Paul Bern

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Paul Bern (December 3, 1889 – September 5, 1932) was a German-American film director, screenwriter and producer for MGM.

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[edit] Life

Bern was born Paul Levy to a Jewish family in Wandsbek, which was then a town in the Prussian province of Schleswig-Holstein, but is since 1937 one of the districts of the city of Hamburg. He came to the United States as a small boy, and spent his impoverished childhood in New York. Slight of build and somewhat unattractive, he nonetheless pursued a career in acting on the stage, then moved toward the non-acting aspects of theater. Eventually he moved to Hollywood and worked as a writer and director for some of the smaller film companies. This led to his working full-time as a producer at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, the biggest studio of all.

The all-star film Grand Hotel won the Best Picture Academy Award for 1931–32. Bern and Irving Thalberg produced the film, although neither was credited (in the early 1930s MGM did not list their films' producers in their credits). However the award was presented to Thalberg only, not Bern.

Bern married film star Jean Harlow on July 2, 1932. Just two months later, on September 5, he was found naked, shot in the head, in their home on Easton Drive, off Benedict Canyon Drive, Beverly Hills, California. The coroner's jury came to the conclusion that his death was a suicide. To avoid scandal, the MGM management had fabricated an explanation, and evidence for it, that Bern had shot himself in the head because he was impotent. A strange note was left near his body that raised more questions than it answered, stating that "last night was only a comedy." All America, it seemed, wanted to know what Bern meant. If Jean Harlow knew, she wasn't telling. Until her death five years later, Harlow never spoke of the matter. To the police and before a grand jury she stated only that she knew nothing.

In 1960, it was suggested by screenwriter Ben Hecht that Bern was murdered by his mentally deranged former common-law wife, Dorothy Millette. The investigation into Paul Bern's death was reopened by the Los Angeles District Attorney. However, the verdict of suicide was not changed. Many people were questioned, including two gardeners. One claimed he heard a car driving away in the early morning. There was no conclusive evidence that Bern argued with his wife before his death and handwriting analysts claimed the suicide note was not in his handwriting. Eddie Mannix, MGM's studio manager, was believed to be the prime suspect, but he was never charged with the crime.

[edit] Deadly Illusions

The alleged "suicide note" from Paul Bern to Jean Harlow reads: "Dearest Dear, Unfortuately [sic] this is the only way to make good the frightful wrong I have done you and to wipe out my abject humiliation, I Love [sic] you. Paul You understand that last night was only a comedy"
The alleged "suicide note" from Paul Bern to Jean Harlow reads: "Dearest Dear, Unfortuately [sic] this is the only way to make good the frightful wrong I have done you and to wipe out my abject humiliation, I Love [sic] you. Paul You understand that last night was only a comedy"

In 1990, Samuel Marx and Joyce Vanderveen published Deadly Illusions. Marx was a story editor at MGM and a friend of both Paul Bern and Irving Thalberg at the time of Bern's death. On September 5, 1932, he had gone to Bern's house -- before the police were informed of the discovery of a dead man -- and saw Thalberg tampering with the evidence. The next day, he was among the studio executives who were told by Louis B. Mayer what the case would have to be to avoid scandal: "Suicide Because of Impotence!"

In the 1980s, Marx investigated the case, and for the first time, scrutinized the remaining available evidence. He concluded that Bern was murdered by his former common law wife Dorothy Millette, who then committed suicide. Two days after Bern's death, Millette jumped from the ferryboat Delta King, traveling from San Francisco to Sacramento. Her body was found a few days later by men fishing on the Sacramento River. Her shoes and her jacket were found on the boat -- she had taken them off before jumping into the water. The "suicide note" was in fact been written by Bern, but some weeks prior to his death, to apologize for a minor quarrel with Harlow about the secluded location of their home -- Harlow wanted to live in a livelier place. Bern had bought a bunch of roses and presented them to Jean with the note that became a "suicide note" in the eyes of Los Angeles district attorney Buron Fitts who was bribed by MGM to keep the lid on the case.

[edit] Selected filmography

[edit] References

  • Samuel Marx and Joyce Vanderveen: Deadly Illusions (Random House, New York, 1990), re-published as Murder Hollywood Style - Who Killed Jean Harlow's Husband? (Arrow, 1994, ISBN 0 09 961060 4)

[edit] External links