Department of Theatre and Film

Amanda McQueen

           Bonita Granville was never more than a B actress. She first came to prominence in 1936, at age 12, with her Oscar-nominated performance as the nasty Mary Tilford in William Wyler’s These Three (Samuel Goldwyn/United Artists), a loose adaptation of Lillian Hellman’s play, The Children’s Hour. In the wake of this role, Granville briefly became one of Hollywood’s most promising and sought-after young talents. She was put under contract at Warner Bros. (1936-1939), MGM (1939-1941) and RKO (1941-1944), but starred only in B films or lower budget programmers, and was relegated to supporting roles of various sizes in the more expensive A films (Churchill 8/25/39 12; Churchill 9/12/41 25). She eventually moved into freelance work, increasingly for Poverty Row studios, before turning to television and then retiring from acting altogether in her early 30s. Perhaps because of her status as a B actress, little has been written about Granville outside of tribute articles published in fan magazines after her death in 1988. Nevertheless, Bonita Granville’s career illustrates an important, but often overlooked, industrial component of the classical Hollywood studio system: the B Movie Star.

           Most studies of classical Hollywood stars, such as Cathy Klaprat’s work on Bette Davis or Robert C. Allen and Douglas Gomery’s analysis of Joan Crawford (based on the work of Richard Dyer), focus on how the studios marketed and developed their most prestigious actors and actresses. These industrial historical analyses, by examining how the studios carefully built and controlled – both on and off the screen – the personas of the stars they created, aptly explain the economic and social functions these well-known actors served within the mature oligopoly of the studio system. Given the importance of B films to the economic stability of the major studios – supplying needed product for theatres, maintaining low overhead costs, providing relatively stable income to offset riskier A level productions – and given that B films were frequently used as testing grounds for promising new studio talent, similar studies of B actors are clearly worth conducting (Taves 314-315, 318, 329; Balio 102; Glancy 63; Miller 58). Yet, little attention has been given to those stars found almost exclusively on the lower half of the double bill. In this essay, I will use the early career of Bonita Granville, from 1936 to 1939 when she was under contract at Warner Bros., as a case study for exploring how, at the B level, the vertically integrated major studios marketed stars to sell their films (Balio 145).

           In Hollywood, B films and A films were produced, distributed and exhibited differently. Since B films were rented for a flat fee, rather than for a percentage of the box office gross, and since B films were a relatively flexible product that different exhibitors could book into their programs as needed, the majors did not plan for their B films the same type of large-scale, national advertising campaigns that they designed to coordinate with the release patterns of the A’s (Jacobs 4-6). Instead, advertising responsibilities for B films fell primarily to exhibitors, and the relative success of a B film depended on the ability of theatre managers to make good use of the studio-provided press book materials, with their lobby displays, publicity stories for local newspapers, and exploitation suggestions (Taves 314; Balio 174-175).¹ The press books were designed by the advertising departments of the studios’ distribution arms in order to instruct exhibitors on what the studio believed were the most effective methods of selling their films to the movie-going public. The Warner Bros. press books for Bonita Granville’s films suggest that a carefully crafted and exploitable star persona was a central component of a B film’s marketing campaign, especially for a performer seen as being on the rise (Klaprat 366; Balio 173, 175).

           The leading actors and actresses of B films were also not under the same types of long-term studio contracts as the A list stars. Even at the height of her career at Warner Bros. in 1939, when she was making $400 a week, Granville would not have been considered a star of the same caliber as, for example, fellow child actress Shirley Temple, who in 1939 was making $350,000 a year (Warner Bros. Letter to Bonita Granville. 7 Dec. 1938; Balio 155, 147). A B star, furthermore, would not be provided with the same extensive publicity machinery that was devoted to promoting a studio’s top talent (Balio 168-173). However, as Brian Taves and Don Miller note, within the industrial tier of the B film many actors could be considered stars in their own right, with devoted fan followings, and the press books for Granville’s Warner Bros. films suggest that the studio both viewed and promoted her as a rising star, particularly for juvenile audiences (Taves 313, 316-317; Miller 41).

           In this essay, then, I will use Warner Bros.’ press books to explore how the studio relied on Granville’s star image to sell her films. I will first examine how Warner Bros. directed exhibitors to use lobby displays, publicity articles and advertisements to highlight Granville and her studio-created star personas – first that of Hollywood’s Brat and then that of the All-American Teenage Girl. I will also note how Warner Bros.’ use of Granville’s star image correlated with her changing contractual status and her elevation within the studio. Then I will look at how the press books deliberately position Granville as a figure worthy of admiration and imitation by her teenage fans. I hope that this case study of Bonita Granville will indicate that, though they were marketed differently and not to the same degree as A stars, B stars nevertheless served important economic and social functions within the mature oligopoly of the Hollywood studio system (Taves 331; Balio 102).

From Hollywood’s Brat to Typical Teen: The Exploitability of the B Star Image

           In the late 1930s, due to the standardization of double bill even in the studio-owned first run theatres, B films made up the bulk of the film industry’s product; after 1935, in fact, half of Warner Bros.’ yearly output was B films (Jacobs 2; Taves 313; Balio 100). Furthermore, because no single studio produced enough films to meet demand, and because of the patterns of theatre ownership throughout the country, the vertically integrated majors agreed to show one another’s product – including B films – in their own theatres in order to ensure a full film program (Huettig 219, 305). This meant that a financially successful film would benefit all theatre-owning studios, regardless of which studio had actually produced it (Huettig 304). Naturally, A films, rented for a percentage of the box office, had the potential to be the real moneymakers, and it was to these films that the studios dedicated the bulk of their advertising resources and their major stars.

           In the actual practice of distribution and exhibition, however, films were flexibly categorized. While B films were generally produced for the lower half of the double bill, a strong B could play as an A in certain venues or on subsequent runs, or could be renegotiated for distribution as an A, for a percentage of the box office (Taves 316, 318; Jacobs 2-3). Furthermore, though the standard double bill paired a B with a more expensive A, an exhibitor might choose instead to show two mid-budget films (“intermediates” or “programmers”) or even two B’s if he thought it would create a more profitable show or if he needed to fill a hole in the program (Taves 316-317; Jacobs 3; Miller 41).

