The absorption of Bosworth, Incorporated brought into Famous Players-Lasky Corporation Frank A. Garbutt, one of the most powerful men in the industry. Garbutt, one of the most powerful men in the industry. Garbutt might truly be called the mystery man of the motion pictures. Not a Jew, he is regarded in Los Angeles as being as powerful in the Famous Players-Lasky Corporation as Adolph Zukor, its president. These two men have a great admiration for each other. Both are credited with the same ruthlessness and with the same general disregard of others' rights. Which would win out if their interests should happen to conflict is a moot question in filmdom.
Garbutt is a product of Southern California. As a boy he is said to have driven a milk wagon and peddled vegetables on the streets of Los Angeles. Today he is considered a multimillionaire. His interests are as varied as they are extensive. He owns mines, sawmills, lumber schooners, oil wells, business blocks. He is the dictator of the Los Angeles Athletic Club. Nothing is too small to occupy his attention. He even owns a printing plant and a manicuring shop. Just how extensive are his holdings in the Famous Players-Lasky Corporation and its subsidiaries no one knows but himself and his partners.
Garbutt, unlike Zukor, shuns the limelight. He dislikes publicity, especially in regard to any of his business affairs. The only newspaper notoriety he does not object to is when he is called "the millionaire sportsman." He owns a yacht, takes considerable interest in aviation, and is a better than ordinary chess player.
But even in sport, Garbutt is said to play both ends against the middle. He never risks a dollar unless he is practically certain to get it back with another dollar added thereto!
Garbutt and Zukor have several other qualities in common besides the ruthlessness previously mentioned. Garbutt, like Zukor, is a good family man without a breath of scandal against his reputation as far as relations with women are concerned. In fact, Garbutt is unusually particular in his personal habits. He does not even drink or smoke. He takes excellent care of himself and is a fine specimen of robust virility.
The other characteristic in which Garbutt and Zukor are so much alike is their bent for acting. Motion picture men say that Zukor is every bit as good an actor as David Warfield. The only difference is that Warfield confines his talents to the stage while Zukor brings his histrionicism into play in his business dealings. Zukor can go into a meeting held by men who are his bitter business rivals and in half an hour send them away wondering how they could have so misjudged him. He has the Caruso-like power of putting tears in his voice and rising to an emotional frenzy, while inside his mind is working coolly with clock-like precision.
Garbutt does not possess this emotionalism, or rather theatricalism, but has a fascinating personality when he deems it worth his while to exercise it. This power to convince against the dictates of reason and the existence of fact is his greatest asset.
Combined with a dominant will this plausibility is too much for the average mind and explains the strange influence that Garbutt has been able to acquire. Garbutt also is a student of character and has thus been able to play at will on those weaker than himself.
Almost miserly in money matters, Garbutt seems to wish to hoard it for the power it gives him. In this he shares the ideas of his Jewish associates. Unlike them, however he spends very little on personal pleasures. This desire for power is evidenced in his every action. But he always wishes to be the man behind the scenes, the man who pulls the invisible strings.
He has long been influential in municipal and county politics in Los Angeles. At the present time his political in Los Angeles is somewhat in eclipse, as he backed Mayor Snyder for re-election and the mayor was defeated. The new mayor, Cryer, ran on a reform ticket and was sponsored by the churches and civic organizations. He was opposed by liberal element, being dubbed a "blue law' candidate. Garbutt, representing the Affiliated Motion Picture interests, furnished some 2,500 automobiles to convey the Snyder adherents to the polls, but notwithstanding this and the support given him the Hearst papers, Snyder was defeated by a majority of some 6,000.
Garbutt's connection with the picture industry came through Hobart Bosworth, the actor and motion picture star. His relations with Garbutt form one of the most interesting chapters in the history of motion pictures and tend to throw a great light on the character of the men who are behind this great industry.
Bosworth has had a career that is only paralleled by that of Jack London, whose intimate friend he was. He has been a hobo, an itinerant house painter, a sailor, a prize fighter and an actor. Although of apparently robust physique, he has long been a victim of tuberculosis and only his life in the open has kept him alive.
