Let Yourself Go ... To Old Hollywood

Never Again! The Story of Ida Lupino and Arcadia Productions

In the first edition of the story of Ida Lupino's little-discussed first venture into film production, we left off in early February 1947. Lupino had concluded her contract at Warner Brothers and promptly formed an independent production company, Arcadia Productions, in partnership with Benedict Bogeaus. In this arrangement, she was to produce and star in one film a year over three years.

The 1947 Bogeaus-Lupino alliance is described as a "hasty partnership" in Donati's biography of Lupino, but as we saw, Lupino had put much time and effort over several years behind the decision to produce her own vehicles and take more creative control over her career. Additionally, as reported in Showmens Trade Review the same month Arcadia was formed, Lupino intended to produce films in which she was not the star. Her production designs extended beyond picking her own roles.

Beginnings of Arcadia Productions

In the early weeks of Arcadia, Lupino was spending her time in the desert, in Palm Springs—recovering from spiral meningitis obtained during the grueling shoot of Deep Valley, her last film at Warners. During this period, she and Bogeaus were considering numerous possibilities for her first film as producer.

A comedy called New Years' Eve was mentioned as Lupino's first project in the Louella Parsons article where the formation of Arcadia was first reported. Within days, though, a period drama, The Queen's Necklace became the reported choice. This film had been announced as a Lupino acting vehicle when she first signed with Bogeaus a year before. Now, Brian Aherne was mentioned as her potential co-star. Then, in March, a drama called Celia by Arch Oboler was purchased by Bogeaus and also became a candidate for Lupino's first Arcadia project. Clearly nothing was set in stone. In mid-March, press reports suggested they were three months away from starting filming on whatever project was decided upon.

At this same time, Lupino was recruiting a certain Broadway actor as her leading man. A reporter for the Hollywood Evening Citizen News wrote:

She won't reveal his name because 'it wouldn't be fair to him if nothing should come of it'. But she's compiled a complete dossier on the gent, full of clippings and pictures. And if he lives up to his press clippings, she expects to bring his signature back on a contract.

The big search is being made for her independent film with Ben Bogeaus, which the actress will start shortly after returning from the East. In spite of her interest in the unnamed New York actor, she is constantly looking out for someone in Hollywood who might fit the bill.

While it's not clear to me whether she ever made this New York recruiting trip or not, this is an early appearance of Lupino's ambition to foster new talent. This desire was the driving motivation in her subsequent producing efforts, where she helped launch the film acting careers of Sally Forrest, Mala Powers, Keefe Brasselle, Hugh O'Brian and others.

Early Autumn

By the beginning of April, Lupino's first Arcadia project was finalized. Bogeaus purchased Early Autumn, a Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Louis Bromfield. This drama would provide a dual acting role for Lupino, as a mother of 40 and a girl of 18.

The pace of activity at Arcadia now picked up, with the signing of Frances Robinson—a good friend of Lupino's—as story editor, the hiring of Dewitt Bodeen to write the screenplay, and the pursuit of King Vidor to direct. The quest for a leading man also continued, with Lupino and Bogeaus ardently pursuing both Arthur Kennedy and Robert Preston. Lupino reportedly also considered her ex-husband Louis Hayward.

Meanwhile, Lupino helped her new business partner by giving a dinner party on the Bogeaus lot for a number of prominent press representatives, then giving a screening of Bogeaus' newest production, The Macomber Affair.

By late April, the press was reporting on Ida Lupino's "debut as producer", while also noting her high demand as a leading actress. Columnist Erskine Johnson quoted her saying, "Bill Cagney [James Cagney's producer brother] came to me the other day and wondered in Producer Lupino would loan him Actress Lupino for a role in The Time of Your Life." Johnson continued:

Every agent in town is chasing her to hire their clients. She's just about ready to ask someone to proclaim a 'Be Kind to Producers Week'. And if all producers had such pretty legs, I'd proclaim it myself.

