Confessions of a Kept Man: My Strange Friendship with Silent Movie Star Patsy Ruth Miller

By Jeffrey L. Carrier

An 80-year-old woman who was once a famous movie star entices a 20-year-old newspaper reporter to help in the writing of her memoir, gradually enfolding him within a web of control and manipulation. If it sounds like Sunset Boulevard, there are indeed similarities in this fascinating true story. Patsy Ruth Miller was a silent movie star, best known as Esmeralda in the 1923 silent classic, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, opposite Lon Chaney. Jeffrey L. Carrier was a 20-year-old college student and part-time news reporter who fell under her spell. Beginning in 1984, It took four years to complete the book, and Carrier writes about that fascinating experience in clear and engaging prose as he describes happy days and heated conversations, a feeling of giddy delight and almost unbearable stress, sometimes enjoying being pampered and sometimes being rigidly controlled. It was often an uncomfortable experience, making him feel like a “kept man,” and he made his escape when the book was finished. Dramatic moments (the sudden death of her husband, a serious angina attack) are juxtaposed with moments of pathos (Miss Miller’s touching admission that she felt forgotten by Hollywood), making it a book that offers something to savor on every page. Patsy Ruth Miller’s memoir was published in 1988 and has been delighting fans of silent films ever since. This book pulls back the curtain to reveal how that book was created and describe how two people – one an old and faded star and one a young and naïve reporter -- formed a very unusual friendship.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Jul 26, 2023
• ISBN: 9798823012140

Jeffrey L. Carrier

Jeffrey L. Carrier was born in 1963 and grew up in Mountain City, Tennessee. A 1981 graduate of Johnson County High School, he attended Carson-Newman College for two years and graduated with a degree in English from Northern Michigan University in Marquette, in 1985. After briefly pursuing a graduate degree in film history at NYU, in New York City, he continued to live in that city for ten years, working for the advertising agency of Ogilvy & Mather. He was also an account executive at a stock photography agency for several years and has been an on-line retailer since 2002, specializing in film memorabilia. He is the author of four previous books: Upon a Lonely Hill: The Cemeteries of Johnson County, Tennessee, 1985; Jennifer Jones: A Bio-Bibliography, 1990; Tallulah Bankhead: A Bio-Bibliography, 1991; and At the Corner of Guilt and Delight, Growing Up Gay in a Small, Southern Town, 2022. He also assisted silent film actress Patsy Ruth Miller in the writing of her memoir, published in 1988. He currently lives in Columbus, Ohio.

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© 2023 Jeffrey L. Carrier. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or

transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse  10/10/2023

ISBN: 979-8-8230-1213-3 (sc)

ISBN: 979-8-8230-1214-0 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2023913802

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Contents

Who Was Patsy Ruth Miller?

Patsy Ruth Miller and Me

Dedicate

d to

Marie Stamos & Gloria Jimenez

who worked hard to make the life of an old movie star comfortable

Photo.0.jpg

Patsy Ruth Miller ~ January 17, 1904 - July 16, 1995

Who Was Patsy Ruth Miller?

I n 1922, if the average American man was asked to name his favorite female movie star, he would probably have said, without hesitation, Gloria Swanson or Mary Pickford or Lillian Gish. But maybe, just maybe, his answer might have been Patsy Ruth Miller. The 18-year-old native of St. Louis had made her film debut the previous year but had already been elevated to leading lady status at Goldwyn. By the end of that year, she had graced the screen in ten motion pictures.

If the reams of publicity during 1921 and 1922 about the young actress is any indication, Miss Miller was well on her way to becoming a star rivalling Swanson, Gish and even Pickford. She had great promise, according to the nation’s newspapers, but that promise was never quite fulfilled. Even though she did become one of the screen’s most popular players of the 1920s, she never became a top-flight star, and her career petered out during the first years of talking pictures.

Why did this pretty and talented actress not become one of the Great Stars? The answer, if there is one, may never be known or understood.

Patsy Ruth Miller made an auspicious film debut, supporting Nazimova in Camille, made for Metro in 1921. This was a long-anticipated production and attracted a great deal of attention when it was released, some of it not particularly flattering. But appearing in a Nazimova picture did no one’s career any harm. And for a novice like Miller, it was a great beginning.

The critics paid little attention to the newcomer however, devoting most of their column inches to Nazimova and Rudolph Valentino, who had the role of Armand, and criticizing the strange, avant-garde sets designed by Natacha Rambova. The film was a financial failure and effectively toppled Nazimova from her pinnacle of stardom. Seen today, it is Miss Miller whose acting seems the most refreshing and unaffected, especially in scenes with the histrionic Nazimova.

The critics may not have noticed her, but studio executives certainly did. She had no trouble getting work. Even before Camille was released, she had been signed for the ingenue role in Handle with Care, a Grace Darmond vehicle which was released in December of 1921. By that time, she had already been placed under contract to Goldwyn as part of their No Star policy which the studio had adopted earlier that year.

