Perhaps most remembered in the United States for her best-selling 1907 novel of exotic sensuality Three Weeks and her brainchild “It,” that enigmatic characteristic embodied in actress Clara Bow and dramatized in the silent motion picture It (1927), English-born journalist, novelist, screenwriter, and actress Elinor Glyn, born Elinor Sutherland, embarked on her American career in 1920 during her second visit to the United States. In October of 1907, at forty-two, Glyn, traveling as Elinor Glyn, the authoress of romantic fiction, boarded the Lusitania and set sail for New York on her first American tour in order to promote Three Weeks. According to her British biographer, Joan Hardwick, “the reception of Three Weeks in the States had renewed [Glyn’s] confidence and she decided to try her hand at dramatising it” (133). Before that version materialized, however, Glyn returned to England, but only after lengthening her stay with a journey by rail through the American West to California. Her 1907 tour of the United States and her introduction to American culture and way of life may very well have laid the fertile groundwork for her 1920 return and subsequent work as writer, director, producer, and actress in Hollywood.

Elinor Glyn (w/p/o) at her home in Pasadena. PCJY

Elinor Glyn (w/p/o) c. 1925. PC

Elinor Glyn (w/p/o) Beyond the Rocks (1922). PCJY

Elinor Glyn (w/p/o) Beyond the Rocks (1922). PCJY

Publicity photo Three Weeks (1924) with Alan Crosland, Elinor Glyn (w/p/o), Cedric Gibbons. PCJY

Slide How to Educate a Wife (1924) Elinor Glyn (w/p/o). PCJY

By the time Glyn arrived in Hollywood, California, in 1920, she had achieved popular success in her home country with a writing career that had begun in 1897 when she penned a series of illustrated letters about fashion and beauty for the magazine Scottish Life and, in 1899, when her first novel, The Visits of Elizabeth, was serialized in The World. In England before 1920, Glyn had published a dozen works, including a volume of short stories called The Contrast and a collection of essays titled Three Things. Her 1916 novel The Career of Katherine Bush was serialized in the US in William Randolph Hurst’s Cosmopolitan. In effect, Glyn had established her literary reputation before the First World War.

Glyn arrived in Hollywood in 1920, following a proposal by Miss June Mayo, a representative of Famous Players-Lasky Corporation (which became Paramount Pictures in 1935), who was then in Europe. At fifty-six, Glyn signed an initial contract with Jesse Lasky for £10,000 ($36,364 in 1920, approximately equivalent to $376,208 in 2007 US dollars) and the promise of release time for an annual trip to Europe. She set sail for the United States, and, once there, reintroduced herself as Madame Glyn. Not having claim to an aristocratic title like her sister Lady Duff Gordon, she preferred “Madame” over “Mrs.” Silk, satin, and animal skins bedecked her rooms at the Hollywood Hotel (Hardwick 219–27).

Cecil B. DeMille gave Elinor Glyn a part as an extra in The Affairs of Anatol (1921), but it was when Sam Wood directed her story in The Great Moment (1921) for Famous Players-Lasky that Glyn became established as a writer in Hollywood. This financially successful film starred Gloria Swanson, Alec B. Francis, and Milton Stills. In addition, the book version of her screenplay for The Great Moment was Glyn’s first completely American novel. Her succeeding screenwriting credits for Famous Players-Lasky include the adaptation of her novel Beyond the Rocks (1922), also directed by Sam Wood.

After her contract with Famous Players-Lasky expired in 1922, Samuel Goldwyn and Louis B. Mayer of the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studio offered Glyn a contract, stipulating that she write the screenplay for Three Weeks and have a major part in directing the film. In February 1923, Glyn moved into her new home, a five-room suite at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, and wrote a screenplay from her novel. Her directorial input was limited, but the 1924 film, directed by King Vidor, was a success. Man and Maid, released in 1925, soon followed. In his autobiography, Samuel Goldwyn describes Glyn “as the writer who knows how to get herself constantly before the popular mind” (248).