           A major studio’s B films, therefore, though they were produced on a smaller budget and with a shorter shooting schedule, were “never hasty or slapdash” productions; the necessity of booking B films into theatres not owned by the producing studio and the flexibility of the B film within the distribution and exhibition sectors meant that a major studio’s reputation depended just as much on the quality of its B product as it did on its A and prestige pictures (Taves 318; Miller 37). So while the studios did not devote as many resources to the advertising and promotion of B films, they did, nevertheless, consider the most effective way to market them, and disseminated those ideas via the press books that an exhibitor would receive upon booking a film (Balio 174). For the smaller, less prestigious theatres where B films were most likely to be found, the press book campaigns were perhaps less about increasing profits for the studio and more about preventing a local exhibitor from sullying a studio’s reputation with salacious or false advertising (Huettig 291; Jacobs 7-8; Staiger 14-15). One can view a major studio’s press book campaigns, therefore, even at the B level where film booking and thus advertising tended to be more irregular, as attempts “not only to improve rental and box office revenues but also to protect the image of the rental firm” (Jacobs 6; Staiger 14).

           The press books contained a variety of publicity and exploitation ideas for exhibitors but were designed to maintain studio control over how the films were sold and to maximize box office draw. Bonita Granville’s press books at Warner Bros. suggest that, at least in some cases, B stars were a key method of film promotion, and studios, therefore, would build press book campaigns around them, just as they did for A stars (Klaprat 351-352). In Granville’s case, when she was put under contract at Warner Bros. in November 1936, she was already firmly associated with a particular screen persona – Hollywood’s Brat – due to her high profile role in These Three. The studio, unsurprisingly, continued to exploit that image whenever it was prudent, whether in the B films in which she played larger roles, or in the A films, where she took on supporting parts of various sizes. Though Warner Bros. tested Granville in more sympathetic roles, and though she would ultimately take on a new star persona when the studio starred her in the Nancy Drew series (1938-1939), Granville’s brat image remained Warner Bros.’ most effective tool for selling the actress to audiences, as it allowed for an immediate connection between her current film and the prestige picture that first brought her to the public’s attention.

           Granville’s portrayal of Mary Tilford, the little girl whose whispered accusations of infidelity ruin the lives of the protagonists of These Three, immediately spurred a flurry of praise for the twelve-year-old, who had no prior acting reputation of which to speak. Applauded by reviewers for The New York Times, Variety and The Los Angeles Times; given an honorable mention for her performance by the Screen Guilds; and nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, Granville quickly became known as “Hollywood’s most noted brat” (Nugent “These Three” X3; Abel; “Screen Awards” 21; “Academy Announces” 2; Schallert “Shearer and Cooper” D1; “News” 7/17/36 20). Producer Samuel Goldwyn and distributor United Artists expeditiously made use of the publicity surrounding Granville to promote their film and to differentiate the young actress from the many other popular child stars of the 1930s (Balio 136; Klaprat 354). In fact, a Los Angeles Times publicity article from December 1935 pointedly distinguishes Granville from other child stars by claiming that she got the part “by looking as unlike Shirley Temple as possible . . . Sam Goldwyn chose her because ‘she’s different from all the other children on the screen – she’s positively refreshing’” (Merrick 15).

           The high profile nature of Granville’s breakout role and the many publicity materials that surrounded it – from newspaper columns and interviews to cross-promotional advertisements – all served to identify Granville firmly as “Hollywood’s Brat.” Indeed, other studios soon attempted to capitalize on this reputation by casting Granville as brats in their own films: Paramount featured her as Virginia Goode, the village girl who makes accusations of witchcraft, in Maid of Salem (Frank Lloyd, 1937) – for which she also received recognition by the Screen Actor’s Guild – and RKO cast her as a mean schoolgirl in Quality Street (George Stevens, 1937) (“News” 7/17/36 20; “News” 4/10/37 11).² Recognizing that Granville had proven herself adept at playing a certain character type and perhaps believing that audiences would remember her from These Three, Warner Bros. adopted Granville’s brat image when putting her under contract, and exploited it regardless of the nature of Granville’s current role.

           As a stock player, with her salary determined on a weekly basis, one of Granville’s functions at Warner Bros. was to round out a film’s cast, and so she was not always given publicity-worthy parts (Balio 155; Taves 329). However, even in her smallest roles, Granville was still typecast as a brat, as in the A romantic comedies It’s Love I’m After (Archie Mayo, 1937) and Hard to Get (Ray Enright, 1938). It’s Love I’m After’s Gracey Kane is described by the film’s script as “an annoying little twit of about twelve years of age,” while Hard to Get’s Connie Richards is “haughty, self-centered, and completely poised,” with lines to be delivered “disgusted[ly],” “nastily,” and “sneeringly” (Robinson c; Wald, Leo and Macaulay 3). Gracey and Connie are such minor characters that Granville receives for the former no publicity at all, and for the latter, only a small article that describes her clothes (Granville’s fashion sense would be a key part of how she was marketed, as discussed below).

           For her larger roles, however, Warner Bros. did use Granville’s brat image as an exploitation strategy, even when she was not playing a brat. Her first contract with Warner Bros. engaged her for a single film, an A picture titled Call it a Day (Archie Mayo, 1937). She was employed for $500 a week for a minimum of two weeks for the role of Ann Hilton, the youngest daughter of the family around which the romantic comedy centers. If the studio chose to option her, she would then be engaged for an additional 26 weeks at a salary of $300 a week, with further options available to increase her contract to 52 weeks with corresponding salary adjustments (Contract between Warner Bros. and Bonita Granville. 16 Nov. 1936).³ Ann is a decidedly different character from Mary Tilford; she is described in the press book as an “eager, fragile, and bright-haired” pre-teen mooning over the poets Shelley and Rosetti (Call it a Day Press Book 9). The Los Angeles Times even drew attention to the different tenor of the part by noting how surprising Granville’s portrayal was, and claiming, “Miss Granville is as idealistic an adolescent as she was a frightening little girl in ‘These Three’” (Lusk “Film Information” C3).

