Marion Davies fame today is partly due to the hoopla concerning herself and the fictional character of Susan Alexander Kane from Orson Welles's classic Citizen Kane. That's how I came to know who she was and after viewing some of her silent movie clips on The Battle over Citizen Kane I really wanted to see the silent comedies she was in. She was a naturally funny, free spirited and really kind person in life. She excelled at doing impersonations of dramatic silent sirens, and accents. Her impersonations in The Patsy are so funny, in this she lets us laugh at the waif Lillian Gish image for once. She also got quite good reception in her flashy costume dramas in the 1910's and her most popular film from of her time was Marianne, her first talkie (she also starred and produced the silent version), a drama, romance and musical. Today many regard her as the first screwball female comedian, so like the first Carole Lombard, they do have the same goofiness and they were both naturally that way.
Marion Davies wasn't Mrs Kane II; they just had some things in common like they both had blonde hair, drank and were romantically linked to wealthy newspaper men who sought to rule their careers. Hearst helped Marion's career grow and Kane controlled Susan's from the beginning, Susan was his puppet. Because Charles Foster Kane resonated with William Randolph Hearst in many ways it was assumed that Susan Alexander was a portrayal of Davies, who was Hearst's partner for over 30 years. Some clear separations between the two: Susan = "singer", she left Kane, Marion = talented comic and stayed with Hearst until his death in 1951, they were actually in love.
These wonderful shots are from The Stars have lost their Glitter on tumblr.
*Top Marion Davies photos found on AliceJapan on flickr
4 comments:
I've seen "Going Hollywood" on TCM a couple of times in the last few years. I love it's theme song!
I just found your blog via 'Hollywood Dreamland' and can't wait to do some poking around!
The sad fact is that everyone thinks Marion Davies was the inspiration for Susan Alexander Kane, but she was not. Charles Foster Kane's efforts to turn Susan into an operatic star were instead inspired by Sameul Insull's effort to turn his wife Gladys into an opera star. Her catastrophic debut as in The School for Scandal in 1925 reflected Susan's catastrophic opera debut!
oh thanks for the info, I think Citizen Kane is thought to much as the story of Hearst and from what I have heard about Hearst he really didnt have the personality of Kane.
Hi Felix,
thanks for coming around, cool and I'll look out for Going Hollywood on TCM thank ya very much.
Love that bottom photo of Marion...her winsomeness there so reminds me of a young Goldie Hawn.
Davies was also one of the most popular people in the industry, and not merely because of her ties to Hearst. She was known for her self-deprecating humor and generosity to others.
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