In the second in a new series of lectures spotlighting recipients of Academy Film Scholar grants, Cari Beauchamp, author of Without Lying Down: Frances Marion and the Powerful Women of Early Hollywood and editor of Anita Loos Rediscovered: Film Treatments and Fiction will present highlights from her newly completed book Joseph P. Kennedy Presents.

Kennedy is the only man ever to run three film studios (FBO, Pathé and First National) and a theater circuit simultaneously.  He was a major player in the conversion from silent to sound films, masterminding the merger that created RKO, the first studio specifically created to make sound films.  He also helped develop the modern Hollywood business model by spearheading the concept of bringing corporations into substantial equity positions in filmmaking.  Kennedy was actively involved in the film business for 12 years, and while hundreds of jobs were lost and careers were ruined, along the way he established the foundation of his own fortune. 

Joseph P. Kennedy Presents, which offers the first serious look at Kennedy’s years as a film mogul, draws on material in his recently released personal papers.  Beauchamp’s presentation will include insight into her research process and will focus on the unique producing partnership between Kennedy and screen star Gloria Swanson.  The lecture will be followed by a screening of The Trespasser, Swanson’s first talkie, which has seldom screened in Los Angeles since its original release.  Kennedy produced the film, and for her performance Swanson earned her second Academy Award® nomination as Best Actress.

Gloria Swanson in The Trespasser.

The Trespasser was made shortly after Kennedy and Swanson fired director Erich von Stroheim from Queen Kelly.  As they pondered what to do with that costly unfinished silent film project, Eddie Goulding was using up to 12 cameras simultaneously on The Trespasser, which Variety hailed as developing “sound film presentation to a point not previously put on the screen.” Swanson’s singing and talking were heralded as lessons to all other actresses on “how to do it.”

The film features Swanson as a stenographer who elopes with the son of a wealthy family only to find the marriage annulled by her husband’s father.  She returns to her previous job financially strapped, pregnant and beholden to her old boss.  The security of her child is later threatened when her ex-father-in-law realizes the boy is his only chance for an heir to the family fortune. 

Directed by Edmund Goulding. Presented by Joseph P. Kennedy. Screenplay Goulding. Cinematography George Barnes, Gregg Toland. Film Editing Cyril Gardner. Art Direction Stephen Goosson. With Gloria Swanson, Robert Ames, Purnell Pratt, Henry B. Walthall, William Holden. Gloria Productions. United Artists.  1929. 35mm. 120 mins. Preservation funded by The American Film Institute and The Film Foundation. Academy Award nominee: Actress (Swanson)

Established in 1999, the Academy Film Scholars program awards two $25,000 grants each year and is designed to stimulate and support the creation of new and significant works of film scholarship about aesthetic, cultural, educational, historical, theoretical or scientific aspects of theatrical motion pictures. Cari Beauchamp was named an Academy Film Scholar in 2004.

Tickets have unfortunately been SOLD OUT for this program, but a stand-by line will be formed the night of the screening. You may line up in the STANDBY LINE at approximately 6 p.m., and just prior to the 7:30 p.m. start-time we will try to accommodate as many people in line as we can, based upon the number of empty seats in the theater. Due to attrition, no-shows and cancellations, we expect a certain quantity of seats to become free at the last minute. Please note that the line is strictly on a first-come first served basis; numbered stand-by tickets will be distributed, and patrons will be able to leave the line, but must be back in line by 7 p.m. Waiting in this line does not guarantee automatic entry into the theater.

The Linwood Dunn Theater is located at 1313 Vine Street, Hollywood. The standby line will form in the parking lot behind the building through the entrance on Homewood Avenue. You do not need a ticket to park there. For more information about this or any other upcoming Academy event, please call (310) 247-3600.