           Most of the press book material centers on the adult stars, particularly Anita Louise, Frieda Inescort and Olivia DeHavilland, and Granville receives only one short feature article. It does, however, make her brat persona the focal point. Titled “Nasty Brat Part Won Fortune for This Lucky Lass,” the article directly connects Granville with These Three:

Most bad little girls get the back of the hairbrush. But not Bonita Granville, filmdom’s prize ‘brat.’ The wages of meanness is a big weekly paycheck for Bonita, who at 13 is one of the best paid child actresses in Hollywood. Because of her work as the spoiled child in ‘These Three,’ she is playing one of the leads in ‘Call it a Day.’ (Call it a Day Press Book 13)

           Though Granville’s share of the press book is small, it nevertheless succinctly exploits her established star image, and an exhibitor who believed that the brat of These Three would have audience pull could use this article, alongside other publicity and advertising strategies, to draw crowds to Call it a Day. This focus on Granville’s status as Hollywood’s Brat continued to feature prominently in Warner Bros.’ press books for Granville’s films, indicating that the studio viewed her star image as a lucrative marketing strategy. The studio continued to use the brat image to connect Granville’s films to the high-profile These Three and to differentiate Granville from other child stars, most of who were associated with sweetness and innocence (Nash 83; Fuller-Seeley 45).

           Granville’s first starring role at the studio, as the spoiled and neglected rich girl Roberta Morgan in the B film The Beloved Brat (Arthur Lubin, 1938), seems explicitly designed to capitalize on the public’s recognition of Granville’s screen image. Granville was still under her first contract at the time of the film’s production, but this starring role in a B picture suggests the studio was testing her star potential and popularity with audiences, as Granville was soon put under her first long-term contract. With Beloved Brat, Warner Bros. seems to have been primarily interested in taking advantage of the actress’s connection to These Three; rather than trying the actress in a new role, the studio hoped to rely on a formula that had already proven successful with audiences (Klaprat 370; Balio 168).

           Granville’s star image as Hollywood’s Brat, therefore, proved central to the marketing strategies found in the film’s press book. Theatre owners are advised, for example, to “Blow up some scene stills from ‘These Three’ and circle Bonita Granville’s head. Add copy: ‘The ‘Brat’ of ‘These Three’ now in her own starring picture” (Beloved Brat Press Book 9). Items for publication in local papers take the same approach. Advertisements identify Granville as “The Brat of These Three storming her way to new stardom,” while publicity articles call Granville “the brattiest of all brats in the movies” and “the Number One Brat of all time”  (Beloved Brat Press Book 3A, 5). One feature article even insists that “she has a knack for portraying nasty little girls. Producers cry for her whenever a brat role turns up. When worse girls are portrayed, Bonita will probably be portraying them” (Beloved Brat Press book 5).

           Ultimately, Beloved Brat’s Roberta Morgan is a more sympathetic character than Mary Tilford, as her behavior derives not from vindictive motives, but rather from a desire for affection from her inattentive parents. Unlike the manipulative Mary, Roberta is allowed real character development from a self-centered brat to a kind, thoughtful girl, thereby distancing Granville some from the all-around nastiness of her best-known role. The film emphasizes that Roberta is a good girl at heart, while displaying Warner Bros.’ usual “talent for combining real entertainment with social problems of significance” (Beloved Brat Press Book 5).

           Furthermore, the press book is quite explicit about the fact that Granville is not a brat in real life. This discrepancy between actress and character was similarly highlighted by Goldwyn/UA for These Three. For example, an interview with Philip K. Scheuer in the Los Angeles Times begins by describing how, on screen, Granville appeared “so abhorrent to decent sensibilities that audiences all over the country would deem it a privilege to beat the living daylights out of her,” before insisting that the actress “looks so different from the make-believe Mary Tilford that I couldn’t credit my eyes. Looks different. Acts different. Is different” (“Meanest Girl” C1). Thus part of Granville’s brat image was this split between on-screen and off-screen, and Warner Bros. maintained it within the Beloved Brat press book. For example, an article titled “Bonita is Holy, But No Terror,” notes that, despite her on-screen appearance, “Off-screen she really is a charming and pleasing youngster who listens to her mother, eats her spinach obediently, takes care of her toys and does not go around walloping other girls and boys” (Beloved Brat Press Book 3). Nevertheless, Beloved Brat gives Granville plenty of screen time to display typical bratty behaviors: screaming, throwing things, lying, and, ultimately, attempted arson and vehicular manslaughter. Though the film partly softens Granville’s brat image – Roberta is a beloved brat, after all – it nevertheless remains the central focus of the film’s plot and of the press book materials, particularly lobby displays and advertisements (Fig. 1). Even for this solid B film, then, Granville’s star image guided both the film’s production and marketing.

Fig. 1: Display for Beloved Brat. Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research

           In January 1938, when Variety first reviewed Beloved Brat, Warner Bros. placed Granville under a long-term contract for a period of 52 weeks at $300.00 a week, and in May of that year, announced via a gossip column in The Los Angeles Times its intention of “elevating [Granville] to stardom the coming season” (Review of Girls on Probation;⁴ Contract between Warner Bros. and Bonita Granville. 8 Jan.1938; Kendall 10). Shortly thereafter, Granville appeared in a supporting role in the A picture, White Banners (Edmund Goulding, 1938), based on the Lloyd C. Douglas novel about the invention of the refrigerator, first published in Cosmopolitan Magazine. As Sally Ward, Claude Rains’ daughter, Granville played an important and sympathetic character with an on-screen romance, but her brat image still remained the focus of much of the press book material. As was often the case with such off-casting, publicity material relied on the star image with which the audience was familiar, while stressing how the current role was different (Balio 168; Klaprat 372). The prepared review for the film, for example, describes Granville as an “erstwhile ‘meanie,’ who is not a bit behind Rains in demonstrating that she, too, can play sympathetic characters,” while a picture caption asserts that she “deserts her usual ‘brat’ roles to play a youngster in the throes of puppy love” (White Banners Press Book 7). One article, aptly titled “Not Really a Brat,” explains that Bonita Granville, who rose to screen fame by virtue of her characterizations of ‘brats,’ says there is nothing she dislikes quite so much as a ‘brat.’ In private, Miss Granville is quite the opposite of her screen portrayals, so her sympathetic role in ‘White Banners’ is the first in her career which permitted Bonita to act somewhat like her real self. (White Banners Press Book 6 – emphasis mine)