All this activity at Arcadia on Early Autumn had been going on while Lupino was also studying for her U.S. citizenship exam, which she passed on the last day of April. Lupino's friend, columnist Hedda Hopper, used this occasion as an excuse to hype Lupino's career transformation over the years, from struggling ingenue to award-winning dramatic star to, now, "helping" Bogeaus produce Early Autumn and soon to "turn full producer". Hopper separately reported that Lupino was planning to produce a film for Dorothy Lamour after completing her first for Bogeaus.

April 1947 was a momentous month in Lupino's life for another reason. While the press reported that she and Clark Gable were "sparking" and that Gable was wooing her with flowers, she turned down Gable's advances and instead took up with Warner Brothers executive, and aspiring writer and producer, Collier Young. She and Young were to marry in late 1948 and become partners in the next, far more successful, phase of Lupino's producing career—forming Emerald Productions in 1949 and re-constituting it as The Filmakers later that year.

With the anticipated June 1947 starting date of Early Autumn approaching, Lupino and Bogeaus continued to try to nail down the production. Lupino was also working on her potential second film at Arcadia, The Queen's Necklace and talking with Hurd Hatfield to be her leading man in that film. Columnist Sheilah Graham reported that Lupino "says it's fun being a producer because every one loves her and every one wants her to give them a job!"

Talks continued through May with actors Arthur Kennedy, Robert Preston, and director King Vidor about Early Autumn, but nothing was formalized. Hopper once reported that Lupino had signed King Vidor to direct—but no one else picked that up, so it presumably was premature.

Soon, the axe fell on Early Autumn. Hedda Hopper broke the news on June 6:

Ben Bogeaus tells me that since neither he nor Ida likes the script of "Early Autumn", they'll wait until they get a good one before making the picture. Meanwhile, Ida's free to make an outside film.

The reasons for the delay—and effective cancellation—were likely more complicated than Hopper's item suggested. Subsequent reports suggest Bogeaus' other commitments effectively squeezed out Early Autumn. His current production of A Miracle Can Happen (later retitled On Our Merry Way) had just had a troublesome preview and needed substantial re-shoots. And Bogeaus had a commitment to begin work on Lulu Belle on August 11, based on the loan-out agreement for its star Dorothy Lamour. As reported by Film Bulletin, the money coming as as part of the Lamour deal made it a top priority, as Bogeaus' only source of revenue at the time was The Macomber Affair.

Sheilah Graham needled Lupino in her column: "Being a producer isn't all it's cracked up to be, eh, Ida?" Graham also suggested Lupino was on the verge of returning to Warner Brothers "because the script of Early Autumn has her licked."

Warner Brothers was indeed ramping up efforts to woo her back—but without success. Early Autumn may have been moribund, but Producer Lupino was not.

Miracle in the Rain

Lupino then attempted to re-purchase her own screenplay, Miss Pennington—the one she had sold to RKO a couple years earlier (see the first edition of this story for a reminder), but was unable to close that deal. Yet, in less than a month, Lupino had a new project underway. Louella Parsons wrote in her July 5 column:

Ida Lupino, who recently put her feet under a desk as a woman producer for Ben Bogeaus, has selected her first. She will boss and star in "Miracle in the Rain", a Ben Hecht magazine story published about four years ago.

Once again the publicity for Arcadia Productions kicked into gear. Miracle in the Rain was being adapted by Dwight Taylor. It would go into production as soon as the screenplay was ready. Lupino and Bogeaus again wanted King Vidor to direct. Early Autumn was still on the books as Lupino's second vehicle. Arcadia was still planning to produce pictures other than those starring Lupino.

Five weeks later, alas, this project was in dire straits as well—though most of the details do not appear to have made it into print. Lupino's choice for her leading man in Miracle in the Rain was Robert Walker—not yet famous for the creepy murderer in Alfred Hitchcock's Strangers on a Train (1951), but instead for romantic leads such as opposite Judy Garland in The Clock (1945). MGM, however, refused to loan him out—which Erskine Johnson reported left Walker "burning". Lupino's reaction is not documented.

