Francis X. Bushman - Silent Film Career

Silent Film Career

Bushman retained the talented services of Harry Reichenbach as his agent. When Bushman noted that he was slated to star in Ben-Hur, Reichenbach had an idea to increase his marketability. He took Bushman to see studio executives from the railway station and dropped pennies to the street from his pocket. People followed them, picking up the coins as they went. The studio executives got the impression that Bushman was very popular and cast him as Messala. Bushman was worried that playing the villain would harm his career, and he asked William S. Hart (who had played the part on stage for years) for advice. Hart's said, "Take it. It's the best part in the play!" Unlike Ramón Novarro, the star of the picture, Bushman knew how to drive a team of horses and a chariot. When Ben Hur was remade in 1959, Charlton Heston had to learn the skill and quipped, "The only man in Hollywood who can drive a chariot is Francis X. Bushman — and he's too old!" Bushman was sixteen years older than Novarro, though their characters were supposed to have been children together.

That role might have elevated Bushman's career to stardom, except for allegedly being blacklisted by Louis B. Mayer of the Metro Goldwyn Mayer film studio. Film historians write that when Mayer visited Bushman's home, the valet, not knowing him, had refused him entrance. This imagined insult angered Mayer.

At the peak of his career, Bushman was advertised as "The Handsomest Man in the World". He was also known as "the King of Photoplay" or "the King of Movies", before those were later attached to Clark Gable. During that time, he was married to Bayne and living with her in their Maryland compound "Bushmoor" with roughly thirty pet dogs and (allegedly) the largest private collection of songbirds in the world.