           As this article makes clear, what distinguishes the White Banners press book materials is the fact that, for the first time, Granville the performer was being conflated with her screen character. In her analysis of the star image of Bette Davis, Cathy Klaprat explains how studio publicity materials usually attempted to convince audiences that a star possessed the same traits as the characters she portrayed on screen – that the actress was the same in “real” life as in her “reel” life (Klaprat 360). Granville had been deliberately distanced from her screen characters up to this point, but White Banners’ press book now emphasizes similarities between Granville and Sally. For example, the studio utilized the common strategy of claiming that Granville’s on-screen love interest, Jackie Cooper, was also her off-screen boyfriend (Klaprat 363). A series of behind-the-scenes photographs includes, among other miscellaneous events, a picture of “Bonita Granville accepting a bouquet from boy friend Jackie – with blushes all around” (White Banners Press Book 6). The contractual promotion and the elevation to an important role in an A film thus coincides with the studio’s testing of a new star image for Granville, one with which she could be conflated according to standard studio practice. This perhaps suggests a correlation between the development of a star’s image and a star’s place within the studio hierarchy.

           After varying Granville’s image with White Banners, however, Warner Bros. again cast her as a brat in a supporting role in the drama My Bill (John Farrow, 1938), a B film about a widowed mother (Kay Francis), who is abandoned by her children, except her youngest, Bill (Dickie Moore), during a time of financial hardship.⁵ Granville, Anita Louise and Bobby Jordan play her other three children; all three are characterized by the Los Angeles Times as “thoroughgoing brats,” and Granville, as Gwen, is described in advertisements in the press book as “13 and impossible” (Scheuer “Kay Francis” 8; My Bill Press Book 3). In addition to referencing Granville’s earlier films at the studio, particularly Beloved Brat and White Banners, My Bill’s press book continues to suggest that exhibitors focus their exploitation and publicity on Granville’s brat image. A portrait of a smiling Granville, for example, references both the title of her first star vehicle at Warner Bros. and her career as a screen brat through its caption: “BELOVED BRAT – Bonita Granville lives up to her reputation for cinematic cutting-up in ‘My Bill” (My Bill Press Book 7). Lobby display suggestions more directly invoke the continuity of Granville’s brat roles: the press book suggests using stills from both These Three and Beloved Brat to draw attention to Granville, who, it is claimed, has “a great following among movie fans” (My Bill Press Book 10).

           My Bill’s press book also emphasizes Granville’s brat image by comparing her to Warner Bros.’ biggest star, Bette Davis (Balio 150-151). The feature article “To Be Another Bette Davis is Bonita’s Goal” claims that Granville’s excellent portrayal of brats derives from being a “student of Miss Davis’s unforgettable ‘Mildred’ and other bad girls” (My Bill Press Book 9). “Like Bette Davis,” the article continues, “Bonita sees a more interesting future in playing hated brats than beloved ones,” and “Although Bonita wants to play a sympathetic role occasionally, just so she will not be fatally ‘typed,’ she wishes to grow up into an adult rival of her friend, Miss Davis, whom she worships. And who, incidentally, has the highest respect for Bonita’s talent.” Associating a rising star with a box office attraction like Davis appears like a variation on the strategy of connecting Granville with These Three; the prestige of the latter could help create audience interest in, and thus box office revenue for, the former. However, the article also reinforces Granville’s brat image and continues to differentiate her from other child stars by emphasizing her desire to be a different type of actress, known for “bad girl” roles. This tactic, too, evokes publicity from These Three; in the interview with Scheuer cited earlier, Granville had reportedly declared about her future roles, “I don’t want to be sweet. Ugh, no. But I’d like to be someone nice, now. I’m afraid people will think I’m really like that!” (“Meanest Girl” C2).

           Only with the Nancy Drew series (discussed below) did Warner Bros. abandon Granville’s brat image; throughout the press books for all four films, her brat image is referenced only once. Nevertheless, Warner Bros. still relied on the brat image in the press book for one of Granville’s last films at the studio, the B film Angels Wash Their Faces (Ray Enright, 1939), which was released in the midst of the Nancy Drew series. Primarily a Dead End Kids vehicle, featuring Ann Sheridan and Ronald Reagan in the adult roles, Angels Wash Their Faces had Granville playing Leo Gorcey’s sister, Peggy, a character similar in personality and action to Nancy Drew. Nevertheless, rather than connect Granville to the B series in which she was currently starring, the press book instead reverts to references to These Three. One article, for example, declares that “her big opportunity came when she was cast for the now-famed ‘brat’ role in ‘These Three.’ This juvenile acting plum of many seasons definitely established Bonita as an actress of unusual ability and she was shortly placed under contract to Warner Brothers” (Angels Wash Their Faces Press book 14). The continuing focus on Granville’s brat image points toward the economic motivation of utilizing a proven marketing strategy; while Warner Bros. was testing Granville in a new star image, the studio knew that her reputation as Hollywood’s Brat was successful and exploitable.

           The emphasis on Granville’s brat image suggests that Warner Bros.’ viewed her primarily as an exploitable commodity. She arrived at the studio with an easily marketable star persona, and the studio continued to take advantage of that through both her film roles and press book suggestions. Continuing to sell her as Hollywood’s Brat was yet another way of reducing risk in film production. Nevertheless, the studio did build a new star image for Granville when they starred her in the low budget four-film Nancy Drew series: Nancy Drew Detective (1938), Nancy Drew, Reporter (1939), Nancy Drew, Trouble Shooter (1939) and Nancy Drew and the Hidden Staircase (1939), all directed by William Clemens. Series production, particularly at the B level, was frequently used as a way to offset risk; not only did a series cut production costs, but a successful series would also create a set of loyal fans, who could be counted on to return to the theatre for each subsequent installment (Balio 101-102). A particularly popular B series, furthermore, like Fox’s Charlie Chan films or MGM’s Andy Hardy films, could potentially propel a B actor into a star, or a B series into an A series (Taves 317, 336-337; Balio 102; Miller 41). It is possible, therefore, that Warner Bros. initially conceived of the Nancy Drew films, based as they were on the most popular series in juvenile literature, as a film series with similar crossover potential (Lindenmeyer 182).