Less than two weeks after that, on August 21, 1947, Hedda Hopper reported with little fanfare that Miracle in the Rain had been "postponed indefinitely". No reasons given; no excuses reported.

Producer Lupino was soon ready to throw in the towel. On September 3, Sheilah Graham wrote, "Ida Lupino and Benedict Bogeaus have called off their picture deal. They couldn't get together on story or price." And so Arcadia Productions was no more.

Aftermath

The last weeks of Arcadia was the period where Lupino's romance with Collier Young blossomed. Given their joint ambitions as filmmakers, Lupino may have become distracted by new goals—both personal and professional. That is what is suggested in the Donati biography.

Some hints as to Lupino's view of her experience an attempted producer in 1947 come from later comments. In April, 1948, Bob Thomas reported her saying about producing

Never again! I passed up four pictures while I was working myself practically to death on a film that was never made.

Then, a decade later, long after she had become a successful producer-director-writer, she was asked about the beginnings of her next attempt at an independent production company on the This Is Your Life television program. She said to the host, "Let me, you know, put myself completely in the clear. I did not want to become a producer." Then she laughed and added, "They're very badly-treated people." Her real goal in starting Emerald Productions and The Filmakers was discovering new talent.

Could it be that her disinclination to return to producing was the result of her experiences in 1947? After all, even early in her Arcadia tenure, she had said she was ready to declare a "Be Kind to Producers Week".

Going back to the late summer of 1947, Lupino did not let this failure as a first-time producer stop her. Even as she was shutting down Arcadia, she was hard at work piecing together her next acting gig. She had already picked a story, The Dark Love. Through the arrangements of her and her agent with 20th Century-Fox, this would soon become the noir classic Road House (1948).

A few months after that, despite her vow of "Never again!", she would be producing independent films—this time using unknown actors she discovered—and this time with unforgettable results.

Epilogue

Early Autumn never made it into movie form. Ben Bogeaus made another attempt to produce it in 1956, retitled Conquest, but again nothing came of it.

Miracle in the Rain passed through several hands before being made at Warner Brothers in 1955, starring Jane Wyman and Van Johnson, directed by Rudolf Maté.

Sources

• Newspapers.com archives for United States newspapers
• "Ida Lupino: A Biography" by William Donati, University Press of Kentucky, 2000
• Media History Digital Library archives of Hollywood fan magazines and trade papers

Other articles on this blog referenced in this article

• Prelude to a forgotten chapter in Ida Lupino's career

Prelude to a forgotten chapter in Ida Lupino's career

This is the story of a non-legendary chapter in a legendary career—the story of Ida Lupino's first attempt to become a film producer in Hollywood. It was a frustrating experience that set the stage for her later triumphs.

The legendary part of Lupino's story is that, in 1949, she left her career as an established Hollywood movie star to become the driving force behind an independent production company—eventually known as "The Filmakers". There, with collaborators Collier Young and Malvin Wald, she wrote, produced, and directed low-budget films, initially starring unknown actors, that told stories the major studios of the time were not addressing.

Less known is that Lupino's first attempt to move behind-the-scenes into film production came two years earlier. This chapter of the Lupino story is typically ignored in overviews of her career. Even the comprehensive biography by William Donati devotes only a single paragraph to it.

For this initial effort as producer, her approach was very different from her later one. Her goal was to produce films at the same level as the major studios with herself as the star—continuing her acting career, but with creative control. After many months of hard work through most of 1947, she was left with no visible accomplishments. Yet it is likely that from this discouraging episode, she learned lessons that helped make her later creative efforts successful—and that immortalized her career.

To set the stage, let's begin a couple years earlier—January 1945. The end of the all-consuming war was in sight, Lupino's six-year marriage had recently broken up, and Lupino was emerging from that emotional trauma contemplating her life.

At the age of 27, Lupino claimed she was "flummoxed" about her career and seriously considering a major change. At the time, she was a Hollywood veteran of over a decade, at the height of her fame, with a stellar reputation as one of the top dramatic actresses in the industry. But, as she told columnist Erskine Johnson:

"I'll go berserk if I'm still dashing around at 30 [getting up at 5 o'clock every morning making myself look beautiful and then rushing to the studio]. I have a time now making myself look good—and I've got a voice like Wallace Beery's."

