12 - Lillian Gish
from PART IV - INTERVIEWS
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 May 2013
Summary
This interview took place in Miss Gish's Manhattan apartment on August 1, 1978. She was 84 years old. The interview was arranged by Lillian Vallish Foote, who was named after Miss Gish, and suggested by her husband, Horton; I had met the Footes at that summer's Faulkner conference in Mississippi, and we remained friends. I told Miss Gish that I would be playing this tape for my film history students and that they were her audience. It is significant that Miss Gish did not receive credit as producer or co-producer on La Bohème, The Scarlet Letter, or The Wind, but she never brought that up in the interview, and Iforgot to ask about it.
LILLIAN GISH: Is it on now?
BRUCE KAWIN: It's on. Could you start with the films you produced at MGM?
GISH: Well, Irving [Thalberg]… When I was signed by MGM, I didn't want the contract they gave me. It was for a lot of money, a million dollars for six pictures, and I wanted $500 a week and a percentage of my film, just enough to live on out there—Mother…—and they wouldn't give it to me. Because I had made films for inspiration and I had a percentage, a gross percentage, not a net; you never see a net percentage.[...]
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- Information
- Selected Film Essays and Interviews , pp. 81 - 88Publisher: Anthem PressPrint publication year: 2013