           Warner Bros. often used its B series as venues for its contract players, such as Glenda Farrell and Ronald Reagan, to prove their star potential, and so it is not surprising that with the production of the Nancy Drew series, Warner Bros. optioned Granville’s contract again (and for the last time) in December 1938, for an additional 52 weeks with a raise to $400 a week (Miller 65, 157-158; Glancy 63; Warner Bros. to Bonita Granville. 7 Dec. 1938). As was the case with White Banners, it seems like Granville’s elevation within the studio coincided with a new approach to promoting her. Now that she was starring in her own series, Granville was completely conflated with her screen character and was given a new star image: the All-American Teenage Girl (Klaprat 360-361).

           This particular star image was just as exploitable as the brat image, given its highly publicized creation. The rights to the Nancy Drew books, ghostwritten under the pseudonym Carolyn Keene, were held by the Stratemeyer Syndicate, which started the series in 1930 as a female correlate to the popular Hardy Boys mysteries (Lindenmeyer 182). When securing the adaptation rights, Warner Bros. agreed to the Syndicate’s request that “inasmuch as the Nancy Drew books are for juveniles, they [Warner Bros.] will not introduce in the exercise of its rights in the production of photoplays in connection with them, any scenes and matter involving elements of violence or sex inimical to the morals and welfare of said juvenile class” (Adams; Ebenstein). The Syndicate’s conditions reflect broader contemporary concerns about the impressionability of children and the need for wholesome popular culture for adolescents, brought about by studies like Henry James Forman’s Our Movie-Made Children (1933) (Lindenmeyer 156, 159-161; Savage 288-289, 320; Nash 72-73). Many producers of popular culture – radio, cinema, literature – thus attempted to create media content that was relatively free of violence and sex, and that promoted “all-American values” (Lindenmeyer 163). Warner Bros.’ marketing of Nancy Drew/Bonita Granville as the All-American Teenage Girl thus fit squarely within this impetus toward producing appropriate media content for the juvenile market, while reinforcing the studio’s long-standing reputation for moral uplift (Balio 98; Miller 154).

           Publicity for the Nancy Drew series, then, emphasized the great lengths to which Warner Bros. had gone to create a title character that would set the best example for the juvenile audience to which the films were likely to appeal. Philip K. Scheuer reported in the Los Angeles Times in August 1938, for example, that Warner Bros. had questioned “600 sociologists, educators and miscellaneous pundits” in order to create an image of the “ideal adolescent” on which to base the character of Nancy Drew (“Bonita to be Composite Adolescent” A16). The press books echoed this claim; according to a publicity article for Nancy Drew, Detective, “The studio conducted an intensive survey to find the correct pattern” for the typical sixteen year old girl. “They sent questionnaires to such celebs as Emily Post, Kathleen Norris, Elizabeth Brown, Angelo Patri and others,” and then cross-referenced the answers with results from polls of actual teenage girls to find a “Composite ‘Miss America–Age 16’”: a teenage girl who was an amalgam and a distillation of all the respondents’ answers (Nancy Drew, Detective Press Book 7-8).

           Once Warner Bros. had developed a pattern for the typical teenage girl on which to base the character, however, the studio then insisted through press book publicity that Granville herself fit that pattern, much to the reported surprise of “studio officials,” who initially felt that she “was not a typical sixteen year old girl. . . . She was a sixteen year old Hollywood actress” (Nancy Drew, Detective Press Book 8). Despite being a star, Warner Bros. claimed, Granville is, like Nancy Drew and her adolescent fans, “in every way typical,” “a completely normal, healthy girl who is average in her school work, pretty in a youthful way and no better and no worse in her average behavior than any other girl her age” (Nancy Drew, Trouble Shooter Press Book 8; Nancy Drew, Reporter Press Book 9). It seems, publicity for Nancy Drew, Trouble Shooter concludes, that the studio had simultaneously and (supposedly) unintentionally established “an accurate portrait of Miss America – aged sixteen, and of Bonita Granville, youthful film star” (Nancy Drew, Trouble Shooter Press Book 8). Indeed, the only reference to Granville’s brat image is mobilized primarily to emphasize the suitability of the actress’s new screen persona: She won fame as a brat, starting with her memorable meanie role in ‘These Three.’ Then she reformed, at the concerted request of literal minded fans who feared she might unconsciously become a brat in real life. So little Miss Granville became the All-American girl on the screen, just as she is and always has been in real life. (Nancy Drew, Trouble Shooter Press book 10 – emphasis mine)

           Throughout the press books for the four films, then, publicity material and exploitation suggestions consistently stress a conflation between Bonita Granville and Nancy Drew, and the overarching concept of the press books is to sell both to audiences as the All-American Teenage Girl. Exhibitors, for example, are encouraged to hold a contest, and “Conduct a search for town’s typical American girl, using Bonita Granville as the standard” (Nancy Drew, Detective Press Book 6). Publicity articles generally take the tactic of demonstrating that Granville is the same All-American Teenage Girl off-screen that she is on-screen. For example, Warner Bros. drew parallels between Granville and Nancy’s love lives by publicizing an on-going relationship between Granville and Frankie Thomas, who played Nancy’s on-screen boyfriend, Ted Nickerson. Publicity for Nancy Drew, Trouble Shooter thus reports “a note of romance” between Granville and Thomas, and recounts how both teens “wheedled still photographs of their first kissing scene from the photographer. And each pledged him not to tell the other about the request!” (Nancy Drew, Trouble Shooter Press Book 9). A full article is even devoted to Granville’s first kiss, further conflating the actress with her character by suggesting that both Nancy and Bonita received their first kiss at the same time and from the same boy (Nancy Drew, Trouble Shooter Press Book 9). Furthermore, the press book for Nancy Drew, Reporter, describes how Granville wants to become a reporter herself: “’Long before I had any idea I might do a picture like this I was doing newspaper work. . . . I hope someday to make a name in that that business’” the actress explains (Nancy Drew, Reporter Press book 10). Finally, Warner Bros. also publicized how Granville herself was the real-life inspiration for aspects of her screen character. For example, publicity articles for Nancy Drew, Reporter describe how screenwriter Kenneth Gamet asked Granville “to collect the slang expressions used by her friends in high school” so that he could incorporate them into the films’ scripts and capture the way average teenagers actually spoke, and how costumer Milo Anderson took Granville “into his confidence when he planned her wardrobe for the picture” (Nancy Drew, Reporter Press Book 10, 2)

