# The WTC Was Erich von Stroheim, not Conrad Veidt, you Moron! **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 11, 2003, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-wtc-was-erich-von-stroheim-not-conrad-veidt-you-moron/200890 "2003-09-11T01:52:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Snooooopy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@Snooooopy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snooooopy)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2003, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-wtc-was-erich-von-stroheim-not-conrad-veidt-you-moron/200890/21 "2003-09-11T16:10:02Z")
Why do we love to hate von Stroheim? ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2003, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-wtc-was-erich-von-stroheim-not-conrad-veidt-you-moron/200890/22 "2003-09-11T16:42:27Z")
btw, Veidt was up for the title role that went to Bela Lugosi in DRACULA. God, I’d love to see that! ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2003, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-wtc-was-erich-von-stroheim-not-conrad-veidt-you-moron/200890/23 "2003-09-11T17:19:46Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by lissener \* > \*\*I just recently watched (again) _Sunset Boulevard_ . \*\* I’ve read lots of great anecdotes about von Stroheim from that movie, two of my favorite being: 1- he couldn’t drive and the producers didn’t know it until the scene when he drives Norma to Paramount; the Isotta Fraschini was being pulled with a cable by a delivery truck in those scenes. 2- he drove the director and staff nuts with “helpful” suggestions on how to do their job- among other things, he wanted to include a scene in which Max launders Norma’s underwear. (He generally reminded them of why he was physically locked up when his movies were being edited.) Speaking of underwear, is von Stroheim the one who spent thousands of dollars to make sure the underwear on the military extras in a war movie was accurate to the period (even though all the soldiers remained fully clothed in the movie)? It sounds like something he’d have done. (I know that for GREED he had some copies of the film painted with real gold in scenes where gold coins are being counted.) ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2003, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-wtc-was-erich-von-stroheim-not-conrad-veidt-you-moron/200890/24 "2003-09-11T17:53:15Z")
Maybe the expert meant to say “the World Trade Center was the General Weygand of buildings” but it came out sounding like he said Conrad Veidt because of his accent. ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2003, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-wtc-was-erich-von-stroheim-not-conrad-veidt-you-moron/200890/25 "2003-09-11T19:03:22Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Snooooopy \* > \*\*Why do we love to hate von Stroheim? \*\* During WWI he specialized in playing Evil Hun characters in films, and his studio promoted him as “The Man You Love to Hate.” When he became a director, it stuck because he was such a tyrant on the set. There have been at least two documentaries and one bio of him titled “The Man You Love to Hate;” none thus far called “The World Trade Center of Directors.” ---
**Author:** ![plnnr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7ea924/32.png) [@plnnr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/plnnr)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2003, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-wtc-was-erich-von-stroheim-not-conrad-veidt-you-moron/200890/26 "2003-09-11T20:07:13Z")
Roger on the Von Stroheim underwear tale. ---
**Author:** ![Michael\_Ellis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/977dab/32.png) [@Michael\_Ellis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Michael_Ellis)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2003, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-wtc-was-erich-von-stroheim-not-conrad-veidt-you-moron/200890/27 "2003-09-11T20:15:22Z")
Dammit, no one’s answered my question yet! > [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Michael Ellis \* > \*\*So what does that make Norma Desmond? \*\* ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2003, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-wtc-was-erich-von-stroheim-not-conrad-veidt-you-moron/200890/28 "2003-09-11T20:29:03Z")
The Chrysler Building? “We didn’t need glass facades, we had _gargoyles_ . . . There are no more facades like that . . . Maybe one . . . The Empire State Building . . .” ---
**Author:** ![McJohn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b2d939/32.png) [@McJohn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/McJohn)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2003, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-wtc-was-erich-von-stroheim-not-conrad-veidt-you-moron/200890/29 "2003-09-11T20:54:03Z")
Norma: The Washed-Up Has-Been You Love to Quote? Eve, I figure you know this stuff better’n anyone. The Austrian army underwear tale has been circulating 'bout 'ol Erich for decades. The version I heard attached itself like a barnacle to “Merry Go Round”, wherein that paragon of accuracy, Irving Thalberg, cited it as an example of von Stroheim’s extravagance. This strikes me, however, as about as likely as the whole Aileen Pringle story (that during a romantic swept-into-his-arms scene in a silent film, she allegedly mouthed to her virile co-star “Drop me, you son-of-a-bitch, and I’ll break your neck”). After all, Thalberg did fire von Stroheim, and he did replace him with Rupert Julian, and everyone did say the resulting film sucked dirty green rocks. So, Eve the expert on early Hollywood, how much of this ought we to believe? (Just to muddy the waters, if I were a documentary filmmaker and somebody had come up with a goofed-up identification of a long-ago film star, I’d leave it in the finished film: you have to be careful about feeding lines to your talking heads, the comment made the point, and the poor sap who said it will probably never be allowed to live it down.) ---
