Box Office Browning Page 21

  Darcy made moves towards taking out American citizenship and enlisting in the military and he was in training for his first licensed fight when he collapsed. He died of blood poisoning and heart failure in Memphis, Tennessee. His remains were shipped back to Australia to an emotional reception and a cult, based on Irish and Australian nationalism and anti-American sentiments, grew up around him.

  Darcy appeared in the 1915 semi-documentary two-reeler The Heart of a Champion, produced and directed by J. E. Mathews. Nothing survives of a 1916 filming as recounted by Browning and it is probable that the film was not completed. See Raymond Swanwick, Les Darcy: Australia's Golden Boy of Boxing, Sydney, 1965; Ray Edmondson and Andrew Pike, Australia's Lost Films, Canberra, 1982.

  2. Peter Dawson, 1882-1961, was a popular baritone who made recordings and concert appearances in Australia and overseas. Browning does not sing on the tapes which cover this early period of his life so it is impossible to judge the quality of his voice. He may have made recordings or worked on musical films later but this will not be known until more of the cassettes are transcribed.

  3. Raymond Longford, 1874-1950, was born in Sydney and followed, as Browning says, a number of occupations before directing his first film in 1911. His greatest success was The Sentimental Bloke in 1914. Few of Longford's 30 feature films survive. Lottie Lyell, once regarded only as an actress, is now credited with a major role in the writing and directing of Longford's films.

  4. The Temperance Movement added patriotic arguments to its case against alcohol in 1916. A drunken riot by soldiers from the Casula camp near Liverpool had an effect on public opinion. A plebiscite in New South Wales on the question revealed that a majority of the voters were in favour of restricting hotel hours. As a result, regulations were passed which closed hotels at 6pm 'for the duration'.

  5. Farnol would have been referring particularly to John Jeffrey Farnol, a successful romantic novelist of the period. Among Farnol's best-known works are The Amateur Gentleman and Peregrine's Progress.

  6. Kathleen Behan (Kate) Leigh, 1887-1964, was a sly grog seller, brothel keeper and drug peddler notorious in Sydney for the first fifty years of this century.

  7. Eugene St Clair (Hughie) Dwyer held, at different times, the lightweight, welterweight and middleweight boxing championships of Australia. After his retirement as a fighter he became a successful boxing promoter.

  8. Daniel Mannix, 1864-1963, became Catholic Archbishop of Melbourne in 1917 and remained so until his death. He was an ardent spokesman for the anti-conscription case, Irish nationalism and later for a variety of conservative social and political issues.

  9. The figures on the first conscription referendum must have had a strong impact on Browning for he recollects them accurately. Serving troops also rejected the measure. A second referendum held in 1917 also failed.

  10. Browning was evidently inattentive at Dudleigh Grammar; the accurate quotation is:

  . . . while to my shame I see

  The imminent death of twenty thousand men

  That for a fantasy and trick of fame

  Go to their graves like beds . . .

  Hamlet, IV, v.

  11. Raymond Chandler, 1888-1959, was the greatest exponent of the hard-boiled detective story. His serial character, Phillip Marlowe, much imitated, remains the most appealing hero in this genre. Chandler was educated at Dulwich College in England, hence the accent reported by Browning. He served in a Canadian army unit and later, briefly, in the RAF. Later, as a famous and successful novelist, he worked in Hollywood writing scripts for such films as Double Indemnity and The Blue Dahlia.

  12. Raoul Walsh, 1887-1981, was a prolific Hollywood director who used such stars as Douglas Fairbanks Snr, Errol Flynn, Humphrey Bogart, Gary Cooper and Clark Gable in his films, among the best known of which are The Thief of Bagdad, The Big Trail, High Sierra and The Revolt of Mamie Stover.

  13. A volunteer expeditionary force, which included some Australians, invaded North Russia in 1919 with the intention of uniting with local dissidents to overthrow the Bolshevik Government. Two Australians were awarded the Victoria Cross for bravery during this ill-conceived and unsuccessful action.

  14. William Somerset Maugham had two plays running in London in 1919, Caesar's Wife and La Princesse de Cleves.

  15. This was a sensationalist concoction by Ambrose Pratt who specialised in this form of 'literature'. The book was denounced as fraudulent by various authorities but had large sales and went through several editions.

  16. Details of Browning's involvement with Gone with the Wind, Casablanca, David Selznick and Raoul Walsh (see note 12 above), will no doubt come to light when more of the cassettes are transcribed.

  17. Browning's is a sketchy, but accurate, account of the shootout between the giant thug and gunman 'Long Harry' Slater and the big-time two-up operator, Harry Stokes. Both were wounded and left Victoria, possibly to avoid serious police charges being laid. See Alfred W. McCoy, Drug Traffic, Sydney, 1980, p. 108.

  Leslie 'Squizzie' Taylor was a gangster, razor gang member, bank robber and police informer. He was killed in a gun fight with another hoodlum in 1927.

  18. Louis Lumière is regarded by some as the 'father' of the modern cinema. His photographic innovations and advances speeded the sophistication of filming. Lumière produced and directed many films including pioneering shorts such as L'Arivée d'un Train en Gare de la Ciotat which startled audiences with its image of a train rushing towards the camera and L'Arroseur Arrosé, the first cinematic farce and fiction.

  19. Browning's judgement is perhaps excessively harsh. The Kelly Gang drew some favourable comment but was not a great commercial success, nor were subsequent films by Southwell. In all, he made four films based on the Kelly story. In Europe he made the Biblical drama David and Le Juif Polonais which he later re-made in Australia as The Burgomeister (1935). See Andrew Pike and Ross Cooper, Australian Film, 1900-1977, Oxford, 1980, p. 131.

  20. The International Workers of the World ('Wobblies'), were radical and sometimes violent agitators for improvement in working conditions. They were not a force in the Australian film industry but were present in Hollywood as Browning may later have discovered. See Kevin Brownlow, The Parade's Gone By . . ., London, 1968, pp. 68-9.

  21. See note 1.