FRANCIS X. BUSHMAN IS ALL OVER BALTIMORE

One of the things I love is history, and I love finding trivia about my hometown of Baltimore (Maryland, that is, and not Baltimore, Ireland or Baltimore, Ohio). You know the town I’m talking about…it’s the one where the Mayor made national headlines when he jumped into the harbor as a publicity stunt…the town that has one of the highest murder rates in the USA, and spawned two TV-series that reflect that fact from ex-Sun Paper reporter David Simon, Homicide: Life On The Street and The Wire, respectively…it’s where Jada Pinkett-Smith went to high school… where John Waters makes all of his pictures and Barry Levinson makes only some of his pictures…

Yeah. That Baltimore…

A few years ago I got curious about a statue that is across the street from the Baltimore Museum of Art, so I did a little digging and discovered that the man who posed for the figures was once a Hollywood movie star.

Turns out that man was one of the stars of the 1926 BEN-HUR, Francis X. Bushman. Not only that, he was born in Baltimore, too. Bushman, who first acted in motion pictures in 1911 and became the first major male dramatic star of cinema’s early days, was born January 10^th, 1883 and he lived in northwest Baltimore on Argyle Street.

Best remembered as Messala opposite Ramon Navarro’s Juda Ben-Hur, Bushman, at the height of his fame, returned to Maryland and lived on a nearly three hundred acre estate he called Bushmanor in the Greenspring Valley area. At the time, it was reported that he was earning almost a million dollars a year. (Not bad for 1920’s money!) Considered a heart-throb for millions of female fans, his fortunes changed when it was revealed that he had a secret marriage, and his leading man status was never recovered. He would soon be eclipsed by stars like Rudolph Valentino and his BEN-HUR co-star, Ramon Navarro.

When visiting Baltimore, you can see three of the surviving public statues that Bushman posed for early in his career, before becoming a star. In 1911, the French sculptor Mercie discovered the handsome and muscular Bushman at the Maryland Institute College of Art and asked him to pose for the statue of another famous Marylander, Francis Scott Key. The statue of the composer of the national anthem, The Star Spangled Banner, was erected on Eutaw Place. Other statues modeled on Bushman’s face and physique followed: the sculpture of Lord Baltimore (at the Court House on Saint Paul Street), Glory Victus (Mount Royal Avenue), and the Confederate Soldiers and Sailors Monument (Charles Street and Wyman Drive, across from the Baltimore Museum of Art, the statue that started my casual inquiry of who, what, and where).

Bushman enjoyed a long career in show business. He played in radio soap operas, had supporting character parts as he grew older (SABRINA, with Humphrey Bogart, in1952), even some second-rate pictures (THE PHANTOM PLANET, 1961) and many television shows. Among others, he appears in two episodes of the Batman series starring Adam West in the 1960’s playing Mr. Van Jones, who wants to pay The Riddler to capture Batman and Robin so they’ll star in a silent film he wants to make.

Francis X. Bushman, once considered the “handsomest man in the world” by his adoring female fans, died in 1968 at the age of 83 in California. He is buried in Forest Lawn Cemetery.

BRIEF FILMOGRAPHY: Romeo and Juliet (1916), The Marriage Circle (1924), Dangerous Traffic (1926), Ben-Hur (1926), Dick Tracy (1937), Love Crazy (1941), Wilson (1944), The Bad and the Beautiful (1952), Sabrina (1954), The Phantom Planet (1961).

 

 

PENNY MARSHALL BUYS A PRESENT

Spring has sprung, and that means that the horror film convention season has begun. From Fangoria Magazine’s Weekend of Horrors in Los Angeles and Comic Con in San Diego in July, to the Cinema Wasteland Convention in Ohio, to the mother of ‘em all, Chiller Theatre Expo in New Jersey, monster fans all across the US, of all ages, tastes and stripes, pull out their spring and summer wardrobe (mostly black teeshirts, similar to the ones they wear in fall and winter) and hit the con circuit to meet their fave celebs, do a little memorabilia shopping, but mostly hang with kindred spirits who love films of the fantastic.

The Chiller Theatre Expo is New Jersey is the baby of the great Kevin Clement. Certainly the largest fan event on the east coast in the United States, Chiller happens a couple of times a year, drawing thousands from across the country. The big show is in October, around Halloween, and the diverse guests that Clement manages to get for his show keeps happy film fans coming back again and again.

This is one of my favorite little Chiller moments–one of many.A couple of springtimes ago we had a table promoting our films DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE and CHAINSAW SALLY. We were stuck in the “Outer Limits” tent, meaning the third tent erected in the parking lot, the one almost no-one got to because it ate up the parking, fans had already spent hours in line to get in, then more hours waiting to get into the main celebrity tent, and by the time they got to our tent, they were either too tired, too broke, or too out of time and pissed off and didn’t set foot inside. The fire marshals were patroling in packs, watching all with eagle-eyes. After all that, many fans never made it into the third tent. So there was a lot of down time…

Our table was in the center of the tent, surrounded by TV horror host Zacherley and actor Kevin McCarthy (INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS) near the entrance at the north side, Conrad Brooks (PLAN NINE FROM OUTER SPACE) watching the the east flank, filmmaker Ted Bohus and HorrorBiz magazine on the west, and Penny Marshall and Cindy Williams in the back, down south.

During one of the many lulls in the action, Penny Marshall shuffled around checking everybody out. It was clear that she wasn’t too thrilled. I was alone at the table, as everyone else had gone to get some late lunch. Marshall locked eyes with me, and snapping gum in time with her slow steps, sauntered over.

We smiled at each other. I broke the ice.

“How’s business?”

She shrugged and chewed her gum. She looked at the DVD of DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE on the table. She picked it up. Her eyes rolled up to the poster behind me and back to the DVD.

“You make this?”

“Yes,” I said, extending my hand. “Mark Redfield. You can have it. My gift to you.” A fan appeared, and was hovering just over Marshall’s shoulder.

Just as she was about to reply, the fan snapped a picture. She whirled on him. “Don’t do that! Don’t ever do that! That’s so rude. If you want a picture, just ask first.”

The fan mumbled something. Marshall looked at me, rolled her eyes as if to ask “whatya gonna do?”, and walked away with the DVD.

When April Burril and Jennifer Rouse got back to the table, I told them that Penny Marshall picked up a copy of JEKYLL. Great they said, maybe she’ll hire you in one of her pictures. Jennifer was upset to find out I gave the DVD away…

A moment later, Marshall shuffled back to the table. April and Jennifer perked up a little.

Marshall sidled up to me and asked, “So–where’s all the porn shit?”

Time froze for a split second. Nobody had an answer. Before any of us could even think of where to direct her (helpful as we are), Marshall said, between gum snaps, “I going to a friends birthday party tonight. Just wanted something goofy. Think he’ll like this?” She held up the DVD of JEKYLL.

“Yeah. I think he’ll love it,” I said, not having a clue as to who this friend was, nor what his interests and tastes were. In hindsight, if she was looking for a goofy porn gift, my version of DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE was certain to disappoint.

 

Penny Marshall just nodded  and kept bobbing to the music playing in her head, and walked back to her table and Cindy Williams.We all looked at each other and laughed. I stepped outside the tent for a breath of fresh air.

Ten feet away was Dean Stockwell. He was smoking a cigar by the propane tanks used to fuel the heaters for the tents.

I went back inside.