She had long known that her time at the top would be limited, and that she needed alternatives in order to survive in Hollywood when her leading actress days were over. Her present plan was to give up acting and become a full-time writer.

Her acting contract with Warner Brothers still had two more years to go. Over those two years, she used her down time to sample various plans for the next phase of her career. She worked on several screenplays, often in collaboration with others—notably her ex-husband, actor Louis Hayward, and actress Barbara Read. In early 1946, Lupino sold one of her screenplays to RKO—Miss Pennington—for $20,000.

Music was another major effort, building on what had been a passion of hers for years. She wrote numerous songs, by herself and in collaboration with Nick Arden and William MacIlwinen. In the spring of 1946, she and MacIlwinen undertook to get a musical stage show produced on Broadway. Lupino took a three-month leave-of-absence from her Warners contract to push this project to completion. Unfortunately, it did not come to fruition as a Broadway show; however, it was eventually produced at a smaller venue in 1949. (See this earlier article for more on Apple Tree Farm.)

Another approach was to continue acting, but to produce her own films. For Lupino, who had been battling studio executives for years over scripts, the lure of creative freedom beckoned. Initially she contemplated a co-producing-acting partnership with ex-husband Hayward, with whom she remained friendly and who also had self-producing ambitions.

But she went a different route. Enter independent producer Benedict Bogeaus.

Ben Bogeaus was a businessman who had made a lot of money in the early years of the war, and then, in 1944, moved to Hollywood to produce films. Bogeaus' movies had name stars and respectable budgets. His company had already released three films by the end of 1945, and his ambitions were expanding. In January 1946, Lupino—with a year left on her Warners contract—signed on to star in one of Bogeaus' pictures. Initially there was no mention of her producing.

At this same time, Lupino claimed that she would be willing to extend her time with Warners if they let her pick stories and directors. While Warners likely would never cede so much control, this indicates Lupino's producing ambition had solidified. In March, 1946, it became explicit. Lupino told Hedda Hopper, "I'd like to get into writing and producing. Acting is too tortuous."

As the Broadway hopes for her stage show slipped away, her next Warner Brothers film suffered delays, and the one with Bogeaus was on hold, Lupino continued her writing work on music and screenplays, while also enjoying a newfound passion for sailing.

Late in 1946, she revealed to the press that one of the sticking points in her negotiations with Warner Brothers was that she wanted the right to independently produce one picture a year—"which I've already contracted to do" (emphasis added). This is the first sign I have found that her deal with Bogeaus had extended from acting into producing. She also said that she was comparing notes on the challenges of being a producer with friend and fellow actor-turned-producer John Garfield.

Lupino left her longtime studio in early 1947, refusing to sign the long-term exclusive contract Warners insisted on. Within days of completing her last film at Warners, Deep Valley, Lupino, along with Bogeaus, announced the formation of a new company to house their joint effort—a company separate from Bogeaus' own. Louella Parsons wrote on Feb. 5, 1947:

Those swanky new offices being redecorated on the Ben Bogeaus lot are for Ida Lupino, who moves over to General Service Studio [Bogeaus' lot at the time] as a producer as well as star.

She and Ben have formed the Arcadia Productions, with Ida set for one film a year for the next three years.

Ida's first is a comedy, "New Year's Eve", an original story by Norman Reilly Raine. Ida plays an heiress who gets kidnaped on New Year's Eve by a prize fighter and a G.I. and the complications that ensue can be imagined.

I'll say for Bogeaus that he tries to keep his stars happy by letting them have their say about their movies. Gregory Peck has a "piece" of "Macomber Affair" and Burgess Meredith is co-producer of "A Miracle Can Happen" and several other pictures he's made with Ben.

Over much of the succeeding year, Ida Lupino would devote her prodigious energies to her new role as producer of her own films. We will see how that turned out in the next edition.