underneath, Doug.::Douglas Fairbanks: No, it's a good country on *top*. Underneath, that's what starts showing when we're scared.
Plot
Story of the decades-long affair between married newspaper magnate and movie producer William Randolph Hearst and actress and former "Ziegfeld Follies" showgirl Marion Davies.
Keywords: 1910s, 1920s, 1930s, actress, age-difference, business-tycoon, career, character-name-in-title, extramarital-affair, film-history
William Randolph Hearst ( /ˈhərst/; April 29, 1863 – August 14, 1951) was an American newspaper publisher who built up the nation’s largest newspaper chain and whose methods profoundly influenced American journalism. Hearst entered the publishing business in 1887, after taking control of The San Francisco Examiner from his father. Moving to New York City, he acquired The New York Journal and engaged in a bitter circulation war with Joseph Pulitzer's New York World which led to the creation of yellow journalism—sensationalized stories of dubious veracity. Acquiring more newspapers, Hearst created a chain that numbered nearly 30 papers in major American cities at its peak. He later expanded to magazines, creating the largest newspaper and magazine business in the world.
He was twice elected as a Democrat to the U.S. House of Representatives, and ran unsuccessfully for Mayor of New York City in 1905 and 1909, for Governor of New York in 1906, and for Lieutenant Governor of New York in 1910. Nonetheless, through his newspapers and magazines, he exercised enormous political influence, and is sometimes credited with pushing public opinion in the United States into a war with Spain in 1898.
William Randolph (bapt. 7 November 1650–11 April 1711) was a colonist and land owner who played an important role in the history and government of the Commonwealth of Virginia. He moved to Virginia sometime between 1669 and 1673, and married Mary Isham (ca. 1659–29 December 1735) a few years later. His descendants include several prominent individuals, including Thomas Jefferson, John Marshall, and Robert E. Lee. Genealogists have taken an interest in him for his progeny's many marital alliances, referring to him and Mary Isham as "the Adam and Eve of Virginia".
William Randolph was baptized in Moreton Morrell, Warwickshire, England on 7 November 1650, the son of Richard Randolph (21 February 1621–2 May 1678) and Elizabeth Ryland (1625–ca. 1669). Richard Randolph was originally from Houghton Parva, a small village east of Northampton, where his father was a "steward and servant" to Edward la Zouche, 11th Baron Zouche (1556–1625), having previously served in that same capacity to Sir George Goring, a landowner in Sussex. Elizabeth was the daughter of John Ryland of Warwick. William was the second of seven Randolph children, all born in Moreton Morrell between 1647 and 1657.
William Randolph Hearst III (born June 18, 1949) became president of the William Randolph Hearst Foundation in early 2003. Son of William Randolph Hearst, Jr. and grandson of William Randolph Hearst, Hearst is also director of the Hearst Corporation.
Hearst has a son, William Dedalus Hearst, and three daughters, Adelaide, Caroline and Eliza.
Hearst graduated from Harvard University in 1972 with an AB degree in mathematics. He spent years as an employee of the Hearst Corporation, eventually as editor and publisher of the San Francisco Examiner. His grandfather had also headed that paper, though his father had been publisher of the New York Journal American. In some television commercials Hearst III was shown having a conversation with his grandfather's portrait. (In fact, he was only two when his grandfather died.)
In 1976 he left the company to become the managing editor of Outside magazine which was then being started by the Rolling Stone magazine founder Jann Wenner. Hearst returned to the company and newspaper work in 1980.
Marion Davies (January 3, 1897 – September 22, 1961) was an American film actress, best known for her relationship with newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst.
Davies was already building a reputation as a popular film comedienne when Hearst took over her career, promoting her heavily through his newspapers, and pressuring the studios to cast her in historical dramas to which she was not suited.
For this reason, she is better remembered as Hearst's mistress and hostess at many lavish events for the Hollywood elite. In particular, her name is linked with the 1924 scandal aboard Hearst's yacht when one of his guests, film producer Thomas Ince, is rumoured to have been shot dead by Hearst in a rage when he caught Davies embracing an unidentified male figure. This version assumes that Hearst's wealth put him above the law.
In the film Citizen Kane, clearly based on Hearst, the character of his wife - an untalented singer whom he tries to promote - was widely assumed to be based on Davies. But many commentators, including Orson Welles himself, have defended Davies' record as a genuinely gifted actress, to whom Hearst's patronage did more harm than good.
William Randolph Hearst, Jr. (January 27, 1908 – May 14, 1993) was the second son of the publisher William Randolph Hearst. He became editor-in-chief of Hearst Newspapers after the death of his father in 1951. He won a Pulitzer Prize for his interview with Soviet premier, Nikita Khrushchev, and associated commentaries in 1955.
William Randolph Hearst, Jr. attended the University of California, Berkeley and was a member of the Phi Delta Theta Fraternity.
He was instrumental in restoring some measure of family control to the Hearst Corporation, which under his father's will is (and will continue to be while any grandchild alive at William Randolph Hearst Sr.'s death in 1951 is still living) controlled by a board of thirteen trustees, five from the Hearst family and eight Hearst executives. When tax laws changed to prevent the foundations his father had established from continuing to own the corporation, he arranged for the family trust (with the same trustees) to buy the shares and for longtime chief executive Richard E. Berlin, who was going senile, to be eased out to become chairman of the trustees for a period. Later William Randolph Hearst Jr. himself headed the trust and served as chairman of the executive committee of the corporation. Today his branch of the family is represented on the trustees by his son William Randolph Hearst III.