Happy Birthday, Franchot!

Franchot was born on this day in 1905. It's hard to believe that he would be 111 years old. Even though I was born years after his death, I always think of Franchot as someone who hasn't been gone that long. I suppose it is because he comes across as so lively and in-the-moment in his work. He also had timeless looks, manners, and dress that will never go out of style.

Franchot remains relevant to me and, I think, should remain relevant to current and future generations of classic film fans. The performances he left behind are still as poignant, relatable, and stirring as they were when they were originally released. In Gentlemen are Born, he is an intelligent college graduate who struggles to find a home, work, and love in a recessed economy. In They Gave Him a Gun, he has great difficulty re-entering civilian life after a traumatic tour of duty in the war. In The Bride Wore Red, he's a modest postman sincerely in love with a woman who dreams of wealth. In Exclusive Story, he attempts to uncover corruption as an attorney. In Twelve Angry Men, he's a juror who grapples with determining another man's fate. All of these plots could easily be found in films today and people of the 21st century are still experiencing these same obstacles in their lives.

Happy Birthday, Franchot! Thank you for cheering me up with your antics in Fast and Furious and Three Loves Has Nancy, for absolutely breaking my heart with your vulnerability in Suzy, Dangerous, and Three Comrades, and frightening me in Phantom Lady and The Man on the Eiffel Tower. You are fascinating to watch, inspiring in your craft, and great fun to research.

Here's the tribute montage I made in January. I thought it was fitting to share it again today in celebration of Franchot's life and career. (If the embedded video does not play, here's the link: https://youtu.be/cnSbTLJ5i5w)

Tone attends Acheson Award Presentation

Franchot and brother Jerry congratulate their father Dr. Frank J. Tone on receiving the Acheson Award in 1935.  The award was named for Edward Goodrich Acheson who invented carborundum (Frank J. was the president of the Carborundum Company). I always feel bad for the people who get x'd out on news photographs. I'm sorry, guy on the right.

Source: Spartanburg Herald Journal, October 11, 1935. Page 6.

The news story above was first written on October 10th. The next day (on which it made it into the Spartanburg Herald Journal) was the day that Franchot and Joan Crawford secretly married!

 

Source: New Movie Magazine, October 1934.

 

 

 

Source for Acheson Photograph: Harris & Ewing, photographer. L to r: Franchot Tone, Jerry Tone, brother, Dr. Frank Tone, Niagara Falls receiving Acheson Award. [1935] Image. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <https://www.loc.gov/item/hec2013009558>.

Early Influence: Charlie Chaplin

Source: Wikipedia

"I remember, too, how I used to imitate Charlie Chaplin. After I had seen him for the first time on the screen, I proceeded to make everyone's life miserable. I would dress up like Charlie and go waddling down the street. I carried a cane and woe unto any lady who happened to stoop to tie her shoe! I would ring door bells and when the people answered, I'd go skidding around the corner on one foot—at the same time tipping my hat."

In honor of Franchot's childhood love of Chaplin, I thought I'd highlight two funny gags in Franchot's films.

Realizing a lion has taken the place of Ann Sothern in Fast and Furious, 1939

Making Deanna Durbin laugh in His Butler's Sister, 1943

I didn't have a chance to create .gifs for them, but two hilarious FT movies that will have you laughing out loud are Love on the Run (1936) and Three Loves Has Nancy (1938). Franchot plays the second lead in both films, but steals every single scene in which he appears!

Source: www.moviestillsdb.com

Source: www.ravepad.com

 Source:

• Tone, Franchot. "I've Always Been a Show-Off". Hollywood Magazine. June 1935. Page 23, 55.

Franchot Tone's Early Life in Niagara Falls

Franchot was born on February 27, 1905 in Niagara Falls, New York. His father Frank Jerome Tone was the Works Manager and President of the Carborundum Company and made many scientific and technological contributions. There's an impressive bio on Frank J. Tone here. Franchot's mother was Gertrude Franchot Tone and he had an older brother named Frank Jerome "Jerry" Tone.