           Even at the B level, then, Warner Bros. recognized that a marketable star image was a valuable publicity tool, particularly if it could be easily and succinctly exploited. For Granville’s starring films, Warner Bros. made her star image, whether Hollywood’s Brat or the All-American Teenage Girl, the focal point of the press book campaigns. The press books for Granville’s supporting roles, such as White Banners, My Bill and The Angels Wash Their Faces, understandably include fewer publicity articles and advertisements emphasizing Granville, but they do, nevertheless, exploit her easily-recognizable brat image. These press books, furthermore, also tend to focus on their respective stars. The press book for The Angels Wash Their Faces, for example, emphasizes through its lobby displays, advertisements and publicity pieces Ann Sheridan’s star image as the “Oomph Girl” –  which Warner Bros. created via a publicity contest – by advising exhibitors how they can put “oomph” in their campaigns (Bubbeo 195). In short, Warner Bros.’ press books suggest that developing (as in the case of the Nancy Drew films) or simply adopting and utilizing (as with the brat image) a marketable star persona was strategy studios undertook even at the B level. While the development of B star images may have been part of the trial process to see if a B star was worth promoting into an A star, as the development of Granville’s star images suggests, this development also served a short term function of making B stars and their films easily marketable commodities that could be promoted and exploited through carefully constructed press book campaigns.

“High School Girls, Please Copy!” The B Star and Audience Identification

           In addition to exploiting Granville’s star image, whether as Hollywood’s Brat or as the All-American teenage girl, to sell its films, Warner Bros. consistently promoted her as a figure worthy of admiration and imitation by fans, even though she was firmly a B actress within the studio’s hierarchy (Dyer 20, 45). Certainly studios devoted most of their resources to developing and promoting a small set of A list stars; while about 500 actors were contracted to all the studios each year during the 1930s, only about 30 of them would receive star billing in A features (Balio 155). This did not preclude B stars, however, from attaining fan followings, appearing as they did repeatedly across the studios’ lower budget fare. Recall, for example, the assertion in My Bill’s press book that Granville had “a great following among movie fans.” A strong fan base, of course, might be key for an actress’s promotion to A films and greater stardom, so it is perhaps not surprising that a studio would test a rising B star’s potential by seeing whether fans did, indeed, wish to imitate her.

           In Granville’s case, Warner Bros. seems to have promoted her particularly as a role model for adolescent girls, likely because Granville was a teenager herself, and because many of her films likely played in weekend matinee screenings that were often frequented by younger patrons (Taves 321, 331; Balio 102; Lindenmeyer 172). Variety saw the Nancy Drew films, in particular, based as they were on a juvenile literature series, as prime matinee fair, and suggested that Nancy Drew and the Hidden Staircase (1939) was strong enough to be top billed during a matinee program (Herb). While Granville’s films would play to wider audiences than just teenagers, studios had discovered that films featuring children were more easily marketed to younger audiences, and throughout Granville’s press books exploitation suggestions geared directly toward youth feature prominently (Fuller-Seeley 51; Nash 72). For Nancy Drew, Trouble Shooter, for example, the press book suggests that exhibitors hold a “Youth Day,” where “childrens’ [sic] problems are answered from the stage by a board of people who have a close acquaintanceship with boys and girls” (Nancy Drew, Trouble Shooter Press Book 7). Furthermore, with the rise of youth culture in the late 1930s and a vogue for films starring teens, Warner Bros.’ promotion of Granville as a teen star deserving of a fan following was simply in keeping with larger industry trends (Fuller-Seeley 63; Nash 71).

           Warner Bros. began to promote Granville as a role model for teenage girls as early as Beloved Brat, emphasizing in particular the fashion trends and beauty tips that were increasingly seen as vital to a young girl’s popularity with her peers (Lindenmeyer 145, 200-201; Savage 319). Film stars, of course, were key cultural figures for disseminating and popularizing fashion and beauty trends, and so Granville’s personal style was described throughout her press books, even for small roles like that in Hard to Get, which notes that Granville “has more ‘bounce’ than any young lady in pictures . . . She looked particularly ‘bouncing’ in a pair of white wool slacks, a navy jersey sweater” (Allen and Gomery 183; Dyer 45; Savage 285-286; Hard to Get Press Book 13). The age-appropriateness of her style, however, was constantly reiterated. The Beloved Brat press book, for example, notes that as make-up goes, the thirteen-year-old “doesn’t use powder as yet – but she uses a pink pomade for her lips, which serves as a protection as well as a just-grown-up-enough beautifier” (Beloved Brat Press Book 7). Similarly, she is “still too young for woman-of-the-world perfumes, but she puts a few drops of oil of cloves in her brilliantine” to make her hair smell “spicy” (Nancy Drew, Detective Press Book 5).

           Granville’s fans are directly encouraged by the publicity articles and photographs, such as this from the Nancy Drew, Reporter press book (Fig. 2) to emulate her look.

Fig. 2: "Pretty as a picture - and much more dangerous to criminals" Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research

For instance, the Nancy Drew films position Granville as “the perfect fashion model for sweet sixteeners,” (Nancy Drew and the Hidden Staircase Press Book 5). Referencing the “sub-debutante” style, which expanded the look of affluent college girls down toward younger adolescent consumers, the press book for White Banners declares, “Both on and off the screen Bonita wears the kind of clothes that any sub-deb can copy with huzzahs of delight” (White Banners Press Book 9; Savage 319). Even more explicitly, a description of several of Granville’s outfits in the Beloved Brat press book is followed by the plea: “High school girls: please copy!” (Beloved Brat Press Book 7).

           Granville’s fans were also encouraged to imitate her other hobbies and activities. One article in the Beloved Brat press book, for example, describes a “novel party” Granville threw and then suggests to readers, “Consider it carefully as a grand idea for your next party” (Beloved Brat Press book 7). White Banners’ press book describes how in the film “Bonita Granville makes a pan of fudge for Jackie Cooper. The prop man was ready and willing to supply the confection but Bonita insisted that her fudge was better than any he could buy and made it herself” (White Banners Press Book 9). Her recipe is then included in the press book so that audiences could make it at home (Fig. 3). 

