Produced by the Jesse L. Lasky Feature Play Company for Paramount release. Director: Cecil B. DeMille. Original story and scenario by Jeanie Macpherson. Art director: Wilfred Buckland. Photography: Alvin Wyckoff
Picture started: April 17, 1916. Picture finished: May 4, 1916. Length:4,825 feet (five reels). Cost: $13,523.19. Released: July 17, 1916. Gross:$66,724.59
Cast: Mae Murray (Meg Dugan), Theodore Roberts (her father), James Neill (Benjamin Merton), Earle Foxe (his grandson Tom), Charles West (“English” Hal), Mary Mersch (Alice Merton), and Mrs. Lewis McCord (matron of orphanage)
Cecil B. DeMille drastically cut back his production schedule in 1916. In part because of the prestige he gained with the Geraldine Farrar pictures and as a reward for his contributions to the success of the Lasky Feature Play Company, DeMille was given the opportunity to make larger scale, special productions outside the quota of Paramount program pictures. During the year he concentrated his efforts on his first “big picture,” Joan the Woman, and directed only three other films. The third of his programmers for the year, The Dream Girl was made very cheaply and cannot have been of much interest to the director, yet there are indications that it was a pivotal film in his career.
The plot bears some similarity to The Golden Chance. Meg Dugan escapes from a reformatory and is taken in by the wealthy Merton family. A con man named “English” Hal poses as a British aristocrat and tries to infiltrate the Merton home. Meg falls in love with young Tom Merton and exposes “English” Hal as a fraud. In turn, “English” Hal produces Meg’s reprobate father, who tries to sell her to the Mertons for a fee that will ensure his departure from their lives. Benjamin Merton is outraged and drives the Dugans from his house but finally relents and allows Tom and Meg to wed.
What set The Dream Girl apart is that it contained the first example in DeMille’s work of the dream of ancient times, or “flashback,” which became a virtually obligatory device for him in the years following the First World War. Meg is enthralled by the legends of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table, and she imagines Tom Merton to be Sir Galahad. In light of DeMille’s later work, seeing how he handled these dream sequences would be fascinating. Unfortunately, The Dream Girl is not known to exist in any archive or private collection.
Early feature films played short runs, changing twice a week—and sometimes every day; often no more than forty prints were made to cover the entire country. For these reasons, the theatrical play-off of a picture took considerable time—often two to three years. The consequently slow return on a producer’s investment made it absolutely essential for studios to keep production costs to a minimum. At the same time, great strides were being made in film technique; so there was every reason to fear that a film might become obsolete before it played out its run.
The function of a distribution company like Paramount, or its rivals Metro Pictures and the Mutual Film Corporation, was to provide production financing as an advance against projected rentals, enabling the producer to meet overhead expenses and providing the promise of eventual profits. The Lasky features were popular with audiences and exhibitors; but, except for the films of certain breakthrough stars like Geraldine Farrar, box-office returns hovered in a narrow range.
Although Paramount was the idea of W.W. Hodkinson, it was Frank A. Garbutt who helped cement relations between Hodkinson, Lasky, and Zukor and made the company’s formation possible. Garbutt came to Los Angeles as a boy in the 1880s. Spurning his parents’ socialist politics, he set up shop as a job printer and also worked as a photographer and millwright before he made his fortune sinking one of the first oil wells in Los Angeles. He became a director of the Union Oil Company and was involved with at least a half dozen other oil concerns. By 1900 he was one of the wealthiest and most respected businessmen in Los Angeles.
Garbutt bankrolled Bosworth, Inc., in 1913 and quickly formed informal alliances with Adolph Zukor and Jesse Lasky. It was Garbutt who helped to pave over differences and petty jealousies the various producers and regional distributors felt when Hodkinson first made the Paramount proposal.
Almost from the beginning, Hodkinson was a problem for the producers. “For your information, and not as a criticism of Mr. Hodkinson,” Garbutt wrote in November 1914, “I will say that his accounts were in extremely bad shape, no proper books of record having been kept on our [Bosworth, Inc.’s] business. There is no question in my mind but what he is honest and but what he is honestly accounting for our money but these accounts were in such shape that no one but an expert auditor could make anything out of them. As to the Paramount Picture Corporation, I have insisted that its books be audited weekly by Price, Waterhouse and Company. …”1
Added to his sloppiness in conducting business, Hodkinson was also deeply committed to keeping production and distribution separate. With some justification he felt product quality would be higher if producers were beholden to the distributor for their survival rather than the distributor merely being a conduit for whatever the producers happened to turn out.
Zukor, Lasky, and Garbutt tolerated Hodkinson’s shortcomings because he knew motion picture distribution and because they needed him. In early 1914 when the Paramount negotiations began, Famous Players Film Company was in desperate straits. The profits from its Mary Pickford pictures barely kept pace with the mediocre performance of the other films on the company’s slate. Bosworth, Inc., had several pictures completed and in the can, but no adequate distribution, and the Jesse L. Lasky Feature Play Company had just completed The Squaw Man.
