Douglas Fairbanks Jnr

Douglas Fairbanks Jnr0:00

Hello, I'm Kirstie Young, and this is a podcast from the Desert Island Disc's Archive. For rights' reasons we've had to shorten the music. The programme was originally broadcast in nineteen seventy six, and the presenter was Roy Plumley.

Presenter0:31

Our castaway this week is best known as a star of films and the theatre, but he's a man of many talents. It's Douglas Fairbanks, junior. mister Fairbanks, you've travelled a great deal. Where would you like your desert island to be?

Presenter0:44

I should say somewhere near Fiji in the South Seas. We'll see what we're seeing.

Douglas Fairbanks Jnr0:48

To sit.

Presenter0:49

Could you adjust yourself to extended loneliness?

Presenter0:53

I think I could, yes. I like people. I'm very gregarious, but I am quite self-sufficient on my own. Is music important in your life?

Douglas Fairbanks Jnr1:02

Is mute.

Presenter1:04

I wouldn't say absolutely important, but it's one of the happy luxuries of life. I'm awfully glad it was invented and it's there. It's awfully good for the soul.

Presenter1:12

What was your plan in choosing records? Are you are are you looking back?

Presenter1:16

No, I'm thinking of of things which would suit almost any m mood and uh the melodic uh content was such as to keep my spirits up in case I was depressed or if I was being too elated might sober me up a bit. What's the first one on the list?

Douglas Fairbanks Jnr1:30

What's the first

Presenter1:33

Well, the first one on the list here is uh well I had a I I I love of the popular composers among the many that I do like, L Lerner and Lowe, um Fritz Lowe and and Alan J. Lerner.

Presenter1:45

And of course I had a hard time choosing between many of them.

Presenter1:49

compositions, My Fair Lady, which I played in myself at one time, but um Camelot has a lovely sort of

Presenter1:57

A fairy tale lilt and a lovely appeal to the imagination. We're having the title number, aren't we? Camelot, yes. Yes, and who's to sing it?

Presenter2:05

Richard Burton is the one I heard sing it for the first time, so I chose him.

Speaker 32:10

A law was made a distant morning ago here July and August cannot be too hot

Presenter2:15

Uh

Speaker 22:15

Uh

Douglas Fairbanks Jnr2:15

M

Speaker 32:19

And there's a legal limit to the snow here.

Speaker 32:23

It come a lot f

Speaker 32:27

The winter is forbidden till December And exits March 2nd on the dot By order summer lingers September In Camelot

Presenter2:42

The voice of Richard Burton. What's your second disc?

Presenter2:45

Again, a popular composer, Gershwin, probably the most knowledgeable from the point of view of the Schir

Presenter2:52

musical studies and and and talent, George Gershwin. Did you know him? Yes, I did. Of course they have a popular modern composer

Presenter3:02

uh write an opera

Presenter3:04

In the sense being popular music in operatic form was quite an accomplishment when he wrote Porgy and Bess. I thought it was a a marvelous thing.

Speaker 33:21

Yes, yeah.

Speaker 33:26

This sort of thing. Uh

Speaker 33:53

Maybe don't you

Speaker 34:03

Summer times

Presenter4:04

Sung by June McMackan.

Presenter4:06

mister Fairbanks, your father was one of the three great American stars of the silent screen.

Presenter4:12

Now, because of the divorce of your parents, you didn't see much of him when you were a boy, did you? No, I didn't. I I uh I would see him from time to time, but not not really uh as much as I would have otherwise, obviously. You grew up in New York and Los Angeles and Paris. What did you want to do? London. And London. What did you want to be as a youngster?

Speaker 34:26

In London.

Presenter4:30

Um fireman, I suppose. I loved riding on red wagons making a lot of noise and When you were about fourteen you were put to the cinema as it were. You you were given a a film contract on your father's name. How did you feel about the proposition?

Douglas Fairbanks Jnr4:41

You would

Douglas Fairbanks Jnr4:43

Thirteen I was actually.

Presenter4:47

Well, at 13 I didn't feel much one way or the other. I thought it was a great luck. I was aware that I was doing it because I had to, and my mother's family had fallen on what is known as evil days. And this was an opportunity of helping out. But it was very short-lived. I was sacked within six weeks of the job, went back to studies here and in Paris, and then got another job back in California, but a much more modest salary and jobs. And I was then taking any job that came along, either very small parts, bits, and I was sometimes assistant property man. And at 15, I was assistant cameraman as well as playing parts in films and going to drama school and studying in between. A wonderful way to learn a job. Yes. In the 1930s, both you and your father decided to come and make pictures in this country. You both went to work for Alexander Cora. Why did you decide to cross the Atlantic? Well, the circumstances were quite different. I came here first at the age of five months old because my mother and father had a house here before I was born.

Douglas Fairbanks Jnr5:33

Yeah.

