she never was in the social world and reunites with her old boyfriend with the understanding that she will continue her mission.
They used as many ex-servicemen in the cast as possible and the filming often turned into a party. The director James Young would find Elsie singing with the soldiers or down on her knees in a crap game, but she and Frances took seriously their attempt to remind people in a comedic way that soldiers had a transition to go through. Their memories of what they had seen in France filled the film with realistic details and “between us,” Elsie said, “we put everything in the picture but the delousing station.”
Elsie never considered herself a film actress. She thought she was “too fast” for the camera, looking and acting “like a Semitic jumping jack” on the screen, but making movies was fun, the money was better than she could earn anywhere else, and besides, an Equity strike had closed down the Broadway theaters.34
Anita and John Emerson returned from their European honeymoon and he became deeply involved in the fight to unionize Broadway actors. Anita, however, was not very enamored of the theater and preferred, when she wasn’t churning out another film for Constance Talmadge, to dine with new friends like George Jean Nathan or H. L. Mencken. Mencken was a dedicated bachelor living in Baltimore who came to New York for a day or two at a time and Anita adored him. He was to become yet another in what would be a string of love affairs of the mind, jousting with one-liners and all-night philosophical discussions, but they were rarely the intimate liaisons Anita might have hoped for. Mencken’s intellect and wit represented what she had hoped to find in Emerson, but once she had “landed” the formerly unattainable man as a husband, it became amazingly clear how little they really had in common.
Anita and Frances genuinely enjoyed the company of smart, entertaining, and accomplished women who did not take themselves too seriously. Anita particularly relished spending the evening with Marion Davies, Justine Johnston, and the Talmadge sisters when they were away from their men, free to talk without the need to impress or adore. Frances occasionally joined the regular Tuesday night group in what they called their “cat nights,” usually gathering at the apartment at the Beaux Arts building Hearst kept for Marion.35
United Artists was finally a reality and while Doug had already brought out a picture, Mary Pickford was just completing her contract with First National. Experienced as Mary was, she wanted her best friend at her side for her first United Artists film and Frances made immediate arrangements with Hearst to be “loaned.” To further ensure success, she and Mary chose a well-known story about a young orphan girl: Pollyanna.36
Frances and Mary didn’t realize until they were too far along that they had been spoiled by stories with some depth and challenges, such as Stella Maris. They had reverted to a formula that was almost a caricature of Mary’s previous “little girl” films and found the syrupy sweet Pollyanna frankly insidious; “I hated writing it and Mary hated playing it.”
With the nickname of “The Glad Girl,” Pollyanna dedicates herself to finding something good in everyone and everything. Frances admitted that “in spite of our indifference” she managed to “edge in some amusing scenes” and her titles at times verge on hilarious. When confronted with her mean Aunt Polly, Mary seems at a loss for a positive retort, but then brightly comes up with “I’m glad . . . she’s not twins.” Still, they took few risks and were more relieved than satisfied when filming was completed.37
In October of 1919, Frances finally received word that after organizing the Allied Games and setting a world record for the grenade throw, Fred was coming home. Mary told her to leave for New York immediately and she and Charlotte would follow as soon as the negatives were developed. Frances arrived only a few days before Fred’s ship docked, but her excitement was now tinged with doubts.
It had been eight long months since they had seen each other and they had known each other only a little more than a year. During that absence, it had been Mary’s turn to advise against a relationship: “Fred would have to give up the work which had meant so much to him; in some ways the tenets of the Presbyterian church were as rigid as the Catholic church and it would destroy a preacher’s strong position to marry a divorced woman. What would Fred’s future be? Could she give up her career? Many professional women had made these promises while in love, but if a career is in their blood, they rarely settled down for long.”
This time their heart-to-heart discussions brought Mary and Frances “even closer” and in a temporary burst of puritanical resolve, they both decided “we must renounce our loves.” Mary’s determination evaporated the next time she saw Doug, but Frances now “bitterly regretted my two marital indiscretions.” She also harbored the concern that her success might intimidate Fred.38
After a joyous reunion, she confronted Fred with all her fears, but he was adamant. Yes, he had loved preaching and had thought that was what he wanted to do with the rest of his life. Yet now, particularly after the war, he saw other ways to use his talent and experience. He could teach college or write a book on athletic training. Somehow, he could combine his skill in athletics with his desire to educate. She shouldn’t worry about him. He was the lucky one. Before and after his brief marriage he’d had beautiful women fawn over him, but Frances was an equal, both intellectually and in terms of accomplishments, and unlike any other woman he had ever known.
Frances would joke that she married Fred because “she couldn’t get him any other way,” but he had showed her a strength of character and a refusal to be cajoled by her that she had never confronted before. They both felt the excitement and potential of being two strong people together.39
She knew how important it was to Fred to be married in a church and she found one that would not only marry them, but meet their esthetic and ethical requirements as well. The Romanesque Judson Memorial Church at Washington Square, designed by Stanford White, had been founded by Edward Judson to do “aggressive missionary work” in Greenwich Village, providing a gymnasium, a library, and a children’s home in a “crazy quilt” neighborhood.40
She had thought it was ludicrous when Lois Weber took several years off her age when signing that first movie contract, but now Frances officially lopped two years from her birth date on the marriage license. She wrote in November 18, 1890, making herself six months younger than Fred instead of the year and half older that she really was.
Frances kept the telegraph wires busy, cabling family and friends, “I wish so much that you might be present at this moment of my greatest happiness,” and Mary and Charlotte Pickford arrived on the morning of November 2 to be witnesses. After a celebratory supper, Fred and Frances went back to the Algonquin, where he was decidedly uncomfortable. Not only was he too likely to be called Mr. Marion, he found the rooms small and the pretentiousness of the guests overwhelming. Yet there was no need to argue over where they would stay because there wasn’t time for it. They planned a European honeymoon, but first Frances had to return to Los Angeles to supervise the final titles for Pollyanna and Fred was anxious to see his family and have them meet his new wife.41
Chapter 9
Clara Thomson had been hearing about Frances since shortly after Fred met her, but she had not let herself believe it was anything serious. Fred had written, very matter-of-factly, about his pride in Frances’s work during the war and Clara knew they had spoken of marriage, but it wasn’t until February 12, 1919, that she realized the truth in the black and white of newsprint.1
On page one, the Los Angeles Herald ran a large studio publicity picture of Frances with an inset of Fred in uniform. The headline read “Engaged, not Wed to Fred Thomson, says Scenario Star.” Datelined New York, the article was in response
