Old Heidelberg (1915)

John Emerson’s Old Heidelberg was the second Fine Arts film to be released after W. Christy Cabanne’s The Lamb starring Douglas Fairbanks. It was an adaptation of Wilhelm Meyer-Förster’s 1901 play, which was based on the German writer’s 1898 novel, Karl Heinrich. Emerson was a veteran of the Broadway stage. He worked for Charles Frohman, one of theatre’s leading impresarios, for whom he starred in the hit play The Conspiracy. D. W. Griffith lured him to Hollywood. Old Heidelberg was the first feature Emerson directed.

Anita Loos, a gifted screenwriter who would become Emerson’s wife, recalled him as something of a hypochondriac: “[He] lived under the constant threat of pernicious anemia, but even so I gathered he was overly concerned with his health; he had an abnormal dread of drafts and, being completely without self-consciousness, went about the studio with such adjuncts as a rubber cushion to sit on, woolen scarves in that California heat, an endless assortment of pills, and a valet who was constantly on call to supply those ignoble props.”

According to Loos, there were benches outside the studio occupied by “loafers of both sexes” hoping to find work as an extra. One morning, when Emerson was about to film Old Heidelberg, he noticed a man sitting on there who, in Loos’ words, “conveyed the very spirit of Heidelberg itself: rigid posture, shaved head, monocle, saber scar on cheek, everything.” The man snapped to attention when the director approached him and told him his name was von Stroheim. “Do you know anything about Heidelberg?” Emerson asked him. “I am a graduate of that university, sir,” came the reply. So, according to Loos, began the rise of Erich von Stroheim.

Von Stroheim’s biographer, Thomas Quinn Curtiss, paints a far less romantic – but altogether more detailed – picture. Von Stroheim was already working as an extra when he first saw Emerson walking deep in thought across the yard in which unemployed extras lingered, hoping to be selected for work in whatever movie the studio made that day. He learned from another hopeful that Emerson was directing and starring in a screen adaptation of Henrik Ibsen’s Ghosts for D. W. Griffith. Von Stroheim knew the story well, having seen the Austrian actor Josef Kainz star in a stage production at the Burgtheater in Vienna.

Gathering his nerve, von Stroheim approached Emerson and explained that the ribbon he was wearing was incorrect. When he offered to provide the correct decoration, Emerson told him to be quick, as he started filming the following day.

Stroheim took only three hours to purchase the materials and persuade his landlady to fashion them with needle and thread, but by the time he returned to the studio, Emerson was off the picture. Henry Walthall was to take his place. Von Stroheim insisted on seeing Walthall and, showing him the ribbon, offered to supervise his wardrobe if he put him on the picture at five dollars a day. Walthall agreed.

A few months later, Emerson was back at the studio and approached von Stroheim, who was once more milling amongst the other extras in the yard. After apologising for disappointing him, Emerson asked if he had ever heard of the play Old Heidelberg. Von Stroheim assured him that he had seen it three times in Vienna. When Emerson asked if he had ever been in Heidelberg, von Stroheim admitted he hadn’t, but he knew the students’ customs and costumes. On hearing this, Emerson offered him a position as his assistant at fifteen dollars a week. The director even loaned him some money so that he could find rented accommodation close to the studio. It is possible that Emerson sought out von Stroheim. In his unpublished autobiography, So This Was Hollywood, Howard Gaye recalled: “One day, John Emerson was directing a scene in Old Heidelberg and the correct arrangements of the orders on the uniforms came under discussion. In despair he turned to anyone who could help him, and was told that there was a supposed Austrian officer in the extras’ compound who might be able to set matters right. Accordingly, von Stroheim was brought in and offered twenty dollars a week to stand by and act as advisor.”

That same evening, von Stroheim dined with Emerson at Levy’s Restaurant in Spring Street. The director told him that Wallace Reid and Dorothy Gish were to play the leads, but that the role of the prince’s valet, Lutz, was yet to be cast. They agreed that von Stroheim would play the part. He would also be in charge of casting the minor parts and of student costumes.

The young Austrian began his diverse duties two days later. Each morning, he would line up those cast members playing members of the “student corps”. There would be a roll call, during which von Stroheim would have the actors stand on parade while he inspected their costumes. Onlookers and those forced to participate did not appreciate such displays of Teutonic discipline while a war raged in Europe. Von Stoheim would pay the price once the shoot was over and he returned to the ‘cattle yard’ for extras, where he was subjected to jeers and abuse for his arrogance. While filming was ongoing, however, Emerson was delighted to have someone lighten his load.