Speaker 25:33

Love the job.

Presenter5:52

And my mother's family had been having a second home here since the early part of the 19th century, and several generations past. So there'd always been a sort of dual life in my family on both sides. So that was, I just happened to grow up on both sides. I'd been schooled here and in France, and I'd studied in both countries and in the States. I came over here originally because in my early 20s I wanted to be my own boss and have my own company if I possibly could.

Presenter6:26

and I was unable to get together the finance or the organization in my own country. So I came back to my other home in the UK.

Presenter6:36

Where that did become a land of opportunity and I was able to start. My father came over more or less on a trip, just for the fun. He was always travelling and he loved to travel, and he saw Corda's a first run, before it was publicly shown, of the private life of Henry VIII with Charles Lawton. And he was so impressed with that that

Presenter6:58

He thought what a wonderful idea to bring Corda into United Artists and to expand United Artists. So he didn't really work for Corda. Corda worked for him in one sense. And then they collaborated together at a time when my father was deciding really to retire himself and not do any more.

Douglas Fairbanks Jnr7:07

Yeah.

Presenter7:15

As an actor, apart from your production activities, you've made about 70 films, of which about 40 have been starring vehicles for you. Which do you look back on as the best? Which do you like to remember? As you say, I made over 70, probably near 80 films all in all. And there'd be about five or six that I like for different reasons. One, because I would have written a great deal of it and enjoyed the writing and the producing as well as the acting, and others because... Well, I mean, take Prisoner of Zender, for example. It was not the star part, but it was a classic part. In fact, my father said that the part of Rupert of Hensaw was even Lassie the Dog could play the part and walk away with a story. He was more or less right. So I do look back on that as one of the favorites, because it was such a marvelous part in a very fine film, even though I didn't produce it and wasn't technically the star. A less constructive question. Out of the whole lot, which was the worst? Which was the one real stinker that comes to mind?

Speaker 37:55

Yeah.

Speaker 37:58

Uh

Speaker 28:10

You have

Douglas Fairbanks Jnr8:10

Wow.

Presenter8:15

Well, among those that I starred in

Presenter8:17

I would say um thing called Green Hill that Joan Bennett and I made, which was voted by the students of Harvard University as being the worst film of that year, and I dare say it was the worst film of the ten years previously, and is now enjoying popularity during this

Douglas Fairbanks Jnr8:29

His

Speaker 38:29

Sleep.

Presenter8:33

mood of of nostalgia in the world. It keeps on being reissued on television in the States, much to my embarrassment. And there's a whole new generation that thinks it's wonderful. It's a confusing business. Let's have record number three.

Douglas Fairbanks Jnr8:42

It's a confusing business, obviously.

Presenter8:46

One of the

Presenter8:48

Records which I would like very much to bring with me is one I had

Presenter8:54

A personal interest in because I presented it and worked on it. It was my idea. In fact, I was going to do it myself, which is.

Presenter9:00

The recording of the Old Testament.

Presenter9:03

And I mentioned the fact that I was going to do it to my friend Lawrence Olivia, who we've both been friends since our late teens or early twenties.

Presenter9:13

and ventured to say, Of course, you'd be much better in it than I would and Larry said, Yes, of course I would and so I said, Well, then why don't you do it instead of me? And he said, Well, why don't you ask me? And I said, All right, I'm asking you and he said, All right, I'll do it And so that's how it was done. And he did do a most magnificent job.

Presenter9:31

Now.

Presenter9:32

The serpent

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was more subtle.

Presenter9:36

and any beast of the field which the LORD God had made.

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And he said unto the woman,

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Yea, have God said

Presenter9:46

Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden.

Presenter9:50

The woman said unto the serpent,

Presenter9:52

We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden, but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said,

Presenter9:58

Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.

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And the servant said unto the woman,

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Yeech Helm.

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Not

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Surely die.

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For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof then your eyes shall be opened.

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Ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.

Presenter10:19

And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eye,

Presenter10:25

Lawrence Olivier.

Presenter10:27

At the outbreak of war you showed your feelings toward this country by making pleas for the United States to intervene on the side of the Allies.

Douglas Fairbanks Jnr10:34

Yeah.

Presenter10:35

This couldn't have been a a very popular thing to do at that time, especially in the Middle West, but you did stump the country.

Presenter10:42

Yes, yes I did. Did you run into a lot of trouble?

Presenter10:46

Oh, quite a good deal. An awful lot of people didn't particularly sympathize with with um the Nazis or anything, but they just felt it was another

Presenter10:54

a war in which they were not involved. Oh yes, I was threatened violence and kidnapping and bombing and I was attacked by very responsible editors in the papers. Some of my films were withdrawn and so forth.

Presenter11:10

You then began the the diplomatic side of your career, beginning by going as a presidential envoy to Latin America. And through the years you've been a sort of unofficial ambassador to this country.