Bosworth broke into motion pictures under Selig after a long career on the stage where he had been leading man for such actresses as Julia Marlowe, Henrietta Crossman, Minnie Maddern Fiske and Amelia Bingham. He acted in the first motion picture ever made in Los Angeles.
Jack London had received an offer from Selig of 50 per cent of the net profits for the screen rights of his books. Bosworth got an idea that he would like to put these stories on the screen himself. London told him he could have them on the same terms is offered by Selig. But Bosworth had difficulty in finding a backer. Capital was chary of the screen in those days, even of such an innovation as filming the works of so popular a novelist as London.
Finally in despair, Bosworth appealed to Garbutt, whom he knew casually at the Los Angeles Athletic Club as a wealthy oilman. Bosworth had some property that he had turned over to his wife because of his tubercular condition. He agreed to mortgage this for $15,000 to Garbutt if the latter would put up the cash to finance the first picture.
Accordingly an agreement was entered into by which a stock company was organized in which Bosworth was to own 49 shares, a man named Rudisill, a henchman of Garbutt's, 49 shares and Garbutt two shares. Rudisill was given the mortgage on the actor's property and Garbutt was to act as treasurer of the company. Later Bosworth found that he never did own any shares but only had an option to purchase the 49 shares.
The first picture made was London's Sea Wolf. This was said to be the first multiple reel picture in the history of the industry. It cost $9,000. It was given a preview at the Los Angeles Athletic Club, where it was received with enthusiasm. Garbutt and Bosworth then took the film to San Francisco, where they were offered more than $13,000 for the rights to three western states. Garbutt began to see that he had struck a gold mine.
From then on Bosworth's troubles began. He was busy from morning until night making other pictures in which he was both the star and director. He paid little attention to the financial end of the business, leaving it all in Garbutt's hands. Bosworth, although a capable director and a splendid actor, had no head for figures, and he took Garbutt's word that the company, although the Sea Wolf was a most successful picture, was losing money. Garbutt would take the books and throw him figures until his brain reeled. He would call him up and hold him on the telephone for long periods. At the end of two years Bosworth was a nervous wreck. To cap it all, he was threatened with foreclosure of the mortgage on his home.
In desperation Bosworth engaged an attorney and Garbutt agreed to make over to him 25 shares of Bosworth, Incorporated. But there was still the mortgage outstanding and as Bosworth was receiving good offers from other companies and Garbutt kept dinning in his ears that he was a failure, that the company was going deeper and deeper in debt. Bosworth decided to get out on any terms. Therefore, in February, 1915, he left the company which he had helped to found and to which he had given all his genius and ability as a director and actor with nothing to show for his two years' hard work but a salary of $333 a month. He immediately went to work for Universal at a salary of $300 a week.
Soon after came the merger of Bosworth, Incorporated, with Famous Players and the 25 shares of stock that Bosworth had owned, and which he had surrendered to Garbutt in consideration of getting clear without assuming any of the debts of the corporation, became worth thousands of dollars, some even placing an them a value of at least half a million.
It was when W.W. Hodkinson organized Paramount as a distributing corporation for Famous Players, Lasky's and Bosworth Incorporated that Garbutt obtained ammunition for his charges that Bosworth was a failure on the screen. With the first organization of Paramount, Hodkinson had no pictures to distribute except three snow pictures made by Bosworth and belonging to Bosworth, Incorporated. Famous Players and Lasky had nothing ready at the time, so these three pictures were sent out in succession, against Bosworth's remonstrances. Naturally the exhibitors were fed up on snow stuff and Bosworth. They complained. Garbutt made the most of these protests.
An incident related as occurring during the early formation of Bosworth, Incorporated shows the careful attention to detail rid by Garbutt in conducting his operations. It seems that the company had in its employ a man who did the developing in the laboratory with unusually good results, with a secret formula he used. Garbutt endeavored to buy this formula, but the man refused to sell, saying that it was his only means of obtaining a sure livelihood.