Franchot as a boy.
This photo originally appeared in a 1930s fan magazine.
I saved it, but I cannot find the original article in my files today.
It's somewhere in the Media History Digital Library database. http://lantern.mediahist.org/
 

The 1905 New York Census shows an 8 month old baby Franchot living with his father Frank J., mother Gertrude, and brother Jerry at 613 Buffalo Avenue in Niagara Falls, New York. Franchot would later describe his street as the "main residential street of Niagara Falls" running from "the Falls and passes the Shredded Wheat factory. This is one of the points of interests for visiting tourists, so this particular street carried a lot of traffic". Also in the house are Lizzie Spooker, a German maid, and Lizzie Oates, a Canadian cook. The state census also shows a Tusch family and does not give them a separate street number. Herman Tusch is a special agent (am I reading that right?), so I'm not sure if or how he is connected to the Tones. There are other Tuschs at residences near the Tones, so I don't know if this is a census error or if the Tuschs indeed lived in the Tone residence.

1905 New York Census, www.ancestry.com
 

The 1915 New York Census shows the Tone family on the same street, but with a different street number. Frank J. Tone is still the head of the Carborundum Company, with wife Gertrude, 13-year-old Frank J. "Jerry", and 9-year-old Franchot. In their household at this time is an English maid named Georgiana Pittman and an Irish cook named Anna H. Ryan. In this census, there are many Franchot households around the Tone residence (Franchot being Gertrude Tone's maiden name).

1915 New York Census, www.ancestry.com

In the article, "I've Always Been a Show-Off" attributed to Franchot and published in Hollywood Magazine in 1935, Franchot shared the following childhood memories:

I can remember when I was only four years old. I was taken to a summer resort in the Canadian woods. Some boys were trying to spear fish and I was watching them. Suddenly I looked up, and there was a beautiful little girl standing a few feet away. Immediately I grabbed a spear and tried to show how good I was. Instead, I went in head first. Of course, I was too young to know how to swim and actually I was going down for the third time when my nurse came along and jumped in after me. She couldn't swim either but she managed to hold me up until help came...

 Another time I remember when some new people moved in next door to us. They had a boy just about my age and, of course, I was curious to know what he was like. He played in his yard and I played in mine. I kept watching him out of the corner of my eye, but whenever he looked over, I would assume the most innocent air of indifference. One day a truckload of coal arrived. The boy next door completely ignored me by concentrating on the man emptying the coal into the basement. I had a new bicycle, so I ran and jumped on it. I pedaled furiously and tried to do all sorts of fancy tricks. Then something happened. The wheel gave a sudden twist and I found myself sitting in the middle of the coal-chute.

Sources:

• Tone, Franchot. "I've Always Been a Show-Off". Hollywood Magazine. June 1935. Page 23, 55.
• New York State Archives; Albany, New York; State Population Census Schedules, 1915; Election District: 01; Assembly District: 02; City: Niagara Falls Ward 02; County: Niagara; Page: 21
• New York State Archives; Albany, New York; State Population Census Schedules, 1905; Election District: E.D. 02; City: Niagara Falls Ward 01; County: Niagara; Page: 11

Nobody Runs Forever (1968)

In honor of the anniversary of Franchot's birth on February 27th, I'm posting daily this week instead of my usual twice-a-week posts. Today, I want to highlight Franchot's final film, Nobody Runs Forever.

Nobody Runs Forever (also known as The High Commissioner) is a late Sixties political thriller starring Christopher Plummer and Rod Taylor (an example of perfect casting, in my opinion).  Rod Taylor is Scobie Malone, a police sergeant asked to take into custody the High Commissioner of Australia, James Quentin (Christopher Plummer), who is being investigated for the murder of his first wife. Quentin requests that Malone keep the matter private and give him until after an important peace summit. Malone agrees to give the commissioner a few days, but keeps a close eye on him. During that time, Malone grows close to Quentin as he protects him against multiple assassination attempts, uncovers secrets from Quentin's current wife, and identifies a threatening spy ring. Franchot is American Ambassador Townsend, an ailing political mentor of Quentin's.

Franchot's role is very brief (under a minute). For that reason, I chose to share his actual scene instead of my usual screen caps. Knowing it is his last scene in a major motion picture and that Franchot himself was battling lung cancer as he played this gravely ill character in a hospital makes this clip bittersweet for me. (If the embedded clip doesn't play here, use the direct Youtube link.)




Although he plays this scene from a hospital bed, Franchot performs with the fortitude that I so enjoy in the charactors of his final decade. He's no feeble old man in that room. He's alive and biting and wise and in control.

Nobody Runs Forever is a stylish spy film, full of political intrigue, great dialogue, and gorgeous mod fashion on both the men and the women. Christopher Plummer and Rod Taylor, two of my favorite actors of that decade, are both fantastic in their roles and Franchot ends his career on a high note in a sophisticated tale of espionage.

