Burton Holmes Visits Jean Harlow

Among the lost films discovered by Jason Turner was a record of Holmes' meeting with Hollywood star Jean Harlow. This film was in bad condition, and Turner held it back, eventually sending it off for restoration. Thus it did not go to the Burton Holmes Historical Collection (BHHC), nor later to George Eastman House.

The restoration company ultimately gave up on restoring the film, as it had deteriorated too much; but they were able to pull some still images. BHHC has supplied a photograph of Burton Holmes meeting Harlow, and from the film we have these additional scenes of Harlow alone and with her vocal coach. Sadly, the deteriorated condition of the film shows in the poor quality of these images.

It seems likely that this film was made in 1931, as the majority of Holmes' photos of Hollywood subjects are from that year. Genoa Caldwell suspects that it was used in the 1931 short subject "The Real Hollywood," which no one seems to have seen since its release. In 1931 gossip columnist Jimmy Starr wrote about "Jean Harlow and Samuel Kayzer being photographed by Burton Holmes while Jean was taking a voice interpretation lesson from Mr. Kayzer. Holmes says he is Kayzer's oldest pupil, having studied with him many years ago in Chicago..." [ref. Jimmy Starr, "Starr-Dust from Hollywood," in e.g. the PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE, August 8, 1931]

The same columnist, cited in the same newspaper mentioned, July 18, 1931, "The Burton Holmes and Franklin LaVarr (sic), famous globe trotters, are in our midst. Mr Holmes departs for Paris in a few weeks. His wife will remain in Hollywood with her mother a month or so longer. LaVarr, associated with holmes for years as his cameraman extraordinaire, is planning a trip to Australia shortly to be gone some three months. These globe trotters. They've been photographing the Pickford-Fairbanks home in Beverly Hills."

However, a segment of footage owned by the Library of the Moving Image in the Los Angeles area has some of these same events, and may be from the original film. The company stock film catalog of Burton Holmes, Inc., compiled in the late 1970's, lists several short bits with Hollywood stars, one of which is annotated "Jean Harlow."

Harlow is believed to have been living in a house at 1353 Club View Dr., Beverly Hills, during the period 1931-2. [More on Harlow's homes on Lisa Burks' website.] At this time Burton Holmes was already living in Hollywood, at Topside — 2020 Grace Ave., in the Whitley Heights neighborhood; this is about eight miles, or twenty or thirty minutes, away. Holmes had been doing films for distribution in movie theaters since 1915, and he and his wife Margaret were regulars in some of the industry circles — pals with Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford, Dolores del Rio, Pola Negri, and said to have been friends (not just for this one-time film shoot) with Jean Harlow.

The still photographs below show Harlow in a conference and lesson with her voice coach, Samuel Kayzer. In one of the photos, Kayzer can be seen on top of the hillside garage of his home at 6113 Whitley Terrace, looking down at the street. The exterior view of Harlow and her Packard, in front of this same garage, is presumably from the same shoot. This address is literally just around the corner from Holmes' house at Topside.

Besides being very close neighbors, Kayzer and Holmes were both active in Chicago performance and entertainment in the 1890's, and it is easy to imagine that they knew each other well, long before they each moved to Hollywood. Holmes is quoted (see above) as having said exactly that in 1931. Anna Morgan's 1918 book My Chicago mentions (page 51) that "Burton Holmes took some lessons in voice culture in the Conservatory before starting out on his career as a lecturer, and gave his first talk in Recital Hall, at which all his neighbors and friends congregated." References to Samuel Kayzer are found in numerous places throughout this book, and on page 36 we find that Kayzer was chosen in 1884 to organize the school associated with the Chicago Opera House, and known as their Conservatory.

It is also possible that Harlow, who did some comedy work for MGM in the late 1920's, may have met Holmes there, in the years before he moved to Universal. An article on Kayzer, "Is Your Voice Right" by Wick Evans in the January 1932 issue of MODERN SCREEN, has a photograph of Kayzer and harlow at work

Just when we thought that this film was lost forever, things happened. Immediately after this page went up on BurtonHolmes.org, the Burton Holmes Historical Collection was contacted by Darrell Rooney, author of a recent biography of Jean Harlow. Darrell had a copy of this footage on DVD! With some additional introductions, we found that the source of the DVD had been the Library of the Moving Image in the Los Angeles area. This footage had itself come from a 1980's television special, one that may have reused film from a David Wolper production in the 1960's. We already know that Wolper had purchased other reproduction and TV broadcast rights to Burton Holmes films, so it seems likely that the ultimate origin of the DVD footage was an arrangement made by Burton Holmes, Inc. in the 1960's. One more thing: The DVD has a bit of footage that the damaged reel does not have! — a little piece at the end with Kayzer atop his garage, speaking with Burton Holmes himself, who is holding a camera as he stands on the street below.

UPDATE, October 2011: Darrell Rooney has spotted this footage on YouTube. No sound, but definitely the same footage; some parts are so dark they must represent a multi-generation copy, and the continuity is a bit jerky in places. It includes at the end a little bit of conversation between Holmes and Harlow (with her sitting in her car), and concludes with Holmes waving his hat at Kayzer.

And it's not over yet. Jason Turner has generously donated the original film to UCLA, whose preservation department is fairly confident they can restore part, if not all, of the film. Out of this will also come a new digital copy of the film. Keep watching this space.

Kayzer, Holmes, and Harlow

Jean Harlow with her Packard

View of the garage entrance, residence of voice coach Samuel Kayzer; Kayzer seen on top.

Jean Harlow and Samuel Kayzer

Jean Harlow

Update history: This page originally created 13 June 2011. Latest revision 27 October 2011.