Francis X. Bushman – King of the Movies revealed in new book

November 6, 8:55 AMSF Silent Movie ExaminerThomas Gladysz

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Just out from BearManor: "KIng of the Movies: Francis X. Bushman" by Lon and Debra Davis

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By Thomas Gladysz
SF Silent Film Examiner

Until recently, I had never known much about Francis X. Bushman. Of course, I knew that he was an early film star and that he had appeared most famously as Messala in the 1925 silent film version of Ben-Hur. It’s a film still shown on television and in theaters. In 1996, I saw Ben-Hur on the big screen when the San Francisco Silent Film Festival screened it at the Castro.

The other thing I knew about Bushman was that he was my Grandmother’s favorite actor. That’s according to my now 86 year old Mother. Why Bushman and not some other leading man of the silent era, I can’t say. However, a superb new biography by Lon and Debra Davis, King of the Movies: Francis X. Bushman (BearManor), goes a long way in explaining the broad appeal of this important film actor.

It’s been said that Francis X. Bushman had a life like no other. That’s true. Famous the world over, Bushman was the screen's first great movie idol - and along with frequent co-star Beverly Bayne, one of screen’s first romantic couples.

At the height of his popularity, women across America declared their love for the handsome and athletic actor. Some even swooned. Thousands of fan letters poured in – some with marriage proposals. Bushman’s popularity was so great crowds gathered wherever he went. Bushman was advertised as “The Handsomest Man in the World.” And at one point, he was crowned “King of the Movies.”

Before getting into the movies, the Baltimore-born Bushman had been a bodybuilder and an artist's model. He posed, sometimes nude, for such noted artists as Daniel Chester French and Howard Chandler Christy. Bushman was fond of saying that he was “in marble or bronze in more cities in the United States than any man in history.”

His vigorous good looks and modeling led to the stage, and before long, to small parts with travelling stock companies and then Broadway. And then the still nascent movie industry.

In the course of his colorful life, Bushman was also a husband (four times) and a father (six times), as well as a well known dog breeder (he had an obsession with Great Danes), a song writer, a vaudeville headliner, a popular radio announcer, and later a television personality, and a senior citizens' advocate. As the authors amply detail, Bushman lived an exaggerated life, both as a free-spending multi-millionaire movie star and as a bankrupt has-been. Few stars, perhaps, experienced so many ups and downs. Through it all, his career endured half-a century.

Bushman appeared in nearly 200 films - including more than 175 before 1920. During the peak of his career, he worked for Essanay as well as Vitagraph and Metro. Unfortunately, the majority of Bushman’s films are considered lost.

According to the authors, Bushman’s best films made at the peak of his popularity were Dear Old Girl (Essanay, 1913), Graustark (Essanay, 1915), Pennington’s Choice (Metro, 1915), and Romeo and Juliet (Metro, 1916). By the late Teens, Bushman’s career had started to fade - until a glorious though momentary revival engendered by the release of Ben-Hur (1925).

King of the Movies: Francis X. Bushman is much more than just a factual account of an actor’s career. In the book, the authors explore some of the scandals and controversies which plagued the actor.

Early in his career, for example, Bushman was not allowed to reveal that fact that he was married. The studios wanted to maintain an illusion of romantic availability. When word got out that Bushman was secretly married and had a family and was getting divorced, the actor’s popularity plummeted and Bushman was out of pictures for nearly four years.

The authors also put forth Bushman’s claim that the reason his career stalled after Ben-Hur was not the emergance of other stars or the coming of sound, but because of a blacklist initiated by Louis B. Mayer. The exact reason for the blacklist is unclear – though it had something to do with monetary demands, “sundry allegations,” and personal politics compounded by various misunderstandings. At the time, Bushman was not the only star pushed to the sidelines.

In later years, Bushman appeared on numerous television shows like Perry Mason and Dr. Kildare. In 1966, the ageing actor even guest-starred on a two-part episode of Batman. Ironically, Bushman's role - as a wealthy collector of silent pictures and promoter of a silent film festival - was his last appearance on camera.

King of the Movies: Francis X. Bushman tells the actor’s story with a great deal of verve and finesse. It reveals an individual of tremendous appetite and drive, a film pioneer who helped create an industry and who never stopped working. King of the Movies: Francis X. Bushman is a great biography, and is highly recommended. It reveals the glamour and the warts behind a true screen legend.

Davis’ book is also one of the most engaging and readable film biographies published this year. The book comes with a generous selection of photos, a chronology and filmography, as well as a list of surviving films. San Francisco, local readers will be interested to know, plays a small part in Bushman's story. The actor was married in the City by the Bay after his Mexican marriage was called into question.

Thirty years in the works, the author’s own account of writing King of the Movies: Francis X. Bushman is in its own right quite interesting. The book’s history is outlined in an interview on the FilmThreat website.

More info: For more on this excellent new book, visit the BearManor Media page on this title. King of the Movies: Francis X. Bushman is available on-line and at better book stores.