Fig. 3: Bonita's Marshmallow Recipe. Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research

The press book for Nancy Drew, Trouble Shooter includes an article and picture describing Granville’s exercise regime (Fig. 4), which she uses to “keep in first class conditions at all times,” and which her fans could then undertake themselves (Nancy Drew, Trouble Shooter Press Book 10). 

Fig. 4: "Keeps Streamlined." A description of Granville's exercise regime. Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research

           One might claim that Warner Bros.’ promotion of Granville as a star worthy of emulation took on more significant ideological implications through the Nancy Drew films, given that Granville’s star image was so clearly constructed to present a particular picture of juvenile femininity, one that most likely reflects, not an accurate portrait of the typical teenage girl, but rather the contemporary ideological construction of how she should be (Dyer 25; Allen and Gomery 173-174). The list of traits making up the “Composite of ‘Miss America-Age 16’” (fig. 5) that the studio produced and reprinted through the press books evokes late 1930s rhetoric about what behavior was appropriate for teenage girls and it re-inscribes many traditional gender roles. 

Fig. 5: List of traits making up the "Composite of 'Miss America-Age 16.' " Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research

Indeed, in her detailed analysis of the Nancy Drew series, Ilana Nash points out how contemporary concerns about the social roles of young women and a nationwide crisis of masculinity in the wake of the Depression resulted in an “eviscerated” version of Nancy Drew, one who was flighty, “hyperfeminine,” unintelligent, and reliant on men to answer her questions and get her out of scrapes (70-116).

           The list of traits that Warner Bros. claimed both Nancy Drew and Bonita Granville possess reflects the greater independence young girls (and adolescents in general) experienced in the late 1930s, while simultaneously reinforcing established gender roles and the belief that proper young women would grow up to be proper wives (Savage 320; Lindenmeyer 199). Thus traits like going out unchaperoned, having a midnight curfew, driving her own car, having her own spending money, being athletic and planning a professional career, are listed alongside wearing lipstick and rouge, having a steady boyfriend, reading love stories, and wanting to get married. The importance of the traditionally feminine traits to the identity of the typical American teenage girl is summed up neatly in Granville’s confession of average teenage worries: “it’s difficult to be sixteen. So many decisions must be made when one is only half grown up. Among the major problems are how much lipstick a girl should use, how late she should stay out, and what kind of boys to go with” (Nancy Drew, Detective Press book 9).

           Despite the slightly ditzy, girlish nature that Nash correctly ascribes to Granville’s Nancy Drew, her character is, nevertheless, active, assertive and fairly self-reliant. She is also not above lying or manipulating her father or Ted in order to get her way (all in the name of truth and justice, of course);in this way, Nancy is actually more like some of Granville’s former brat characters than she is like White Banners’ more demure Sally (Collura C5). Many of the publicity images in the press books show Granville/Nancy looking remarkably confident, and references are often made to both girls gaining the upper hand over men. For example, advertisements for Nancy Drew, Detective depict Nancy shoving past Sherlock Holmes, Perry Mason and Philo Vance with the quip: “One side flatfeet . . . let a real sleuth show you how its done!” (Fig. 6),

Fig. 6: Nancy Drew, Detective Ad. Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research

while a promotional photograph from Nancy Drew, Trouble Shooter depicts Granville lecturing Frankie Thomas by grabbing him roughly by the ear, with the caption ““GIVING HIM AN EARFUL – ‘You listen to me’ – or words to that effect seems to be the advice Bonita Granville is giving Frankie Thomas” (Fig. 7). 

Fig. 7: "GIVING HIM AN EARFUL." Granville taking the upper hand over her "boyfriend" Frankie Thomas. Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research

In short, Granville’s typical teenage girl image walked a careful line of gender norms that she sometimes bent, but never broke. For example, Granville wears clothes that are “distinctly feminine” but that are also “styled for action,” and she is a “’tomboy’ by day and a ‘lady’ by night” (Nancy Drew, Reporter Press Book 9; Nancy Drew, Detective Press Book 4).

           Warner Bros.’ Nancy Drew series, then, presented a teenage girl who was different from many others on screen in the late 1930s, in the way that Granville’s brat characters were different from the sweet and sunny portrayals of other child stars (Nash 87; Fuller-Seeley 45). Just as the slightly gritty Dead End Kids series reflected a more realistic version of young life – with delinquency and poverty – than that rendered in MGM’s cheerful Andy Hardy films, the Nancy Drew series depicted a more typical picture of adolescent femininity. Unlike the “ideals of sweetness and innocence” embodied by Deanna Durbin and Judy Garland, Granville was average, typical (Lindenmeyer 176; Savage 324; Nash 87). The All-American Teenage Girl image, therefore, served to differentiate Warner Bros.’ teen star from those of the other studios, again facilitating the exploitation of Granville’s new star image. Warner Bros. encouraged audiences to identify with its particular teenage girl not only through the many articles on Granville’s clothes, beauty habits, hobbies and exercise regimes, but also through exploitation gimmicks like the Nancy Drew Clubs, which provided members with a list of rules to follow that would assure they conformed to the picture of the typical teenage girl the studio had created.

           Throughout all her films, however, Granville was consistently promoted as an ideal figure of imitation by her teenage fans. Furthermore, though she was a B star, many of the articles publicizing Granville’s style and hobbies echo on a smaller scale the promotional materials developed for A list youth stars. For The Wizard of Oz (1939), for example, Macy’s carried “Judy Garland Dresses” and hats supposedly “Designed for and selected by Judy Garland herself” for the “Teen Age girls who are exactly Judy’s age . . . growing girls with grown up ideas. They firmly believe that no one is too young for a certain amount of glamour” (qtd. in Savage 332). With teenage stars a significant industrial trend, it is not surprising that Warner Bros. used Granville to attempt to capture a share of the movie-going youth market by selling her directly to that audience, even if the studio relied on more localized publicity to do so.

