Felix In Hollywood

A Blog for the Smart Set

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Meanwhile, Back At Doug And Mary's Shop...

The 1922 edition of  Robin Hood was actually not titled "Robin Hood".  It's official title (as stated on the post card above) was "Douglas Fairbanks In Robin Hood".  Now I'm not one to accuse Fairbanks of having a tiny sense of self importance or anything, but ego really wasn't behind this title.  The budget for this little 'ol picture was enormous, and the sets (as you can see both above and below) were the largest in film history to date.  The castle tower was 90 feet tall and the scope of the constructed village was spread over 10 acres.

With such a vast and expensive undertaking, they were taking it slow to make sure and get it right.  That being the case, Doug's concern (knowing how Hollywood worked, even by 1922) was that some other production company would rush through the filming of the Robin Hood story and beat them to release, thus causing confusion in the event that there  were 2 'Robin Hoods' in theaters.  So just to be sure there was no confusion on who was making the 'quality' version:  "Douglas Fairbanks In Robin Hood".


His efforts were as rewarded.  It's a spectacular picture and it also has the distinction of being the first motion picture to be given, what we now know of as, a Hollywood Premiere.  The first picture shown in the gorgeous Grauman's Egyptian Theater:

2 comments:

The Cool Cookie said...

When my great grandparents wintered in Los Angeles in the 1920s, they were in a courtyard bungalow across the street from the Egyptian. Somewhere in my house I have about 30 picture post cards that Memmy had saved, including the one with the entrance to the theatre and her notation on the back. Is it still there?

Philip Mershon said...

The Egyptian still is, but no bungalow court anymore.