Glyn was given a cameo role in It (1927) and became part of the propaganda machine for the film, whose catchy title and general concept derived from Glyn’s story first serialized in Cosmopolitan in February and March 1927. The story begins with a definition worth repeating here: “‘IT’ is that quality possessed by some few persons which draws all others with its magnetic life force. With it you will win all men if you are a woman—and all women if you are a man” (44). Madame Glyn, by all accounts, herself possessed “It” while working and socializing in Hollywood in the 1920s.

Not only was she famous for the concept “It” and the film It, she was famous for her writing published in Photoplay. Outspoken about Hollywood and marked by a self-confidence that bordered on arrogance, Glyn established herself as an early film pioneer with a sense of purpose and a determined willfulness.

Elinor Glyn’s work in the UK will be thoroughly covered in Phase II of the project which includes Europe.

Selected Bibliography

Barnett, Vincent L. “The Novelist as Hollywood Star: Author Royalties and Studio Income in the 1920s.” Film History: An International Journal vol. 20. no. 3. (2008): 281-293.

------. “Picturization Partners: Elinor Glyn and the Thalberg Contract Affair.” Film History: An International Journal vol. 19 no. 3 (2007): 319-329.

Glyn, Anthony. Elinor Glyn: A Biography. London: Hutchinson, 1955.

Glyn, Elinor. Beyond the Rocks; A Love Story. London: Duckworth, 1906.

------. The Great Moment. Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott Co., 1923.

------. “It.” Cosmopolitan. (Feb. and Mar., 1927).

------. Man and Maid. Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott Co., 1922.

------. Romantic Adventure; Being the Autobiography of Elinor Glyn. London: Ivor Nicholson and Watson, Ltd., 1936.

------. The Visits of Elizabeth. New York: J. Lane, 1901.

------. Three Weeks. 1907. New York: Duckworth, 1974.

Glyn, Elinor. “What I Find Wrong with Hollywood.” Photoplay.

Goldwyn, Samuel. Behind the Screen. New York: Doran Company, 1923.

Hardwick, Joan. Addicted to Romance: The Life and Adventures of Elinor Glyn. London: André Deutsch Limited, 1994.

Kuhn, Annette: “The trouble with Elinor Glyn: Hollywood, “Three Weeks,” and the British Board of Censors.” Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television 28:1 (March 2008): 23-35.

Landay, Lori. Madcaps, Screwballs, and Con Women: The Female Trickster in  American Culture. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1998.

Morey, Anne. “Elinor Glyn as Hollywood Laborer.” Film History v. 18.no. 2 (2006): 110-118.

Shumway, David. Modern Love: Romance, Intimacy, and the Marriage Crisis. New York: New York University Press, 2003.

Archival Paper Collections:

Cecil B. DeMille Archives. BYU.

Papers of Elinor Glyn. RUL-SC.

Filmography

A. Archival Filmography: Extant Film Titles:

1. Elinor Glyn as Screenwriter

Hàrom Hét. Dir.: Màrton Garas, sc.: Elinor Glyn, Màrton Garas (Hungária Filmgyár HU 1917) cas.: Sári Fedák, Dezso Kertész, si, b&w, 35mm. Archive: HUB.

2. Elinor Glyn as Screenwriter and Source Author

His Hour. Dir.: King Vidor, aut./sc.: Elinor Glyn (Louis B. Mayer Productions US 1924) cas.: Aileen Pringle, John Gilbert, Emily Fitzroy, si, b&w, 35mm., 7 reels, 6,300 ft. Archive: USM.

Three Weeks. Dir.: Alan Crosland, aut./sc.: Elinor Glyn, adp.: Carey Wilson, ed.: June Mathis (Goldwyn Pictures US 1924) cas.: Aileen Pringle, Conrad Nagel, si, b&w, 8 reels, 7,468 or 7,540 ft. Archive: RUR.

