His mother, his father and stepfather were actors and working for touring companies. For Jack that meant living an unstable life on the road. When Jack was 16 his mother died. After working any job he could get, he made his way into the movie business. When he was already a working actor, he met his first wife Olivia Burwell, who he married quite spontaneously. At the same time he enlisted for World War I. But Jack was never send into combat and the couple realised they made a mistake. Jack send Olivia away to live with her family in Mississippi. He just couldn't earn enough money to provide for them both.
The US Census 1920 started on January 5th 1920.
Jack is married but is not living with his wife.
You can check out the available data on familysearch. click If you want to see a scan of the original document, you will have to sign up with ancestry. But looking at the data is really enough for now.
Name: John C. Gilbert
Place: Los Angeles Assembly District 64, Los Angeles, California
Area: 208
male, 22 years old,
Jack can read and write.
He is a lodger. His estimated year of birth is 1898.
Birthplace: Utah.
Father's birthplace: Pennsylvania
Mother's birthplace: Utah.
So far, everything fits to the story.
His wife who he had only married in August 1918 doesn't live with him. According to his biographies Olivia would live in Mississippi with her family. Let's see ...
Data can be found here.
Surprise! Olivia does not live in Mississippi!
Name: Olivia Gilbert
Place: Los Angeles Assembly District 63, Los Angeles, California !!!
Area: 156
Now we're surprised! Olivia is still living in Los Angeles, but apart from Jack!
It really is Olivia. The head of her household is her mother Nannie Burwell. (Olivia's father had already died some time ago.)
In January 1920 Olivia lives with her mother in what seems to be a pension.
Jack is living in a different part of town.
I could not find any documents for any of Jack's divorces.
But by 1922 Jack was with his future wife Leatrice Joy. Even before his divorce from Olivia Burwell went through, Jack got married to Leatrice in a hasty ceremony in Mexico.
They later got officially married in Los Angeles on March 3rd 1923.
Data can be found here. From the collection "California, County Marriages, 1850-1952".
John Gilbert
lives in Los Angeles, born in Utah,
25 years old, estimated year of birth 1898, father Walter B. Gilbert, mother Ida Adair Apperley
married
Leatrice Joy Zeidler
lives in Los Angeles, born in Louisiana
25 years old, estimated year of birth 1898, father Edward J Zeidler, mother Mae Crimen.
There were two witnesses:
Jean Summerfield from Los Angeles (she seems to be working in the office) and
Paul Bern from Los Angeles.
Paul Bern war a MGM screenwriter and friend of Jack. Later Paul Bern would marry Jean Harlow and he would go on to kill himself under mysterious circumstances. Jack will be witness at Paul's wedding to Jean in 1932.
Jack was very smitten with Leatrice. Did Jack finally manage to settle down to build a small family life? Everything looks good. Leatrice gets pregnant.
On September 6th 1924 their daughter Leatrice Joy Gilbert (later Fountain) is born.
You can find the data hier.
Unfortunately Leatrice had to see that it was impossible to live with Jack, no matter how much they were in love with each other. His moods were changing all the time. He drank and smoked, stayed away the nights. (Drinking alone was a huge issue then as from 1918-1933 prohibition was in state! But that couldn't stop Jack!) But what was even worse, was that Jack just couldn't find happiness. He never felt loved enough, he never felt he got enough attention. So he strayed. Which was hard for Leatrice. You can still feel her pain when you see her interview segment from Kevin Brownlow's documentary. They were in love, but couldn't live with each other. Leatrice left and Jack never stopped trying to win her back.
1924 was a turbulent year for Jack.
His daughter was born. His second marriage crumbled. And his career started to take off.
In 1925 he filmed the movie "The Merry Widow". Director was Erich von Stroheim.
Von Stroheim's "temperament" was horrific. Born Austrian, he had military training. With his bravado he created his own niche in early Hollywood movies - the German hun.
Von Stroheim was a genius director, but on filmset he was diabolic.
MGM made him cast Jack in the male lead. But von Stroheim wanted a different actor! This of course led to big fights.
The female lead was cast with Mae Murray. Her behaviour on that set has since become part of Hollywood legend. Mae Murray was supposedly the main inspiration for Norma Desmond in "Sunset Boulevard". (Billy Wilder did try to cast her for the part, but Mae's healthy made casting her impossible.) Mae Murray ended her film career with her behaviour on set. "The Merry Widow" is her swan song. After that only came decline. She died poor and forgotten.
To understand under what circumstances Jack filmed the movie, watch these two short clips from "Silent Hollywood" by Kevin Brownlow.
In case you only want to see that part which deals with "The Merry Widow", watch the second part and skip to minute 5.
Mae Murray later told of a situation that sends shivers down your spine knowing Jack's life story.
Erich von Stroheim screamed so much abuse at Jack, that he just wordlessly left the set. The team went looking for him for hours until on of the crew found him crouching in his cupboard in his dressing room.
Just like when his mother locked him in cupboards during his childhood when there was no one to look after him.
And as if filming the movie wasn't difficult enough ...
(And I still ask myself I he really didn't know he was born under the name Pringle.)
Poor Jack!
But still. You can't see his personal troubles on screen. Jack does a wonderful job!
Watch his wonderful 5 minute clip.
Click.
(Note John G. Pringle as a servant.)
Basically I have absolutely no understand for someone cheating and boozing ... but I do understand that there were tough times for Jack!
His is the beginning of his absolute Hollywood triumph! No more financial worries, no more loneliness. He worked himself out of misery!
But still his problems seem to be catching up with him.
In the next part, we'll look at the other Gilbert wives.
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