Paramount brought stability and profits to the three producers, but problems continued. In 1916, by all accounts, the Lasky pictures carried the Paramount program, while Mary Pickford was still the major asset of Famous Players, and Bosworth, Inc. (now releasing as Pallas-Morosco), was a constant drain on the financial resources of Frank Garbutt.
Zukor saw the future of the film industry much differently than Hodkinson. He felt that by combining production and distribution the 35 percent distribution fee paid to Paramount could be put to better use. At the annual Paramount directors meeting on June 13,1916, Zukor pulled a palace coup and installed Hiram Abrams as president of Paramount. With Hodkinson out of the picture, Zukor moved quickly to consolidate his position and to allay the fears of his associates. On June 24, 1916, Lasky wired DeMille:
HAVE BEEN NEGOTIATING FOR MERGER FAMOUS WITH US AND HAVE ZUKOR’S CONSENT TO FIFTY FIFTY BASIS WHICH WE FEEL MAKES ATTRACTIVE PROPOSITION. ALL OFUS INCLUDING YOURSELF WILL BE OFFICERS AND DIRECTORS AND WILL HAVE FIVE YEAR CONTRACTS WITH NEW CORPORATION TO BE CALLED FAMOUS PLAYERS LASKY CORPORATION. CONTROL OF PRODUCING END WILL VEST IN US SO THERE WILL BE NO CHANGE IN YOUR POSITION OR PLANS FOR SPECIAL RELEASES BUT FEEL CERTAIN MERGER WILL MAKE EVERYBODY’S STOCK MORE VALUABLE…. THIS DEAL JUST BETWEEN FAMOUS AND US, NO BANKER, NO BROKERS OR OTHER LEECHES. IMPORTANT TO CLOSE IMMEDIATELY ANXIOUS YOUR APPROVAL.2
DeMille responded immediately:
APPROVE MERGER. RELY ON YOU TO REPRESENT MY PERSONAL INTERESTS. PRINCIPLE POINTS ARE: I TO REMAIN INCOMPLETE AUTHORITY OF WHATEVER STUDIO AM CONNECTED WITH AND THAT I MAY NOT BEMOVED FROM CALIFORNIA WITHOUT CONSENT. YOU KNOW ME WELL ENOUGH TO ARGUE ALL MY POINTS BETTER THAN I COULD.3
The merger talks went smoothly enough, and by June 29 Lasky could report to DeMille:
THE STORY OF THE MERGER OF LASKY AND FAMOUS WAS WIDELY PUBLISHED IN TODAYS NEW YORK DAILYS THE TRADE GENERALLY HAVE BEEN CONGRATULATING US ON THE NEW COMBINATION WE ALL ARE VERY MUCH PLEASED AND CONGRATULATE THE NEW DIRECTOR GENERAL OF THE FAMOUS PLAYERS LASKY CORPORATION.4
The merger was formalized on July 19, 1916, and both sides gained from the deal. Zukor was a businessman who freely admitted that the Lasky “product was better than mine …,”5 and Lasky, who always felt more comfortable dealing with creative people, was content to let Zukor shoulder the larger part of the business concerns.
DeMille was heavily into production on Joan the Woman when the merger concluded, and after Jesse Lasky’s initial glowing accounts of the deal he probably felt secure in the arrangement. However, there were subtle shadings in the agreement that would have great impact on DeMille’s future. Lasky wired DeMille:
REMEMBERING MY PROMISE TO ALWAYS IN YOUR ABSENCE LOOK AFTER YOUR PERSONAL INTERESTS AS I DO MY OWN I WANT TO EXPLAIN TO YOU IN MY OWN LANGUAGE THE SITUATION REGARDING YOUR FIVE YEAR CONTRACT U PERSONALLY I WOULD HAVEP REFERRED A FIVE YEAR CONTRACT THE SAME AS YOU ARE GETTING BUT ZUKOR FELT THAT IT WOULD NOT BE QUITE FAIR AND HONORABLE FOR WE EXECUTIVES WHO ARE NON PRODUCERS TO BIND OURSELVES TO RECEIVE OUR VERY LARGE SALARIES FOR A PERIOD OF FIVE YEAR SREGARDLESS OF THE FACT THAT THE CORPORATION MIGHT NOT BE ABLE TO PAY THEM AT SOME TIME DURING THIS PERIOD[.] WE FEEL THAT WE HAVE NO MARKET VALUE AND THAT OUR SALARIES DEPENDED UPON THE FINANCIAL SUCCESS OF THE CORPORATION YOU HOWEVER BEING AN ACTIVE PRODUCER HAVE A MARKET VALUE AND JUST BECAUSE YOU ARE ON OUR BOARD YOUR SALARY SHOULD NOT BE SUBJECTED TO ANY POSSIBLE REDUCTION ON ACCOUNT OF THE FUTURE FINANCIAL CONDITION OF THE CORPORATION[.] WE ARE READY TO SIGN CONTRACTS THEREFORE WHICH BIND US FOR FIVE YEARS TO THE CORPORATION BUT GIVE THE CORPORATION THE RIGHT TO TERMINATE OUR CONTRACTS OR REDUCE OUR SALARIES BUT YOU ARE TO HAVE A CONTRACT THAT NOT ALONE BINDS YOU BUT BINDS THE CORPORATION TO PAY YOUR SALARY.6
No doubt Lasky felt he was looking after DeMille’s interests, and the contract did provide a financial safety net, but this amounted only to job security. DeMille was no longer a principal in the Famous Players-Lasky Corporation.
