The Famous Mr. Fairbanks

by Richard Schickel

Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford established the necessity of the star—no, the celebrity—as central not merely to their business, but to everyone’s business. And yet it was he—not his wife Mary, not his friend Chaplin, not any of the others—who cheerfully opened up his life, that rich good life, to the public, and invited them to enjoy it with him. And it was he who then revolted against their intrusions, he who acted out, in the end, the archetypical career drama of the star. It was he who demonstrated—it was by far his most fabulous stunt, the more so since he never foresaw its full effects—that anyone of talent, or merely will, could play this larger, juicier role in any public walk of life. He found the media there, waiting for him, like one of his sets, and he bounded daringly about in it—forgetting only to check his handholds, make sure there was an escape route, in the end perhaps dying because he could not find his way out. Fairbanks’ story is the Hollywood celebrity story, and in Schickel’s landmark work, first published in 1973 as His Picture in the Papers, he lays bare the influence and legacy, the trials and glories, of this quintessentially American phenomenon.

200 pages, Paperback

Published June 1, 2022

About the author

Richard Schickel is an important American film historian, journalist, author, filmmaker, screenwriter, documentarian, and film and literary critic.

Mr.Schickel is featured in For the Love of Movies: The Story of American Film Criticism. In this 2009 documentary film he discusses early film critics in the 1960s, and how he and other young critics, rejected the moralizing opposition of Bosley Crowther of The New York Times who had railed against violent movies such as Bonnie and Clyde.
In addition to film, Schickel has also critiqued and documented cartoons, particularly Peanuts.

Schickel was a recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1964. He has also lectured at Yale University and University of Southern California's School of Film and Television.

Reviews

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

I discovered this book at Book Soup.

When I started reading it, I had no idea it was originally published in 1973. And then republished in 2021 with an Introduction by Jeanine Basinger.

About half way through reading it, I was surprised that it was originally published over 50 years ago because the cult of the celebrity described in the book hasn’t changed much back then nor when “established” by Doug and Mary, the first “It” Hollywood couple of the early 1900s!

The sacrifices of the public vs private life, insecurities of the acting profession, temptations of vices like alcohol when in the limelight, all still appear in the trades, press, and social media posts today.

I hope Felix Farmer Press continues to publish these limited edition books on the history of Hollywood film.

[MH · Rating 3 out of 5]

In 1973, Schickel wrote a short biography of Douglas Fairbanks and used it to explore ideas of celebrity and stardom - it's thoughtful and sharply written, albeit with a few jarring moments (he calls Andy Warhol a "giftless freak") and a few deeply offensive ones (he calls the racism in Birth of a Nation "unconscious," which is pretty rich). But it's a bit dated, with the feel of that sort of 'New York intelligentsia' writing of the 70s (Norman Mailer gets praised a lot) and the outmoded idea that the highest level of fame is movie stardom. In this edition, the decision was made to edit the work for the 21st Century (Schickel's 'modern' dates and timelines were altered, and names were added - Trump, Schwarzenegger), and I'm not sure why. The academic editor could have put her thoughts into conversation with Schickel's work through footnotes, endnotes, or an epilogue - these interior changes and additions to a fifty year-old piece don't really work, and it makes reading it a jarring experience.