The Only Thing. Dir.: Jack Conway, st./adp.: Elinor Glyn (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures US 1925) cas.: Eleanor Boardman, Conrad Nagel, si, b&w, 6 reels, 5,736 ft. Archive: USR.

3. Elinor Glyn as Source Author

Three Weeks. Dir./adp: Perry N. Vekroff, aut.: Elinor Glyn (Reliable Feature Film Corporation US 1914) cas.: Madeline Traverse, George Pearce, si, b&w, 35mm, 5 reels. Archive: USW

Beyond the Rocks. Dir.: Sam Wood, aut.: Elinor Glyn, adp.: Jack Cunningham, cost.: Lady Duff-Gordon (Famous Players-Lasky Corp. US 1922) cas.: Gloria Swanson, Rudolph Valentino, si, b&w, 7 reels, 6,740 ft. Archive: NLA.

The World’s a Stage. Dir.: Colin Campbell, aut.: Elinor Glyn, sc.: Colin Campbell, George Bertholon (Principal Pictures US 1922) cas.: Dorothy Philips, Bruce McRae, si, b&w, 6 reels, 5,700 ft. Archive: USL.

Six Days. Dir.: Charles Brabin, aut. Elinor Glyn, adp.: Ouida Bergère (Goldwyn Pictures US 1923) cas.: Corinne Griffith, Frank Mayo, Myrtle Stedman, si, b&w, 9 reels, 8,010 ft. Archive: FRL.

4. Elinor Glyn as Source Author, Screenwriter and as Herself

It. Dir.: Clarence C. Badger, Josef von Sternberg, aut.: Elinor Glyn, sc.: Hope Loring, Elinor Glyn, Louis Duryea, George Jr. Marion, Frederica (Famous Players-Lasky Corp./ Paramount Pictures US 1927) cas.: Clara Bow, Elinor Glyn, Julia Swayne Gordon, si, b&w, 7 reels, 6,452 ft. Archive: USR, USW, GBB, USL, USF, SES.

5. Elinor Glyn as Herself

1925 Studio Tour / M-G-M Studio Tour of 1925 (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Corp. US 1925) cas.: Elinor Glyn, si, b&w, 35mm. Archive: USW, USL.

Show People. Prod.: Marion Davies, dir.: King Vidor, sc: Agnes Christine Johnston, Laurence Stallings, Wanda Tuchock (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Corp., Loews Inc., A King Vidor Production, A Marion Davies Production US 1928) cas.: Marion Davies, William Haines, Elinor Glyn, si/sd, b&w, 9 reels, 7,453 ft. Archive: BEB, USW, USM, ITG, USR, USL, GBB, ITT, AUC.

6. Elinor Glyn as an Extra

The Affairs of Anatol / Five Kisses, Anatol. Dir.: Cecil B. De Mille, sc.: Jeanie Macpherson (Famous Players-Lasky Corp. US 1921) cas. : Wallace Reid, Gloria Swanson, Elliot Dexter, Elinor Glyn, si, b&w, 9 reels, 8,806 ft. Archive: BEB, PLW, USR, USW, USL, RUR, AUC, DKK, DEI.

B. Filmography: Not Extant Titles:

1.Elinor Glyn as Source Author

One Day, 1916, One Hour, 1917; The Reason Why, 1918; The Career of Katherine Bush, 1919; The Great Moment, 1921; How to Educate a Wife, 1924; Soul Mates 1925; Mad Hour, 1928; Red Hair, 1928; Three Week-ends, 1928

2.Elinor Glyn as Source Author and Screenwriter

Man and Maid, 1925; Love’s Blindness, 1926.

3. Elinor Glyn as Screenwriter

Ritzy, 1927.

C. DVD/VHS Sources:

Captured on Film: The True Story of Marion Davies. Dir.: Hugh Munro Neely DVD (Timeline Films, in Association with UCLA Film and Television Archive US 2001)

Clara Bow: Discovering the It Girl. Dir.: Hugh Munro Neely DVD (Timeline Films, in Association with UCLA Film and Television Archive US 2002)

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