Paramount still had a twenty-five-year agreement with Bosworth, Inc., and it was deemed essential that Frank Garbutt’s company be brought into the new combine. In the early1920s Garbutt prepared a history of his motion picture activities to give his attorney background for pending tax litigation. While the document is somewhat self-serving, it does offer insight into the manner in which the Bosworth, Inc., merger with Famous Players-Lasky was negotiated.
“In the late summer of 1916,” wrote Garbutt,
Samuel Goldfish visited me in Los Angeles with a suggestion that [Bosworth, Inc.] form a consolidation with the Famous Players-Lasky Corporation.
…The propositions made by Mr. Goldfish were not satisfactory to us and nothing came of the negotiations except that Mr. [Arthur] Friend [attorney for Famous Players-Lasky] came out from New York to see if the matter could not be fixed up. As a result of these talks … it was decided that I should go to New York with them and discuss the matter with Mr. Lasky and Mr. Zukor and the other directors there….
On arriving in New York Mr. Goldfish, for internal reasons, severed his connection with the Famous Players-Lasky Corporation, and our negotiations were not progressing satisfactorily … due to my disinclination to put the assets [of Bosworth, Inc., Pallas Pictures, and the Oliver Morosco Photoplay Co.] wholly in the control of other people no matter how friendly or competent they might be….7
I would negotiate … during the day and return to the hotel at night and tell my family the results. [My daughter] Melodile Garbutt [who was officially the president of Bosworth, Inc. at the time] was spending her time going through the books and affairs of the Famous Players-Lasky Corporation with a view of acquiring all of the information she could in regard to their business as a guide to me in pursuing the negotiations.8 One of these evenings when I was particularly tired and rather disappointed at the result of the day’s work, Mrs. Garbutt urged me to not be so particular about the deal but to close it up and get out of the [picture] business. …
Mr. [Oliver] Morosco was in New York and I consulted him in person and on one or two occasions he went with me to the Famous Players-Lasky Corporation’s offices to negotiate with them.
… I was advised by them, and especially by Mr. Zukor, that they did not wish to complicate matters by negotiating with more than one person … and to simplify matters I did the negotiating and the contracting. Whenever we reached a point where I was exceeding my authority … I would ask for further time or adjourn the conference and … consult with my family and Mr. Morosco….
Shortly after I renewed negotiations the thought came into my mind that we could solve our differences … by only trading them part of our assets and have them pay us cash for the balance. They objected to doing this, and finally the plan was evolved whereby we consolidated with them on one-half of our interests and liquidated the balance in the orderly course of business. This was the scheme that was ultimately worked out and closed on October 7,1916 by a letter which was drafted by Mr. Arthur Friend, then Treasurer and attorney for the Company. This letter was drafted in Mr. Friend’s office late on the evening of the 6th, as I remember it, after I had come in and turned down coldly a proposition which they had previously made me that day.
This letter of October 7, 1916 was signed by Mr. Lasky, as Vice President, the next day, Mr. Zukor being absent for a day or two. …9
Garbutt’s account of the merger talks is as interesting for what it implies as for what it actually says. In his book Goldwyn, Scott Berg suggests that Goldfish’s insensitive handling of Mary Pickford was the source of the rift with Zukor that resulted in Goldfish’s forced resignation from Famous Players-Lasky.10 But Garbutt’s statement implies that at least part of the antagonism between Zukor and Goldfish was due to Goldfish’s failure to conclude an agreement for the acquisition of Bosworth, Inc.
Zukor’s being absent from the final negotiation with Garbutt is also interesting. It would seem that Jesse Lasky and Arthur Friend were the diplomats who finally put the deal across. Taking control of Garbutt’s interests allowed the Famous Players-Lasky Corporation to formally take over Paramount Pictures Corporation in 1917 and to create a fully integrated American film company with interests in production, distribution, and exhibition.