(An immortal icon of brooding sexuality, Rudolph Valentino...)
An immortal icon of brooding sexuality, Rudolph Valentino has become one of silent cinema's most enigmatic and entrancing performers. In Blood and Sand he stars as Juan Gallardo, a young Spaniard who achieves his boyhood ambition to become a celebrated toreador. But with fame come temptation and treachery, and the triumphant Juan finds himself the victim of his own desires and the sinister charms of the exotic Doña Sol (Nita Naldi).
(When the throne of Majarajah Sidir Singh of Dagmahar is o...)
When the throne of Majarajah Sidir Singh of Dagmahar is overthrown, and the Majarajah himself is mortally wounded, his trusted military lead General Gadi runs to the aide of Sidir's only son, the Young Rajah.
June Mathis was an American screenwriter. She was the first female executive for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc.
Background
June Mathis was born as June Beulah Hughes on June 30, 1887, in Leadville, Colorado, United States. She was an only child of Virginia Ruth and Dr. Philip Hughes. Her parents divorced when she was seven and her mother remarried to William D. Mathis, whose name she would later adopt as a stage name.
Education
Mathis was educated in Salt Lake City and San Francisco.
Career
At the age of 13 June pursued a career in vaudeville, doing imitations and dances. She had success in San Francisco and eventually played The Orpheum. Her stage career grew over the next few years, bringing her good reviews and much acclaim. In 1908, she played with Julian Eltinge in Brewster's Millions and in 1912 joined him in The Fascinating Widow, which was a major success.
After a brief one-time foray in front of the camera in 1910, Mathis decided she would like to be behind the camera. After two years of self-prescribed study she submitted a script in a screenwriting contest. Even though she didn't win, Mathis received several offers. She took one from Edwin Carewe, and her first produced script was for the film The House of Tears.
Mathis signed with Metro Pictures in 1917, where she quickly rose in the ranks. By 1918 she was writing for the studio's biggest stars, such as Francis X. Bushman, Viola Dana, Mae Murray and Alla Nazimova. Mathis became head of the scenario department, making her the first female film executive ever.
In 1920, she began work on The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, a film that was hers from casting to production. For a director she chose Rex Ingram, and for the role of Julio she chose a small-time actor named Rudolph Valentino. The film was a major success and launched Ingram, Mathis and Valentino into superstardom. It was the top-grossing film of 1921, which made $9 million during its original run and was the sixth highest-grossing silent of all time.
Mathis and Valentino were good friends until a disagreement in 1924 over The Hooded Falcon, but they reconciled before his death in 1926. Mathis moved with Valentino to Famous Players-Lasky, where she wrote Blood and Sand, The Young Rajah and The Spanish Dancer. Blood and Sand was a huge success, becoming one of the top 4 grossing movies of 1922 and a defining film for Valentino, his co-star Nita Naldi and Mathis.
After Valentino embarked on his one-man strike, Mathis signed with Goldwlyn Pictures as an editorial director. She was in charge of Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Chris in the same way she had been for The Four Horsemen. However, director Charles Brabin did not see it that way and the production was a disaster, eventually, Brabin was fired and replaced by Fred Niblo and all the film that had been shot, including all of the expensive location work done in Italy, had to be scrapped and the production begun from scratch. After a year at Goldwyn Mathis left for First National. There she was again an executive, this time writing comedies for Colleen Moore and Corinne Griffith.
After First National Mathis was rumored to be writing for UA or MGM once again, but neither came to be; she died unexpectedly in 1927 at the age of 40 from a heart ailment while watching a performance on Broadway. She was buried next to Valentino, who had died the year before, severely in debt. Mathis had loaned him the crypt but by the 1930s the arrangement became permanent. Today she is mostly forgotten but when she died she was the third most powerful woman in Hollywood, outranking the 3 other major women screenwriters: Anita Loos, Frances Marion and Jeanie Macpherson.
Quotations:
"If you are vibrating in the right place, you will inevitably come in contact with the others who can help you. It's like tuning in on your radio. If you get the right wave-length, you have your station."
Connections
June married Sylvano Balboni on December 20, 1924, at the Mission of St. Cecilia, in Riverside, California.
Father:
Philip Hughes
Mother:
Virginia Ruth Hughes
Spouse:
Sylvano Balboni
References
Contemporary Authors
A Bio-Bibliographical Guide to Current Writers in Fiction, General Non-Fiction, Poetry, Journalism, Drama, Motion Pictures, Television, and Other Fields