Moving Pictures (73 page)

The Mayer-Schulberg studio, which was carved out of the old Selig Studio and Zoo north of downtown Los Angeles. It was then a rural neighborhood that featured an alligator and ostrich farm. The building is typical of the flamboyant stucco architecture of the day. The operating partnership was ruptured when Mayer became head of MGM in 1924.

B.P. Schulberg (again in his characteristic stance) and Ad,
circa
1927, on a family trip through the Panama Canal

Budd thinks this is the patio of Marion Davies’ bungalow on the MGM lot, and Sonya thinks it is the patio at the rear of their own home in Windsor Square. Hollywood Moorish architecture was very popular at the time. From the left: Margaret LeVino, screenwriter; Ad; Robert Z. Leonard, director of many MGM and Paramount features; Judge Ben Lindsay (author of the then scandalous book
Companionate Marriage),
who moved from Denver to the more appropriate location of Los Angeles; Marion Davies; and Harry Rapf, an MGM producer who then ranked just below L.B. Mayer and Irving Thalberg in the studio hierarchy.

Ad and her three children,
circa
1925. Budd was 11, Sonya 7, Stuart 3.

Ad on the Schulberg court—the first at Malibu—
circa
1928

A 1928 autographed photo of Elinor Glyn, a popular novelist of the time who created “It” and dubbed Clara Bow the “It” girl. Note the “Mr.” in front of B.P. Schulberg’s misspelled name. Today Miss Glyn is best known for the frequent appearance of her name in crossword puzzles.

Budd Schulberg, age 8, pseudo-contemplative, with his right arm posed “naturally,” as was the custom of the photographers of the time.

On the set of
The Spoilers.
From the right: the author; Marian Shauer; the director, John Cromwell; Mel Shauer, a Paramount Studio executive; Sonya; Stuart; B.P.; Ad; and her brother Sam Jaffe, the studio manager

In the bathtub, star William Gargan in
Living on Love,
a B.P. Schulberg production for Paramount. This production still was killed by the Hays Office for nudity. The photograph was clipped across the corner to indicate that it had been killed.