Intro. to Fairbanks
Before Diving into the world of early Cinema take a moment to review some main tenets of Fairbanks legendary persona so that you may appreciate his rise fully!
1
Young Life
Hailing from Denver Colorado Fairbanks was extremely motivated to be an actor from a young age. He memorized Shakespearean soliloquies and made his Broadway Debut at 18 in 1901. Fairbanks then took a detour through a wall street job then a cattle boat to Europe and back to explore before he became a Broadway establishment in 1910. From here at age 27 his acting career truly began to takeoff, but the lengthy preamble to his ultimate goal surely shaped the man he became.
2
Breaking into Vaudeville
Fairbanks had the look, the charisma, and the drive to be a star. He did not wait to be noticed, he strived to make something of himself in the world of Vaudeville and did just that. His three primary trademarks were his comedy, amateur gymnast skills, and slightly less amateur boxing skills. Fairbanks was signed to a 2,000 dollar a week based on his Vaudeville acts by Harry Aitken of The Triangle Corporation in 1915, and never looked back. Aitken later said, "we picked Douglas Fairbanks as a likely film star not on account of his stunts, as the majority thinks, but because of the splendid humanness that fairly oozed out of him."
3
Brand that made the Man
Fairbanks was one of early Hollywoods first leading men, starring in major adventure films like The Mark of Zorro or Robin Hood but his persona in the industry is what solidified him as a legend. Marrying the mega-star Mary Pickford and founding his own production company made his name synonymous with the concept of Hollywood, without him the industry today may look a whole lot different.
