Hollywood (1936)

News for September Bon Voyage, Tommy Meighan . . . At the age of 57, Tommy Meighan died after a lingering illness. Unlike most retired stars, he was wealthy throughout recent years EVERYONE who knew him loved him. He had in all the world not one enemy but his friends were legion and they ranged in position from down-and-outers to the great in every walk of life. He was a great actor but he was an even greater human being." Cecil B. DeMille in those words voices the tribute of all Hollywood to Thomas Meighan. You read the story of his long illness and his death in newspaper headlines but only Hollywood knows the real story of Tommy Meighan. It's a story of selfsacrifice, a story of kindly living, of generous giving. He was one of the last of the great stars of yesterday and his death awakens a host of memories which bring back a more colorful, a more glamorous, a more bohemian Hollywood than exists today. In a way Tommy Meighan was a symbol. He came to Hollywood, as gentlemanly as only a genteel Irishman can be, when the motion picture industry — if then it could have been called an industry — was a roistering, nondescript three-ring circus. Its performers were sensationalists, its publicity was only too often scandal. Meighan respected his profession and, perhaps more than any other star of his day, was instrumental in making his profession respected by the world. He lived quietly, graciously, in a time when many other stars were writing their careers in flamboyant headlines. At first Hollywood didn't understand him, and then Hollywood became proud of him. Those of us who have been writing about Hollywood and Hollywood stars for more than a decade, remember very vividly the stories that were told about Tommy Meighan's good deeds. We never wrote them because we respected his wishes. His life was a constant effort to SEPTEMBER, 1936 This unusual photo is a "trick" picture taken from the 1920 opus Why Change Your Wife. Gloria Swanson is having the hysterics while Meighan looks on and Bebe Daniels appears out of nowhere culty. And it was Tommy Meighan who went to the executives of Paramount and browbeat them into giving Valentino the chance that made him a great star. There was another actor in Hollywood who ran afoul of the law — a far more serious case this time. Accused of murder, he was without funds to hire attorneys and most of his professed friends deserted him in his time of need. Tommy Meighan didn't know him very well but he was in trouble and needed help. And again it was Tommy who purchased for him the best legal counsel obtainable, who visited him in jail day after day and struggled to keep his courage high, who herded his witnesses into court and who finally got him transferred to white collar work when the prison jute mills had broken his health. [Continued on page 57] Meighan appeared with Virginia Valli in The Man Who Found Himself. It was a typical screen success for Meighan, top man of the silent days search out and help the needy, but his one fear was that his charities would become publicized. How Tommy Saved Valentino • We Remember for instance an incident which might easily have wrecked the career of Rudolph Valentino. Rudolph, at that time was unknown, without money, without friends and without influence. Arrested in Mexico on a bigamy charge, he was unable to extricate himself from the maze of legal entanglements. It was Tommy Meighan, who scarcely knew him, who sacrificed a long-planned vacation trip to rush to Valentino's aid, post bail for him with the Mexican authorities, and help him out of his diffi Meighan was a police officer of stern qualities in Caddo's 77>e Racket. This photo shows him with Louis Wolheim, who died several years ago 29