Douglas Fairbanks Jnr11:17

Yeah.

Presenter11:21

Well, you're very nice to put it that way. In actual fact, my

Presenter11:25

Governmental connections began back in about 1937, but it was all very quiet and and no publicity was given to it and no reason why it should. And uh that was probably some of my usefulness is that uh very few people knew about it. It was very useful and splendid work which has earned you

Douglas Fairbanks Jnr11:43

Yeah.

Presenter11:45

Many decorations, including an honorary KBE. Now, after a most distinguished wartime career in the United States Navy, ending up as a captain,

Presenter11:55

Before the war you had produced a number of feature films. In the 50s you began to produce television films in this country in a big way.

Douglas Fairbanks Jnr12:01

Big way

Presenter12:03

How many did you make?

Presenter12:04

I made the just about a hundred and sixty altogether.

Presenter12:09

over a period of about four or five years and something like a lot of hard work.

Douglas Fairbanks Jnr12:12

A lot of art

Presenter12:13

Yes, such a lot of hard work that even at the end of the of the fourth or fifth year, the the the company that was providing most of our finance and distribution offered to double and triple my budget if I'd continue.

Presenter12:26

But as my um story editor had had a heart attack, my studio manager had had a nervous breakdown, I thought I was going to be next and I didn't um I didn't think there was much sense in going on and seeing what I would come down with. The first year or two was great fun.

Douglas Fairbanks Jnr12:32

But I was going to

Presenter12:42

Then after that it became a chore. Let's move on to record number four. Watch that. Record number four.

Douglas Fairbanks Jnr12:45

Yeah.

Presenter12:49

Oh yes, well I've always been impressed with Barbara Streisand's phrasing and the technical side of popular singing.

Presenter12:58

And um I thought that her song People was a very good example of that and it's a very nice song as well to listen to, so I chose that.

Speaker 213:10

First be a person who needs people

Speaker 213:17

People who need people

Speaker 213:26

Yes, keep on

Presenter13:37

Barbara Streiser.

Presenter13:39

Now, it's thanks to you that we're able to have an occasional season of your father's films in London. You've managed to buy the rights to a number of them. No, I didn't buy them. The family inherited them. All of us, all my cousins and all of us. He left them for safekeeping in the Museum of Modern Art in New York. But the rights remained in the estate and were divided among all the family. So we just control them. I didn't have to buy them. I'm trying to buy back my own because I sold the rights to my own before I thought there was any further use for them or any value to them. Now I can't get them back.

Presenter14:15

Now there's something of a of a literary boom on the Fairbanks family at the moment. There's a new biography of your father, um Douglas Fairbanks the first celebrity, and a great big scrap book, uh uh a picture book about you and him. You've opened the family album.

Speaker 214:28

But

Presenter14:31

Yes, yes.

Presenter14:33

I supplied the editors with something like a little over 10,000 snapshots, photographs, things collected from all over. And Richard Schickel, who wrote the narrative and the text for the book, they spent the better part of two years sifting out and concentrating on getting 350 pictures out of 10,000. I decided not to look at it until it was published because I didn't want to influence them.

Presenter14:59

Your stage career has been rather sketchy. You've played from time to time in the States. You've never played in New York, have you? Never played in New York, no? Well, I think I had very good reason, basically fear. But also a certain amount of practical good sense is that in New York, you either close in one or two nights with a flop, or you're stuck with it for a whole year. And it's very difficult to make an arrangement for a limited run. But I was able to make an arrangement here in London, so I'm going to do a play here, but for eight weeks only in July and August, and it'll be the first time since before the war. Since 1935, when you played with Gertrude Lawrence in Moonlight is Silver. Yes. And we're going to see you in The Pleasure of His Company.

Douglas Fairbanks Jnr15:40

Yeah.

Presenter15:43

Yes. Splendid. I think 41 years is too long. It must come back sooner than that next time. Well, an interesting sidelight of that is that I was having lunch one day on a stop-by-table, and Alec Guinness was there, and he remembered all about this play with Gertrude Lawrence. And I said, how did you remember all the details of that? It was by Clements Day and where. He said, because I applied for the job of your understudy and you and Binky Beaumont turned me down. And I thought there's a turn of the wheel. Let's have another record from your desert island choice.

Douglas Fairbanks Jnr16:09

Yeah.

Presenter16:14

Ah, well now I'm inclined again to a friend of mine, I'm very proud to say, although another generation, but I think one of the greatest artists of our time, Arthur Rubinstein.

Presenter16:26

Who you may know has just been awarded the

Presenter16:31

highest decoration that the United States can give for his um work as an artist. His um interpretation of Chopin's um fantasie impromptu would be uh an a nice thing to have if I'm if I'm limited to one.

