was much more emotional, and was easily upset by Rosemary’s lack of progress, her inabilities to use opportunities for self-development.” 13
—
T he “GALA PREMIERE of GLORIA SWANSON in her ALL-TALKING Sensation ‘The Trespasser’. . . A Joseph P. Kennedy presentation” was scheduled for Friday, November 1, 1929. Kennedy was proud enough of the film—and his role in it (minimal though it was)—to invite dozens of friends and former business associates to join him at the Rialto in Times Square for the opening.
Gloria Swanson was his mistress, but she was also his business property. The discovery that she had a decent speaking voice and could sing made her potentially more valuable than ever. No opportunity was overlooked in publicizing the arrival in New York of the “Voice that has Thrilled Two Continents!” Swanson sang on a nationwide radio hookup; her recording of “Love, Your Spell Is Everywhere” was widely distributed; sheet music covers, banners, posters, and newspaper ads ballyhooed her newfound talent, while reminding audiences of her past achievements: “Her talking and singing voice will amaze you! Her supreme dramatic acting will hold you spellbound—her clothes will delight you! Secure Your Tickets Now!” 14
The Trespasser
turned out to be an enormous box office attraction, and given its minimal cost, a huge moneymaker.
On Thursday, October 24, eight days before
The Trespasser
’s
American premiere, the stock market crashed. Prices steadied on Friday and Saturday, then plunged again on Monday and Tuesday. By the second week in November, the Dow Jones Industrial Average had fallen 40 percent from its high in September. Only a few escaped unscathed. Joseph P. Kennedy was one of them. “The crash in the market left me untouched,” he wrote the Boston attorney who was working on his father’s estate. “I was more fortunate this time than usual.” 15
Having learned from the inside how markets worked, he knew enough to resist the trading euphoria of the late 1920s. At base, a conservative man who disliked gambling, he had shifted gears, taken his profits, and months before the crash, refocused his attention on protecting rather than increasing his already considerable fortune. On leaving Hollywood, he had cashed in his options, pocketing millions of dollars. A portion of his Hollywood windfall was used to buy real estate in Bronxville and Hyannis Port; the rest was put into family trust funds and invested in blue chips and secure bonds.
—
T hough Kennedy had scored a big hit with
The Trespasser,
he had no desire to go back to Hollywood and reestablish himself as a studio head. His tenure as a “picture man,” more than three and a half years, had outlasted his previous stints as bank examiner, bank president, assistant general manager at Fore River, broker at Hayden, Stone, and private investor. It was time to move on to something new.
There was, however, one piece of unfinished business:
Queen Kelly
. On returning to Hollywood in November 1929, he gathered his troops to try once again to rescue the project and recoup at least some of the money he had lent Gloria Productions, the company he had organized for Swanson when they went into business together.
He and his advisers entertained dozens of ideas for reshooting or re-editing the picture. They considered hiring new directors and screenwriters, adding slapstick comedy, or, to take advantage of Swanson’s newly discovered singing voice, converting von Stroheim’s dark melodrama into a breezy operetta. They brought in Franz Lehár, the composer of
The Merry Widow,
to write a “
Queen Kelly
waltz.” But with each attempt at rescue they were struck anew by the unwelcome reality that what
Queen Kelly
needed was an entirely new script and new director, and that was going to take hundreds of thousands of dollars. After spending the Christmas holidays in New York with his family, Kennedy returned to Hollywood in February. It would
—
T he “GALA PREMIERE of GLORIA SWANSON in her ALL-TALKING Sensation ‘The Trespasser’. . . A Joseph P. Kennedy presentation” was scheduled for Friday, November 1, 1929. Kennedy was proud enough of the film—and his role in it (minimal though it was)—to invite dozens of friends and former business associates to join him at the Rialto in Times Square for the opening.
Gloria Swanson was his mistress, but she was also his business property. The discovery that she had a decent speaking voice and could sing made her potentially more valuable than ever. No opportunity was overlooked in publicizing the arrival in New York of the “Voice that has Thrilled Two Continents!” Swanson sang on a nationwide radio hookup; her recording of “Love, Your Spell Is Everywhere” was widely distributed; sheet music covers, banners, posters, and newspaper ads ballyhooed her newfound talent, while reminding audiences of her past achievements: “Her talking and singing voice will amaze you! Her supreme dramatic acting will hold you spellbound—her clothes will delight you! Secure Your Tickets Now!” 14
The Trespasser
turned out to be an enormous box office attraction, and given its minimal cost, a huge moneymaker.
On Thursday, October 24, eight days before
The Trespasser
’s
American premiere, the stock market crashed. Prices steadied on Friday and Saturday, then plunged again on Monday and Tuesday. By the second week in November, the Dow Jones Industrial Average had fallen 40 percent from its high in September. Only a few escaped unscathed. Joseph P. Kennedy was one of them. “The crash in the market left me untouched,” he wrote the Boston attorney who was working on his father’s estate. “I was more fortunate this time than usual.” 15
Having learned from the inside how markets worked, he knew enough to resist the trading euphoria of the late 1920s. At base, a conservative man who disliked gambling, he had shifted gears, taken his profits, and months before the crash, refocused his attention on protecting rather than increasing his already considerable fortune. On leaving Hollywood, he had cashed in his options, pocketing millions of dollars. A portion of his Hollywood windfall was used to buy real estate in Bronxville and Hyannis Port; the rest was put into family trust funds and invested in blue chips and secure bonds.
—
T hough Kennedy had scored a big hit with
The Trespasser,
he had no desire to go back to Hollywood and reestablish himself as a studio head. His tenure as a “picture man,” more than three and a half years, had outlasted his previous stints as bank examiner, bank president, assistant general manager at Fore River, broker at Hayden, Stone, and private investor. It was time to move on to something new.
There was, however, one piece of unfinished business:
Queen Kelly
. On returning to Hollywood in November 1929, he gathered his troops to try once again to rescue the project and recoup at least some of the money he had lent Gloria Productions, the company he had organized for Swanson when they went into business together.
He and his advisers entertained dozens of ideas for reshooting or re-editing the picture. They considered hiring new directors and screenwriters, adding slapstick comedy, or, to take advantage of Swanson’s newly discovered singing voice, converting von Stroheim’s dark melodrama into a breezy operetta. They brought in Franz Lehár, the composer of
The Merry Widow,
to write a “
Queen Kelly
waltz.” But with each attempt at rescue they were struck anew by the unwelcome reality that what
Queen Kelly
needed was an entirely new script and new director, and that was going to take hundreds of thousands of dollars. After spending the Christmas holidays in New York with his family, Kennedy returned to Hollywood in February. It would
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