<p> Thomas Ince is often remembered as the character in Peter Bogdanovich's film <em>The Cat's Meow</em>, murdered on William Randolph Hearst's yacht when the drunken, jealous media titan mistook him for the philandering Charlie Chaplin. The legend behind the screenplay already began within days of Ince's death in 1924, but as Brian Taves assumes pains to point out in his biography, the alleged murder and cover-up never happened. Although Ince died within days of attending a party on Hearst's yacht, he expired from heart failure triggered by ulcers and exhaustion. He was killed not by a bullet but by the stress and strain of his career. Ince produced movies the way Ford assembled cars. </p> <p>Taves' biography, <em>Thomas Ince: Hollywood's Independent Pioneer</em> (University Press of Kentucky), does yeoman's work by filling in the missing details of an important player in the development of American silent movies. Routinely cited as a pioneer of early Hollywood, Ince is given a thorough investigation by Taves, an archivist at the Library of Congress and author of several books on film history. Taves establishes Ince as an innovator in a medium that had yet to find its métier and an industry just beginning to hit its stride. As a producer, director and screenwriter, Ince pushed for better staging, higher budgets, close attention to continuity and longer films. Although he didn't shoot the first western, he became one of the genre's leading practitioners, employing the California landscape to full effect and often casting real cowboys and Indians. As his productions became longer and more elaborate, Ince developed the departmentalized structure, the industrial division of labor, which characterized the studio system. </p> <p>As Taves acknowledges, Ince was not a great artist but a capable showman determined to explore the potential of his new craft and willing to tackle controversial themes such as drug addiction and yellow journalism. Although he worked for the early studios, a streak of self-reliance led him to become an independent producer, a position difficult to sustain as Hollywood's studio system extended its grip. “Swimming rapidly, Ince kept his head above water, but it was amid a difficult sea of receipts, debts, advances, and repayments.” The toll charged on his health resulted in an early death. He was only 44. </p>
A Short, Busy Life
Hollywood Pioneer Thomas Ince