The next morning before the man came to work Garbutt had two of his children- then in their late teens- go into the laboratory and weigh the various chemicals. When the man came in Garbutt told him to mix up 10 gallons of the developer. After he had done so, he sent him down town on an errand and while he was gone Garbutt had the chemicals weighed again. He thus obtained the exact proportions. Having acquired his secret, the next week he fired his employee and hired a cheaper man in his place. He told this story himself, as an evidence of his canniness!
During the life of the corporations Garbutt succeeded in estranging London and Bosworth and it was not until after the death of London that Bosworth learned from his widow the cause of the coolness.
Although London was to have received 50 per cent of the net profits from the sale of his pictures, it is said his share has been but little more than $18,000 and that his widow is in straitened circumstances. Some of the films taken from his books have never been shown on the screen and to avoid paying the 50 per cent royalty, it is asserted, are still reposing on the shelves of Famous players. It was during the life of the Bosworth Incorporated that the studios now occupied by Realart Pictures Corporation were constructed. Realart is a subsidiary concern of Famous Players and is reputed to belong to Zukor and Garbutt personally. Garbutt's son, a mere youth, is manager of this studio. Directors and actors of the Famous Players are constantly being shifted back and forth from Famous Players to Realart, much to their disgust owing to the alleged penny-pinching policies of Garbutt at Realart, where he is dictator.
The Famous Players-Lasky studios are under the ostensible direction of Cecil De Mille and Jesse Lasky. but it is said that Garbutt is the real power. It is asserted that Garbutt could oust De Mille at will, the sole reason that he is kept being his unquestioned ability as a director. The tenure of Lasky is also said to be hanging by a thread. It being openly asserted in the New York World that be is to be succeeded by S.A. Lynch, a heavy stockholder in the corporation, and the man who, it is alleged, brought the southern states theaters under the Paramount banner. Lynch, it is claimed, is slated for the vice-presidency of the corporation, which office Lasky now holds. It is believed that Lynch is the choice of the Wall Street financial committee, which is said to hold the real power in the Famous Players-Lasky Corporation.
The power of both Garbutt and Zukor to endure insult and humiliation patiently until they can gain their end constitutes a great measure of their strength. This inborn trait is understandable in Zukor, but is hard to explain in Garbutt, a Gentile.
With Bosworth, Incorporated, which was at that time distributing under the trade name of Pallas Pictures, Famous Players-Lasky Corporation also absorbed the Oliver Morosco Photoplay Company, another corporation of Garbutt, formed to produce the plays controlled by Oliver Morosco, whose real name is Mitchell. Mitchell, or Morosco, is a talented man who started in the theatrical business with a stock house in Los Angeles. He developed ability as a producer and now has extensive theatrical interests in both New York and Los Angeles. Morosco did not long survive the merger with Famous Players and soon left the corporation, it is said, with no kindly feeling toward Garbutt. Samuel Goldwyn was another for whom Garbutt was said to cherish no particular affection and he also soon turned his talents elsewhere.
W.W. Hodkinson, the original organizer of Paramount, had been sponsored by Garbutt and brought into the organization at his instance. Zukor, however, evidently feared the possible combination of Garbutt and Hodkinson to his disadvantage and it was not long before Hodkinson, too, walked the plank. As consolation, however, he bore away with him a sum running into millions.
The organization of Artcraft Pictures Corporation is a typical instance of the shrewdness of Zukor and Garbutt. Mary Pickford was under contract to Paramount. When this contract expired she demanded a larger salary. As other producers were bidding for her services, Zukor was compelled to meet her terms. At this time T.L. Tally, a Scotchman of considerable wealth who made a hobby of the theatrical business, owned the principal motion picture house in Los Angeles. He had the contract with Paramount for the exhibition of that company's pictures.