Presenter17:50

Arthur Rubenstein playing Chopin's Frontesie impromptu. Now let's go straight into record number six we've got to. What's that to be? Uh well, this is another old friend of mine.

Presenter18:01

Bing Crosby. I was the one who advised him against ever going into films or ever leaving the Paul Whiteman Orchestra, where I said he had a very good reputation as being part of a trio called the Rhythm Boys. And obviously, he would never get any further than that. And if he left, Whiteman would never have him back. He was very good at the same time. And he better stick to a good job, you know, not take any risks. We remained friends in spite of that. So I really like almost everything that Bing sings. But the thing that came to mind now would be My Blue Heaven.

Douglas Fairbanks Jnr18:17

And better stick to a good job.

Speaker 318:33

When Whipplewills call Then evening is night

Speaker 318:41

I hurried him up.

Speaker 318:46

A turn to the right and a little wide light.

Speaker 318:57

It's gonna lead you to my blue

Speaker 319:02

Heaven

Presenter19:05

Bing Crosby. Now, obviously, Mr. Fairbanks, you're a very resourceful man. I don't think you would have.

Presenter19:10

Many survival problems. Would you want to hon on a desert island? I've had so many experiences in my life of surviving here and there in the other place. I I suppose uh I I would find a way somehow would you try to escape?

Presenter19:23

Um

Presenter19:24

Well, it would depend if I knew how how close uh the mainland or the next place was. But if I knew there was another island just a few miles away, I I might um

Presenter19:35

I might risk that, yes. Right.

Presenter19:37

Suitable caution. Well, I told you I had a Scottish grandmother. Let's have your next disc. What's that?

Presenter19:45

Well, just as a change of um

Presenter19:48

mood and and gives it a little variety. I thought the Beatles, Strawberry Fields Forever, the most enchanting song and I thought that might be a good one.

Presenter20:06

Let me take you down, cause I'm going to the strawberry field.

Presenter20:17

Nothing is real.

Presenter20:21

Nothing to get hung about.

Presenter20:24

Strawberry Fields Forever

Presenter20:28

Strawberry Fields Forever.

Presenter20:30

Which brings us to your last disk.

Presenter20:33

Well, my lastess again goes back to somebody I knew and admired greatly, Cole Porter, who, like Gershwin, was a very serious student of music, but preferred to write in in the um in the popular form, although his knowledge of music was very profound and and and uh

Presenter20:50

And um wide.

Presenter20:52

And of all of his songs, I've chosen Night and Day because it's such a marvelous rhythm, wonderful composition idea. The lyrics are superb, and the cold port are at his best. Also, it's an amusing background to this. He was, as a matter of fact, a guest on somebody's boat going down the Rhine River on a summer's day, and they'd had a very big night the night before, and he was feeling rather ill the next morning and not well at all, terrible headache.

Presenter21:26

So he detached himself from the rest of the

Presenter21:28

uh guests on this boat.

Presenter21:30

and lay up on the deck in the sun, hoping to relax.

Presenter21:35

and was enjoying that, except the throbbing of the engine was getting at his headache and his hangover very badly and going rum, rum, rum, rum, rum. And he kept saying this going on night and day and day and night and blah blah blah. And so eventually just the sheer rhythm of the engines gave him the idea of this song. And so that is my...

Presenter21:58

Final Choice. It's done by Andrei Kostelanits, who is one of the few people who can take a popular song and with his large symphony orchestra make a popular song sound symphonic.

Douglas Fairbanks Jnr21:59

Done by

Presenter22:41

Night and Day by Andrei Kosta Lanitz and his orchestra. If you could take just one disc out of your eight, which would it be?

Presenter22:48

I think I'd take the um Rubinstein

Presenter22:51

Yeah.

Presenter22:53

I think it would be the most um

Presenter22:55

Fantasie impromptu. Fantasie imprintu, yes. And one luxury to take to the island with you? Well, under the circumstances, I suppose the greatest luxury would be a pencil and paper. Quite a lot of paper, I hope, not just a sheet. As much as you need. Oh, oh, good. Just to be able to write down my experiences, put them into a bottle and hope somebody would find it or whatever.

Douglas Fairbanks Jnr23:06

As you know?

Douglas Fairbanks Jnr23:13

Find it.

Presenter23:16

And one book apart from Bible, Shakespeare, and big encyclopedias.

Presenter23:22

Well, I suppose a copy of Robinson Crusoe to give me some hints as to what to do in case I couldn't think of anything more to do on the Desert Island. Robinson Crusoe, not a bad choice. And thank you, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., for letting us hear your Desert Island disc. Thank you. Goodbye, Rubin. Goodbye.

Speaker 323:30

Okay

Douglas Fairbanks Jnr23:47

You've been listening to a podcast from the Desert Island Discs Archive. For more podcasts, please visit bbc.co.uk/slash radio four.