# La Boheme (1926) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 2, 2004, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/la-boheme-1926/227139 "2004-02-02T03:35:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Ilsa\_Lund](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/a6a055/32.png) [@Ilsa\_Lund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ilsa_Lund)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2004, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/la-boheme-1926/227139/1 "2004-02-02T03:35:57Z")
King Vidor. Lillian Gish. John Gilbert. A winning combination. King Vidor is certainly one of the best American directors ever (I count Hitchcock as English). Lillian Gish was one of the best actresses of the silent, or any era. **Eve** , we want Gish stories! (You are absolutely _unforgiven_ if you haven’t seen this) A glorious adaptation of a simple Puccini opera, I have placed it on my top ten in replacement of _The Crowd_. What can be said? Simple, moving, extraordinary. (I _HATE_ Robert Osbourne.) 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2004, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/la-boheme-1926/227139/2 "2004-02-02T15:59:17Z")
Of _course_ I’ve seen it—I have 40-some letters from Miss Lillian in my mother’s strongbox (we were friends for the last 20 years of her life). In her memoirs, Miss Lillian said Jack Gilbert fell madly in love with her, as he did with all of his leading ladies, and she led him quite a chase (Miss Lillian was not so much straight or gay, as Just Not Interested). Me, I’d have done Jack Gilbert here, there or anywhere. Note poor Renée Adorée in the cast—she died a few years later of the same disease that claimed Mimi in the film. ---
**Author:** ![Kalhoun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3bc359/32.png) [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2004, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/la-boheme-1926/227139/3 "2004-02-02T16:39:19Z")
How weird is that? Yikes! Back to Lillian…did she ever have a love life, or was she always Not Interested? Also, what other cool information did she write to you? ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2004, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/la-boheme-1926/227139/4 "2004-02-02T17:33:46Z")
> [@Kalhoun](#): > > Back to Lillian…did she ever have a love life, or was she always Not Interested? Also, what other cool information did she write to you? I had always suspected Miss Lillian and her longtime friend Nell Dorr were an item, but her very reliable biographer Charles Affron says she had a long-term affair with critic George Jean Nathan. Our letters were usually of the chatty what’s-going-on-now variety. I think one of the reasons she liked me was I wasn’t always asking her the same damn questions about Film History she got bombarded with all the time. ---
**Author:** ![Kalhoun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3bc359/32.png) [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2004, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/la-boheme-1926/227139/5 "2004-02-02T17:53:28Z")
Did you ever meet Nell? ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2004, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/la-boheme-1926/227139/6 "2004-02-02T17:58:52Z")
> [@Kalhoun](#): > > Did you ever meet Nell? No, but she was a big part of Miss Lillian’s memoirs, with many gauzy, sexy photos Nell took of her from the 1910s–50s. So Ah jest _assumed_ . . . ---
**Author:** ![Ilsa\_Lund](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/a6a055/32.png) [@Ilsa\_Lund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ilsa_Lund)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2004, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/la-boheme-1926/227139/7 "2004-02-02T23:26:30Z")
> [@Eve](#): > > Of _course_ I’ve seen it—I have 40-some letters from Miss Lillian in my mother’s strongbox (we were friends for the last 20 years of her life). In her memoirs, Miss Lillian said Jack Gilbert fell madly in love with her, as he did with all of his leading ladies, and she led him quite a chase (Miss Lillian was not so much straight or gay, as Just Not Interested). > > Me, I’d have done Jack Gilbert here, there or anywhere. > > Note poor Renée Adorée in the cast—she died a few years later of the same disease that claimed Mimi in the film. Oh, I didn’t doubt you had seen it, but as it only had ~40 IMDb votes, I just wanted to make sure… 🙂 What sort of case is there for her having been one of the biggest stars _ever_? ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2004, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/la-boheme-1926/227139/8 "2004-02-03T01:29:05Z")
> [@Ilsa\_Lund](#): > > What sort of case is there for her having been one of the biggest stars _ever_? The problem with Miss Lillian is that she was a Prestige Star. Everyone agreed that she was one of the most talented and dedicated actresses of her day–but she never drew the box office money that Garbo or Clara Bow or Norma Talmadge did. ---
**Author:** ![Ilsa\_Lund](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/a6a055/32.png) [@Ilsa\_Lund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ilsa_Lund)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2004, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/la-boheme-1926/227139/9 "2004-02-03T01:31:51Z")
She had (and has) staying power, though, compared to Norma Talmadge or Clara Bow. Garbo has lasted, but she has almost a cult following from what I’ve seen.