I've been reading a TON of amazing books lately. Just devouring them! They're all on my GoodReads page if you're interested. I think I'm on too many social media accounts. I can't seem to keep up with all of them! Been reading about Bessie Love, Mabel, Roscoe, Marilyn Miller.... Just fabulous stuff. And the books are relatively cheap. Well, the Bessie Love and Marilyn Miller I paid a pretty penny for, but those two books are pretty rare. That's the nice thing about this silent/classic film obsession, it's reasonably priced!
The name Robert Harron kept coming up in the books that I've been reading. There were several tragedies in the twenties that authors bring up whenever they write about that time period. Rocoe, Mabel, William Desmond Taylor, Wallace Reid, Olive Thomas, Valentino....and sometimes(if they're very good) Bobby Harron. See, these tragedies were all firsts. They're actually quite fascinating because people were dealing with emotions for someone they felt close to that they didn't even really know, but felt they did. Sometimes the reactions were so violent you almost think the public felt like they owned these people. It still happens now. Look at the outpouring for Diana. But with these you almost get to watch society develop coping mechanisms to deal with this. With each one they learn. Or when they happened all at once, it just added fuel to the fire. Such passion.
I had heard of Bobby Harron before. I think my undying love for Lillian Gish lead me to him. So I knew his story when his name came up in my books. And y'all know my love of the ghoulish! So Bobby is kinda perfect for me. Young, handsome, dead. Except there's so little out there about him! I have this theory that unless a woman is involved somehow, well, the men just kinda fade into the background, no matter how big they were or how interesting or tragic their story is, if no woman is involved....yawn. See ladies, we're friggin riveting! Stories are boring without us!!
Bobby was a good Irish Catholic Boy. One of NINE children. He was a darling of DW Griffith, until he got too old, then Griffith tossed him for Richard Barthelmess. Griffith was fickle. Bobby's roles included working with Mae Marsh, Blanche Sweet, the Gish Sisters. It's even said that he was involved with Dorothy. Hmmm, for some reason I always thought the Gish Sisters were nuns and never dated. Gotta look into that one day. And of course, like everyone else in the whole world, he was in Birth of A Nation. Heck, even I was in Birth of A Nation! ;-)
So our darling Bobby was in New York promoting his new film Coincidence and accidentally shot himself in his hotel room. There was a gun in his suitcase and it fell on the floor. A bullet discharged hitting him in the chest and perforating his lung. At first he refused to go to the hospital. Seems like he didn't quite realize how bad his would was. In fact, he was making jokes about it. They finally convinced him to go the hospital. He didn't even want a stretcher! The wound was much worse than he thought and he died 4 days later. He was only 27 years old.
Many people were saying that it was a suicide attempt. Depression over being thrown over by Griffith. Friends rushed to dispute this(including Dorothy Gish) because he was a good Irish Catholic Boy. Mortal sin and all. Lots of Catholics kill themselves, so I look at the circumstances. Men don't try and kill themselves my shooting themselves in the chest. At least not without hitting the heart. They're violent beings, they shoot themselves in the head. Second, if he was trying to kill himself, he would have shot himself again when he realized he survived. Third, he wasn't upset when help came. He was like, "Boy, I got myself in to a pickle!" You don't get help when you want to die. Nor do you maintain your cool. Especially after losing all that blood. Not suicide. Accident.
So in reading all of my wonderful wonderful books and seeing his name a couple of times along with the films that he was in, I realized that I had several of them! Sooooo, this Silent Cinema Sunday is all for you Bobby!
First I watched A Romance of Happy Valley. It was only just over an hour. Short for Griffith! Very sweet love story, nothing too exceptional. Very cool twist at the end though. I do recommend you see it. You can get it for like 5 bucks. Well worth it. Lillian is always always always perfect and amazing. Even in "A Wedding" where she pretty much just lays there dead for most of the film, she's flawless. How I love this woman. And Bobby? How was Bobby, cause he's what I came here for. Won-der-ful! I'd only really paid attention to pictures of him. And I was like meh. But moving on the screen? He's too many things. Handsome and emotive. Really kept up with Gish. And that's hard. His character is wonderfully sensitive when it came to hers and it really showed. He was great in this role and I can see why Griffith loved him.
Next I watched Hoodoo Ann. Mae Marsh plays his leading lady in this one. She has such a wonderful face. So very very good. She's so good at conveying the scene without being cheesy. Not that I don't like cheesy, you kinda have to if you like silents. It goes with the territory. But too much cheese can burn me out and I just get bored. Mae does this. If you haven't see The White Rose, you GOTTA. GOTTA! And again, it's like 5 bucks. Mae stole this movie. She was just awesome. The ending was hysterical. Bobby was handsome and sweet in this role, but really, the film was about Mae. His character was just there to hold her up. Since that seemed to be his character's purpose, he did exactly what he was supposed to do.
I wish I could have fit in more Bobby movies today. I have several more, I just ran out of time! I'm glad I got to know him a bit better though. He really was a marvelous actor. I think that getting older would have done him good. He would have grown into his looks and certainly grown as an actor. That beautiful baby face would have aged so well. Such potential was there. Such a loss.
Love,
Olive