Under the title The High Commissioner, this film is available on DVD.

On Publicity Leaps and the Crawford-Tone Theatre

Even though Katharine Hepburn had apparently ordered that all reporters be kept off the set of Quality Street, Franchot smuggled Ben Maddox of Screenland into his dressing room. Maddox reported that Franchot was "secretly amused at such temperament".  With Maddox, Franchot shared:

This mold I've had to pour myself into is a fierce one to take.  What can I do? When I got my contract with Metro, before I'd even stepped onto the train, a leading columnist announced me as a society playboy whose chief objective was backing shows! Well, I had more surprises. I arrived here to be nearly typed as a stuffed shirt hero. Next I learned that all that interviewers really wanted from me was data on Joan. There's no one I'd rather discuss, but not publicly. It's presumptuous of me; anyway, I've no desire to cash in on her success! Out here they're so anxious for fancy scoops that they leap to amazing conclusions. They leap so fast and frequently that after a bit I figured, "Oh, what's the use of denying that dizzy tale? Another whopper will be circulating in its place next week!"

Franchot then illustrated his point by talking about the theatre at the Crawford-Tone residence:

For instance, that myth about the little theatre we have in our garden should be exploded. It is not for Joan to learn stage acting in, and never was so intended! I've read that it was built so I could teach her the technique of the footlights. That's a sample of the incredible situations I've been in since I've been here. Joan doesn't require any special coaching from me or anyone else to be able to act on the stage. She is an actress. And she couldn't do much emoting in that theatre of ours, despite the touching tale that was printed of horrible stage-fright when she made her debut the other evening — before our customary 'gathering of intellectuals.' They're another joke, incidentally. We have interesting friends, but none of us claim to be "intellectuals"! To get this matter of the theatre straightened out once and for all, when the swimming pool was put in Joan designed a bathhouse for one side and a small, matching theatre for the other. Just a theatre where movies could be run. The widely touted stage is nothing more than a raised platform, elevated so that our sound machine will go underneath it!

Joan & Franchot's Brentwood Home. Source: www.ebay.com

On Pizza and Grape Juice

In 1966, Franchot starred in a production of The Bird, the Bear, and the Actress at the Eugene O'Neill Memorial Theatre Center in Waterford, Connecticut. Janet Roach, a local reporter for the New Day newspaper, interviewed Franchot. In the first part of the article, Franchot talks about the play and how happy he is to be performing in it. The last half of the article takes an odd, but delightful turn. It focuses on Franchot's frustration for vending machines and his dedicated supply of grape juice. Here's an excerpt from the article:

Tone deems "one New London pizza house well worth visiting more than once.

'Just give me plain mozzarella,' says Tone, banishing with the flip of a hand any suggestion of more exotic variations.

The pizza place is just one of Tone's answers to the camping-out atmosphere pervading the three-week work session at the former Palmer Mansion.

'I'm an old hand at this. I could talk for hours about the tricks, but nobody asks me.' The actor reached for a chilled container of grape juice as he spoke. 'For instance, most people would carry a bottle opener for this sort of thing. But after a while I discovered a room key will do just as well.'

The grape juice itself is the product of many frustrated trips to theatre soft drink machines.

'There's nothing more frustrating,' Tone said, 'You run all the way down the stairs with a dime clutched between your fingers. You put it in the slot and it goes all the way to the bottom and lands in the coin return.'

That experience prompted the resourceful actor to invest in a small cooler and some plastic glasses which he carries in his car.

'I have to phone down for the ice and go shopping for the juice,' Tone says, but the effort answers the challenge of camping out."

I love how serious Franchot is about his grape juice. It's an amusing little exchange, but it also illustrates the everyday, regular guy in Franchot. His life was not all champagne and tuxedo tails as some commentators would have you believe. He was a working actor on the road, learning lines and fighting soda machines, and eating a slice of pizza at a local joint.  Franchot says he could talk for hours about his tricks as an "old hand" in the theater business, but mentions that no one ever asks him. How I wish they would have asked him! At this stage in his life, he seemed willing to share his opinions on a variety of subjects and I would love to be able to hear them.

Source: Roach, Janet. "Perfectionist Franchot Tone 'Sacrifices' Own Shirt for Play." The Day. New London, Connecticut. August 5, 1966. Page 12.