**Author:** ![Michael\_Ellis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/977dab/32.png) [@Michael\_Ellis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Michael_Ellis)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2003, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-wtc-was-erich-von-stroheim-not-conrad-veidt-you-moron/200890/30 "2003-09-11T20:57:32Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Eve \* > \*\*The Chrysler Building? “We didn’t need glass facades, we had _gargoyles_ . . . There are no more facades like that . . . Maybe one . . . The Empire State Building . . .” \*\* Beautiful. ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2003, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-wtc-was-erich-von-stroheim-not-conrad-veidt-you-moron/200890/31 "2003-09-12T13:32:32Z")
The Chrysler Building is Norma Desmond. ESB: You used to be big. CB: It was the City that got small. ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2003, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-wtc-was-erich-von-stroheim-not-conrad-veidt-you-moron/200890/32 "2003-09-12T14:16:26Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by McJohn \* > **The Austrian army underwear tale has been circulating 'bout 'ol Erich for decades. The version I heard attached itself like a barnacle to “Merry Go Round”, wherein that paragon of accuracy, Irving Thalberg, cited it as an example of von Stroheim’s extravagance. This strikes me, however, as about as likely as the whole Aileen Pringle story (that during a romantic swept-into-his-arms scene in a silent film, she allegedly mouthed to her virile co-star “Drop me, you son-of-a-bitch, and I’ll break your neck”). After all, Thalberg did fire von Stroheim, and he did replace him with Rupert Julian, and everyone did say the resulting film sucked dirty green rocks. So, Eve the expert on early Hollywood, how much of this ought we to believe?** I, too, suspect it’s a red herring. I read an excellent [biography](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0813121388/qid=1063376495/sr=1-2/ref=sr_1_2/104-4992726-8477548?v=glance&s=books) of von Stroheim a couple of years ago and I’m sure it goes into the matter, though I can’t remember offhand. ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2003, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-wtc-was-erich-von-stroheim-not-conrad-veidt-you-moron/200890/33 "2003-09-12T15:47:37Z")
I’d heard the soldiers’ underwear story in connection with one of my alltime favorite films, The Scarlet Empress. ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2003, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-wtc-was-erich-von-stroheim-not-conrad-veidt-you-moron/200890/34 "2003-09-12T16:10:16Z")
“It took more than one man to change my name to Cathewine the Gweat.” ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2003, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-wtc-was-erich-von-stroheim-not-conrad-veidt-you-moron/200890/35 "2003-09-12T16:14:16Z")
Really though the Woolworth building would be the Norma Desmond. Biggest in 1912. Now under appreciated. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2003, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-wtc-was-erich-von-stroheim-not-conrad-veidt-you-moron/200890/36 "2003-09-12T16:15:35Z")
Suspiciously, I’ve heard similar stories told about Michael Cimino. Supposedly during the making of _Heaven’s Gate_ he not only insisted that all of the actors in crowd scenes wear authentic style clothes including underwear, but he also bought actual vintage clothing for his main performers rather than have reproductions made. Cimino also supposedly insisted on having rooms inside buildings on his town set completely furnished, including the contents of drawers, even if no scenes were filmed inside. ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2003, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-wtc-was-erich-von-stroheim-not-conrad-veidt-you-moron/200890/37 "2003-09-12T16:19:15Z")
Well I could see the corset thing. Women look and stand and walk differently when they are wearing corsets. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2003, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-wtc-was-erich-von-stroheim-not-conrad-veidt-you-moron/200890/38 "2003-09-12T20:03:28Z")
> [@](#): > > _Originally posted by Little Nemo_ > I’ve always said Willis C. Hawley was “the Man I Love to Hate”. But I realize not everyone’s as passionate as I am over trade issues. I’ve always maintained that Willis Hawley has been unfairly blamed for something that was really Senator Reed Smoot’s fault. > [@](#): > > _Originally posted by Sampiro_ > (I know that for GREED he had some copies of the film painted with real gold in scenes where gold coins are being counted.) Is this true? I would think that, gold not being know for its transparency, the result would look like big black splotches when projected onto a screen. ---
**Author:** ![Governor\_Quinn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/d26b3c/32.png) [@Governor\_Quinn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Governor_Quinn)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2003, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-wtc-was-erich-von-stroheim-not-conrad-veidt-you-moron/200890/39 "2003-09-12T23:41:58Z")
Well, the version of “Greed” I’ve seen with a large number of added photos had a large number of gold-painted items. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2003, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-wtc-was-erich-von-stroheim-not-conrad-veidt-you-moron/200890/40 "2003-09-12T23:50:16Z")
Sure, you could paint them gold-colored. I just don’t think you could use _real_ gold to get that effect. Could be wrong, though: I’m hardly an expert. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-wtc-was-erich-von-stroheim-not-conrad-veidt-you-moron/200890.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-wtc-was-erich-von-stroheim-not-conrad-veidt-you-moron/200890.md?page=3)