Conclusion

           Like other B series, the Nancy Drew films returned approximately 100% of their cost and overall the films received good reviews from Variety, with Granville’s acting in particular being frequently praised (Glancy 63; Hobe.). Nevertheless, Granville’s contract was not optioned again at the end of 1939; Warner Bros. seems to have decided that Granville was not worth a long-term investment.⁶ She then worked for a few years under contract to MGM and RKO, but as she reached her 20s, she decided to act on a freelance basis. It was primarily in poverty row features – such as Song of the Open Road (Charles R. Rogers Talking Pictures, S. Sylvan Simon 1944) and Breakfast in Hollywood (Golden Productions, Harold D. Schuster 1946) – where she was given a chance to star as a romantic lead. Often, however, she played adult “bad girls”: a wayward teen in RKO’s Youth Runs Wild (1944), a murderer in Monogram’s Suspense (1946), and evil twins in Monogram’s The Guilty (1947). She even returned to Warner Bros. in 1942 for a supporting role in Now Voyager as Bette Davis’ snotty niece, a part Variety felt “suggest[ed] a little of her past ‘brat’ roles” (Naka.). Like most B film performers, Granville never transitioned into A films, and, like many of her peers, she moved into television in the early 1950s (Taves 329, 350). Then, in 1947, at the age of 24, Granville married oil tycoon and independent producer Jack Wrather, and by 1956, at the age of 33, she had left acting altogether. She and her husband felt, “that if [they] were going to have children, a woman’s place was in the home” (Granville 31; Collura 61). She became active in running her husband’s businesses, producing and directing the Lassie TV show, and sitting on the board of organizations like the American Film Institute, the Los Angeles Orphanage Guild, and the Women’s Council of the Public Broadcasting Service (Granville 31; Parish and Leonard 258; Vermilye 27; Collura 61).

           Throughout her time at Warner Bros., though, Granville was positioned, not just as a B actress, but also as a B star. For both her larger and smaller roles, studio press books instructed exhibitors on how to use her star image to sell her films, and encouraged imitation by her teenage fans through publicity articles and promotional gimmicks. Whether being sold as Hollywood’s Brat or as the All-American Teenage Girl, Granville was clearly an exploitable commodity for Warner Bros. The fact that the studio ultimately decided not to invest more in her is perhaps indicative of the tendency for studios to devote most of their resources to developing a small number of A list stars. While a B star was worth promoting to attract audiences and to build a fan base, she was, perhaps viewed by some studios as a product for short-term or immediate use. Warner Bros. built Granville up from her initial brat image to the Nancy Drew series, increasing her contract status accordingly, but it seems a point was reached where she was no longer worth the studio’s time or money to develop further. For three years, Warner Bros. sold Bonita Granville at the B level through an exploitation of her star image, but as it seems the studio was not prepared to promote her to A status or to sustain her long-term at the B level, by 1939 she had ceased to serve a purpose.

           Bonita Granville was never more than a B actress, but she was, at least for a time, a B Movie Star. While she was at RKO, Whitman Publishing Co. released Bonita Granville and the Mystery of Star Island (1942), “An original story featuring BONITA GRANVILLE, famous motion picture player, as the heroine,” as part of their Whitman Authorized Editions for Girls series, and the Hollywood Pattern Company put out dress patterns with Granville’s face on them (“Vintage 40s Hollywood Pattern”). This suggests that into the 1940s, Granville remained a low level star with a fan following, even though she rarely appeared in a studio’s most expensive product. Throughout her career, however, no studio seemed to find her worth a long-term investment, not even RKO, which appears to have made the greatest effort to promote her to leading and featured roles. Bonita Granville’s tenure at Warner Bros. reveals the importance of B stars for selling films and building a devoted audience, but her larger career suggests that her importance as a commodity was limited to short-term exploitation.

Notes

^1. Of course, press books were provided for A films as well. A films, however, would also be promoted via large-scale campaigns in the trade press, popular press and fan publications, which B films did not, as a rule, receive (Balio 168-177).

^2. In addition, David O. Selznick reportedly “prevailed upon” Goldwyn to lend Granville to him for a written-in part in Garden of Allah (Richard Boleslawski, 1936), but she seems to have been cut from the final film (Granville 13-14; Schallert “Bonita Granville and Marcia Mae Jones” 15). RKO also signed her to play a sympathetic Irish girl who dies of consumption in John Ford’s The Plough and the Stars (1936).

^3. A rider on this initial contract also allowed Granville to leaven Warner Bros. to make Hal Roach’s Merrily We Live (Norman Z. McLeod, 1938), a My Man Godfrey-type comedy, in which she played a softer, more comedic variant of her brat persona (“News” 9/1/37 15; Contract between Warner Bros. and Bonita Granville. 16 Nov. 1936).

^4. Girls on Probation may have been a working title for the film. However, Warner Bros. released another film called Girls on Probation in 1938, starring Jane Bryan and Ronald Reagan, so there may have been some title switching at the studio or a misprint in Variety.

^5. Granville is billed second, after Kay Francis, but she receives about the same amount of screen time as the lower-billed Anita Louise and Bobby Jordan, and less than the even lower-billed Dickie Moore. Her place on the bill, however, perhaps suggests her position within the studio at this point in time.

^6. Don Miller and Ilana Nash intimate that Granville’s subsequent move to MGM was a step up toward stardom, but given the contract system in Hollywood, it seems unlikely that Granville’s departure from Warner Bros. was her decision (Miller 157; Nash 71-72; Balio 145). Access to more contractual documents might clarify the conditions of her move.

All images used with permission of the Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research.

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Reel 7, Warner Brothers Press Books, United Artists Collection, Wisconsin Center for Film and Theatre Research.

Warner Brothers. Nancy Drew, Reporter Press Book. 1939. Microfilm. Reel 7, Warner

Brothers Press Books, United Artists Collection, Wisconsin Center for Film and Theatre Research.

Warner Brothers. Nancy Drew, Trouble Shooter Press Book. 1939. Microfilm. Reel 7,

Warner Brothers Press Books, United Artists Collection, Wisconsin Center for Film and Theatre Research.

Warner Brothers. White Banners Press Book. 1938. Microfilm. Reel 10, Warner

Brothers Press Books, United Artists Collection, Wisconsin Center for Film and Theatre Research.