According to an article published in the Grand Rapids Herald on April 23, 1922:

In carrying out that policy, Goldwyn has uncovered a whole bevy of mighty capable young men and women players. Cullen Landis is one product. Colleen Moore is another. And Patsy Ruth Miller is yet another. She’s a comely damsel who has been seen as a leading woman in a number of Goldwyn productions.

Apparently, Goldwyn was not interested in grooming its young contract players for stardom, but instead put them in films in which no one got star billing. The number of Goldwyn productions referred to in the article totaled three. She and Cullen Landis were featured in all of them. Where is My Wandering Boy Tonight? and Watch Your Step had been released in February and Remembrance, written and directed by Rupert Hughes, was released in April. She had the feminine lead in all three and received good notices for her performances.

Colleen Moore, also mentioned in the article as a product of the No Star policy, was not happy with her position at Goldwyn. She was ambitious and yearned for stardom.

I made several pictures for Goldwyn in 1921 and 1922, she wrote in her 1968 autobiography, Silent Star, finally reaching the point where I was getting $1,000 a week, but as far as my future was concerned, I wasn’t getting anywhere. I couldn’t go on being a featured player. Either I became a star, or I would fall back and become a leading lady again.

It’s easy to understand how a young, ambitious actress would be frustrated working for the Goldwyn Studio. The salary Miss Moore mentions is another interesting point because, as reported by the Baltimore News on November 23, 1922, Patsy Ruth Miller was mighty glad to get $250 a week last year. Now she has $1,250 at the end of every seven days. This would seem to indicate that, at the end of 1922, Patsy Ruth Miller was more valuable to the Goldwyn Studio than Colleen Moore.

Movie audiences saw a lot of Patsy Ruth Miller in 1922. In addition to the films made for her home studio, she was loaned to Fox as Tom Mix’s leading lady in two westerns, performed the same duty for Hoot Gibson in another western and supported Earle Williams in Fortune’s Mask, a Vitagraph production set below the border. Williams had been an enormously popular star before the First World War and still commanded a loyal following. His popularity certainly added to her screen exposure and reputation.

The western films, especially those with Mix, played an important part in the development of her career. Mix had a world-wide following and his films were box office gold.

Miss Miller’s final film of 1922 was a prestigious adaptation of the popular play, Omar the Tentmaker, made for First National, with stage star Guy Bates Post in the lead. The leading lady was Virginia Browne Faire, Miss Miller taking the supporting role of Little Shireen. Boris Karloff was also a member of the cast.

Despite her end-of-the-year return to supporting roles, she had become a popular – and oft seen – leading lady. In film reviews, she was referred to as Goldwyn’s newest find, an actress rapidly coming to the fore or a refreshing new screen beauty.

Articles in fan magazines always commented on her beauty, her talent, her intelligence (she topped the list when an IQ test was administered to Goldwyn players) and, of course, her bright future. Oh yes, great things were expected of Patsy Ruth Miller. Take, for instance, this tidbit from the Sacramento Union on June 22, 1922:

This is to sing the praises of a few unsung toilers of the screen, to bestow recognition upon brows as yet unadorned by filmdom’s stellar diadem. Patsy Ruth Miller, Madge Bellamy, Mary Astor, Mary Philbin and Jacqueline Logan are young ladies whose cinema experience is limited, but for whom the light ahead burns brightly.

Stardom seemed just around the corner for the young actress, and no one expected it more than the exhibitors and publicists who voted her as one of the first WAMPAS Baby Stars. Conceived by members of the Western Association of Motion Picture Advertisers, the idea was to recognize those actresses who, during the past year, have shown the most talent and promise for stardom.

Young actresses and their agents yearned and schemed to be nominated and then chosen. As for publicity, in the twelve years that the WAMPAS Baby Stars flourished, the event attracted almost as much attention as the Academy Awards do today.

The first Baby Stars were announced in January of 1922 and presented, much like debutantes at a cotillion, on March 15th at the Ambassador Hotel. Patsy Ruth Miller was one of thirteen young ladies for whom stardom was predicted. The others were Marion Aye, Helen Ferguson, Lila Lee, Jacqueline Logan, Louise Lorraine, Bessie Love, Kathryn McGuire, Colleen Moore, Mary Philbin, Pauline Starke, Lois Wilson and Claire Windsor. Of that group, Colleen Moore reached the highest rung of stardom, with the others settling on various levels. Bessie Love had, by far, the longest career, making her last appearance on screen in 1983.

The selection committee was often very insightful in their predictions. Future Baby Stars included such young women as Mary Astor, Laura la Plante, Joan Crawford, Myrna Loy, Dolores Del Rio, Clara Bow, Janet Gaynor, Jean Arthur and Loretta Young.

Referred to as the Stars of Tomorrow by the press, that first group was as described by Photoplay Magazine as a big bunch of rosebuds when presented at the Ambassador. The article described what each actress was wearing, but