Mary Pickford was then, as now, one of the big stars of filmdom. Theater owners could always count on big houses when her releases were shown. For that reason they were glad to hook up with Paramount and take all its product, for they figured that if they lost or only broke even on some of the poorer pictures they could more than make it up with a Pickford or Fairbanks film.
Soon after Miss Pickford signed her new contract with Zukor, Tally began to perceive that he was getting no more Pickford pictures, but that they were being shown at rival houses. He at once made inquiry.
"Oh, yes, that is true," he was told. "You see, Miss Pickford no longer belongs to Paramount. She is under contract to a new corporation called Artcraft." It was further explained that Artcraft pictures could be obtained, but, of course, the rental would be much higher than for Paramount. The proportion is said to be about five to one. Thus the theater owner was left tied to Paramount, legally bound to take its output, stickers and all, without the cream for which he had to pay a much higher price.
Soon after this both Paramount and Artcraft were absorbed by the parent corporation- Famous Players-Lasky, but the trade-marks and trade-names were retained and are still being used.
Another incident which has a bearing on the organization of a big distributing concern in rivalry to Paramount occurred soon after the organization of the Artcraft.
Tally was showing one Paramount picture a week. Paramount began increasing production, so that more than one picture was being released a week. Tally being unable to handle all the releases, Paramount put up a second franchise for auction. It was bid in by a rival house.
About this time J.D. Williams came to Los Angeles with the intention of embarking in the motion picture theater business. Williams had been interested in theatrical matters in Australia. After coming to America he dabbled in the state right picture distribution for a time. On arrival in Los Angeles, he discovered that he would be unable to obtain the pictures he wanted, even if he did build a theater, because Paramount had things sewed up tight.
He conceived the idea of organizing a co-operative exhibitors' association, which would make arrangements to buy its own pictures direct from the producers. He enlisted the aid of Charlie Chaplin, who also was dissatisfied with the Paramount organization. With Chaplin as a talking point, he succeeded in interesting Turner & Dahnken in San Francisco, Jensen & Von Herberg, in Seattle, and T.L. Tally in Los Angeles.
The company was finally organized with 26 units or original franchises, under the name of the First National Exhibitors Circuit. In February, 1920 it was reorganized and is now known as the Associated First National Pictures, Incorporated. With the reorganization came the issuance of the sub-franchise, of which more will be told later.
The present franchise holders, that is, the holders of the 26 original franchises as listed, which is something entirely different from the original holders of the 26 unit franchises, are:
Sol Lesser and Gore Brothers, Southern California and Arizona.Turner & Dahnken, Northern California, Nevada and Hawaii.
Exhibitors Film Exchange, Alaska, Washington, Oregon, Montana and Northern Idaho.
First National Exhibitors Circuit of Colorado, Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, Wyoming and Southern Idaho.
Western Theater Company, Western Canada.
First National Exhibitors Exchange, Illinois.
H. Leiber Company, Indiana.
A.H. Blank, Kansas, Iowa and Nebraska.
First National Film Exchange of Michigan, Michigan.
First National Exchange Circuit of Northwest Minnesota, Wisconsin, North and South Dakota.
Skouras Brothers, Missouri.
First National Exhibitors Circuit Company of Ohio, Ohio.
Gordon-Mayer Film Company, New England states.
First National Exhibitors Exchange, Maryland, District of Columbia and Delaware.
First National Exhibitors Exchange of New Jersey, New Jersey.
First National Exhibitors, New York.
First National Exhibitors Exchange, West Virginia and Western Pennsylvania.
Peerless Feature Film Exchange, Eastern Pennsylvania.
H. Brouse, Eastern Canada.
First National Exhibitors Circuit of Virginia, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Virginia, North and South Carolina.
First National Exhibitors of New Orleans, Louisiana and Mississippi.
First National Exhibitors Circuit of Texas, Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas.
Big Feature Ret. Corporation, Kentucky and Tennessee.
"The Mystery Man of the Motion Pictures," Baring The Heart of Hollywood Part III, The Dearborn Independent, November 12, 1921.
© 1998, David Pierce, on editing and revisions (if any)
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