Local author releases new biography of film pioneer Thomas Ince

Culpeper author Brian Taves sets the record straight about the life – and untimely death – of an early film mogul in a comprehensive new biography, “Thomas Ince: Hollywood’s Independent Pioneer.”

Moving Images Section Librarian at the Library of Congress Packard Campus on Mount Pony, Taves spent a year exhaustively researching Thomas Ince (1880-1924), a longtime friend of media tycoon William Randolph Hearst – a high-profile connection that would lead to years of misinformation.

In rewriting history for the 367-page book, Taves poured through Ince’s papers, viewed his films and scoured trade journals of the time in developing an accurate picture of the silent era producer.

“There’s never been a book about Ince, yet he is mentioned in every book on film history, and even then only the first half of his career is noted,” Taves said.

In conjunction with the recent release of the book by the University Press of Kentucky, the Packard Campus Theater hosts a Thomas Ince Silent Film Program this Friday night in Culpeper. Taves will introduce the program, of course, with live musical accompaniment by Ben Model, accompanist at the Museum of Modern Art in NYC.

Friends with such silent era icons as Charlie Chaplin, Ince made more than 800 films in his lifetime, created the role of motion picture producer and became known as the “Father of the Western.”

Ince also made films about the Civil War as well as “social consciousness” titles leading to the casting in 1914 of the first Hollywood series of Asian actors.

The biggest revelation Taves said he made in researching Ince’s life occurred during his inquiry into the second half of his career.

“As he was able to tell the stories that most intrigued him, his films concentrated on the changing status of women in American history and especially in modern society,” said Taves. “Religious hypocrisy, families abandoned by the husband, spousal abuse, love inside and outside of marriage, and two career couples all became situations and challenges explored in his films.”

The son of well-regarded English character actors, Ince was born in Rhode Island the middle child of three boys. He joined the family trade and was acting as young as age 6, earning money singing at funerals and weddings, Taves writes.

Ince went on to earn a part in Henry Miller’s play “Poets and Puppets,” his career commencing “in earnest playing one of three ‘negro boys on the farm’ in ‘A Southern Romance,’ which opened Sept. 4, 1897 at the Fifth Avenue Theater,’” writes Taves.

In between theater gigs that included various roles in “Davy Crockett,” “Monte Cristo” and “The Bishop,” Ince taught acting before getting his start in films.

“His first real motion picture made on his own, ‘Little Nell’s Tobacco,’ was based on a poem he remembered, shot in December 1910 with Hayward Mack as the lead,” Taves writes. “To convey ‘atmosphere’ and help keep his actors in character, Ince addressed them on the set by their character’s names, not their own so they would lose their own identity in that of the imaginary person.”

Ince went on to work with silent great Mary Pickford shooting films in Cuba including 1914’s “A Manly Man” about love and religion during the black plague.

Eventually taking his career from the East Coast to Hollywood, Ince was not impressed with what he saw describing sets there consisting “of a few pieces of very bad furniture and one backdrop with a flock of birds supposedly in flight.” He contributed large amounts of time and money into making films that were more realistic-looking using genuine Native Americans in one production, “War on the Plains.”

His industrious nature and creative vision led to the development in 1912 of Inceville, the first Hollywood studio situated near where today’s Sunset Boulevard meets Pacific Coast Highway, Taves writes. The facility pumped out an incredible two pictures a week with writers composing overtime and Ince, unlike other producers, collaborating on most scripts.

“He became known for the typical ‘Ince punch’ …” that is, “the showman’s touch – a spectacular, big scene, like a flood, cyclone, or horse race, leaving the audience awestruck with the physical scope, but appealing simultaneously to the audience’s emotions and moral sense of the scene’s impact on the characters,” Taves writes.

Inceville grew in size and scope with Ince working as feverishly as ever, spending long hours at the studio, a cigar ever hanging from his lips until Motion Picture News declared, “the name, a Thomas H. Ince Production soon distinguished itself as the acme of screen entertainment,” Taves writes.

Interspersed with high-quality renderings of the actors Ince worked with, movie posters of his productions, articles about his work, and more, “Thomas Ince: Hollywood’s Independent Pioneer” explores the film maker’s experimentation phase, movie company associations, and his “Fresh Start” with Paramount Pictures in which he was advanced $100,000 per film.

The extensively researched book includes chapters about Ince’s World I films, his formation of Associated Producers and its “Inevitable Merger” with First National, and an ensuing war due to diverging interests and creative control. An entire chapter is devoted to a “Case Study of Her Reputation,” which “portrayed a heroine who suffers from the same type of sensational, yellow journalism that would color coverage of Ince’s own death a year later …,” Taves writes.

Only in the introduction does Taves write about “The Scandal That Never Was” involving William Randolph Hearst, who Ince had planned to collaborate with shortly before the moviemaker died of heart failure aggravated by acute indigestion. Ince and Hearst had met on the media tycoon’s yacht, Oneida, to finalize plans for their partnership.

That same weekend, Ince took ill and died two days later, rumor fueling widespread reports that Hearst mistakenly shot Ince in a fit of jealous rage because he thought his sweetheart starlet Marion Davies was cheating with Charlie Chaplin.

None of it was true, Taves proves in his book, disregarding 2001’s “The Cat’s Meow,” which perpetuates the false – albeit sexier – account of Ince’s death. The intensity with which he worked surely led to his demise, noted close friends and colleagues including Harry Carr who commented, “Sometimes it seemed to me that I could almost see his mind shooting out sparks like a dynamo … No other producer who ever lived has worked in such a whirlwind of nervous energy,” according to the book.

Actively involved in producing such titles as “The Claws of the Hun” from 1918, “Scars of Jealousy” from 1922 and “The Last Frontier” from 1926, Ince left an indelible mark on motion picture history, and should not be remembered for his premature death, and the lies around it, Taves says.

“Ince was determined to retain his own independence, and his story is that of an individual who contributed to the growth of an industry but sought to prevent the resulting practices from becoming oppressive in their dominance of Hollywood output,” the author writes. “He faced the problems of finding a niche, merging generic formulas with authenticity, locating backers and financing, building studio facilities and securing distribution. In this way, Thomas Ince’s achievements not only are a vital part of cinema history but also remain relevant to Hollywood’s continuing balance between industry and independent.”

Taves is the author of numerous articles and six books including “P.G. Wodehouse and Hollywood” and “Robert Florey: The French Expressionist.”

Ince on the big-screen

The Library of Congress Packard Campus Theater presents a free Thomas Ince Silent Film Program Friday night at 7:30 including 1921’s “One a Minute” and selected short subjects. With musical accompaniment by Ben Model, and introduction by author Brian Taves. Make reservations at (540) 827-1079 ext. 79994.